Fun with FIRE.

Which is nice work, if you can swing it.

I suspect that Daria is a FIRE type, because she can’t put up with a boss.

In personal finance circles, FIRE stands for “financial independence, retire early”, and it’s a goal held by many working folks. After all, working for a living is often a drag. The New York Times Magazine retirement issue included an article entitled, Your Neighbors are Retiring in Their 30s. Why Can’t You? (NYTimes gift link), which addressed the topic.

The FIRE people who retire that early are generally tech bros who worked in the right place at the right time, and there’s a lot of bro-tasticality in the FIRE movement. But for other people, it’s simply another name for the different simplicity, frugality, and back-to-the-land movements that have capitivated people over the last century.

And in a way, it’s simple: make enough money to cover your expenses, then invest the rest at a rate that beats inflation. It’s all set out in Your Money or Your Life (Amazon affilate link), the seminal book on financial freedom first published in 1992.

In the US, we’re anchored at 65 as the ideal retirement age. It’s a convention from the early 20th century that has stuck around long past the elimination of mandatory corporate retirement, extended lifespans, and even raising the age for collecting full Social Security. The reason? I’d bet good money that it’s because 65 is the age at which universal health insurance kicks in. It is expensive to retire early in the United States.

There’s also the problem of what to do all day.

What do you think?