Quiet quitting and achieving FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) initially seem at odds with each other, potentially even at different ends of the time-and-effort continuum when it comes to navigating the workplace. The stereotypical quiet quitter completes the minimum qualifications for their job responsibilities to save their time and energy for life outside of work. The most well-known stories of folks on the FIRE path include individuals who dedicated extra time and energy at work to amass extraordinary wealth in a short period of time, often by coming close to their breaking points.
Given these different approaches, the middle feels like being a typical employee who will dedicate a moderate amount of time and energy to work but pick moments to apply themselves further to secure the promotion before eventually retiring at a “normal” retirement age. But what if a middle exists that allows you to enjoy the benefits of quiet quitting today while still retiring early?
It does!
You can quiet quit today and retire early with the right balance. To achieve this balance, consider two questions:
What parts of life do you want to prioritize immediately?
What financial reality do you want to create for yourself to simultaneously spend on near-term priorities while investing aggressively to retire early?
Identify Your Ongoing Happiness Goals Now
These questions require some reflection, but the first one should be more intuitive. What parts of your life cannot wait to be prioritized until a future date after achieving a certain financial milestone? Spending time with your children, completing adventures that require a particular level of ability and mobility, and celebrating once-in-a-lifetime events all fall into this category.
Extreme quiet quitting will encourage you to dedicate as much time and money as possible to enjoying the activities that give you joy now while an extreme FIRE approach will have you delaying that gratification until you retire in five years, which you will be able to do because you are spending no money now. Neither approach is great. The quiet quitting side fails to offer the security provided by having a little bit extra money in case of an emergency or even an unpredictably timed, must-see event with a large price tag. The FIRE side offers no fun until a later date.
Instead, pick the middle: Determine what area(s) of spending give you the most joy, and commit to spending in these areas. We generally recommend allocating money for two areas of happiness spending. One area should be a recurring activity, and therefore a recurring expense, like your weekly brunches, boxing gym membership, or something else that gives you joy consistently throughout the year. The other area to save for is the unpredictable expense, or a more long-term goal, like Super Bowl tickets when your team makes the game or a trip to Europe each summer. Saving for one recurring expense and one long-term expense will enrich your life and maximize the joy from your current spending.
Calculate the Funds Required for Your Happiness
After identifying your two categories of happiness spending, calculate how much these areas of spending will cost in a given year. If you need help calculating, our high-yield savings account CapEx model can help you estimate how much to set aside each month to fund a year of joy. Be sure to assess the amount you need honestly rather than constraining yourself or spending lavishly. Experiencing joy responsibly is the goal when trying to mix the tenets of quiet quitting and FIRE.
Calculate Your Annual Spending on Other Essentials
In addition to identifying how much money you need to set aside to live a happy life each day, you also need to consider your basic survival costs. You can do this by calculating your annual spending. If you look at the last year of spending, you may notice you spent in some categories that do not align with your happiness goals. It is okay to not include these expenses in your future plan or budget: With more intention, you can aim to spend more in those areas that provide you the most happiness while letting lesser goals fall to the side for now.
By calculating your annual spending on essentials and the annual funds required for your happiness spending goals, you arrive at a number that will let you live a happy life now. If this number is more than or close to your current income, it may be worth exploring how to decrease the cost of your essentials in order to free up money for happiness spending today and your future goals.
Set Realistic FIRE Goals for Your Current Situation
The key difference with taking the middle approach is that you set your FIRE goals after determining what will make you live a happy life right now. Embracing that quiet quitting approach to maximizing life enjoyment will improve your FIRE journey as well, even if it is a little slower than the hard-charging, no happiness approach to FIRE. By owning your time and energy, you are less likely to burn out and more likely to enjoy the path.
After calculating how much money you need to live a happy life now, determine what is left over to work towards retiring early. If you are early in your career, the magic number to reach is 25% of your net income. If you can get and keep your net savings rate to 25%, you will need to work for 27-28 years before retiring. For those below age 31.5, that means retiring early.
Cool, but what if you are older than 31.5 but still want to take the best of both of these approaches? (Same!) You still can. First, if you have already invested anything towards retirement, you are not starting from zero and likely need fewer years to reach financial independence. Second, if you are starting from no retirement savings, that just means you need a higher savings rate. This may sound intimidating, but small increases in savings rates create huge differences in retirement timelines.
I loosely live by the save half approach and find it provides me the freedom to live a rich life while maintaining a relatively quick FIRE timeline of 15 years. If you start before age 25, that means retiring before age 40. If you start by age 44, it still means retiring early.
The original FIRE enthusiasts often had savings rates much higher than 50%, often higher than 75%. Unless you enjoy an extremely high income (awesome for you!), reaching a 75%+ savings rate would likely cause some unnecessary hardship in your life, reducing your happiness significantly. If you want to simultaneously enjoy some happiness spending while saving and investing to retire early, identifying a savings rate between 25%-50% that allows you to live fully while investing aggressively is likely the most balanced path.
Raising Your Savings Rate While Enjoying Your Life
Some folks will read that 25%-50% savings rate recommendation and think that it is too high and would require eliminating any possible current happiness spending. If getting up to a 25% savings rate feels impossible in your current situation, you have two options:
Reduce your essential (needs) expenses.
Increase your income.
The first option is to reduce the cost of your essential spending. Think that is impossible because it is essential? I previously dug into this topic, specifically addressing housing and transportation, often two of our largest spending categories. In short, you need a home. You may not need a home with a balcony, without a roommate, with a den, or with other conveniences that make your home cost more than other homes. If these conveniences are part of your happiness spending goal, then you should spend on them! However, if they are just conveniences you have become used to having, consider whether they provide their share of happiness.
While housing and transportation are the main areas in which we tend to overspend with the justification that they are essential, groceries and dining out are frequent offenders. “But I have to order takeout because I have to work late…” No! You just violated a tenet of quiet quitting by working late and a tenet of FIRE by purchasing takeout when it is not your happiness spending category. The category that is pertinent to you may be something else entirely, so really consider whether your current spending matches where you receive the most happiness from spending.
Mistaking comfort for happiness is a frequent error when assessing our spending habits. A lot of times we will be just as happy, or even nearly as happy, driving a used Toyota Corolla versus a Mazda Miata. One of those costs much less. However, prioritizing the areas where spending gives us happiness is of paramount importance. These tend to be areas of spending that lead to making core memories through adventure, key events, and/or spending time with friends and family.
If Increasing Income: Adjust Your FIRE Goals while Maintaining Your Lifestyle
Your housing and transportation are lean, you have room for your happiness spending, but you still cannot get your savings rate up to 25%. You may want to increase your income.
Working to increase your income can feel difficult while also adhering to the ideas of quiet quitting and reserving your time and energy for life outside of work. There are a number of options to increase your income without infringing on the time and energy devoted to life rather than work. Changing jobs, or even job hopping through a series of jobs with intention, is often the quickest way to increase your income. If you plan to job hop to increase your salary, write a resume that a real person will read and prepare for any job interviews you secure. When you do secure a new job, make sure you negotiate for that higher salary that will give you enough income to reach a 25%+ savings rate while living a joyful life now.
If you are set on staying with your current employer and cannot follow the job-hopping path, you have two options. You can prepare to request a promotion with a salary increase, or you can start a side hustle that generates the additional income you need. If you want a promotion, make sure to prepare before asking for a promotion and raise. Promotions do not happen without plenty of work beforehand. That said, this work should occur during business hours. It may require a bit more energy than hardline quiet quitters advocate, but it should not infringe on your personal time. Assuming you put the thought and work into your promotion preparation, be as ambitious as you would like. I created my own job description and sold it to my employer with a promotion, leading to a larger salary and a happier work environment.
A side hustle may be a better choice if you see limited opportunity for growth with your current employer but highly value your current benefits, learning, and work. Be careful here because your side hustle should not be such a time commitment that it ends up being what prevents you from dedicating time and energy to your life. If possible, ideal side hustles can combine hobbies you love with income generating activities. For example, my cousin is a veterinarian who loves to attend agility trials with her dogs. She recently created a side hustle offering chiropractic and performance health services for other dogs competing between her own runs. By tying an additional stream of income to an activity she already loves attending, she found a way to increase her income without taking time and energy from enjoyable activities.
An alternative path is to throw a bit too much time and energy into a side hustle for a short period of time with a defined end date with the understanding that your side hustle will eventually become your main stream of income, allowing you to quit your full time job. While only certain side hustles can be scaled to provide a decent income to support FIRE goals and a quiet quitting lifestyle simultaneously, Patrick can attest that this scaling is possible while still enjoying a life with many vacations and flexibility.
While you are working to increase your income, you may not achieve that 25% savings rate, but knowing how much you need to increase your income to achieve it is a huge success. Having a plan is a step most folks do not approach. Additionally, if you are working to increase a 25-30% savings rate to something closer to 50% to enjoy an early retirement, just make sure to do so while enjoying the positive aspects of quiet quitting. Your time and energy are precious, and it is not worth compromising them if you are already saving 25%. If you want to improve an already great savings rate, do so in the easiest way for your lifestyle, even if that means it takes a little longer to get to the higher rate.
Savings rates fluctuate all the time: While I stick to about 50%, in reality my savings rate has been anywhere between 40-60% depending on my precise income generation at the time. At the beginning of 2023, my savings rate dropped to about 41% since our household dropped Patrick’s full time income at the Department of Justice to bet on Phippen Tax & Financial Services. This meant my income was covering most recurring household expenses. As of May, I am back up to a 54% savings rate since my promotion came into effect on May 1. Only saving 41% for the first third of 2023 will not ruin my plans to retire early, particularly since I am back up above 50% again.
If Maintaining Income: Sit Back, Do Enough, and Enjoy
Once you have a comfortable savings rate that allows you to achieve your FIRE goals on a tolerable schedule for you, quiet quit and enjoy your life! Particularly if you go on a job hopping adventure or put in the work to secure a promotion, not seeking a higher-paid position can feel weird. A number of societal pressures encourage you to continue a climb up the corporate ladder or the pursuance of a more prestigious position. You do not have to climb or pursue.
I secured the last promotion I am seeking in my life at age 31. Does that mean I lack ambition and am leaving money on the table? It probably means I lack corporate ambition. Instead, I get to throw that ambition into areas of my life that fulfill me. It also probably means I am leaving money on the table. I will make less money over my entire lifetime, missing out on some of my highest income-producing years. But my invested money will also make more money than I would make if I had a lower savings rate and worked more years, earning additional income. I would rather make a little less money without working than repurpose life-focused years on work to earn more money.
While you should quiet quit and enjoy the life you created to support yourself, you still have to do enough while you are working. Do not fall into the trap of doing less than your job description or becoming an easily replaced member of your work team. Incorporating any of the steps to become an indispensable employee improves job security and makes quiet quitting a bit cozier. If other specialized tasks similarly ensure your job security, then lean into those. Find a way to maintain your time and energy for life while doing enough at work.
Live the Quiet Quitting Lifestyle with Your FIRE Goals on Autopilot
If you truly want to quiet quit and achieve FIRE goals, the best way is to set your FIRE goals, set up some automatic transfers to invest your money, and forget about your FIRE goals while you live your life. If the time and energy gained from quiet quitting your job is reallocated to obsessing over maximizing your investment portfolio and expediting your FIRE timeline, you are missing out on the opportunity to dedicate your time and energy to your life. If you want to seek the optimal balance of these two concepts, making FIRE analysis an all-consuming effort that takes away from life experiences misses the point.
The main idea that quiet quitting and FIRE share is attempting to enjoy more life rather than prioritizing work. They go about this quest in different ways, but picking a middle path where you maximize both of their benefits allows you to enjoy life now while having more years of work-free life in your future. All of our paths are different as we navigate the best way to set up income streams and prioritize life, but finding how to dedicate more time and energy to your life is worth the effort.
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