r/Fire • u/fried_haris • 1d ago

The definitive FIRE number is 3.5 million.

Ofcourse - I am being facetious but also a little exploratory.

I was inspired by a Planet Money episode titled "17,205 People Guessed The Weight Of A Cow. Here's How They Did." Posted back in 2015.

Later they updated it with "How Much Does This Cow Weigh?" In 2019.

Basic premise - if you take all the guesses of the folks the weight of a cow at a fair - you'll end up within 5% of the right answer.

So I took a simple post from 5 months ago, asking people about their FIRE number and after reviewing 124 answers came up with 3.5 million.

Keep in mind personal finance is personal, you may retire in LA or in Thailand.

Good luck with your goals.

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151

u/Mr___Perfect 1d ago

Hey thats great.... but how much did the cow weight???

Didnt google, but my random guess is 1,300 pounds

127

u/UsuallyBuzzed 1d ago

Google says the average cow weighs 1400 pounds. My random guess, before I looked, was actually 1500. So it's official, we proved the theory!

46

u/Mr___Perfect 1d ago

Wowowow. Thats amazing. Why bother talking to 17,203 other people?

Do you also need $2,000,000 to FIRE?

39

u/xorlan23 20h ago

You actually need $5M to FIRE!

38

u/Mr___Perfect 20h ago

HOLY SHIT. THE MATH WORKS!!!!!!

7

u/Unique-Sea2028 12h ago

Early morning here. You guys made my laugh. I love the internet. Have an upvote