Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE)

There's paths for everyone to at least improve their financial position. Early retirement is on the extreme end. But even retiring at 50-55 is impressive. Or dropping down to part time work (I know a few people who have retired who get bored and want to feel "productive" so they do some consulting in their previous industry or do a part time gig or even start a business).
 
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A not so small part of me thinks that in the next 20 years there is going to be such a fundamental shift in everything regarding work that any plans made now will likely be completely undone. Mass unemployment and I don't know if the population has the balls to stand up to the corporation run governments around the world that will control it all.

Then again, you can't ignore financial security because you and banking on the end of the world :p

We could arguably both semi-retire in our early 40s if we didn't want a bigger house that is going to cost a small fortune. We would have two properties worth a combined £1.2m with no mortgages and one bringing in rental income every month. I have some crypto and our general outgoings are minimal. We don't spend hugely on holidays, cars and eating out/takeaways. We could survive on the rental income alone just about if we didn't have kids.

Its all about what you want most and what will ultimately give you the best quality of life. Hard to make decisions based on what ifs and speculation but thats what we all have to do.
 
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Bluebozzy said:
I definitely lack the financial literacy to be able to achieve complete financial independence, but I hope to be able to reduce working hours by the time I'm 50 and reduce from 40 hrs/week + overtime to 25-30/week. Enough to be active and engaged with a sense of purpose, but not suffocated by work and have plenty of opportunities for "life".

I have no idea what to plan in regards to retirement - organ transplant is in my future (hereditory condition), and I'd bite the devils hand if it meant I'll live to 70.

For now I'm young enough where it's all a pipe dream & all efforts involving ISAs and the like are directed towards housing instead. It's just not a feasible thing to consider unless you entered the workforce at a high starting wage.
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The unfortunate truth about FIRE is you do need to earn significantly above average and spend significantly less, which with kids becomes impossible. However, it is not black and white: saving earlier will make up for lower salaries, and you don't need to FIRE at 40 but maybe at 50-55, or reduce working hours etc. IMO, there are benefits to taking a light weight approach to FIRE where you try to invest, not splurge on overly expensive house or cars, and will eventually become much less stressed over Finances even if you are not independent and require a job.


You say you are directing all money is going towards housing. This is something to look at. If you already have a house but are trying to be mortgage free it is likely better to keep mortgage payments at a minimum and instead investing. If you are saving for a down payment it makes sense to carefully consider the size and location of houses and try and minimize mortgage
 
I am too old to fire now but would highly recommend anyone to at least have a choice to work or not.
Wise choice of bricks and mortar can offset not having a decent salary, I didn't start on the ladder until joining this forum but became mortgage free in under a decade, flipped and bought for cash down here and no it's not just about being a boomer I think other gens could have bought in 2003 for peanuts and got their hands dirty with some light renovation.
 
moon man said:
I am too old to fire now but would highly recommend anyone to at least have a choice to work or not.
Wise choice of bricks and mortar can offset not having a decent salary, I didn't start on the ladder until joining this forum but became mortgage free in under a decade, flipped and bought for cash down here and no it's not just about being a boomer I think other gens could have bought in 2003 for peanuts and got their hands dirty with some light renovation.
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not sure if you are trying to be ironic, but not many post-boomers would have been in a position to buy a house by 2003. So no, it is the fact that you are a boomer and simply born at the right time that made a house purchase affordable before they skyrocketed
 
D.P. said:
not sure if you are trying to be ironic, but not many post-boomers would have been in a position to buy a house by 2003. So no, it is the fact that you are a boomer and simply born at the right time that made a house purchase affordable before they skyrocketed
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I've had this convo a few times on various threads , sure it helped being a Boomer but if you look at the average Yorkshire house price in 2003 i paid a fraction of that as it needed tlc same with this one in Cornwall the Cornwall house was also a fraction of the average price a decade ago
reckon i could do it again now without breaking out in too much of a sweat :p
 
In 2003 I was 17, had zero money, and was busy doing a-levels. Even in 2004 with max student loans wouldn't have been enough to buy a fixer upper. Even if granted the money I wouldn't have known it was even possible to buy a house or how to go about it. Even if granted that knowledge, it's still impossible to know that house prices would have rocketed and I wasn't planning on staying in that area anyway and had no idea where I'd end up moving to for work after uni.
 
throwaway4372 said:
In 2003 I was 17, had zero money, and was busy doing a-levels. Even in 2004 with max student loans wouldn't have been enough to buy a fixer upper. Even if granted the money I wouldn't have known it was even possible to buy a house or how to go about it. Even if granted that knowledge, it's still impossible to know that house prices would have rocketed and I wasn't planning on staying in that area anyway and had no idea where I'd end up moving to for work after uni.
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ah fair enough, i keep forgetting what an old git i am
 
throwaway4372 said:
In 2003 I was 17, had zero money, and was busy doing a-levels. Even in 2004 with max student loans wouldn't have been enough to buy a fixer upper. Even if granted the money I wouldn't have known it was even possible to buy a house or how to go about it. Even if granted that knowledge, it's still impossible to know that house prices would have rocketed and I wasn't planning on staying in that area anyway and had no idea where I'd end up moving to for work after uni.
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Houses were cheaper in 2009-2010. A lot of my friends were in negative equity with 2006/7 prices for a good half decade at least. Not through any fault of their own. I just lucked out buying 18 months later.

We bought a 3 bed detached house with both of us on average wage with a 3 year old in tow. Mortgage to finish by 40 years old.

Pipe dream for a 23 year old now. Even where I live. House is double the price and wages are basically the same.
 
D.P. said:
The unfortunate truth about FIRE is you do need to earn significantly above average and spend significantly less, which with kids becomes impossible. However, it is not black and white: saving earlier will make up for lower salaries, and you don't need to FIRE at 40 but maybe at 50-55, or reduce working hours etc. IMO, there are benefits to taking a light weight approach to FIRE where you try to invest, not splurge on overly expensive house or cars, and will eventually become much less stressed over Finances even if you are not independent and require a job.


You say you are directing all money is going towards housing. This is something to look at. If you already have a house but are trying to be mortgage free it is likely better to keep mortgage payments at a minimum and instead investing. If you are saving for a down payment it makes sense to carefully consider the size and location of houses and try and minimize mortgage
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That's why I'm not chasing it.
Unless you earn a lot more than average or have some inheritance etc shaving a few years off retirement and not living while you're young seems like a massive gamble.

As others have said, AI could mean there's nothing to live for. Or it could be a utopia.
Finance is guaranteed to change though.

I'm consciously living for now. Tbh, I regret not spending more on experiences when I was younger.


I'd rather work longer and do more now. I know I certainly won't be able to do what I do now. For fun in 20 years.
 
just done my Sankey graph of last years spending, I've taken the values off but it shows where I spent most of my money last year.

I'm sure some of the figures ain't right but it gives me a rough enough idea...

Shank-24-25.jpg


I have five ways of saving for FIRE on here; pension, SIP, Shareshave, SS ISA and Cash Savings.

To keep the chart clean, I've not added in interest payments, investment increases, bonus shares and additional money moved in/around shares.
This is just soley for my salary and bonus..
 
mid_gen said:
Early retirement is a nice idea, but is this ridiculous and unnecessary acronym really required?

I'm quite happy just working less as I get older, rather than trying to go full time dosser at a fixed time.
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FIRE seems to be about trying to achieve "extreme" early retirement well before pensionable age. As I've said before, these days with with the state pension age heading to 68 anyone who is financially secure enough to comfortably retire before they are 60 seems to be doing pretty well. And that's my goal. :)
 
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mid_gen said:
Early retirement is a nice idea, but is this ridiculous and unnecessary acronym really required?

I'm quite happy just working less as I get older, rather than trying to go full time dosser at a fixed time.
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Mr Badger said:
FIRE seems to be about trying to achieve "extreme" early retirement well before pensionable age. As I've said before, these days with with the state pension age heading to 68 anyone who is financially secure enough to comfortably retire before they are 60 seems to be doing pretty well. And that's my goal. :)
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The maths is pretty simple if people would just sit down and work it out...
have enough cash in your pension to last you the years between your state retirment age and when your likely to die, for me that's 80 years old as per family history.
have enough cash in your ISAs to last you from when you want to retire to your state retirement age.

looking at some of the pension stats online, a great deal of people will be lucky if they can afford to be retire at state pension age.
Too many people are just spending more than they earn, not putting away enough and what they do put away, they are planning to use their 25% tax free part of their pension to pay off their mortages, credit cards and loans...

Even a few years early or being able to take less stressful job before my state pension age will be a luxury
 
I am firmly in the reduce days camp. I was fortunate to be able to afford to go down to 4 days last year (approx 46 yes old). I could have stayed working full time and retired a few years earlier, but if I can keep working in my current job (software engineer) I actually mostly enjoy it and the 3 day weekends make a huge difference to my life.
 
FNG said:
I am firmly in the reduce days camp. I was fortunate to be able to afford to go down to 4 days last year (approx 46 yes old). I could have stayed working full time and retired a few years earlier, but if I can keep working in my current job (software engineer) I actually mostly enjoy it and the 3 day weekends make a huge difference to my life.
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This is currently my plan, although I need a year or two to reach 55 and be able to use a bit of my private pension to help it. I can't afford to just drop down to 4 years.

I doubt I can afford to actually retire until at least 60, but at the same time I don't expect Software Engineering to be a role that really exists in any way as it does now, in 5+ years time.
The world is going to change a lot in the next couple of years, so mostly I'm just trying to focus on survival rather than any grand plan.

I have no idea what my daughter will do, just going through GCSEs, and even if A-Levels will be relevant in 2 years time. Everything is broken, unless you're already wealthy and/or 'connected'.
 
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