The promise of early retirement is so seductive, any YouTuber claiming they achieved it is going to draw me in. If you’re at all interested in the prospect of early retirement, we highly recommend you first read up on the basics of FIRE (financial independence, retire early). In short: The FIRE movement boils down to taking advantage of the value of compound interest from investing early in your 20s. Naturally, the movement has some critics, largely claiming that FIRE promotes unrealistic projections of wealth for anyone who doesn’t already have some substantial wealth in the first place.
To be frank, after watching all these early retirement videos, I would label myself a critic of FIRE. The ability to put significant distance between your income and your spending is too big a privilege to be truly relatable. I’d wager that more Americans are too worried about retiring ever to even imagine retiring early.
Still, I went down this personal finance YouTube rabbit hole, and I want to take you with me. Maybe where I found skepticism, you’ll find inspiration. Here’s a round-up of some of the most helpful video explainers on the topic, so you can give yourself a crash course in all things early retirement.
