Quite a few of you (
@neo von retorch and
@Dicey in particular) noted the similarity to the Escape FIRE post on this forum, and I’m sure many more recognized the wording but didn’t say anything. I used words from
@Skyhigh 's posts as directly as I could to form the “negative” answers to see if there were other people on the forum who feel the same way
@Skyhigh describes in that thread. I'm not trying to pile on to
@Skyhigh ; I really wondered if there were a lot of people who saw the responses he was getting and didn't want to respond in support of his ideas out of fear of getting the same response. Based on the poll results, not that I think they're scientific or anything, it looks like somewhere around 5% of people have had some of the negative outcomes that he highlights. Around 80% have experienced the positives of FIRE. About 15-20% fall somewhere in between on one or more of the 3 questions.
We are in unique circumstances with the pandemic which probably lowered the positive results for the "social" question, but I think that's probably balanced out by the boom years we've had since 2008/2009 increasing people's financial situations. Thanks to everyone who has replied so far.
I have a few of the source quotes below from the Escape FIRE thread, for those who don't want to wade in but are curious about the wording in the questions:
Q1:
“It is not all that satisfying to be out of sync with the rest of the world. … FIRE is very depressing to most I have seen. … “FIRE has some incredible downsides; it's lonely” …
Q2:
“People tend to stop challenging themselves. They stop growing. “ … “To intentionally idle oneself and suspend their vital function to this world is not a good idea.”… “ During the holidays everyone likes to share life events from the previous year. My FIRE buddy can share his Xbox accomplishments. Work events are a big part of ones life. It is easy to imagine how our lives would be different in FIRE. We all have great plans to climb mountains, write books, or volunteer for Doctors Without Borders. It is all great but that enthusiasm usually dims fairly quickly until you end up spending the day on the couch.”
Q3:
“He suffers from what I call Financial Paranoia. He has developed a fear of running out of money…”
“often is the cause of financial paranoia, depression”
“I don't like some of the things that come with it; financial paranoia,…”