The (Other)FIRE Number For Christians

The secular FIRE movement is focused around living frugally to accumulate wealth. The culmination point is reaching a predetermined amount of money in investments, often determined using the 4% rule. Saving enough money to retire years ahead of society’s schedule takes discipline, and many within the movement struggle to switch gears once they actually get to the number they were aiming for the whole time. It’s easy to fall for the siren song that you’ll really be able to rest easy after one more year on the job or one more hundred thousand dollars of savings. 

Saving for financial independence is acceptable for Christians, but hoarding money as a form of insurance is not. The difference between planning ahead for inevitable rainy days and piling up money as a substitute for trusting God is a matter of attitude. It’s not always easy to tell when we cross the line. 

Christians pursuing financial independence can avoid this trap by having two numbers: a “financial independence/retire early”– FIRE– number and a “supply total over practical”--STOP– number.

Your STOP threshold can be significantly higher than your FIRE goal, but it should be a figure that you could realistically use responsibly. If we start with the premise that all the money belongs to God, it’s obvious that we can’t hang on to excess funds as a backup for trusting God. The temptation over time to rely on our bank accounts as protection against our problems, rather than knowing that God is working constantly for our good, is too risky. Solomon asked God to grant him “neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need, or I shall be full, and deny you, and say, “Who is the Lord?” or I shall be poor, and steal” (Proverbs 30:8-9). A wise prayer for all of us. 

The Bible is full of references to the tension between responsible planning and the Christian duty to provide for family versus trusting God for our needs and not in “eagerness to be rich… wander[ing] away from the faith” (1 Timothy 6:10). Christians who seek financial independence must be extra careful to guard against love of money. All the careful tracking of account balances and focusing on financial goals puts us in danger of falling into a trap. Money is a tool; only God can provide us true security. 

Jesus’s parable about the rich man (one of many!) should ring loudly for Christian FIRErs. The wealthy man, after being blessed beyond his own plans “thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’” (Luke 12:17-18). Jesus called this man a fool, but he’s certainly easy to relate to. Today, we spend time and stress thinking about our money: how to shield it from taxes or bad economic forces. But as Jesus goes on to explain, things can change fast. No amount of earthly wealth can replace God’s plans for us, and our very lives can be over without notice. 

The rich man’s business success in this parable is not what makes him foolish. As we see throughout scripture, prudent planning and investing of our resources is God’s expectation. God often blesses Christians financially for His own purposes. The rich man in Luke 12 slips up when he hoards his crops in ever expanding barns and relies on them for his contentment. He tells himself he can relax, but not because God has blessed him and continues to care for him. He’s happy because of his stuff, but he’s lost sight of where the stuff came from. 

As you’ve probably observed, people who rely on their wealth rarely stay content for long. We all have an innate awareness that money is fickle; loss aversion is built into our DNA. Many extremely rich people lie awake at night worrying about their investments, even when potential losses would make no difference to their day to day lives. They pride themselves on their frugality when it’s really fear that motivates them, leading to cheapness: tipping poorly, whining, perhaps even unethical money saving tricks. 

There’s no obvious STOP number, but a decent rule of thumb for Christians within the FIRE movement might be about twice their FIRE number. This allows for maximum flexibility to enjoy unexpected financial blessings without unnecessary risk of becoming dependent on money instead of God. If your FIRE savings goal is $1.5 million, based on a plan to spend $60,000 per year, $3 million is a good place to say STOP. We can marvel at what God has chosen to do for us, gratefully enjoying surprise opportunities like a summer vacation in Europe or a dream kitchen renovation. There’s no need to stack up cash well beyond our reasoned calculations of what we should save for a comfortable retirement. God promises to take care of His people, and there’s no amount of money that can act as a substitute for God’s provision in case of true emergency. 

Maybe you don’t have to worry about running up against “too much” money yet– I, too, haven’t had to face that problem yet! But God often blesses us far beyond our own plans for ourselves. It’s certainly possible that upon achieving financial independence, God will allow your finances to continue growing, even beyond what you can reasonably use. The good news is… this can be a fun problem to solve!

An obvious place to start when your finances have blossomed far beyond your needs is to ramp up your generosity. We have neighbors, locally and globally, that need to experience God’s love through us. Sharing our resources without fear of running out is a key part of our testimony as Christians. We should be diligent in vetting organizations that we donate to, but we can’t get so caught up in researching budgets and agonizing over the best way to give that we delay helping our neighbors. We can also choose to share our blessings with our friends and families. Helping elderly parents pay off a mortgage, paying for a kid’s graduate school tuition, and donating to community programs that bring families together are all ways to use excess funds that otherwise might require building a larger barn.