I have vague ambitions along similar lines - intentional community building meant to help other women, particularly women in vulnerable positions who struggle to even save for retirement. I have a handful of friends who are very hard workers who keep their expenses VERY low for survival and are often able to scrape by purely due to ingenuity, but have gotten little/no financial assistance from family, and are dealing with other issues which make it hard to make progress financially (abusive relationships past/current, physical illnesses, PTSD). When you are attempting to beat an eating disorder, or break away from a relationship you're tied up in financially/materially with someone who physically/emotionally/sexually abuses you, you typically have enough to deal with on a daily basis that you have no left-over energy for long-term goals. I think when people say that other people are "perfectly capable" of achieving FI on their own if they try hard enough, they are generally thinking about people somewhat like themselves and in similar positions; for those same reasons, my friends find it perfectly amazing and bewildering that anyone could achieve FI, because the pathway really ISN'T that clear for them, and they don't know anyone (aside from me) who even thinks that way. (Interestingly, I find them to be way more open to the idea of making small lifestyle changes to pursue FI than do many of my more wealthy friends whose idea of frugality is to go an extra year between laptop upgrades - people who make twice as much as me and could EASILY reach FI in the next 10 years if they tried.)
Ideally I'd like to get a house with an acreage, or small farm, and be able to rent rooms extremely cheaply or in trade for work on maintaining gardens, orchards, chicken houses, etc. Building a small community of women to work together would help me in my own goal of establishing a small organic homestead or farm, and I can help them learn the basics about finances and planning that noone even began to teach them, that were unimaginable concerns in their families due to poverty and other issues. We'd also all have a better support network, which is particularly important to me, given that I'm a single child with very little living family and no desire to marry, and a handful of health issues that might turn into disabilities if I'm not lucky.
Yes, I'm a damn hippie, but I love my people, and it breaks my heart that other people have done such terrible things to so many people I know. For that matter - people have done terrible things to me, but one of the best ways I've found to make peace with that and move forward is to help other women who've been in similar positions. I can't imagine a better use of my time or energy, or a better reason for me to RE. I like my current corporate gig enough to stay there another 3-10 years, mostly because the work is meaningful and has an impact on healthcare, but I look forward to transitioning to doing something more personally meaningful to me after reaching FI.
