Sylvia Hall wants to retire at age 40. Her dream has a price: brown bananas.
The 38-year-old Seattle lawyer is on a strict budget as she tries to hit her goal of amassing $2 million in assets by 2020. That means saving about 70% of her after-tax income and setting firm spending limits in every part of her life.
She looks for brown bananas and other soon-to-be discarded items from fruit and vegetable stands to help keep her grocery bills around $75 a month. She walks to work so she doesn’t have to spend money on gas. She borrows Netflix passwords from friends so she doesn’t have to spend much on entertainment.
“The idea of not having to wait to 65 to start living on my own terms appealed to me,” she said.
I don’t really like these FIRE bloggers. They are making big bucks off their blogs selling false hopes. Some, like that “Retire by 40” guy, has his wife working full time. If you can call that FIRE, what about the stay-at-home moms? I have never heard these women claim they are FIRE.
A career in start-ups is the easiest way to FIRE. You’ll never have any time to spend the money you earn and you’ll always be too tired to eat out. Stock options take the place of pensions and matching 401k’s.
The dumb ones are working and some become feminists.