The theory of FIRE, then, is a perfect response for these disillusioned times. It’s almost always couched in aspirational terms. Many of FIRE adherents trot out truthy statistics commonly found in viral Facebook posts, like the one about how, on average, a person supposedly spends something like 75% of the time they will ever spend with their children by the time those children are 12 years old. Wouldn’t anyone like to spend more time with their kids? (Actual studies have found that quality of time matters much more than quantity.) The earliest leaders in the online FIRE space were people who’d achieved it—most famously Peter Adeney, better known as Mr. Money Mustache. Frequently profiled and interviewed, Adeney is the classic software-engineer-turned-frugal-guru who sorted his nest egg and left the workforce in 2005, when he was only 30. (At least, the traditional workforce: Now he makes money by telling other people how to save their money, and through partnerships with credit cards and mortgage companies.) Adeney defines financial independence as a means to an end: a …