Hello Mustachians,
I understand there to be some overlap between FIRE people and Effective Altruism (EA) people, so I figure this is a good place to get some perspective.
The short version:
For other EA devotees out there, how do you combine FIRE and EA, in your worldview? Do you find that your FIRE goals and your EA plans are sometimes at odds? If so, how do you reconcile them? When I stop to think about it, devoting so much time and energy to FIRE goals when you could be helping the world in an impactful way seems... if not self
ish, then at least quite self-
centered. Who are we to be among the wealthiest people in the world, pursue a career up to the point where it meets our needs, then say "eh, I think I've contributed enough to the world -- I'm going to lounge around doing purely or primarily activities that bring
me joy for the rest of my existence"? Taking care of yourself is one thing, but do we not have some moral obligation to help the truly needy in the world during our time here?
(This obviously applies more to people who, like me, really want to retire early instead of, say, achieving financial independence and continuing to do impactful work or earn to give.)
When I've posed these thoughts to most people I usually go to for advice, the general feedback is that I care too much about helping the world / that I have too narrow a view on what "helping the world" consists of and could just be happy with retiring then spending time doing volunteer work, etc.... From an EA perspective, though, volunteering at my local soup kitchen or whatnot is so low-impact that it seems like it almost doesn't count.
So, I'd love to get some thoughts from other folks who join me at the philosophical intersection of FIRE and EA.
If you want the longer version...Context 1: I'm having a bit of a crisis of confidence about this in my own life. Let the records show that I recognize I, a known overthinker, am way overthinking this.
Context 2: I've been working in consulting for 3 years, and a good part of the reason I started down this path is that I read the 80,000 Hours career guide (it's so good:
https://80000hours.org/career-guide/) and thought consulting was a good personal fit and a good first step to get career capital. Both have turned out to be pretty true.
During that time, I got deeper into FIRE and am currently about a fifth of the way to what you might call a base-level FIRE goal: $500k savings at a 4% SWR = $20k/year, or enough to cover the basics and let me do anything I want in the amount of time that I want. For the last 2ish years, my goal has been to reach that point by age 30ish (I'm 26 now), probably have kids afterwards, and continue to work part-time with way more freedom of choice and flexibility in my time and lifestyle. In particular, the prospect of having kids and working full time sounds like the closest thing to torture, to me, that normal humans can expect to endure. I would like to avoid it.
All that makes for a fine plan, even one that's on its way to fruition, but I'm really starting to find that consulting does not put a fire under me to get out of bed every day. In fact, I burned out hardcore at my last (way crappier) consulting job and see myself going down a similar path after just a few months at my new (way better) one.
In my overthinking, I've basically boiled this down to 2 fundamental reasons: (1) it isn't really an intellectual challenge, and (2) I fail to find meaning in being part of the global 1% and spending my days helping... mostly, the global 1%.
So I'm trying to reconcile a slew of contradictory wants: a desire to help the world, FIRE goals / not wanting to work full time forever.
Some options include:
1. Continue in consulting, continue down a path I'm on towards more intellectually stimulating (data) work, and consider earning to give, at least part time
Good: means I'm doing the right thing now
Bad: probably won't be able to keep up consulting that long
2. Pursue a grad degree (probably econ) and apply that to more directly impactful work
Good: intellectual stimulation because I want to learn ALL THE THINGS; I suspect it would lead me to a day job that I would be happy to keep up for the longer term; having a PhD would be really cool
Bad: I could get through grad school and still be unhappy; HUGE personal/logistical/financial sacrifices (potentially including things like delayed FIRE, having kids and doing grad school at the same time which sounds completely miserable)
3. Switch to another high-impact career that uses my brain and isn't as lumpy as grad schoolGood: solves lots of problems
Bad: potentially mythical?
4. Continue to wallow in my misery
Good: no need to do anything!
Bad: the slow process of being consumed by guilt at not giving the requisite effort at my job and not feeling like I'm making meaningful contributions to the human existence with my life (ha)
With all of that floating around in my head at present, I'm thinking that it would help to get my framework straight re: relative priorities about financial independence, leisure time, intellectual stimulation, and a moral obligation to help those without the good fortune of being born into the global 1%.
Would love to hear your thoughts!