{"id":11020,"date":"2025-01-26T11:31:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T17:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discover.com\/online-banking\/banking-topics\/?p=11020"},"modified":"2026-01-31T14:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T20:17:13","slug":"what-is-fire-retire-early-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discover.com\/online-banking\/banking-topics\/what-is-fire-retire-early-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you retire early with the FIRE movement?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For most people, the path to retirement is straightforward: Get a job, steadily progress in your career, and eventually retire sometime in your 60s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who are striving to reach financial\nfreedom as soon as possible, there\u2019s the FIRE movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the FIRE movement? Here, devotees of\nthis retire early movement break\ndown everything you need to know about this new approach to retirement, so that\nyou can decide whether or not it\u2019s right for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the FIRE movement?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

FIRE\u2014which stands for Financial Independence,\nRetire Early\u2014is a retire early movement\nthat\u2019s attracted a growing number of supporters. It has led many to rethink the\nconventional path to retirement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within the FIRE movement, the goal is to\nachieve financial independence. This involves living within one\u2019s means without\nhaving to rely on a regular full-time job to cover expenses. It could involve\nquitting your job completely and retiring early to pursue your passions while\nliving off investment income. It could also mean working only a part-time gig\nwhile maintaining a low-cost lifestyle and living off of savings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are lots of reasons that people \u201cpursue\nFIRE.\u201d For married couple Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung, it was the fear of\nburnout in their demanding engineering careers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shen and Leung wanted to protect themselves\nfrom the physical and psychological risks of overworking. They began reading\nbooks and blogs that described the retire\nearly movement. They applied the principles of FIRE (more on those\nbelow) to their lives as they worked and diligently saved. Eventually, they\nwere both able to quit their jobs and retire at the age of 31. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shen and Leung wrote a book about their tips for retiring early, which became an influential book in the FIRE movement. Today, they run a blog as they travel the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melanie Allen is hoping she can retire early, too. She still works her day job, but she\u2019s been carefully saving money. She\u2019s been documenting her own FIRE journey on her blog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI and others who pursue FIRE don\u2019t want to\nwork in the traditional nine-to-five job for 40 years and then have a\ntraditional retirement,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Allen and a growing FIRE community have rallied around the same basic tenets that underpin what the FIRE movement is and how FIRE works. While everyone\u2019s approach to FIRE is unique, there are principles that many in the retire early movement say can shorten the waiting period for retirement from decades to years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How does the FIRE retirement plan work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are a lot of tactics and strategies for pursuing FIRE. They are all more effective the earlier you start, Allen says. She was just about to turn 30 when she first learned of FIRE. She wishes she had begun her journey sooner. There would have been more time for her FIRE savings plan to grow through compound interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of age,\nyou can still apply these principles of the FIRE retirement plan to your own\nlife. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get\u2014and stay\u2014out of debt<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In order to avoid housing debt, Leung and Shen decided to avoid a mortgage. Instead, they put the money they had earmarked to buy a house toward their FIRE retirement plan while they continued to rent. They were then able to save large chunks of their paychecks until they had over a million dollars invested in the market. This money produced passive income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Debt is a financial obligation that can weigh down your personal\nbalance sheet. It can also be expensive if you carry a balance and have to pay\ninterest. If you find yourself carrying too much debt, Leung recommends that\nyou set up a repayment plan. This can help you get your finances back into\npositive territory as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spend meaningfully<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis movement is not about cutting your own hair and\nclipping coupons,\u201d Leung says. Instead, he says that people pursuing FIRE\nshould spend their money on what they truly value without guilt. They should\ndivert money away from things that don\u2019t matter to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allen agrees with this principle of the FIRE retirement plan. For example, she says that if you value treating yourself to dinner at nice restaurants, then you can avoid spending money on fast food. Instead, you can prepare inexpensive meals at home during the week. You can then use your extra cash to enjoy a special meal out over the weekend. (There are even ways you can save money eating out at your favorite restaurants<\/a>.)  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leung and Shen decided that the thousands of dollars they\nspent each year on travel was worth it to them. However, having a nice car in a\ncity like Toronto that has excellent public transit was not. <\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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People pursuing FIRE should spend their money on what they truly value without guilt. They should divert money away from things that don\u2019t matter to them.<\/p>\n