FIRE - who to follow/read?

Ginnybean

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Who are the best people to follow or the best blogs to read to find out more about the FIRE* movement??

Ideally I am after those with realistic ideas not eat beans and never buy a coffee for 30 years to retire 10 years early!! (I would rather buy the coffee if I want to and work part time a little longer on something i truely love!)

So much of the stuff out there is the over the top American type "spend only £50 a month until you are 45 and retire with millions" - yes I know not ALL American money blogs are like that!!!!!!

Also is anyone following this kind of path? I suppose my portfolio career with mulptiple sources of income will lend itself to this well, should I decide it will.


*FIRE = Financial Independence Retire Early. Though I guess most of you have come across this term.
 
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Jon

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Who are the best people to follow or the best blogs to read to find out more about the FIRE* movement??

Ideally I am after those with realistic ideas not eat beans and never buy a coffee for 30 years to retire 10 years early!! (I would rather buy the coffee if I want to and work part time a little longer on something i truely love!)

So much of the stuff out there is the over the top American type "spend only £50 a month until you are 45 and retire with millions" - yes I know not ALL American money blogs are like that!!!!!!

Also is anyone following this kind of path? I suppose my portfolio career with mulptiple sources of income will lend itself to this well, should I decide it will.


*FIRE = Financial Independence Retire Early. Though I guess most of you have come across this term.
Yeah I’m the complete opposite of the FIRE movement and agree with you that it’s madness to live some sort of depressing lifestyle when you don’t have to so you can retire early.. it all seems very short term thinking

I’m not sure I’ve seen many U.K. bloggers write about it to be honest as like you said it seems to be a US thing!
 
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Ginnybean

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I think some of the ideas behind it are good. Saving for retirement and planning are both vital. But I am not keen on the sacrifice bit of it.
 

Andrew

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I'm all in favour of retiring early. But not so much in favour of making sacrifices now to do it. Life is all about the experiences you have.
 
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Jon

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Ironically I was doing an interview tonight for something I can’t talk about but they asked me about FIRE and my answer was basically, I scrimped through uni eating pasta and toast every other night why the hell would I want to do this through your 20/30s

I also said you can’t tell me if you had a child and they needed school clothes or sports items you would tell them you aren’t spending the money and to sit down
giphy.gif
and enjoy their tin of beans!!
 

Hezzy

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There’s somewhere in between frugal and extravagant to find a sweet spot.
 
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Sherliarty

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Yes there are extreme examples in US blogs/podcasts. I listen to chooseFI, firedrill and madfientist. I think you need to treat them as motivational rather than a blue print to follow. I agree with meal plans, I disagree with batch cooking large amounts and eating the same thing 2 weeks in a row! I agree with buying second hand items occasionally but I will not be dumpster diving ever. I agree with mending and fixing things yourself but only if its within your skill set, happy to sew and use a screwdriver but I will not mess around with electrics! I do agree with the general concept of cutting out unnecessary expenditure and investing the surplus to create a passive income, and it is something I am trying to instill into my children. I still drink coffee from a coffee shop though :D
 

MoMM Tracy

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This is exactly why I started my site. Mixing saving money and maximising joy. Can’t see the appeal in ultra frugal unless you have to be, done my time eating pasta and mince. Theres some good US FIRE ones on twitter, and mine is quite new but you’ll get the idea www.mindovermoneymatters.co.uk comments welcome T
 

Sherliarty

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Is anyone still following a FIRE journey? I'm still putting any spare money into investing accounts but my motivation on being frugal has been waning this year. I get that bus for that walkable journey pretty much all the time!
 

Jon

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Is anyone still following a FIRE journey? I'm still putting any spare money into investing accounts but my motivation on being frugal has been waning this year. I get that bus for that walkable journey pretty much all the time!
FIRE stuff is in the same sector as No spend months and all that jazz and all of it just not for me

I don’t want to work like a crazy person throughout my 30s so I can retire at 45 and then feel like some sort of inspirational man boss.

There’s more to life than just working all the time or trying to cut every little thing out of your life

It seems a very USA based movement but how many people actually do it compared to the number of people promoting it with their affiliate links I imagine is quite a skewed number
 

Sherliarty

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There are people in the UK but I don't think we are as religious about it as I feel the USA folks are. My view on it is that if I can save where I can and funnel it into investments which make me an income then with each passing year, I (and my family) can spend less and less time 'needing' to make money. I don't bother with the whole serious sacrifice part but am happy to make lunch rather than buy from a shop and I have never regretted getting rid of sky tv and subscribing to netflix! I totally agree with your last comment, I am starting to feel it has become more of a way for the 'experts' to sell books to interested people.
 
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Jon

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There are people in the UK but I don't think we are as religious about it as I feel the USA folks are. My view on it is that if I can save where I can and funnel it into investments which make me an income then with each passing year, I (and my family) can spend less and less time 'needing' to make money. I don't bother with the whole serious sacrifice part but am happy to make lunch rather than buy from a shop and I have never regretted getting rid of sky tv and subscribing to netflix! I totally agree with your last comment, I am starting to feel it has become more of a way for the 'experts' to sell books to interested people.

Yeah a lot of the Finance / Money bloggers/ websites that preach a sort of YOU CAN ACHIEVE ANYTHING type Mantra that you need to follow are just leading you down a breadcrumbed road to then buying their products

Which you then tend to do because by that point you are all hyped up and what not lol
 

usa1

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I think for the FIRE blogs I have read is that the Americans have better workplace pension provisions than the British
 

Sherliarty

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I am not sure I would agree with you about the pension provision in America. I think a lot of FIRE bloggers had corporate jobs hence the decent pension. This would be the same for corporate workers here in the UK. There are not many well known FIRE people who achieved it through less well paid jobs. I don't read many of the blogs anymore, just the odd one here and there to see what's happening.
 
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Sherliarty

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Ironically due to lockdown and not being able to spend money on anything. I have more or less been following an extreme FIRE lifestyle including cutting my own hair :eek:. I haven't missed that much to be honest in terms of material things. I think I will carry on with some of the things I've done over the last few months and see if it really can lead me to FIRE o_O
 
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rninja

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Although it's not a FIRE blog per se, I read Monevator articles on investing, asset allocation, and more.
 

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