Approaching FIRE with a balanced mindset

I came across this article from The Globe and Mail the other day. The article profiled Jeremy Finney who retired five years ago at age 41. Soon 46, he is dealing with regrets about early retirement.

According to the article, Jeremy worked at IT and used to push himself to the edge – 70-hour work weeks, back-to-back meetings, working 50 hours straight without sleep. His typical work week meant he was leaving home at 4 AM on Monday to fly to Chicago and returning home late Friday.

The work was so demanding that Jeremy couldn’t take time off around Christmas and from time to time, he had to work through statutory holidays. His job was so stressful that he believes it may have contributed to his breakdown of his first marriage.

That certainly doesn’t sound like a good work-life balance. From the article, my impression was that Jeremy was focusing on earning a high income, saving as much money as he could, and crossing the FIRE finish line as early as possible. Spending quality time with his family and having an identity outside of work simply weren’t a priority. 

Since I work in high tech, I can relate to this high-pressure, high-demand situation. It’s not unusual for me to have multiple meetings back to back. Since I deal with people globally, it’s also not unusual to have meetings as early as 6 AM and meetings as late as 8 PM.  

Sometimes, it can feel like I’m working constantly and the so-called work-life balance is simply not possible. 

Having said that, I have learned a few key things over the years to help me improve my work-life balance:

1. Setting limits and boundaries. Block off early morning, lunchtime, and dinner time in my calendar.
2. It’s OK to turn down meetings
3. If possible, delegate the meeting to someone else

I’m not perfect, but I’m working on getting better at finding the right balance between work and life. 

When it comes to FIRE, I think it’s important to approach it with a balanced mindset. The FIRE journey isn’t a sprint, it is a marathon. It takes years and years of planning, saving, investing, and dedication to achieve FIRE. If you approach it like a sprint, I believe you will burn out very quickly. Even if you end up achieving FIRE, you will regret it like Jeremy.

Some additional thoughts on the FIRE journey and approaching it with a balanced mindset: 

• You need to plan what you want to do post-retirement. If you don’t plan it, you will fall into the classic retirement trap – sitting on the beach all day, sipping pina coladas and getting bored after a short while. You will probably start to wonder why you retired in the first place.
• You can’t just go hard and burn the candle at both ends for decades. This is simply unhealthy and unsustainable.
• You need to be happy with your current situation. If you’re unhappy now, reaching FIRE won’t magically make you happy. FIRE is not the solution for all.
• What makes you excited? Having hobbies is extremely important along the FIRE journey. 
• If an opportunity arises, ask yourself, are you going to regret it later if you miss it? Missing out on opportunities that impact your quality of life is typically not worth it in the long term.
• How do you challenge yourself both physically and mentally when you’re working toward FIRE and – arguably more importantly – post-FIRE?
• Focus on spending money on creating experiences, not spending money on things. 

I can’t say I have answers for all these questions. I’m still working on myself and finding answers. 

Unfortunately, the media loves to write FIRE and paint a negative picture. They don’t typically write positive FIRE stories. This is something to keep in mind whenever you read a story about FIRE. 

According to a 2019 CIBC poll of about 3,000 Canadian retired adults, nearly 60% of them decided to return to work to seek intellectual stimulation.  

Therefore, it’s important to have a few hobbies and interests to keep you stimulated mentally both before and after retirement. 

According to the Globe and Mail article, “The FIRE movement is built on extreme saving – often living on half your income and cutting back on things including travel and dining out to reach financial freedom faster.”

Many people believe that FIRE is all about sacrifices – cutting almost all expenses, living extremely frugally, saving as much as one possibly can. 

But that’s not always the case! For example, we have a high savings rate, but we don’t cut back on things like travel and dining out. We spend money on things we enjoy spending on, but we cut expenses on things like gas, insurance, utilities, etc. Furthermore, we avoid unnecessary expenses as much as possible. 

FIRE is not necessarily all about sacrifices. That’s the extreme version, and that’s the version the media often focuses on, because they attract clicks. 

The FIRE community has evolved over the years, especially the last five years. In recent years, there have been more discussions and talks about spending money and enjoying experiences while you can. It’s not about having the highest savings rate. It’s more about reaching FIRE by living a fulfilling life. 

Books like “Die with Zero” and “The Psychology of Money” have helped reset the extreme frugality mentality that many FIRE seekers have. I applaud Bill Perkins and Morgan Housel for writing these books. 

It also helps to have people like Grant Sabatier, who has been educating the FIRE community on the importance of setting limits and approaching FIRE with a more balanced mindset rather than trying to retire as early and as quickly as possible.

At the beginning of the year, I wrote about stepping back from full-time employment in about two years. For me, more than ever, it is important to spend more time thinking about how I want to structure my post-retirement life. Because that will come faster than I anticipated! 

And this is what I have been doing:

1. Getting more involved in Scouts. The current group commissioner decided to step down, so starting in September, I’m going to be the co-commissioner with another Scouter to help build our Scouting group and ensure a great Scouting program for all the youths. 
2. I started curling again last September by joining the “Learn to Curl” workshop. Since January, I have played on two teams and been a spare on another team. I really enjoy curling, but also like its social aspect. Once I stop working full-time, I plan to spend more time curling and improve my techniques. 
3. Paying more attention to my physical wellness – working out, eating well, and sleeping well. 
4. Working on the blog, planning and writing articles ahead. Writing blog articles is a creative outlet for me which I really enjoy. 

The right mindset should be to retire into something, not retire from something. 

An important thing I have learned on this FIRE journey is that what’s right for you may not be right for me. We need to be more accepting and less judgmental. We are all on our own FIRE journey, it’s about finding your personal balance. We can all be more supportive of each other, especially during the chaotic and uncertain contemporary times.

You can’t bring money with you when you leave this world. Therefore, emphasize the quality of life, memories, experiences, friendship, and communities. The rest of the stuff is simply unimportant in the grand scheme of things.