The FIRE movement is polarizing.

Short for "financial independence, retire early," FIRE is typically associated with aggressive saving and investing, often with the goal of leaving the workforce well before traditional retirement age.

In a recent interview with Business Insider, financial influencer Haley Sacks — known online as "Mrs. Dow Jones" — called FIRE a "sham" and compared the movement to "financial anorexia."

Some FIRE practitioners agree the movement can be taken too far. Andy Hill, who once pursued a more traditional version of FIRE, said he tried to keep his family's savings rate around 50%, but it led to money fights and marriage counseling. Eventually, Hill and his wife shifted to Coast FIRE, a more flexible offshoot of the movement that allowed them to ease up on savings and eventually scale back at work.

FIRE can be extreme, but advocates say that's not how most people experience it

Sacks' take touched on long-standing criticisms of FIRE, including that the movement can be too extreme and entail a life of deprivation.

"I think Haley's criticism is fair if we're talking about the most extreme version of FIRE, but I don't think that's what the movement looks like for most people today," said Cody Berman, author of "Retire by 30," who achieved financial independence in his mid-20s.

Cody Berman, the author of "Retire by 30," reached financial independence in his mid-20s without feeling deprived. Courtesy of Cody Berman

In his experience, FIRE was less about depriving oneself and more about spending less than you earn and investing the difference, all in the name of creating more options: "The goal isn't to put your nose to the grindstone, hate your life for 10 years, hit some magic number, and then never work again."

Judging FIRE by its most extreme examples, he added, is like judging fitness by professional bodybuilders or entrepreneurship by Silicon Valley billionaires. While those people get the attention, "they aren't representative of what most people are actually doing."

Kristy Shen, who said she initially thought FIRE sounded like a scam before she and her husband achieved financial independence themselves, also pushed back on the idea that the movement is rooted in deprivation.

"I don't live in a van, eat rice and beans, and I've never given up traveling to save money. I've met very few people in this FIRE community who do this," she said, adding that deprivation isn't sustainable. "That's not what the movement is about. That's a caricature of FIRE."

FIRE is a "choose your own adventure" strategy

The FIRE movement's origins can be traced to the 1992 book "Your Money or Your Life," coauthored by a duo who had themselves achieved financial independence before their 40s. It was then popularized on blogs like "Mr. Money Mustache" and "Early Retirement Extreme," the idea to work hard, ideally with multiple income streams, live a life of austerity, invest prudently, and build a big enough nest egg to walk away from work well before the average retirement age.

Over the last three decades, it has evolved beyond a single rigid path and now includes a variety of offshoots: Barista FIRE, Cash Flow FIRE, Fat FIRE, Lean FIRE, and Coast FIRE, which is the version that Hill and his wife eventually adopted.

Hill said more people are gravitating toward less extreme versions of the movement. He pointed to the growth of Coast FIRE, including its subreddit, which has 139,000 followers.

Grant Sabatier, author of the bestselling book "Financial Freedom," described modern FIRE as a "choose your own adventure" strategy.

Sabatier, who has spoken about getting laid off and growing his net worth from $2.26 to more than $1 million in just five years, said he believes FIRE is "attainable for everyone" — but not on the same timeline or with the same tradeoffs. He also acknowledged that pursuing financial independence is more difficult today than it was when he started investing in 2010, a period when he benefited from a strong bull market and a lower cost of living.

Hill spoke more cautiously about traditional FIRE, conceding that the "traditional FIRE dream" is more difficult for parents, single-income households, lower-income individuals, and people living in high-cost areas. Because financial independence ultimately depends on the gap between income and expenses, he said, the path is often easier for multi-six-figure earners, DINKs, and people with lower living costs.

Andy and Nicole Hill pivoted from pursuing traditional FIRE to a less demanding path: Coast FIRE. Courtesy of Andy Hill

Still, Berman is adamant that anyone can benefit from FIRE principles even if they never retire early.

"You don't have to 'win' FIRE for the ideas to be useful," he said. "If someone discovers FIRE and starts saving more, investing earlier, negotiating raises, starting a side hustle, or avoiding lifestyle inflation, that's progress. Even if they never retire early, they're probably going to be in a much better financial spot because of it."

The word "retire" can be misleading

"Retire early" implies a clean exit from work, whereas many FIRE followers actually want something closer to work optionality. Hill said he thinks the word "retire" is loaded and should be removed from the conversation entirely.

"I think society at large believes that it is disingenuous to say 'I'm retired' when a person spends the majority of their retirement as a small business owner," Hill said. "Becoming a small business owner or solopreneur should be something to be proud of — not hidden."

For Hill, the goal should not be to stop working altogether. It should be about finding work you enjoy doing, and doing it for part of the week, not most of it. After years of grinding away in a corporate job, he said Coast FIRE allowed him to quit and focus on his own financial education company. Today, he works 20 to 25 hours a week, allowing him to spend more time with his family.

Shen said the criticism that FIRE influencers are not really retired because they write books, create content, or run businesses misses the point.

"If someone reaches financial independence and then chooses to spend their time teaching, writing, building, creating, or helping others, that is evidence it worked," she said.

Grant Sabatier is the author of "Financial Freedom" and "Inner Entrepreneur." Courtesy of Grant Sabatier

Sabatier said he still earns money through projects, including his bookstore, rare-book business, and investments, but he said those ventures are more about creating and staying engaged than needing a paycheck. The money is simply a byproduct.

For Sabatier, the fact that FIRE has endured is proof that its core ideas still resonate.

"Ideas do not spread unless there's truth to them," he said. "It's a global movement of people who are choosing to take control of their time and take control of their lives."

For FIRE advocates, that is the part they say critics often miss. The movement is not necessarily about living as cheaply as possible, quitting work forever, or following one rigid blueprint. At its core, they said, FIRE is about using money to buy time, flexibility, and more control over how to live.