🔥🔥 F.I.R.E. 🔥🔥
One fine morning I woke up early dragging my feet out of bed, where my family was getting ready to start the day. Have you packed my paratha? I asked, as I had no time to have my breakfast to beat the traffic of Pune to reach my workplace. If I get late by ten minutes in morning it adds to another 30 minutes of commute, not to mention the free smoke I have to inhale as a bonus.
In another city, someone else is trying the same, can’t afford to miss the local train, bus or hit the traffic hours.
It lead me to find out the solution to my never ending problems, dealing with waking up early morning, beating the traffic in morning and evening, dealing with a boss who is in bad mood likely going through same problem or other.
I am a software engineer who started the career in mid 20s, from a small town in Punjab and was financially illiterate (There is difference between literacy and financial literacy). At the same time, I had over confidence that who would know more than me. It was a defense mechanism to hide my own lacking. 2 decades later, with an MBA under my belt, also getting the courses on financial education, the more I learnt, more I know I don’t know and the hunger kept growing.
Somewhere on this path I stumbled across this concept of FIRE. Now what the heck is this FIRE?
Let’s explore 😊
FIRE 🔥: "Financial independence and retire early". This movement started in US in 1992 inspired from a book "Your Money or Your Life,"by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez and brought to mainstream by Dave Ramsey. While the Millennial in US have embraced it to retire much before the retirement age there @ 65 but I wanted to focus on retiring early in India. 58/65 is just a number may not be retirement age for everyone.
Whereas initial FIRE movement is very
rigorous and advise about saving 70% of income and investing it till you reach
30 times of your annual expenditure where you should be close to retirement if
you continue to live within your means. My take on it is little different.
Variations on FIRE:
- Fat FIRE: an individual with a more traditional
lifestyle who saves more than the average retirement investor
- Lean FIRE: refers to stringent adherence to
minimalist living and extreme savings, necessitating a far more restricted
lifestyle.
- Barista
FIRE: refers
to followers who have quit their traditional 9-to-5 job but still employ
some form of part-time work to cover current expenses that would otherwise
erode their retirement fund
- Coast FIRE: also applies to followers with a
part-time job, but these proponents do have enough saved to fund
their retirement and current living expenses
The above photo is well planned vacation to Sikkim Pre-Covid
Now fast forwarding it from 20s to current me at age of 45, COVID had shaken all the economies of the world. Of course my company was also badly affected, but the only difference is that I could dare take the call from my employer, whom I did not agree on many a things, work culture and pressure was getting worse every passing day (every few months were a hit or miss depending upon your immediate boss). Finally, I could stand up for my freedom in September, 2020(when I turned 45 as per my dream and Plan) without any financial worries(not attained freedom yet, however built an alternate for living and follow my passion).I did not have to plead to continue my job, I had no worries of how I will pay my bills. No more traffic hours, any more dealing with mood swings of the boss, doing something I didn’t like from core of the heart, wasting time in travel etc …
So which path did I take?
Lean FIRE would not work for my mindset and lifestyle. So While I started with Fat FIRE and somewhere drifted to midway of Barista and Coast FIRE. Also while I was realizing my dream I picked up passion to learn more about finance and per basic nature want to help others out there who are struggling for this.
I don’t want to retire:
I had similar feeling. There are many aspects to it. If you are in your dream job you don’t really have to. Also you don’t really have to start something because you have to. All these things should be your inner callings. If you feel somewhere there is emptiness and that feeling of dissatisfaction, or your story somewhere resonates with mine. It’s important to take the 1st step, that’s to start and explore.Even if you are in dream job having financial independence always creates more options to enjoy your passion too. Do invest and save as per your risk profile. Create your financial plan with all goals based on your time lines and be financial independent.
Even after retiring I haven’t retired, but working on my passion that is to guide others and help them ignite & achieve this FIRE. If I am able to guide 10 people it will make me feel that I did my contribution to the society. At the same time I have control on my own time and life which to me is most important.
All through this one needs to maintain discipline, the investments can be risky, and insurances are required to protect the family in unforeseen circumstances. You need a good financial advisor who really wants to work for you and not for themselves. Also they should be knowledgeable. I will write a separate one on how to pick a good financial advisor. So Friends ignite the FIRE inside you, whether in job or any work that you can do with passion and satisfaction.
Feel free to contact me during business hours 9.30am-6.30pm. Most likely I will be running/ exercising, reading a book or an article of my choice or listening to audible of any famous book if not guiding someone else. Did I mention watching IPL/Netflix these days😃
