Rose Han spent her twenties chasing early retirement. An adherent to the FIRE movement, short for "financial independence, retire early," she aimed at being in a position where she wouldn't need to dedicate 8-10 hours a day to the office and could instead use that time to pursue other passions.
“I thought FIRE was the goal for a really long time,” she told Business Insider earlier this week. “And, at 32, I basically achieved a version of FIRE — living in my camper van and having freedom — and it was fun for like the first six months.”
Ultimately, however, being semi-retired in her early thirties wasn't all she imagined it would be. “I found that I got bored and didn’t feel all that fulfilled,” she said.
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The revelation was quite a shock for Han, who had started her journey toward financial freedom knee-deep in debt. With about $100,000 in student loans and credit card balances, she had worked hard to increase her income, slow her spending, and save aggressively before eventually achieving a seven-figure net worth.
Once she hit that milestone, Han retired from her Wall Street job. Only after retirement did she realize that she may have been pursuing the wrong thing all along.
"The question shouldn’t be: How can I retire early and finally live my life? The question should be: How can I build a life I don’t want to retire from?” she told Business Insider. “It might sound a little idealistic, but I really think that it’s possible. It just takes maybe a different way of thinking and some effort.”
The way Han sees it, there are two possible routes to achieving this.
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The first is to find something "you love to do" that "also makes you money, so you never have to retire, and it never feels like work."
Han has been lucky enough to find this "sweet spot." She runs her own financial literacy business, which started as a passion project but has now become a profitable endeavor with multiple streams of revenue.
The second path to building a life you never want to retire from is more practical for many people. It involves establishing a reliable source of income, through something like waitressing or working in retail, that will pay the bills while you pursue your passion on the side.
“Elizabeth Gilbert talked about this in her book ‘Big Magic,'" Han said. "You have a cash cow and you also have your passions. They don’t have to be the same thing. It’s like being the lawyer who has a rock band on the weekends.”
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Han also feels that pursuing FIRE so single-mindedly prevented her from pursuing meaningful experiences and connections.
“The overall emphasis on money and the accumulation of money has just gotten out of hand, because capitalism has gotten out of hand,” she said. “It’s taken us away from what really, really matters, which is time with our loved ones and relationships.”
These days, Han chooses to spend her free time doing things like hanging out with her boyfriend or camping with their dog, rather than chasing down that next million.
“Super simple moments that cost very little. That’s what I live for," she says.
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