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I ADMIRE SUPER-SAVERS. I really do.
You know who I’m talking about: Ordinary people making ordinary salaries who are somehow able to sock away half or more of their disposable income and who accumulate enough to step away from the working world long before the rest of us.
We hear about these people all the time on podcasts. The couple who banked $1 million over the course of a decade by scrimping and saving. The millennial money wizard who has built a six-figure net worth and plans to retire by age 38.
How do they do it? They live in the same expensive, consumeristic world as the rest of us. How do they avoid the temptation to pull out the plastic when the impulse hits?
I consider myself a fairly frugal person who has a decent grasp of the fundamentals of investing. And yet, despite saving and investing for more than 30 years, it took me until I was nearly 62 before I had enough saved to feel comfortable stepping away from the daily grind.
Even now, after downsizing and cutting expenses to the bone, I worry whether I’ll have enough to last for whatever years I have left on this earth. Those worries were exacerbated by last year’s horrific showing in the financial markets.
After witnessing double-digit losses in my portfolio in 2022, I went into the new year determined to cut my already slashed spending levels. But here I am, a month into 2023, and I’ve already put an unexpected $1,000 on my credit card.
So, while I’m not qualified to offer advice on how to achieve financial independence by age 40, I think I am qualified to tell you what you shouldn’t do if your goal is to be a super-saver and retire decades before the rest of us. Here are seven pointers.
1. Don’t have a spouse or significant other. No one wants a cheapskate for a partner. I like to splurge on Rachael at Christmas. As soon as the holidays are over, it’s time to get her a nice gift for her birthday in January. This month, it’s Valentine’s Day. Then, in April, it’s our anniversary. And so it goes on.
2. Don’t have kids. Enough said.
3. Don’t get divorced, especially if you have kids. I lost a good decade of financial progress, not to mention 10 years of my life, by going through a divorce in my 40s. Beyond surrendering 60% of our marital assets, there was the alimony, the child support, the legal bills and so on. Avoid it—assuming that’s a possibility. For me, it wasn’t.
4. Don’t have a dog. I just got back from taking Cassie to the vet for her annual doggie checkup. Including shots and tests, the appointment cost me close to $300—which is one reason my credit card balance is so high. As I’ve written before, dogs are great companions that add immense richness to the tapestry of our lives. But as investments, they’re terrible.
5. Don’t own a house. Despite easing up recently, housing prices continue to be insane. Along with that overpriced house comes the equally insane cost of maintaining it. Even tiny houses are getting ridiculously expensive.
Of course, rents are also soaring, so if you want to be a super-saver, consider living out of your car—if you can afford one.
6. Don’t get sick and don’t get old. Last year, I made my first trip to the body-parts store to get a new joint. I needed to replace my creaky, arthritic left hip. Even with a good-quality medical plan, I still burned through thousands of dollars to cover my deductible and copayments.
There’s a good reason all the super-savers I read about are young. They don’t have to worry about all this getting-older stuff.
7. Don’t travel or have fun. This is critical. If you want to accumulate enough money to retire early, you can’t waste any hard-earned money on vacations, dinners at nice restaurants, tickets to Broadway shows or the opera, or any other frivolous stuff. Put off all the fun until you’ve stepped away from the working world, at which point you can finally relax and enjoy yourself. Until your body starts falling apart.
There you have it. Bottom line: if you want to be a super-saver, all you need to do is stop living. Give it a shot and you might find yourself profiled on a podcast. I’m looking forward to hearing all about you.
James Kerr led global communications, public relations and social media for a number of Fortune 500 technology firms before leaving the corporate world to pursue his passion for writing and storytelling. His debut book, “The Long Walk Home: How I Lost My Job as a Corporate Remora Fish and Rediscovered My Life’s Purpose,” was published in 2022 by Blydyn Square Books. Jim blogs at PeaceableMan.com. Follow him on Twitter @JamesBKerr and check out his previous articles.
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Enjoyed the piece. I didn’t find the “gentle satire” objectionable at all. I think it’s true and communicates something valuable. As others have suggested, I’ve learned to separate the FI from the RE. I think retiring early is fine, but idealizing it as some in the FIRE movement do IMO is quite problematic.
Thanks James. I hope your didn’t hurt yourself placing your tongue so far into you’re cheek!
…your…
Great Article. I consider retiring early as meaning 55 or 60. Anything before that seems like dropping out of life, especially if you have to give up much of the pleasurable things in life like a wife, dog, vacations, nice house, nice car, restaurants.
I admire the work that Humble Dollar puts out consistently and I very much look forward to bi-weekly email hitting my inbox. Much of what is shared is incredibly thoughtful. Kudos to all the participants.
In my opinion, the (recent) FIRE bashing tone is misguided both here and in Richard Quinn’s recent rant. So to borrow from Richard Quinn’s recent post – I will share my First 2023 Rant:
There is a rainbow or spectrum of participants in the FIRE movement as there is in much of life itself. Yes, there are hardcore extremists that squeeze every last possible dollar into savings. Yes, there are people who advocate being singularly focusing on financial independence and dropping put of the W2 workforce at a very young age (30’s, 40’s). These folks make for great press headlines and are passionately discussed by folk like us. The extremes always do regardless of the topic.
However, I find that the population of people that make up the FIRE movement as a whole to be more of a bell curve of very thoughtful advocates with the majority being, by definition near the center of the bell curve. Overall these are mindful folk who are redefining success in a way that challenges our traditional definition of what a successful path through life looks like. They want “enough” but do not wish to remain on the hedonic treadmill for 45+ years only to die with the most toys or unspendable money in their investment accounts. I consider myself to be a part of the FIRE movement having retired at age 56 after a great career which I thoroughly enjoyed. I may be “Old FIRE” but I am enjoying my financial independence and all the comes with it at a younger age than most.
I implore those who want to better understand the FIRE movement to learn more and not be limited to viewing the extremes as the norm.
Yes. I’ve not understood the dislike of the FIRE movement. I’m on a few forums and it is pretty interesting to see how it works for different people. And how some travel way more than I even want to do.
I’m probably in the middle between the “old guys” who seem to be very dedicated to their work and company and the young FIRE guys who seem to not care at all.
I would count 55 as retiring “early” , since most don’t do it. And since I’m only starting at 45, I probably can’t count as FIRE, but the principles are helping my family plan better than we would have otherwise.
I’m thinking age 56 is not FIRE. It’s pretty close to normal retirement among all types of government workers. 😎.
As you will note my rant was about the extreme who give a rosy picture and claim to be retired in their 30s when they are not actually retired. I’m still looking, but have yet to find anyone using FIRE that lives a lifestyle that would be acceptable to even the most frugal among us who is actually retired. I guess they exist but where?
Hi Richard – I want you to know that I enjoy your posts as much as any that I read anywhere. In fact, I am very excited when you share new material. Anything I share is with the utmost of respect as you are a far better writer and likely way wiser than I ever will be.
I understand that you (and James) were writing about an extreme slice of the FIRE movement. And for what it is worth, I do believe that such an extreme path misses out much of what life has to offer in terms of rewarding worthwhile work and likely understates longevity risks to an extreme.
I do disagree that FIREing at age 56 excludes a couple from being considered a part of the Financial Independence, Retire Early movement. We are normal folk who raised three sons on a single income in corporate America, saved prudently, invested aggressively but wisely, planned our butts off and were VERY fortunate in life (yep, lucky as heck to be healthy, educated, etc). We also have a grasp on what “Enough” is (gotta love Jack Bogle).
I could be wrong but I think that we embody very much the principles of the FIRE movement.
If you’re looking for a wider spectrum of FIRE folks, and not just the extremes you’ve written about, here’s a link to explore…
https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. As you suggest, our reaction to the FIRE movement may depend on how we choose to define it.
I think some of the comments and criticism related to this article are unfair and not justified.
A movement -if that what it really is – that seeks and joys publicity, even promoted in some cases, should be put in the spotlight light and examined.
FIRE is not retirement in most cases, its dropping out of full time employment. To meet its stated objectives – still largely untested over many years like a retirement – requires a unique and in some cases a laughable lifestyle. If that is acceptable so be it, enjoy, but be forthright in explaining it. And if you are running a blog, deal honestly with all questions, don’t ignore ones you don’t like.
I’m wondering how $1 million at 38 years old is enough money to retire.
I’m 38 years old. I respect a lot of what the FIRE movement teaches and anyone who’s striving for FIRE. For myself, my spouse and I won’t be able to retire any time soon, but I do appreciate some FIRE principles and think those have rubbed off on me in a positive way.
But I don’t agree when some of the FIRE bloggers paint a picture that “anyone can do this.”
At the same time, I don’t agree that “no one can do this without an extreme lifestyle that harms yourself or your family,” which is a sentiment that has appeared on this site from time to time.
Still, I’m not offended by either camp, and I appreciate hearing criticisms of the FIRE movement. I understand that some would appreciate more nuanced and balanced articles written on the subject, but articles like this get you thinking, and I feel that’s a good thing.
It can’t be done without a significant change in lifestyle that most people would find unworkable. I don’t say it would harm family, but very different. Besides rarely does RE actually mean RETIRE in the traditional sense.
I don’t think I even heard of FIRE until finding this website. I have no thoughts either for or against the FIRE folks, but I’m sure some of the principals would have been beneficial to me in my younger days. I’m 62 so I’m not sure the FIRE principles will do me much good at this point. We (my wife and I) live pretty simply and have diligently saved over the past 40+ years. It’s not meant as a criticism, but I’m curious as to how the couple managed to bank a million dollars in a decade. Is it investments and appreciation or cash set aside? Over any 10 year period my wife and I (with 2 kids) may have made a little over $100k together in gross pay on average, so it’s hard for me to fully grasp how it was done without details.
I suspect most of the FIRE movement is bogus…”living well is the best revenge”.
I was actually inspired by some of the FIRE blogs I used to read. It helped me realize saving upwards of 50% of my income was possible. I didn’t save that much for very long (about two years) but it made a huge difference in my overall financial success.
I never felt like I ‘stopped living’ during the years I was a super saver. What I realized was how much living I could do for very little money. I became a much better cook. I read lots of books. I spent time writing–something I hadn’t done in years. And I had one or two dogs the entire time I was saving all that money.
I did live in a small (700 square feet) apartment during those years. It had very few amenities but it was in a good neighborhood. I drove a used car with very few niceties (the biggest ‘upgrade’ it had was power windows), but it was reliable and didn’t cost much to insure.
Every lifestyle comes with trade-offs.
All very true, Kristine. I’ve learned alot from the FIRE movement as well. There are simple, straightforward ways to save money without going overboard. It’s a balance that I am still learning …
One of my kids is an MD who will be raking in more in his first year of practice than I made as a senior executive well up into the six figure club. Another of my grown kids will be living in an old cargo van they’ve made into an RV with her husband doing remote work and traveling wherever there are roads. Two wildly disparate lifestyles but who is to say which is preferable? I look at supers savers and FOMO spenders in a similar fashion, choose your life and own it. I’m mostly like you, retired slightly early, largely frugal except spending lavishly on the things that light us up.
Jim, I enjoyed this piece, but as a fellow communications professional (PR now, and before that TV news), I’ve learned the hard way that gentle satire like this doesn’t always come over in a blog or post. As you’ve noted below, some readers took this commentary a bit more literally than you intended. I’m not big on emojis, but the equivalent of a well-placed wink might have helped get the message across.
That said, I can state with absolutely zero irony that the best financial decision I ever made (not to mention mental health decision) was #2!
Points well taken, Mike!
I don’t get all the angst about the FIRE folks. If you don’t like their blogs, don’t read them – I don’t. If you don’t want to retire early, don’t – but I did, at 53, even though I didn’t start saving seriously until after my first divorce in my late 30s. (That was when I (born in England) fully realized that corporate pensions in the US didn’t have COLAs.) I have now been retired from my megacorp for over 22 years, and can reasonably expect to last at least another 18. I am not eating dog food, either.
Let’s see: I am currently single, but twice divorced, I don’t have kids (but helped raise four step-kids), no pets, good employee medical coverage followed by Medicare plus Medigap. And I have certainly had a lot of fun traveling extensively (before ill-health and Covid). Travel is only expensive if you choose for it to be.
Great points. Divorce doesn’t have to be a showstopper when it comes to saving money or retiring early. As I write in the forthcoming My Financial Journey that Jonathan edited, I had to start over in my financial journey when I went through a financially devastating divorce and was able to rebuild my savings through diligent investments. Definitely possible. And yes, inexpensive travel is very possible. I’m working on doing it now.
Sorry about the divorce. I was lucky with mine, very lucky with the second which could have been considerably more expensive (and I’m female). Good luck with the travel! (Trains, small local hotels, and FF miles… )
I really like Humble Dollar but I’m afraid that I will soon have to modify that statement to past tense. There’s an extraoridary snarkiness toward younger people on this website. I do not say that it is from everone–in fact it has mostly come from one very frequent author and ubiquitous commentator, whose writing often moves beyond snarkiness to outright contempt–but I am afraid that this general tone appears to be becoming more general.
Johnathan, I implore you to use your editorial discretion to shift the conversation in a way that this site is not only for boomers. If from nothing other than a business perspective, that can’t be a good long term business model. And from the point of view of site philosophy, I believe these attempts at satire and ridicule or draining all the humility from “humble” dollar. I value the humble part. It’s a big part of why I started visiting. It’s slipping away.
As for this piece, which concludes, “There you have it. Bottom line: if you want to be a super-saver, all you need to do is stop living,” does this make the internet a wiser, more humble place? At the very best, it is simply wrong. At the worst, it is a piece designed to pile on to people who have different values and choose to live their life differently than most of the authors/audience of this website. It sure ain’t humble.
Thanks for the heartfelt comments. Jim’s article is obviously tongue-in-cheek, but I wouldn’t consider it snarky. I’m not inclined to be judgmental of super-savers or, for that matter, anybody else. If you aren’t harming others, why should I care how you lead your life? Indeed, in the past, I’ve had kind words to say about the FIRE folks and about the generations that follow mine:
https://humbledollar.com/2018/11/fanning-the-flames/
https://humbledollar.com/2022/07/changed-by-the-trip/
That said, I do feel FIRE adherents get a lot of publicity, but they’re rare birds — high-income earners who can save extraordinary sums over short periods and then arrange their finances so they can retire early with a very low cost of living. It’s not a model that works for the vast majority of workers. In fact, if everybody retired at 40 and milked maximum benefit from government largess, our economy would quickly unravel. If, as editor, I’ve made a mistake here, it’s allowing HumbleDollar’s pages to be consumed by a phenomenon that simply isn’t relevant to the site’s readership or the world at large.
Thank you for taking the time to reply, Jonathan. You call FIRE “a phenomenon that simply isn’t relevant to the site’s readership or the world at large.” I couldn’t agree more. The point I’m trying to make is really not at all about FIRE though. It’s about the self-satisfaction and the ridicule of others that is increasingly seeping into this website’s culture. There are some columns and authors whose work I really value here; there are still some humble writers at Humble Dollar. But there is also a growing body of “they save too much” and “they save too little” paired with “look at us, we figured it all out so now let’s laugh at the others.” The others are easy targets, I guess, because they aren’t the kind of people who are very likely to be here, because they aren’t the kind of people who could feel very welcome here. They are almost always younger and often poorer. Strangely, the worst crime in the eyes of some writing on this website, it seems, is for one to be younger and richer, especially if one aquired that wealth by saving half or more of their income. Anyway, I always look forward to your pieces. I just wish that more of the discussion here could be guided by the principles of humility that your articles always reflect, and upon which I had always believed this website was founded.
Don’t forget to not buy Starbucks. Apparently if you buy their coffee you can’t save any money!
I never understand knocking the FIRE movement. While we are not frugal (spent 144k last year) we have learned many things from the popular writers/bloggers. I was surprised at work recently when a young person mentioned buying rental real estate after following Mr Money Mustache. While I find him too crass, he has changed this young person’s life. I think in America we have a much greater problem than people saving too much, shouldn’t we be more focused on the 99% that are not doing the right things rather than this small group of extremists.. Criticizing the FIRE movement is like obese people knocking a new diet. Yes, the diet maybe extreme but isn’t there an elephant in the room? Sorry bad pun…..
I got the point of this satire essay knocking the FIRE movement. In “pursuit of Happiness”, there is an equilibrium in frugality. Money we save is to serve us and put us in proximity of “Happiness”. It’s great to achieve FIRE but if you are miserable getting to be FIRE, is it worth it ?
I haven’t met anyone who is really miserable trying to achieve FIRE but I understand they are out there. I have however met many who are steeped in student debt, buy two nice cars every few years etc. I even have a brother in-law that is a very successful sports announcer who at 48yo just asked me what a 401K is…… I think a little bit of what these FIRE people are espousing is needed. Of course, though in moderation. Remember, most of the people reading even this blog are abnormal compared to the majority. Anything that can help people think about saving/investing is worthwhile even if it is extreme at times.
Really not a goal of many nor should it be as it’s very difficult if not impossible for 99% of us. Everyone should just follow the basics of Save and Invest with index funds to achieve a nice retirement nest egg at age 65 or so.
FIRE to me is just silly talk
My family had job loss and financial issues from 2014-2018. We went from earning a healthy six-figure income to a low five-figure income that was sporadic. One of our dear friends gifted us a book on Amazon about frugal living. He also sent me a link to the Money Mustache blog. I went through every blog post. I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that someone with a wife and child lived on 25k a year near Denver. Our friend retired in his early 40s. He told us it was possible, even with a middle or low income.
We cut down our spending and took a hard look at our priorities. We just substituted some things with others. We started actually learning about how to invest what we had saved. We stopped panicking. In 2018 our financial situation improved a lot. We starting earning a high income again. For the past five years we have implemented a lot of insights from the FIRE movement.
I am suspicious when it comes to what some of that these bloggers including MMM post, and am turned off by the constant pushing of products and affiliate links. However, some of the lessons from there were very valuable. We no longer worry about money and can retire if we want to. It was not “silly talk”. It was life-changing for us. We live frugally, but never feel deprived.
Love it. I want to retire early, 55. But I’ve slowly made a deliberate, conscious decision the last few years. My kids just turned 15 and 13. I will do #7. End of story. If I work an extra year or more at a workplace that treats me and pays me well, oh well. I’m certainly not going to feel sorry for myself, many have it much worse. My family is providing much joy and the time seems to be flying by as they are getting older.
Enjoy your time with those kids, Juan. It goes fast and it’s the best time of life, IMHO.
Jim, I follow many of these so-called FIRE folks and while you would think your list would be the answer in reality for most it is not.
Most are married – two incomes helps with the wealth accumulation and many were high income earners before their quest to be frugal.
Many have children. Most own a house although some do not, but they are constantly traveling to low cost areas within and outside the US.
Many travel extensively and they all claim to have lots of fun. Several I follow have dogs, cats and one has chickens.
Because they keep income low they benefit from many government subsidies, especially health care.
The thing is most are not actually retired, they are earning money in some way, most live quite frugally and would not be the way average Americans want to live.
Some are basically living off the grid.
Your #6 is the most valid observation IMO. That is, life over thirty or forty years has not been tested by most of these folks. One couple has been FIRE for thirty years, but live like nomads and spend a lot of time making money and generating publicity.
I also do not think those generating publicity regarding their lifestyle are open and honest.
You devote a lot of time and energy to criticizing both the FIRE adherents and those who you think fail to save enough for retirement. Does one group bother you more than the other?
The thing that bothers me most is lack of truth, full disclosure and misleading others which is wide spread in FIRE and those who claim they can’t save.
I’d like to find a FIRE person who retired in their 30s or 40s and is living entirely off investments and will do so unchanged for the next 40-50 years. And who lives a lifestyle even close to what is acceptable to the average person.
if such a person exists and they find their life acceptable so be it and enjoy, but don’t claim it to be what it isn’t.
“And who lives a lifestyle even close to what is acceptable to the average person.”
There are many of us who don’t find that to be a good standard to base one’s judgements at all.
I live below my means and give and save more than anyone I know personally. My kids are comfortable and is surprised to find out that others considered our income poor. I started a new job last year which doubled our income and we are giving and saving basically all of the increase.
I’ve never understood why some people like to spend so much money; it just seems a waste to me. We go on plenty of vacations (my new employer only offers 5 weeks, so that is an adjustment), eat lots of tasty food, have plenty of extras.
Whenever I’ve tried to help people with their expenses, they usually get embarrassed when they find out they earn way more than my family of 9 does and still are completely strapped with debt with no way out due to their super high expenses.
I think we need more of the FIRE folks to “preach” savings vs spending. The average person spends everything (or more) than they earn, and deserve the older guys’ support rather than ridicule.
Great points about the FIRE folks. I didn’t hear about the movement until about 10 years ago and by then it was too late — I had kids and college bills. lol
I’m a little ashamed that it wasn’t until the end of number 5 that I began to realize this was a “tongue-in-cheek” article.
Probably my fault as the writer, Steve 🙁
You are an excellent writer.