FI/RE

アメリカに住むミレニアル世代には、FI/REと呼ばれる志向が強まっているそうです。

FI/REというのは略語なんですが、


Financial Independence/Retire Early


の頭文字を取ったものです。

つまり、経済的な自立、早期退職、というのが文字通りの訳ということになりますが、その中身は、若い頃からせっせと貯蓄、また投資をし、働かなくても食べていけるだけのお金が貯まったら退職して悠悠自適に暮らす、というもののようです。

夢のような話です。


Daniel, 36, makes $270,000 a year as a corporate lawyer in Manhattan. But you’d never guess it if you saw his shabby apartment.

The Harvard Law grad, who declined to share his last name for privacy reasons, lives across the Hudson, in Jersey City, to avoid NYC taxes. There’s no TV, just books that Daniel picks up for about 50 cents apiece at a local church. Rice and beans fill the pantry. An armoire holds just five cheap, threadbare suits. When they tear, as they do “every six months” or so, he sews them back up. In the winter, he doesn’t even turn the heat on. “I mostly put on a bunch more layers,” he tells The Post.

Why so stingy? Daniel is a member of the growing FI/RE movement, short for financial independence, retire early. The money philosophy — essentially, save fast and early so you can quit working young — is gaining traction among millennials who have had a taste of office drudgery and want nothing to do with it. Followers combine investment hacks with old-fashioned penny pinching to build up enough savings to quit their 9-to-5, well before their 60s. They’re also committed to a monastic existence, even amid NYC’s many social temptations — drinks with co-workers, workout classes and even the odd fast-casual Friday lunch.

Although he beats himself up for his rare Chipotle splurges (“I’m not as careful as I could be,” he says), Daniel has been able to bank 70% of his attorney’s salary. He’s maxed out his yearly IRA contribution every year since he was 19, and his nest egg recently surpassed $400,000. He’s on track to retire in three years.
(Suzy Weiss. Inside the strange, secretive lives of rich millennial cheapskates. New York Post. October 8, 2019.)


少し引用が長くなってしまいました。

毎日毎日あくせく働くことから早く解放されたいと思うのは分からなくもありませんが、それと引き換えに過度な節制をするというのは結構なチャレンジではないかとも思われます。

私は特に贅沢をしている積もりもありませんが、今以上に切り詰めることで貯蓄を増やし、より早く退職したいか、と問われるとちょっと考えてしまいます。

労働や家庭生活といった日々の単調さの中にも色々な発見はありますし、生き甲斐は見いだせると思うからです。