Recently, my girlfriend has been sharing some videos of people who follow the FIRE principle with me.
FIRE is an acronym that stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early.
Some people describe FIRE as a financial movement involving frugality and extreme savings and investments. To do this, you work hard, save up to 70% of your annual income, and reinvest your savings into investments that will help you make even more. Eventually, you can retire early and use small amounts of money from your ongoing investments to live off.
It’s not a bad idea in theory. Who wouldn’t like to not have to work and do the things they would like to do instead of what they have to do?
I wonder how happy a life it would lead to in reality? The few videos I have seen show extremely driven couples working excessively for over ten years, spending very little money while they are doing this, and then retiring in their 40s.
While they are sacrificing so much in the present, what are they missing? Fun activities, school events or holidays with their children while they are young? Socialising with their friends and extended family? Even having enough time or being willing to pay for things that help them look after their health? Including healthy eating, gym memberships, massage or spa treatments, or a fun day out to a concert or movie? If reaching FIRE as early as possible is the primary goal, then most of this stuff will be seen as unnecessary or against the plan you are trying to achieve.
But who gets to the end of their life and looks back and thinks, “I should have worked longer and harder, especially when my children were young?”
And then once you reach FIRE, is the life that you are going to live suitable to who you are and your essential values?
In 2021, I had to take the first seven months off work while recovering from a severe health condition. Having no paid work to do each week or day was not as enjoyable or glamorous as other people may imagine.
Especially if you are in your 30s or 40s, most of your friends will be busy with work and family. So it’s not like you will have heaps of buddies that you can hit the golf course with throughout the workweek unless most of your friends are in their late 60s or early 70s. 70 something was the typical age of people I went on long bike rides while I kept rehabilitating my health last year.
Suppose a driven person is willing to sacrifice everything in the short-term for at least ten years to reach their FIRE goal. Will they be happy sitting around on a beach, doing nothing except relaxing and sipping Pina Colada’s every day?
I doubt it. Maybe for the first week. But then what?
So why do people do it?
I think it’s because we get the dream sold to us. We get told that work is a nightmare that we couldn’t possibly enjoy. But we are also told that we should study hard at school to get into a good University or College. Then we can get a good degree. Then we can get a good job. Then we can work hard in this job until we have enough money to retire. And then we can FINALLY enjoy life.
It reminds me of the story of the fisherman who is told by a Westerner on holiday in his coastal town that the fisherman needs to work harder to make more money. “But why?” asks the fisherman. “So that you can buy bigger boats and more of them!” says the Westerner. “But why?” says the fisherman. So that you can make more money and then retire after 20 or 30 years!” says the Westerner. “And then what?” asks the fisherman. “Well, then you can buy a boat and live by the beach and enjoy your life!” says the Westerner. “But that is what I already do,” replies the fisherman, as he shakes his head at the Westerner for having such silly thoughts.
Maybe we can stop trying to wait for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and see if we can try to enjoy our lives now? We may not need to have an excessive amount of money to do this. And we don’t need to retire early and do nothing every day.
Not all work is glamorous. And going to university and obtaining a good degree does lead to more considerable earning potential later in your career. Regardless of how much someone makes though, work does help provide a sense of purpose and structure for a lot of people.
My Personal Experience
Completing a Doctorate for me did enable me to work as a Clinical Psychologist. It is a job that I love but also one that I can find emotionally exhausting. Seeing seven or eight people a day, five days a week for individual therapy is not ideal even though it would be lucrative.
After working as a Psychologist since September 2013, I’ve learned to do whatever is sustainable and enjoyable for me.
Yes, I am volunteering in Port Vila, Vanuatu, as a Clinical Psychologist on the Australian Volunteer Program, funded by the Australian Government. I receive a stipend for this, or just enough money to get by here and pay for my accommodation and food and living expenses.
I am receiving way less money than I could get working back in private practice in Melbourne, Australia. However, I am also working in a way that feels sustainable to me. I am six months into volunteering here on a full-time basis again, and I haven’t felt the need to take any holidays yet. Weekend trips to beautiful beaches now and then is sufficient for me.
Even though I am working full-time hours each week, I am not wrecked when it gets to Friday at 5 pm. I am happy that it is the weekend and that I can do some fun things with my girlfriend, daughter, and friends. But I do not feel like I need to spend half the weekend by myself just recovering.
I am also happy. Happy to be working. Delighted to be experiencing all of these things. Glad to be meeting all of the people that I do. And happy that I am doing something meaningful and hopefully making a difference in the lives of the people I see.
No matter how hard I work, I do not get paid any extra, and I kind of like it that way. By choosing to volunteer, I highly doubt that I will be reaching FIRE anytime soon, or at all.
One of my favourite writers is the Psychiatrist Irving Yalom, and he was still seeing patients and writing a few hours on weekdays well into his 80s. Now that seems much more enjoyable and meaningful than retiring in my 40s.
What does everyone else think?
Damon Ashworth Psychology 
I believe that we should enjoy our life everyday. Young or old. Treat each new day as a single moment in life and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. Smiling all the way.
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Agreed. I think to still plan for the future is good, but at the same time try to live our lives in a way that they are enjoyable and sustainable now
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Balance is key, I think there is value in finding joy in the non-material simple things. Perhaps living modestly, and living in between the two extremes of i) waiting to enjoy life after retirement ii) living frugally while your young
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Definitely. Living like every day is your last and therefore not saving up at all for a rainy day isn’t good. But neither is sacrificing everything now for a day or time that may never come.
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After living 6 decades of life, I can truly say that, time is most important. Even though saving money can be beneficial ,but swapping extremely saving money within time in life may end up not being a total necessary goal , unless saving for something beneficial, (such as an investment in real estate) or something useful like that in earning more money with. Reason being, for one if it’s only a time span of a few years is one thing, but to think that you must live a lifestyle of extreme saving, year after year so to be able to live a good life in the future, may sound like a good idea, but only if you have a well thought out plan, know what you want, why and how you will proceed with it. Money can’t buy happiness or give you, your purpose. Earning it may though. Saving money will help you afford somethings, but it can never replace time. Although money will be needed, but you don’t need millions…to live a happy decent life. Plus, I will end with this thought, as time passes and as we get older, we may still want to do many things, but often aren’t physically up to it and our needs and wants may change. Some things are better done within the different phases of our life, within our budgets of money, willing efforts to put forth and abilities.
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Thanks for your comment. There’s a lot of wisdom in that, especially “Saving money will help you afford some things, but it can never replace time.”
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Thank You for recognizing that because I try to tell even my 6 children (although as young people we don’t always listen our parents), but the fact is you can’t just have money as your goal or as the need, one must be able to plan or figure out what they would even do with their money and create a lifestyle instead of waiting to have money to begin to…as they may realize they may have enough to do many things already😀❤️
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Hi Damon
Brilliant little blog!
My most enjoyable working life was in Melbourne well beyond retirement age and earning a lot less than I did twenty years ago.
The fact that you don’t have to prove yourself all the time gave me a greater connection with my colleagues and being able to help them progress gave me an experience of satisfaction that was never present before.
Now living in Bali and hanging out, I am now working on getting our neighbourhood involved in waste management. A big challenge for a westerner working with a different culture and connecting with dedicated locals.
I don’t think mankind is made to sit and await the grim reaper after their working life.
Cheers
Jim
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Thanks Jim.
I don’t think we have to do that either. Nor do I think that doing nothing for the rest of our lives is where happiness comes in. That’s interesting to hear about when your most enjoyable work occurred and why that was. Best of luck with the waste management challenge!
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The riches man is absent of want, you live life in the moments or you won’t, in each plan there is a defined cost, but for each day that pass it is forever lost.
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Very poetic. The idea reminds me a bit of the movie Click, where the main character keeps wanting to fast forward until a better point in his life. Eventually, he realises that his life has passed and he missed out on all the important moments, including being there for the people that he loved the most.
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“Maybe we can stop trying to wait for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and see if we can try to enjoy our lives now?” I TOTALLY agree! Find a sustainable way to live life, make money (since it’s important right now), and do what you want in a balanced way.
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Exactly. While it’s important to make enough money, hopefully we can do it in a balanced and sustainable and enjoyable way.
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I retired several years earlier, and it was wonderful to be home. I took another job, and worked with those who needed help in Reading, and English. I finally totally retired, but I was still under age of retirement.
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That’s great. If retiring early does lead to someone being happier or more able to do the things they want to, then it is a good thing. It sounds like it was in your case.
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I am working on learning on how to enjoy life now and plan for my future. I see there is nothing wrong with doing both. It just takes a lot of hard work.
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I’m with you on finding and creating a lifestyle that allows us to enjoy life every day.
For me, this does not only come with outer circumstances but also with an inner stance.
Being in the moment and fully present and doing what I do with as much love as possible is also a big part of this. It’s what made it enjoyable for me to do my job when I was cleaning for a while and according to the feedback of the people for whom I cleaned it made the result more enjoyable for them, too.
Saving all the good stuff for later seems like a good plan until we realise that there might not be any later. We cannot really know, can we? Being considerate is always a good idea and of course it does not harm to have plans for a good retirement. But not on the cost of enjoying life in the Here and Now.
Well, that is my view on it, anyway. 🙂
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Well said. If we can enjoy the here and now while also having plans for a good retirement, that seems like a pretty healthy balance.
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Well I am retired now. What I think is “One cannot stay to Enjoy and Relax” We need to Relax and Enjoy too. We are unable to go on working only full time. Yes it has to “Balance” Of course it depends. Because as we age Physical work has to be lighter and doing things from the Mind meaning lighter things have to be done as we get older. I am doing “Lot of Reading and Writing Article son My Websites”. They are Relaxing and feel making use of Time in a useful way. Hope You are keeping well Doctor. Many Blessings to be of Good Health 🙂
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Insightful opinion! I enjoyed reading your article 🙂
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Thank you Astha!
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