I of course had to google that, Menard – very smooth ;)

Oh damn, never knew any of that… And still a debate people have today!

Such a baller.

Yeah, for sure! I agree with all those assessments and it really struck me reading the biography I cited in the story how much his words and action resembled the modern day FIRE movement. I always liked Ben Franklin but this biography really brought it home for me.

But Franklin did this in the 18th century. Franklin was old news by the 19th century. And I would say Franklin FIRE’d in the Mr. Money Mustache sense in that he freed himself from mandatory work but still pursued work that was meaningful to him. That he did this in 1748, and by working from the bottom and through frugality as well as industry, I think puts him pretty squarely in OG of FIRE territory.

1. He treated his debt as an emergency (ala MMM).
2. He lived frugally in terms of time and money (ala Vicky Robin).
3. He understood risk vs reward.
4. He became F.I. and retired early to pursue other passions.
5. He leveraged the power of compounding.

Not only was he playing with fire (with the lightning rod and the Franklin stove), he was living the FIRE lifestyle!

My understanding was that the marriage was always a bit troubled. However, when he and his wife lost a child stemming from a disagreement over getting the child vaccinated it seems like it basically broke the marriage. I believe the wife was against vaccination (which was very new at the time), and Franklin was for it. The child later contracted the disease and died.

Usually this was around $100k (remember this is back in the 1800’s!), but what I find most surprising was that most of them never stayed “retired” for very long. After a few years of relaxing they were usually back at it — buying a business, shipping goods across the ocean, and the like.

Dude that’s awesome! Franklin seriously had some things figured out. He also did a little real estate investing – probably a super smart prospect in a land that was growing exponentially.

Totally agree. And look at all he accomplished because he FIRE’d! Apparently he renegotiated his terms after the 18 years was up too.

Totally true about his traveling, and in fact his wife had passed by the time he was assigned to travel to France. So for sure can’t blame him for enjoying the attention of the French ladies haha Having time to explore science led to a lot of his fame, and by the time he got to France he was a celebrity. He gained a lot of influence over French officials which greatly helped persuade them to aid the Revolutionary cause (first secretly then overtly). All because he FIRE’d!