While more young people are eager to retire early, the first early retirees have returned to the workforce.
A few years ago, the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement that emerged from the United States swept the world, and young people in China poured into social media to try to discuss the possibility of early retirement. Some of them have limited savings, but FIRE is the "ideal answer" they can think of to escape the high pressures of the workplace - through high savings, low material desires and financial investment, they can achieve early retirement and completely get rid of the constraints of work.
然而，到了2024年，風向已經幾經轉變。作為美國FIRE運動的先驅之一Sam Dogen在 2012年34歲時攢夠了300萬美元提前退休， 2024年，他又宣告重回職場：因為發現自己的財務狀況難以支援子女完成高等教育。
Young people in China have also started to practice FIRE life in the past few years, however, when this seemingly unlimited freedom really comes, life is not as light as imagined. Some people have returned to the workplace to explore new possibilities in life.
Here's what they had to say:
Hope 1 years old FIRE 0 years
2023年年底，我在深圳做一份財務工作，當時勸自己，要堅持到拿了年終再辭職。但工作壓力太大，加上身體也不好，10月16日，我做完工作上的交接，退租了房子，把行李寄回老家，第二天直接離開了深圳。
那時候我已經存了50萬，夠我用的了。FIRE前我就想過，利率會一直降的，但我可以咖啡師FIRE，做一些兼職，而不是只靠利息。我一直都很節儉，每個月記帳，也有理財。早幾年，我出去逛街口渴了都不願意花錢買一瓶水，忍到回家再喝，能走路就不坐車，除了房租吃飯，其他都不怎麼花錢，70%的工資都存起來了。
我只有初中學歷，剛出來工作的時候才16歲，09年，在流水線上工作，一個月兩千塊錢，只做了一個月就不幹了，因為覺得流水線工作的人很麻木，拿了工資後就去學電腦，基礎的office操作。後來做過前臺，期間我又通過學習考過了會計證，做了會計，之後考了成人大專，考了自考本科。
Stills from "The Bottom Hot Girl".
I was shocked when I first came across the concept of FIRE two years ago, when I was in a relationship that wasn't very good, and it inspired me to live like this.
In the second half of '2023, I started to seriously consider the feasibility of FIRE. In order to save money, I want to move from Shenzhen to a place with cheap rent. I am from the south and give priority to the south, so I hesitated between Quanzhou and some places in Guangxi at first, and after repeated comparisons, I found that Qujing in Yunnan Province has the lowest rent, so I finally chose here.
Before arriving in Qujing, I watched a lot of videos about here, someone came to live here earlier, and I also chose a house in advance on the Internet, one room, one kitchen and one bathroom, 7 yuan a month, including water and electricity bills, short-term rental for a month, household appliances and furniture, and 0 floors.
Later, I found that this house is very good, there is a vegetable market and supermarket 200 meters downstairs, and there are many small restaurants nearby. Through social media, I found that there are many young people living around me who come to live at FIRE from other places, and we often organize gatherings. Such a good start made me look forward to the rest of my life, and I felt a sense of relief and freedom.
But because the seventh floor was too high to climb, I only lived for half a month before moving out. By chance, I met a friend who also went to Yunnan from other places, and we lived together in a two-bedroom apartment.
The price of goods in Qujing is very cheap, I spend 5 to 0 yuan a month. The weather here is also very good, the sky is very blue, and it is not cold when the sun comes out. There are several parks in the vicinity of 0-0 km, and I often wander around the parks, buy groceries and cook every day, read books and study, exercise, and the day passes quickly. But this good life didn't last long, and I soon got bored.
After staying in Qujing for three months, I went home for the New Year, and after the beginning of the year 2024, I went to Chengdu again, and I thought that Chengdu has a lot of people, and it has done well in culture, and there are many interest classes, so maybe I can live a happier life.
After arriving in Chengdu, I also tried to do offline social activities and find some friends, but it was not easy. At the same time, I also started to work part-time, such as going to the supermarket to pack, going to a bubble tea shop, a fast food restaurant, etc., these jobs are time-consuming and laborious, and the wages paid to me are as low as 18 yuan an hour and as high as 0 yuan an hour. Although I make money from my own labor, I feel that labor is not worth much.
Stills from "We Who Can't Be Beasts".
Doing such a part-time job not only has a small income, but also has a time limit, which is very oppressive and not easy at all. For example, you need to run around when picking goods, sometimes you have to carry heavy objects, and you will be scolded for picking the wrong goods. Although I have never encountered overtime deductions, the leader will always say that if there is too much overtime, I don't want you to do it. In the end, I found that in the office building, there is air conditioning, sitting, typing on the computer, such work is easy, no wonder everyone wants to be a white-collar worker.
At the end of last year, I even felt miserable because of my different eating habits, and I missed my family very much. There is even a feeling of wandering, no sense of belonging, no people you know, and very lonely.
I am now ready to go back to Shenzhen to look for a job, and I want to come back to work not because I am anxious about saving, but because I feel that I need to socialize very much.
My previous job was stressful and I had a lot of responsibility for mistakes, but the atmosphere was good, I always went home with my colleagues after work, often ate together, and went out on holidays, so I didn't exclude going to work.
Actually, I really want to sell gold jewelry, I feel that the work is easy, the working environment is good, and the salary is acceptable, I submitted my resume, but I haven't received a reply yet. If you can't find it, there is a high probability that you will still do finance.
I hope to find a job that is less stressful, and my physical condition has improved a lot this year at FIRE, and I don't need to take medicine or go to the hospital for acupuncture. I don't know how long I'll be working in the future, maybe when technology develops, I can buy a robot in the future, and I can be regarded as a companion.
Drama of "Mortal Song".
Yu 2 years old FIRE 0 years
After retiring early for a while, I found that happiness can only be compared through pain. If there is no pain, life is too uneventful.
2017年畢業後，我進入北京一家律所做訴訟律師。這份工作太苦了，苦到沒有生活，每天睜眼閉眼第一件事都是在回工作消息。
Especially in 2022 years, I don't have a fixed commute time for the customer group I work with, so I have to be on call all the time. At that time, the team's requirement was that the customer's questions must be responded to within half an hour, and the customer could not be made to wait. Even on holidays, I was in a state of nervousness, and I had to carry a computer on my back when I went to drink sake with my friends.
The most outrageous time, the Mid-Autumn Festival, I was massaging with my friends, pressed halfway, suddenly the phone called, I still have essential oils on my body, but I can only put on a bathrobe, sit on the bed with a computer and start typing. The power strip was still very far away from the bed, and I was afraid of losing power, so I could only squat in front of the power strip and write while charging. Even when my friend finished pressing, he had to wait for me to handle the work. I feel like even the technician is speechless.
It's these little things that slowly add up, and my desire not to work is getting stronger and stronger. At the end of year 2022, I had a little problem with my mental state, I didn't know what I was making money for, and I felt that life was meaningless. At the time, I thought, I'm not going to do it anymore after this wave.
Stills from "Apocalypse".
At that time, I had saved enough five million, and my mother also ran the factory, and by 2022 years, the operation of the factory hardly required our care. My mother is not in good health, and running a factory is indeed too hard and tiring. My mother and I thought that we would both retire and make a certain profit every year anyway.
We all thought about it, but we also prepared for the worst, even if the factory couldn't survive in the end, we would sell it and live with the savings, and there would be no problem. I even thought that if I really reached the point of exhaustion in the end, I would be able to support the two of us by working in a coffee shop.
My mother and I are people who live the same life no matter how much money we have. In the area of serious illness medical care, we bought insurance very early, and the high-risk expenses that I could imagine at that time were not much, and our protection was sufficient.
My mom and I didn't want to stay in Beijing anymore, and I felt that there was a smell of anxiety in the air of Beijing. At the end of 2022 years, we decided to move our family to Chengdu.
We bought a house in Chengdu and settled down. At first, it was pretty cool! I played like crazy for a while, trying to make up for what I had missed. I went to Henan, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, traveled to many cities that I had never been to before, watched a lot of dramas, talk shows, and participated in reading clubs. My friends around me are still worried about taking time off from work, and I can go wherever I want, and do whatever I want.
那時候我還是有“單位”的，我從北京所轉到了成都所，但做獨立律師，不工作也沒有人管。我算過，一年裡也就接兩個案子，工作時間平攤到每天可能連一個小時都不到，可以說工作很偶爾，完全看心情。平均下來，每年能拿到7萬塊，其實是完全不能覆蓋掉我的生活開支的。但好在，我們的資產養活我和我媽兩個人綽綽有餘。
I don't have any shame about resting, but I still face the pressure from my family, and the grandparents of the older generation will worry that I will never find a job in the future, or that my skills will be wasted.
The intoxicating "coolness" also subsided after playing crazy for a while. Because of the lack of external constraints, my life began to become scattered, my work and rest were unhealthy, my meals were irregular, and I felt that I was in a state of disorder. I'm still a person who likes to hang out, but in the end, I'm getting more and more homely.
Drama shot of "The Light of the Cockroach".
Reflection on this chaos prompted me to seek change. Last year, I started to try to find a job, on the one hand, I wanted a more regular life, on the other hand, I did not devote myself to the production and operation of society, and I relied on the stories of friends and information on the Internet to understand the outside world, and I often felt derailed from society. So I hope to find a job that will expose me to people and society.
Later, by chance, I came to the current company to do business, and I have never worked in the company, nor have I worked 9 to 5, which is a novel experience.
So far, I'm quite satisfied. After work at half past five, I can watch a play, a movie, or have a dinner with friends. My boss is more tolerant and rarely needs to work overtime on days off. The work of a legal counsel is much simpler than that of a lawyer, and even if I occasionally need to work overtime and my colleagues come to me temporarily, the problem will not be very difficult, and it is within my acceptable range.
This relatively stable state makes me less anxious, and I can be completely sure of what I want to plan for the next week. Probably the only problem is that I can't write a report draft, and I have a headache every time I write.
Later, when I was doing the review, I was not prepared for FIRE, how to deal with this period of not working at all. I may try again to stop myself, but I will definitely plan ahead, learn some skills, or try something else, and I can't just play aimlessly.
Although I returned to the workplace after FIRE, this short refreshment also made me think about what I really wanted. I used to be stuck in the mainstream social evaluation system, concerned about other people's opinions, anxious when I stopped, and my self-worth was tied to my work, but now I have abandoned that and completely followed my heart, and I have begun to learn to build my own beliefs and self-identity outside of work.
Cinematography of "Nagi's New Life".
Summer 4 years old FIRE 0 years
Four years after FIRE, I found that it was very difficult for me to completely lie down and retire early. I'm still eager to stay at the table.
In my early years, I amassed some of my wealth through entrepreneurship and investment. After graduating from university in 2007 years, I started a business with two partners and did a project for foreign teenagers to come to China. At that time, the social atmosphere was like this, not long after the country opened, everyone wanted to travel abroad, see the world, and believe that the earth was flat.
Our project involves the safety and management of minors, which is very stressful. During the busiest months of the year, I was almost 24 hours on standby. I once spent a full 0 hours at the airport because of a plane delay, and I also accompanied a student because of a sudden illness. There are times when work is hard, but it also brings me a great sense of accomplishment and value.
In 2020, the arrival of the epidemic brought a drastic change to my work, the project stopped, and I felt tired myself, so I thought, it would be good to take a break.
At first, the shutdown was very relaxing, but I finally didn't have to think about work, and I thought it would be good if I didn't work all the time, so I just played. But gradually, the sense of confusion that "I don't need anyone else, and I don't seem to be needed" made me very uneasy.
I began to explore from "professional identity" to "self-identity". For example, try a "themed season" lifestyle, exploring different hobbies each season, such as long-distance running, healthy eating, gardening, cycling, etc. I always have a feeling that I can't run out of energy, and after exercising, my body gets better and my body gets better, which gives me a lot of encouragement and motivation, and also allows me to find a fulcrum. At the same time, I have gradually realized that what really fulfills me is the things that have output, output and reward. Hobbies are especially appealing in the midst of busyness, but it's not feasible to counteract the emptiness of the heart just by filling up the time.
Stills from "Love".
These attempts have brought me some changes, but in reality, over time, I feel a deep emptiness. In the past, I would reward myself with spending, but in the final year of FIRE, the joy of spending can quickly lead people into emptiness, perhaps because they are not creating, they cannot produce results, they do not bring people a sense of value and achievement, and I need to immediately find the next thing that excites me.
In 2023, when the country opened, one of my partners decided to open a branch in Shanghai, but when she came to ask me for her opinion, I felt that I was not interested, maybe I had been working for too long, or everyone had a different focus in their lives.
At this stage, although my parents respected my decision, I could also feel from their words that they would think, "Are you so young and so good?" Are you going to lie down all the time?
At that time, I also had some problems with my own emotions, I didn't work for a long time, so I couldn't find my own value, I couldn't find the coordinates, I needed to get social contact and get timely feedback from others. In addition, most of my friends my age were busy taking care of children or starting careers, and I had no children and no job, so my lack of sense of worth left me at a low point.
At the same time, I found that I was starting to become less confident. I used to have good presentation skills, good sales skills, I had a lot of fulcrums, I knew I was good, I could make money, but after losing all of this I wasn't sure if I could still do it, I really don't need to make any more money now, but I don't know, if I need to, can I still make it? Because I didn't have contact with people for too long and didn't get feedback, I started to have self-doubts that I had never had before.
Fortunately, I have drawn a lot of strength from the female role models around me, on the one hand, I have always had hard-working friends who are constantly moving forward, on the other hand, I have started to read books related to feminism and psychology myself, and the female opinion leaders on the Internet have also given me a lot of inspiration, and I gradually feel as if I can't sit still. But I still lacked a chance to start over, and I was not sure if I would be able to survive without the help of my partner, and if I went to work from 9 to 5, I felt that I was too old to do these attempts.
Drama shot of "Little Forest".
It wasn't until the end of '2024 that I received a call from two female entrepreneurs asking me how to restart the program for foreign teenagers to come to China, and I was almost incoherent with excitement when talking about our shared experiences. The work experience in my memory, the observation of the industry, and the summers spent in the summer camp all came back to my mind, and I also returned to a state full of challenges and enthusiasm.
Later, with the encouragement of those around me, I quickly decided to join their entrepreneurial team. I used to be the youngest person on the team, and I always felt like there was someone on top of me. Now, I'm starting to be more proactive and aggressive, more active in solving problems, more responsible, and willing to be the one who drives the rhythm.
When I got back to work, I found that it was those moments of riveting to solve the problem that made me feel like I "existed". Life is like an experiment, FIRE is not the end, in the final analysis, I am looking for an answer on how to "live well", I have made so many attempts, there is still no answer, I am also on the road of exploration, "Be brave!" "I always encourage myself like that.
Now, instead of clinging to a fixed identity or outcome, I choose to find my rhythm in the flow.