You Need a Candle to Handle These FIRE Strategies

Have you been screaming and shouting because you are annoyed at FIRE and cannot for the sake of you figure out ways to make your ship sail towards it smoother and more efficiently? Well, first and foremost, please calm down, this is a Wendy’s. Second of all, worry not, we will introduce you to some ways that can provide you with a better FIRE experience.

Financial Independence is a goal for many. FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) helps you achieve it by providing you with different methods that suit your needs. Reaching your retirement target might not be easy. Fat FIRE to Morbidly Obese FIRE, all these methods require you to put in hard work.

So, to make reaching your FIRE target to be more efficient, we are going to be talking about 10 different strategies which are going to help you achieve FIRE.

Minimalistic Lifestyle

The most important activity in FIRE is to save. And what better way to save money than living below your means? Using this strategy, you can save more than you were going to and accomplish your retirement fund faster.

This strategy also allows you to test the waters to check how much spending you are comfortable to be living at. It helps you know how much money you should save for your retirement, depending on your yearly expenses.

Living a minimalistic lifestyle also allows you to not be attached to material things, which might help you save money later due to your less spending on luxury items. This can also lower your objective for financial independence.

Creating a Budget

Making a budget might be the best thing you can do to lower your expenses. A budget can help you tackle issues by finding out what leads to the most waste of your money.

You can create a budget by identifying your monthly fixed and variable (not fixed) expenses. Fixed expenses generally remain the same, so you should focus on your variable expenses. These expenses are what you can try to lower. Try to identify other expenses you made throughout the month and reduce them.

Review your budget and make one again the next month to keep your monthly report updated.

Earn More Passive Income

“To save more, one must earn more”, is what a great FIRE enthusiast would say. The best way to reach financial independence quicker is to earn more. The more you earn, the more you can end up saving. If you finish up salvaging quite a lot, you can also move a step up towards a more luxurious goal for your retirement.

While earning more of an income may sound tough, it does not have to be. You can earn passive income through various means. Invest in stocks or ETFs to take advantage of this method.

You can also make a YouTube channel or a blog, through which you can publish content about your interests and if the content is interesting enough for it to gain viewers, you can get paid for it. Sounds like a good deal, doesn’t it?

Eliminate Debt

If you have debt, then you would know that it is a huge money sink. The more you have debt, the less you have for savings on your own. The best strategy for FIRE is to eliminate debt for good.

You can try various methods to reduce and clear your debt, such as paying back your debt first before starting to save up, that way you might not have to pay interest on your debt. If saving and paying your debt side by side is working for you, then that’s great as well.

Try reducing the pressure of your debt as much as you can till you are comfortable. The lower your debt, the quicker you can get to your needed retirement fund.

Clear Goals

The best way to achieve FIRE is through having a clear aim of what you need to achieve. By having a more coherent objective, you can carefully plan a route towards it.

For example, if your plan is to achieve 1.5 Million for your retirement at age 60, you need to know what changes you need to make in your life to get to it. If you are not saving enough money to get to your destination in time, then you need to plan what other things you must be doing. Through having a clearer goal to achieve, you can make a framework of the steps you need to do and do them more efficiently.

Plan For Your Healthcare

Health and wealth both are important in life. Without health, there will be no wealth, so be sure to account for your healthcare plans right from the get-go. By planning this, you might be able to account for unexpected emergencies without worrying about them in the long term.

During your retirement, you will need a proper healthcare plan and if you have already planned one, then you are ahead of the majority. If you haven’t, then you should, as it is a significant part of your retirement life and employs a big chunk of your funds.

Live In Cheaper Areas

A great plan to lower costs is to move to an area where costs are lower. Living somewhere else might sound daunting, but with the right research and figuring out what is the place for you, it might even lead to a better and more comfortable lifestyle.

Moving to a lower-cost area also helps you lower your expenses, which would help in growing your savings more. Remember, the more savings, the quicker can you achieve financial independence.

However, be sure not to rush to a new place. Research a carefully thought-out plan and only then move when you are sure.

Plan For Education

If you have kids, then this is an important step to cover in your financial independence journey. Planning an education fund for your kids is essential. While education in some institutions remains expensive, through a plan you wouldn’t be caught unexpectedly when you receive the first fee payment.

Having a plan for your children’s education will lead them to have a better and more comfortable life. They can avoid debt which they might have to pay for the rest of their lives, and are going to feel less pressurized in general.

Gather Skills

The best way to increase your salary is to gather skills. Through gathering abilities, you can utilize more tools, which will make your job easier and will also help you get paid more.

You can use these learned techniques to negotiate with your employer for a higher salary. If you already have skills that you recently learned and which you think are essential to your job, but your employer is refusing to give you a higher salary. Try applying for a job elsewhere and informing them about your new abilities to negotiate for higher pay.

Network

Having a sense of community can make everyone feel more motivated. Being motivated will help you work more and learn more about the thing you are pursuing. So try to find people who are interested in FIRE just as you are. Through these people, you can help learn and share new ideas on your FIRE journey.

You can also use online forums, such as Reddit, to find users and discuss with them about your path towards early retirement.

Conclusion

These are 10 strategies that I think can help make your FIRE approach better and more efficient. Reaching FIRE might take some time, but through enough hard work, it is possible. Learn to educate yourself about FIRE, the more you learn about it, the better you will get at it. Learning can also make you feel more motivated.

If you are just starting your FIRE journey, it might sound tiring and confusing, but by performing your research and getting involved in the movement, the route towards it will only get sweeter and better.