[A reader pointed out to me that many homeless actually work, sometimes at multiple jobs. I apologize. It goes without saying many homeless didn’t choose to be homeless and they don’t prefer that way. Still the point is the spectrum of lifestyles is very wide, much wider than most people think.]
After reading many articles on early retirement, I come to realize that some homeless retired early, and as a corollary, everyone is already financially independent now.
Even when you apply the strictest rules, let alone the squishy whatever-I-say-it-means declarations, you can’t deny that some homeless retired early. They weren’t homeless from day one. They used to work. Now they don’t. They had a change in pace. It’s not just temporary. They aren’t looking for a job. They settled into their lifestyle. They shed their attachment to material possessions and creature comfort. They don’t drive a car. Many don’t even have a bicycle.
Because they don’t work, whatever income they receive, by definition is passive income. Their passive income covers 100% of their expenses. They have health care. Although they don’t have much of a portfolio, they also have a super-safe withdrawal rate. They have one thing that many people don’t have: freedom. They have full control over their time.
This lifestyle is available to everyone. All you need is to challenge the conventional thinking. With whatever anyone has at this moment, they can probably do much better than the homeless if they simply call it quits and retire early, right now. The idea that someone can’t retire is simply not true. Anyone can retire, right now. The only question is what lifestyle they want after they retire. Because nobody “has to” work, everyone is financially independent. You work not because you have to but because you want to.
Over the Independence Day weekend I heard on the radio some state governments shut down due to disagreement over budget. Rather than celebrating the temporary freedom the shutdown had brought, a state employee interviewed on the radio was mad she wouldn’t be asked to come in to work (NPR: Maine’s Government Remains Closed After Gov. LePage Refuses To Sign Budget Bill). It shows that freedom is not on everyone’s top of the list. Wanting a better lifestyle is. I don’t see anything wrong with it.
Once you realize you already have freedom and you always had it, you no longer ask the question “When can I retire?” You can retire whenever you want to. The only difference is what you want to try to accomplish before you retire and what lifestyle you want after you retire. You have full control over that difference. You decide what you work on, when to stop, and what lifestyle is acceptable to you.
Everyone makes this tradeoff between freedom and lifestyle. Even those who say freedom is absolutely their number one priority only say so. Their actions tell a different story. They could’ve had freedom much sooner by settling into a lifestyle that costs much less. They chose not to. Everyone draws a line. The difference is where the line is drawn between homeless and mansions, not whether there is a line or not.
Therefore if you want freedom, don’t think you are stuck at something you don’t like only because you don’t have enough money yet. If you are willing to think outside the box you can always find ways to make it work. On the other hand, if you prefer a better lifestyle, don’t let early retirement porn make you feel you are inadequate somehow. You can retire. You just chose not to.
And that’s assuming the only purpose for working is to achieve a desired lifestyle, which is not true at all. See previous posts Waste Money Now Or Waste Money Later and Staying In Your Job After Financial Independence.
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Dads Dollars Debts says
Interesting analogy. I have thought how homeless people are true FIRE types except that many are homeless due to mental health issues. I think we can all agree that planning FIRE is likely a better path.
Still I see the point of your analogy. Reduce costs enough and you could likely retire tomorrow. Very true and my higher cost of living will keep me working at least 10 more years.
Physician on FIRE says
I would quibble with the statement that the homeless have healthcare. Their access to healthcare, particularly pertaining to mental health (which is often a factor in their homelessness) is severely limited.
Although, I suppose you could argue the same is true of all their basic needs. Their shelter, food, and comfort are quite spartan, also. As is their freedom. They generally don’t have the freedom to hop in a car or plane and travel, or even take a hot shower in most cases.
There is a great message in this satire, though. So many people assume they are stuck in their jobs and lives, but there are always choices to be made. Yes, some people love their work, but many don’t, and I don’t believe you can assess the love of your job honestly when you have no other option but to work it based on the life you’re leading. I thought I loved my job until I became financially independent and realized I had options.
While a life on the streets won’t appeal to hardly anybody, a less costly life can be truly liberating.
Cheers!
-PoF
Zong says
This analogy to the homeless is in really poor taste and shows a total lack of empathy. Most homeless people suffer from mental illness. THAT IS NOT THEIR CHOICE. I would suggest you update removing this analogy.
Harold says
Few homeless people exist. Most mistaken for them are criminal transients. For example, real homeless people are working on no longer being homeless. A homeless person does not panhandle for money. Criminal transients do. Any “homeless person” who has asked you for money is a criminal transient. Real homeless people are too busy trying to support themselves legitimately to write a message on cardboard and stand at an intersection.
Some criminal transients include the mentally ill. They also include the drug-addicted (by personal choice), sex offenders (by personal choice), pedophiles (by personal choice), and other felons (by personal choice). Criminal transients exist due to personal choice. They are not “victims.” They have victimized. Why do their families not help them? Because they victimized a family member.
In my city, criminal transients are responsible for murder, vehicle burglaries, assaults, and drug overdoses. Minors are not even allowed to volunteer at criminal transient shelters here due to the likelihood of sexual or other assault. My personal interaction with them involves them asking me for money and breaking into my car.
You obviously do not deal with real criminal transients. I have. They are not deserving charity cases.
al says
“you were born naked, wet and hungry, and then it only got worse” pops in my mind when reading your FI sarcasm article.
you nailed it that we comfort creatures are brainwashed into constantly comparing ourselves to our neighbors and “up” them (for those who still don’t consider themselves evolved talking monkeys roaming on a vegetable spaceship cruising through an infinite universe, and of the last I am not even sure, when I read Einstein’s comments on the matter).
I am now reading Robert B. Cialdini’s “Influence, the psychology of persuasion”, and I now understand why many can’t meet ends, even with a fat monthly paycheck. We are simply being programmed from birth to react in certain ways. I highly recommend the book, you will be flabbergasted with some of the research content, and how easy it is to push our buttons to get us to do something on auto-pilot, often involving spending some $$$ on things we do not need to stay alive.
That being said, being a FI homeless person in Detroit in mid-winter is probably not all sunshine, when you are also suffering from many older age medical ailments, you outfit has holes everywhere, and your stomach is screaming for some calories but there ain’t no immediate solution, since the waste bins have just been emptied by the city collector corporation …
Dr. Mo says
Thanks for the book recommendation!
I think this post by the Finance Buff was brilliant. The comments are as expected:
>talking about homeless people=lack of empathy
>not being able to take vacations=not real FIRE
Let’s bridge the gap so much between our lifestyles and those of the homeless that being homeless is no longer a marginal way of living. There’s your empathy, there’s your sustainability, and there’s your FIRE.
TheBossMD says
This post speaks to the heart of my argument against the “I must retire as soon as possible” idea. Every day that you wake up, you decide what you’re going to do. No one else but you decides that. So much of the retirement deal equates to tolerating something for so long so you can then do what you want to do. Do what you want to do now. Figure out a way to get paid for it if you have to. I’ve seen too many waste a lot of time trying to “get to a certain point in life” before pursuing their passions, including me!
The White Coat Investor says
I like the article. You do need to meet more homeless people, but the analogy works as long as you picture a homeless bum living under the overpass instead of what most homeless people actually are (couch surfing, living in their car, in a temporary situation etc).