YOLO or FIRE. You only live once. Financial independence and retiring early. Now or the future. What would you rather choose, enjoy life now or tomorrow?
Can we do both? Yes. Maybe. Depends. It all boils down to how much money we have now and what do we prioritize.
Some would like to travel and spend money on plane tickets and leisure activities abroad. Some would like to keep buying trendy stuff and people see them as cool. Some love eating out, going to bars and concerts, and watching movies with friends or families.
Some are breadwinners and all of their salaries go to support their parents and children or even extended families that there is nothing left for themselves or even save.
And some think that saving or investing takes away money from them to enjoy life now. If we are all going to die someday, why would we save that money and not be able to use it to enjoy life if we die tomorrow?
To me, it is all about moderation and priorities. But first things first, it would be near impossible to prepare for early retirement if our income is low. This must go up first. You can’t save if what you are earning is not enough to support your needs. Needs. Emphasis on that as sometimes we confuse the needs with the wants.
And we can enjoy life, YOLO or FOMO, once we have enough money coming in and some to save or invest for us to retire early. Usually, what happens when we get a bigger income, we think of where to spend it. Nothing wrong with that. Just make sure to have an allotment for savings and eventually, investments.
YOLO or FOMO is, I think, created to keep us buying. To make sure we consume. To make sure the economy moves and grows as fast and as big as possible. If we stop and become stagnant in our purchasing behavior, businesses will slow down and economies may fall.
But, we must also desire a life in which we do not have to work for money and be doing the work that we want to do. I think that is the missing piece in FIRE. We can be financially independent. We can retire early from our chosen careers and pursue the things we really love doing. Doing more purposeful work for ourselves and helping others.
Do not fall prey to the latest trends and say YOLO. Do not be scared of missing out. If you do miss out, it doesn’t mean a thing. No one will talk about it two days later. It is just a moment. There will always be new things. We can still do other things.
So, we need to get our income higher to enjoy life now and retire early to do the things we love. Once we have money coming in, we do not need to choose between now and tomorrow. We can do both. Just remember to live within your means as bad debt will make you retire late instead of retiring early.
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