Probably need to start this “Not a Fire Blog” rant off with a disclaimer: We have nothing against those who strive for financial independence, prioritize retiring early, enjoy their frugality, or have chosen to blog about it. You do you, and we support you! That’s just not what we are.
That being said, away with you FIRE Gurus and those of you coming to Sneaky Falcon to seek out our FIRE-y wisdom.
WTF is a FIRE Blog?
If that is your first question after clicking a link to this article, away with you too! Seriously. Away!!
But I suppose I can humor you with a brief refresher. FIRE is an impressive sounding acronym in the personal financial blogging community standing for “Financial Independence, Retire Early”.
The holy grail of personal finance writers. And other people with jobs saving money who no longer want said jobs or money, I suppose.
And there is absolutely nothing wrong with the sentiment. The desire to achieve increased financial independence by creating an additional future income stream aside from our day jobs in part fueled the creation of Sneaky Falcon Enterprises.
Plus, who doesn’t want to retire early?
In many ways given the shifting economic landscape, death of pensions, and mounting personal debt required to earn a college degree, building out multiple income streams is becoming more of a necessity to retirement at all as opposed to a golden path to an early retirement.
Wait. This is a damn rant! Why am I agreeing with FIRE principles?!
Actually, I’m not a FIRE Blogger, I’m a Frugal Minimalist Blogger
Get your farm-to-table bullshit out of here.
You can point out how I’m over generalizing in the comments, but if you are trying to sell me on your financial way of life, you smell like FIRE to me.
Whether you want me to save 15 cents a month on my water bill by recycling my own urine or can help me retire by the time I’m 64 by showing me how to start 17 side hustles today, that’s FIRE.
And if I can only really learn how to FIRE by signing up for your Premium FIRE Masterclass featuring all your secret FIREdamentals…
Yeah, so What’s your Beef with FIRE Blogs Anyway?
Do you not understand the words coming out of my mouth? “We have nothing against… blah blah… financial independence… retiring early…words words… or… blog(s)”
I mean that. I’m as happy as I can be for a total stranger that you are meeting your financial goals and living your best life. I just don’t care about your coupons or your savings rate or how you paid down a trillion dollars in debt by only eating plants that you foraged for in your back yard.
I’m being harsh, I know. There are plenty of excellent bloggers and a few Friends of the Falcon that I come back to regularly. And if you are into writing about money, it’s a wonderful community, and a great place to network.
If you feel like there is a but coming, you are right.
But…
Literally EVERYTHING is on FIRE!
Yes, literally everything. Doing a quick search of the Rockstar Finance Directory, I found an Accountant on FIRE, a physician on FIRE, an expat on FIRE, your mom on FIRE, Earth Wind & FIRE, the roof is on FIRE, and we didn’t start the FIRE.
OK, I made those last few up, but you get the point.
There is a bit of over-saturation in the market. So that’s why we feel compelled to announce that “WE ARE NOT A FIRE BLOG!”
As we’ve been trying to trail blaze our own not-FIRE niche, we realized we are somewhat alone out here. Maybe it really is a supply and demand thing. Maybe there are a ton of FIRE blogs, because that is truly what most people interested in personal finance care about. And maybe there is only one investment club lifestyle blog, because, well, we are the only ones that care?
Sure, going in the other extreme, there are also a ton of very well-written, but way more intense and analytical investing blogs. Again, also great. But sometimes I want a quick read on Bro stocks and not an in-depth view of bollinger band breakouts of Tesla stock prices. Did I use that right? I don’t care.
Conclusion
Totally going to phone the rest of this in. It’s my rant, I’ll do what I want.
If your goal is to be financially independent and/or retire early, go for it my friend. Does that mean you need to blog about it? NO!
If we just want to make a lot of money and not give you a step-by-step guide to do the same, is that wrong? NO!
If you are achieving your financial independence by selling me a dream of achieving my own financial independence, this probably isn’t going to work out between the two of us.
End of rant.
Here is another rant.
Don’t like my rant? #ChangeMyMind in the comments below.
The post We are NOT a FIRE Blog – This is a Rant appeared first on Sneaky Falcon Enterprises.
