Am I On FI/RE?

There is a niche part of personal finance community called the FI/RE movement or FIRE.

FIRE stands for Financial Independence/Retire Early. In that way, it's kinda self explanatory right? The "Financial Independence" concept that you have enough money coming in from investments to pay all your living expenses. Thus you don't need to work for money ever again.

And the "Retire Early" concept of course is that you want this to happen well before you are in your 60's. People are quitting their jobs in their 30's and 40's and calling themselves retired.

The only way to have enough money saved in your 30's and 40's to never have to work again is to live on way less than you make. Some bloggers in the FIRE community save 80% of their incomes! This is a way to put off the personal pleasure and comforts of today in order to buy back freedom and time while you're still young enough to enjoy them.

Imagine the situation of a young couple, 25 years old, who each make $80K per year. Combined they make $160K, and certainly some of that gets lost to taxes right off the top. Let's assume they have $120K after taxes.

$120K per year, after taxes, is $10,000 per month. That's quite a nice sum of money for any family. You can live in a decent home at $3,000 per month mortgage, drive two nice-ish cars at $1,000 per month lease total, eat out whenever you wanted, buy the latest phones and gadgets, afford some nice clothes, and vacations twice per year. If you were determined to spend every dollar of that $10K, you could do it. Maybe even afford to put $500 per month into a savings account and pretend you are saving for the future.

But $500 per month is not going to get you to financial independence any time soon. Sure, if you believe the mainstream financial media, putting $500 per month away for 40 years will end up being $1 million (@ 6% return). So this couple could go from 25 to 65, and end up with $1 million in the bank and a paid off home. That's one way to do it.

But the FIRE movement is about being more extreme. Let's say you move from that $3,000 per month house to a more reasonable priced one. Or rent out your basement to a tenant. Or live with your parents. If you can get $3,000 per month down to $1,500 per month, that's $1,500 more towards savings. And get rid of those cars and drive ones you pay with cash. And stop eating out so much Stop buying new phones every year.. And don't buy clothes and purses you don't really need.

It's easy to see that you can save $5,000 per month and still live quite well. This change in lifestyle turns into $10 million after 40 years. Or $2 million after only 20. Or $1 million after only 12 years.

So this is the choice this couple has to make:
a) Spend $9500 of their $10000 income and save $500, work for 40 years, and retire at 65
b) Spend $5000 of their $10000 income and save $5000, work for 12 years, and retire at 37

The mainstream answer is (a). Live on just a bit less than you make, and work 40 years to hopefully have 10 or so good years of retirement. Perhaps you should investigate (b). Live on a LOT less than you make, and have 30-40 years to enjoy the freedom of doing what you want.