The roadblock cooling FIRE clients’ ambitions

Retiring early may seem like a pipe dream for most workers, but for some clients, it’s very real. But even when the money is there, early retirement comes with its own set of challenges — just not financial ones.

Advisors say the real obstacle for many well-off clients isn’t money; it’s mindset. After years spent chasing FIRE — an acronym for the movement “financial independence, retire early” — clients are often surprised by their own feelings and behaviors: shifting goalposts, unexpected dissatisfaction and lingering regret.

“I think FIRE is hugely emotionally driven, like 90% of financial decisions,” said Rick Kahler, a financial therapy practitioner and the founder of Kahler Financial Group in Rapid City, South Dakota. “There typically has to be a lot of emotional juice, really being in touch with the future self, to give the encouragement, the discipline, the motivation, to make the short-term sacrifices necessary to hit that goal.”

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For advisors working with FIRE clients, addressing the mindset behind the desire to retire early can be even more important than focusing on finances over the long term.

From unspoken costs to clear conversations

Autumn Knutson, founder of Styled Wealth in Jenks, Oklahoma, said it’s crucial to put everything on the table when talking with a client interested in pursuing FIRE.

“The solve is mathematical, and for someone who’s numbers-oriented like me, relatively simple,” Knutson said. “You put in certain inputs. You have reasonable assumptions. We pop it out. We talk about next steps. But why? What are you running from? What are you moving towards? What vision do you have?”

For many clients, the motivation to retire early is driven by a simple feeling that “I want to be able to do whatever I want with my time,” Knutson said. But accepting that reason at face value can lead to problems later.

“FIRE is sometimes a concrete solution that people are wanting to achieve without addressing some of the more nuanced balance to be had,” Knutson said.

For clients eager to pursue FIRE, it’s easy to initially overlook the sacrifices the plan requires. Knutson sees it as her role to remind clients of those trade-offs inherent in chasing FIRE — whether that means delaying some care for aging parents or sacrificing time with children due to longer working hours.

“And so we talk about, when you make choices, you are making other choices, and let’s put them on the table. Let’s be conscious of all those choices,” Knutson said. “And if you can say, ‘Yes, I want this, and I realize that means I can’t have this, or I can have this later, or I have less of this,’ and you’re comfortable with that, excellent. Let’s move forward. But what I don’t want is, ‘Oh, I want to be done working at 50,’ or whatever the age is. And we talk about what it takes, and then they look … back and say, ‘Dang, I didn’t realize that’s what I was choosing when I did that.'”

And regret isn’t the only risk.

On online forums like Reddit’s r/FIRE, posts abound from users who have achieved FIRE after years of work, only to be left empty by the achievement.

“Back in 2022, I was blown away when I saw someone posting about having $1 to $2 million,” one user posted. “I thought it was incredible. But now that I’ve reached this milestone, I don’t feel particularly happy or sad, just indifferent.”

Another user shared the sentiment.

“The dream of getting FIREd was something I had been going to bed and waking up with,” one user posted. “I was so much in the zone to reach that state that it was obsessing me, but once I reached it, I feel my life got so empty, and I can’t say that I am happier than before when I was a corporate worm.”

Sparking a more balanced approach

Advisors say a growing number of clients are foregoing traditional FIRE goals, due to financial constraints or simple preference, in favor of Coast FIRE — an increasingly popular branch of the movement wherein adherents simply aim to eliminate the need to invest in their retirement savings, allowing them to more easily “coast” on less income.

By just needing to cover their monthly expenses, achieving Coast FIRE can offer adherents some of the same psychological relief as traditional FIRE without the sometimes drastic tradeoffs.

Theoretically, that freedom could allow clients to reduce their hours or make a career switch. However, advisors say that’s rarely how it works out in practice.

“I haven’t seen anyone say like, ‘Great, I’m Coast FIRE. I’m going to quit my job and, you know, go get a job as a scuba diver or something,'” said Meg Bartelt, founder of Flow Financial Planning in Bellingham, Washington. “But it does seem to really take the pressure off of just [feeling] like ‘Must shove as much money into retirement as possible. Must maintain this extremely high-paying, high-pressure job.’ Even if they stay in the job, there’s just that safety blanket of, ‘If I lose the job and have to take another one that pays less, that’s OK, because I’m so far ahead of the retirement savings curve.'”

In terms of material changes, achieving something like Coast FIRE doesn’t amount to much, advisors say. But the psychological benefits are evident.

Bartlet said the mental benefit of knowing you’ve achieved Coast FIRE can be so beneficial that she has started to calculate a Coast FIRE number for every one of her clients as part of her standard calculations.

“It’s kind of like when you have kids and they’re perfectly willing to pick up their toys if it’s their idea, but if I tell them they have to pick up their toys, then they’re going to be mulish about it and not like it,” Bartlet said. “I think there’s a similar dynamic going on, like, if I have to work this job, then it really diminishes my enjoyment of it. If I get to work this job, then you know, that just removes a whole layer of yuck from the consideration of your job.”