Thanks for posting this. I do think it’s worth thinking about the overlap/relationship between these two communities, as they do seem to have a lot in common in terms of a willingness to question social and economic norms, even if the ends are quite different.
Others have responded to the remarks in your essay better than I could, but I do want to suggest another way that these ideas (EA and FIRE) could be synthesized.
In short, the average FIRE investor will need to save more for retirement than the average FIRE investor will actually spend in retirement, because of the need to cover the possibility of a long (i.e., expensive) life, expensive medical bills, poor market performance in retirement, or other financial risks (or at least, financial consequences of risks in life). Because an individual self-financing a retirement needs to save more than the average retiree will actually need, you would expect the average FIRE retiree will have some assets left over at life’s end.
So EA could perhaps sell FIRE folks on the idea of giving this (possible/expected) surplus to effective causes through typical charitable estate planning tools like bequests, charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, life estate deeds, etc.
Thanks for posting this. I do think it’s worth thinking about the overlap/relationship between these two communities, as they do seem to have a lot in common in terms of a willingness to question social and economic norms, even if the ends are quite different.
Others have responded to the remarks in your essay better than I could, but I do want to suggest another way that these ideas (EA and FIRE) could be synthesized.
In short, the average FIRE investor will need to save more for retirement than the average FIRE investor will actually spend in retirement, because of the need to cover the possibility of a long (i.e., expensive) life, expensive medical bills, poor market performance in retirement, or other financial risks (or at least, financial consequences of risks in life). Because an individual self-financing a retirement needs to save more than the average retiree will actually need, you would expect the average FIRE retiree will have some assets left over at life’s end.
So EA could perhaps sell FIRE folks on the idea of giving this (possible/expected) surplus to effective causes through typical charitable estate planning tools like bequests, charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, life estate deeds, etc.