In 2014, I discovered the FIRE movement—Financial Independence, Retire Early—and it completely changed my life. At the time, I was drowning in burnout from my medical career. FIRE gave me a roadmap out. It helped me organize my finances, build a safety net, and eventually walk away from a profession that no longer brought me joy. FIRE, in many ways, saved me.
But over time, something shifted.
The more I wrote books, blog posts, and spoke publicly about money and meaning, the more I began to feel at odds with the very movement that gave me my start. I began to ask myself a hard question:
Am I anti-FIRE?
The answer is: not exactly. I’m not anti-FIRE. But I am anti-making-FIRE-the-endpoint. Because somewhere along the way, FIRE stopped being a launchpad for people’s dreams and started becoming the dream itself. And that’s where I believe we’ve gone off track.
So today, I want to share three ways I think the FIRE movement gets it wrong—and how we can course-correct before we burn out chasing financial independence.
1. FIRE Makes Money the Goal Instead of the Tool
The biggest misstep the FIRE community makes is turning money into the destination, rather than the means.
I talk a lot about purpose—specifically, “little p” purpose: the things that light us up, the pursuits that feel meaningful even if they don’t make headlines. That’s where true happiness lives. Purpose + meaning = fulfillment.
But FIRE often treats money as the purpose, not the path to purpose.
It’s easy to get caught up in numbers: net worth targets, 4% rule withdrawal rates, tax optimization. But money, in and of itself, is a weak stand-in for a life well-lived. It’s just a tool—meant to buy us time, space, energy, and (occasionally) the right equipment to pursue what matters most.
Of course, for some people, money management is their “little p” purpose. They love spreadsheets, financial coaching, or building systems to help others thrive. And that’s great.
But for the rest of us? FIRE should be the scaffolding that supports a meaningful life—not the structure itself.
2. Perfect Is the Enemy of Good
Here’s another issue: FIRE has a perfectionism problem.
Once people dive into the movement, they get lost in the weeds—agonizing over the ideal time to convert their Roth IRAs, or switching bank accounts every quarter to chase high-yield savings rates. Remember the iBond frenzy? People were obsessed… until the rates dropped and we all moved on.
All that optimization can feel productive, but in the big picture, it barely moves the needle. Worse, it distracts from the deeper, harder questions we need to be asking ourselves:
• What do I want to do with my time?
• What brings me joy?
• How can I use my freedom to contribute meaningfully?
You don’t need a flawless financial plan to live a good life. You need a good enough plan—and the courage to act on it.
3. FIRE Lets Us Avoid the Hard Stuff
This is the most subtle, and maybe the most dangerous, trap of the FIRE mindset:
It lets us avoid the hard emotional work.
Building up your net worth? Tracking expenses? Creating investment spreadsheets? That’s tangible. It’s manageable. You can see your progress and feel in control.
But asking yourself who you really want to be, and what kind of legacy you want to leave behind? That’s terrifying. There’s no spreadsheet for that.
And so, we defer those questions. We stay in the realm of numbers because it’s easier than confronting the messy uncertainty of purpose and identity.
But here’s the thing: if we spend all our time optimizing finances and never look inward, we risk becoming financially independent and emotionally bankrupt.
FIRE, as it’s commonly practiced, can become a mirage—offering the illusion of security while distracting us from the deeper work of becoming ourselves.
So… Am I Anti-FIRE?
No. I believe in the power of financial independence. I believe it’s a vital first step in reclaiming your life from burnout and scarcity. It gave me the breathing room to discover who I really was outside of my career.
But FIRE is a framework, not a finish line.
Money is not your purpose. It’s the tool that lets you go find it. The FIRE movement gets it wrong when it stops at wealth accumulation and forgets to ask: Now that I have my time back, what will I do with it?
The harder work—the more meaningful work—is answering that question.
Final Thought
If you’re early on your FIRE journey, great. Learn, plan, and build. But keep your eye on the bigger picture.
And if you’ve already crossed the threshold into financial independence? It might be time to stop asking, How can I save more money? and start asking, How can I spend my life better?
Because the real goal isn’t to retire early.
It’s to become the person you were always meant to be.
Did you catch this week’s episode of Earn & Invest (Click to listen)?
The Purpose Code is Now Available!
The hard stuff after FIRE is first recognizing that you are likely no longer middle class (or never were actually middle class). Once I learned that most financial media is written for middle class by middle class, I had a big “ah-ha” moment. It helped me a lot to know that many middle-class people are motivated by fear—particularly fear of loss, instability, and social descent. There is a lot of focus on what other middle class and lower working class are doing. Conformity and compliance are rewarded. To many in the middle class, it is as if the upper class is a different species. My middle class friends see the risks I’ve taken after FIRE as dangerous, abnormal and foreign. After I’ve had so much success, why would I get rid of so many of the markers for financial success (e.g. home, car, executive wardrobe). In a nutshell, there’s a lot to unpack re: middle class vs upper class after achieving FIRE. Spending is just the tip of the iceberg.
Beautifully said! I sometimes feel a bit anti FIRE when I hear people getting deep in the weeds of things like withdrawal rates and Roth conversions. I feel like I want to pull them up for air, away from the spreadsheets and reinforce everything that you articulated so well. FIRE is NOT the answer. Take it off the pedestal and stop waiting to live your best life.. start living it now! Of course FIRE is a worthwhile pursuit that creates great financial habits and practices but it is not a destination - it’s a milestone along the way of your much bigger and more important journey.