Can Anyone Reach FIRE in 10 Years (or Less)?

I was listening to a podcast a few days ago, and the guest made a bold claim:

She believed almost anyone could reach FIRE status in 10 years or less.

At first glance, that may sound unrealistic.

But honestly?

I think she might be right.

Or at least… more right than wrong.

And I say that as someone who did not exactly take the smooth and efficient path.

I first came across the Transforming Your Relationship With Money lecture series by Joe Dominguez at the library back in 2003.

By 2004, I had started implementing the ideas from Your Money or Your Life pretty seriously. Tracking expenses. Rethinking consumption. Paying attention. Trying to align money with values instead of status or impulse.

And then…

All hell broke loose.

First, we moved into a more expensive house.

Then the kids went into private school.

Then came separation and divorce.

Then the Great Recession hit, and the company I worked for collapsed.

At one point, I lost over $600,000 in stock options.

By 2008, I found myself over a million dollars in debt, with very little in assets to offset it.

The house I kept had dropped around $200,000 in value, leaving the mortgage underwater.

My 401(k)? I think it was worth less than $50,000 at the time.

It was… rough.

Financially. Emotionally. Existentially. Pick your category.

But here’s the important part:

I never completely abandoned the process.

Even during those years, I kept applying what I had learned from Your Money or Your Life, and I was also following the Baby Steps approach from The Total Money Makeover.

Not perfectly.

Just consistently enough to keep moving.

And over time, that mattered a lot.

Around 2010, I started reading FIRE blogs pretty heavily.

One of the first was Early Retirment Extreme.

That blog provided me the kind of perspective I really needed at the time.

Here was a guy living on something like $6,000 per year and essentially treating freedom itself as the optimization target.

Early Retirement Extreme decided to quit posting and he pointed his readers to Mr. Money Mustache.

This guy presented a version of FIRE that felt a little more expansive, with a lifestyle that seemed cool, while still radically intentional, on an annual spending budget of $24,000 (in 2012 dollars).

And finally, in early 2012, I overcame one of my biggest sticking points:

I started investing consistently in an individual brokerage account through Vanguard.

That turned out to be a major turning point. I was no longer just counting on my 401K to get me where I wanted to be.

By early 2015, I had effectively reached Lean FIRE territory.

Not luxurious FIRE.

But enough that, if I had sold everything and moved somewhere cheaper, I could have made it work.

By 2017, I was completely debt free.

By 2018, I had reached a level of financial independence that felt solid and sustainable.

And by 2020, I was out of the corporate world entirely.

I haven’t missed it for one second.

So depending on how you measure it…

Did it take me more than 10 years?

Technically, yes.

But those were some serious headwinds.

And honestly, when I look back now, I realize something else:

I had already experienced a form of FIRE much earlier in life.

I just didn’t have the language for it yet.

My Accidental “Barista FIRE” Years

When I was 24, I was still finishing my undergraduate degree.

(I was paying my way, going Part-Time, and It took me until 26 to finally graduate.)

During that time, I worked two nights per week as a bartender.

Friday and Saturday nights—the busiest shifts—but also the best for tips.

Adjusted for today’s dollars, I was probably making around $30,000 per year.

And the rest of the week?

ALL mine.

Sunday through Thursday belonged to me.

And honestly… I loved that lifestyle.

I shared a modest apartment.

Drove a beater car.

Stayed up until 2am drinking coffee, listening to music, talking with friends, and generally wandering through life in that very college-town kind of way.

There wasn’t much eating out at restaurants.

No expensive vacations, but I did have a few budget get aways that were very enjoyable.

But… Not a lot of “adult success signaling.”

If not for a thing called “ambition” I think I would have been very happy living like this for years.

I felt I had to “be all I could be.”

Hmm. Wonder where I had heard that message?

(Thank you U.S. Army recruiting campaigns, it seems your message got through to a lot of us back then). 

But, I had already started forming this idea that freedom mattered more to me than consumption.

A few years earlier—probably around age 21—I remember calculating that if I could somehow generate $100 per day consistently, I would never really need a traditional job again.

I had no idea where the money would come from.

I just knew that $36,500 per year sounded like abundance to me at the time.

Enough for a rich life.

Enough for autonomy.

Enough for breathing room.

And in a strange way… by 24, I had sort of already achieved it.

So yes.

I do think many people can reach some form of FIRE within 10 years or less.

Particularly if they’re open to alternative versions of it—Lean FIRE, Barista FIRE, Coast FIRE, seasonal work, simpler living, geographic flexibility, or some blend of all of the above.

But the real question isn’t just:

“Can it be done?”

The deeper question is:

What does your version of the good life actually look like?

What are you trying to fund?

What kind of freedom are you really after?

And how much do your own ambitions, wants, identity, or social expectations increase the cost of getting there?

Because for me… they absolutely did.

And honestly?

That’s okay too.

I don’t regret the longer road… now.

But it is funny that, after all these years, what I find myself wanting again is something surprisingly close to that old “Back On Campus” lifestyle.

More freedom.

More meaning.

More music.

More time to think.

Less performance.

Less pretending.

And a whole lot more room to breathe.