I normally like your articles Tim, but this one is mostly hyperbole and surface-level. Unless it's targeted towards extremist FIRE advocates who are glorified hipsters camping in tents.
I came upon the FIRE movement in my early 20s and it's definitely changed my life for the better. I was able to realize many of life's truths and stepped off the corporate hamster wheel (Wall St and Silicon Valley in my case).
My FIRE journey is an antithesis to everything you've written in this article, hence I feel like I must respond in the comments.
I hit my FIRE target at age 31 as a multi-millionaire living in downtown NYC (no debt, own my Manhattan property outright), and I'm happily living off truly passive income. Although I haven't taken a paycheck in 1.5 years, I still "work" purely for fun as a part-time fintech advisor for startup equity (0.5-1.0% typically). But most of the time I live as a philosopher and modern day renaissance man pursuing eclectic hobbies.
I am one of those "Lambo millionaires" you refer to, except I don't own a car (I live in NYC) and FIRE changed my mindset away from bullsh*t materialism to focus only on things important to me.
FIRE is not caveman living, my life is a testament to that. FIRE is mostly growth mindset, it's only partially "scarcity" when it comes down to cutting down mindless materialism, but much of FIRE involves earning as high an income as you can in your early 20s and 30s. FIRE does involve index funds for most people, but again it comes down to common sense diversification (as with all things in life), so many FIRE advocates are heavily involved in alternative assets and non-index investments (crypto, yield farming/staking, real estate, income funds, high dividend stocks, etc.).
In summary for most FIRE proponents - it's about making a boatload of money and having the mindset to save most of it so that you can give more weight to the most important currency - Time (and it's subcurrency of Attention). There will always be extremists that live in tiny homes and only buy used furniture, but they do not represent the majority of the FIRE community. Most of us are high-wage earners in tech, banking, medical fields earning $250K-$500K+ annually, but we've saved the majority of our income instead of spending it on a models-and-bottles lifestyle which is pushed upon us by social media and corporate advertising.
I invite you to read more deeply about the FIRE movement - I've written about it heavily in my own casual blog here:
https://medium.com/armchair-musings/tagged/money
or check out the other sections on life and philosophy which is what I primarily focus on.
Happy to have a conversation about it as well.
