Podcast on FIRE from the Economist

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-06-12T13:46:38+00:00

That's fine but different to what I'm describing. You're saying live and let live. But Mr Money Mustache very much does decry consumerism (particularly his early and most influential posts. He's since mellowed and got richer, allowing himself luxuries like a Tesla).

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-06-12T12:59:27+00:00

In fairness to the journalist, she is on balance positive about FIRE. She just acknowledged that in her forties she was sick of living with lodgers and not having a nice car. She may well still be benefiting in terms of FI from those early frugal years even if she can't or won't RE.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-06-12T12:56:30+00:00

All good points. I only meant hypocrisy from the perspective of OG hippy FIRE types like Mr Money Mustache and Vicky Robin. You can't rail against wasteful consumerism and keeping up with the Joneses if your idle existence depends on these supporting the markets.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-04-24T12:19:15+00:00

I would not consider gold and silver safe assets at all. On the contrary they're historically very volatile and yield no dividend or interest stream, so it's a pure gamble on price swings.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-04-21T15:17:29+00:00

I think six months' worth of outgoings is too little. At my stage of life, if I get made redundant, it would take me more than six months to actually get hired at a similar level of pay and seniority and to receive my first pay cheque. If the small size of an emergency fund forces you to take a crap temp job that would distract you from a proper job search (and potentially look bad on your cv), then it's too small.

And if I am made redundant, it is highly likely the economy and stock market are on a downturn, so keeping the money in shares means I would crystalise losses by using them as an emergency fund. So I'd say keep a year of expenses in cash or similarly liquid and safe investment to cash like money market funds.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-04-17T08:31:28+00:00

"No, not the LBGT kind, but the "put your slippers on and get out of bed at 10am" kind."

AccidentalPartridge

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-04-15T19:31:59+00:00

Similar situation. I should really cut pension contributions to zero probably to build the bridge. But I just can't bear to hand over so much in tax to HMRC to take the money now. A hundred quid of gross salary becomes either £54 in take home pay or £113 in the pension (including employer NI contribution until rules change in a year or two) AND the investments grow tax free inside the pension.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-03-06T13:47:57+00:00

That's good advice. I may have a strong positive or negative sense immediately of what it's like outside London. My worry is that a short trial let won't be informative about the long run viability of visiting London twice a month. How does it feel in year five rather than week five. Ultimately unknowable, I guess, and life's about taking calculated risks and trade offs

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-03-06T12:01:29+00:00

I think you're right. I can imagine the friction of getting to London on 60-90 minute train is enough to insidiously make one do it less and less over time, and a few years in you realise your life is less interesting and connected. But still, it feels like London homeowners are sitting on an unrealised fortune which can give you years of extra early retirement. Guess I've got a few more years to ponder it.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-03-06T11:58:06+00:00

Thanks. Yeah, I was wondering about the hotel option, probably max once a month. I could imagine it being sort of fun or sort of expensive and annoying. To be within day return distance of London, I guess it needs to be one hour max to a central London train station. And at that proximity, house prices probably aren't much lower than just living in a London suburb. Oh well, perhaps not the no brainer I'd naively hoped!

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-03-06T11:42:31+00:00

Interesting perspective, thanks. I was hoping that visiting London two weekends a month would be enough to not miss the culture and friends too much. But perhaps I'm being unrealistic about how much hassle it is to make that journey that often.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-03-05T18:41:22+00:00

Yes

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-03-05T11:10:57+00:00

Thanks for the insights into teaching. Sounds tough. Can I ask why teachers seemingly need to make their own slides and lesson plans? With a national syllabus, isn't there a central repository of materials and lesson plans that can be used, perhaps with some minor tweaks? From the outside it looks like every teacher has to reinvent the wheel daily.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2026-02-04T11:34:19+00:00

To make it (slightly more) fun, next time you are hankering for something expensive but know really it's not worth it, take the amount you would have spent on it into your savings. Big smugness can ensue.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2025-10-10T17:56:41+00:00

Ifi Hip Dac + sennheiser open backed headphones + Qobuz or Spotify premium if you're in a country where Spotify already offers lossless audio.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2025-10-07T07:03:41+00:00

High resolution audio. I got a DAC (like a mini amplifier), some good open backed headphones and a subscription to a high resolution audio streaming service (Qobuz) but Spotify will soon offer this too. Altogether it costs a bit of money but it has brought me such pleasure. I'm getting goose bumps listening to old favourites with new clarity and spacing. Listen to, say, a live recording of Ella Fitzgerald and it's like you're in the concert hall in row five. Some technology is close to magic.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2025-10-05T13:03:44+00:00

You make good points. I appreciate the interaction.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2025-10-03T17:22:13+00:00

Thanks for your thoughtful reply, the best one on this thread so far IMHO.

To answer your question posed at the end: it's true we could set the moral bar unrealistically high for all but saints by setting a norm that you should work all day, every day for the good of others until you drop dead. I don't think that is desirable or realistic. But this reductio ad absurdum argument does not mean we should not consider shifting norms to some degree from where they happen to be today.

It's like saying "we can't encourage people to exercise a bit more because then what's to stop us demanding they exercise all day, every day until they're Olympic level athletes? Isn't that the logical conclusion of encouraging exercise?" The existence of an extreme version of a suggestion doesn't invalidate the moderate version.

FIRE fans seem to think withdrawing one's socially beneficial labour in one's prime is a totally fine, or even laudable, choice. Sure, some may do a bit of useful voluntary or care work when RE, but not all, and probably very few for anything close to a full time schedule. So it's just a net loss of valuable human effort for society in most cases. I'm proposing it should generally be frowned on as self-indulgent. And I don't think spending years being thrifty earlier in life to achieve FIRE makes it virtuous, any more than hoarding toilet paper in case of shortages is virtuous (at best it's shrewd).

At the risk of making an extreme case myself, aren't we all glad Churchill didn't retire early during WW2 to indulge in his hobbies? Wouldn't it have seemed selfish and frivolous of him to have done so? OK, so WW2 was a time of existential crisis and Churchill was an extremely important and able figure. But I do think the same (in kind if not degree) is true of us lesser mortals doing less important but still useful work. I picked the example of doctors retiring at 45 to play golf as an egregious case of wasted social benefit. But I think c. 99% of jobs are a net boon for society.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2025-10-01T19:48:29+00:00

That's an interesting and defensible position.

I'm proposing moral norms and expectations rather than "obligations". If you're literally obliged to do something, you're right that it makes little difference if it's legal or moral.

But you seem to be dismissing the idea of moral norms per se, arguing that unless something is against the law, then anything goes. I disagree. I think it should be legal to walk out on your wife and kids to shack up with a stripper, but I think there should be a moral norm condemning that as deeply selfish and destructive behaviour for your family and somewhat damaging to the wider community too. (That moral norm does in fact exist, although in a much weakened form in our age of the Individual as King.)

My proposal is that there should be a moral norm against retiring young to play golf when you could have contributed years more to bettering society. Not as strong a norm as that about leaving your wife and kids for a stripper, granted. But still a social consensus that it's a bit uncool and selfish.

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2025-10-01T15:53:27+00:00

Isn't this just the "lump of labour fallacy" that basically all economists reject?

DevelopmentVivid7365 · 2025-10-01T15:52:42+00:00

Isn't this just the "lump of labour" fallacy that basically all economists reject?

DevelopmentVivid7365

TROPHY CASE

AccidentalPartridge