Everyone's dream life looks different
FIRE advice can help (and usually does) most people reach their financial goals faster. Max out the 401k, maximize your taxes, reduce spending, etc. Spending is probably the area where people deviate the most - as they should - because everyone's dream life looks different.
I'll use myself as an example. My dream is nice home in a very expensive suburb that I raise a few kids in. Average home price is around $500,000 and mandatory property taxes average about $10,000 per home. I'll have a car and probably cable too.
You're probably thinking 1 of 2 things:
- (FIRE Folks) GASP! WTF! This isn't FIRE at all! He's not going to ride his bike and cut the cord? Why doesn't he move to a better area to improve his financial situation! Such consumption! SIN!
- (Biglaw/high income types) - Eh, $500,000 home isn't too bad, but you can't even buy a decent Manhattan 1BR with that. If you really worked you could probably make partner and rake in millions.
So where does all that leave us? Right back to the end of that first paragraph - everyone's dream life looks different. I have a big family who I love and they all live within a 15 minute radius in those expensive suburbs. Do I wish they all moved to a lower cost of living area? You bet. But they aren't, and my dream life includes being part of that large group of loving, crazy, probably borderline alcoholic people that gather almost weekly. I want my kids to have those strong family ties too, because I think it's a great sense of belonging.
As for the other parts - it's not a particularly bike-friendly area and my wife loves cable. The point is, that's my dream life. Along with not being at my desk or on my laptop doing legal work 12 hours a day of course. Yours might be different. Maybe you have a small family and they're really spread out, or maybe you're passionate about travel and want to live in a new place each year. The point is that you need to have a clear view of what that dream life is, so you can make some reasonable attempt at calculating how much money you'll need to live it. For me? My wife loves her career and will work until her generous pension kicks in, which leaves me needing to contribute about $60,000 annually. As you probably know, using the 4% rule, I need to amass $1.5M to walk out on mandatory work.1
That's me. Maybe you only spend $20k a year in Colorado and you can bail after $500k. That works too. But you should look in the mirror - not online or at the water cooler in your office - to figure out what your dream life looks like. This way you can crunch some numbers and set a REAL goal that you'll actually be happy with when you achieve it. During that look in the mirror, think critically about what you NEED to be happy forever, because I'd bet a lot of stuff is kinda BS. I know I NEED a nice home in specific location. I don't NEED a Lexus, 12 designer custom suits, a 4 DVR box cable plan, or 2 vacations to the same beach in Puerto Rico every year. In fact, I don't even really want any of that stuff. And I bet if you think about it, neither do you; especially if it adds a decade at your job to the tab. So don't let your officemate tell you people that don't own boats by 30 are failures, and don't let FIRE twitter (which is generally awesome!) tell you that you shouldn't plan for owning a car or two one day. Decide for yourself and get excited because once you have a dream life, you can start calculating that number. And once you have that number, the end of mandatory work is in sight, and that dream life you've concocted is within your reach - if you can be diligent for the next decade or so.
Footnotes:
1. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/05/29/how-much-do-i-need-for-retirement/