- I think I figured out why many people react so negatively to the FIRE philosophy: It forces them to admit they could have done the same, but instead they're trapped by their own poor choices.
- I just handed in my resignation - some thoughts on corporate nonsense
- Daily FI discussion thread - February 08, 2019
- Weekly FI Frugal Friday thread - February 08, 2019
- What’s your favorite extremely low risk investment tool to help you achieve FIRE?
- At what age did you start your FIRE path?
- Anyone else feel like they are not doing enough? Fresh out of college and the slow pace is killing me
- "Picture perfect weather map" is opposite of my desired weather on where to FIRE
- Shared inheritance
- Adjusting life and disability insurance within FIRE plan?
- FIRE movement is bad for the economy?
- My ideal place to FIRE
- FIRE verses FIRe verses FIR
| Posted: 08 Feb 2019 09:36 AM PST I used to be in the psychology field, and what I've found in life is that society takes on personal traits of the people in it because society is made up of those individual people. That may seem obvious, but people miss that more often than you'd think. Right now in American society a vast majority of people are not at jobs they enjoy. They're not saving enough for retirement. Maybe they're stuck in a relationship with someone that's equally bad with money, and don't want to leave and lose half of what little they have. Either way, their bad habits have them stuck where they are. How does a person rationalize that? You say "That's just life. Everyone's in this boat with me". You make water-cooler gossip about it, crack jokes, etc. Deep down you're not happy, but you had no other options, right? What's the worst thing that can happen in that case? You see a group of people that have budgeted well, that picked a career that pays well (instead of a career picking them), found partners that are not sabotaging their financial success, and are able to have a light at the end of a much shorter tunnel. They have their independence, and the typical careless person does not. This lays bare the lies they told themselves, and they have to confront the fact that if not for poor choices, they would be in the same boat, and could have this life style for themselves as well. Ironically, if instead of reacting so "violently" in opposition to FIRE they learned about it, they too could join us. At the end of the day it's not FIRE they hate, it's their own lives, and that's why it's so hard to convince people to embrace this ideology we have. They would have to admit how much they hate their current circumstances, and frankly most people would rather live in the dark and delude themselves. edit: Usually I hesitate to do this, but since a lot of people are apparently misinterpreting (maybe intentionally) my original post, let me clarify. If you DON'T want to FIRE, fine, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. If you have extenuating circumstances, that prevent you from doing so, fine as well. My original post is aimed at people who seem to be posting these articles about how awful FIRE is, or dangerous, or that criticize/demean people that embrace that mentality. My point is that their attitude comes from a place of denial & dissonance. Making a conscious choice to not FIRE is completely different from that, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I take a live-and-let-live approach and find it ironic that the comments below that are negative seem to completely miss my point and attack me directly, complaining that I'm somehow demeaning them. [link] [comments]  |
| I just handed in my resignation - some thoughts on corporate nonsense Posted: 08 Feb 2019 11:56 AM PST Given that I've asked /r/financialindependence a few times for advice over the last few months (or possibly years... it feels like years), I thought it was only fair to feed back a little. So, I've been working as a management consultant for most of my career, being farmed out at various banks so my bosses can make some good cash. With a FIRE-mindset, my challenge has generally been to leverage those opportunities and take as big a slice of my rate as I possibly can. My current employer (until March at least) has been a bizarre blend of great opportunities, insane management and cognitive dissonance. On the plus side, I've learned some key lessons that many of you probably have learned for yourselves. 1) If you aren't senior enough to win political tugs of war, drink the kool-aid (see, I even learned to speak like 2) Fight the big battles tactically. I asked for some thoughts on here before, as my little British company was bought out by NYC-Megacorp back in 2016, who decided to slash all the benefits and slowly replace us with cheaper staff. It was heavily recommended that I take a pay-cut on three separate occasions, and each time I carefully read the documents that HR presented, took them away, and then set up meetings with the key directors to explain the impact and how it seemed incongruous with their messaging to me about my performance. In each case, HR seemed to vanish, and by pushing hard at review I managed to get a couple of promotions in with pay rises (I know, figure that one out). 3) When an opportunity comes along, grasp it with both hands. I had an opportunity to explore a niche industry within the banks, and quickly built up a reputation for it internally. I was attending conferences, writing articles for the website, and was invited into pitches for my specialist area, and regularly used it as leverage in reviews - i.e. who else can do this same work? 4) A liar is always a liar. When the UK offices started to struggle in 2018, I was told that as a top performer I had nothing to worry about, but when the salary reviews came around they decided that adjustments would be 0% for some staff (me included) because profits aren't high enough (despite me being one of the most profitable staff in the company). I told them I was pissed off, and was advised that I would get some adjustments in 2019, presuming I achieved some ethereal goals, but date and amount undetermined. I thought that was bollocks, and told management so, but just hit brick walls at every turn. Today, 1 hour after handing in my notice, I was offered a 20% salary boost and a guaranteed promotion in June. I don't believe for one minute that this would have come through. Either way, it was an easy rejection for me. 5) Have confidence in yourself. I suffer from imposter syndrome a lot, and when applying for new roles came back here for advice - I'd repeatedly been told I was beyond the top end of my company's pay scale, and was concerned that other employers would push back, so thought I might need to set low expectations. u/oracledba and others politely told me I was being a twat, so I took their advice and aimed big when I gave a target for my recruiters / interviews. Some told me there was no chance, but one came straight back and said "Hey, we like your CV and want to interview you. But realistically, we can't achieve what you've asked for. Our maximum offer would be X, but we have a very strong benefits package." With benefits, that made for roughly a 15% raise on my current, so I continued, and at the end of the interview process they made exactly that offer that we'd agreed at the beginning, which I accepted. Perhaps I could have negotiated, but I was extremely happy and relieved to accept - and having done some negotiation up front was very comfortable with the figures. In essence, thanks for your collective wisdom, and never forget that companies will stab you in the back at the first opportunity and the only person selling yourself is you. And whilst I've royally pissed off the boss by rejecting his counter offer, virtually all of the team have privately congratulated me and are very keen to stay in touch. And, of course, most importantly, FIRE is that little bit closer! [link] [comments]  |
| Daily FI discussion thread - February 08, 2019 Posted: 08 Feb 2019 03:08 AM PST Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply! Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked. Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| Weekly FI Frugal Friday thread - February 08, 2019 Posted: 08 Feb 2019 03:08 AM PST Please use this thread to discuss how amazingly cheap you are. How do you keep your costs low? How do become frugal without taking it to the extremes of frupidity? What costs have you realized could be cut from your life without pain? Use this weekly post to discuss Frugality in general. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are more relaxed here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply! Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| What’s your favorite extremely low risk investment tool to help you achieve FIRE? Posted: 08 Feb 2019 09:13 AM PST Example: My fav is a bond mutual that invest in bonds for the my state of residence. If you purchase state issued bonds in the state in which you live, the interest income is tax free both for state and federal taxes. There are some states who do not allow this, but most do. Therefore a bond mutual fund that only buys bonds in the state in which you live and yields 5% average yearly, is more like 8% yield after the tax savings. This depends upon your tax bracket. Pow! [link] [comments]  |
| At what age did you start your FIRE path? Posted: 08 Feb 2019 12:52 PM PST As per topic, I started a year and a half ago when I discovered this sub at the age of 28. Before I was always saving some money on the side but it was always for future expenses never to RE. When I started to earn a lot more, my expenses stayed the same and I started saving more and more with a newly discovered goal - FIRE. And apart from starting sooner would you have changes anything in your FIRE journey? Edit: Ok seriously why the downvotes? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Feb 2019 04:29 PM PST I have had a 401k for about a year. Putting money into Wealthfront for 3 years. I am gradually building up my investments, but it seems like this is taking forever. Maybe its because I am an impatient millennial who is just out of college, but I feel SO impatient. How do you guys stay motivated in the 9 to 5 life? Is it really 20 more years of this?? Appreciate your life advice [link] [comments]  |
| "Picture perfect weather map" is opposite of my desired weather on where to FIRE Posted: 07 Feb 2019 06:45 PM PST The "picture perfect weather map" at https://mapsontheweb.zoom-maps.com/image/125357444277 is nice but it is the opposite of what I want when choosing a location to FIRE. Like - I cannot stand weather that climbs over 75 degrees F. And I love overcast, cloudy days. What is a good way to find my own desired weather map for FIRE relocation purposes? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Feb 2019 12:03 PM PST So my wife's grandfather was a WWII vet who recently passed away at the ripe old age of 103! He was a great old gentleman who had been a widower for about 15 years. He lived a very fulfilling life. His only son was very successful in life and he did not really his dad to leave him anything so his biggest asset was left to my wife and her sister. This is a lovely home on the beach in California that has exploded in worth over the 50 years he's owned it and split evenly between the sisters would net each at least a million dollars. Now both sisters are successful and while the money would be VERY nice it will not change much other than maybe shave some years off of retirement. We live in Florida and near the beach so we really don't have any use for the house itself. It's great but we don't really want or need an expensive house with huge property taxes and insurance burdens. My wife's sister wants the house. She wants to retire and move there but several years from now. My view is that if her sister wants the house then she should buy out my wife's half minus what we'd pay a real estate agent if we sold outright. We certainly aren't looking to get anything other than what was left to her. We also do not plan on paying $20k plus per year (our half) in upkeep on the house. We had the house appraised and my SIL and BIL dispute the house's value and are not willing to pay half the assessed value. They are both very competitive about everything and I feel they are trying to treat this as some type of business deal where they are going to get the better end of the deal on this house. My wife is distraught about this. She feels like her grandfather was very generous and she doesn't want this to become an issue with her sister. I say put the house on the market and sell it and split the money since we can't agree on a split for the house itself. I was the executor for both of my parents and it was simple with me and my sisters, everything was split evenly. We've been very good about saving for retirement but if we don't get this situation handled the extra expenses associated with this inheritance will delay rather than expedite our retirement. Anyone of you run into anything like this? [link] [comments]  |
| Adjusting life and disability insurance within FIRE plan? Posted: 08 Feb 2019 09:52 AM PST I'm assuming that most of us look at FIRE as not needing life insurance, but I'm curious what you've done with it prior to achieving FI. Two questions: 1) Is it possible to structure a term plan in which as you approach FI, your benefit decreases so as to save on premiums? Any other suggestions for covering life insurance before you achieve FIRE? 2) What about disability? I almost think if I became severely disabled, it would be worse than if I died for my spouse. I can't image losing my income AND having to pay my medical bills, etc. But disability is super expensive. Does it make more sense to forego life insurance but get disability instead? And again, anyone know of plans that reduce the benefit over time as you approach FI? Thanks!! [link] [comments]  |
| FIRE movement is bad for the economy? Posted: 08 Feb 2019 03:30 AM PST Hey, I was arguing with my friends, who are not even saving 10% of their paycheck, that everyone can be FIRE if they just try and stop spending money on useless products like SPA, laptops, second car, going out for lunch etc. Their main argument against it was that without ppl who spend money the economy would just tank. without any money coming in, the business owners would have to close restaurants, stop paying taxes and it would just be worse and worse. I do see their point of view as most of us are (that's the best part) finance graduates. So to be completely honest, for us as a FIRE movement to exist we need to keep it "secret"? The more people save for the future, the worst the economy gets, recession hits and we all lose? PS: Ofc, it is not possible in bigger countries like US or Germany. But what about smaller countries like France, Spain or Norway and a growing FIRE movement there? EDIT: Guys, i'm not saying that FIRE is bad! I'm just asking what's your opinion on a hypothetical scenario where more and more people start saving vs. spending. Personally, I don't care if I'm hurting the economy because i'm a tiny small cog and I want to FIRE ASAP. But what if all these "small tiny cogs" will stop spending? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Feb 2019 08:01 AM PST
My problem is I can find many such areas outside the US but not within the US. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Feb 2019 09:07 PM PST Want do you think? Where are the break points? If I retire at 69 then its simple FIR no early. What constitutes a little "e", retired a little early verses Early. Anyone who makes it in the 40's in my mind is has hit FIRE. If I'm FI then R and start Roth conversions and don't tap social security do I qualify as FIRe even if I only do this for a couple years? [link] [comments]  |
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