More Than A Phase

Once I became convinced of the accuracy of financial independence math, I felt unstoppable. Who wouldn’t give up a few tchotchkes and restaurant meals in exchange for extra decades without an alarm clock or Friday morning meetings? The only question mark had to do with the sustainability of my new financial plan. 

Most positive lifestyle changes come with a honeymoon period. We set our gym clothes out the night before a workout so we can be ready to roll at 6:00 am. We install the calorie counting app and stay under the recommended limit for a few days or weeks. We read books, listen to motivational playlists, and annoy our friends with our newfound health/productivity/skills. It all helps, for a little while. 

For many of us, efforts to get control of our finances follow a similar pattern. We make a budget, pay off a lingering credit card or auto loan, and maybe pull together an emergency fund. Eventually, with some effort and luck, we hit our “goal weight,” and we can go back to our old ways. In fact, there were probably some expenditures that we had been putting off during the financial fast period. 

Paying off debt, improving our credit scores, and protecting our families with adequate savings are all laudable goals that require determination and sacrifice. Paired with generosity and gratitude, they put you on track for a biblically sound relationship with one of this world’s most slippery substances: money. But for those of us who take it a step further and pursue financial independence, the shift in mindset is much greater. Let’s contrast these two “good with money” approaches. 

Let’s say your goal is to pay off a credit card with a $5,000 balance. You set yourself up for success by picking a date for the final payment, and you calculate how much you’ll have to pay each month to get there by the target date. You find ways to cut back your spending each month to come up with the cash for extra payments. If everything goes according to plan, you make the last payment, take a celebratory screenshot of the $0 balance, and maybe cut up the card when you’re done so you never end up in that spot again. 

What’s the purpose of paying off that credit card? Obviously, you save a whole lot of money on interest payments to American Express. You get an endorphin rush from accomplishing a goal. You ditch the guilty feeling from knowing you owed more than you had on hand. You can now enjoy the things you own and the experiences you buy, because you know you can afford them. 

While paying off consumer debt is step one on the financial independence journey, the motivation behind the hard work of FIRE is very different. 

Let’s say you start in the same spot, with the same credit card balance. But this time, you start by reading Mammon Sense and decide that paying off the card doesn’t go far enough. Instead, you’d like to quit your job in ten years and spend the next several years working on your house, volunteering with seniors, and maybe taking some classes at the community college. But how will you possibly get from Point A to Point B?

Clearly, more drastic changes are necessary. Instead of cutting back on nights out at the bar, you may need to look into selling your car, or even moving into a different house or apartment. These kinds of changes are inconvenient and alter everything about your day-to-day life; no one starts down that path just to save a few hundred dollars on interest payments. But lots of people might swap a late model luxury SUV for a junker in exchange for five or ten years off work. 

Avoiding little temptations like a stopping at the McDonald’s drive thru is part of the FIRE journey, but certainly not the main part. You can even plan these kinds of treats in and still reach financial independence decades ahead of society’s schedule. In some ways, choosing to skip a Slurpee on a really hot day after a long run is more difficult than deciding to move to a cheaper apartment. Intellectually, it’s tough to connect missing out on a small, inexpensive pleasure with a more fulfilling life, but the opportunity cost of the SUV is starkly clear when you’ve resolved to become financially independent in just five or ten years. 

Making The Shift

Mentally shifting from “normal” goals like paying off a debt to the decidedly non-mainstream plan of retiring before acquiring a single wrinkle takes more than just dreaming big. The WHY behind the goal is the secret sauce that’s even more important than the goal itself. 

For me, faith and finances are inextricably tied together, and any money plan that doesn’t have biblical justification isn’t going to work. But the FIRE movement is full of more secular folks who achieve independence from the office years ahead of the traditional schedule, despite the fact that everyone tells us there’s no way to get ahead these days. 

One common thread I’ve noticed: successful early retirees embrace countercultural weirdness. They’re inherently minimalist when it comes to possessions. They actively enjoy decluttering their lives and clearing their calendars. 

This refreshing attitude stood out to me when I discovered the financial independence movement. These people were actually happy! I didn’t notice much grousing about cutting back on streaming services or shopping trips, because these enterprising folks were too busy excitedly line-drying their laundry or playing board games with their friends. 

This contrasted sharply with what I was used to hearing. On Facebook, I’d see lots of posts about how hard it is to get ahead because of home prices/politicians/capitalism. Embarrassingly, the loudest complainers always seemed to be posting this stuff at 11 am on a weekday, when I would think most people trying to buy a house or start a family should be at work. 

I recently saw a Reddit post in which a couple of forty-something parents were seeking advice. They were considering moving, but one of their adult kids was still living at home and didn’t want to move. The parents wanted to pay a deposit and a couple months of rent to move him into his own apartment so they could get started on their retirement party. The commenters ravaged these parents, but their ire wasn’t focused on how long the kid should be allowed to stay home. Instead, these complete strangers, with no access to this couple’s financial statements, were positive that the original posters couldn’t possibly have calculated their budget correctly, because of course it’s for anyone to be able to quit paid employment before the age of 65. 

This kind of reaction underscores the appeal of the FIRE movement for more optimistic people like me. Because it’s not impossible to save and invest enough to quit your job early. I can’t run a marathon right now, but I recognize that’s not because running 26.2 miles is impossible. I could put in the work and get it done. And for those of us fortunate enough to be living and working in the United States right now, moving up the ranks in employment, negotiating raises, and consciously choosing to spend less and invest wisely is very possible. 

So on possible motivation: proving the haters wrong. This is deceptively simple, but it works. 

Why Are We Even Doing This?

Planning and anticipating a vacation can often be just as fun as the trip itself. Aspiring FIRErs can kick their savings rates into high gear just by visualizing the finish line. 

To sustain long term motivation, the goal has to be worthwhile and wholesome. Years of fantasizing about cursing out an awful boss before squealing tires out of the company parking lot is just wasted mental space. 

Fortunately, financial independence is a journey, and there’s lots of time along the way to think about what you’ll do with an extra forty or so hours each week. Finally getting your house organized or actually signing up for that yoga class are reasonable places to start, but not nearly enough. 

For Christians like me, the only correct purpose of our time on earth is to glorify God. We should be aiming for that whether we’re planning to work in retail forever or already years into retirement. 

In The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis’s diabolical speaker instructs his inferior to promote “the curious assumption [of] ‘My time is my own’” in the human he’s tempting. “Let him feel as a grievous tax that portion of this property which he has to make over to his employers, and as a generous donation that further portion which he allows to religious duties,” says the senior devil. This gets to the core of what Christians must guard against, especially those of us who choose to sacrifice buying more stuff in exchange for gaining more time outside the workplace. 

Though I’m still years away from financial independence, I still enjoy thinking about what I might do with an extra forty or more hours in the week. My garden will look awesome! More kids, maybe? I can take voice lessons again and still have plenty of time for reading and volunteering. 

But the exciting (and scary) truth is that I don’t know what God’s plan for my time is. If I go through this exercise of saving and investing with the purpose of banking “free time,” I’m going to end up with a whole lot of uninsured deposits. 

The financially independent Christian isn’t motivated by a desire to live an obligation-free life. Instead, she is laser focused on a goal of being able to spend all her time on her true purpose: the glory of God. I’m resting on the belief that whenever I end up retiring, God will make it abundantly clear how I should be spending “my” time.