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Coast FIRE: How the kids are retiring early
Downshift & Coast
Bryan Hasling, CFP®
August 21, 2024
The Resistance
I used to think the FIRE lifestyle was all about using extreme frugality to help you escape the 9-5 grind forever.
None of that is relatable to me. So for years, I’ve resisted the lifestyle completely.
It’s been years since the first FIRE hype-cycles. Not only has FIRE persisted, it’s had little FIRE-babies that operate with different guidelines with troves of loyal fanbases.
There are too many new genres to list out. But some of my favorite new titles are: fat FIRE, Avocado FIRE, and lean FIRE.
I don’t know what they mean. I just like the funky titles.
Even with the cute new names… I have continued to resist.
That is, until a writer I really respect wrote a piece on "Coast FIRE" that I can’t stop thinking about.
All of sudden. FIRE is very relatable. And (gasp) I think I may have been building Coast FIRE plans all this time.
In this piece, you'll learn:
What is Coast FIRE?
Coast FIRE describes folks who have saved enough in their early working years that they can now downshift + "coast".
This isn't traditional retirement (waiting to quit in your 60's). But rather, this is about front-loading your long-term savings, letting your assets compound, and shifting to a more-satisfying lifestyle.
The key is having a healthy starting balance to invest over many years, while you earn enough today to cover your current expenses.
When I look at FIRE through that lens, it suddenly doesn't seem so crazy.
Even further, when I look at the financial plans I’ve built for clients over my career, I may have been making Coast FIRE plans all along.
Who is Coast FIRE good for?
Good candidates for a Coast FIRE plan generally have the following in common:
they make really strong income (and actively save a lot of it)
they have intense (nay, soul-sucking) careers that isn't sustainable
they crave more fulfilling work (stimulation) and don’t want to quit any time soon
they want a healthier lifestyle
Some common examples are: they are burned out, they want to build a startup, they want to focus on raising a family, or the fear of layoffs keeps them up at night.
After years of intensity, they feel they've earned the right to "coast."
3 Key elements of a Coast FIRE plan
The blog post I mentioned gets more technical.
But at a high level, a good Coast FIRE plan will find 3 critical points:
When can they downshift (i.e. quit their jobs)?
How much do they need to earn to sustain their lifestyle (before 'full' retirement in the future)?
How long do they need to earn it?
Importantly, the only downshifts are with work, not lifestyle. This is not a beans & rice scenario.
Most people know they can downshift. They just don’t know how much they’ll need to earn.
For others, they might learn that they can fully retire if they want today. Even so. they probably won't stop working altogether. But it’s nice to know that if you wanted to, you could.
FIRE principles are more common than I thought
While I don’t always agree with the financial advice I see littered across FIRE forums and reddit pages, I can’t ignore how much good has also come from the movement.
When you move the goalposts of retirement a bit closer, saving money for your future self doesn’t seem so esoteric. If people see there’s a whole community of folks achieving early retirement, then maybe a few healthy savings habits can help them reach it too.
As for me, as much as I’ve resisted the movement in the past, maybe I’ve been helping people fulfill their FIRE dreams for a lot longer than I realized.
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