FIRE ASAP with these tips

 

The road to financial independence is fraught with problems. Your friends and family don’t understand. Most people don’t advertise that they’re on the FIRE-track. How can you find people to share information with in order to grow your nest egg quickly?

 

Make more money

 

It’s hard to be FIRE, and it’s even harder to do so on anything close to a minimum wage income. The first step for anyone hoping to be financially independent is to find a well-paying job. This job doesn’t have to be your dream job – it just has to be well-paying enough that you can save more than 50% of your income.

 

Lower cost of living

 

If you can’t quite manage to save 50% of your income because your housing expenses are too high, seriously consider moving somewhere cheaper. Ask if you can work from home a few days a week and move somewhere really inexpensive. If you can buy a parcel of land, live in a small home and only have to go into the office a few days a week, the increased commute can be justified by the significant cost savings.

 

Alternatively, look into making a permanent move from a city with a high cost of living to a city with a low cost of living – provided your income won’t drop too much.

 

Start a business

 

Many FIRE people will tell you that starting a business is the only way to truly be financial independent. This advice is only partly true – although you can end up financially independent very quickly, you will become dependent on your business, negating the goal of freedom that being FIRE entails.

 

If you really want to start a business, consider getting a business line of credit as soon as you can. Using someone else’s money to fuel your business means you’re able to grow faster (and get richer) than your competitors.

 

Being FIRE is hard. It’s hard to get to the stage where you can say “yes, I am now financially independent and can retire early.” It’s also hare to actually say those words and stop working entirely. Despite the struggle, no one gets to the end of the FIRE-race and wishes they had spent more money and saved less.