Does anyone else feel weird about telling people at work you're pursuing FIRE? I've started just lying.
I'm 33, been at this seriously for about four years, savings rate around 40%, target date somewhere in my early 40s if things go reasonably well. By most measures I'm on track and I feel good about it privately.
But at work it's become this thing I actively hide. Someone mentioned buying a new car last week and I said "oh nice" instead of internally calculating that it set them back probably three years. A colleague is redoing their kitchen and keeps asking my opinion on countertop materials and I just engage because what's the alternative, explain that I'm trying to leave the workforce in eight years and don't particularly care about granite.
The one time I mentioned early retirement casually, two years ago, a manager I liked looked at me differently for a while. Not badly exactly, just like I'd said something slightly alien. Someone else asked if I was unhappy here which wasn't the point at all.
So now I just don't say anything. Someone asks what I'm saving for, I say "just trying to be responsible" which is true but incomplete. It works fine. Nobody pushes. But there's something mildly exhausting about spending 40 hours a week around people whose entire financial framework is different from yours and just nodding along.
I know the obvious answer is "it's private, you don't owe anyone an explanation" and yes, correct, but I'm curious if others have found any middle ground. Like a way to talk about it that doesn't make you sound like you think you're better than everyone or like you're planning to abandon ship. Or do you all just keep it completely seperate too?