I see a lot written about FIRE can you explain what each letter means?

[sengsational]

I remember when I joined this board, a long long time ago, a wise member with a sense of humor said the first pair of letters stood for something someone might say in anger if they were fed up with a situation. And what to do next: Retire Early.

 

[GenXguy]

The usual definition of FIRE is "Financial Independence, Retire Early"
But my definition is "Financial Independence, Refocus Energy"
My definition applies to ANY age, not just those under 50.

Yeah, I've never heard it associated with any specific age except by some random posters over time just making things up based on their own opinions. For me, the full retirement age is 67 as defined by the government and social security system, and I didn't have a job that pays a pension. So 66 or earlier would be early retirement in my case. So I beat that considerably by retiring in my 50's.

 

[SecondCor521]

I think this forum is the original ER crew, and I'm pretty sure this is where the term FIRE was first coined.

The FIRE term was first coined on a Motley Fool message board - I think it might have been the "Retire Early Home Page" board, which was run by John Greaney, AKA intercst, who has the OG FIRE website at retireearlyhomepage.com. At some point after "FIRE" was coined, the Motley Fool decided to start charging a fee to most people to read and post on their boards. All the smart and frugal folks there fled here. And the OG definition was something like "Financially Independent, Retired Early", FWIW.