When I first discovered the Financial Independence, Retire Early movement—FIRE for short—I felt an overwhelming sense of abundance. The world suddenly looked wide open. If I saved aggressively, invested wisely, and hit a certain net worth number, I could design my life however I wanted. I could choose my time, my projects, my priorities.
I felt free.
But somewhere along the way, that feeling shifted. What started as abundance slowly morphed into something else: a scarcity mindset. And that’s the quiet problem with FIRE. While it promises freedom, it often trains us to think small, cautious, and constrained.
Here are the three biggest ways FIRE thinking can turn abundance into scarcity and what we can do instead.
1. FIRE Fixates on the Goal and Forgets the Present
At its core, FIRE is intensely goal-oriented. You calculate your “number,” build a plan, and then sacrifice relentlessly until you reach it. Save 20%, 30%, even 50% of your income. Cut costs. Delay gratification. Grit your teeth and push.
The problem? For most people, that journey doesn’t take five years. It takes ten. Or twenty. Sometimes thirty.
That means a huge chunk of your life is spent waiting to start living.
Yes, planning for the future is wise. But ignoring the present comes at a steep cost. We don’t know how long we’ll live. And more importantly, youth isn’t just a number—it’s a season. When you’re younger, you have more energy, more curiosity, more physical ability to explore and create and take risks. Those capacities change in your fifties, sixties, and seventies.
Why spend your best years preparing for a life you’re not actually living yet?
The shift:
Instead of building a life you’ll start someday, start building the life you want now. Ask yourself:
What does a financially independent life actually look like day to day?
How do I want to spend my time?
What feels meaningful, energizing, and alive?
Don’t wait for your net worth to give you permission to live with intention. Start practicing the life you want—now.
2. FIRE Over-Relies on Frugality Instead of Growth
The second way FIRE creates scarcity is through its obsession with frugality. Skip the latte. Cancel the trip. Use points. Hack your spending. Optimize every dollar.
Frugality isn’t bad. But when it becomes the primary strategy, it trains your brain to focus on less: less comfort, less joy, less experience.
That’s classic scarcity thinking.
What we rarely talk about is the other side of the equation: earning. An abundance mindset doesn’t just ask, “How can I spend less?” It asks, “How can I create more?”
More value. More skill. More opportunity. More income.
When you overemphasize cutting back, you can end up missing out on life and scrimping through experiences that actually make you feel alive. You save money but starve meaning.
The shift:
Instead of only pinching pennies, start expanding your capacity:
Ask for raises.
Build rare skills.
Start a side business.
Become exceptional at what you do.
Frugality is defensive. Growth is creative. Abundance lives on the creative side.
3. FIRE Turns Freedom Into Fear Through Loss Aversion
Here’s the most ironic part: even when people reach financial independence, many don’t feel free. They feel terrified.
Why? Loss aversion.
After spending years chasing a number, you become deeply afraid of losing what you’ve built. The market might crash. Healthcare might get expensive. A black swan might appear. So instead of thinking about all the possibilities your freedom creates, you fixate on everything that could go wrong.
And that leads to cautious, contracted behavior:
Working one more year. Then one more.
Choosing impossibly low “safe” withdrawal rates.
Being overly conservative with spending, investing, and life itself.
You finally reach FIRE—and then live like you’re still trying to survive.
The shift:
There is only one real solution to loss aversion in retirement: a leap of faith.
No amount of spreadsheets can eliminate uncertainty. There will always be unknowns. There will always be risk. That’s not a flaw in your plan. That’s reality.
Retirement, at its core, is an act of courage. It’s trusting that you’ve prepared enough, that you’re adaptable, and that you can respond to life as it unfolds. Not perfectly—but resiliently.
You don’t beat fear by tightening control. You beat it by accepting uncertainty and choosing to live anyway.
So What Do We Do Instead?
If FIRE can quietly push us into scarcity, how do we reclaim abundance?
Here’s the simple reframing:
Live the life you want now—not later.
Stop waiting for your net worth to give you permission to be intentional. Start practicing your ideal life today in small, real ways.
Shift from cutting to creating.
Yes, be mindful with money. But put more energy into growth than restriction. Build skills, income, and value.
Accept the leap of faith.
There is no perfectly safe path. Freedom always requires courage. Trust your preparation. and yourself.
The Real Point of Financial Independence
Financial independence is not the destination. It’s a tool.
And tools are only useful if they help you build something better.
When FIRE moves you from abundance into fear, contraction, and waiting, it’s stopped serving you. The whole purpose of money is to support life—not postpone it.
Life is about living. Not optimizing. Not hoarding. Not endlessly preparing.
Whether you reach financial independence or not, abundance is a mindset you choose daily:
To grow instead of shrink.
To trust instead of tighten.
To live instead of wait.
That’s the real independence.
The Purpose Code is Now Available!
This nails something I've been thinking about: FIRE becomes another version of the Finish Line Fallacy. You hit the number and realize the freedom you postponed for decades isn't in the portfolio. It was always in the daily decisions you were too afraid to practice. Financial independence isn't a milestone you cross. It's a mindset you live.
In many ways, you express what the Catholic Church teaches us is a holy life is. A life following Christ. For it is only being present in the moment, calm, mindful, that we can hear and see God.