Now I have zero overlap with the people I think they were FIRE. My sureest prediction was @Butch and @Lislot, but maybe they left too?
Does not matter: I think I realize that this is not a forum for people FIRED, but people wanting to FIRE. No problem.
People who want to discuss FIRE and are not FIRE probably get most from it. People who are FIRE … I don’t know, they are not many. Those who are still here have fun, I hope, but I can count them on one hand now?
While comfortable with my finances, I feel very far away from RE. Retirement sounds like death to me - but I get on how young and older people enjoy it, no offense.
And that’s not because I love my job, even if it was passion-motivated at first, actually I quite struggle to keep loving it.
Does FI play a role on how you perceive your job ? Certainly but that’s up to each one of us. I once read something like “FIRE people think they’d just have to go back to work if they get bored or need it, but for me there’s no way I can take seriously all the corporate BS, management, yearly evaluation or have any patience dealing with dumb issues if I were in that situation” and I often feel like this already. But it does not bring freedom, it highlights non-sense and I may find it ridiculous, getting indifferent and disengaged, but then that applies to self as well, so it really doesn’t make me happy. FU-number sounds a bit FMe-dumber…
I have hard time catching up with something I would like to do, I’m the kind of person who needs achievement. I mostly thrived helping and contributing, sometimes in chaotic high stakes high risk environments, but I’m not the one starting stuff.
Being on my own doing nothing contemplating my numbers is certainly not enjoying life.
I’ll start a de-FIRE forum 
Love what you do and keep loving it.
For me, to retire early is good way for say goodbye to corporate shit-hole you talk about.
I don’t really understand how things get worse after, like that FMe-dumber thing, but maybe I feel just too stupid to know.
I agree 100% with you to feel good by helping and give back.
This what I want do more when I am FIRE (maybe never happen).
Funnily enough that’s partly an autocorrect thing that looked good.
Well:
I see more opportunities for this outside the job than within it.
Kind of like the chicken vs. pig analogy re breakfast… the chicken is involved (serving an egg) whereas the pig is truly committed given he’s providing the bacon.
Am still here - was just offline for a while due to other priorities (only good things!).
I voted FIRE in the poll but in reality I am FI-semi-retired.
Not having a stressful full-time job (the stress coming more from the business travel and corporate BS / backstabbing) is great and I’ve realize I can be VERY busy just pursuing personal interests/initiatives/running errands in a way where I enjoy life more. At the same time, I feel to young to give up the professional world entirely and miss the intellectual challange. So
What’s nice is not being a ‘slave’ to the corporation anymore and being more balanced about what I would spend my time on - even if a full-time opportunity would come my way again, I’d only do it if it’s inherently interesting (i.e. more the situation, less priority on job title / comp).
Eventually almost all of us will have to transition to full retirement and it’s good to dip the toes in early already to ensure you start figuring out how you fill that void.
Agree - and you have much more control over it. Small projects can give great satisfaction. E.g. in my case obtaining my Swiss citizenship or, right now, working on the garden to get it closer to my vision of what it should be.
Actually, the main reason I haven’t quit yet is that I was concerned it would impact my Swiss citizenship application (lack of economic integration if I don’t have a job). How do you view this?
It’s a bit of a catch 22, as I have little time to work on German and other requirements if I have to work, but I don’t want to quit working until I have the citizenship.
I had a slight concern (because to a large extent my move from FI to FIRE was due to corporate politics leading to my employment being terminated) but that quickly disappeared.
It took me a little over 6 months from submitting my papers to having the Swiss passport in hand. Couple of points
I was probably a text book “yes”-able candidate to be greenlighted.
Unemployment in itself is not a showstopper.
Ah, given your status, I guess it isn’t a concern. I supposed you had facilitated naturalization process?
As a non-white 3rd country national who is going through ordinary naturalization process, I’m more cautious.
Yes, that was the phrase or erleichterte einburgerung in german
A friend (EU but married to a non-white non-EU person) is going through regular naturalization and even after being approved they will need to undergo a 12 months waiting period during which kanton/gemeinde can object. Sounds insanely long for me but so be it.
Yes, for me, I think it will take 18 months.
Reading this thread from the earlier-on-the-path side is fascinating. Especially @JEPG’s point about identity being tied to career. I think that’s the part most FIRE content glosses over. It’s easy to calculate a number. It’s much harder to figure out who you are without the job title.
@Butch your description of “not being a slave to the corporation” while still doing advisory work resonates. That middle ground between full-time and fully retired seems way more realistic than the binary “work vs. done” that FIRE communities usually push.
What I keep coming back to is: the people who seem happiest aren’t the ones who hit the number fastest. They’re the ones who already knew what they wanted to do with the freedom before they got there. Without that, FI just buys you a very comfortable existential crisis.
I’m far from FI myself, but even the small steps toward financial clarity have changed how I think about work. Not because I can quit tomorrow, but because I’m starting to make choices based on what I actually want rather than what pays best. Even that shift feels significant.
For those who are FI or close: did you figure out the “what then” before or after reaching the number?
Not agreeing with that second part of the statement. Most Blogs definitely say “hey you are not done with earning something - you just have the freedom to do it or not, and this gives a huge safety push”.
You mean you are so far into FIRE that you are even far from FI …?
Which is it: are you far from FI or are you FIRE as you say in survey?
Glad you are still around! I was counting on you FIREd in my mind accounting, but I have not heard from your postings for a while, so I was not sure.
Yeah. More broadly, most blogs sorely miss covering or even mentioning an exit strategy, likely because they are not there themselves, let alone their readers, and possibly because it goes without saying that until you get there you’ll likely have had ample time to think it through.
