Compilation of FIRE inspired posts and podcasts

View from Montreal. On my search for FIRE

This post is inspired by a new blogger on the block, Chrissy from the blog Eat Sleep Breathe FI. Chrissy writes about FI (financial independence), money, and life.

When she wrote a blog post about FI writers in Canada, I wanted to add my blog to her list so and I sent her a list of all my podcasts related to the FIRE movement. Since I did it for her, I decided to share that list with my readers.

What is the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement

As the title implies, participants of this movement want to retire early. People are tired of being a cog in the system. Corporations have no loyalty towards employees and thus, employees have lost all loyalty towards corporations. The social contract lived by the baby boomers, of working for one company until retirement has been breached.

The two resulting and predominant resulting movements are the gig economy where most modern workers become freelancers and the FIRE movement where workers are looking for independence from the workforce.

^{How to reach FIRE}

People who seek FIRE try to increase their saving rate way above the conventional 10%. They are not seduced by spending to have a bigger house or a luxury car. They see time and freedom as the ultimate luxury, the luxury not to be a slave to a clock, not to have long hours commuting to and from work, not to obey the orders from a boss who is also part of the system.

How to Calculate the amount of money necessary for FIRE

The formula is easy: calculate how much are the annual expenses of a family and then multiply those expense by 25. Let’s say the annual expenses are $50,000. If you multiply $50,000 by 25 the answer is $1,250,000. That amount of money is invested in an index fund, and then the family can withdraw 4% in perpetuity.

How feasible is FIRE?

The major component of FIRE is intentionality. If a couple is determined to FIRE then they can do it. Here is an example.

Assume a couple in which both partners earn $50,000 per year. They decide to live on the salary of one and save the salary of the other.

If a couple invests $50,000 every year, at an 8% rate of return, within 15 years that couple will reach the amount of $1,250,000. Multiply $1,250,000 by 4# and the answer is $50,000 per year, in perpetuity.

Of course, there are many variations of this formula. This formula’s only a starting point and it varies from a savings rate of the family to income to luck.

Here are all the podcast episodes I have recorded about the fire movement. Many episodes portrait people who have been enjoying financial independence for a couple of years, and many others who are on their way.