It is all the time enjoyable to unearth some esoteric piece of personal-finance historical past. I do know there are just a few nerds on the market who care (hey, Grant Sabatier!), however these of us who care actually care.
Two years in the past, I revealed an article exploring the history of financial independence during which I famous that the earliest reference I can discover to the notion of monetary independence comes from an 1872 ebook known as Money and How to Make It by H. L. Reade. And it wasn’t till the Nineteen Fifties that the concept of early retirement (not less than within the sense we imply it right this moment) gained traction. However regardless of my analysis, I nonetheless have questions, similar to: What is the supply of the trendy FIRE motion?
Who Coined the Time period FIRE?
Lately at The Retire Early Home Page — a website so previous that it existed (and nonetheless exists) on the daybreak of the net — John P. Greaney answered the query: Who coined the term FIRE?
In the event you’ve by no means visited The Retire Early Home Page, you must. I am sure that it is the oldest FIRE website on the internet. It is fairly doable it is the oldest common personal-finance website too. Greaney has been publishing quarterly updates since 01 April 1996!
Greaney gives a little bit of context and historical past, writing:
In Could 1999 the “Retire Early Residence Web page” dialogue board appeared on The Motley Idiot web site, and a vibrant dialog on early retirement matters ensued. Earlier than The Motley Idiot shut the board down in Could 2022 (and transformed it to “read-only” standing) it had accrued virtually 900,000 posts. […]
One early subject of dialogue was the definition of “early retirement” — and the consensus was that some type of monetary independence was a prerequisite. Quitting your job with an inadequate nestegg, and risking an early return to paid employment, was extra of a “job change” than early retirement.
In accordance with Greaney, on 23 August 2000 a Motley Idiot discussion board member with the deal with “fzabaly” was the primary to shorten “financially-independent, retired early” to FI/RE in this board post:
One non-monetary choice that has helped me line up FI/RE is attaining a graduate diploma (in ComputerScience) whereas working. Together with the higher pay got here a better confidence re: employment that allowed me to change into a ‘Reasonably Aggressive Investor’ (70% stks/Mfunds) from a Conservative Investor (50% stks/Mfunds).
And, says Greaney, the primary particular person to maneuver this abbreviation from FI/RE to FIRE was a board member going by the deal with “wanderer0692”. On 19 January 2001, wanderer0692 made a terrific (and lengthy) submit entitled “Things That Are Stronger than Death and Fear”. (The submit is price studying even right this moment, 21 years later.)
“That is the essence of FI/RE,” writes wanderer0692. “Freedom from monetary need. It’s a tribute, in our case, to luck and a bull market, and to our adherence to what we discuss with because the six basic ideas of FI/RE.”
These six fundamentals of FI/RE are:
- Have a motivating function.
- Take a high-paying job.
- Reside under your means.
- Slash your taxes.
- Observe geo-arbitrage.
- Put money into low-cost index funds.
The basics of the FIRE motion have not modified a lot since 2001, have they? These are nonetheless the fundamentals that the majority of individuals preach and apply right this moment.
“A Fireplace That Burns in Me”
Anyhow, as a type of addendum to his glorious submit, wanderer0692 makes an remark:
Has anybody else seen how “FI/RE” seems to be just like the phrase “fireplace”? I bear in mind attending church (an extended, very long time in the past) and, in the course of the benediction, the preacher saying, “Take our minds and assume by means of them. Take our eyes and see by means of them. Take our hearts and set them on fireplace.” I all the time favored that flip of phrase.
I am not a lot for faith, however I do imagine within the sanctity of the human spirit. FI/RE is a hearth that burns in me. Possibly it consumes me, however I prefer to assume I’m that phoenix, rising from the ashes, to meet his particular mission of realizing his true potential.
So, to any extent further, I am gonna drop the slash. A “FIRE” it’s. Could or not it’s ever thus.
And so it has been ever thus.
So, there you could have it. Till someone supplies proof in any other case, I am prepared to simply accept Greaney’s model of early FIRE historical past. The dude has been writing about these things on-line since 1996, in any case. He is aware of his stuff.
There’s one other attention-grabbing perception from this FIRE origin story. As we speak, most individuals (together with me) imagine that the FIRE acronym stands for “Monetary Independence/Retire Early”. That is fairly rattling clumsy, and everyone knows it. Really, the FIRE acronym initially stood for “Monetaryly Independent, Retired Early”. That makes much more sense!
That mentioned, I do know it is a shedding battle to attempt to persuade people who we’re mis-labelling what FIRE stands for. Hell, I’ve spent two years making an attempt to get individuals to stop saying “savings rate” when they mean “saving rate” and I appear to have made zero measurable distinction. I suppose I will need to resign myself to failure on this one too.
Additional Studying
Wish to learn extra concerning the historical past of private finance and monetary independence? Properly then, you are a nerd. That is okay. I am a nerd too. Listed below are a couple of pages that may curiosity you, weird-o:
And please, if you already know of another attention-grabbing books or articles concerning the historical past of monetary independence (and/or private finance), please let me know. I need to learn them.