Debunking the myth that all F.I.R.E. is and my interpretation of the term 'independence'.
Traditionally F.I.R.E stands for Financial Independence Retire Early.
There is an incredibly high chance you already knew that, but it's always good to clarify.
The Retire Early bit is when some people get very agitated and passionate. They don't like the idea of not working, in being told they have to retire. These people are clearly very frustrated individuals as no-one is making them retire. They can do whatever they want.
It arose because when this movement started people were retiring 5-10 years earlier than the traditional retirement age at the time, so it was reasonable that they would just retire early at 55-60 years old. Nowadays people are working for longer, and with some people in the FIRE community are retiring very early, such as in the early 30's, people think if they achieve this they have to live a retired lifestyle from the age of 30 to when they die. Join a bowls club, wear old people clothes, sit around watching daytime TV and complain about young people music.
Which is just preposterous.
People now are using the term of achieving FI. So getting rid of the RE bit altogether and more having the freedom away from traditional working, but with the intention of continuing work in some capacity.
If I am honest to me I am probably more in the camp of the achieving FI rather than full FIRE. The name for the blog ultimately works better with the term FIRE in though!
My naturally tendency is to be busy. To have projects alongside the structure that comes from working. But I want to chose when and what type. Not be limited by the need to work. I love when I have a half day at work or a short week. I get the best of both worlds then. I understand the counter argument to this would be that if I worked 3 days a week, I would then get used to that which would then feel like a drag and to get that same happiness back I would need to go down to 2. Which may be the case.
I feel there is a case of the work that you are doing and the stress-reward matrix. More stressful work may be more rewarding but at a price, and the less stressful work may provide less reward as you may not be challenged as much.
At the moment I am doing some extra shifts for a work which has zero stress, zero challenges, but is ultimately very enjoyable. I love going and happy with the short hours I do. I don't need to do this, I am doing this because I have chosen to. This is how I see my FI - choosing what I do when. I also work such small amounts in this role the boredom aspect of no stress or challenges hasn't arisen yet, and I could definitely not solely do this work with no other project offering me a challenge.
FI to me is split into the selfish reasons I explained on the above paragraph. I want to decide what type of fun work I do when I want. I want to do cool activities with my family because it's fun.
But the other drive for me is to provide that security for my family. Initially it's all the basic stuff of shelter, food, and clothes. Then the next level up is being able to take them on holidays to give them the same opportunity I was given as youngster. Then the super level would be the really desirable first world choices that if my wife wanted to stop and pursue another passion with work or study she could. That my son has the financial support that if he if wanted to go onto further education I could help him.
These two reasons are why I got so involved and obsessed with this movement and idea, because I could see how it could offer me these things.
Final thing to bring up is the different types of FIRE (or FI) - whether you aim for Fat or Lean FIRE. Fat FIRE is when your income generated covers all basic expenses and all extra activities you want to do. There is no risk here that you will need to supplement this income with part-time work or return to full-time working. The pot is plenty big enough for a fun time.
Lean FIRE is when your income covers basic expenses and if you live a frugal life, spending less than the average person on their activities, you will be OK. As the budget may be stretched you may need to supplement this type of FIRE with some sporadic part-time work, and if you wanted to increase your lifestyle spending away from frugality, you may need to return to work and re-assess the pot.
I would be confident and happy getting to Lean FIRE. I believe this would be enough initially to give me the lifestyle I want.
For me I have no intention of full-on retiring when I hit FI. I will always do some sort of work. My personality trait requires some element of structure, and I need to be busy with a project. Becoming FI for me offers me and my family that security. It also opens up possibilities on what I could do. I don't even have outlandish grand plans here just the limitation being in full-time contracted work has when opportunities arise.
For example, last year an opportunity came up to work in a remote area of Scotland for a 2 month period between contracted roles. The pay was better than what I was on before, but as we still had our outgoings here, along with our outgoings in Scotland, that increase in salary did not cover this. The work would actually cost us money if I took it - which was crazy and something we couldn't afford to do.
However if I was FI with mortgage paid and a steady stream of income from various avenues, this would not be a concern. My family and I could then have 2 months based in an amazing location enjoying a unique experience with no stress or worries.
We missed out on this because we had financial restraints here. I am sure other opportunities like that will come up, but this example occurred 4 months into my FI journey and it reaffirmed why I wanted to do this.
When I am searching cheap Ryanair or EasyJet flights, and can see the cost in the middle of the week is a fraction of the cost when trying to squeeze it into a weekend like we do now, it makes me dream of FI life. Having the flexibility to work for 2-3 days a week instead of 5 and take advantage of mid-week pricing. To work hard for a few weeks and months in a row and then spend equal amount of time with my friends and family unrushed. Having the energy and time to focus on passions and interests, that after a full day at work and looking after the little one, is just getting harder to harder.
So that's my aim, what FIRE means to me and what I hope to be able to get to at the end of all this - whenever that may be!
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