Indie Hacking and the FIRE movement
It seems to me there's a fair overlap between the motivations for pursuing FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) and being an indie hacker.
As @csallen says in his bio: "I think it's badass to make money from your own products, so you can live life on your own terms and work on whatever you want, whenever you want, from wherever you want."
Freedom is the common denominator.
Here's my question: how many of you would consider yourselves adherents to some form of FIRE? I found FIRE first (via blogs like Mr. Money Mustache, Mad Fientist, etc.) and then stumbled my way to Indie Hackers by chance. I'm curious if your motivations for pursuing your own software projects are in part motivated by financial independence, or if it's something else entirely.
I don't subscribe to the FIRE movement, I'm up for FI, but down with RE.
I believe in produce more than you consume, live below your means, save and save.
Retire early? WTF is that?
I'm personally in line with FIRE ethos, I've dipped loosely into it, but don't follow any specific guidelines. I definitely want and need that independence and have money/investments/income from various locations.
I feel very lucky that I don't really need to take on extra work atm, but I do because I not so secretly love it :D
That's awesome, Rosie! It's great to do work because you love it, not because you have to. Loved your IH podcast episode by the way 🤗
https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/097-rosie-sherry-of-ministry-of-testing
Thanks for the lively discussion, everyone! My intention was less to debate the merits of FI and more to ask whether a FI-based mindset is part of your motivation for indie hacking. I suspect that many of us are looking for more freedom but was wondering about the extent to which this community also follows financial blogs like those I mentioned above.
I love the concept of financial independence, but retiring early seems to be a bit of a copout to me.
Have you seen what happens to people who retire? Productivity and purpose is an essential part of health, and I don't ever plan on not being productive. And if "retiring early" means "being able to work on whatever I want", well, I'm already doing that.
For the financial part, yes, I'm all about that. I don't subscribe to the lean FIRE movement, though, because it seems very shortsighted. Talked to one lady who planned to retire on less than $500k at age 55 because she wanted her retirement income to fall under the $30k threshold for capital gains taxes. By the time she's 80, inflation will mean she barely makes poverty level income here in the US. Doesn't seem smart to me when she could instead just work a few more years.
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FIRE is not about timing the markets. Crashes are factored in and essentially irrelevant to the investment thesis which looks at returns over a much longer time period where you will have multiple boom and busts. If someone following this approach is fucked then we are all fucked. The flip side of the FIRE investment thesis is that you won't ever hit a big lucky jackpot either (low risk slow rewards).
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I'm not sure why cash is better? That can also be inflated away. No one keeps a lifetime of cash in the bank because capitalism is all about making your money work for you. FI is about having freedom of time at the end of the day and anyone who is FI can survive an economic crash and can also afford to wait for the market to rebound.