The Spirit of Financial Independence

I’ve had an epiphany, and it’s so good that I’m rebranding because of it. Well, not exactly, Partners in Fire is still going to be a blog about financial independence – but I’ve found my focus. I’m going to focus on the Spirit of Financial Independence.

What is the Spirit of Financial Independence?

That’s a great question, and the answer is probably a little different for everyone. But overall, I think that people are drawn to this movement because they are tired of living by society’s rules. They want to opt out and do their own thing. I know I do! And most of the blogs I read have the same underlying theme, even if they don’t outright say it.

Financial independence looks different for everyone. We have Barista Fire, Lean Fire, Fat Fire, Coast Fire, and tons of other smaller individual ideas of what freedom looks like. Some people opt out early and live the RV life. Others scrimp and save every penny to opt out as soon as they can and live on as little as they can, just so they don’t have to deal with the stresses of a “normal” job. And still others  sacrifice a few years of their lives to miserable high-stress jobs – they make as much money as possible and then call it quits to live the high life off of the interest. Although all these methods are different, the spirit is the same. Dedicating our lives to working forty hours a week only to retire when you are too old to enjoy life sucks. There is more to life than that, and we are going to pursue it!

What Will Partners in Fire look like moving forward?

That’s the beauty of it. Partners in Fire isn’t changing at all. Most of my posts have already been about the spirit of financial independence in one way or another. And don’t worry, I’m not going to be changing the name either. Can you imagine how much SEO rebuilding I’d have to do? But more importantly, I feel like the name Partners in Fire already embodies the spirit of financial independence.  We are all partners in this craziness called life, and if I can help someone realize that they want to be free, I will. I’m going to get people so freaking pumped to be on this financial independence train! And then I’ll send them over to those of you who are experts in the How To. It’s a perfect partnership, don’t you think?

Why Focus on the Spirit?

Like I said above, I feel like most of my blog posts have already been focused on the spirit of financial independence rather than the specifics. I’ve written about the Anthem of Financial Independence (how’s that for spirit, am I right?), The Why’s of FI, The American Dream, and tons of other topics that are related to the spirit of financial independence. I also write a lot about supporting policies that will give everyone greater opportunities to pursue some form of financial independence – like supporting families and universal basic income. If supporting everyone’s chance at obtaining the lifestyle of their dreams doesn’t embody the spirit of financial independence, then I don’t know what does.

And let’s face it, this blog is never going to be the go-to guide for how to Fire. That’s been done, many times and very well each time. I’m not a financial expert. I know a good amount, and I’ll throw my two cents in every now and then with a beginner’s guide to investing, or information on geoarbitrage, but that’s really the extent of my “how to” content. I’ll still write about those things when I feel compelled to, but that won’t be the focus. In reality, it never was – it just took me this long to realize it!

Instead, the focus will be on the spirit of financial independence. Being ourselves in a system that wants us to be cogs in a wheel. Discovering and pursuing our passions instead of working soul sucking jobs. Finding alternatives to the nine to five grind. After all, that’s what it’s really all about, isn’t it?