I don’t obsess with retiring early anymore | no life, zero shopping, toxic minimalism

I've been a goal focused saver since my first allowance (it is normal in my familiy). To count myself rich (it's something we say in our familiy instead of budgeting) is something that I actually do for fun. I also do it for my cousin who has a shopping addiction (legaly aproved, I have fill in forms and account yearly) . Me the hoarding dragon guarding her bank account from herself. I think it's very intresting to be responsible for someone else's money. You learn alot about priorities. You would think I would guard her money as stricly like I do my own, but i'm actually more lenient, because she is still free to choose her priorities. I just drip feed her the money in a sustainable way, I don't make the big choices for her I just do the calculations and make sure she can not easily touch the savings she has left.
I would never expect anyone to be the same type of money hoarder I am. Saving money is always the first thing that comes to mind. I always have to debate with myself buy things I want/need/like. Spending does not come naturaly, I always have some goal to save for. Big or small.
What I am doing is trying to provide myself with the option to either retire maybe 10 years early or to start working part time when I'm 45+. ( I haven't decided yet)
Last year I had the option to choose between a raise in pay or extra vacation days. I chose the extra vacation days. So that shows I do still value time over money.
I think one of the important realisation in life we can have is that money is something you can trade for at any time.
Time is never gained only ever paid.

Are you saying Fire? What does that mean?

Sadly I know too many whose retirement has been cut very short and a fair number who didn’t make it that far. The fact is that the majority of us will not live in our retirement as long as we like to think we will. That, coupled with difficulty in switching mindset from years of frugality to now spending a little bit on treats, means a lot of hard earned retirement funds are passed down leaving our dependents to pay taxes on the remainder. Balance in everything.

I think one of the reasons why we people spend on so much things is to escape from the reality of burnout from our jobs. We buy and buy in order to compensate the hard work and we always think that we deserve it. Everything we buy and own, we believe that we deserve it. But what we do not realize is that what we really need are not the things or accumulation of things but the rest that our mind, body and spirit need. Your realization is very humble, genuine, and eye opener to every audience. You are generous to your experience. Im a subscriber and follower from the Philippines.

A lot of FIRE bloggers are scammers, that Money Mustache guy was pretending to be a humble hipster with a bike and upgraded his family of 3 to a huge house quite recently.

As someone who took two breaks during my career, I totally see where you are coming from. Burnout is real and sometimes you just need a reset. I don't know if my husband will ever retire, he really enjoys his job and that's fine.

What is FIRE? I'm not British, so this video made no sense to me.

I reckon working 2-3 days a week 5-7 hours per work day.. in a supportive and friendly environment is a sweet spot. Take leave for vacation every few months. The rest of the time for family and ‘me time’. Ok to splurge for special occasion. ❤️

What is FIRE

It’s called burnout

These are excellent points. I’m not so into FIRE but am chronically burnt out by our work life. Your comments have clarified some of the thoughts I have been thinking about lately. Great channel!

I got a 2 month sabbatical approved but immigration told me I can't take unpaid leave on my visa. So I think FIRE is going to be my only escape from burnout. I am old enough that getting a new job will be very difficult but young enough for family to tell me I am crazy to retire- I can have so much more if I keep working. But I don't want more- I like to travel, and while I am never going to be a minimalist, there are a lot of things I can do to make my like a lot less expensive and more simple. I would love to be able to take off a year or work part-time. I wish that was an option.

Great vlog as always! Thank you for sharing!

I'm a part of the fire community. But I prefer balance. I don't want to be obsessed!

Deepest thank you. Amazing video.

It would be great to start off by explaining what FIRE means. I have watched several videos propagating financial freedom. In Canada, some good companies offer great packages like extended health benefits that are non-taxable. While sometimes I loathe my full-time job because I wish i had more time for myself, I can't imagine if i quit it. I need to $$$ keep coming in to have that sense of security. We are also paid biweekly. So, retiring early is admirable but not an ideal reality. Not healthy for both my body and mind either.
Balance - is the core word. We need balance in everything we do.

Im already burned out at my work. I admit I hate going to work everyday. But as a man, my value is tied to my salary, my savings, my investments, and my assets. I need to keep working so I can keep growing my value and my worth. As a man, just being yourself, kind, lovely, loyal, responsible, humble, and a gentleman is not enough anymore in today's dating market. So for this reason I cannot stop working and I need to keep growing my value and my worth, thats the only way I can have a chance to find a wife and be respected by society because we live in a society where men without money are treated lower than dirt.

What is fire?

Insane the number of people asking what FIRE is when she literally explained it in the first 8 seconds of the video 😂😂😂

Your so wise ❤️❤️❤️ absolutely food for my brain and soul

Thank you for the great video. I have been thinking the same a lot lately. Thanks for your sharing and it answered my doubts.

my definition of my early retirement is still have a job but not working hard anymore ,work life balance and already financial secure.❤A life I dont have to escape from

Many of my customers are in their 70 and 80 years old! They are single and rich! They are lonely and have no hobbies! They always remind me and my husband to go and enjoy our life! We are only in our 50’s. Our children are grown ! We still work and enjoy our life! We make our life meaningful !!!

I believe you need to walk a middle path between saving for your future and enjoying today. My father’s family were very long livers but my mother’s family nearly all died in their 60s so from an early age I was well aware that tomorrow is guaranteed to nobody.
I think you also need to take a certain attitude to retirement to make it happy. I looked at it not as rushing to escape a job I was no longer enjoying but as heading towards something else. You need to plan what you intend to do in retirement before you get there not after. I retired last year and my plans were thrown into chaos by serious illness both of a family member and myself, but when that is all over I will be going back to writing my novel and my plan to join a bridge club and plan a holiday.

I just hate the people I work with! 😂😂😂

Thank you, for sharing. For myself personally, I never joined the early retirement part of the FIRE movement. As someone with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering even during periods of unemployment in my 30's, and again in my 40's, I have always enjoyed my career. However, what I did want to achieve was financial independence and this occurred for me at age 55, when my home mortgage was fully paid-off and, I was now fully vested with enough years in my public sector pension plan. Now in my early 60's, I retired last year with zero debit and a Net Worth of $1.4 million (with half in the value of my home and half in liquid assets).

Excellent. Extremes are never good. Glad you took a work pause to find new balance. I went FI before it was a thing. The 'FIRE movement ' doesn't have to be extreme.

FIRE was a grift by high income tech employees that did content as a side hustle. It’s not achievable by the average person without extreme actions (basically being homeless).

FIRE is not for the weak. You did a few things wrong. Why did you diversify?

This video was so reassuring. Thank you so much.

Yea dont retire early. I did reduced work week, 30 hours and i get to keep my benefits. If you are valuable to the company, just ask them if you can do this, i think they would be happy to oblige.

FIRE means you can afford to be fired and/or fire the employer 😂

Imagine doing FIRE for Ages:25-40 and then getting a serious illness at age 50 or dying ages 50-60😅😅😅😅 bye bye Millions🙋🏻‍♂️🙋🏻‍♂️🙋🏻‍♂️ can't bring your Savings to my deathbed or Can't even enjoy it in a WheelChair 😅😅😅 I wish I just enjoyed life when I was still Young when my money is still ENJOYABLE😭

I didn’t get why people want to retire

Thank you for sharing, It has been very valuable for me to see and learn from your experiences. I don't have a goal of FIRE. My first goal what I set for myself was to achieve top 1% wealth within a set time, I achieved my first goal, and set new goals, including continuous wealth building. I learned money management/saving/investing/wealth building from a very young age (from before kindergarten age) combined with able to read books without pictures before 3 years old and able to do basic mathematics together with a little bit more complex mathematical problem solving/mathematical games I regularly played with my grandfather. The most important lessons I learned daily especially from my Countess great ant is that money/saving/investing and wealth building is one the most important skill I must do during my life together with being healthy, being kind, humble, considerate, helpful, grateful, diplomatic while must be savvy and that I must protect myself. Regarding appearance, I learned to must wear quality, very clean shoes and perfectly ironed clothes. These are some of the basics I internalised and live my life by these rules today, they are part of my personality and natural to me. During the Pandemic I also changed some aspect of my life, I had been forced to stop travelling and now I no longer have the same desire for travel as I had prior the Pandemic. I have been around the world and seen what I have been interested to see and I am content with it, while knowing that I am able to choose to resume my pre-Pandemic lifestyle if that is what I would like to do. I wish you wealth, health and happiness.

Am 58 retiring next year but the thought of retirement gives me weakness. My apologies to everyone who have retired and filing social security during this time after putting in all those years of work just to lose everything to a problem you never imagined to happen. It’s so difficult for people who are retired and have no savings or loved ones to fall back on.

FIRE....if it happens it happens.....

Retirement becomes truly fulfilling when you possess two essential elements: ample financial resources and a meaningful purpose in life. Make prudent investment choices to secure good returns and ensure a comfortable retirement.

Here in Singapore. Thanks for enlightening me. I was planning fire and it was a dramatic change for the past 2 years in managing my finance. Yes, my thoughts of fast forwarding my life for attaining fire and you have alerted me about these wrong thoughts. I need to enjoy life a bit now and then. Thank you so much.

try fat fire... yours is a lean fire.. fat fire need 5-10m..

Thanks for sharing this! It helped me reflect.

You do not sound Malaysian though, I actually thought you were from Hong Kong for some reason....

Same for me, hard to disconnect yet its been 1 month now. I miss the money but peace is priceless. 🌞

25 at the moment, and honestly i only started to work for FIRE late last year/early this year... and honestly, one thing that really makes me re-evaluate and hesitate on my decision is that ever since then, i had to set aside almost every social relations i had to put more time into what i was working on... but at the same time, i really hope to start a family by 29 or latest 30 :( i say that, but i don't even have a boyfriend at the moment, and i'm not even looking for one right now due to how pre-occupied my mind is with the things i'm working on i'm honestly really not sure how to go on lol, but really nice to see your video pop up in my algorithm. thank you for your sharing, i will also have to... re-prioritize, once i hit some smaller milestones next... life is really too short and limited

Good to hear your FIRE journey. I also agree to do what makes you happy. I also long to reach early retirement for the ultimate freedom, but now I also feel less of a rush to get there as I realize how precious time is today.

I was 1 of those people who said that if I won a big lottery, I would still work. I have not won any lottery, small or big but I am in a state of wanting to retire early. My job sucks all the positive energy out of me, the work is very stressful, co-workers and the company are toxic, many co-workers get away producing not only crappy work but as little work as possible who continue to be around because they talk big and they kiss the right asses, they are challenging to work with because so many of them are entitled and some, I would say, are bullies. I'm in software consulting, so not only is the company and co-workers often toxic, the clients are very demanding and often difficult to work with. This is the reality of consulting. In the 25 years of doing it, the only non-toxic company and non-toxic co-workers was the very first company I worked for in the late 90's. Unfortunately, that company has also changed and I heard the environment is as toxic as they come. I want to retire early to rid myself of all these negative energy, to wake up happy on Monday mornings and not dreading the day, to own my time, to not have any schedule or deadline, to not be around ass-kisser that need to be carried, etc.

Any luck finding a rich partner 😜

FIRE is quite complicated these days, Financial planning and retirement strategies are crucial, especially in today's economic climate. With global economic fluctuations and uncertainties, it's essential to have a solid plan in place to protect your financial future.

Retired in 10 years with a few million in bank account is damn fulfilling

Never have to work again

Frugal effects you.
Cheap effects others.

I have been off my job for a year now and I love it so much !
I’m busy with the things I wanna do not things I don’t want to do!
I realized u don’t need much to enjoy life !
I’m 51 now and I will continue to travel, visiting family and enjoy life ! If I’m bored in the future then I will work !

And please stop buying designer brands , u making them rich !
I realized u ain’t that smmnnaaaarrrt!
Cuz u need validation from designer brands to make u feel good!
Guuuurrrrllll!
Don’t keep up with the Jones’s!