r/Fire • u/larryinthesky • 1d ago
Advice Request Does FIRE make you more anxious?
There was a time in my life when I didn't think much about money. I worked, I spent, I saved. I wasn't anxious about money, becoming FI, retirement, etc. I just lived life. Since discovering FIRE I've become much more anxious about money, job, etc. Yes, I have definitely grown my net worth compared to my carefree past, but I have become so much more anxious. Anyone else like this? What did you do to reduce the anxiety?
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u/Fjogaseri 1d ago
No, I am just the opposite. Up to a certain point, it made me feel less vulnerable and more secure.
After that point, I felt very little extra security.
Even if you completely fail at achieving FIRE, all that saving will have left you in a much better place.
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u/Pretzel0201 1d ago
I also feel this! I have more money now than I ever have, but also spend significantly more time thinking about money. My partner is the same way.
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u/Pretzel0201 1d ago
No advice on how to manage this, just letting you know youāre not alone in this
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u/Powerful-Patient-765 1d ago
Yeah, Iām thinking about unsubscribing to these subs. Itās really helpful information, but Iām starting to obsess about it. Iām not wanting to spend money and feeling myself being more tight fisted, which isnāt necessarily a bad thing but life seemed easier when I didnāt obsess about spending.
Like now when I meet a friend at a cafĆ©, I donāt want to spend seven dollars on an iced mocha. Which is a ridiculous price, but I donāt want to spend that money now when I never wouldāve thought about it in the past. But thatās the price of meeting a good friend at a cafĆ©! I have to enjoy my life, too!
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u/VegasWorldwide 1d ago
it's all a balance. $7 mocha is fine because youre not just paying for the mocha. youre paying for the place and time with friends/family.
the problem everyone has is $7 mocha today, $15 chipotle tomorrow, the next shoes saturday, dinner out monday, etc. they all add up. you have to pick and choose your splurges.
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u/Powerful-Patient-765 1d ago
Yes. I eat at home 100% of the time unless I am meeting a friend and then itās worth it. I just dont want to become a Scrooge and overly OCD or anxious about money, as I get VERY determined about meeting goals.
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u/OuiGotTheFunk Unemployed with a Spreadsheet 1d ago
You have to eat out with friends sometimes. Knowing how to cook makes you better than what I guess is 60% of people.
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u/ericdavis1240214 FI=ā RE=<8ļøā£months 1d ago
Agree. Which is why I'll spend $7 on a latte if I'm on vacation or meeting a friend or wherever. But I'll never understand someone DoorDashing that $7 latte and paying $12+ for it to drink it at home or at their desk in the office. I feel the same about pretty much all food delivery.
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u/OuiGotTheFunk Unemployed with a Spreadsheet 1d ago
I never get food delivered. This takes care of two problems. The cost of the delivery and such and it becomes too easy. I am sure I eat out a lot less because I do not get food delivered.
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u/terjon 1d ago
Yes, and it is really frustrating to see friends, who I consider to be good people, spend that kind of money when in the same breath they are complaining about not having money.
I just don't get it. If you are struggling with money, why are you ordering food in? I know that adds up to hundreds of dollars a month. But it is so incredibly rude to point that out that you can't really say anything to them unless you want to sour the friendship.
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u/terjon 1d ago
It isn't just that. I'm starting to look at homes to downsize to after I retire in two years or so and I know my stuff won't fit. So, I'm looking through my stuff and there is so much...stuff that I haven't touched in years that I spent money on.
That $40 jacket that I wore, maybe, twice. That exercise machine I used a few times 10 years ago. Just lots and lots of junk that, honestly, I didn't need, but wanted.
I might already be retired if I didn't spend so much time, effort and money buying stuff that I honestly didn't even need.
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u/OuiGotTheFunk Unemployed with a Spreadsheet 1d ago
This is one thing I never could do. I know how to cook. I would go out to bars. I would buy lunch when at work and the occasional meals with friends and a pizza from Costco type meal but mostly I cooked for myself. I never got into that mid tier range of food places that were not budget friendly but not like a full meal with friends where you could sit for and hour or even more if there was an occasion. I do tip well too and now just a little more until I get my situation worked out.
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u/poop-dolla 1d ago
The whole point of FIRE and what I always heard as the mantra of FIRE is ābuild the life you want and then save for it.ā
If youāre not doing that, then youāre doing things wrong. And if you are doing that, then youāre living the life you want now, so you shouldnāt be stressing about this sort of stuff, since if you really want to do it, it should already be built into your plan. And if you realize something isnāt in your plan that you want, rework your plan so it fits.
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u/MaliprvLizard 1d ago
The irony: saving seven bucks now costs the joy of a coffee with a friend.
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u/Powerful-Patient-765 1d ago
Absolutely! The older I get, the more I value my friends and relationships, because you realize that no relationship (or person) lasts forever.
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u/B4K5c7N 1d ago
I feel like if your investments are growing at a decent rate, and if your income is also growing (which I assume it is for many on this sub who are ambitious high-earners who typically earn nice raises annually or job hop), then $7 shouldnāt mean too much in the long run even if you buy that coffee weekly.
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u/OuiGotTheFunk Unemployed with a Spreadsheet 1d ago
I am probably older than you and aight. I spent 15 years not doing anything. Then I started my 401K at 11%, which now seems a little lower than I probably should have but whatever. I spent all that time going out with friends and doing things and traveling a little here there and a few times to foreign countries. Like I was saving so I thought all the money I had left after that was mine to spend. If I had found FIRE earlier I would have been anxious and missed out on a lot. I am going to retire in the mid $1 million in my account, equity in a house and a pension. You should be MUCH better off it you stick with the plan.
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u/Powerful-Patient-765 1d ago
We sound pretty similarā¦ 52, paid off house, pension. Net worth excluding house right now is $1.3M. Planning to retire at 55 with quite a bit more money saved, as Iām earning close to $250 with $80k spend at the top end.
Iāve spent the last 15 years buying whatever I want and doing whatever I want, and Iām actually enjoying being more careful about my money in many ways. Iāve realized the ridiculous ways I was wasting money with subscriptions, brand names. iāve managed to figure out how to save $7000 a year without changing my quality of lifeā¦ prescriptions from Canada, finding equivalent products that are half as cheap, etc.
but Iāve got to balance so I donāt go too far in the other direction!
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u/Shawn_NYC 1d ago
A lot of people on this sub are going to be trading work related anxiety for de-accumulation and stock market volatility anxiety when they retire. There comes a point where working on your mentals is more valuable than working on your spreadsheet.
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u/impactblue5 1d ago
Weāre at ATHs. Wait till we get that major market correction weāve been waiting the last 3 years for. This sub will all be anxious š¬
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u/Max_Thunder 1d ago
I've heard people say a major correction was coming for over a decade now.
Of course it'll come one day...
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u/ErikTheEngineer 20h ago
I had just started working during the dotcom bubble and this next correction is going to make that look like nothing. Between the bond markets getting volatile and trillions in circular financing that's going to have to get unwound somehow, it's going to derail a lot of future retirement plans and destroy current ones. I'm hoping fund managers have a grip on this and know when to take the money off the table.
The thing I worry about is the millions of people who have like $100K in their 401(k)s and such. Taking a 30% haircut on a tiny pot of money you need to survive on is going to show a lot of weakness in the DIY retirement experiment we started 50 years ago.
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u/Pale_Drink4455 1d ago
I stayed off of Reddit for awhile as comparison was truly the thief of joy to me reading other stories.
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u/B4K5c7N 1d ago
I have done that and feel better, but then get sucked back in.
But itās definitely warped my perception of money. Since reading these subs, no amount of money is necessarily āimpressiveā to me anymore. I also feel like everyone is making bank when statistics say otherwise, but somehow I believe Reddit over statistics.
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u/LeisureLifer 1d ago
I have started just ignoring all of the posts where people are asking about their numbers.
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u/Pale_Drink4455 1d ago edited 1d ago
Or better yet, all the 30 yo tech bros with 3-4 million asking how they are doing and on track for FIRE.
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u/silly_bet_3454 1d ago
To some degree it's like a necessary evil, like the reason you weren't anxious pre-FIRE was probably that you just didn't have the consciousness about preparing for end of life and financial stability. That's nice but one way or another the rubber always meets the road.
I think what helps me as far as mindset is to understand that FIRE is to some degree a bit of a charade. You know the saying "you make a plan and God laughs"? FIRE engenders this idea that we can control everything in life, that we can achieve 100% safety and security. It's not really true. We can only hedge our bets, and it's a good idea to do so, but you basically need to also start thinking about the finitude of life and embrace uncertainty. Sorry if I'm being morbid but this is what helps me personally. You can save up all your money perfectly and then randomly get a cancer diagnosis the next day. You can also just be totally irresponsible and yet still live to be 100 with enough money because the market and other factors just went your way. It is what it is. Gotta appreciate each day that we have.
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u/VegasWorldwide 1d ago
a nice joint or thc gummy, a stupid comedy and a Friday night. that's my medicine to deal with anxiety.
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u/humanity_go_boom 1d ago
No. I pretty much blundered my way to coast fire while not giving a fuck. Now I can comfortably ration the fucks I have to give. The only think I really need to give a fuck about going forward is the health of myself and my family.
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u/Rufusmortis 1d ago
How does one blunder into a position where you can comfortably ration fucks?
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u/humanity_go_boom 1d ago edited 1d ago
By setting and forgetting a decent, if very poorly invested, savings rate early in my career. Then, years later, learning something like FIRE is possible and throwing it all into VTSAX/VTIAX and forgetting about it again.
Plus limiting lifestyle inflation of fixed expenses and generally being good about avoiding bad debt.
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u/Rufusmortis 1d ago
Same. Never cared much about money until I had some. It's an odd phenomenon. I can't explain it but I can empathize. We could have worse problems though.
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u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm 1d ago
No. 3 million and retirement in Thailand at age 39. Pulled the trigger 2 months ago I have zero anxiety.
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u/temporaryacc23412 1d ago
The complete opposite. Nothing reduces anxiety as successfully as not having to work. But I came across the concept of FIRE when I was more or less already FI.
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u/EquipmentUnlikely895 1d ago
I do think about money every single day. I believe I will continue to do so up to a point post FIRE (we will see).
But I am not anxious about it because I know pretty accurately how much I spend in a month, so I don't bother with each purchase or meal. However, I do keep track of every expenses in my trusty excel. I think this is why I don't have tremendous amount of anxiety because I know that I can spend comfortably $X amount and I would still have $XXX in savings and investments, and I will be fine for next 15, 20, 25 years no matter what. And knowing this give me some sense of calm.
In a peanut shell, know how much you (want to/need to) spend, how much you have and for how long helps with the anxiety. Of course, must allow room for some natural anxieties "what if the market collapse, AI bubble burst, triple disasters happening simultaneously". Acknowledge them, factor into emergency funds, and forget about it.
If the problem is about losing identity or "purpose in life" post FIRE...that's another story for another post.
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u/chodthewacko 1d ago
What are you anxious about?
The possibility of running out of money in the future?
I think before I became FIRE aware, I didn't think much about retirement and/or long term expenses. Now I do, and I realize the large cost of things (I live in a HCOL area), It has definitely raised my eyebrows.
I don't stress over it - I could always just work longer and I'll be financially fine. FIRE is definitely on the radar though, so there is now a fair bit of mental gymnastics about how early could I FIRE at how much. I don't know if I'd call that anxiety though.
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u/Max_Thunder 1d ago
No, it reduces my anxiety. I have reached a level of wealth I could survive on, that feels extremely freeing. Now I just need the level of wealth I can live very comfortably on.
I'd be much more anxious if I thought I'd have to work for the next decades.
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u/htffgt_js 1d ago
Your thinking is probably that the more you have, the more you have to lose. Constant high valuations are probably not helping your thought process either :)
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u/eyebrowse63 1d ago
MO MONEY MO PROBLEMS! And you start learning about all the ways to move around and maximize money. Oh you're doing a backdoor Roth? But have you tried a MEGA backdoor roth? How is your conversion ladder? It is a lot, and it actually never ends bc our taxes are so complicated!
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u/Some_word_some_wow 1d ago
Not sure if FIRE makes me anxious or if being anxious is what made FIRE appealing to meā knowing I save enough that even at this point I could go without income for a few years before tough choices had to be made has helped with my anxiety some.
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u/tooclouds 1d ago
I think focusing a bit more on things that make you happy. Some things just arenāt worth giving up to save a couple thousand dollars 30 years from now.
I used to stress between grocery item priced that were dollars different, but then I watched people like Ben Felix and Ramit Sethi and started focusing on making more money and enjoying life since we will never really know which day will be our last.
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u/lsthomasw 1d ago
I am planning for FI and hoping for RE because we got serious about retirement a bit later than you should but not too late (36). Honestly, I have the exact opposite experience. Discovering FIRE and aligning my financial plans to get there has taken away all financial anxiety except the large looming question of "how will the markets perform between now and my hoped for RE date?" And since I have zero control over that, I just don't worry about it. I keep following the plan: build the life I want, spend less than I earn to have that life, and invest the rest in an asset allocation that allows me to sleep at night.
Example: Partner was laid off in April. Because of FIRE, good personal finance habits, and budgeting we have a job loss fund that was designed to cover one of us losing our job for up to 6 months. Because of the tenets of FIRE: being flexible and willing to trim spending, utilizing all available resources (in this case unemployment benefits), and having a tested plan (living off last month's income) we are actually going to be able to go a whole year before we even need to touch the job loss fund. Here's hoping he gets a job before then!
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u/Distinct-Sky 1d ago
Yes, I spend way too much time thinking about FIRE and doing various calculations. Guess I should stop doing that, lol.
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u/ericdavis1240214 FI=ā RE=<8ļøā£months 1d ago
If it helps, do the set it and forget it method.
I check my investment balances every quarter when the paper statements arrive. (Yes, I get paper so I know I'll get to see a balance without logging in. I calculate my net worth annually. The rest of the time I don't think about that stuff at all.
I've always been pretty frugal, so that's not a stress in my life. I spend money on what I want, but I don't want much.
Basically, if you know you are on the path to FIRE and you have a good sense of your budget, you can ignore the rest of it on a day to day basis.
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u/RemoteTechie FIREd 4/2026 1d ago
Once you've learned what you need to regarding FIRE and have things on auto-pilot, then go enjoy life.
It sounds like you are obsessing over it, which isn't necessary.
I go back and forth on whether I should have worked yet another year before pulling the trigger, but then the stock market rebounds a bit and my numbers are excellent again. I'm only online because it is hot outside right now :D
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u/Noah_Safely 1d ago
I really have had the opposite experience, being on the path to FI has given many gifts along the way. However if it's making you feel bad and you're not really learning anything new, totally reasonable to bail on them.
Honestly I think people just need a handful of things.
- A plan for optimized "where does my money go" like https://old.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/16xymii/fire_flow_chart_version_43/ (or something like it)
- Invest in bogleheads style (honestly just VT or a TDF in retirement funds)
- Be mindful of health & balancing living now vs a future we may not see
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u/KiwasiGames 1d ago
Not for me.
Since Iāve started down the path, many of the big worries are gone away.
I could be canned at work, and Iād have five years to find a new position. Wife could lose her job and weād survive on one income indefinitely. Kid could be in a major accident and be disabled for the rest of their life and we could still support them.
Any small financial emergency can be dealt with by just cutting the savings rate for a month or two.
Heck, we were even at the point last month where the wife and I were discussing straight up paying for our kids university costs upfront, eliminating the need for them to start life in debt.
Money in the bank doesnāt solve every problem. But it does solve a lot of them.
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u/gizmole 1d ago
Yeah, I never thought about it much during accumulation mode but the closer I get to retirement the more anxious Iāve become now figuring out how to keep it and spend it down properly and not run out of money. Also more fear of major market corrections than while in accumulation mode, as then they were opportunities.
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u/LouSevens 1d ago
I hadn't planned on doing FIRE I just found it after taking leave to take care of a family member. At the 15 month point I apply casually to jobs. If I gave a shit I might be more apalled at the crap that goes on.
However, when i get something, I am not going to give a shit if I get fired (no pun intended) or not. I saw plently of people at my last do jobs doing very little and somehow keeping their job.
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u/Kuildeous 1d ago
I do pay attention to my spreadsheet a lot right now. Though part of that is because I had been slacking. For years (at least a decade), I've been telling myself I really should create a spreadsheet for our expenditures. Just never did. We would spend money, and we'd put the excess into savings. Didn't really need a spreadsheet.
After I got laid off, I finally had a compelling reason (oh, and free time) to get that spreadsheet done. It was a little bit anxiety-inducing because I saw how much we had been spending, and we made some decisions that we needed to make a lot sooner. So I was obsessive over that spreadsheet, but I don't think that's a bad thing. We realized that we had been spending 85% more than we needed--mostly for stuff that didn't really matter.
After we cut back, we evaluated if I even needed to find another job. Turned out I didn't. Then we evaluated if my wife needed to keep working. She did not, but she delayed her retirement until after she got her annual bonus. Also, we need to consider health insurance, and by retiring in April, that allowed us to make use of the ACA.
Now the anxiety on spending is over. Judging from our assets, we can actually spend more than we need, which we likely will in 2027 when we have all our finances sorted out in a permanent manner.
The biggest source of anxiety I experienced--that I'm sure you will have to contend with--was making sure we were ready to retire. That was the hardest decision in both our lives. Because once I pull that trigger, I can't really go back. Oh sure, I might be able to get a job in my 60s if my money situation suffers, but how likely is it that I can find a good-paying job? Highly doubtful.
No idea how to handle the stress of making that final decision other than just run the numbers until you are certain that they are solid and look great for you. One thing that helped was for me to create a spreadsheet of how much our savings would go down each month. Will we still have money in savings when I hit 59.5? My spreadsheet is actually really conservative because while I estimated a 4% annual inflation increase in my expenses, I did not account for any market returns on my cash, so my final number likely is much, much lower than reality. Like I said, I can't undo this, so I had to make sure I was set before I stopped my job hunt.
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u/MainEnAcier 1d ago
It's not about FIRE that I'm anxious (I'm confident in calculations and 4% rule) but I'm more anxious about visa rules.
All my plan is based on going in SEA, because only there I can make a month with 600 euro.
But if visas are getting harder to get, for me it will go to an end and fail.
It's not a problem I can solve with like "oh I just need 100 or 200 more per month"
Even if I work more and get 1000 per month, the problem will remain.
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u/Sea-Honeydew-1456 1d ago
some of it has to do with "societal expectations" that you're "supposed to work till 65" and going against that.
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u/unbalancedcheckbook 1d ago
I think it's made me a lot less anxious. I never really set a particular goal (say "retire by 40"), I just set myself on a course for financial independence. And now that I am, I'm a lot less anxious about work.
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u/KungFuBucket 1d ago
I get anxiety when looking at the 90 day performance m, no so much when I look at the 1 year and 5 year performance.
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u/zeroabe 1d ago edited 1d ago
No.
I picked my dates.
Iām done in 11 years maximum. 8 years if the market blesses me. How much money I have depends on those years in the market and DCAing into in the market until then.
Whatever I have will be enough. Way less stress.
Iāll have a paid off house. Most of a paid off vacation home. About a Million in Roth 457. And a $65-75k pension. Early SS. Health care options overseas (dual citizen) and in pension. And my kids have a large chunk in their 529s that they may not need if they go to school free overseas.
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u/brianmcg321 Retired Nov 2024 1d ago
Way less. Having control over your finances and seeing your portfolio increasing every year is very empowering.
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u/BigWater7673 1d ago
Now that I have a better understanding of how money works nope... I'm less anxious. I have a fully funded emergency fund. I have a system that regularly buys shares whether the market is up ir down. Things like a large car repair bill no longer cause anxiety. Even a job loss wouldn't cause a panic. I could drive for uber and do other gig work while taking some money from savings and be ok for years.
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u/tpet007 1d ago
It makes me excited about my future far more than I ever was just scraping by. I found it right as I finally got a significant enough pay bump not to be living almost paycheck to paycheck. Instead of putting that extra towards lifestyle inflation, I put it into my brokerage accounts and trade options with it. I make a large enough return that no significant lifestyle changes below what we were accustomed to will be necessary. My parents already raised me to be very frugal, so that part is already embedded deep in my psyche and if anything I need to work on being ok with spending as I get closer to FIRE.
My wife is the one who has always been anxious and Iām doing this so that, in a few more years, neither of us will ever have to worry about having enough money ever again. Work will become optional, we will be free to do whatever speaks to us. I canāt wait!
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u/Gyalgatine 1d ago
Nah, I'm so much more secure about my financial situation now that I know the wealth engine I've built. If I really lose my job for any reason, I'm in a much safer spot. So it gives me a lot of peace of mind about slaving a way with my day job.
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u/One_ill_KevinJ 1d ago
I'd argue that FIRE makes you appropriately worried about money, job. etc.. If you live in the United States, you are surrounded by people who simply do not think about money, the fragility of their economic situation, and are happy to defer difficult decision-making until later in life - until it's too late to do anything about it.
FIRE respects the power of compound interest, and the importance of now. I think when you're new it can be expressed as anxiousness, but like working a muscle the tension and discipline FIRE forms because normal. And it feels good.
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u/KingPabloo 1d ago
Sure anxious in some ways but honestly I always felt much less anxious knowing Iāve got financial resources behind me if something bad were to happen.
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u/Prudent-Process8952 1d ago
This makes a ton of sense. I independently arrived at a ton of financial anxiety just after living in expensive cities. Iāve just found the sub Reddit but right now Iām feeling relief that thereās a community of people across different scenarios, who think similarly to meā¦
Iām not sure how much it is the sub/being in these communities versus a permanent issue of once, you see what might be possible in terms of freedom in the future being able to unsee thatā¦
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u/Actual-Method-7794 1d ago
Exact opposite for me. Has taken away big chunk of worries. I probably check market/accounts 1x or 2x a month. I had to convince myself that everything will be ok in the long run before getting to this stage.
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u/Appropriate-Cry-8423 1d ago
Sometimes itās stressful having literally every dollar accounted for until 2036 and knowing I have to play a flawless game and maybe not eat sometimes
(since patched as Iām starting donating plasma for another 50$).
But then I hear my 22 year old coworker say something like hey I bought another Harley and then it dosnt seem so bad
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u/TechnicalSleep7501 1d ago
I am on road to create financial empire. I am doing the leg work for it so all my future generation have comfortable easy life even after I am gone.
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u/Walmart-Shopper-22 1d ago
Did the rest of your life stay the same during this time period? I am more anxious than I was 10 years ago, but I also now have kids, a mortgage, a stay-at-home spouse, and tech is doing continual layoffs. I don't think aggressively saving money is the cause of my anxiety.
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u/StrawberriKiwi22 1d ago
Iām not anxious about it, but I spend too much time on financial topics, obsessing over strategies for withdrawals and taxes and inheritances and all sorts of things. 20 years ago when I was just working a teacher job, I just basically spent less than I made and probably didnāt even know the balance of my 403b, and maybe only had a super-general idea of the amounts in my other accounts, glancing at my quarterly paper statements. And blissfully unaware of how the market was doing. I didnāt panic in 2008, because I probably didnāt even know anything was going on.
Now in retirement I probably give an hour of brain-time per day on finance. I find it interesting, and like to help people with questions, but itās honestly too much.
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u/AdAgile9604 1d ago
I stopped being anxious and living life coz I donāt know what can happen in the next minute
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u/oran12390 1d ago
Moreso neurotic than anxious. Before fire with a stable income I didn't think much about money. Now I'm very invested in finances and the stock market in particular. The stock market I enjoy following but some of the finance stuff is a bore.
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u/Doc-Zoidberg 1d ago
I was worried sick when I had nothing.
Now I worry much less about money. I would say its an acceptable or "normal" level of worry. Healthy worry.
I'd much rather worry about working till im 60 instead of 55 than worry if I can afford to eat or stay warm.
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u/Weak_Preparation7223 1d ago
I am approaching my fire goals and quickly moving from anxiety fill days to my new IDGAF me. I'm enjoying it.
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u/Future-Account8112 1d ago
Stop looking at the market and get actual hobbies that have nothing to do with money. This is the only way.
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u/liftylouwho 1d ago
Yes. Iām making and saving more money than ever and Iām terrified of losing my job. It was easy to move on to another job before building a career that you feel like could just come crashing down and youād have to start again several steps down.
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u/Aevaris_ 1d ago
If the concept makes you anxious or your more goal oriented, just make a budget. You can spend X eating out. That way each purchase doesn't need to bother you if it's within the budget. This will also help ease you into retirement when you'll need to do that anyway.
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u/speed12demon FIRE by 2027? 23h ago
When you have 10k invested, a 20% market dip is only 2k. When you have a million invested....
It's risk tolerance that makes me anxious. On paper I know what I can handle. But none of us are machines (yet), and paper losses cause a reaction.
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u/jcwillia1 22h ago
the actual thing I'm wokring towards is freedom from fear of needing to work for money
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u/Grand-Ambition3215 21h ago
The truth is that it does make you feel anxious regularly until you reach a certain number where you feel like you can survive if faced with adversity and as the number keeps growing, financial anxiety loses itās grip.
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u/katelynn2380210 20h ago
I get more nervous any time I am not working. I am close to fire and itās the hardest the last 4-5 years especially as kids grow up.
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u/bigfishgril 11h ago
Yes. I have found the tail is wagging the dog way too much. When I first started out I just saved what I didn't spend because I didn't want to spend that much. I got in to FIRE because I grew up in a household that thought about money a lot and I never wanted to think about money and somehow I think about money more now than when I first found out about this!
This sub doesn't like to hear this but the person who has a good attitude and doesn't care about getting fired because they are confident in themselves probably lives a better life than the anxious person who gets to retire at 40. There are all different kinds of freedom and I don't think this sub does a good job with balance and realizing there are other paths.
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u/js_skinder 10h ago
Went through the exact same arc. The tracking that was supposed to give me control turned into checking net worth twice a day and feeling worse either direction it moved. Cutting to once a month was the single biggest change.
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u/ThereforeIV š Aspiring Beach Bum šļø...; CoastFIRE++ 1d ago
Does FIRE make you more anxious?
The opposite....
There was a time in my life when I didn't think much about money.
I started off at the level of poverty where "not thinking about money" meant not eating and being homeless...
I worked, I spent, I saved. I wasn't anxious about money, becoming FI, retirement, etc. I just lived life.
That is living through an era without too much ongoing difficulty.
I am going to guess you started your career after the "Great Recession". Those of us that had to work through the Great Recession where getting layed-off was nearly annual occurrence, didn't get the luxury to just never worry about money.
Since discovering FIRE I've become much more anxious about money, job, etc. Yes, I have definitely grown my net worth compared to my carefree past, but I have become so much more anxious.
The issues were always there, now you are just aware of them.
Anyone else like this? What did you do to reduce the anxiety?
Having over $1MM in my Retirement Portfolio reduces my anxiety. Getting layed-off is an inconveniences to my plans, not a crisis for paying the bills.
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u/Hot-Pin-8432 1d ago
For me this is very similar to setting up a gym routine. If Iām responsible for the planning, daily workout, getting to the gym, adhering to the workout I write and think about it all day before I get to the gym, then I donāt do as well.
Instead I pay a bit extra and go to class based gyms mixed lifting and cardio. I donāt think about it before I show up. I book into the class time days in advance. Zero anxiety and my consistency has never been better.
I know this about myself now and apply the same principles to finance. Auto investing, review budgets only once at the end of a month. Re run a FIRE calculation maybe every 6 months. Not a whole lot to think about most of the time.
Figure out what works best for you!
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u/SmolderingCactus 1d ago
lol cmon man. If it makes you anxious maybe stop? Donāt fire? Just go back to whatever feels best for you. Honestly some of these questions are quite dumb and I generally support the notion that there are no dumb questions
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u/taker223 57m ago
Yes but it is inevitable when you have a lot of money. There's a thing called inflation. Poor suffer from it but do not understand it.
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u/Funsternis1787 1d ago
Yes, and I spend way too much time in my spreadsheet š