FIRE = Financial Independence Retire Early
There's a lot to unpack here.
What does Financial Independence mean? We take it to mean that a person or household is no longer dependent on earned income to meet all of their current and future income needs. Income means wages, salaries, and side hustles. Simply stated, it means a person has work optionality. They can work for money if the wish. Or not.
Retire Early just means to shut down your computer, sign some papers, turn in your badge, and walk out on some arbitrary "early" date. You have exercised optionality.
Here is some recent commentary on the topic:
This First Year of Early Retirement Has Been One of the Hardest of My Life
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-first-year-of-early-retirement-has-been-one-of-the-hardest-of-my-life-2018-12-26
Playing with FIRE and Getting Burned
Life has numerous ways to assert itself. Those ways usually come out of the blue. A good starting point is to know that everyone will have an unplanned disruptive life event. Even you and me. So, we ought to hold our plans lightly.
This MarketWatch post offers an insightful example.
Watch What People Do, Not What They Say
This pretty much cuts to the quick of things. Several of the zingers are:
- Most people have high expectations for their retirement, and those expectations are wildly out of whack with reality.
- But the thing is, people adapt. Seen any geriatric breadlines lately?
- The truth is, most people have no idea what they’ll spend in retirement. If people aren’t tracking their spending enough to save prudently while working, there’s no way they'll have a clue about how things will be after they’re done working.
Does FIRE Make Life Harder?
Here are five things to think about:
1. What got you there won't keep you there.
2. Change is hard.
3. Transitions are even harder.
4. You'll never have enough time.
5. Priorities won't magically change.
12-26-18
A Million Isn't Enough
https://fattailedandhappy.com/1-million-isnt-enough
Michael Batnick: The Hardest Problem in Finance
https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2018/12/11/the-hardest-problem-in-finance/
Cullen Roche's View on the FIRE Movement
Contains a nice list of pros and cons for FIRE.
https://www.pragcap.com/view-fire-movement/
Can You Retire Early When You're Older?
Touches on the many variables that come into play as the years pile up.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4203474-can-retire-early-older?
Playing with FIRE Documentary
This is in the works for early 2019. The info is here, and we'll keep you posted on future announcements as they occur.
Added 10-12-18.
