Have you met people who are staunch advocates of the FIRE movement? What is your first impression of them?
How do you feel about them when they retire in their 30s or 40s, and you continue to slog every week at work?
Do you envy them? Or do you feel motivated to join the FIRE movement? Which one?
If you envy the proponents of the FIRE movement, then let me tell you that you’re making a big mistake. Jealousy and envy won’t get you anywhere. There won’t bring a positive change in your life.
If you’re inspired by the supporters of the FIRE retire early movement, then you too can join it. The dream of enjoying financial independence without doing a 9-to-5 job is truly lucrative.
I mean who would not like to lead a life on his/her terms without going to work?
However, if you’re serious about joining the Financial Independence Retire Early movement, then there are 2 things you need to be aware of.
First, it’s easy to join the Fire retirement movement but extremely tough to finish it with success. It takes a lot of planning and effort to complete the movement successfully.
Second, there are lots of mistakes that members of the FIRE movements make. These mistakes are extremely expensive and lead to human regrets for the entire life.
The concept of early retirement may sound very nice to ears, but there are a few invisible regrets that many early retirees have and would prefer not to think about when they are lonely.
These regrets are mainly due to the irreparable mistakes they have committed in their journey toward financial independence.
If you want to retire early in your 30s or 40s, then make sure you don’t make the following mistakes to avoid having huge regrets in your life.
FIRE movement mistakes to avoid
1. Not investing from an early age.
There are 2 tricks for building a nest egg fast. First, curtail your expenses. Second, earn enough money to retire at the age of 30 or 40 years.
Now, if you consider the first option, then there is one big question. How much will you curtail?
There has to be a limit on the amount you can curtail every month. You can’t go beyond that.
But is that amount of money enough for early retirement?
Think again.
It’s not that easy to increase your income given the current economic scenario. Not too many options are open for you.
However, after the ‘new normal’ becomes history and the situation revives, you can do a few side hustles to accelerate your income.
Both the tricks are good but you have to work hard and make many sacrifices.
There is yet another trick to building a nest-egg fast, and that is making smart investments.
The power of compounding interest is immense, and it can help you build a fat nest-egg by the time you turn 30 or 40 years old.
Start investing money from an early age. If you start investing money by the time you turn 30 years, then you’ll lose a lot of money and time. You’ll regret it later.
2. Getting affected by what others say.
You’ll meet many people who are against the FIRE movement.
They will say a lot of things to dissuade you from joining it. Some friends may tell you that you can never achieve this goal. If you let their words affect you, then you can never be happy.
Your minds and doubts will be full of confusion. You can never be happy and may regret your decision to retire early.
Don’t get affected by what people tell you. Build an indestructible self so that negative comments don’t affect you.
If you get swayed by what other people say, then you can’t advance fast. You won’t be able to give your 100% dedication toward achieving your goal.
3. Forgetting to enjoy the small pleasures of life.
As I said before, it’s tough to retire early. You have to save money drastically and lower your expenses. However, it is also important to enjoy small moments in your life.
Otherwise, you’ll have an unending list of regrets by the time you retire. Many early retirees were so focused on saving money that they forgot to enjoy life. Some of them even forgot to live life to make money.
Instances are not rare where it has been found that early retirees have worked 80 hours per week, changed apartments frequently, and given up all the enjoyments of life.
Don’t do this. There is no assurance that even after you retire early, all your problems in life will disappear.
Problems will still be there. The only difference is that you don’t have to go back to work at 9 am every day. But it doesn’t mean that your life will be a happy one.
So, try to enjoy your present moment because that would become history even after 1 second. Learn to enjoy the small moments of life and create happiness for yourself.
4. Make a plan for your post-retirement life.
Early retirement brings a big shift in your lifestyle. Suddenly, you don’t have to go to the office anymore. You have unlimited time at your disposal. What will you do in your free time?
Unless you create a plan for your post-retirement life, you can get into severe depression. So, sit with your family members and make a plan on how to lead your post-retirement life.
Your family members can give you a lot of information and meaningful advice. They can tell you about the things you should do after retirement.
They can give you up-to-date information on the importance of credit scores in retirement, the types of business that you can do after retirement, or the places you can visit post-retirement.
Many early retirees start doing business after retiring at the age of 30 or 40. Some of them do well and earn handsome profits.
Others get into risky business ventures due to a lack of knowledge and awareness. As such, they incur huge losses post-retirement.
Try to avoid making this kind of mistake in your life.
It’s easy to plan your schedule for the current year. However, it is equally difficult to plan for the next 30 or 40 years.
You can spend a few weeks watching web series on Netflix or Amazon Prime. But, what will you do after that?
Can you spend your entire retirement life watching Netflix for 12 hours every day? It’s absolutely not possible.
So, you need to plan your activities in your post-retirement life. You can work in charitable organizations for social causes.
Or, you can set up a small business after doing careful planning and research.
Final words on the FIRE movement
The FIRE movement is great as long as you can complete it successfully without making mistakes. Remember, mistakes will only give you regrets. Nothing else. Those mistakes may not hurt you financially.
But, they can make you lose many things that are more important than money.
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- How Much Is Enough for Retirement
- IRA cs. 401k: What Are the Key Differences?
- 401k Contributions Limits for 2020: What Are They?
Speak with the Right Financial Advisor
- If you have questions beyond the FIRE movement, you can talk to a financial advisor who can review your finances and help you reach your goals (whether it is making more money, paying off debt, investing, buying a house, planning for retirement, saving, etc).
- Find one who meets your needs with SmartAsset’s free financial advisor matching service. You answer a few questions and they match you with up to three financial advisors in your area. So, if you want help developing a plan to reach your financial goals, get started now.