> It takes wisdom and maturity to realize that you don't need all that stuff
This is _exactly_ what I take issue with. Look, "live below your means and be thoughtful about what spending will make you happier" is great advice. So is "plan for a future where you don't have to work".
"Get a high paying remote job from a young age with no student loans, move somewhere cheap, actually find a partner there, don't dare find someone that makes teacher or non-professional salary or has health problems or student loans, wait until you're retired at 38 to have children, don't dare have kids with health problems or special needs, and lecture everyone else about how easy it is." is perhaps not the wise and mature advice you think it is.
I'm just the right age (37) to have grown up alongside the FIRE thing. I have a number of friends who tried it, some of them to the point of being smarmy about it. 100% of them hit late twenties and realized that the combo of "making a high income while having very low expenses" involves significant trade-offs, and is super hard to keep up. All of my friends eventually abandoned it, but I don't think that's the rule.
Describing FIRE as easy and saying that anyone who fails to do it is somehow less wise or immature is nonsense peddled by a bunch of people who retired early by writing "how to get retire early" blogs.
This is _exactly_ what I take issue with. Look, "live below your means and be thoughtful about what spending will make you happier" is great advice. So is "plan for a future where you don't have to work".
"Get a high paying remote job from a young age with no student loans, move somewhere cheap, actually find a partner there, don't dare find someone that makes teacher or non-professional salary or has health problems or student loans, wait until you're retired at 38 to have children, don't dare have kids with health problems or special needs, and lecture everyone else about how easy it is." is perhaps not the wise and mature advice you think it is.
I'm just the right age (37) to have grown up alongside the FIRE thing. I have a number of friends who tried it, some of them to the point of being smarmy about it. 100% of them hit late twenties and realized that the combo of "making a high income while having very low expenses" involves significant trade-offs, and is super hard to keep up. All of my friends eventually abandoned it, but I don't think that's the rule.
Describing FIRE as easy and saying that anyone who fails to do it is somehow less wise or immature is nonsense peddled by a bunch of people who retired early by writing "how to get retire early" blogs.