After living a ＂FIRE life＂, I found that retirement is not the key.
Chao news client reporter Lin Wei
The picture originated in vision china.
How old are you going to retire if conditions permit?
Recently, the Survey Report on China Residents’ Retirement Readiness Index in 2023 was released, and one of its contents caught the attention of Youfengjun: The survey in the Report found that the average expected retirement age of non-retired respondents was 58.01 years, and the younger group showed the average expectation of early retirement, indicating that young people generally expected to retire early.
In fact, more and more young people are discussing and planning the ideal life of "leaving early" on social media. They call this lifestyle "FIRE". At home, more and more young people are involved in this sport. On Douban, the "FIRE Life" group alone has 230,000 members, while in Xiaohongshu, there are 160,000 notes related to "FIRE".
What is "FIRE"? FIRE originated in the United States. In a book called Your Money or Your Life, the author first put forward the concept of FIRE, which is the abbreviation of "financial independence, early retirement". One of the core principles of the previous movement was to reduce material desires and live a minimalist life, so as to quickly save 25 times the annual living expenses.
FIRE group on douban, the picture comes from douban.
Why is it 25 times? This comes from the widely circulated "4% financial freedom rule", that is, saving at least 25 times the annual expenditure of assets, and then investing with this asset, relying on the annual investment income of 4% to live (and running through inflation), then you can get the ticket for FIRE.
Nowadays, FIRE people have also optimized their own FIRE formula: "(your assets) * (annualized rate of return)-(annual expenditure) > 0". Some netizens pointed out that the three elements of assets, annual rate of return and annual expenditure complement each other and need to be managed and accumulated step by step. It is particularly important to recognize the relationship between yourself and money, change your income model and improve your rate of return. Don’t try to make up your expenses by fixed deposit and interest, and don’t try to sit on empty pockets with a large sum of money.
FIRE’s goal is not to be absolutely "flat". Wu Koukou, the leader of the "FIRE Life" team, believes that her vision is to achieve a reasonable increase in family income through rational consumption and rational planning of assets. The significance that FIRE brings to them is not to pursue retirement, but to get rid of the work of "exchanging time for money", embark on the road of loving life and do the work of smiling every day. Simply put, it is to reject the lifestyle of 996 and 007, get rid of unhealthy workplace competition and refuse to be bound by consumerism.
Therefore, in order to achieve their goal-to live an ideal life, they often show stronger fighting spirit, stronger action power and more involution than their peers. In a sense, the core of "FIRE Life" is not short of positive elements. That’s why the members of the "FIRE Life" group are called "Life Homes", and they are carving their own lives every day.
The picture originated in vision china.
With more and more people joining in, under the influence of personal situation, consumption level, expected goals and other factors, FIRE has also spawned different factions: a "fat FIRE" that is already rich and does not need to reduce the quality of life, a "thin FIRE" that can maintain a basic standard of living but needs to be more frugal, a "barista FIRE" that increases income through part-time work after resigning, and a "coastal FIRE" that meets the living expenses but still works part-time to pursue interests.
Netizen Nancy is a barista FIRE. She thinks she is a "passive" FIRE. During the epidemic, Nancy was in a long-term home office state. Under the flexible schedule, as a designer, she accepted a project recommended by an acquaintance and got along well with her partners. Private work increased Nancy’s income, but the high-intensity work at both ends also made her lack of sleep. In the end, she gave up one of the jobs and established a long-distance employment relationship with one of them. "In this way, the epidemic promoted my free life."
Compared with ordinary office workers, Nancy has always paid more attention to work and entertainment for a long time: watching movies, brushing Tik Tok, chatting with friends, making dinner appointments and playing games occupy more time. And the professional attributes of designers make people and experienced Nancy have more job opportunities. "I think I am luckier than many people and have not rejected my own career. The relationship with it is more like falling in love, from strange exploration to familiarity and rejection. "
The picture originated in vision china.
Unlike Nancy, who is still working part-time, the netizen Shanshui layman has already "landed". He shared his three-year experience from zero deposit to successful FIRE in the group. After graduating from college, I didn’t have a deposit of more than 1,000 yuan except for my diploma. After working for many years, I still didn’t break through the bottleneck of the workplace, and then I became the Leader of a company with hundreds of people through six years of struggle. "At that time, I clearly knew that my wisdom was not enough. I am not qualified for the workplace dilemma I will face next." As a result, the 33-year-old Shanshui layman decided to resign, put the money cashed in the stock into a large deposit certificate, left hundreds of thousands of emergency money, packed his bags and set foot on a plane in go to dali, and lived in seclusion in Cangshan for less than a year. I basically stroll in the mountains during the day, thinking and deducing, and take a walk at the door at night. Usually, I only chat with my friends on weekend nights to report the recent situation, and I call my parents once every Wednesday.
This year is the fifth year of his FIRE. In the latest dynamic day, he has traveled more than half of China from Beihai to Banna for the winter. There is no one in the photo, only the scenery. The green fields are vast and quiet, and the distant Banna wind seems to be blowing against my face. In the view of landscape laymen, the greatest significance of FIRE is to have enough time and energy to study and understand human nature, and practice is his goal for the rest of his life.
The picture originated in vision china.
It is true that the "lying flat" life after financial freedom is extremely attractive, beautiful and gorgeous, but it seems more within reach to go to work step by step, repay the loan and have a weekend off, and "FIRE life" will not become the choice of most people. FIRE is too extravagant for people who spend all their energy to survive.
In the Survey Report of China Residents’ Retirement Readiness Index in 2023, respondents aged 56 and above generally expect to retire around 62, which is significantly higher than other age groups.
This seems to be more familiar with and concerned about the retirement policy than the elderly non-retired respondents, so they have more rational expectations for the delayed retirement policy. On the other hand, it also shows that the elderly who have not retired have stronger willingness to work, ability to work, confidence to work and continue to work to meet the needs of retirement savings, which leads them to expect to retire later. Judging from this result, while some young people pursue "early retirement" and realize FIRE, there are not a few who "leave late" and accept delayed retirement.
Generally speaking, the biggest inspiration that FIRE brings us is actually to find our own way of life, find back our enthusiasm for life and enrich our imagination of life.
Life has never been a one-to-one replica, and everyone is a walking DNA. The road is at your feet, and stepping out is a new life.
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