Why FIRE? Prompts

Before optimising spreadsheets, it helps to know what kind of Tuesday you're optimising for. These prompts are meant to be journaled with, not solved.

What would you actually do on a random Tuesday if money was solved?

Design your default day, not your dream vacation.

Not the one-off trip or the world tour — the boring Tuesday. What time do you wake up? Who do you see? What kind of problems are you solving (if any)?

FIRE without a Tuesday you like can feel suspiciously like unemployment.

Which expenses genuinely buy you peace, and which buy you noise?

Circle the ones that calm your nervous system.

List your top 10 monthly expenses. For each, ask: “After I pay this, do I feel lighter or heavier?”.

The goal isn't to cut everything. It's to double down on the ones that buy you peace.

If you had to remove one obligation from your week, what would it be?

Subtraction is often more honest than addition.

We often think in “what should I add?” — side hustle, course, habit. Ask instead what you'd remove first if money made it possible.

That's usually where FIRE is quietly pointing.

Whose version of FIRE are you accidentally chasing?

Internet strangers, or something that fits your life?

Write down where your current FIRE picture came from: a blog, a YouTube channel, a friend, a subreddit.

Then ask: “What parts of that picture actually belong to me?”

If work was optional, would you still ship things?

FIRE doesn't have to mean never building again.

Some people want FIRE to stop work entirely. Others want it so they can work on weirder, smaller, riskier things.

Which one are you actually aiming at?

What are you secretly afraid might not change, even after FIRE?

You take your brain with you.

Some problems are money problems. Some aren't. Name one thing that might still be there even if your net worth graph behaves.

Sometimes the work is emotional, not financial.

Try picking one prompt a week, writing a messy page about it, and then revisiting your numbers. The math often looks different after the questions.