Nostr Web Client

When I started out on my self-directed journey to better understand personal finance about 6 years ago (admittedly late in the game), I quickly came to align with the “Financial Independence Retire Early” #FIRE movement.

What I most appreciated is that the FIRE movement provides a narrative and lifestyle framework by which to live and consider one’s relationship to money. In #Bitcoin parlance, that framework is “low time preference”. It includes learning how to progressively spend less than one earns; how to find everyday life hacks; and, ultimately, how to make the most scarce resource of all (one’s time) the goal of living and investing via early retirement. Live life, make life beautiful, one could say.

Fast forward. I’m now four years into my journey with #Bitcoin #BTC and I see a clear alignment between FIRE and Bitcoin on multiple levels. These include: smart investing (longer-term ROI); low time preference; and, individual sovereignty over one’s resources, decisions and time. It couldn’t be more glaring.

It therefore puzzles me that more FIRE adherents and content creators have not tuned into the importance of Bitcoin. My theory is that FIRE has established a firm foothold already and is heavily influenced by experiences from the 40+ year history of “how to” in a low interest rates, with emphasis on housing financialization and dividend investing.

I believe that the core values of low time preference and self-sovereignty remain intact, but that the majority of FIRE adherents have fallen prey to the common misperception of Bitcoin as a “risky and speculative” asset and have conflated Bitcoin and crypto.

At some point, this will change and a sufficient number of FIRE adherents will come to appreciate the numerous layers of alignment between FIRE and Bitcoin. That essentially reflects my own personal finance thesis/position related to Bitcoin (BTC).

Now, when some of these FIRE adherents who ALSO care about human rights, fairness, global development and generally building a better world come to understand the macro political, economic and civilizational importance of Bitcoin…watch out!

If you are a FIRE adherent but haven’t yet begun studying Bitcoin, I highly recommend you take that step. It’ll take some time and work. It can be a bit disorienting at times. But you’re used to that, I assume, if you’ve already taken steps to explore and implement a FIRE plan.

Best wishes, and one love y’all!

Chad Lupkes 1y ago

"FIRE" has been coopted by influencers and content creators who need to sell their ideas to others to keep making money. I have been absolutely disgusted by the hype that has come from the concept, and my tolerance is very low as a result.

Financial Independence means recognizing our INTERdependence, it doesn't mean being able to save enough money to go live on a beach or in an ivory tower while making videos trying to attract people to THIS investment or THAT new thing to buy to "would you like to learn more". (in the voice of Starship Troopers)

Retire Early means being able to make more of our own choices. It doesn't mean telling the rest of the world to jump off a cliff. Retirement means being able to do what we want without worrying as much about the financial side of our lives.

Our financial world consists of Income, Expenses, Assets and Debts. The goal of savings, investing, "FIRE", or whatever is to build our collection of assets that generate an income large enough so that the capital we need can come from our assets instead of working for someone else doing what we might not want to do. That kind of collection of assets takes a lot of time to build, there are no shortcuts. Bitcoin is not a get rich quick scheme, it is a way to accumulate capital in a way that cannot be debased by incompetent governments or corrupt businesses.

If advocates of FIRE are not promoting and using Bitcoin, then they are just encouraging people to step over and onto each other while trying to reach the bottom rung of a ladder. It's not helpful at all.

sorry to go onto a rant under your note, but FIRE as a movement really bothers me. It's like the people making the money from it are the only ones that matter.

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

Scott Wolfe 1y ago

I appreciate where you’re coming from. There are different segments to FIRE community and yes, some are simply self-interested and just about getting ahead and to that beach life at almost any cost. Same could be said for many groups or movements though. I also think there’s a very sizeable portion of the FIRE community that is composed of people who look at the world we occupy, driven by debt, employment bereft of meaning, and creeping nihilism and are saying “no”, I choose a different path. Influencers pushing FIRE are often looking to monetize that pursuit and we should question incentives…but same could be said for Bitcoin content and influencers. All said, I think the vast majority of Bitcoin and FIRE adherents and content creators are net positives, especially because both are still a relatively small portion of societies at large. Therefore, there’s still a large market to educate and get on board. They’re not simply trying to capture and gain financial benefit from an already captive audience. My two sats on this.

Chad Lupkes 1y ago

After my experience in the dividend hype community with so many people trying to monetize on Youtube, I may be a big jaded. I looked at doing it during the pandemic when I was on furlough from my job, and realized the only way to do it is by trading my honor and values in exchange for clicks. Thankfully my job called me back before I had to go down that road.

I believe the best way we can encourage the growth of real community is by focusing on circular economies in areas of the globe that are hurting the most. Let the FIRE burn, and let's work on spreading the word that there is an alternative monetary system, and alternative currency, and an alternative sharing system that treats people with respect.

Scott Wolfe 1y ago

Great points! I too started to go down the content creation path with FIRE in my early moments, trying to figure out how I could turn it into my “side hustle”. I never got far and quickly pulled the plug. It didn’t feel right and I realized that my interest in having a side hustle that could be monetized had taken precedence over my ability to actually share something meaningful and of value. I’m glad that I discovered Bitcoin not too long after and the proverbial rabbit hole have me new adventures to pursue!

Chad Lupkes 1y ago

I still work on building the dividend community, and I'm slowly inviting them over to Nostr and away from FB & X. It's hard to get their attention on something new, though.