City Life & Quiet Wisdom

For as long as I can remember, the tug of war between present and future has been a recurring theme for myself – someone who discovered the concept of FIRE at the age of 24. Since then, for a decade I’ve been caught up in the ebb and flow of struggles between living now and saving for the future.

I believe I am not alone in this. Listening to podcasts from Ramit Sethi or other gurus its easy to find examples of other people, sharing the same journey and having the problems of forgetting how to spend to live intentionally. As Ramit once put it, we forget how to spend and live if we base our success in life on every dollar saved. Kind of like a scoreboard of rising numbers, rather than building memory dividends or truly living in the moment.

Before FIRE, my life motto was always to live a life you will remember and over the years it seems that I have wanted to save to live that life and have the freedom. A little sacrifice cant be that bad right?

In fact, forgetting how to spend, or spending in a guilt free way has cost me quite a lot of happiness. it makes purchases a struggle. Booking that nice hotel a struggle. Or even buying gifts for my partner a struggle. To compensate and make these things available I can only sacrifice other areas in my life.

I watch peers spend lavishly and enjoying life – which in turn creates some meaning in working hard to earn more. Having targets can be a motivation to work. When you are working just to build a number, it becomes harder to correlate the success and discipline with something you can enjoy (especially if it is far away)

Is there a conclusion to all this? Perhaps not or not at the moment. But I suppose its good to let everyone know that these things are one of the downsides to FIRE. And that perhaps COASTfire would make a lot more sense and meaning.

Work does bring meaning and income. Striking the balance is the most crucial of all things just like having a balanced diet feeds the body. Whilst no one is perfect, it makes sense to be conscious to make an effort to balance things for better mental health and clarity.

N. L. Young