I am increasingly worried about both national and global economic instability, which I believe will be exacerbated as the realities of climate change continue to intensify.

All of it makes me want to be as debt free and unbeholden to a job for income as possible, which is why I started following this sub and also r/leanfire.

So, if a lot of FIRE depends on creating passive income, how real is that, really?

My parents put a lot of money in the stock market to save for retirement and lost half their money in the recession. They are ok and made it to retirement, but I feel very uncertain about depending on interest or dividends to live. What if the stock market crashes again? Even if you simply have savings or a trust, your money has to at least be in a bank to earn interest, right? What if the bank goes under?

Sorry if these are naive questions.