Summary
In today’s episode, I’m speaking with two other Aussie’s (Tom and Ricky) who were with me at the premiere of the FIRE documentary ‘Playing with FIRE’ which follows 35 year old Scott Rickens, his wife Taylor, and their toddler Jovi as they embark on a year-long odyssey to understand the rules of this sub-culture and test their willingness to reject the standard narrative of adult life.
I want to congratulate Travis and the whole team who was involved in the creation of Playing with FIRE. The film is fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone as it’s a super interesting documentary starring so many of our favourite FIRE bloggers and was surprisingly very funny as well.
Some of the topics we cover today include:
- The events that lead up to the Premiere
- Our initial thoughts after watching the film
- Things we liked and things we wanted to see more of in the documentary
- Talked about how hard it must have been to fit an entire concept like FIRE within 90 minutes
- The Q&A session after the film
And pretty much everything else we ended up talking about!
Hey AFF,
Love your stuff. Not having a go – but ask is pronounced “arsek” not “ahhks”. Same with escape. It’s “Es-scape” not “excape”.
😅😅😅 Lol all good mate.
Mrs. FB pulls me up on it every time and at this point I’m just going to have accept I’m going to struggle with that word for ever.
‘Excape’ is a new one though. I’ll work on that and see how I go 😂😁
I knew you would take that the right way haha! I was worried you’d take it personally. Only trying to help of course. Love your content mate – keep it up.
Next time she pulls you up on it, tell her she said ‘aks’ in the podcast episode with her 😛
Can’t wait to hear where the Aussie premier is going to be!
Oh really!? Might have to have a word with her haha.
There’s a few being setup atm. Going to let everyone know about them very soon 🙂
Thanks for being so pacific
Fanks
That is hilarious. It kills me every time Aussie says “ahhks”..
Hey AFB,
How can I view this film? Is it at regular cinemas? Thanks
There will be screenings around Australia. I’ll be doing a special post/pod when I know when and where they’ll be.
Stay tuned 🙂
I hope that’ll include Brisbane. We often seem to miss out on these things.
Sydney and Melbourne have screenings in mid August
Both have tickets for sale now
Check out the playing with fire website
Hey guys! Love the podcast and thoughtful analysis–and thank you so much for coming to the film! It makes me really happy to hear you all exploring how the film landed. Being a longtime follower of FIRE myself, I completely appreciate the core community questioning whether we hit all of the essentials. My definitive approach, however, was to reach outside the core and inspire those who are not aware of FIRE to begin rethinking their lives and dig into all of the amazing work done on the blogs/podcasts! Basically, I wanted to create a gateway drug to share with friends ;). Thanks again and keep the fire burning! Best to you all.
–Travis
Hi Travis,
Was an absolute pleasure watching the film the other week and listening to you and the rest of the panel speak afterward. I have already recommended it to a bunch of people and as we spoke about in the pod, it is aimed at people outside of FIRE where I think it will resonate well with 🙂
Cheers
Seems like FIRE process doesn’t lend itself to movies? Much better covered by a blog over time such as yours.
I personally want FI (not RE) but am also enjoying the now. I am focusing on maximising income, rather than reducing outgoings.
My problem is too much money in PPoR (Sydney beaches) but not willing to move to the country and chuck the equity into investment assets rather than lifestyle assets.
Hi Jez,
As Travis has mentioned, the film hopes to spark the interest of the general public as the topic of FIRE is impossible to cover in under 2 hours. The documentary does a fantastic job of engaging the audience throughout the film and I’ll be real interest to see how it’s received by the general public for sure!
RE is so subjective depending on the person hey. I never want to stop working but I don’t want to work as a corporate drone forever. Someone once said to me the RE should be changed to ‘Rethink Everything’ because there’s just too many connotations with the word retire and not working. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone on the path to FIRE who wants to stop working.
What a great podcast, thanks AFB! You’re doing awesome work. Keep it up 🙂
I had a chance to read the Playing with FIRE book that Scott Riekens wrote. Downloaded and read it within a week of it being released. Its a wonderful story and really captures the thoughts and feelings of embarking on the FIRE journey – the Aha moment, the intrigue, the start of the journey, the rollercoaster of emotions, trying to convince others, and even a bit of social isolation in their friend circles, but then discovering a new online FIRE community. Really interesting stuff. Would highly recommend the book! I scored it 5 out of 5 stars on my Amazon Kindle app.
Overall, their journey really resonated with me, and their main reason of spending more time with their daughter and with each other. As a father, I continually struggle with the work/life balance equation, and the fact that they call that out, recognise something needs to change, and embark on their journey is commendable and admirable. Must not have been easy being followed by a camera crew for over a year!
To answer one of your questions on the Podcast, the couple Scott and Taylor moved from Coronado (near San Diego), California to Bend, Oregon – apparently a FIRE followers sanctuary.
Gotta say, I’m loving the content you’re producing AFB! I do have one request… Can we bring back some of the Ask Firebug Fridays? Doesn’t have to be every Friday, but I *loved* the Q&A format of those posts and was able to get a bunch of value out of them. I’m sure other people would love to get them back as well. 2nd request would be for a superannuation expert, or how to leverage super in the context of FIRE, for the blog or podcast, but I’m sure you’re already being hounded for that 😉
Hi Papa,
Ask Firebug Fridays will be making a return I promise! Actually working on some now believe it or not.
I’ve almost given up on the Super expert. I had one really, really close to committing to a podcast but it fell through and I lost motivation for it. Let me jump back on that bandwagon mate.
We are just about to embark on a two month Summer euro trip but we have everything set up now in London so things will hopefully settle down a bit now for us.
I really can’t wait to start pumping out the content again. It’s hard to find the time but I absolutely love it and comments like things give me motivation.
Cheers mate 🙂
Hey Firebug, what are your thoughts on Commsec Pocket? Seems like a great deal getting ETFs for only $2 brokerage fee.
Thanks
Hi Manual,
Interesting product. I haven’t looked into it as much but I will. From first glance, it appears to be limited to only a few products though. Let me come back to you.
Cheers
Bit of a random question but it pops into my head from time to time when I see the travel photos with your secret identity. I notice you catch up with readers and this podcast is no exception. Do you just ask that no photos are taken? Don’t want to link Bruce Wayne with his secret identity as Aussie Firebug.
Also, great review of the film. Really enjoyed the panel discussion. Excellent movie.
lol. Tbh, I don’t really care if people know who I am. I just don’t go around promoting it that’s all. I can’t think of many great things that would come from everyone knowing who AFB was but I can think of a few bad ones.
Meeting people in person is different. IDK… maybe one day I’ll just start using my real name 🤷♂️
Yep totally understandable. Might be different once you’ve retired. I remember Pat saying he was a bit worried about using his real name but the ABC insisted that an anonymous person couldn’t be published. He said his manager at work was totally fine. After all, no one stays in jobs for more than a few years these days. People just get a bit funny about money. As you always say it’s such a taboo subject. It really shouldn’t be.