BiggerPockets Money Podcast · Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Scott Trench highlighted a divergence within the FIRE community, noting that while a significant portion of BiggerPockets Money listeners (two-thirds) intend to have ongoing business or active income after reaching financial independence, a third still desire complete passivity. He suggested this might explain why BiggerPockets listeners often aim for higher FIRE numbers, like $2.5 million, compared to other FIRE communities.
“The Bigger Pockets Money community is fire or more firey than fiery because, you know, I think a lot of folks, two-thirds of Bigger Pockets Money listeners for example, say that they're open to or definitely intend to have some kind of ongoing business or active income that they earn after reaching financial independence.”
“But there's still a third of Bigger Pockets Money listeners who want to be truly financially independent with no active income whatsoever. But that's not the norm in this community.”
“And I think that that is why our listeners here at Bigger Pockets Money tend to cluster around this $2.5 million number or even higher in terms of their target fire number than maybe some of our friends over at ChooseFI or on the leanfire Reddit.”