Don’t Confuse FIRE With Fire

I love the FIRE (Financial Independence/Retire Early) acronym.  Not only does it capture everything in just four letters, the imagery is stunning.  The passion and flames of financial independence burn inside of us.  This is not the movement for the bland, uninsightful, or cold.  We are hot-blooded individuals who bring the heat to everyday life.  We are purposeful.  But if you take the metaphor a little farther, things start to break down.  Fires can be quenched, flames die out.  There is an insidious risk in the financial independence community.  Many of us confuse our goal post with our post or even pre goal plan.  We confuse FIRE with fire.

Now that I’ve completely lost  you, let’s dive in.

What is FIRE?

FIRE is a superpower.  It’s a mindset.  It’s the idea that through careful earning, saving, and investing we can reach a place of not only financial security but also freedom.  Although many disagree about what constitutes enough, we mostly point to the safe withdrawal rate and the 25X rule as guide posts.

Once we have obtained enough, we can live out the second part of the equation: retire early.  Early retirement looks very different to all of us.  A subset decide to continue their W2 wage but cut back on hours.  Others leave their formal employment but continue with side hustles like blogs or real estate.  A third group abandons the accumulation phase altogether.

For the grand majority, FIRE unto itself should not be the goal.  It should be a means to an end.  A means to traveling, or pursuing a hobby, or spending time with loved ones.  In this mindset, money is a proxy for time.  Time has value.  We have bought our freedom.

There are those who have made the pursuit of FIRE their passion.  Mr Money Mustache or Brad and Jonathan come to mind.

For the rest of us, however, being too enamored with the journey leads on a long path to nowhere.

Don’t confuse FIRE with fire.

What is fire?

Fire is your passion.  It is your why.   It is your reason for waking up every morning.  This passion can change throughout our lives.  As a child and young adult, I thought being a physician was my fire.  Growing older, I find that writing has quickly overtaken its place.

Whether your family, your friends, or surf boarding, the exact details are unimportant.  What is important, however, is that you have inspiration.  You have a goal that is out there just waiting to be reached.  The striving towards something, the reaching for unobtainable heights, is the stuff that contentment is made of.

When you confuse FIRE with fire, you set yourself up for depression.  This is the slippery slope of the money mind meld.  There is nothing more jarring than reaching the top of the mountain and realizing that there is nowhere to go but down.

And most of us don’t want to go down.

Final Thoughts

When we make FIRE our goal, we set ourselves up for a dysphoric conclusion to our journey.  You must not confuse FIRE with fire.

Financial independence should be Plan B, a happy side effect of pursuing passion and the ever-present light inside.

Your FIRE journey will end when you reach a certain number.

Your fire journey should last a lifetime.