An early retiree caused a discourse after his wife called him a “loser” for getting stoned and playing video games all day. In a post on the Reddit sub r/Fire, the 41-year-old told the story of how he managed to secure a substantial passive income that allowed him to stop working. Unfortunately for him, money can’t solve all problems, including marital ones.
The reaction from his wife led to online discussions about everything from what women want to the very meaning of life, spreading from Reddit to other social media platforms.
What is FIRE?
FIRE, sometimes written as FI/RE, is an acronym for “Financial Independence/Retiring Early.” It’s a loose financial strategy that involves pursuing high-earning ventures while restricting your spending early on and using the profits for investments with the goal of becoming secure and often retiring before the age of 65.
Many adherents also consider FIRE to be a cultural movement. Starting in the 2010s and fueled by increasing rates of poverty, especially among those of retirement age, young people began searching for ways to maximize the possibility that they would avoid financial ruin and even manage to enjoy a good portion of their life with little to no work.
The basic formula instructs FIRE subscribers to 25 times the amount of their annual expenses and spend around four percent of their savings in retirement. Some plan to work part-time during this retirement period.
The loser with the FIRE success story
On Monday, a man with what adherents would consider a FIRE success story complained to Redditors that his wife didn’t approve of how he was spending his retirement. According to the post, he was spending a lot of time getting high and playing Grand Theft Auto online, but only because of the winter social slump.
“Since November began, it’s cold and dark early so a lot of what I do M-F when she’s at work is I play GTA (video game) on thc edibles bc nothing else to do where I live this time of year,” he explains.
“Wife came home early today and I’m stoned in the middle of a conversation w/ my GTA online friends. She told me I’m becoming a ‘Loser’ but this is me during the day when she works. I admit it’s immature but we dont have kids and I just want to chill after working a stressful job for 15 years.”
He explains that he makes $125,000 per year on his liquid assets alone, allowing him to live comfortably while his wife works as a teacher. He says he paid for the house, cooks, cleans, takes his wife on nice trips in the summer, and doesn’t understand the problem.
Discourse contemplates the meaning of life
Most of the comments either agree that the OP isn’t living his best life or accuse his wife of being resentful because she still works, which he says she does for health insurance. Those of the latter opinion warn that divorce could be on the horizon, which could derail his FIRE plans.
The others are getting deep. As the discourse spread to X, more users started talking about the meaning of life and what truly makes a human being happy and fulfilled. Getting stoned and gaming all day is fun, no doubt about that, but might there be more to life for a 41-year-old with a six-figure income and unlimited free time? A question for the ages.
“This is an interesting one and I think it dives all the way down to ‘what is the purpose of life?’” wrote X user @politicalmath. “Why did he want to be financially independent? So he can spend the rest of his life on drugs playing video games?”
A third type of person went down the whole “what women want” path. If you have to ask, guys, you need to focus on yourselves first.
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