This post was inspired by Joshua Sheat’s Radical Personal Finance podcast episode.
In the episode Joshua talked about how he faced a crossroads a few years ago.
He could continue working in financial services and saving aggressively towards financial independence…or, he could quit his job and start building the life he wanted at that very moment.
If you have no idea what Financial Independence (or FIRE for short) is, read my post about the secret cult of young people who retire early.
Joshua ultimately quit his job and launched the Radical Personal Finance podcast.
His life now and his life when he would have hit that target FIRE savings amount are actually not that much different from each other.
He figured out how to earn a living from his passions and earns enough to sustain the lifestyle that he wants.
All of you FIRE folks reading this post, really think about that.
He ultimately got his FIRE life now without having to put his head down and keep doing something that he didn’t want to do for years.
The Art of Achieving FIRE without Actually Achieving FIRE
I’m going to coin the term “Fake FIRE-ing” to describe what he’s done.
I say “Fake FIRE-ing” with some jest and serious respect. I love what Joshua has done.
The concept reminds me of something I read in a Tim Ferriss book:
“Think of where you want to be in 10 years. Now let’s say someone puts a gun to your head and you have 6 months to get there. How would you do it?”
Sometimes I think that we’re creating self-imposed hardship by pushing our dream life out into the future instead of taking the time and the risk to build it today.
Ms. Montana – Another Member of the Fake-FIRE club?
Ms. Montana from Montana Money Adventures took a similar approach.
I’ve been following her blog for awhile now and was happy to see her guest post on The 1500 Days to Freedom blog.
The cool thing about Ms. Montana (and what makes her different from many other FIRE bloggers) is that she didn’t wait until she saved this massive amount of money to enjoy her life.
She also never made a crazy-high salary and made some unconventional career choices along the way (like taking multiple mini-retirements instead of continuing to build her savings).
After reaching $2,450 in passive income, investments of $180,000, and about $50,000 in cash savings, she decided she was “work optional.”
She now has the freedom to start her own business and spend time with her husband and 5 kids.
We recently talked with Mrs. Montana about her life on our podcast. Check it out here.
Can I Fake-FIRE Right Now?
Reading her story and her numbers, made me think.
Wait a second. Could I “fake-FIRE” right now?
I’m earning $1500 per month in passive income on this blog and have close to the amount of savings that Ms. Montana outlines.
I’m comfortable moving to a low cost of living area and have a supportive partner.
Why not?
I probably could become work optional right now if I wanted to.
March Blogging Income Report – $1498
February Blogging Income Report – $1501
But I’m Not Going to Do That Just Yet
Ultimately, I’m choosing to continue to build my career and saving over Fake FIRE-ing, but I have to admit, this podcast episode certainly made me think.
I have a great career that I love and genuinely enjoy.
It’s comforting to know that I have more choices than I realize however.
Can You Truly Live Like You’re FI Without A Safety Net?
Now of course, when you’re fake FIRE-ing, you don’t have the safety net of huge savings to fall back on…but maybe that’s OK?
There are many ways to make a sustainable living doing something that makes you happy.
It kind of makes me rethink the meaning of financial independence.
Thanks to Joshua Sheats and Ms. Montana for the mind-trip.
I’d love to hear in the comments – How could you achieve your dream life right now if you had to? What do you think of fake-FIRE-ing?
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I’m going to have to check out that podcast! Sounds right up my alley!
I would have to agree with Joshua that this is the exact life I would live even with the 4% rule. We might make money, only if it’s for things we would do for free. If it’s 100% stuff we love, are passionate about, leverages our unique skills, adds balance to our lives, creates impact, ect then we will do it. If not….life is too short.
I joke about the fact I might hire a housekeeper, but my goal is to have 100% of the moments of my day doing things I’m excited about. And well, I’ve just never been excited about deep cleaning! 😉 Of all the ways we spend our time, that’s the last bastion of “Ugh” activities. 🙂
Thanks for the shout out! I think people’s ideal lifestyle is closer than they might think.
I will “fake-FIRE” in a few years. I would love to do it sooner but it will take more money than I’ve got on hand right now. A few more years of bringing in the big bucks and I’ll be set! Very inspiring stories from both people!
I love that you’re taking in another angle of FIRE and writing about it. Although my income is only 60% backed by passive income, I only work 6-10 hours a week as a freelancer which enables me to travel the world, support my wife, eat out 1-2 a day and live a life like I’m retired.
Working hard on making my income 100% passive which should happen within the next year without me having to work harder than 6-10 hours a week.
Don’t know if you’ve read The Fastlane Millionaire by M. J. DeMarco but he has some very cool thoughts on creating a lifestyle business.
Actually fake fire is not retiring but not having a string emphasis on making huge money. I term this as Financial security, where your Wealth Machine(s) is able to generate money to provide wealth cash flows that covers basic annual survival expenses. This explanation is more comfortable to geeks haha.
With wealth machines backing you up, you actually can live a more deliberate life chasing jobs that are at the sweet spot more.
This is such a good mindset to be in – the moment I looked at my savings and thought ‘not great, but good enough to quit and work towards a location/financial independent lifestyle,’ more and more opportunities presented themselves to me to make this lifestyle possible.
Sometimes it takes that fearless mentality to strike out to really see what is out there. Great post J!
This concept of Fake FIRE is a tempting one. From an investment and cash standpoint I’m in a pretty good position. I need to work on the passive income to help make this a reality. Could you consider yourself a fake FIREer if you quit your “corporate” job and go into a much less demanding job that requires less of your time? Maybe that would be considered a baby step toward fake FIRE, and fake FIRE is a baby step to full-fledged FIRE?
Nice write up!
Thanks! Yeah, that’s a good point. Although, how job-y is the job? I think part of the Fake-FIRE appeal is valuing time over money.
Stumbled upon this article, and you for the first time. I’m on the journey too! My family of five is hoping quit our 9-5 in about a year and half! We have been working on real estate passive income and now I have started blogging. Our journey has been interesting, low income, with a year of traveling stuck in there. We could of easily fake FIREd earlier if it wasn’t for the kids I think. Looking forward to not working for anyone else! 🙂
Congrats! Sounds like you’re on the path and will be there shortly!
This is also a great option to keep in mind. You dont have to push until you hit your fire dream number to retire early. I think many people have side hustles and part time passions that can earn some money while giving you more free time. Save up a good base amount with some passive income then use your side hustle money to supplement it. Get some self control and make some lifestyle adjustments (which are probably better for you anyway.) You can likely retire a lot earlier from full time work than you would have believed.
Being FI as early as possible is a great pursuit for almost anybody but I don’t think retiring early is always preferable to a J-O-B. I loved my work for 35 years. All at the same company, and it felt like my extended family. It paid extremely well in terms of compensation but it also gave me confidence and strokes and affirmation and purpose and a creative outlet. Being in charge of a billion dollars worth of equipment and hundreds of people was fun most of the time. And then when we were eventually bought out and the culture changed and I stopped having fun I was able to retire and walk away with complete confidence in my finances. But even then I created four side gigs that continue to pay well and continue to give me the things my career had previously, only I work half a week or less now. I have lots of hobbies that I share with my wife but I still need that structure that work demands of me so I’m glad I was able to craft my own retirement career. My point is that being FI allows you to be your best self, whether that is living on a sailboat or continuing to do fulfilling work. It is the freedom to change your life at will that is so priceless. Thanks.
I completely agree. So glad that you were able to find happiness in both career and life!
You re also keeping yourself really busy Tim Ferris made financial independence sound kind of awful because his definition was summer vacation that never ended you re still working hard!
I mean, faking it is also pretty much what I chose to do There’s no way I could putz around like I do in Arizona if I was still living in California. I mean – I could – but it would be so much more financially foolish to do so.
The difficult part for me to tell myself it’s perfectly ok to just not pursue money. As much as I tell myself that it’s okay to “not be productive”, i seem to end up doing something that brings in some cash which is why I think it’s so insane that some people are ultra conservative and stick with jobs they say they despise. If they love their job – that’s totally different.
I think some of us are just wired to believe that leisure time = lazy and it’s really hard to shake multiple decades of social conditioning.
One of my earliest blog posts is actually on this exactly thing – but I love the term “fake FIRE.” My favorite way to look at it is: what would you do differently if you won the lottery? If your life would be significantly different than it is now, what can you change to get closer to that?
I took an 8 month sabbatical 3 years ago and have never regretted it. It gave me time to work on personal projects, spend time with family and simply do nothing. Love the term fake-fire!
It was so great I plan to do it again!
That is our plan for now. We will save up until a certain date, and RE. The plan is to keep going minimal work so that we can love without touching what we have saved until we reach FI!