What I Changed My Mind About

FIRE is a long game. Some of the most useful moves weren't optimisations, they were upgrades in how I thought about money, work, and safety.

• “More income will fix everything.”

  Old belief

  If I could just get to the next salary band, the next rate, the next title — money pressure would fade and I'd finally feel relaxed.

  New belief

  Income helps, but spending defaults and boundaries move the needle more. A stable 50k with clear priorities beat a chaotic 150k with no brakes.

  FIRE made me optimise for optionality per unit of stress, not raw income.

• “FIRE means never working again.”

  Old belief

  The goal was a hard exit: one day I stop, close the laptop, and never ship anything again unless I'm bored.

  New belief

  Most interesting humans keep building things. FIRE is more about having veto power over bad projects, bad timelines, and bad bosses.

  This took the pressure off “never needing income again” and put it onto “having enough to be choosy”.

• “Tiny optimisations are a waste of time.”

  Old belief

  If it's not a massive lifestyle downgrade or a big raise, it's probably not worth thinking about. Latte jokes and all that.

  New belief

  A handful of boring, automated wins (housing, transport, debt, subscriptions) quietly freed more cash and attention than I expected.

  It wasn't about perfection — just picking a few high-leverage recurring costs and letting time do the heavy lifting.