By Mwangi Maina
Mwangi Maina is an Investment and Financial Analyst and Investment Advisor.
Updated 12 July, 2025
What Is Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE)?
Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) is a movement of people devoted to a program of extreme savings and investment with the goal of retiring far earlier than traditional budgets and retirement plans would permit.
FIRE Variations
There are several FIRE retirement variations:
- Fat FIRE: This is for the individual with a 9-to-5 job who aims to save substantially more than the average worker but doesn’t want to reduce their current standard of living. It generally takes a high salary and aggressive savings and investment strategies for it to work.
- Lean FIRE: This individual is devoted to minimalist living and extreme savings, necessitating a far more restricted lifestyle.
- Barista FIRE: This individual wants to exist between the two choices above. They quit their traditional 9-to-5 job and use a combination of part-time work and savings to live a more-than-minimalist lifestyle. They might purchase health coverage while keeping their retirement funds intact.
- What other FIRE Variant do you propose?
Financial wellness starts early in life: Four Types of Money Beliefs. (Source – Forbes)
No matter where you are on the journey to reach your financial life goals, it’s always helpful to be aware of your past experiences with money whether they were positive or negative. Take a moment to answer these simple questions:
What are some of your earliest money-related memories and experiences?
Was money a frequent source of arguments or was the topic often avoided?
What are your current “money scripts” or financial belief patterns?
Four Types of Money Beliefs
Do you identify with any of these money beliefs?
Money avoiders tend to view money as negative and a source of fear, anxiety, or disgust and often have beliefs that wealthy individuals are greedy. Money avoiders think that they don’t deserve money or that money is bad and the root of all evil. In addition, they also tend to believe that it’s not okay to accumulate more wealth during your lifetime than you will actually need. Money avoiders may experience conflicting beliefs that having more money and wealth could improve their life satisfaction, self-worth, and social status. This belief system can create a tug-of-war between feelings of contempt toward money and wealthy individuals to placing too much emphasis and value on the role of money during their life journey.
Money worshipers believe that having more money will solve all of their problems and money is the key to happiness. An associated money script is that “things will get better in life if I just had more money.” Another common belief is that the accumulation of more money will lead to increased happiness and overall life satisfaction. For the money worshiper, money is viewed as a scarce resource and there will never be enough of it. Money worshipers may prioritize work over family and social relationships.
People with Money status belief systems tend to define their self-worth by their financial net worth. They also place a great deal of emphasis on buying the hottest new items with leading brand names and quality. Money is a sign of success for those with strong money status beliefs. As a result, these individuals may pretend to possess more wealth than they actually have and may overspend to provide others with an impression they have achieved financial success.
Money vigilance is typically associated with themes of frugality and people with these money beliefs tend to focus on the importance of saving, use discretion when discussing financial matters and express anxiety about not saving enough for emergencies. Money vigilant people are most likely to pay attention to their financial well-being. A common belief for the money vigilant is that people should work hard for their money and not expect financial handouts. They also tend to be more anxious and guarded when discussing money matters with people outside of their closest network of friends and family.
On our next blog; Do your money beliefs support your life goals or are they creating a roadblock?
Financial Independence, Retire Early! 