January 21, 2017
Have you ever talked to your coworkers or friends about finances? How to invest in the 401k, how strapped for cash they are, or some unexpected expense they don’t have the money for, even though they drive a $40,000 Jeep Wrangler.
As you learn more about personal finance, budgeting, paying off debt, and improving your credit score in the pursuit of financial independence, you’ll come to realize that you’re the expert at personal finance.
Just like potitics, most people avoid bringing up conversations about money or personal finance. If you’re absolutely dead set on talking to family, friends, and coworkers about achieving a financially independent lifestyle, test the waters first. Talking about retirement as if it’s possible, finding out what age a person plans to retire at, taking note of their lifestyle habits are easy ways to determine their financial mindset. Common responses to questions about retirement include “I’ll never be able to retire”, jokes about winning the lottery, and too many bills to even think about retiring. These are not going to be the people receptive to you and your money saving ways.
Unfortunately, family and friends can be haters, telling you your head is up in the clouds and you’ll never reach your lofty retirement pipe dream. Use this to fuel your pursuit of FIRE and once you reach it, don’t tell them. They’ll be jealous, expect you to pay for dinner, dessert, and coffee, because they have this illusion that you’re “rich”. The truth is, you’re just good with money. When you tell them how you did it, they’re not going to be open to cutting their expenses. If they accept that you were able to retire, because you saved your money, then you weren’t enjoying life and missed out on everything fun.
If a coworker eats out everyday, drives a fancy car, or wears new and expensive clothes, they’re not focusing on achieving a high savings rate. This doesn’t make them a bad person, they’re simply enjoying the consumer lifestyle they were taught to pursue. Spend now, save never. If you’re saving money, then you’re just the office cheapskate.
Finding people to talk about FIRE with in person is incredibly rare and it’s just better to keep your mouth shut.
Places to talk about FIRE:
As you come to realize people are so entrenched in the consumer lifestyle they can’t fathom the idea of saving money you’ll look for places to bounce ideas off of other like minded people. Below, you’ll find links to communities that share your goal of financial independence.
reddit.com/r/personalfinance - this subreddit became a part of the front page and the quality has dipped, but it can be a good place to start out. Since reaching the frontpage the quality of the audience has lessened and many of the people posting don’t bother searching for previous posts and not as knowledgeable as the other communities, but it’s a good place to learn some of the basics. Take any advice received here with a grain of salt.
reddit.com/r/financialindependence - r/FI is a great place to bounce ideas off others, talk about financial decisions or ideas, and celebrating everyone’s achievements. It’s a great group where people cheer for the guy that’s 35 years-old and has a $0 net worth after being over $100,000 in debt, the 24 year-old female that reached a $25,000 net worth, someone hitting the million dollar mark, or becoming FI. Some users who retired early will give insight, share their journey, and how rewarding it is to retire early . There’s a daily FI thread where you can ask how others have handled things or get their viewpoint on this. However, this is reddit and some of the comments can be from trolls or knowledgeable people. Take what you read with a grain of salt, not gospel.
reddit.com/r/leanfire: The community here is similar to r/FI, but without the lofty goals. Rather than retiring on yearly income of $50,000, retiring on a $1 million+, these folks are usually aiming for a retirement income around $30,000 or a $500,000 retirement fund. Whether it’s retiring sooner or living with less, it’s a great place for those with lower incomes. It’s less active, due to the smaller audience, but is still high quality.
Boglehead forums: Bogleheads are people that subscribe to John Bogle’s philosophy of simple investing in passively managed index funds. This forum is really helpful for opinions on your best investing options. They share a similar mindset of investing and can help guide you to the best funds for you. There are also local chapters that you may be interested in meeting up with.
Bigger Pockets: This community is less intuitive than the easy to follow reddit communities, but it can be an incredible wealth of information for real estate investments, people looking to become real estate investors, and more.
Mr Money Mustache forum: Affectionately referred to as “mustachians”, this community enjoys finding ways to reduce their spending, their carbon footprint, and shorten the time it takes to reach FIRE.
As you get more comfortable managing your finances and discussing the ideas involved with FIRE, you’ll come to realize that you’re the money expert in the room. Others may give advice and mean well, but they’re focused on acquiring stuff, not wealth. Realize that reaching financial independence is possible and you don’t have to work until the ridiculous average retirement age of 67.
Have you tried talking about finances with family, friends, or coworkers? How did it turned out?