Financial Independence, Retire Early – or SIMPLY FIRE Movement is a revolution getting a lot of attraction with investors especially those who are salaried. Who does not want to be on his OWN… Independent, Free of spirit? But money makes us work & worried. FIRE is a unique way or solution to this journey of becoming free … yes Financially Free.

FIRE movement was started by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez through their book ‘Your Money or Your Life’ in the 90s. The book is about economizing your income to create a pool of money to retire early than the expected age of 55 or 60 or more.

Why FIRE Movement

Retirement is considered a crucial part of one’s life. People work for hours through years just to create capital for their easy retirement.

But don’t you think that when you retire at age of 60 or more, your list of wants gets small. You have just spent most of your time in your job working, saving BUT ignoring your wish list.

Is it not important to ask – what you are saving for?

Fire movement enables people to live their life up to their expectations. And, still have a great & early retirement.

So, How Can You Achieve F.I.R.E.

If you are able to achieve a single-digit crore corpus and withdraw in the range of 5-6% PA from this corpus. You can achieve and early retirement with full financial freedom.

In the US the withdrawal rate of 4% is considered good. AS THEY HAVE LOW INFLATION & LOW RETURNS. In India, this can be slightly higher. So in a corpus of 2-5 Cr, investing in hybrid assets can help you attain a free life.

So to achieve this figure you will have to have a higher savings rate. Say 50% or more. If this is invested well, you may achieve your FIRE soon.

Akansha, an IT engineer who followed the principle of FIRE, retired at an age of 34 with a corpus of 3 Cr. Now she practices the minimalism concept in life and today at age 41 she travels to Goa every year to live near the sea.

What Akansha did to achieve this?

• A Savings Rate of 50% Plus for 10 Years.
• Did not make any extraordinary sacrifices by keeping expectations less.
• Shunned designer clothes, extravagant expenditures on gadgets etc.
• Home food only.
• Hates displays of wealth.

HOW TO SET F.I.R.E. IN YOUR LIFE

Review your Current Position

The first step to inculcate fire principles is to review your financial position. You have to look out for your expense to saving ratio, family needs, finance sources, goals, what type of lifestyle do you need in retirement, increments in income, future fixed expenses.

If you are clear about all these criteria you should head towards making a plan.

Minimalist Approach

By minimalist approach, we mean to spend your income in a purposeful way or mindful spending. It’s about determining and streamlining your money towards the thing which actually makes you happy and add to your growth.

Zero on debt

Debt is a bottleneck for your investments, so clear out all your debt before you start to walk on the path of fire and prepare an emergency fund to cope up with any future emergency of funds.

Intensify your reserves

A must part of the FIRE is your savings. You must save more as much as you can by implementing purposeful spending, as if buying new car every 3 or 4 year does add to your investment.

Moreover, you should invest your savings so that your money keeps working for you even when you retire.

Learn to Save & Invest Money

Age is no limit in following FIRE principles, one should start to invest as soon as they start earning.

For starting F.I.R.E. you have to determine your priorities like if you are living with your family their expenses, your house rent, your fixed monthly expenses of insurance premium, EMI, interest, tax returns etc.

THE FIRE CALCULATIONS

25X RULE

The fire principle follows 25x Rule to determine the amount you need to save to live a life you dream of after retirement whether it is living up to the fullest traveling and exploring the world or living in a bungalow in the beautiful hills.

 Whatever your goals, your dreams, your plans are you just need to follow the 25x rule which is Annual expenses in retirement x 25

This formula shows how much money you need to save till your retirement.

For example, if a household is spending ₹540,000 per year then

₹540,000 x 25 = ₹13,500,000. You need to save one crore thirty five lakh to achieve your retirement goals early.

5% or 6% % RULE

This rule says how much you can withdraw after you retire from your corpus. The rate varies according to your time and wealth created, the lower the withdrawal rate the greater should be the investments.

Ground Rules:

• You can’t rely on salaries and bonuses to create wealth; it is important to start thinking about the third line of income – investments, and ESOPs.
• Don’t undercut your spending to the level that your entire plan collapses. The aim is to become natural minimalistic. This is not a short-term sacrifice plan.
• Be prosperity-minded rather than poverty-minded. Build your wealth by growing your money, not by cutting expenses that bring you joy.
• Think more about how you’re going to spend your time rather than if you have enough money to spend.

 The Real Benefit of FIRE Movement

The greatness of fire is incomparable. It’s not about retiring early only. It’s about becoming financially independent and doing what you love, following dreams or things you are passionate about.

Travel around explore the world and make your life a memorable one.

Spent time with your family to grow and learn together.

Interested? Already on FIRE? Share with me in the comments section below.

This article is researched & co-authored by Shrestha Sharma – Intern @ thewealthwisher