Below is a checklist to see if you have reached peak FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) status yet.
1. You frequently pull out Buffet quotes
2. You are a master at making others feel bad for buying a nice car/house, or any other nice thing that will slow down the journey to FI
3. You use the phrase “Journey to FI”
4. You have 12 side hustles, and even side hustles for your side hustles.
5. Every time someone buys something you reply with “do you know how much that money will be in 30 years if you saved it instead?”
6. You tell people how FIRE can be achieved, 10 years before you have achieved it yourself.
7. You track your spending to the cent
8. You have panic attacks at the thought of not investing in index funds
9. You can’t believe people haven’t heard of Mr Money Mustache
10. You fight people on the internet who don’t hold your views
11. You are never too embarrassed to take a doggy bag
12. Your friends and family think you are cheap. You say you’re a valuist
13. You aren’t afraid to call yourself retired even if you rely on your partner working
14. You track your net worth monthly
15. You have spreadsheets for your spreadsheets
16. If you realise traditional FIRE is not for you, you make up a new FIRE, like Slow FIRE or homeless FIRE.
17. You know everything, and no financial adviser could ever help you.
18. You cannot stand Dave Ramsey
19. Your shopping trolley looks like that of a University student
20. You received great support and education in your formative years and believe anyone can achieve FIRE. Anyone who can’t is a deadbeat.
There you have it. My top 20 list of how to know you have made it as a FIRE guru.
If you score less than 10 you are a FIRE fraud.
In case anyone is triggered, this is tongue in cheek. I thought I should say as you can never tell how serious people can take things these days.
Happy Waitangi day.
Did I miss anything? Should there be any other indications of whether someone is a FIRE guru?