When I first discovered FIRE six and a half years ago, my first thought was:
This is bullshit!
No one retires in their 30s. You’re supposed to work until 65 or 67, move to Florida and die. End of story. What were these crazy people on the Internet trying to sell?
But then, I read a little more. The 4% Rule made a lot of sense to me. So did a simple life built around frugality and smart investing. It wasn’t bullshit after all. So, my next thought was this:
I need to tell the world about FIRE! I’ll start with my friends!
Silly me. I thought my friends would be like:
Holy cow! This is awesome! We’re gonna do it too!
And then I found out that it didn’t work like that…
About The Time I Preached FIRE And Went Down In Flames
Most of the folks that I told about FIRE rejected it outright:
I’ll run out of money.
I won’t have meaning in my life.
I like to spend.
I also tried to send random links:
Hey friend, remember that Mr. Money Mustache dude I told you about? You should check out this post from him.
Later:
Did you have a chance to read the post?
Not yet.
#Fail
At this point, I realized how silly I was. FIRE was obvious to me because I was always frugal and liked to save money. FIRE put a name to what I was already doing. I was on the extreme side of a wide spectrum. I was foolish to expect FIRE to quickly resonate with those on the other side of the spectrum.
But I also acknowledge that part of the problem was with my presentation. I’m not a motivational speaker and emailing random Mr. Money Mustache posts wasn’t a good strategy.
How does one get through then? What do you do when you see someone you care about struggling with money?
Playing With FIRE: The Gateway Drug
At MMM HQ this past weekend, we screened the Playing With FIRE documentary to an audience of about 100. Many members of the cast and crew attended:
This was my first time seeing the film and I loved the story. Scott and Taylor Rieckens were living a fat life in Southern California. Scott had a membership at a boat club. Taylor leased a BMW. Spending was north of $10,000 per month. One day on the way to work, Scott listened to Tim Ferriss interview Mr. Money Mustache and was hooked. The rest of the story is about how Scott and Taylors’ lives changed.
The heart and soul of the story
It’s short-term thinking on my part.
And Taylor is what makes the story so great. People like Mr. Money Mustache, Scott and myself aren’t the best role models for many. We’re on the extreme side of the money/optimization spectrum.
Taylor is warm and relatable. People who see this movie are going to connect with her. They’ll see Taylor’s thinking evolve, appreciate it, and perhaps be changed by it. The power of Playing With FIRE is Taylor’s journey.
I can’t think of a better way to introduce someone to the FIRE movement than to show you Taylor’s life. And I encourage you to do the same. Next time you hear a friend say something ominous like:
I don’t know how we’re going to make the car payment.
We’re having a tough month with money.
We skipped this month’s mortgage payment.
Invite them over. Show them Playing With FIRE. It just might change their life.
Join the 10s who have signed up already!
Subscribing will improve your life in incredible ways*.
*Only if your life is pretty bad to begin with.
It is the RE part of FIRE that doesn’t resonate. I think most people agree that, at least in principle, having enough money that you only work because you want to would be something they’d love to have. Even if they aren’t willing to pay the price for FI they understand the freedom it would provide.
But retiring early is definitely a whole different thing. I could have retired much earlier with more money than most FIRE devotees have but I did not want to. I enjoyed my job a lot and the perks and privileges that went with it. Others see their job as a mission and feel called to keep doing it. But the biggest group I think can’t grasp heading into the uncomfortable unknown with just enough money invested based on current and projected expenses. They can’t see what they’d do with all that time, what happens if they run out of money, what happens if they can’t get a job in case they need one. I’m not saying they are rational fears but all fear is rational to the person experiencing it. Watching the film might indeed help them imagine a different future.
Steveark,
Your comments read as though I wrote them myself (except about the enjoying the job part).
I don’t hate my job but I don’t love it either.
I like the secure feeling I get when I seen the massive progress I am making by saving and investing. I feel SECURE…. which I won’t feel if I RE. I will continue to save and invest and when I hit 57, I will “retire” and find something else to do with my time. That thing might be something that makes me some extra cash too.
For some people, 57 is RE. That is my plan. To pull the plug on my good paying job now would put my family at risk and here is another thing…. I don’t know how FIRE folks can anticipate what their future self will want out of life. I would be very disappointed if my future self gets pissed that I decided to leave a good paying job a little too early.
“I think most people agree that, at least in principle, having enough money that you only work because you want to would be something they’d love to have. Even if they aren’t willing to pay the price for FI they understand the freedom it would provide.”
I think it all comes down to long-term thinking or the lack of it. The money part makes perfect sense, but when presented with the information, many still choose to buy plastic crap at Target instead of saving.
Cool. I’m looking forward to it. How do I see this? Do I have to buy the DVD or something?
I somewhat disagree with Steve above. FI resonate with more people, but RE speaks to many as well.
It really depends on your personality. I love RE just as much as FI. Life is way better now that I’m not working full-time.
Watched this weekend and enjoyed it. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/playingwithfire The web page says “Coming soon to Vimeo on demand”, so it might currently only be available to those who supported it via Kickstarter.
Yeah, they’re still sorting out the distribution part of it.
Do you know whether they approached Netflix about buying/sponsoring it (for showing on Netflix)? That would give it a huge audience and if Netflix was interested in it, it would probably be big bucks for the producers. I can’t wait to see it, it looks great.
I’m very much looking forward to watching this documentary and showing it to other ppl. Spread the word right? Just like Joe and Steve above, FI resonates with me but I’m not so sure about RE. It really should be something like Financial Independence Retire Optional.
I’m excited to see the movie!
Sorry we couldn’t make it out to see the premier but we’ll have to make it up to Longmont eventually.
I agree that the most fervent adherents to FIRE principles are often not the best ambassadors, especially for people who aren’t already naturally frugal or motivated to retire early. For the average person, they’ll probably need to see the path of an average person transitioning,
Done by Forty recently posted…Thinking in Bets about FIRE
Yay! I’m so excited to see Playing with FIRE has been premiered! Congratulations to everyone involved! The Flicks here in Boise is waiting on whatever the distribution stuff is you mentioned they are figuring out and sounds like they’ll bring it in when they can. Double yay! I have the book and have been saving it for my read on a short trip this week; I’m looking forward to it!
Financially Fit Mom recently posted…How to Ensure Money is Available when it’s Needed
I’ve got the book on hold from the library- would love to see the movie, too! The “RE” part pisses me off when you have whiney-pants going “but I LOVE my job!”. Yeah, what if you get a new boss that you hate? Or you get hit by a bus and can’t work? The point is having FI for the hate-new-boss-got-hit-by-bus events. Plus, there’s really no sense in being so damn wasteful. Seems like its more of people get into habits ,and don’t like being uncomfortable with changing of habits. That’s about it. We’ve survived for thousands of years without 60″ plasma tvs, brand new iPHones, BMW’s, and granite kitchen countertops.
Sounds like the event was a success- I’m sure there was beer on tap, too, it being MMM’s headquarters and all (and isn’t it part of your co-owned co-working space?).
Cathleen Cooks Stuff recently posted…Flying first vs economy: is hedonistic adaptation inevitable?
Great points and I have thought the same things also. I’ve experienced both situations myself where a new manager came in that was a real jerk and had a health issue that I couldnt really work for about a month. Over many years things like this can and do happen so its smart to be prepared. You might have to take care of your aging parents or a close family member got in a bad accident. Hard to keep up with a higher level demanding job when you have those situations going on.
I will check it out when its available. These types of documentaries are good motivation to re-focus and stay on the right track. Also there are a lot of short news posts etc. on YouTube about the recession, foreclosures, unemployment, frugality etc. Sometimes watching these are good to keep you doing the right things also.