💀 Working Backward from Death
FIRE BTC #50 - How a Stoic thought experiment can reframe your path to financial independence.
The Stoics had a phrase I’ve always found clarifying: memento mori — remember that you must die.
It sounds morbid at first, but it’s actually freeing. It strips away the noise and forces you to see what really matters. And it got me thinking about something I’ve often reflected on in my own FIRE journey: what if you planned your path to financial independence backward from the day you die?
Of course, none of us knows exactly when that will be. I’ve written before about the idea of longevity escape velocity — the notion that science might one day extend life faster than time passes. But for this thought experiment, let’s assume we don’t reach that point.
Let’s assume we live to a ripe old age of 95, and work backward from there.
🔁 The Reverse FIRE Model
When most people think about FIRE, they imagine saving and investing toward something — a future milestone always somewhere ahead on the horizon. But if you flip that perspective around, it becomes much clearer what you’re actually doing.
Instead of building up to retirement, you’re buying your life back — one year at a time — starting from the end and working toward the present.
This perspective matters, because after a certain point, the older we get, the harder it becomes to produce and earn within the economy.
In other words, the younger you are, the more optionality you have to work and sustain your lifestyle. There will come a time when you’re no longer able — and by that point, you’ll need to have already saved enough to sustain yourself and your family.
By “working backward,” you reframe the equation to fund the later years first — eliminating or reducing the risk of running out of money when you can no longer work if needed.
If we assume a life expectancy of 95, then the savings you make today fund your 95th year first. That year might come from your 401(k), IRA, or other tax-advantaged accounts — the kind you can’t touch until later in life anyway. As your portfolio grows, the next years follow: 94, 93, 92. Each contribution collapses the timeline a little closer to today.
To put some numbers behind it, let’s imagine you’re 40 years old, expect to live to 95, and plan to spend about $80,000 per year in retirement (today’s dollars).
