FIRE

FIRE stands for Financial Independence / Retire Early, but it isn’t just a concept, it’s a way of living. A movement that shares its routes with anti-consumerism and minimalism. A community which thrives on helping one another and is enthralled with passionate and subversive entrepreneurs whose single goal is to maximise their happiness. The movement is full of intellectuals that understand happiness isn’t achieved by consuming products. They’ve discovered that to be happy, money is better spent on increasing time with loved ones instead of buying the ‘next best thing’ that advertisers throw their way....

A lot of people are quite shocked when they hear how much I save in comparison to what I spend. A lot of this is attributed to a big salary, but my expenses are still lower than most people that I know. Saving so much is partly due to my upbringing, partly due to my relationship status and partly due to my competitive nature, but a lot of my savings can be attributed to certain habits that I have instilled in myself over the years....

Consolidating your expenses has long been a tradition in British culture. It stems back to the days where a father had to barter with other families to trade off his daughter as a bride in place of cattle or arable land. The daughter would then become the property of her new husband. Their finances then become one, “What’s mine is yours.” It was the wife’s duty to raise children; it was unimaginable for them to earn money, so the joining of the household finances had to happen....

There’s a war that has been raging on in the FIRE community since the beginning. Every corner you turn, every FIRE forum you stumble upon, you’ll see people arguing for and against including your home in your FI calculations. I’ve always been in the for camp, but I’ve never fully explored the notion. So, for my benefit as well as yours, let’s deep dive into this question - Should you include your house in your net worth?...

Why Pensions Are Awesome First things first - Pensions in the UK are absolutely bloody awesome. There’s no other country which I know of that offers tax savings as good as this. If you’re in the higher rate tax bracket, contributing to your pension via salary sacrifice would instantly save you 42% of what you deposit from 40% income tax and 2% National Insurance savings. If you throw a student loan into the mix, you can add another 9% savings onto this, saving a total of 51%!...