Comment by windward
Good question. I've gone with:
>Live under your means and save as much as possible?
which, while obvious, isn't being done by all of us.
A part of me gets angry that collective action was so unpopular thanks to the view that it dragged down those who could excel individually. Every time I see software people act powerless in front of these steamrolling, enormous tech giants that control every facet of our lives, I think about how much power we had - and are on the verge of giving up.
I also try to confront the future, rather than turn a blind eye to it. Can I be happy and find self-actualisation without this identity and financial status? That's a question everyone should think about regardless of what happens.
I love the idea of FIRE as a life goal and driving financial strategy. The core principal is you save enough money up that the dividends from your investment returns (the FI part of FIRE) is enough to live off forever.
If you hit FIRE, awesome, you’re free from ever caring about offshoring or RTO or AI or whatever again.
If you don’t hit it, you’re sitting on a pile of money when a rainy day comes.