4. WHAT IS F.I.L.L. (FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE, LIVE LIFE) or F.I.R.E. (FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE, RETIRE EARLY)?

4.WHAT IS F.I.L.L. (FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE, LIVE LIFE) or F.I.R.E. (FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCe, RETIRE EARLY) ?

 

Retiring early has nothing to do with doing nothing. It's about having control over your time to live a meaningful and happy life true to yourself.

 

What's F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement?

If you browse through internet, Facebook or Instagram, you will notice many millennials craving for a lifestyle of financial independence. 

Some young millennials have become digital nomad or full time travellers as young as late twenties or in their thirties. 

They prefer to wake up in different countries smelling fresh air of the nature and having the sea breeze brushing through their sun-kissed face than sitting in a dead-end cubicle in the office getting stuck on a mundane job. 

Have you ever wondered how they can achieve all that in such early age? 

Do you crave for that kind of lifestyle yourself?

These millennials are part of the growing F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement that’s spreading like wild fire especially in America and Europe. 

These young people are striving for financial independence so that they can retire early.

According to Wikipedia, “The F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement is a lifestyle movement whose goal is financial independence and retiring early. The model became particularly popular among millennials in 2010s. Those seeking to attain FIRE (financial independence, retire early) intentionally maximize their savings rate by finding ways to increase income or decrease expenses. The objective is to accumulate assets until the resulting passive income provides enough money for living expenses in perpetuity. Paid work then becomes optional, allowing for retirement from traditional work decades earlier than the standard retirement age.”

Wikipedia further states, “The main ideas behind the F.I.R.E. movement originate in the 1992 best-selling book Your Money or Your Life written by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, as well as the 2010 book Early Retirement Extreme by Jacob Lund Fisker. These works provide the basic template of combining simple living with income from investments to achieve financial independence. The Mr. Money Moustache blog, which started in 2011, is an influential voice that generated interest in the idea of achieving early retirement through frugality and helped popularise the movement.”

Myths about early retirement

Do I personally believe 100% in the F.I.R.E. movement? 

Yes, I do, but with a twist of my own interpretation and version.

I personally find that the term "retire early" in F.I.R.E. (financial independence, retire early) movement has given most general public a negative connotation. 

It's quite interesting to see what people have to say about early retirement. 

Some assume early retirees just sit around, do nothing, and wait for their time to die. 

Others think early retirees are being too care-free, and they won't be able to live exciting lives after they retire. 

Some even doubt the early retirees’ decision to retire early, doubting if they have saved enough money to last their lifetime. 

Some naysayers even assume early retirees just want to stop working because they are lazy.

I personally have such interesting experiences countless times as an early retiree. 

And I can testify that what most people perceive of early retirement is true. 

Don't forget that I live in beautiful Malaysia where Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad came out from his retirement to become the oldest serving state leader in the world at the age of 92 years and 304 days on 10 May 2018. 

Besides, in Asian culture, we were well taught from small to work hard for the money, to work as long as we can, to make as much as we can, and to live a great inheritance of wealth for our next generation. 

These kinds of “stereotyped” culture and value definitely make an early retiree like myself stand out even more from the millions of working adults. 

It makes the phrase "retire early" sound so negative, passive, useless and disturbing.

Some friends asked me, "You are at the prime of your career. Why did you retire so early? It's such a waste of your talent and experience. You should have continued to work to benefit the society." 

They thought I was crazy to take that leap of faith at the height of my career.

Some familiar shop owners and bank workers asked me, "Today you are not going to office? Again? Are you on leave? Again?" 

They thought I was at their premises during working hours because I was on my off days from work.

They were probably curious why I had so many annual leaves.

Some gym members looked at me curiously and asked, "How come you are in the gym at office hour? You don’t need to go to work?" 

They thought it was weird to see me in gym at the time when most office crowds had left for work. 

During those odd hours, whoever remained in gym were mainly aunties and so-called tai-tai (wives of the riches who don't have to work). 

I was the odd one. 

Some close friends were bolder. 

They took it one step further by asking more about what I do daily. 

The most common question was, “What do you do every day since now you don’t work? You sit at home, watch television and read newspaper? And you sleep the rest of the time?" 

They really thought I just sit at home, stare at the wall, look up at the ceiling, and count the number of grey hair I have on my head at home. 

Some pessimists questioned me with a great concern, "Are you double sure, tripe sure you have enough money to last your lifetime? What if you run out of all your savings before you die? What if you live a very long life until you are 100 years old? Are you losing your quality of life because you need to constantly on a saving mode to stretch your retirement money?" 

They thought I was too optimistic and naive about the future.

However, none of these common myths about early retirees are true! 

What do you do after early retirement?

I would like to take this opportunity to debunk these myths about early retirement.

I just simply can’t understand these negative perceptions about early retirement. 

I personally love the idea of people striving to retire early to live life true to themselves. 

Truly, what could make you feel better than working hard at your nine-to-five job, saving your money, investing it well, and then realizing the financial freedom so that you can quit your day job to live your dream life?

Whether you want to travel, continue working (yes, you can continue working if you choose to since there's no rule saying that you have to quit! ), spend more time with family, chase after your childhood dreams, or whatever else, retiring early gives you the ability to choose your own future. 

You control your time and your life. 

You make decisions on how you want to live your life. 

Whether you want to retire early at age 30, 40 or 50, or even 60, it's up to you. 

It depends largely on how desperate you want to be financially free and not stuck at your dead-end job, miserable with big debts, live a pay-cheque-to-pay-cheque life.

The ultimate outcome of retiring early is for you to have more time to live a meaningful life, to live a good life true to yourself, to spend more time with your loved ones, to follow your interests, to pursue your unfulfilled dreams, and so on. 

It’s not about sitting at home staring blankly at the wall, waiting for your time to die.

My twisted version: F.I.L.L. (Financial Independence, Live Life)

Hence, instead of calling it F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence, Retire Early), I personally prefer to define my own version as "F.I.L.L. (Financial Independence, Live Life)". 

F.I.L.L. sounds more fulfilling, more positive. 

F.I.L.L. focuses on the outcome - achieving financial independence to live life fully. 

Isn’t it better?

Alright, now let’s put it into right context. 

How to live a “filled”(F.I.L.L.ed) life? 

You could pursue a degree or a course in a field you are passionate about, and then take a job at the local college, educating those who are just starting out on their educational and life journeys.

You could just stay home with your beautiful children watching them grow up, instead of busy at work missing out on the most precious growing years of your children. 

You could travel around the world, experience different culture, people and food, photograph beautiful landscapes and cities, and write journals or poems. 

You could start a zero-waste non-for-profit (NGO) organisation educating your local community on how to make the world more environmentally friendly.

You could spend 3 hours running or joining group fitness classes every day without having to rush to office or back home.

As you can see, once you think of all the great possibilities in the world that you can do with the time you have without the pressure from making money, the term “early retirement” doesn't sound so negative anymore. 

Simply put, it's all about achieving your financial independence so that you can control your time and make decisions on how you are going to live your life. 

Clock is ticking. 

You and I are ageing. 

F.I.L.L. (Financial Independence, Live Life) is all about gaining control of your time. 

The earlier you gain control of your time, the more meaningful you will live your life. 

And time is more important than money. 

You buy time freedom with your money. 

And freedom is priceless. 

SECTION 1

 

ABOUT FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE

 

“When we allow our finances to control us, we give up many freedoms we value. The only way to gain those freedoms back is by taking control of our money.” 

Darron Rowley

F I L L

Financial Independence, Live Life 

 

achieving financial independence from 9-to-5 job before 50

Book manuscript written in 2020 & blog articles published in 2021 by Vincent Khor

Photo by Philipp Kämmerer on Unsplash