Financial Independence Retire Early

So, the other day, I was listening to the BiggerPockets Money podcast where the host, Mindy Jensen, and her husband, Carl, were having a conversation with one of the other BiggerPockets hosts about Mindy and Carl’s time on the set of Ramit Sethi’s podcast. One thing to know about Mindy and Carl is that they practice FIRE or Financial Independence Retire Early or doing something similar. Either way, the topic of discussion on Ramit Sethi’s podcast was that this couple saves a lot of money and they don’t spend much.

Enjoy Your Money

And I think for them, the point was that being very frugal and paying attention to saving is what got them to the point where they have several millions of dollars. But Ramit advised them to spend more of their money because the point of making all this money was so they could enjoy it. And when it comes to the finance space or financial independence, that’s often not a message that you hear a lot. From what I’ve seen, it’s about making money and saving money. But in this case, this couple has plenty of money, and the point is to enjoy it now.

Ramit’s advice is in line with what a lot of the younger generations are encountering, especially since the pandemic. It’s just that, you know, on one hand, life isn’t guaranteed. And whereas previous generations spent a lot of time really working and waiting for retirement to enjoy life, a lot of the younger generation is saying, “Hey, I’m trying to enjoy my life along the way because you might not know if you make it to retirement.”

Why Wait Until Retirement?

And then, I think a lot of us are seeing that you might make it to retirement age, but then you have several health complications and you can’t even enjoy your retirement like you wanted to.

You also might not even care for the same things that you used to. You always wanted to go to Disney World, but now you’re 66 and 70 years old, and you’re like, “I don’t really care about this anymore.” So more people are discussing having enjoyable experiences along as you age.

Opportunities Abound in the West

You could say that there are a lot of people in other countries around the world that would love to have the opportunities that we have, say in America or just in the western world in general. But the point is that though we have these opportunities, we have the ability to go even further than what we’re doing right now. We did have systems in place to keep us in this old mindset that doesn’t benefit the individual that much.

So there’s one thing to think about if you’re thinking about joining the FIRE movement. Yes, you will probably accumulate money much quicker, but also, think about how you can enjoy your life along the way because, as I say, nothing is guaranteed.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska