Here's my honest take on the FIRE community's relationship with spending and happiness.

The pursuit of FIRE requires, for most people at median incomes, significant spending reduction. This creates a culture where frugality is valorized and spending is treated with suspicion.

But research on subjective wellbeing is reasonably clear: beyond a comfortable baseline (varies by location, roughly $75-100k household income for most US cities), additional income and spending have diminishing returns on day-to-day happiness. Below that baseline, financial stress genuinely reduces wellbeing.

The practical implication: optimizing spending aggressively makes the most sense in the 'getting to comfortable baseline' phase, and much less sense once you're past it. The extra 5% savings rate achieved by cutting things that genuinely improve your life may not be worth it if it makes the journey miserable.

I've become more willing to spend on experiences, health, and relationships as my income grew and my FIRE number became more secure. I don't think I'm doing it wrong.