FIRE

[CookieDoughKid]

If you are following FIRE what are your strategies? I'm looking for tips. I have a modest 1 bed buy-to-let in the South East generating £900 a month income. I'm looking to pay it off within next 5 years. I have my own mortgaged home which should be paid off in by the time I'm 55, I have a decent pension, and some investment shares. What I'm trying to figure out is what income I can live off if I retire early. The years between my chosen retirement age and accessing my pension (about 15 years). Crypto currency as s punt? I probably need some kind of investment vehicle as just rental income will be too tight (my two dcs will be at Uni then).

How old are you now? How much per year do you need to live off in those 15 years?

I don’t know if it’s possible if you’ve still got high outgoings for the children at university (and when they’re back home for the holidays) unless you have a lot in savings. We’ve been basing our projected retirement date on our youngest being 22. We’re determined to retire in our 50s or at least have the option to but don’t want to compromise our lifestyle as much as the super FIRErs.

I'm 42 now. So I know I have many working years left. Hoping I can take my foot off the gas by age 50 at the minimum. Hubby still intends to work if he can still get it as he likes working. I'd say I'd need about £18,000 a year excluding holiday money. Is most of strategy saving money? Or a mix of investments? How much you putting away? About a 1/3 of your income? I could feasibly put away 1/3 but not sure what other than pension and paying off my buy2let.

So you need in total £90,000 to cover the gap between retiring at age 50 and accessing your pension at age 55. (£18k x 5 = £90k).

And you’ve got 8 years to save this up. Using this calculator you need to save £765 per month to have saved £90k in time (with an assumption of 5% growth). Is that possible?

FIRE is about reducing outgoings to things that matter (ie not replacing car every 3 years and having the most up to date mobile phone) in order to be able to be financially independent sooner.

This is a great resource for what FIRE is all about.

Bumble Hi Bumble, yes I think it's just about doable. Thanks for the link, it was very helpful. I think I need to balance cash reserves Vs paying off my buy2let quickly. The latter has advantages as it's income generating. Would love to hear more from other folks or strategies.

I'm following more of the traditional fire strategy which is be frugal where you can and save as much as possible with the biggest amount being in cheap index funds plus a pension. Not very exciting but going ok.

At the risk of sounding stupid what is FIRE?!

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIRE_movement describes it well. You don't sound stupid at all Magstermay