Beware the Fraudulent Blogger, the greatest threat to the FIRE community

When I first stumbled onto the FIRE movement, I was lucky enough to discover MMM first, allowing me to really understand what the movement was about, and how to accomplish FIRE.  When I discovered the FIRE movement, I couldn’t read enough of the blogs, showing how different individuals from all walks of life, all across our country, had completed their FIRE journey.  However, the more I read, the more I questioned the validity of some of these claims, discovering some FIRE blogs to be exaggerated at best and fraudulent at worst.

Two blogs stick out to me in particular, although they won’t be named here, I will describe my experience.  The first blog claimed that a massive sum of debt had been paid off in an extremely short period of time, with a very limited income.  Although this article received national attention on a nationally recognized media site, it was obviously exaggerated, the math just did not add up.  There was no possible way that that amount of debt had been eliminated in such a short period of time, so I dug deeper and discovered that the massive sum of debt that had been “eliminated” was actually credit card debt, and they had included both the principal, and interest far into the future.  Basically, they included tens of thousands of dollars of interest they would have paid over decades on the debt but presented the article as if the amount of debt eliminated was principal only. Unfortunately, I have seen this particular issue more than once.

The second FIRE blog I discovered to be essentially fraudulent was one where a lady again claimed to pay off a huge amount of debt in a short amount of time, on a limited income.  Again, the numbers simply did not add up, and again this article was written on a nationally recognized platform.  As I read through the article, I saw the usual explanations for reducing debt such as cutting out subscriptions, vacations, and the usual suspects so to speak, when eliminating debt.  However, the very last explanation was what got my attention: the individual had used a large sum of money that had been in savings for some time, which turned out account for the vast majority of the “debt” they had eliminated.  They had not eliminated debt by working hard, or finding some new method of debt reduction, they simply moved money from one bank account to another.  

Another type of manipulation of the “success” of these FIRE bloggers is when they charge YOU for access to their “secret” pathway to FIRE.  It usually looks something like this: “For the low price of $99.99 per year, you can have access to my ten simple steps to accomplish FIRE on a budget,” or something like that type of advertisement.  What really bothers me and jeopardizes the FIRE movement is the fact that the majority of these blogs make money off of your subscriptions, while selling you a load of crap. When you really dig deep into these blogs, you find that the success of one blogger is due primarily to taking advantage of thousands or tens of thousands of people who are desperate for a way out of debt, and these people take from those who truly need to save every penny they can.  To add insult to injury, once these people discover they have been shafted, they lose interest in the FIRE movement, from being demoralized due to failure to obtain FIRE.   If they have such an amazing life, and have already achieved FIRE, why wouldn’t they share their ideas with you for free like MMM?? I do not think you should have to pay me a single penny, and that is why this blog will always be free to you, no subscription required.  My goal is truly your success, your financial independence, and for you to live a fulfilling, rewarding life, since time is our most precious asset.  It is an embarrassment to the FIRE community that some bloggers only claim to fame is generating website traffic for no real significant reason.

My advice to you while trying to sort through the mountain of knock off bloggers riding on the coattail of MMM is this: follow the money.  Follow the money both in the bloggers claim to fame, and how they make their money from their blog.  As with most things in life, if it seems too good to be true, it usually is and there is usually a catch.  Don’t be discouraged by fraudulent bloggers, simply ignore them.  Really research into the bloggers claims, and make sure they didn’t actually pay off that 50k of debt on a 50k a year salary, with a 45k inheritance from their rich uncle, then charging you $99.99 a year for the privilege of knowing this information.  Bloggers who have truly achieved FIRE will not be concerned with making money from you, but rather helping you achieve FIRE.  FIRE bloggers dependent on income from you, may not have your best interest as their primary concern.  Bloggers who truly care about the FIRE movement, and who it supports will be happy with the third-party income created by the blog and your individual success. FIRE bloggers who are more concerned with their bottom line than yours, are the single largest threat to the validity of the FIRE movement because their motivation is their own individual financial independence, not yours.  So save your $99.99, and put it towards paying off your debt, instead of making somebody else rich, and read my blog for $0.00.