Why I left the FIRE Movement (Financial independence and retire early)
As someone who drank the Kool Aid, I saved religiously, invested periodically into index funds and lived frugally. I ticked every box of the FIRE movement (Financial Independence and Retire Early), but like the majority on an average salary, I realized the dream of early retirement was just a fantasy. High hopes turned to disillusionment and this prompted me to look into some of the most prominent FIRE bloggers and promoters. I discovered that they continuously spread half-truths and myths, while concealing their true sources of income — which is you. I want to reveal how I and legions of eager followers have been duped and fed a tantalizing vision of early retirement that is attainable even on the modest of salaries.
False Prophets
We are sold the narrative of the young city worker leaving their corporate cubicle to retire on huge nest eggs, built up through a life of frugality and thrift. Except this is not exactly what is happening, they are simply moving from one full time job to another, which is full time blogger and affiliate marketer. They now find themselves earning more through book deals, FIRE courses and online ads than they did in their hum-drum corporate job! They maintain this income by promoting the lifestyle of the FIRE movement, through numerous blog post, attractive Instagram photos and self-aggrandizing podcasts. This is a marketing ploy to attract new streams of FIRE devotees, the purpose of which is to bolster their new lucrative sources of revenue — selling online ads and content.
Getting rich off you
Mr. Money Mustache, the website and pseudonym of the Canadian Blogger Peter Adeney is one of the most well-known FIRE advocates and has engendered a cult-like following. He realized he could make far more money peddling online ads than working as a software engineer, so he started the blog in 2011 and reportedly makes $400,000 per year from it! Big money makers for his blog include ads for credit cards and loans, which is hardly conducive with the debt free lifestyle he promotes.
It’s ironic that the people giving advice on how to retire early didn’t really build wealth that way; but by selling it to others! This is unfortunately a familiar pattern across most of the successful FIRE blogs, the affiliate links and ads earn them far more than their dull corporate jobs ever could. The myth of early retirement has to be maintained because if FIRE enthusiasts catch onto it and leave, their income will evaporate; and the pyramid scheme collapses.
Top 1% of households
A key bugbear of mine is that many FIRE charlatans purport to earn a modest salary, and after years of careful spending and shrewd investing built up enormous net worth’s, retiring in the their 30’s and 40’s. How could this be you ask? Quite simple: They earn a six figure salaries (typically software engineers and professionals), their previous corporate job puts them comfortably within the top 1%, and this is something they go out of their way to conceal, they want you to believe they’re the regular Joe Bloggs earning a humble wage, far from it.
How did Andrew Hallam, a teacher retire a millionaire at age 38? He earned large sums tutoring wealthy students in Singapore, something he doesn’t disclose. His financial advice is useful, but refusing to admit that your salary is your biggest wealth building tool is doing your followers a disservice. I suppose admitting as such wouldn’t help his book sales and speaking fees.
Another example is Financial Samurai, a blog devoted to early retirement and financial independence. The author chronicles his journey to becoming a millionaire by age 28; his advice gives the impression that it’s attainable by the masses. It isn’t, he was earning more than $150,000 in his mid twenties, an unimaginable sum at that age, and that easily places him within the top 1%. He became a millionaire by earning a ton of cash and savings most of it, shock horror, but his advice isn’t made to feel that way.
The media will always pick out the outliers as examples to follow; “just follow these simple rules to become a millionaire by 30”, but just like most lottery winners won’t win big, most FIRE members following their financial advice won’t get rich or retire early either.
Many FIRE-ers continue to work
They work side gigs, book deals, speaker’s circuit, sell online ad revenue, produce monetised podcasts and more — this is hardly how I would define ‘early retirement’. I believe sunlight is the best disinfectant, and FIRE-ers should disclose their true sources of income, especially when they’re profiting from you. The eager FIRE recruits buying their books, clicking on their affiliate links and overpaying for their seminars are what keeps the scheme alive.
This emergent industry, which came out of the ashes of the 2008 financial crisis is nothing more than a new branch of self-help snake oil, peddling false promises and hope. I even contacted a number of Fire-ers in private, and they admitted they’re earning more through their blogs than they were at their previous job! And they acknowledge that early retirement is unrealistic for the majority of households on an average salary, if only they’d admit that to their legions of starry-eyed followers. I know these revelations won’t go well with many readers who enjoy the self-help, get rich articles that have come to dominate this platform. But I don’t enjoy being taken advantage of either, I’ve never been happier since leaving this movement.
The real secret to getting rich
In eight words: Your biggest wealth building tool is your salary. It’s the unsexy secret that doesn’t sell newspaper articles; you earn a high income and save most of it, that’s it. Wash and repeat until you’re financially free. Since many of us are stuck on average salaries, we will instead have to settle for building a nice nest egg upon normal retirement, think of it as a get rich slow strategy, it’s not glamorous but it’s real.
