Welcome to a FIRE of Faith,
Welcome to another finance/life advice/wellbeing blog with a goal to combine practical life knowledge with the deeper questions of life and reflections on what is true, good, and beautiful in the world around us.
A FIRE OF FAITH, is the child of two areas of my life that have collided and a question I have had to ask myself lately.
The FIRE
In the past year I have discovered the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement as I was searching to answer my own financial questions. Before long I found myself sharing the concept of FI with everyone that I spoke to. I was amazed that no one had told me these things! I wished I knew them before, so I had to share it with those I cared about. How are practical finances not taught to everyone with a high school diploma?! Regardless of anyone’s own financial situation that they are starting in, everyone should know that they have the choice to live a happier life and that they do not need anything to start doing that right now.
As I was sharing about FIRE, I found resistance from those around me. The very people who need this information were pushing back! People I was close to were saying “you really believe you can live that way? Ha! Good luck.”, “that’s not how money works”, or “you need to spend money to be happy”. I had to subtly hint in order to share these newfound truths because if I spoke too openly about finances people would put up all kinds of walls.
The Faith
Years earlier, my life was completely changed by meeting people in college who were actually open to having conversations about difficult questions. These people had answers to so many questions I had been asking, and if they didn’t have an answer they walked with me to search for it. This led me to a deeper understanding of who Jesus is in my life and the Church. This experience was so incredible that new parts of my eyes, mind, and heart were opened and I had to share this with others! After college I became a missionary for two years and tried to share this experience with others. I ran into similar barriers from people who believe they understand what something is from the outside, so they are too hardened to absorb any of the actual goodness!
The Collision
They say that religion and money are two things you shouldn’t talk about when you first meet someone, but I find that those are two of the only things I want to talk about! So you can see my struggle as a self-proclaimed “external processor” who needs to talk things through out loud to understand them. I was frustrated that people wouldn’t want to talk about Jesus and the latest interest rate that I found. Or if someone wanted to talk about one of those things, they surely would not want to talk about the other.
The Real Questions
This leads me to this blog where I can externally process all of these questions I am having about the morality of the FIRE movement and my journey to live it through the eyes of FAITH and principles. I want to start a FIRE OF FAITH that can spread the practical wisdom of FIRE and the overflowing joy of FAITH. No other FIRE blog has answered for me the question of what comes after a life of retirement? “THEN WHAT?”
