FIRE has been a huge topic recently and I am sure you have seen an article about FIRE as it was reported on the main media outlets in Singapore with many reaction follow ups from financial bloggers.
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What is FIRE and is it what we want and how well do we want to live.
FIRE as we all know means Financial Independence Retire Early. There were many things Techlead mentioned in his video on why he thinks FIRE doesn't really work as it is just sold to you as a product. Investments like stocks, crypto and properties are sold to us and we buy them because we know or based on past results that they will eventually be worth more than it’s current value. We tend to trim down our usage of money to be closer to obtaining FIRE and channel the remaining money to investing.
Most of us can already lean fire just by surviving on beans and staying with your parents. It is not whether we can survive but how much we want and how good we want our lives to be. To him, our lives are more than just the amount of money in our bank accounts, of course, if you know Techlead, he is most famous for his title (as a millionaire) series so we know he is rich however he is divorced and his wife actually does not allow him to see his son if you have seen his recent vlogs so he is pretty unhappy in that sense although he is rich as a millionaire.
He also mentioned that experiences are accessible everywhere, renting or booking a hotel or restaurants without having to achieve FIRE before enjoying life and that there is no need to own expensive stuff. If lazing at the beach is your purpose in FIRE-ing then you can also achieve that by going to South East Asia and rest along the many beaches there. All in all, in my opinion, he is trying to emhasize the “why” are you trying to achieve FIRE? If it is the lure of passive income and lots of disposable cash to invest then he feels that there is a limit as once you reach a certain amount, you start to shift your money around property and stocks hoping to optimise them which he then asks how much are you actually really spending to be happy?
I would say the part of the video I really agree with is the part where he mentioned that individuals who worked super hard, skimp and went through tough times in their youth to attain FIRE and then ending up having anxiety and in old age found out that they have missed out a lot in their golden years is sad and not what you expect especially when you become rich or attain FIRE status.
To him, reaching FIRE means laying flat after that and playing games while some wants to chase after their dreams after reaching FIRE but you can actually chase after it right now. What you should do is to enjoy the journey and FIRE is a by-product of success or planning. Similarly, the other videos also highlight the part of slogging and putting extra hours in while you are young and regretting it when you are older on why you did not spend more time with your family but actually you were trying to earn more to do that, the irony.
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Beside chasing after attaining FIRE, it is important to stop and spend time with your loved ones. This might involve spending money for experiences to do together or having a break from the hectic lives that everyone is leading. Chasing after your dreams while trying to attain FI is also possible.
Having that financial security is better than not having it
In a competitive society and expensive environment, the idea of FIRE is attractive and I believe most would want to pursue it or at least be FI, financially independent as the constant pressure of having to think of retirement and financial commitments can be draining. Knowing that you have a cushion feels better and as quoted by Norman Vincent Peale, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”
In tough times or emergency, you would thank yourself for saving or building up a financial security net for yourself or the ones close to you. How extreme you would go to shorten the process or relax the process depends on the individual.
Aiming for FIRE but finding purpose in your life and process
Just like what I mentioned about aiming for FIRE, we can still enjoy the process and find purpose in our life. To be honest, the millennials and Gen Zs pay much more attention to our mental health as compared to the older generations. Work life balance matters but of course to a certain extent, finances are also crucial in today’s world especially so when costs for everything are going up worldwide.
It is a balance and the process of setting a goal, trying to achieve it, how you implement it and whether you finally attain it or not is important as you can find out more about yourself and learn more about what you actually want. All in all, I think it is good to have a goal like FIRE to aim towards but you definitely need to know when to relax eg taking a short trip with friends or families or spending within your means for special occasions. You don’t want to miss out on the precious moments of your life while trying to achieve FIRE which in itself is to also be able to spend more time with your loved ones.
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Who is "TechLead"? Never heard of him.
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