The FIRE Movement Survey (October 2018)

[PA Hiker]

Work hard, change self, cut spending by 50%, then wait another 15 years just have what most in FIRE would consider a bare minimum.

Pretty much sums up my path to ERE. At first the motivation was not early retirement, it was fear and worry brought on by having substantial student loan debt, a home mortgage and a young child to support while working in a sector of the economy notorious for layoffs/downsizing. It was much later that I discovered ERE, by then I had enough saved up to feel more at ease and began to see the possibility of FI. I suspect a lot of folks, with average 50-100k incomes get to Financial Independence this way, driven halfway there by worry.

[thegreatvoid]

I found it interesting that 21 % of the females, while only 11 % of males, still get financial Support from their parents. Explains the instagram / Party Lifestyle many of These Young Girls live.

[suomalainen]

Re: millenial survey, the optimism and/or self-reporting bias is strong and/or this isn't very representative. 4% of 21-37 yr olds are already millionaires? No other data I've seen would support that. Although, I have often wondered about the generational wealth-transfer effect of boomers passing on their generational lottery tickets* to their kids.

* I think of the boomers as the luckiest generation ever to grace this earth.

[Seppia]

Quick tangent: I would agree boomers may be the luckiest generation ever, but "we" are probably the second luckiest at worst.
We are definitely better off VS our grandparents, and all generations before.
Plus this applies only to western civilization, I would argue that for the majority of human beings things just keep getting better (see: Asia)

[Chris]

Re: millenial survey, the optimism and/or self-reporting bias is strong and/or this isn't very representative. 4% of 21-37 yr olds are already millionaires?

In the FI survey slides (age group 45+), 8% report inheritance/trusts as their most important income source. Maybe there's a relationship between the two? If a 21-year old has a trust that's coming to him upon the death of a parent, does he count that toward his NW?

[7Wannabe5]

If a 21-year old has a trust that's coming to him upon the death of a parent, does he count that toward his NW?

I would say "Yes" on a rational basis. For instance, I would say that the fact that my DD27's fiance has very wealthy parents balances the fact that she is the more ambitious careerist.

[jacob]

It wouldn't count towards NW until the parent actually dies. However, if the parent is already dead and the trust stipulates that the funds would not be released until the 21yo is 30yo, say, it would count. That likely explains some and perhaps most of the young millionaires(*). The money needs to be under one's nominal control to count. An analogous situation is IRAs et al. They count if they're in our name even if we can't access them yet. Also see discussions about "good money" and "bad money".

(*) And why some sheltered politicians and financial advisers suggest that receiving an inheritance is a good retirement savings strategy.

[oldbeyond]

With regards to FatFIRE/LeanFIRE, it seems to me that the concept of highly paid professionals(like doctors, lawyers and dentists) saving and investing to retire to the golf course in their 50's has been a thing for quite some time? The Bogleheads forums says "© 2001-2019" at the bottom for example, but it feels like this phenomenon is much older than that?

[prognastat]

It seems most people always think there will be time to save later, then later never comes.

If you can make excuses not to save now, you'll be just as good and probably better at making excuses with more years of experience at doing so.