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Financial Independence as Philosophical Suicide

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[Brief programming note: I’m back on my bullshit after a year-long hiatus to post a series of articles about money & agency. Here’s issue No.1] The “Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE)” movement focuses on saving a large percentage of their income to try and retire as early as possible. It’s inspired by the book Your Money of Your Life, and the Essay If You Can:How Millenials Get Rich Slowly. It’s a philosophy of frugal living and anticipating the magical day when you can finally break out of the rat race. Behaviors of followers include: Saving as much as possible Investing in index funds within tax-advantaged accounts Think a lot about your “Number,” the amount you believe you need in the bank, never to work another day in your life. However, something always felt hollow about the practice to me. After learning about Albert Camus’ philosophy, I finally understood why. In this piece, I want to examine why FIRE is a toxic belief system that leads to people missing out on life an

Root Nodes Financial Independence as Philosophical Suicide Something always felt “off” to me about the FIRE movement. Glenn Stovall Apr 15, 2024 6 5 3 Share Alone, c. 1937, Jacob Kainen [ Brief programming note: I’m back on my bullshit after a year-long hiatus to post a series of articles about money & agency. Here’s issue No.1] The “Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE)” movement focuses on saving a large percentage of their income to try and retire as early as possible. It’s inspired by the book Your Money of Your Life , and the Essay If You Can:How Millenials Get Rich Slowly . It’s a

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