Daily FI discussion thread - February 07, 2016

FIRE isn't for everyone - do what is right for your family.

I personally am more FI than ER. For me, FI is flexibility. I am sure that at I will RE at some point, and FI enables me to have that choice.

There's a lot to unpack in your comment:

  • upper middle class life requires family wealth. There's always someone with more and there's always someone with less. Be happy with your life and it matters less what everyone else is doing with theirs.

  • future tech might be more expensive. Then maybe your planned spending in retirement is higher than current spending. Totally valid, it's your plan, build it however you want.

  • serious sickness, high out of pocket. Again, it's your plan, make your assumptions as conservative as you want. Maybe you'd be more comfortable with a contingency plan savings somewhere...maybe you plan to live off 33x main nest egg, but have another buffer amount separately that's your 'peace of mind money' in case some serious emergency happens.

  • successful fire folks were 'winner take all' fields. Sure, some are, and the 25 year olds who made it big in tech are probably over represented on reddit :). With that said, you're mid-six figure DINKs, I'm sure some on this sub would look at you the way you look at those winner-take-all folks.

  • successful fire folks still have income/jobs. FIRE doesn't mean siting on a beach for 70 years. RE is what you want it to be and that can include working or somehow supplementing your nest egg. What I've gathered from this sub is that most people mean RE to mean they left their career path, but many continue to earn income in other ways.

  • FIRe enthusiasts are young without life experience. I take those posts with a grain of salt. There is definitely an element of 'I'm 22 and I have an amazing plan and life will never get in the way'. Sure, those people exist, but that shouldn't impact your life path.

  • fIrE enthusiasts live a near poverty lifestyle. Some do. For some people, retiring early is the number one goal in their life, and that's fine. It wasn't my path, and it doesn't sound like your path.

  • we see retired people doing nothing. Then don't be one of those people :)

/r/financialindependence Thread Parent