Don't Just Sit There! Start FIRE Retire Early
Last updated: Apr 20, 2022
Start with FIRE retire early right away and retire faster or at least have to work less. Here we will talk about the basics and my take on it.
How does fire retire early work? In short, it works by saving as much as possible.
And investing till you finally have so much that you don’t have to work anymore.
Work more now and work less in the future and hence in total.
Even if you don’t want to retire early, a lot can be gained with the FIRE retire early mentally. It will make you able to work much less in the future.
Basics
The basics are easy and crucial for anyone that feels too forced to work.
Save as much as possible.
And get as big of an income as possible as early as possible to invest and let time make money for us.
It’s not easy to start, but it’s a lot easier to maintain once you have initiated it and continues to get easier down the road.
Default Retirement Plan
The goal of the working life is to retire, right?
I am supposed to work for 40+ years in my country. And then some of my taxes go into some funds.
And then I get a monthly income from a part of the fund sale.
What Should We Do?
Try to make the default retirement plan more effective by not relying on the state doing this for us.
They don’t know how badly we want this or how much we want and when we want to retire.
Right off the bat, we can see that saving more and putting more into the fund is supposed to speed things up for us.
Needing less for retirement can also save us a few years.
Trying to get a better return is possible. Switching funds, lowering costs, change investment tactics.
By understanding what compounding is. We can focus on working earlier and enjoy more of the profits later on.
$1 invested in an index fund for ten years equals $2.59. $1 at age 20 is worth $2.6 at age 30.
Do we look at an index fund return at 20 years instead of 10, we can see that $1 would have equated to $6.7
It means starting as early as possible and getting the money printer going.
My Plan
As explained, starting as early as possible is crucial since it requires less total work.
But this means we may want to do extra work earlier since it will let us do way less in the future.
Compounding is simple math. And it’s hard to argue with the math.
The question is if we input the right numbers into the equation.
What It’s Actually Like
Often when people promote fire we see glamorous lifestyles.
And that anyone can do it is still not that realistic.
Fire is more likely a means to having to work less for most.
And not altogether stop working nor being able to live at the beach driving expensive cars all day long.
We have to play around with a compound calculator. To see how much we have to save each month for the desired amount we want.
We will talk more about the numbers later on. But a return of 8% should be realistic for most people.
Taking into account the inflation. With an Index Fund.
The 4% rule means that you should be able to live off 4% of your investment portfolio. Less is safer, and more is less likely.
Take your monthly desired income and multiply it by 300, and you should get how big your nest egg should be.
I can’t talk about the earnings and saving potential anyone has.
So this is why it’s good to play around with the calculator.
If we play around with this, we can see what’s likely and realistic. And for most people, this doesn’t seem so glamorous anymore.
How Badly Do We Want This?
We could buy a tent, work for 6+ years, and have 2-3jobs. Then live off half or less of one of our job's monthly income. And we should have completed our FIRE goal faster.
Most people do not want to play the game so hardcore.
I focus more on trying to do a tiny bit better and targeting what’s giving the most results.
But if we talk about a performance-based, tent-style approach is the way to retire the fastest.
How Much Do We Need?
Always good to have a long-term goal, but a realistic one. Then you can always overperform.
Don't exaggerate numbers better to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
Play around with the compound calculator with realistic numbers. And you will see how long time it should take on average.
Portfolio aka Nest Egg
The portfolio we will focus on here is funds/stocks. Any investment works, but I don’t know any other better.
If you better know another kind of investment, then go for it.
But always use an index fund as a benchmark. Because if a robot can do better than our active investments, why should we even bother?
Looking at data on S&P 500 90 years performance, we can see it has clearly worked over time.
The good thing with having data stretching for so long is we can better estimate the future performance.
The problem with individual stocks is that you need some knowledge, so it takes time to learn and master.
Most professional funds and investors can’t even beat S&P 500. And it’s passive to invest that way.
Income
We can’t invest if we don’t have any money. So this way is the best to increase, at least at the start.
The return is a lot funnier when that 1% increase ain’t $1 but something like $70.
Work
Often the most basic and first way of generating an income,
It’s very time-consuming, and you often don’t get paid more for working smart. But it’s often the fastest way to get the first capital.
You work for an hour you get paid for an hour. Very reliable because you know exactly how much you should get every month.
If you don’t know anything else, this is it. You have to work and work as much as possible as early as possible.
Entrepreneurship
Getting money this way does take time. And you don’t immediately get paid for or know if you will get paid for it.
Everything is on you. But if you build it up you can often get way more than work per hour worked.
And you can often build it somewhat passively and make it more effective.
We can often not work more overtime and expect to gain more. And we don’t always see results or are sure of where the results are coming from.
If you have no idea what to start, here are some ideas that I have earned money on. Not much, but at least it's some.
Youtube Channel - requires often a lot to get some serious cash but you can sit on your ass and do it without any upfront cash. And easy to get views since the youtube algorithm fixes that.
Order from Alibaba/Aliexpress and try to sell - Requires cash and you often have to read up and see/test if there’s a demand for the product. You must be ready that you bought a product and it’s shit or doesn't get sold somehow.
Savings
Is such an important aspect of retiring early and economics in general.
Frugality comes often very naturally to people that have gotten rich by themselves.
Saving is postponed consumption. So if you have a problem with saving and have no idea how to do it, try to wait one more day to buy it. That’s it.
The longer you can go without buying the product, the better.
Expenses Chart
Make a chart of the expenses to see a fast overview of what you should focus on.
It’s often tough to know where to start or where you get the best effect. Making a chart makes it very simple to see.
Often the rent is the main cost and should be focused on first. And if it’s not the main expense, generally something is wrong, or we have a very cheap rent situation.
Make your basic one with Google Spreadsheet. Or copy this Advanced Chart
Kill, Scale down or Increase?
As fast as you see an expense, we should ask ourselves this.
Can you kill the expense? Hence not going through with the buy or not.
The fastest and easiest way to save money is often not to proceed with the buy.
Often this is simpler said than done. Some things in life are worth paying for otherwise, everyone could retire right now.
After the killing spree, we have to try to scale down the rest if possible. Here is where the work is.
Whatever we want to buy, we need to see if it’s even a product we want? Or does a different and cheaper product solve the problem?
After we know this is the best, it comes to trying to find the best store for it.
Online Shopping can be tricky. There are a lot of tricks websites do to try to make us pay more.
A price tracker is the first step. Or we check all stores.
After you have located a store with a reasonable price, make it a habit to search for discount codes. And student discounts could also work for anyone.
There are discount extensions for the browser to make it easier.
Some websites have different currencies and changing the currencies can sometimes save money.
I have saved over 30% by doing this check Coinyep for exchange rates.
Whatever that can save you the money, do it.
We are cash cows to the big companies. The bigger a company is more they are trying to milk us for cash.
The smaller or less known companies are often the better ones. They have to give the customers more to compete.
Historic Prices
Buying products, especially seasonal ones the right time could save you huge money.
The problem is most people don't have the patience for this.
Seasonal products and even vegetables are cheaper at different times of the year.
I save over 50% on different products by waiting for the right time to strike. Patience and planning are good-paying jobs.
Building a Warehouse
Buying bulk and seasonal products at the right time do all save you much money, especially in the long run.
But what’s often less talked about is the time savings when we have to run less to and from the store. And that’s time saved.
The downside of creating your warehouse is the capital is tied up in the goods. Buying too much stuff even tho it’s essential is less capital used for investments.
