- Reader Case: From Cancer Survivor to FIRE - September 1, 2026
- The FIRE Guide to America’s Health Care System (2026) - July 7, 2026
- Planting Your Money Trees - February 23, 2026
When we started this blog, we were 30-something millennials frustrated by Boomers talking down to us as if we were entitled whiny brats who never had to endure “real” hardship in our lives. FIRECracker starting ranting, as she does from time to time, and I decided to write down what she said and turned it into something that I could film, and that rant turned into this blog.
Now, 10 years later, millennials are entering middle age. We’ve endured multiple market crashes, a Great Financial Crisis, a pandemic, and so many supposedly world-ending geopolitical events that I’ve lost count. Our battle armor is not looking so shiny and spiffy anymore. Instead, it’s been dinged, scuffed, and scared from all the shit we’ve had to go through, but we’re still standing.
So what’s changed in the past 10 years? Has anything that we were initially frustrated about in that video we filmed all those years ago gotten fixed?
Hell no! If anything, they’ve gotten worse!
Are jobs still unstable? Ask the tech workers who’ve gotten laid off, despite the fact that their companies are making more money than ever before. According to TechCrunch, the wave of layoffs in the tech sector that started in 2022 is still going strong in 2024.
The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi.
A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs, TechCrunch.com
And not only that, the companies that are doing it (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc.) are the same ones that are literally powering gains on the S&P 500 due to the record levels of profits. Once again, shareholders win, workers lose.
Are house still unaffordably expensive? Gee, I don’t know. Let’s look at literally any news site and you’ll be inundated with reports of housing becoming more and more out of reach by the day. Back when we were working, a $500,000 house seemed like a ridiculous amount of money to spend. Now, that number looks downright adorable.
Are Boomers still shitting on us? Admittedly, this has changed a bit, in that it’s not just Boomers that do this. It’s Gen X-ers now too.
What irritates me now about being called entitled is that entitled implies that we want something for nothing. That we want all these rewards like “a stable income” and “work-life balance” without having gone through the shit that previous generations had to in order to earn it. And maybe when we were in our 20’s, this might have some truth to it. But not now.
Look at our battle scars! We’ve been through the ringer. And am I the only one sick of hearing “once-in-a-lifetime”? The 2008 Great Financial Crisis was a once-in-a-lifetime disaster. The pandemic was a once-in-a-lifetime disaster. The meteoric rise in interest rates that we’re still sorting through was also a once-in-a-lifetime event. How many once-in-a-lifetime calamities can one generation take?
So to all the Boomers and Gen X-ers that are still calling us entitled: Screw you. Our generation’s been through the shit, we have the scars to prove it, and we’ve more than earned out right to demand that we not be treated like crap.
But despite the many, many things that have gotten worse for Millennials since we started this journey, I do believe some things have gotten way better.
It’s Never Been Easier to Become FI
As much as our generation loves hating on Boomers, there is one thing that I’m eternally grateful to them for: Index Investing.
It seems like the ability to invest in the entire stock market with the click of a button is something that’s always been there, but the invention of index investing is actually pretty recent. It was only 1976 that John Bogle created the first index fund available to the general public. It wasn’t until 1998 that the Trinity Study got published, establishing the 4% rule that the FIRE movement bases itself on today. And it wasn’t until the 2010’s that the most prominent voices of the FIRE movement like Mr. Money Mustache and JL Collins started preaching their brand of financial freedom to a growing, but skeptical crowd.
Now, there’s a flavour of FIRE for everyone. Fat FIRE! Skinny FIRE! Barista FIRE! Coast FIRE! Whatever your earning level and spending level is, there’s probably a version of FIRE for you. And not only that, there are now lots of different influencers, operating on different platforms, from short-form video content producers on TikTok to long-form books, there’s no shortage of ways to learn about this stuff.
Not only that, but another thing that makes FIRE easier has become way more mainstream: Digital Nomadism.
When we first starting travelling the world in 2015, we had never heard of the term before. It was only when we happened across a community of them in Thailand that we were first introduced to the idea. At the time, I thought their financial lifestyle of earning the income in a high-cost-of-living location like the US while living in a low-cost-of-living location like SE Asia was super cool and interesting, but ultimately unrealistic for most people who work regular jobs.
I had no idea that a pandemic would hit 5 years later. And even then, I couldn’t have predicted that the pandemic would force the entire US workforce to reorganize itself so that people wouldn’t have to physically go into the office anymore. And even though offices have opened back up, Forbes estimates that about 22% of the workforce in the US is remote. That equates to about 33 MILLION workers!
What was once a niche opportunity that only a handful of people could take advantage of is now available to literally millions of people.
Not only that, but travel is now cheaper and easier than ever. Thanks to a rise in low-cost airlines like RyanAir, EasyJet, and Air Asia, you can travel around a continent for a few hundred dollars where as in the past, getting on a plane was a major financial commitment (that we even had to dress up for!). And the technological advancements in cell phones mean we don’t have to worry about getting lost or not being able to communicate in another language.
To our parents, the idea of packing up and moving to Europe or Asia for a few years to save money would have seemed insane, but now people are doing exactly that, and super-charging their journey to FIRE at the same time!
The Boomer Path Is More Rickety Than Ever
One of the strange things about my time in the FIRE space is that while we regularly get stopped in the street by grateful readers thanking us for changing their lives (which is a lovely feeling!), most of our friends or co-workers from our old jobs continued on the Boomer Path of buying a house and working their 9-to-5 job in order to pay the mortgage off.
I mean, I get it. It was a pretty risky move on our parts to quit two perfectly good jobs back in 2015 to travel the world. I’m sure they thought we were nuts.
But now, this time when we came back to Canada, the Boomer Path is looking super stressful.
Many of them are seeing their mortgages being renewed at interest rates that have massively increased. Mortgage payments that used to be somewhat comparable to rent are now doubling or tripling overnight. Middle-class lifestyles that used to be somewhat reasonable are now becoming stressed-out, sleep-deprived death marches.
If the Boomer Path was sketchy before, it’s downright suicidal now.
It’s Not Too Late To Start Your FIRE Journey!
There’s an ancient Chinese proverb, or as the Chinese call it, a regular proverb, which translates as: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”
As Millennials enter their 40’s, it may seem like the window for early retirement has already passed, but remember that retiring in your 40’s or 50’s is still really early! Plus, Millennials are no longer fresh out of college applying for entry level jobs anymore. Millennials are senior staff members, millennials are hiring managers, millennials are the ones with more than a decade of work experience.
Millennials are entering their prime earning years where their salaries are the highest, but they aren’t subjected to workplace ageism. Yet.
Even if you’re starting your FIRE journey from scratch, you can build your FIRE portfolio way faster than we were able to, especially if you take advantage of opportunities in geographic arbitrage and flag theory like the people in last week’s Reader Case.
We’ve searched far and wide for ways to build a sustainable, enjoyable life that you don’t want to run away from, and so far, FIRE is the only solution that actually works. Crypto, NFT’s, or building a successful side hustle might work for some people, but it requires extraordinary skill, luck, timing, or a combination of all three.
As we wrote in our book, FIRE is a mathematically reproducible pathway to wealth, and one person’s success doesn’t impact another person’s ability to do it.
So, to all the millennials out there who are still struggling with their finances, know that there’s still time. The windows hasn’t closed yet. Learn how to invest using our workshop, start tracking and optimizing your expenses, and get on the path to FIRE, today!
Millennials may be getting older, but you still have time on your side. But if you wait much longer, that window is actually going to close on you. Don’t get left behind.
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Millennials may be getting older, but do we look older? Lol
Depends.
Do you want an honest answer or a dishonest answer?
Ah millennials… still whining.
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I am a boomer and I LOVE your blog. I learn quite a bit from you! We are not all bad. :). Thanks for all you do and I wish you continued success.
I have never figured out what a millenial or any of those other labels are. I have never considered any generation as entitled. Every generation has to struggle. If you’re lucky, you have parents who can provide a place for you to live while you struggle to learn skills. If you’re not lucky, parents or the foster care system toss you out onto the streets when you turn 18.
I love your book and have referred your book and blog to everyone I know. So far, one success story. A niece has started saving and investing. Who knows, hopefully maybe she won’t make all the mistakes we’ve made along our way.
I think low paying, crappy, backbreaking jobs are always available. It seems backbreaking, blue collar work is still available and seems to have adequate pay at least where I live. I’m disappointed that so many people are still going into debt for crappy degrees that pay the same or less as a job without a degree. I wish career counselors would use your book to counsel students.
GenX here. I have a little sister who’s a Millenial. I think part of why you might feel so frustrated about the attitudes from older folks towards Millenials is because there’s still a LOT of confusion out there about who Millenials are, ie I regularly read stuff disparaging young people who actually are GenZ’s and not Millenials. As a GenX, I can assure you that it often feels like there are only 2 generations out there, Boomers and Millenials 🙄 Anyway, I love your blog, and I only wish FIRE bloggers had become prominent sooner. I feel for Boomers who grew up before 401k’s and Roth’s (for Americans) – I have many friends in that group who, like you mentioned, got sucked into homeownership and pensions as the only way to have a good retirement (and never earlier than 65 of course). Thanks for all you do to educate everyone!!!!
Not true I know many boomers who with a pension retired between 57 and 62. I retired at 59 but was bored so went back to work. I will be taking my second retirement at 62 and never returning to work!
Thanks for remembering that GenX exists, I guess. Boomers talking shit defines our entire existence. I tend to agree that millennials have gotten a raw deal. I know a lot of you got screwed by the job market coming out of college. Tuition is and was waaaay too high. OTOH I had to talk my daughter off the ledge because she thought 7% mortgages were a sign of the apocalypse, and you know inflation. I had to show her the data to prove that over my 54 year lifetime 7% is actually pretty damn average for mortgages, and inflation is also pretty damn average (or less) for the time period. Also had to have the talk that hey, yeah, inflation is up but when your husband could triple his income by walking into any given McDonalds and filling out an application that says “I will work a 40 hour week” yeah… I’ll just leave it there. Anyways, thanks for remembering that I’m not a Boomer. But let’s leave the intergenerational BS to the Boomers. Things need to be better. Let’s get together and work on that, and in the meantime, if someone presents you with context don’t let it harsh your mellow.
Great article as usual, but I wish you’d stop banging on about the generational pigeon holes. Values change gradually and steadily over time, not suddenly at a specific time. I’m a Boomer, but have far more in common with a Gen X who is 5 years younger than me than a Boomer who is 15 years older. As the Wendii Curve of Cultural Diversity teaches us, the differences within any demographic are far greater than the differences between the average of different demographics.
Hmm. Seems like you’re purposefully ignoring the other side of the coin…
Have you considered what your combined net worth would be if you both had not “retired” early?
Sure, you’re doing fine here with your second careers as bloggers/social influencers. But I bet you that if you had continued to work your first careers the last 10 years (and retired for *real* in 2024 instead), you would be likely to have accumulated at least $10 million plus. No?
Your individual annual salaries would probably be in the $400K to $500K range. No?
I don’t think you would have to worry about paying off a mortgage if you had chosen that path.
Bahaha 500k salary in Toronto’s tech scene? Nope! Maybe 250k/year tops as a stressed out director with bonus and stock options that only vest based on performance. If we really want to compare their path not taken, then let’s assume they did buy that 500k house in 2015. The houses they were looking at were fixer-uppers, so there would have been costs associated with home ownership (new roof, furnace, finish the basement, replace kitchen appliances, pay property tax), which would have prevented them from investing much more over the years, although they would have kept building wealth through their workplace pensions. Let’s assume they bought that 500k house with cash. Houses in Toronto have appreciated a LOT in Toronto since then, so that 500k house would likely be around 1.8 million now, and their leftover 500k would have grown to around 1 million if you use Portfolio Visualizer to back-test a 60/40 global portfolio. Add in another 200k in workplace pensions and they would now have a total net worth of around 3 million (which would include a paid-off house with on-going maintenance costs/property taxes). Three million is indeed more than their current 2 million portfolio, but it would have come at a cost of continuing to work and stress for the last ten years and not having had the travel and writing adventures they have had. And this is in the best case scenario of them both continuing to work without burn-out/lay-offs, both becoming well-paid directors with all the stress that comes with it, possibly at the cost of their health and relationships.
I have a sibling who’s in IT in Toronto, and from what I understand he’s in the presumably very rare $500k cohort. Custom-built multi-million dollar house in the suburbs, wife who’s also a high-earning executive, etc. Aside from their house they’re also generally restrained with their considerable finances – modest cars, infrequent, reasonable vacations, don’t go overboard spending money on their kids.
And he’s stressed to the gills! I make a tiny fraction of what he earns, don’t live in the GTA, and while he’s complaining about working at all hours of the day and night, I’m in my spouse’s and my little pool on our half acre on a Wednesday afternoon, or going for a flying lesson, or driving my modest old convertible someplace, going for a mountain bike ride, or just relaxing at home. If I need a sick day or five, I take them without guilt or repercussion.
He’s in his mid-forties and has been talking for years about looking forward to finally being able to slow down and enjoy life. I admire his work ethic and his success, but sometimes it sounds like he’s still waiting for his life to start. I have my own issues, no question, but I wouldn’t want to trade places with him.
One thing that I’ve noticed about the very wealthy (mid-six-figure-earning and up) people that I’ve come across is that a high percentage of them don’t come across as happy. Putting “making more millions” above all else doesn’t strike me as a terribly fun, or healthy, way to go through life.
I think you miss the point of RE. Yes, you could keep working and amassing wealth but at what cost to health and wellbeing and do you really need 10X the money? I retired at 53 from a great job but also one that had become very stressful (good sleep was rare) and a 6+ day per week gig. I also saw many friends and coworkers who died young or retired at the normal age and then croaked only a few years later. As they talk about in the book, the time you gain by retiring early is the real benefit and as long as the wealth is enough to support you, there’s no need for more.
$10 million sounds like a lot. But if those are the going wages in Canada tech, that’s sweet!
Sounds like there are a lot more decamillionares in their late 30s or early 40s than I thought.
No wonder why housing in Canada is so much stronger than the U.S.
In the US, only about 1.5% of the population have a net worth above $10 million.
You’re right of course. If Firecracker and Wanderer had worked another 10 years maybe they would have more money…but what a life they have lived! Travel, publishing books, inspiring others like us, finding their tribe…money is important but time, purpose and living authentically is priceless. I admire their courage and guts to swim against the tide.
Let’s pull a few quotes from the above blogpost and have us a bit of a laugh, shall we?
“What irritates me now about being called entitled is that entitled implies that we want something for nothing.”
“Look at our battle scars! We’ve been through the ringer.”
“IT’S NEVER BEEN EASIER TO BECOME FI”
So tired hearing about Millennial victimhood. Especially when, same victims admit how easy they have it. Battle scars come from being in an actual war. Not playing video games. So…get over yourselves.
I like reading your blog but truly despise it when you guys write about your “woe is me.”
Just get over yourselves. At 40, it’s time to do that, no? Adults don’t do this kind of thing.
They and we Millenials don’t have it easy and they didn’t say they had it easy either in their blog. Go read their book. Or vacate the comments
More victimhood on display. You realize nobody cares about your victimhood. Just like nobody would care if I was to make public displays of victimhood.
Same with your control freak attitude. Vacate the comments? Why don’t you make me.
That’s your real issue. Trying to control things outside your sphere of influence instead of focusing on what actually is. Lol.
Also, you assume I didn’t read their book. Actually, I have. I appreciate the positive lessons from it. Doesn’t inhibit me from pointing out that victimhooding is a pointless and wasteful use of one’s energy.
OMG – definitely a rant fit for a grumpy boomer – are you sure you are not boomers 😉
Don’t worry – the next gen will be blaming the millennials soon enough.
I am so over all this blaming from every generation. All you can do is say this is the situation- how do I live my life in it – which you have actually done so no more blaming.
You sound like a millennial. 😎
:/ love reading this blog when it comes, but sheesh, don’t you ever get tired? Does the Revolution ever end? Life is too short.
I am a long time reader (thank you!) amd what piqued my curiosity in this blog post about using low cost airlines to travel around the continent for a few hundred dollars. I’m proud to say I retired somewhat early at 53, and have been doing some traveling to date, but I would love more information and resources about budget travel, specifically when travelling out of Canada (Montreal in my case). Thanks for all your entertaining and educational posts!!
Hi Jennifer, I also pulled the plug at 53 and loving it a year later! We’re traveling more now and I’d recommend sites like the points guy to give you info about travel on the cheap. One thing we did was get mileage credit cards and use them for daily expenses. So far have gotten free or discounted tickets to Hawaii, Costa Rica, and Belize.
re: 4% Rule:
It would be great if you could write a blog post covering the research suggesting the actual safe withdrawal rate is closer to 2% https://rationalreminder.ca/podcast/229
If correct, this would mean that all the “math sh%t up” from previous reader case studies needs to be recalculated, and would nearly double timelines to FI.
My son and his gf are millennials and I’m having a hard time convincing them to jump on the organization of their finances. They have good jobs and retirement accounts but for example weren’t really aware that some funds charge more and don’t beat the indexes. I want to get them on a path to FI even if the RE part is a ways off. They work so hard that there’s no energy left in the evening or weekend to do the personal finance stuff and it’s killing me because time in the market is on their side. For now!
Glad you said it, millennials are worse off in many ways, thanks to NIMBYs, older people wanting to hold onto homes too big for them, and the rising cost of living and child care for younger generations. We’re lucky in many ways too, and in our situation thankfully we’ve done well. But many others are age have student loans, child care, high rents, and still can’t afford a house. Go figure. Voting matters in your local government too!
One of the most common things I’ve noticed on Financial Samurai is a lot more angst and anger from renters who have rented over the past decade. In comparison, homeowners view the economy much more positively given thr huge rise in home prices since 2012.
The stock market has obviously done well since 2012, but the point of investing in the stock market is to eventually buy something that provides for a better life. So if those things such as a nice home, tuition, and everything else he has appreciated, tremendously as well, it’s like treading water.
I’m pretty certain in 10 years, the people who have bought nice homes will see their homes appreciate while also enjoying them. In 10 years, there will be an even larger bifurcation of viewpoints about the economy.
But the good thing is, everything is rational, long-term, and people make choices that are best for them.
Sam
Agree. I’m incredibly happy I purchased my house in 2019 before the pandemic. I wouldn’t be able to afford my house today, after just 5 years!
I’ve also invested in the stock market too and it’s been great.
Yay!
Stud.
I think it depends. If you could find decent and relatively stable housing in nice areas, it does not matter that much not to buy a house. I think a lot of nice big cities in Canada, Europe or Asia offer these options. However, in the US where big cities are generally limited with the above options, people who could find decent and affordable houses in suburbs should be pretty set for finances and lifestyles. We have a paid off house so one partner could quit the rat race due to burnout. For people who could not do digital nomads, having their own houses could be a great option as long as the mortgage is not killing you.
Last year I ran into a guy from Toronto at a conference, and he bought his house for 900k a few years back, not bad at all for Toronto. He didn’t feel too much pressure for paying off the house with double income from government and academic jobs, and superb health care coverage. He wondered if moving to the US would boost his income etc. I am like, dude, your income may need to be doubled to maintain similar lifestyles in the US and probably much less leisure time. So don’t move to the US!
I find it rather strange that FI is supposedly easier when for next generations, education and housing is so much more money compared to 4 decades ago.
It’s no longer to harp on the generational differences when recently in Globe and Mail, the major banks have confirmed first down payment for younger person’s lst home, has come from a parent @average of $100,000+. The parents has had to work for this, invest well.
I am a boomer but there is a 10 years age difference between myself and youngest sibling who is 55. I have 3 other siblings in between. Since I’m a boomer later in the curve,I have some siblings who are Gen X.
We don’t spend time amongst ourselves razzing each other on “differences” in generations. I especially don’t recommend it in any extended family. No point stoking up controversy for the hell of it. You only have family for a very SHORT time on earth. I realize it makes readable blog posts and adds excitement.
But now, it’s so passe.
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I think a lot of millennials have gained experience and resilience, but many are also facing new financial and family pressures that previous generations encountered later in life. I recently came across some useful public legal resources while reading about Columbia Court Clerk information, and they helped me better understand how court processes work. It’s interesting how responsibilities evolve as we get older, making practical knowledge more valuable than ever. Hopefully, the next decade brings a better balance between stability, health, and personal fulfillment.
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