A 37-year-old subscriber emailed me last week. Sheâs making $140,000, has no debt, and lives in a 900 square foot studio apartment because sheâs saving 65% of her income.
Her goal?
Retire by 45. Sheâd found FIRE (financial independence retire early) two years ago and went all in.
Her question was practical: should she put more into her taxable brokerage or max out a second Roth to save on future taxes?
But the thing that got me wasnât the question. It was the last sentence of her email:
âI donât let myself spend on anything that wonât get me to my goal faster.â
Spoiler: I didnât respond with a tax strategy.
I asked her when sheâd last taken a trip. When sheâd last spent money on something because she wanted to. When sheâd last felt like a person instead of a savings rate.
She wrote back two days later.
She hadnât taken a real trip in five years. Sheâd missed her best friendâs bachelorette in Scottsdale because flights were too expensive. She was eating the same five meals on rotation.
She said she didnât love it, but the urge to not have to work until sheâs in her 60âs is so strong.
Now before you get defensive, I completely understand the appeal of FIRE.
Financial independence sounds like freedom. Retiring in your 40s, before your body starts sending you physical memos? Sounds great on paper.
But I donât follow it, and I donât teach it.
And every time I see someone go all-in on FIRE, I get a little twitch in my eye.
Hereâs why.
YOLO
You only live once.
I know how that sounds coming from a financially responsible millennial. Hear me out.
Thereâs a version of your life where you spend your most mentally and physically capable years eating ramen, skipping girls trips and spending your Friday nights balancing your budget.
Then you retire at 45 with a full portfolio and immediately throw your back out. Or your parents get sick. Or your kids still need things. Or you find you canât do the things you were saving âfreedomâ to do.
This isnât hypothetical. Itâs real life.
Iâll turn 39 this year.
My husband Andrew and I live on a piece of his familyâs farm in rural Pennsylvania. We raise show pigs, I have horses, and two barns to keep up with. We also both work full-time off the farm.
Each November, when Andrew leaves for his annual bow hunt in Illinois, I get up at 4:30am instead of 5:15 and run the whole thing myself. I know what my body does and doesnât want to do now versus 10 years ago.
Iâm not old (at least I donât think of myself as old lol). But Iâm different.
And the things I wanted to do at 29 are not the things I want at 39. Some of them I wouldnât want to do now even if I could.
Extreme frugality during your prime years is a bet youâre making with your future self about what he/she will want. And they might not agree with you.
The Math Only Works If Nothing Goes Wrong
The backbone of FIRE is the 4% rule.
The idea: save 25X your annual expenses, withdraw 4% per year, and the math holds indefinitely.
Thereâs just one problemâŠ
The 4% rule was designed for a 30-year retirement.
Retire at 42 and youâre funding a 40-year retirement. Maybe even 50.
That completely changes the math.
Retire at 42 with $1 million and your portfolio has to survive two financial crises, a pandemic, and a few things nobodyâs thought of yet before youâd even qualify for Medicare.
The same $1 million retiring at 62 only has to cover 30 years.
One bad bear market in your first decade of retirement (2001, 2008, 2022, take your pick) and fixed inflation-adjusted withdrawals start depleting your nest egg before the market recovers.
That is a real, documented risk.
It even has a name: sequence of returns risk. And early retirees are uniquely exposed to it.
A 50-year sequence-of-returns is a whole different animal from a 30-year one.
Then add in health insurance.
Off your employerâs plan at 42. Not eligible for Medicare until 65. Thatâs 23 years of premiums.
A healthy 42-year-old pays $400-600/month for a decent plan. By 55, that might increase to $800-$1,200/month. Run that out over 20 years and youâre looking at ~$200,000 to $300,000 in insurance costs alone, before a single claim.
The math just got a whole lot messier.
The Scarcity Mindset Doesnât Turn Off Once You Hit Your Freedom Number
FIRE requires years of conditioning yourself to spend as little as possible.
Saying no. Tracking every dollar. Treating purchases as enemies.
Then suddenly one day, you hit your number. You retire. Youâre free!
AndâŠyou canât spend the money.
Whomp. Whomp.
Not because it isnât there.
Because your brain has been wired for deprivation for a decade, and that wiring doesnât magically reset the day your portfolio hits $1.2 million.
People I know who followed FIRE tell me spending feels like failure.
Call me crazy, but thatâs not something I want my money to make me feel.
There are entire subreddits full of FIRE adherents who hit their number and then worked âone more year to be safe,â then another, then found themselves at 55 still in the job they swore theyâd leave at 40.
The freedom they chased became self-inflicted golden handcuffs.
Isnât that what youâre trying to escape in the first place?
Work Gives You More Than a Paycheck
Iâll be the first to tell someone, the sooner you can get out of a job you hate, the better.
Yet, ask anyone whoâs completely retired. The first 3 months feel like a long vacation.
Then itâs month 4.
Itâs a dangerous thing to follow FIRE solely for the purpose of ânever having to work againâ.
Work gives you structure. Identity. People. A reason to get dressed. A problem to solve. A place where you matter.
Strip all of that away at 43 with no clear plan for what comes next, and you get a lot of people who spiral. By their own accounts. Boredom becomes restlessness. Restlessness becomes anxiety. And the whole project they sacrificed years to achieve starts to feel hollow.
It definitely does not have to be a 9-5 working for someone else. In fact, I highly encourage it not to be. But it should be something.
Bottom line: a job thatâs destroying you? Leave it.
But âretirement at all costsâ is not the same thing as âa life well-lived.â
The FIRE Math Assumes You Earn Well Above Average
I donât see a lot of FIRE promoters talking about this, but a 50-70% savings rate requires a very specific kind of income.
If you make $250,000, itâs uncomfortable but doable. If you make $70,000, youâre living on $21,000-35,000 a year.
In 2026 America, that is survival mode. Not investing mode.
The loudest FIRE voices are almost always high earners: software engineers, doctors, attorneys who did something demanding for a decade and then stopped.
And look, itâs a completely legitimate choice.
But it gets sold as a universal strategy to people for whom the math simply doesnât work, which means they compensate by reaching for risk. Speculative passive income. Real estate flips. Individual stock bets.
Ironic, for a movement built around security.
What I Do Instead
I invest consistently, and increase my contributions anytime I can.
I live below my means, but not to the bone.
I still take the trip.
I said yes to the concert this summer.
Last weekend mom and I replaced the porch cushions because they were frayed and dry rotting.
Iâm building wealth quietly over time without sacrificing the years Iâm living right now to fund some theoretical future self who may or may not still want the same things.
Because who knows, I may never even get there.
~
Financial independence is absolutely worth building toward.
The freedom to choose your work, to walk away from what doesnât bring you joy, to not need any single paycheck to live. That all matters.
Thatâs what I want for you. Thatâs what Iâm building toward myself.
But retiring at 42 on a shoestring budget while spending your 30s miserable is not freedom. Youâre not building a better mouse trap, youâre simply still trapped.
Quiet wealth looks different.
It looks like growing your portfolio while also celebrating your best friendâs 40th birthday weekend in NYC. It looks like booking the flight when the fare is actually reasonable. While also, yes, replacing the porch cushions.
Compounding doesnât care youâre not on a 65% savings rate. It cares that you started.
Your wealth hype girl,
-Charlie
đ P.S. Want to figure out what financial independence actually looks like on your terms? Book a 1:1 strategy session with me here. Iâm currently offering a discount just for email subscribers.
đ Links Youâll Love
đŠ The hidden cost of paying taxes quarterly â and the strategy that fixes it. As someone who is always looking for the next (legal) loophole to keep more of my hard-earned money in my own pocket, I love Max Donovanâs âWhat Taxâ newsletter.
đ Will vacation inflation affect your summer travel plans? â hereâs everything you need to know. Plus 11 questions on summer travel and airline outlooks.
đ„ What $100/month will get you in 30 years â in this video, I break down the real numbers behind investing just $100/month, and show you how small, consistent growth can turn into serious wealth over time. If youâve ever felt like you donât have âenoughâ money to start, this just might change your life.
đ Weekly WonderingsâŠ
đ· On the farm: the nephew and nieces had their first pig show of the year yesterday. While the weather was horrible (đ¶ where are you summer!? đ¶ - sung to the tune of the âWhere Are You Christmas?â from the Grinch), the kids learned a lot and the pigs had their first trip off the farm. Hereâs hoping the next one the temps get above 50 and itâs not raining!
đ On social media: I took the plunge and started an Instagram! Why? Because I needed something more to do. HA! But in all seriousness, since hitting over 100K followers on TikTok (đ€Ż), I thought it time to branch out onto other platforms. Itâs a steep learning curve, but Iâm having fun. Would love to have you follow along!
đŹ From my inbox: a subscriber was confused on tax implications of moving investments around in her Roth IRA. The beauty of the Roth is that youâve already paid taxes on the money thatâs in there. You can buy and sell investments within your account as often as you want without triggering a tax event. Just make sure youâre not actually pulling money out of the account completely. Unless itâs your contributions, youâll pay a 10% penalty on that money if youâre not age 59 Âœ and the account hasnât been open for at least 5 years.
đ° Quiet Wealth Move
You canât change what you donât acknowledge.
If your way of tracking your investments looks like my brotherâs room growing up, itâs time to get your s$%^ together my friend!
My Stock Tracker & Portfolio Balancer does exactly that.
Itâs a simple Google Sheet, fully customizable, and it costs less than 2 cups of âïž.
Once youâve got everything in one place, ask yourself: is my most tax-inefficient investment sitting in my most tax-protected account?
If not â youâve just found some hidden money!
Thatâs it. 20 minutes. Could be worth $1,000s over the next decade.
When youâre ready, hereâs how I can help:
If you want to sit down together and map out your specific asset location strategy â which investments go where based on your exact accounts, income, and tax situation â thatâs exactly what my 1:1 private strategy sessions are for.
No pressure, no pitch. Just your numbers and a clear plan.
Disclaimer: this content is for educational and informational purposes only, and is not legal, financial or investment advice. Always do your own research before investing, and consult a licensed professional. Charlie and OJD LLC are not responsible for any losses or decisions made based on this content.
âI may never even get there.â
So true. Getting to Financial independence if (big if) if you live below your means forever will definitely happen, but the if is how long you will really live - which none of us know. You could save a nest egg and not enjoy it.
The focus needs to be on a full life vs. a life where we are only materially full. The good news is that a full life while living below your means is very possible - it just takes a lot of work.