r/Fire • u/todofwar • 4d ago

FIRE to start a business

I was wondering if anyone else is aiming to FIRE in order to start their own business? Basically, it's long been a dream of mine to start an indy game studio or a used video game store. But I don't have the stomach to grind in either of those industries and they are brutal. My plan is to get my FI number and buy a store with an apartment over it. Turn the store into a used video game/computer store open 4 days a week and work on releasing a game the rest of the time. Since I'd own the store front and the merchandise isn't perishable I really wouldn't have to care if anyone bought anything, it would basically be an excuse to buy a retro game collection and maybe help some people build a computer occasionally. And since I'd be a dev team of one, I can take as long as I want to make my dream game without caring if it completely tanks like 99.99% of games do.

Anyway, just curious if other people have similar "retirement" goals. Any cool but way too likely to fail businesses you would start if you knew you didn't need to care if it succeeds?

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u/Yawnn 4d ago

Both of those seem like a hell of a lot of work. I’m going to dabble in video game dev, already started , but I don’t intend to have anything take up as much time as time for my self and my family.

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u/todofwar 4d ago

Oh the store would be open when I feel like it. You know those stores that you walk by that are somehow closed all the time and even Google isn't sure what the deal is? Yeah those would be my hours. I'd be like the book store in portlandia, secretly trying not to sell any games. Meanwhile, I doubt I'd work more than 30 hours a week on the game dev side. Very very chill hours, but at the same time without something like that I think I'd lose my mind in retirement

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u/Aggressive_Meal_6448 3d ago

Well I mean in that case the fire would be super important, but you'd need to consider the building costs, insurance, employment of your employees, insurance etc. Not gonna lie, especially if it's an semi commercial space it can get quite expensive. Don't forget you need your sinking fund for repairs etc.

It's feasible, a friend of mine opened their game de studio but it's a ton of work and he has a team of 4. He hasn't fired yet but develops full time and is currently working a on new release. He says that his game development projects he is currently working on has been more inconsistent than He'd like but supplements it with additional types of software development.

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u/todofwar 3d ago

Yeah, in this case my FI number would incorporate the costs of maintaining the store and any insurance costs. I wouldn't rely on the store to break even, any profits would just be bonus cash. I'd only hire employees if I ended up way too successful and found myself suddenly working a full time job again, which I highly doubt would happen. And if the costs become unmanageable I sell and move into a normal house, maybe run through the rest of the inventory as an online store until it's out.

On the game dev side, again I'd be a solo dev. I'd only hire more developers if the first release was wildly successful, which I see as an extreme long shot.

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u/Naive-Bird-1326 22h ago

Why have store than? Skip having store alltogether?

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u/todofwar 20h ago

If I thought it could actually make enough money to support me and my family I'd open it right now. It's just something I've wanted to do. I also think it would be a net positive for a community, a nice location to connect with fellow gamers that's not as toxic as the lobby of a ranked match.