This trend reminds me a bit of the 1960s and ‘70s when my generation, then young, sought to move to Vermont and raise our own food, cut our own firewood and live independently off the grid.
This time, though, it’s Millennials burned out at jobs they hate, calculating with advanced math skills, that if they had $1 million and lived really really frugally, and prayed that the stock market kept going up, they could move out of their expensive urban apartments, move to an inexpensive community and enjoy their lives.
The trend is called FIRE – financial independence, retire early. I learned all this from a story in the New York Times. Read it here.
But all this is too late for me. Besides, I loved my job and felt that I was helping others lead better lives as a result of the explanatory journalism I was doing. I wouldn’t have traded that in for retirement at 35. And like those people we met who had gone to Vermont to be self-sufficient, we saw them burn out after they realized how hard it is.
I wonder if these folks embracing FIRE will find it too boring. Or maybe just not meaningful enough
This time, though, it’s Millennials burned out at jobs they hate, calculating with advanced math skills, that if they had $1 million and lived really really frugally, and prayed that the stock market kept going up, they could move out of their expensive urban apartments, move to an inexpensive community and enjoy their lives.
The trend is called FIRE – financial independence, retire early. I learned all this from a story in the New York Times. Read it here.
But all this is too late for me. Besides, I loved my job and felt that I was helping others lead better lives as a result of the explanatory journalism I was doing. I wouldn’t have traded that in for retirement at 35. And like those people we met who had gone to Vermont to be self-sufficient, we saw them burn out after they realized how hard it is.
I wonder if these folks embracing FIRE will find it too boring. Or maybe just not meaningful enough
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