A Few Overlooked Gems That Helped Launch The FIRE Movement

For those not familiar with my story I discovered I was financially independent in my mid 40’s even though I didn’t purposely pursue it.  Thus the name Accidental FIRE.  I did of course live a frugal life as compared to my income-peers, avoided lifestyle inflation, and invested my savings wisely.  But I really didn’t join the FI or FIRE movement as we know it today until about 4 or 5 years ago.

One story that I haven’t yet told on this blog is that I did deliberately read about and absorb FIRE principals in the mid 2000’s through a few influential books, long before the FIRE movement blew up.  These books are overlooked gems in my opinion, and still relevant today.

 

Early Flirtations With FIRE

Around 2006 or so I was getting severely burned out at work.  Most of us who work at the Department of Defense were totally consumed by work in the years after 9/11.  I did a deployment to Afghanistan, numerous other trips to the Middle East, South Asian countries, and various military bases around the world.

I even slept on the floor under my cubicle once and just went back to work the next day.  My job had meaning and overall it drove me, but I also longed for more free time.  In short, I was way out of out of balance.

I was still in the front-loading phase of my career.  I’m referring to the concept of working really really hard when you’re young and have the energy.  If you do that while living frugally and investing, your chances of winning the game are pretty good, and you’ll be able to reap the benefits of less work in your 40’s and 50’s as I am now. 

I read three books during this time that planted the seedlings of FIRE in my mind.  Those seedlings were harvested in 2017 with my financial independence and semi-retirement.

 

Take Back Your Time

The fist book is “Take Back Your Time”, by John de Graaf.  I can’t remember how I found it but it really connected with me, especially with what I was dealing with at the time.  The basic message of the book is that time is our most precious commodity in life, and that we in America have less free time than any other industrialized country.

Much of the reasons for this are of our own making – we work too much to make more money to buy stuff we don’t need, etc etc.  You know the story, and it’s all true. 

I devoured the book and it spoke to me, as I was in my mid 30’s and in the prime of my life and doing nothing but eating, sleeping, and working.

 

Work To Live

It then led me to a book called “Work To Live”, by Joe Robinson.  This book builds on the fact that we don’t have enough free time and focuses on the major culprit, our jobs.  It discusses the novelty of actually using all of your vacation hours (which I was guilty of not doing in some years), negotiating more vacation time in lieu of a bigger salary, and resisting the peer pressure to stay longer than everyone. 

It’s a great book with tons of actionable tips to help lessen the dominance that your job has over your life. 

 

The Overspent American

The third book that really influenced me was “The Overspent American”, by Juliet Schor.  The other two books focus on time poverty and the reason for it – too much work.  Schor’s book gets down to the root cause, the desire for stuff we don’t need. 

That unhealthy desire, what I consider mindless consumerism, is the engine driving our workaholic culture and thus our time poverty.  Schor is a legend in this field and I’m surprised more FIRE bloggers don’t talk about her work. 

While “Your Money Or Your Life” by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez came out in 1992 and is often cited as the real roots of the FIRE movement, Schor also published her first book on a similar topic the same year. 

Schor’s “The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure”, was first published in 1992.  Though it doesn’t address FIRE principals as completely as Robin’s book, it established Schor as one of the pioneers in the push back against our relentlessly expanding consumerism culture. 

Schor has been lecturing and writing on trends in working time, consumerism, the relationship between work and family, and women’s issues for a long time and you can find tons of her lectures online.

A great documentary with the same title as her second book came out in 2004 and is currently on YouTube.  I highly recommend it.  

 

Another documentary I would recommend is “Shop ‘Til You Drop: The Crisis of Consumerism”.  Both John de Graaf and Juliet Schor make appearances and it’s excellent.  I don’t have Netflix but I suspect you could find it there.  Here’s the trailer:

 

Evergreen Content

Both “Take Back Your Time” and “Work To Live” were published in 2003, and “The Overspent American” was published in 1998.  But don’t dismiss them thinking they’re outdated.

 

Most of the core principals and ideas in these books are just as relevant today as when they were published.  Sure, they will not give you insight on how social media has contributed to time poverty and imbalance in our lives.  They may reference Blackberrys, VCRs, and some outdated technology.  But for the most part these books read as if nothing has changed and could have easily been written today. 

I feel they are overlooked, and I highly recommend them. 

Your turn readers – Have you read any of these books, or even heard of them?  Do you know of other books or documentaries from this time frame that are overlooked?

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