Like many young Millennials and Gen Z who want to achieve FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early), Mia McGrath is doing the best she can to achieve it by 40—and somehow she decided to do it by starting her day with her “humble eggs” breakfast, which costs just 50 pence (S$0.85).
The London-based 25-year-old model, influencer, and now brand founder, who shares finance tips with her over 500,000 TikTok followers, also said she saves up to 70% of her income to reach her goal.
While she didn’t grow up financially literate, she said she became obsessed with becoming rich—in time, choice, and autonomy—and began learning what she could from YouTube and books on how to achieve financial freedom.
Before quitting her 9-to-5 job in the fashion industry in October last year, she told Fortune last April, that unlike other white-collar workers who spend money on daily sandwiches or salads, she cuts back on daily coffees and sticks to leftovers.
Ms McGrath, who aims for a FIRE number—the amount of savings and investments that allows someone to stop working while covering living expenses—of £1.25 million, said she already saved £70,000 at that time.
Commenters, however, questioned her lifestyle, with one saying, “Would she be alive by 40 if she keeps eating like that?” Another asked, “Does that make her happy and satisfied?” Others also said they practised similar habits of saving but had reached their 40s and 50s without retirement in sight.
Pushback against those pursuing the FIRE movement is not new. In fact, a man in Singapore who was after the same financial freedom was called “calculative” by his friends when he started cutting back on spending when they went out together. Others earning below S$10,000, however, questioned whether it was even possible. Meanwhile, some who have achieved it were prompted to question what to do next. /TISG
Read also: Young worker quits Singapore job at 27, leaves ‘predictable and unreachable’ life behind for Penang
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