🍄 Pipe Dreams

FIRE BTC #43 - Pursuing FIRE like Super Mario

I grew up in the era of the video game explosion. Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Playstation, Xbox…we had them all.

My brother and I spent hours pounding on the controllers, driven to “beat the game.”

When you first start a new game, it takes some time and practice to learn the rules and get comfortable with the patterns of the gameplay. How do you move? Jump? Fire?

A lot of games have a tutorial mode, where the game teaches you how to play. That’s helpful, but it only shows you the basic moves. To beat the game, you need to actually play, developing your skill as you go.

And just like in life, the challenges never stop coming—you either learn the patterns, or you get flattened.

The game gets more difficult as you progress, unless you figure out the tricks and find the power-ups.

Video games offer a strong parallel to our personal finance journeys. That’s what we’re exploring this week—from the perspective of one of the greatest video games of all time: Super Mario Bros.

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🎮 World 1 – Coin collecting (survival mode)

The first stage of personal finance feels a lot like Mario in World 1-1. You’re small, underpowered, and just trying not to get flattened as you learn the game.

As paychecks come in, you need to sprint for coins before the timer runs out. It’s a very high-time-preference endeavor. Your bills and debt are like Goombas—pretty easy to avoid and control, as long as you don’t make a wrong move.

And inflation hangs overhead like Lakitu tossing Spinies, constantly adding pressure from above.

Sometimes you hit a hidden block that gives you some extra coins to work with. If you’re smart, you start to seed some savings, which acts like a mushroom. It doesn’t make you invincible, but it gives you the buffer to take a hit and keep going.

Collecting coins isn’t enough, though. In Mario, you can spend an entire level chasing coins and still lose if you mistime a jump. Personal finance works the same way: if all you do is scramble for fiat income month after month, you’ll never beat the game.

To actually make progress, you need more than coins — you need power-ups.

🔥 World 2 – Power-ups aren’t enough

After you’ve figured out how to survive the early levels, you start looking for ways to level up. In Mario, that means Fire Flowers, Starmen, and extra lives.

These allow you to blast enemies or sprint through a stretch of the game without being harmed.

Traditional approaches to FIRE take advantage of these boosts. 401(k) matches and index funds are each a kind of power-up. Reducing expenses and intentional spending are helpful tools, but just like in Mario, they don’t last forever—inflation makes sure of that. One mistake or surprise hit, and you could be right back to small Mario again.

The deeper problem is the way the game itself is built. Fiat economics erodes the value of your savings in the background, no matter how careful you are. Even if you manage to dodge every Goomba and leap over every Koopa Troopa, the game only moves one way—forward. And sooner or later, you’re standing in front of Bowser’s castle.

🐉 World 3 – Bowser and the warp pipe

This is where the real test begins. Bowser not only represents inflation, but also the entire fiat system. He’s the reason your savings melt, the rules change mid-level, and your freedom is always just beyond your reach in another castle. You can beat him once, but he always comes back stronger in the next world.

Most players spend their whole lives collecting coins and chasing temporary power-ups, only to get burned at the castle gates.

But hidden in the level is a warp pipe. Drop in, and the rules change. Bitcoin is that warp pipe. It doesn’t just protect your savings—it takes you off the fiat map entirely. Your coins don’t melt, your freedom isn’t pushed into another castle, and you are in control of the game.

FIRE gives you the map to reach the castle and some power-ups along the way. Bitcoin gives you a warp pipe and the Star Power to make you invincible.

In the fiat game, the princess is always in another castle. With FIRE + bitcoin, you can finally save her.

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That’s it for this week — thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Trey ✌️