fire (financial independence, retirement early)-financial independence, early retirement. Through the accumulation of primitive wealth, the living expenses are maintained by the compound interest of investment and financial management, and the purpose of early retirement is achieved.

In the past, financial freedom seemed to belong only to those people on the rich list, which was out of reach for office workers. Even the social elite, who became the top of the workplace, would inevitably work hard for their jobs all their lives.

the p>FIRE movement just points out the direction for the working people: the increase of wealth is nothing more than two points, that is, to open up new sources of income and reduce expenditure. Even if the income source cannot be increased on a large scale, the initial wealth can be continuously accumulated through a minimalist lifestyle until the compound interest of financial management can cover future expenses, and then you can retire early.

For minimalism, a bestseller published in 1992, Your Money or Your Life, has a good interpretation. It points out that most people are making money by giving their time, and at the same time, they are exchanging money for a better life experience. Sometimes we confuse the means of "making money" with the goal of "getting a better life experience" and regard the means as the goal itself, so happiness and money are not necessarily positively related. Readers are advised to honestly calculate how much their time is worth, and then compare the cost of living with the time spent on work in order to make money, and see if your time is "beyond your means" except money.

The specific calculation method is: first, calculate your real income, including not only salary and investment income, but also deduct the expenses that have to be generated because of this income, such as housing, transportation and social expenses caused by work, etc. Secondly, calculate all the time spent in this job, including normal working hours, commuting and overtime hours, and even those hours that seem not to be working, but the brain is occupied by work emotions. In short, calculate all the amount and time expenses incurred by this job, and then calculate your real hourly salary according to this figure. After calculating the real hourly wage, we can convert all money expenditures into time expenditures, or convert all time expenditures into money, and use the same unit for comparison. Next, the author suggests that every time we make unnecessary consumption, we should examine whether it is worthwhile to work longer for this consumption. For example, when you want to buy the latest brand-name handbag, you can first calculate whether it is worthwhile to add 1 hours of working time for this handbag; When you are faced with the temptation of a cup of online celebrity milk tea that costs only tens of dollars, but you have to wait in line for half an hour to drink it, you can also turn it into money by waiting for conversion of time, and then you will realize that its actual cost may have far exceeded three figures.

however, minimalism is not the core of the FIRE movement, and minimalism is only a means to achieve the FIRE goal as soon as possible, through which the initial wealth can be accumulated.

At this point, a Taiwan Province lady, Zeng Wanling, and her husband Jeremy are pioneers of the FIRE Movement. They rent the cheapest student apartment, don't ride bicycles by bus or subway, never go out for dinner, cook all their own meals and even grow their own vegetables. I started a blog, wrote travel notes and received advertisements. Besides my own job, I had multiple jobs to find channels to make money. Through this almost masochistic lifestyle, they can spend 7% of their income on savings and investment every month. Then, we will invest in index funds to fight inflation and preserve the value of assets. Finally, I successfully retired after 1 years and started a different life.

Three modes of Fire:

1. Fat FIRE: You have accumulated enough savings and can live as you please after retirement;

2. Lean FIRE: The accumulated savings are only enough for the minimum expenses, so we must strictly abide by the minimalist life;

3. Barita FIRE: a freelancer who has accumulated a certain amount of savings and engaged in some freelance part-time jobs without worrying about living expenses;

For the same person, it obviously takes much more time to achieve full free retirement than semi-free retirement. At this time, free professional retirement is not a compromise.