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After being retired for 10 years and preaching about FIRE, I’ve learned somethings about why certain people are more resistant to FIRE than others, but overall, it’s still a mystery. In fact, even though we get daily e-mails from readers thanking us for helping them get to FI, most of our family and friends are surprisingly not interested at all. I thought this might have something to do with the fact that to random strangers we seem like superhuman geniuses but to our own family, who’s seen our mistakes and failures, we are very much flawed humans, and what we accomplished isn’t that big of a deal.
But then I read the book “Surrounded by Idiots” and it not only shed light on why we failed to influence family members and close friends to become FI, it also explained to me why FIRE aficionados, despite growing massively in numbers since we retired in 2015, still remains fringe, a drop in an ocean compared to people who live beyond their means and buy stuff rather than investments.
The book is written by Thomas Erikson, a Swedish consultant, who wrote the book based on his observations on human behaviour. Even though he isn’t a psychologist, the book has been wildly popular, having sold 8 million copies and been translated into 60 different languages! It’s very practical and straight forward and in many ways better than Myers Briggs because the research is based on work of psychologist William Moulton Marston in the 1920s, named the ‘DISC model of human behaviour”. It basically simplifies the 16 personalities of Myers Briggs down to only 4. Erikson calls this the DISA model.
Red (Dominant): ambitious, boisterous, and commanding
Yellow (Inspiring): optimistic, social, fun-loving
Green (Submissive): calm, reliable, considerate
Blue (Analytic): quiet, analytical, precise
Erikson improves on the DISC acronym by swapping the C for A, so that blue types are classified as “analytical” instead of “compliant”, which I think is much more accurate.
He also separates the color personalities into subgroups: “task-oriented” versus “relational”. Reds and Blues are task-oriented because they are logical and want to get shit done. Yellows and Greens are relational because they are more emotional and care about relationships.
Red and Yellows are “Active” while Greens and Blues are “Passive”, which means that red and yellows tend to be extroverted and assertive while greens and blues tend to be introverted and passive (of course, there are exceptions).
What’s interesting is that most people are a combination of 2 colors, and sometimes they can have opposite traits. Good traits can also be bad in certain situations and vice versa.
For example, Reds are goal-oriented, ambitious and commanding, which is great if you want a leader to push people to get a project done. But that ambition and task-oriented trait can also rub people the wrong way and ruin friendships when it is seen as domineering and bullying.
For example, I am a red. I love getting shit done and am not afraid of telling it like it is. I also don’t care what people think of me. I mean, I literally made my writing career by yelling at Boomers. So, that’s great, right? But as a result, with the notable exception of JL Collins, most Boomers don’t like me very much. Somehow being told they’re wrong all the time seems to rub them the wrong way. Shocking.
Yellows are optimistic, fun-loving, which makes them the life of the party. However, that optimism makes it so that they are frequently late because they are so optimistic that it’ll all just work out, without planning too much. The fact that they are inspiring and relational makes it great for energizing a team to take on a project, but their big-picture thinking and obsession for being in the spotlight means that details get missed and no one else gets a chance to talk. They tend to enjoying talking about how great they are rather than doing the task using such said great skills.
Generally, people who love drinking, partying, and other hedonistic activities have some yellow in them. Wanderer is a classic example of this. He’s a self-professed hedonist, but somehow still ends up getting shit done when it’s needed. I think this may have something to do with engineering school training some blue into him. He’s a good balance to my workaholism and does a good job dragging me away from whatever task I seemed to be obsessed with at the moment, to let go, live in the moment, and have some fun.
Greens are the most considerate and selfless people, which makes them amazing friends. But they can get caught up in feelings and empathy, which means it can take a long time to complete tasks since they need to “feel right” to work on it. Also, feelings are constantly changing. Their patience, which makes them wonderful friends, can turn into procrastination because they will patiently wait an eternity for the right feeling.
I have many friends who are greens and they are not only the best listeners but also who you want to go to when you need a shoulder to cry on—or in my case a calming presence when my red gets out of hand and I fly off the handle.
Blues are obsessed with analysing everything, which is useful for important tasks that leave little room for error. But as a result, they can be quite critical and pessimistic, which makes them not so fun to hang around with. They also tend to get lost in the weeds, which sometimes slows their progress.
I also exhibit blue traits, like obsessing over details, researching the hell out of everything, which is great for optimizing and planning for the future—another thing that’s useful for FIRE—but can cause me to overthink and miss out on opportunities.
I always found Myers Briggs types hard to remember and some personality types are too similar to others. This system is dead simple to explain and you don’t need to take a personality test to figure out which color you are and be able to use it to help you understand other people. I also love how the colors already correspond to existing beliefs (red= anger, yellow=happy, green=peaceful/serene, blue=data/info/charts) we have so it’s a no brainer to remember. I also never thought of positive traits also being negative and vice versa.
Now, obviously this system has its flaws since people are multi-faceted and beyond just 4 types of classification. But as a general framework for understanding others, it’s pretty helpful. Personally, ever since I read this book, there have been less conflicts between myself and other family members because instead of judging and trying to change them, I can accept their seemingly weird quirks because I now understand why they are the way they are. Understanding other people makes it a lot easier to communicate with them using their own color language. That’s why this book’s title “surrounded by idiots” makes sense because without understanding why people who are the opposite of us behave a certain way, it’s easy to classify them as “idiots”.
This system also helped me understand why so many family members and friends lost steam when they try to get on the FIRE path.
If we were to classify many of the FIRE bloggers, we would get an abundance of Red+Blues. This is because FIRE is task-oriented rather than people-oriented. The pessimism and analytical nature of Blues lends itself well to optimizing and saving for the future. The Yellows and Greens tend to be turned off by spreadsheets and all the task-oriented logical aspects.
Since, according to evolved metrics, the most common type in the worldwide population is Green (Submissive)- 32%, this explains why FIRE, isn’t so popular. The least common type is Red (Dominant) -9%, which is one of the most common types in FIRE, and the color type that’s makes it easier to succeeded in something as task oriented as FIRE.
The book also taught me that a person can be more than one color (in fact, most people are a combination of 2 colors), and the more colors you have in your personality, the more well-rounded you are. A person with 3 or more colors is exceptionally rare.
Since the author does corporate training, he ran an experiment where employees were split up into 4 groups, corresponding to their own personality colors: red, blue, yellow, green. They were all given a project to complete.
You’d think the reds, with their ambition, goal-orientedness, and leadership qualities would just beat all other teams, right?
Wrong!
The red group completed the task first. But they were so rushed trying to be number one, they didn’t read the information carefully enough and answered the wrong question.
The yellow group spent most of the time talking about their amazing skills, hanging out, chatting, and drinking and didn’t end up finishing the task.
One member of the green group talked about how sad they were that their dog is sick, and the other members, all empaths, shared their feelings. Because they spent the whole time relating to one another, they didn’t even start the task.
And finally, the blue team spent the entire time arguing about the grammatical errors in the task notes, criticizing each other’s ideas, and debating about minutia until the timer ran out.
This proves that in order to succeed, you need a mix of the different colors/personalities since each traits has their merits for different purposes. If you go in only one direction, you end up with a subpar solution.
This is why greens and yellows, who may be at a disadvantage when it comes to FIRE, need to work with other people like reds and blues to help them get to FIRE. Work on it with a spouse or an accountability partner, because doing it alone is an uphill battle since this task-oriented pursuit goes against your personality type.
People with Reds and Blues in their personality will also do well to remember that FIRE isn’t the end all be all. Sometimes you need to sacrifice efficiency for relationships, and every now and then, take some time out of being buried in your spreadsheets to have fun, party, and spend like yellows.
What do you think? Which color(s) are you? Have you been able to convince any friends or family to pursue FI?
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I’m doing leadership training at work and we take a workplace profile test that gives you your DiSC style, mine is a high C which means I’m methodical, analytical, and introverted. What’s interesting is the opposite quadrant is who you’re most likely to have conflict with, for me it’s the I style, because in my eyes, they talk a lot and get nothing done! Doing this exercise made me realize the strengths and weaknesses of all work styles, the I’s are great at getting people together and collaborating, and the C’s will make sure we get the checklist done. I would highly recommend everyone using this tool at work to figure out what your coworkers work style is!
Interesting book summary. I might add this to my reading list!
As for my colors, I’m thinking Blue/Red as primary (maybe Blue) and then Yellow as secondary. Though I feel that post FIRE I excerpt more Yellow than Blue…
Since you got the chance to know me, what would you say my colors are? And what about Mrs. NN?
I would like to know too, Kristy haha. I think I’m blue and a little red and a little yellow. My husband is Green and a little of red. lol
Full disclosure, I haven’t read the book and in general I’m suspicious of personality assessments like you describe because to me, they imply that people don’t change – something I know from personal experience just isn’t true. I know I embarked on FIRE after *really* struggling to make ends meet in grad school, and after growing up in a difficult family – which taught me early on to count only on myself. So while I’m sure your book’s theory has some merit, I don’t know that it captures all the complexities of human beings. And yes I did manage to convince some folks in my life (a sister and her husband), but I think primarily because they’ve both been in tough jobs for a while and fully understand the benefit of not depending on a boss for one’s financial survival. Cheers!! 😊
Just stopping by to insert a bit of fun here, a (hopefully) easier way to remember the 4 personalities is to use Peanuts characters instead of colors:
Red = Lucy
Yellow = Snoopy
Green = Charlie Brown
Blue = Schroeder
Cheers!
…memorizing all those colors is far too much work……’kidding
As a general rule any endeavor that requires diligence and discipline, either physical or mental, is going to be a very lonely journey. Total disinterest from acquaintances has my observation as well.
Interesting concept … blue for me i think 🙂
Right now, my favourite personality test is this : https://gretchenrubin.com/quiz/the-four-tendencies-quiz/
i suspect you fall into the rebel categorie ?
thanks for your insights on your blog i check almost daily for new content.
btw i love wanderers “nerdy dorkmeister”articles on economy !
best regards!
Perhaps you could post an article about how we can increase our incomes based on our personality types? What if we aren’t hard-driving, Type A personalities? What if we are low-energy, Type B personalities? I think this would be helpful since some of us have already cut our spending to the bone and now need to find ways to increase our incomes to reach FIRE.
I think I’m a blue (and a little bit of green sometimes) and a questionnaire (4 Tendencies). I definitely have to read the book which been sitting on my to-read list.
Good one. My colors change depending on who I am working with or what I am working on.
Personally I think the main reason FIRE hasn’t caught on more is that most people enjoy consuming a higher proportion of their income than what FIRE would require – and maybe that is ok! I’m thinking here of alternate voices in the personal finance space, like Ramit Sethi, that have grown a lot in popularity. The life dissatisfaction problem that FIRE was trying to solve may have more than one solution.
I don’t think it has to do with personality types. I see people pursuing FIRE in each of these so called categories.
People either want to pursue FIRE or not. It’s as simple as that. The idea of it clicks or it doesn’t. It does and it gets prioritized. It doesn’t and it isn’t prioritized.
It’s tiring to constantly hear people wanting to label others as “something”.
It’s just weird.
Are you two losing your “yellow”? Have you been traveling? Are you really “FIRE”? Is +1 changing you?
Kristy –
I’m a Boomer (retired “early” at age 55 in 2013) and I like you! 😉
I really enjoyed reading “Quit Like a Millionaire”. I loaned it to my 40 yo eldest son’s mid 30’s SO, but she returned it to me months later unread. “Kids” these days. Sheesh!
I figured I must be Blue, since I am quiet, analytical, and quite precise (!); but when I read “pessimistic” I started having second thoughts. Then I remembered my hubby always says to me, “Why do you have to be so pessimistic all the time?” What he sees as pessimism, I see as practical: If you think a task is going to be hard, you are very happy when it turns out to be easy! He always thinks a task is going to be easy, then becomes frustrated when that task turns out to be way more difficult than he expected. For any repair task, I just bake in that it will require at least three trips to the hardware store at a minimum. So if it only takes one trip, that’s a win! (Gotta take those wins wherever you can get them when it comes to the “joys” of home ownership! LOL).
Thank you both for all your hard work! Give Little Matchstick a snuggle for me; it’s been a LONG time since my offspring were that small.
Interesting, KAT1809. You and I think alike: expect something to be more work or take longer, and if you’re wrong it’s a win. My pessimistic outlook drives me to put in way more thought, effort and focus than most others seem to. It gets the job done!
Glad to know I’m not the only one with that point of view! Thank you for validating my perspective. 🙂
Hi Kristy,
Where have you written about dumping on boomers that you mention in this post? I mean maybe other than your views on home ownership? As I have read your book more than once(and loved it!) but don’t remember an overly negative boomer slant. Again other than maybe your real estate views but even those I wouldn’t classify as solely at boomers but simply on RE in general. What writing are you referring to and can you please point me to it as I would love to read stuff like that. Thanks.
One could argue that homeownership is boomer-adjacent, so I could see how their homeownership remarks might come across as anti-boomer.
I think lots of people just couldn’t do it due to reality. FIRE is pretty much set for people with decent income that could live off on a portion of it, and that pretty much slashes people who literally live paycheck by paycheck (not talking about fancy stuff, basic food, shelter, clothes, etc.). So it is a privilege. Among those people who could FIRE but don’t want to, it is mostly a life choice, maybe they rather spend time in the corporate world and buy a house and have all the gadgets, as long as the working environment is not toxic, who cares? Or they don’t know what to do without external structures in life and may be panic when suddenly all the time belongs to them and nobody tells them what to do. The goal of FIRE is to have your time back when you are willing to use it and ensures that you don’t have to tolerate toxic environment, but the path to FIRE should never compromise your physical and mental health. FIRE is a tool but not the goal.
Well, I loved this post. I am a boomer, retired in 2015 at age 57, yes that does make me 66, and find this blogs POV refreshing. While I do agree with April in some respects, I feel FIRE is doable no matter what your income is. Think about how to manage your expenses. I did it as a single mother, no post grade 12 education, and no inheritance. With inconsistent child support and then a medical condition in one of the most expensive cities in North America. Kristy and Wanderer keep up the good work. Your friend from Vancouver, B
The reds are most likely to FIRE because they’re also the strongest believers that they are controllers of their own destiny so are the type to be self employed/business owners who have to have their own financial plan since there’s no employer pension to fall back on.
The greens make the best long term employees or civil servants. Often in non high paying jobs but stable routine predictable w a pension.
Blues make great accountants, software engineers, or data analysts, where attention to detail is paramount.
The yellows are your sales team. Don’t expect them to read thru the whole email. Don’t expect them to save much. They love spending n looking great. They charming, charismatic, and they’ll close the deal.
Cheers,
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Fascinating breakdown! As a Blue-Red mix, I relate to the analysis-paralysis vs. hyper-efficiency struggle in FIRE planning. Your point about Greens/Yellows needing accountability partners is spot on—tools like https://grade-calculator.io/ could help bridge that gap by turning abstract goals (e.g., “save 50%”) into visual progress tracks, making the “task-oriented” side of FIRE feel more relational.
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