Have You Heard of the FIRE movement? You May Want To!
While I am not a Financial Advisor nor is this intended to be financial advice, I found intriguing how the community called FIRE and its movement came to be and what it represents. FIRE stands for “financially independent/retire early” which promotes living aware of longer term goals to achieve financial independence earlier than the stereotypical age into the sixties and beyond. This movement began by a series of bloggers that realized that they could take control of their finances by making better financial decisions with self-discipline to achieve financial independence.
These bloggers or content creators have established a movement where many are now becoming more disciplined to improve their financial position in order to enjoy an early retirement. The following are a couple of these in order to explore:
Many of these blogs have concentrated their efforts on a couple of common approaches to achieve this discipline as follows:
- Save 50% or More of Net Income
- Practicing “Frugality” (low cost living)
- Engage in Passive Investing
- Using the Right Tax Strategies
Some of these certainly seem extreme but those are the steps necessary to become a contrarian in today’s society which is expected to work through their senior years in order to achieve a proper retirement. This communities commits to low cost living which include limited space and use of utilities and common services today. This permits them to needing less money in the first place in the future.
In order to gauge success, many talk about a “FI Number” which is the amount of money they will need to exit the workforce and live off the dividends, interest, and capital appreciation of investment. This number typically is around 25 times the person’s annual expenses so you can see that it is a mix of two factors: income and expenses. It is a fairly logical approach that makes total sense but whereas most of the western population is not accustomed to thinking about due to the more debt and consumer driven economies we live in.
This article caught my interest for a number of reasons. First, I have always wanted to be financially independent as I can’t stand the fact that we depend on money and income to provide for our families in the society we live in. I hate owing money to any organization and/or person. However, I have fell for the stereotype of having a home and car that I completely owe to a bank and thus need to work to continue to have them. Second, I was interested to see how this has created a community similar to our #STEEM community where information is dispersed for the benefit of its members. I am interested in seeing how this movement could crossover to ours in the blockchain space as they share commonalities in that passive income can be generated and sharing our experiences could be an approach to achieving common goals. I hope to see how I can get involved in these communities and present them our own to see how we can potential become a home for some of them.
Lastly, this article has given me the perspective of seeing how attractive #STEEM is for many community members in countries with less prosperous economic activity. As part of my curation efforts for minnows and new users, I see many of our community from these regions of the world where a reward of $5 for a post could go a long way. This demonstrates the potential of the #STEEM ecosystem becoming a key component of the universal basic income needs of the world.
What are your thoughts of the FIRE movement? Is this an approach that can be a part of your lifestyle? How difficult is it for us to practice these simple but very strict, disciplined approach to achieving retirement? Let me know your thoughts and feedback in the comments below. I look forward to engaging with you.
Follow me on Twitter: @NAICrypto
If you are like me and interested in continued personal growth, invest in yourself and lets help each other out by leveraging the resources they provide by using my referral link:
https://www.minnowbooster.com/referral/530636
Start your collection of Steem Monsters today at my referral link:
https://steemmonsters.com/?ref=newageinv
DISCLAIMER: The information discussed here is intended to enable the community to know my opinions and discuss them. It is not intended as and does not constitute investment advice or legal or tax advice or an offer to sell any asset to any person or a solicitation of any person of any offer to purchase any asset. The information here should not be construed as any endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any company or asset by me. There are inherent risks in relying on, using or retrieving any information found here, and I urge you to make sure you understand these risks before relying on, using or retrieving any information here. You should evaluate the information made available here, and you should seek the advice of professionals, as appropriate, to evaluate any opinion, advice, product, service or other information; I do not guarantee the suitability or potential value of any particular investment or information source. I may invest or otherwise hold an interest in these assets that may be discussed here.
There was a series of TV news reporting in Sweden about the FIRE movement. I was so happy to see that! I thought I was the only one in Sweden doing it, haha! :D Turns out, I’m part of a much bigger movement of hard-working, frugal, determined individuals, committed to the idea of financial independence and freedom.
Thank you for making a post about FIRE, @newageinv!
This is an interesting concept but really tough to accomplish given the way the cost of living increases every year and how high it is where you can actually get a good job!
Posted using Partiko iOS
Great point! I think these are extremes but the concept is fairly interesting to think about. Also, you never know when the next crisis will be and what financial impacts it may have so these tips can help.
or instead of saving frugally work aggressively towards making more money and investing that, I am not saying that their idea I bad but there are three sides to a coin, in this case you can be frugal or aggressive but you can also be a normal Joe that retires at the socially accept “normal age"
I agree! That is definitely another part of the equation to consider. If you are able to accumulate more wealth by great investing, that will also decrease the time you need to wait to retire.