The Mindset
So what is FIRE? Well, it stands for Financial Independence; Retiring Early. Financial Independence is simply the point at which working for income is optional for you to continue living to your standards. It’s all the math required to live how you want to live. Usually this is achieved through an investment portfolio. There are many strategies for achieving FI and that can fill a post or 10 all by itself. But the Retiring Early part is a little harder to grasp for many people.
Retiring Early technically means retiring prior to the traditional retiree age of 65. However many folks on the forums loosen that up a little bit either to 62 (age at which you can draw Social Security), or 60 just to use an easy number.
I am currently in my early 30s and am on pace to be work-optional by 45-50. So I still have a ways to go. However I am not in the hurry that others are because I am fortunate enough I to not disdain my job. My job gives me the luxury of this hybrid life where I do have to go to work every now and again, but when I am not at work, I am truly not at work. Instead, I spend my off-hours at home with my family, doing hobbies, running errands; in short, exploring what I want retirement to look like. Sure, I am a bit more frugal and anal about saving than most of my peers, but not so crazy about it that I want to leave work at 35. I feel like I’ve struck a balance of being financially ultra-responsible, but still taking a bit of time to live while I’m young.
So what would you do with your life if you weren’t going to work? If you could do whatever you wanted day in and day out, what would that look like? It is incredibly important to really contemplate these questions thoroughly because research shows that mental health is one of the leading issues with retirement, some studies even place it above the math.
Let’s assume you spend 40 hours per week at work, that time is generally not optional. If you are working for a retirement in your 30s or 40s, it isn’t a stretch to assume you spend far more than 40 hours per week working. But let’s assume its 40; 8 hours for 5 days each week (or 10 hours for 4 days) either in an actual office, or working from home. That’s 2,080 hours in a year. That doesn’t sound so bad right? But, let’s look at it in terms of days, because let’s be honest, how much leisure can you really cram into your evenings. So you work 260 days out of 365; that’s 65% of the year you spend working (57% for you lucky 4x10ers). So we have to think about what you are going to do with an extra ~2/3rds of a year that aren’t scripted for us.
Really think about that. What would you do if you woke up tomorrow and it was Saturday. And then the next day it was Saturday again. And again. And on and on it goes. Maybe you have a grand idea that you’re going to travel the world. That is a possibility, and some people are into that. But, living out of a suitcase isn’t for everyone. Maybe you’re going to hike the Appalachian Trail; great! That’s 3-6 months of 1 year, and we are talking forever (more than 30 years). Maybe your desires are much simpler; you want to go read every book in the library. Trust me, even for the most bookish among us, that would not last as long as you’re thinking.
With my odd schedule in healthcare, I work 2-3 days per week which comes out to 130 days in a year, or 35% of the year. I get a pretty reasonable glimpse of what life without work, and life at home with the family, is like. I have hobbies, I have clear traveling goals, and I have a clear sense on how to keep a healthy mindset sans work.
On the off chance you have the luxury to do so, run an experiment for yourself. Take a solid 2-4 weeks off of work. And see how you feel during it. Are you stir crazy by day 5? Did you find out you really need work everyday to have built-in time from your family? Did you find you actually kind of like your job?
