This is a family of five in North Carolina. The couple are in their late thirties and have effectively stopped working full time--and plan to keep it that way. They earn income from their web site and a few other sources, but it’s nothing like the 9-to-5 office-job money they used to make. In typical FIRE fashion, they worked hard at high-paying jobs for a short period of time (about 10 years), saving a huge portion of their income, and then . . . stopped. And started blogging about it and attracting media attention.

The concept of choosing where to put your money is not new. But with today’s do-it-yourself technology tools, it has become easier to calculate just how much you can save by implementing a better asset location strategy.

We're conflicted about FIRE. On the one hand, frugality is an underappreciated and powerful thing. A movement that inspires people to save money, consume less, and lead a more conscious life--what could be bad about that? Getting off the hamster wheel and spending more time living? That sounds pretty good.

Adjusted for inflation, the cost of going to college went up by about 350% from 1985 through 2010. The constant increasing costs of going to college became a major burden for both students and their parents. Many parents sacrificed an early retirement to help put their children through school and many students left college saddled with thousands of dollars in student loan debt.

In August, Fidelity announced that it was launching a couple of index funds that would be free to invest in--that is, their expense ratios would be 0%. Between Fidelity Zero Total Market Index (FZROX) and Fidelity Zero International Index (FZILX) funds, you get globe-spanning passive equity investments with no fees attached.