Lesson 1: FIRE towards something, not away from something
It's been about 2.5 years since I've FIREed, and while I'm grateful for everything that has brought me to this place, it's not all rosy. When I read about other people's experiences in the community, the one common theme I observed is that most people initially jump on the FIRE bandwagon because they hate their job, which I can relate. While I didn't hate my job at first, I sure realized how much I hated the corporate environment by the time I was burnt out and pulled the trigger on FIRE.
During the first few months of my life after FIRE I was just drifting, which was fine at the time because I was recovering from my burn-out. The change in pace and stress-free environment allowed me to heal and it was amazing. But after that, there was this weird period of "what now?", where I questioned my own identity, the world, purpose in life, etc. It's good to be introspective, but when you give me enough time on my hands, my mind becomes my worst enemy.
Thankfully, after a short period of vegetation, I found myself going back to doing things I really enjoyed; coding, investing, cooking, and working out. So I spent most of my days either watching the stock market looking for opportunities or working on my trading dashboard (which I proudly coded myself because once-a-software-engineer-always-a-software-engineer). Despite being burnt out as a software engineer, I still LOVE to code, I just didn't like the corporate bullshit that came along with it. The ability to code makes me feel empowered, because I can make almost anything I want, in a way it's a creative outlet for me as well as a functional one.
More recently, I made a terrible mistake in day trading (a story for another time) so I've decided to scale back trading. Thus the start of this blog will give me something (creative) to do, to share my experience and ideas with other people who are also into FIRE, saving money, simple living, etc. Because without doing something, I'd not only be bored out of my mind but also spiral down a deep hole of depression! And as a creative person, I need to be constantly creating and building something.
The moral of this story is that you should reconsider WHY you want to FIRE. If it is because you hate your job/boss, or hate certain problems you have in your life, then I strongly encourage you to figure out what you are FIRING towards BEFORE you FIRE. Because the reality is, FIRE isn't a destination; similar to money, it is only a vehicle (means) to help you get to where you want to be in life. Do you know what you are FIRING towards?