The concept of FIRE has been in the news a lot more over the last year or so. I remember when I first discovered that it was even a thing my first notion was “where was this when I was 25?” Well, it was there, just harder to find in 1984 than in 2014. Better late than never, right? So it was with a little amazement that I watched, over the last year, as the concept became ever increasingly discussed, bandied about, or, as was more common, misunderstood and attacked.
How, I wondered, could something so simple be so misunderstood. The more I read the main stream take on FIRE, and the more comments I read from people who, it seemed, just did not want to even try to understand what was at issue here, the more I began to understand that the issue was not that people were dense (we are, as a rule, but that is not the case here). The problem people have with the FIRE concept is fear. Fear that what they’ve assumed is the right way to live, may be flawed. Fear that what they’ve been taught all their lives may have been, in large part, a lie. Fear that they are sheep and that the shepherds are getting fat on their lack of understanding. And what do most people do when they are afraid? They attack, lash out, try everything within reason (and sometimes outside of reason) to justify their view of the world, to reassert their position or “rightness”.
This is what has been happening as the knowledge and experience of the FIRE community seeps into the collective understanding of the world. As people come to terms with the idea that they may not “have” to work their entire lives in jobs they hate in order to enjoy a scant few golden years at the end. But things appear to be moving in the right direction. People can learn, although the process can appear to be painfully slow.
I was listening to a podcast on Morningstar’s website yesterday where a couple of their retirement specialists were talking with Chris Mamula about the FIRE movement and his particular story. I encourage you to listen, it is an interesting story (Chris has also co-authored a book with the guys from the Choose FI podcast on charting your own course to FI – which I highly recommend). Listening to the podcast and hearing Chris’s story, it became clear that one of my problems, indeed I believe the overarching problem most people face when first confronted with he issue of FIRE, is what is the meaning of life, if it is not “work your ass off for 40 years, then relax for a few before death takes you”? This is the paradigm most of us have been taught all our lives and it is only recently that we have multiple examples of people who have turned this established system on its head.
The prospect of not having to do what we’ve been told all our lives is our purpose, is a scary thing. This fear is what leads most people to lash out. It is not that they don’t believe it is possible. It is not that they don’t want it to be true. It is that they do not know what they would do, what their lives would mean, if they did not have to drone on for 40 years before smelling the roses. I see them every day. In my profession (law) I am confronted daily with people who live only for the next case to litigate, or the next deal to close. They accumulate significant amounts of money along the way, but have no idea what to do with it. It simply is the way things have always been done. So they continue to do it.
I sense that the tide is beginning to turn. As we discuss more and more what FI means, people become increasingly comfortable with the concept. Chris, Brad and Jonathan’s book, “Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence” will help people address the very issue that makes them afraid. It will help them define what FI means to them individually. Maybe they’ll see they don’t have to follow Chris’, Pete’s or Penny’s path. That they can, with help, chart their own course.
Once the fear is gone, who knows what wonders they may accomplish.
Until Next Time, FIRE On! – Oldster
