Personal Finance

Is financial independence actually worth it if you are working yourself nearly to death?

Christy Bieber

Published: February 7, 2025 9:12 am

Many people are pursuing a lifestyle called Financial Independence, Retire Early, or FIRE. Being financially independent and retiring early both sound like good things, but one Reddit user is not convinced. In fact, the original poster (OP) described some of the lifestyle decisions made by the FIRE community as “sad” and said that the lifestyle has the potential to make people miserable.

The issue that the Redditor is raising is one that could impact many people with aspirations of getting rich at a young age. That question is how much you should sacrifice now to have a more secure future later. And the answer is not as straightforward as you might think. 

How much is too much to give up to achieve financial independence?

The Reddit user questioning the FIRE lifestyle said that he felt upset seeing people asking questions like whether they should buy a car or start a family because of the impact those decisions would have on their ability to save aggressively and retire young.  He said that he’s 43-years-old and when he personally looks back over the last 20 years, most of his happy memories come from traveling and from enjoying his daughter’s life. 

He believes that the time and money he spent doing those things was well worth the cost of not aggressively pursuing financial independence when he was younger and also made clear that he would not have given up all of that joy even if someone offered him $100 million.

His warning to others, based on his personal experience, was “Don’t let it all pass you by. Life is short. Of course don’t blow all your income and save and plan and all that, but don’t forget to live.”

Finding a balance is key to financial success now and later

Obviously, the OP’s advice is good advice. If people truly are afraid to make any fun purchases because they are saving too much, or if they are working 100 hours a week like the OP said he’d heard of someone doing, then the price of their future financial freedom is too high. Sacrificing for years or even decades just to meet some elusive target of being “rich” at a younger age could end up leaving you with big regrets — especially if you find yourself missing out on things like having a family or traveling while you still can.  

You cannot get back lost time, or lost opportunities to enjoy things you love — and no amount of money can allow you to go back in time and restore good health if it’s lost. As a result, unreasonable levels of sacrifice in the pursuit of wealth should be avoided.

This doesn’t mean you have to give up your dreams of early retirement, though. Plenty of people can find a balance or a happy medium that allows them to save a lot of money when they are younger, develop financial independence, and still enjoy their younger years. There’s an argument to be made that this is a good approach since you can have a reasonable amount of fun while saving and then have the money you need to live a life free of money worries later. 

The key to doing that is to decide what you do value enough to spend money on while avoiding unnecessary spending — and saving as much as you can after covering the costs of things that are worthwhile. For example, you might decide it’s worth spending money on traveling but not buying a huge mansion, fancy clothes, or a fancy car.

If you can find that balance, you can enjoy all the parts of your life, including your younger years when you’re saving and spending reasonably and your later years when you have the financial independence you crave.