A Love Letter to the FIRE Movement

Before I knew anything about the FIRE movement I was just a nervous gal with dreams for a better future.

Picture this: 22-year-old Darcy is sitting at a reception desk in a Boston neighborhood, offering nervous smiles to office visitors as her bank account numbers glare at her on the screen. She doesn’t get much work to do beyond sitting there; she knows she’ll have a hard time finding a better job if she doesn’t get more responsibility.

And yet, no one gives it to her.

The numbers don’t stop glaring.

She obsessively reads personal finance forums, scrabbling for some trace of money wisdom. She’s read up on generalized advice, sure. The Internet is full of general financial advice:

• “Debt is bad!”
• “Make a budget!”
• “Don’t fall for scams!”

Thing is, this stuff was too general and doesn’t help her particular situation. I’d still trawl these forums looking for gold, but had yet to show much other than tiny nugget pieces.

Then, maybe three months into her job of nervous smiles and glaring numbers, she reads through a short list of related forums. “Eat cheap! Be frugal! Buy a good car!”

And then she read the next line:
“Financial independence.”

Huh, she thought to herself. That sounds like a good thing.

She clicked on that link and was immediately transported. Here is where I step into my own.

In the blink of an eye I am on one of the top floors in Boston’s Financial District, staring out the window at the harbor as the morning sun dapples across the surface. Looking down at myself I notice I’m wearing name-brand clothes – is this shirt silk? – on a thinner body. I’ve never seen this stuff before; my wardrobe definitely doesn’t include these leather boots and gorgeous skirt.

Blinking rapidly, I look around to get my bearings; easier said than done after dealing with sci-fi shenanigans. Right next to me is a sleek white laptop that definitely isn’t my clunky brick of a computer at home. Yet there’s a sticky note on it with my handwriting on it. Moving closer to the screen I see it’s open to the budgeting page I use to track my spending. I’m logged in to my account, confirming that this computer belongs to me.

 Okay. That’s good to know.

I happen to glance at the screen one last time before closing it, then do a double take. See, I know for a fact I had $5,000 to my name as of this morning. Nothing more, nothing less. I’d remember that glare anywhere.

There is no glare here: instead, it’s a cheerful regard letting me know I am now worth over a hundred thousand dollars.

There’s only one question my stunned brain can muster up:

HOW DID I GET HERE????!!!!!

The FIRE Movement Put Me There

Okay, so, like, I wasn’t immediately transported to that alternate reality. It took about three years before nervous-Darcy transformed into the present-day Super Darcy you all know and love. Please note the emphasis on the “super”. While you’re at it, quote me on this next part: the FIRE movement gave me a better home, got me a better job, grew my wealth to six figures, kept my spending under control, lowered my anxiety, fixed my diet, and cleared my skin.

Whew. If I had a farm I could add “AND watered my crops!” but hey, I left the Midwest for a reason. 😉

Seeing that written out seems disingenuous, like all that transformation was really thanks to a random god or genie I ran into after work. In the end, though, I didn’t need divine or supernatural intervention to reach a thriving status. No, what I needed was a guideline for navigating this capitalistic 21^st century consumerism society we find ourselves in. And in said capitalistic society, that guideline has to revolve around understanding money.

Before I go on, some basics about the FIRE movement: the word “FIRE” is an acronym for “Financial Independence [and] Retiring Early”. It formed around sharing the strategies needed to reach financial independence, aka “not needing to work to survive for the rest of your life”. The big hook to FIRE was that idea of early retirement. Who wants to wait until they’re 65 to maybe retire when you can do it at fifty? Forty? Thirty???

This was, in essence, Personal Finance 2.0. And I very much needed it.

By the time I stumbled on the FIRE movement it had more popularity than ever before. That meant I could start learning about it when more voices were chiming in on how this was even possible. In the early 2010s (and in 2016, too, can’t deny that) it held a majority of pasty tech guys making outrageous salaries and deciding what to do with it. My entrance to the scene coincided with more voices on how to do this on an average salary, or how to do it when you’re not a Google developer.

And all of these voices focused on one thing: demystifying money management and promoting financial literacy.

For the first time ever, I was getting a financial education that actually went beyond “save money!” and “get a good job!” The start was not without its curveballs as I painstakingly figured out what terms like “tax-advantaged” and “VTSAX” meant. I had been discouraged from math after terrible teachers throughout middle and high school, so by the time I graduated college my eyes immediately bounced off any page that included a percentage symbol. Those early days often found me rereading the same paragraph over and over, because the last ten times I read it I didn’t grasp what it was conveying with those numbers. It took a month or two of lurking these forums and other blogs to slowly reconfigure my brain to accept numbers instead of automatically shutting down.

While understanding the numbers and math was crucial, I was also buoyed by the mix-ins of endless frugality tips. It wasn’t just about how to make a budget; it was how to spend less on specific items to put more towards what you love.

The FIRE movement, at its core, is about having you live your best life.

That changed me for the better. Before that I struggled hard with allowing myself to spend on anything. I thought struggle was inherent to my life and accepted I’d have to gasp and strain my way towards a nicer existence. The distant future had always been my motivation and strength to fuel my life. The FIRE movement not only brought those dreams more forcefully into focus, it lassoed that future and pulled it decades closer.

I learned how to best leverage living in Boston to spring myself into dizzying wealth. Although almost all of my possessions came to me secondhand, no one can tell I didn’t just buy them new. My stomach has never had so many daily vegetables and healthy proteins, despite my grocery bill covering less than $5 per day. Thanks to the better eating and clearer mind – which led to enough energy for exercise – I lost enough weight to warrant smaller clothes. These clothes came from thrift stores in super rich areas, leaving me with items that cost $100s of dollars new but cost me $6.50.

Best of all was teaching me how to understand investing. I’ll be the first to admit I am no master of the stock market, but then again I don’t have to be. Even the knowledge I do have has led to me earning a 13% return since 2017, which is when I first open an IRA and a taxable account.

I am so much smarter for sitting at the feet of the FIRE starters that came before me, and stress-free to boot. It gave me permission to build the life I want and move into my own place. While it’s not the cheapest place to live, it brings me unmeasured joy – a VERY important thing when you’re quarantining at home.

Where would I be without FIRE?

If I never clicked on that Financial Independence link, who knows what my life would look like. I don’t like to think about it too much as that’s a bleaker reality I dodged by chance. It definitely wouldn’t involve the incredible home I have, the job I hold, or the relationships I’ve forged since. Good god – over a thousand words into this and I haven’t even mentioned the relationships it’s brought. My inner circle is expanded across the country with others who I adore. Others that never hesitate to check in with me, make sure I’m doing well, and listen to me when I have something to share. Guess what: I met them through opening up about my finances and blogging all about it.

My heart is near to bursting with love. My confidence is at heights I’ve never reached before. I am at peace, all thanks to the wisdom shared about financial literacy. At twenty six years old I’m no longer nervous about my future; it’s secure, and it’s shining bright. There’s almost nothing that can compare when it came to impacting my life for the better.

I will forever be grateful to the FIRE movement for making all of this possible for me to use in my day-to-day life. Thank you to all of the content creators, supporters, and critics for making this badly-needed knowledge more and more accessible. And special kudos to you, 2016 Darcy, for plodding your way through the beginning stages of understanding FIRE. Thanks to you, 2020 Darcy is ablaze with joy.

Cover image credit: Siora Photography via Unsplash