A couple of weeks ago there was a Tweet heard ’round the personal finance world that triggered a storm in the #FIRE community. One highly-respected finance expert posted a statement and another highly-respected finance expert responded. A war ensued.
Tracy Alloway, Executive Editor at Bloomberg Tweeted:
“One thing I’ve often wondered- does the financial independence/retire early movement (#FIREmovement) survive the eventual end of the current bull market? The idea of pouring all your money into $VTSAX and living off it for the rest of your life feels like such a bull market thing”
Jason Zweig, Investing Columnist at the Wall Street Journey Responded:
“No, because the fintech companies paying thousands of dollars a month in poorly disclosed affiliate marketing fees to all those “independent” FIRE bloggers will run out of VC cash in a bear market.”
Given Mr. MMM and I are former FIRE followers turned skeptics, we couldn’t stop reading the main thread or the ancillary threads that invaded our feeds.
In this week’s episode, we’re discussing why Americans have a fascination with walking away from their corporate jobs to live a life of freedom – even if that freedom comes at a very high cost.
See the Twitter Storm Here
Show Notes:
Discussed in this episode:
- Twitter storm over the longevity of the FIRE movement
- A brief history of what’s wrong with working for The Man
- America’s fascination with independence
- How movies and TV have affected our opinion of corporate jobs
- Why it’s OK to like your corporate job
Noteworthy links:
- The New FI: Forget Financial Independence, Achieve Financial Improvement First
- How Lighting Affects The Productivity Of Your Workers
- PODCAST: 5 Things We Hate About The FIRE Movement
