There has been a steady increase in the mainstream media coverage for Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE), especially here in the UK.  

While it’s a really good thing that our message is being spread to more people, this also brings a lot of frustration with it. Almost every time I have seen FIRE covered in the press, there appear to be severe misunderstandings about the principles by which us ‘followers’ live. 

The most recent example of this was an episode of Money Box Live, aired on 6^th November 2019. Money Box Live is a radio programme on BBC Radio 4, covering all areas of money.

Guests on this episode included Barney from The Escape Artist, Faith from Much More With Less and others, including a special appearance by the man himself, Mr Money Mustache! Barney just happens to be one of my favourite FIRE bloggers! Having seen this line-up I was really hopeful that we would be seeing a true reflection of the FIRE movement without the usual misrepresentations.  

Disappointingly, I was wrong. Despite Barney et al’s best efforts (he did a really good job of explaining FIRE in simple terms), there were still some misleading views shared in the show. 

Don’t get me wrong, the show was fantastic. The bonus content available online (I didn’t get this when first listening on the radio!) was particularly good, with each contributor giving their FIRE ‘top tip’. The show had some really great examples of how FIRE has helped people in various different situations. But the presence of these lingering negative views really put a downer on the listening experience for me.  

This experience feels familiar, having also read other mainstream media coverage of FIRE. The comments sections on newspaper articles seem to be a particular source of comedic counter-arguments! 

What Are They Saying? 

You might be wondering why I’m so frustrated by the views shown by FIRE ‘sceptics’ in these media articles. Surely it’s good to get both sides of the coin and develop your own conclusion?  

YES! I couldn’t agree more. FIRE isn’t for everyone and it’s really important to point out why. 

The trouble is these people are throwing false problems in the way for those who could potentially be interested in changing their ways for the better. Many of the ‘issues’ they have with FIRE simply aren’t issues at all when you understand the core principles. It doesn’t help when the presenter seems to be a sceptic too, with numerous derogatory comments.

Put yourself in the position of someone who has never heard of FIRE. The basics are put forward in a well thought-out manner by someone like Barney. All good so far – I’m interested! 

Immediately following this, a FIRE ‘sceptic’ pipes up with a multitude of reasons why it isn’t achievable for all but the highest income earners. Most people will simply switch off at this point and assume it’s not applicable to them! 

I really hope that the media coverage does encourage some new faces to discover FIRE. I’m really grateful to people like Barney for putting their ‘fame’ to use and appearing in the media. It’s not an easy thing to expose yourself to!  

But with these kinds of road blocks thrown in their way, I have no doubt countless people are being put off before they even start. This is a real shame, as we could all benefit from learning the basics, even if we don’t pursue ‘hard-core’ FIRE.  

To illustrate some of my frustrations I’m going to look at some of the points used by FIRE ‘sceptics’, particularly on this episode of Money Box Live, to suggest it isn’t possible for the vast majority of people. 

Point 1 – Your Pot Won’t Last Long Enough 

This opinion seems to stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of the principles on which FIRE is based. 

The point seems to be that, if you’re retiring at a very young age, your savings won’t be able to last the 70+ years your retirement could last.  One of the guests on Money Box Live stated that it was unrealistic to expect your money to last even 30 or 40 years.

On the face of it, this seems like a valid point. But to those who understand FIRE basics, it is a complete falsehood. 

Simply put, you are considered to be financially independent when you have accumulated 25x your annual spending. This allows you to withdraw 4% income indefinitely, as covered in the Trinity Study and subsequent analysis. We went into quite a lot of detail on this here and here.

Tools like cFIRESIM are particularly useful in this regard. The Trinity study itself was based on a more ‘traditional’ retirement length, but the numbers have since been ran for longer time periods and it doesn’t change the outcome much, as brilliantly explained by Barney himself here. 

While it could be argued that 4% is aggressive, the opposite case can also be made! Most of us who are pursuing FIRE are aiming to accumulate more than 25x our spending before pulling the plug on our work life. Working up to say 30x spending will give us that extra safety blanket. 

This means that our savings should (obviously there are never any guarantees) last a lifetime. Even if they don’t, most FIRE minded people also aim to maintain some form of income in ‘retirement’. We tend to be driven, creative people and most of those who have already retired have continued to earn in some form or another. Being financially independent simply gives them the freedom to pick and choose what they work on. They can chase the things they are passionate about, rather than simply taking the best paying opportunities. 

To suggest that your savings pot won’t last long enough implies a simple misunderstanding of the above. While we are all aware of the unpredictable nature of the stock market, we have put fairly robust plans in place to negate these risks.  

Point 2 – Extreme Frugality Isn’t Fun 

This next point really frustrates me. It simply isn’t the aim for most in the FIRE community. 

Don’t get me wrong, there are clearly those who are particularly frugal and manage to reduce their expenses to extreme levels. These stories will always make the headlines much more than a more ‘ordinary’ story like that of me and Miss Way.  

For most of us, the focus is on mindful spending and not wasting money on unnecessary things. We all still spend on the things that we get genuine value from and are important to us. 

For some, this settles at an incredibly low level of spending as they find they don’t desire many ‘things’. For others, their spending will be much higher and FIRE could take much longer to achieve. The point is, we’re all on our own journey and do what makes us happy.  

Here at A Way to Less, we’ve actually found that our happiness has INCREASED as we’ve reduced our spending in many areas. We get more value out of the things we do buy as we mention here. This is a point that is sadly lacking in most of the media coverage I’ve seen of FIRE.  

This lifestyle allows us to be much more environmentally friendly, producing significantly less waste. This point was highlighted well by Faith in the Money Box Live show. Unfortunately it didn’t quite seem to sink in with others on the show! 

Point 3 – It’s Impossible to Save 75% on a Low Income 

It would be very hard to disagree with this statement.  

However, it’s another misleading argument. Just because you can’t achieve a 75% savings rate, that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from the basic FIRE principles. In fact, on a low income, being financially aware is probably even more important! 

If it was simply a case of either saving 75% or not pursuing FIRE at all, there would certainly be a much smaller group of us! Miss Way and I are nowhere near achieving 75% savings rates.  

The point is, the journey can be as long or as short as you need. If it takes you 30 years to achieve financial independence, at least you’re in a better position than if you hadn’t saved at all! 

FIRE isn’t simply an all or nothing approach. Most of us will not retire in our 30s like the extreme examples who make the headlines. This isn’t a problem, it’s just a matter of forging your own path and finding a route to FI that works for you. 

Point 4 – You’re Giving Up the Benefits of Employment 

This point was again made on the Money Box Live episode. It was suggested that you would miss out on the benefits a job brings, for example: 

• Company pension scheme 
• Life insurance 
• Sick pay 

Firstly, if you’re financially independent, why would you need to save into a company pension scheme? You already have enough money to sustain your retirement. You no longer have an income from a job. There’s no reason to contribute any more money to a pension scheme. Am I missing the point here?! 

If you require life insurance after FIRE, you can simply pay for a life insurance policy. This can be included in your spending forecasts. Again, no issue here! 

The point about sick pay really made me laugh. If you do hit a period of ill-health, how will you manage without sick pay?! YOU’RE FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT!!! You don’t need to work. While it would really suck to be sick, you can afford to be off work indefinitely – that’s the whole point of FIRE!! 

Even if you haven’t yet achieved full FIRE, being on this path would make you much more adaptable to this sort of situation. We encourage saving an emergency fund (usually 6 months of expenses) which would help you to get through a period of ill-health. 

This is particularly relevant for the self-employed like Miss Way. They don’t even get sick pay so an emergency fund is vital! 

A Cloud of Negativity 

Above all, these points are fundamentally not good reasons to totally ignore the FIRE movement.  

Yes, you may disagree with the 4% rule and prefer a more conservative approach. You might not want to cut your spending so far that you can save 75% of your earnings. Maybe you don’t even want to quit work at all. But fundamentally, we can all learn something from the sound financial approach encouraged by FIRE.  

Everyone can benefit from at least some of FIRE’s principles. Take emergency funds as an example. If you can name a single person who wouldn’t benefit from having a safety net of roughly 6 months of expenses, I will be amazed! Unfortunately, I feel that many people will be missing out on learning about these principles because of the negativity surrounding a lot of FIRE related media. 

FIRE combines a sliding scale of possible routes to achieving financial independence. It can be applied to any situation which is what makes this movement so great. We’re such a wide range of people, from incredibly high earners to those on minimal incomes. 

As Barney mentioned on Money Box Live, Bear Grylls is essentially FI already – he could survive with a retirement fund of £0 as he can live off cockroaches and worms and builds his own shelters!!

You can provide extreme examples at both ends of the scale, but there’s a whole array of us pursuing our own version of FIRE out here. Don’t be put off from joining us! 

In Summary 

If the principles of FIRE don’t apply to you, then don’t pursue full-on FIRE – simples! But please don’t criticise those who do. We can all learn something from the FIRE movement and its core principles.  

Surely those newcomers who hear about FIRE in the mainstream media deserve the chance to explore it themselves and see which aspects they can apply to their own lives. Simply slamming the door in their faces with false negatives seems a real shame. 

Hopefully we see some more positive coverage in the coming months, but I won’t be holding my breath! 

What are your thoughts on the coverage you’ve seen in mainstream media? Do you share my frustrations? I think it’s great that people like Barney are willing to put themselves out there. I just wish it was handled slightly differently by those in charge. 

Above all, let’s use this as motivation to keep on doing what we do. We’ll continue to live our best lives and hope that others find out about our ‘ways’, whether that’s through stumbling upon our blogs, hearing the message through mainstream media or otherwise. Don’t let the negativity put you off. 

Keep on FIREing!!