How learning more about FIRE gave me an existential crisis

(Disclosure:  The Amazon links in this post are Amazon affiliate links.  You can read more about this on my Disclosures page)

Okay, the title might be a bit extreme. But as I’ve mentioned before, I hadn’t really thought about FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) as something we would do. But about a year few ago, a new book came out about FIRE that caught my interest. The book is Work Optional, by Tanja Hester. Surrounding the release of her book, there were plenty of articles in both news sites as well as personal finance blogs.

A few articles in particular got me thinking a little too much!

One of the articles discussed one of the reasons Tanja and her husband Mark wanted to retire early. They wanted to be able to do things sooner, before Tanja’s illness progressed to the point where her options became more limited. This article got me anxious about running out of time to enjoy life! What am I doing wasting time on work?

The other post was at Tread Light retire early. It was Angela’s review of Tanja’s book. She reviewed the book, but also delved into the part that asks you to consider what you would do with your time. And then prompted her readers to answer that the question: “What do you want your life to look like?” And I felt like I had no idea. My response was basically to live a more relaxed (less stressed) life.

A combination of thinking about these ideas and a little bit of postpartum depression (and also listening to The Good Place podcast which talked a lot about the meaning of life and other heavy topics) led me into quite the meltdown one night. I started wondering: what is the point of anything? What’s the point of working or advancing in your career (besides earning money) if your goal is to retire early? Should I optimize my life for saving money? For earning money? What do I even enjoy? Am I running out of time? What am I doing with my life?

Oof. I definitely was spiraling there…

Well, the good news is I started feeling a bit better. I took advantage of my EAP again for some free therapy sessions. So I was able to talk through some of my PPD and my concerns about trying to figure out what I actually enjoy. Turns out, once you become a busy mother of two, you tend to get lost in just making sure the kids are cared for, fed, and sent to bed every night rather than concerning yourself with pursuing your own interests.

All of this to say: after a year of Tanja’s book being out, I finally finished reading it. The book itself didn’t give me existential dread, so that’s good! There was a whole section early on in the book where you were asked to brainstorm about what is important to you, what you would do if you had the time to do it, etc. and I actually sat down and made the list for myself. Which helped remind me that I do in fact have interests and goals for my life. Phew.

I also found her book helpful in general to understand the ways that people can pursue FIRE. I always felt a bit lost trying to catch up on FIRE bloggers’ steps towards FI or FIRE. But the book shares various ways that you can make progress towards a work optional life. There were tips on growing your income, reducing your spending, how you can invest, and how much you should actually be saving to reach your goals. Overall, it was very useful whether or not you are planning on retiring early!

I still don’t think I’ll be pursuing early retirement, but I feel like I know a bit more about how to continue to build our wealth and identify what I want for my future, including getting a better idea of near term vs long term goals. I very much admire so many folks in the FI and FIRE community, including Tanja and Angela and so many others. They and others have found a great path that helps so many others!

Have you read Work Optional by Tanja Hester? What other books and resources have helped you?