Barbara Friedberg* says that while living below your means is smart, doing so just so you can retire young doesn’t make sense.
Photo: Jiawei Chen
FIRE is popular among millennial’s — and older adults too.
FIRE — ‘Financial Independence, Retire Early’ — is an acronym inspired by the classic book Your Money or Your Life, by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez.
Thousands of diligent workers are striving to live with less to retire young.
But, to what end?
I read the book when it first came out in 1992 and I like the living with less idea.
It’s smart for the economy, the environment and a lot of other reasons.
Living below your means relieves money stress!
In fact, I was raised with fiscally conservative parents and adopted that mindset.
It’s not hard for us to live beneath our means, because my family has engaged in this practice forever.
We splurge on what matters, while cutting back in other areas.
Don’t get me wrong, reaching financial independence is great, as it relieves a big life stress, that of not having enough money.
But, what is the allure of early retirement?
I don’t get it.
We could have retired a long time ago.
But, early retirement isn’t a goal.
Even now, in the last third of my life, I don’t want to retire.
I enjoy life, and working.
But, I’m also fortunate that my husband and I have fulfilling work that makes a difference to us.
I’m sympathetic to those who aren’t that lucky and working jobs that they dislike.
I think FIRE is silly.
What are you going to do with the next 55 years of your life if you retire at age 30 or 40?
Work gives structure to life and provides fulfilment.
It’s important to create wealth for a satisfying life, but I don’t understand the goal of 55 years without working.
An alternative would be to find work that you enjoy.
The freedom to save and invest so that you can do work you enjoy — regardless of the pay — makes sense.
But it seems selfish to retire early to indulge yourself.
Warren Buffett, Martha Stewart, Barbara Corcoran, John Bogle and other wealthy entrepreneurs working past their 70s are inspiring.
They’re contributing to society.
* Barbara Friedberg is an author and owner of the Investing + Wealth website. She tweets at @barbfriedberg.
This article first appeared at barbarafriedbergpersonalfinance.com.
