A Window Into Permission For Freedom: The FIRE Number
The FIRE number promises freedom. But what if it’s just another permission slip telling us when we’re finally allowed to live?
This flash essay is part of a collaborative, constrained-writing challenge undertaken by some members of the Bangalore Substack Writers Group. This month, we used the prompt, ‘A Window Into…’. At the bottom of this snippet, you’ll find links to other essays by fellow writers.
Many of us carry a quiet sense of searching within us. Behind careers, money, relationships, or the perfect home lies a deeper yearning for something, maybe peace.
The kind that lets us be.
So we can rest.
So we can do what we truly want.
So we can be who we actually are.
The First Deal We Made
Most middle-class Indians were sold a familiar deal: complete a good degree, land a prestigious job, and peace will follow. Until then, it was acceptable to postpone our interests and talents.
Most of us agreed.
But the promise didn’t hold.
The life we chased rarely matched our expectations. Our needs slowly turned into wants, and responsibilities- family, homes, and children, kept accumulating. Life became a hamster wheel with no clear destination.
Enter the FIRE Number
Then came a new promise: the FIRE number.
Another permission slip to finally be, do, and express who we are.
Logically, FIRE isn’t wrong. Financial security does create safety. Yet, it resembles the very trap we fell into earlier.
FIRE often persuades us to stay in jobs or start businesses we don’t believe in, driven by the hope of a better future. Once again, today is sacrificed for tomorrow, one that keeps drifting further away.
The cost is years of stress and unfulfillment, often leading to burnout, health issues, and strained relationships. To cope, many turn to distractions and mindless spending.
Meanwhile, the FIRE number keeps rising - ₹5 crores, ₹10 crores, ₹20 crores.
The wheel keeps spinning.
What Were We Actually Seeking?
Somewhere along the way, we forget the original desire.
We only wanted permission to be.
Are we truly seeking money, or the feeling we believe money will provide? And can that feeling be accessed without endlessly chasing a number?
The mind dismisses this as philosophy. Yet are only people with massive bank balances happy? Those struggling to survive aren’t free either, but is there a middle ground we ignore?
A More Honest Question
This isn’t easy to sit with. No one is suggesting abandoning responsibilities. But if this resonates, it may be worth asking whether we are quietly enslaved by modern formulas.
For renunciates, peace may exist without money. For ordinary householders, the answers are different.
I don’t have a clear formula, but I’m convinced that human life cannot be designed around endless permission slips. These are self-created agreements, like an elephant tied to a knot; it could easily break.
If a bird is free to fly and a fish is free to swim, why are humans at the top of the food chain, tied down by permission slips just to express who they are and be?
What’s the Answer?
I believe the answer lies in taking ownership of our lives rather than outsourcing that responsibility to society.
In defining our own rules and deliberately designing our lives around our inner voice.
We’ve blindly followed the system’s formula, only to land in the same restless place. Can we, for once, trust ourselves enough to believe life will support our genuine talents if we take a bet on ourselves?
The Real Differentiator
Yes, it’s hard. The mind prefers paths validated by others. If it weren’t difficult, everyone would already be doing it instead of following the system’s “guaranteed success” formula, one that looks solid on the outside and promises money for survival.
Perhaps the real differentiator between external success and internal success is faith in oneself and the courage to listen to that quiet inner voice.
And maybe the real fear isn’t losing money, but being seen as foolish. What if I listened to the voice within and it failed me? Would I look like a fool?
If so, we must ask: are we living to prove something to society, or honoring our responsibility to ourselves?
Even if the path turns messy, it may teach us more than walking a predictable one. After all, we may only get one lifetime.
Other Essays part of this collaboration :
The window that looks back, by Vaibhav Gupta, Thorough and Unkempt
A window into the vegetable market by Rakhi Kurup , Rakhi’s Substack
A window into the fixity and flux by Amit Charles, AC Notes
A window into a person who shivers on stage by Mihir Chate, Mihir’s Substack
A window into a life on a sabbatical by Ritika Arora, Ritika Arora – Medium
A window into bendy morals by Amit Kumar, EarlyNotes
A window into Kalimpong by Karthik Ballu, Reading This World by Karthik
A window into what makes a great Quiz Question by Rajat Gururaj, I came, I saw, I floundered
A window into my journey as Content Writer without a degree by Meghana Ramachandra
Still Looking By Spandana, Spandana’s Substack
A window into a screen-less day by Saniya Zehra Saniya’s Substack
> Somewhere along the way, we forget the original desire. We only wanted permission to be.
I love this.
Also, the below part reminds me of the entire narrative in "Psalm for the Wild Built" about purpose (highly recommended, if you haven't had a chance yet). I was musing on these line myself a while back (https://earlynotes.substack.com/p/who-picked-your-goals-for-you )
> We’ve blindly followed the system’s formula .... mind prefers paths validated by others. If it weren’t difficult, everyone would already be doing it instead of following the system’s “guaranteed success” formula, one that looks solid on the outside and promises money for survival.