FIRE
FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) is an approach to reaching the point of financial independence, i.e. not having to work again if you don't want to.
It is about not being sheep and wasting money like all those companies after your money would like you to. It is about frugality, sensible financial decision making
and creating a gap between your income and spending and investing that gap in the stock market in a financially efficient manner (after you have set money aside
for emergencies and planned spending for the coming year). At the core is the fact that diverse investing in world financial markets isn't a great risk over the long term.
These investments may be volatile day to day but historically they return 10% annual gains. Compare this with even the best savings accounts where any gains are eroded
by inflation.
RFS
RFS is Rebel Finance School and was my 'in' to FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) and was a bit of a life changer in all honesty so
thanks to Alan and Katie Donegan and their helpers. It was during doing the 2025 course that I realised I could retire, as long
as I optimised by finances, which I've been doing since and continue to do. RFS is an (excellent) starting point and
I continue to learn from that basis. See also the companion Facebook group. It can get a
bit noisy with beginners and people who haven't done the course yet so the thefireplace is another option
run by experienced investors.
Why listen to me?
No particular reason. I'm just someone who has reached FIRE, arguably more by luck than by judgement after little financial edcuation throughout my life.
My aim is to share the knowledge I continue to gain to help my kids get to FIRE earlier than I did, despite the more challenging financial context they unfortunately
face today (think student loans and buying houses). I've enjoyed helping people on Facebook groups so thought 'why not stick some of that content on my website'.
Key Topics
The RFS course is broken down into:
- Creating a gap between spend and income that can be invested: tracking spend, frugality, increasing income and dealing with debt
- Investing: platforms, accounts and funds
- Retiring: when and how
I don't plan on covering topics under 1 in much detail. Rather, I'll start with 2 with the aim of moving on to 3. Topics may include:
- Platforms - free or paid?
- Accounts - focus on SIPP, ISA, LISA and GIA but also JISA and JSIPP as well as workplace pension considerations
- Funds - a single, global index fund, OEICs vs ETFs
- Funds and fees
- Risk vs volatility
- Time in the market vs timing the market
Referrals/ what's in it for me?
Apart from the enjoyment of helping people it gives me a litte project for retirement between school runs / decluttering.
Also, if you find my content useful and decide to join one of the platforms I use and can recommend you might like to consider using my referral link and we'll each get
a small something out of it. Here are those platforms, in summary. More detail is on the investment platforms page.
These are simply in order of my signing up for them.
Vanguard
- Offer all main adult accounts plus JISA
- Lowest % fee above £32k, capped at £375K
- Nice and simple charging structure and easy to use website
- Limited fund choice
- No referral scheme
Trading 212
- GIA and ISA
- Free plus free shares with a referral
- Fussy App - lots of functionality but mostly not needed for FIRE investing
- ETFs only, but lots of them
- Referral: [NO CURRENT REWARDS CAMPAIGN]
II
- Comprehensive service
- Tiered service levels from £4.99/month, dealing charges may apply on top
- More complex charging structure and application than Vanguard but utlimately can be £200 cheaper per year
- Comprehensive fund choice
- Referral:
I get £200 / you get free fees for a year (minimum £5k investment)
(https://www.ii.co.uk/recommend-ii?ii_referrer=1dgr08v2lw4ux-k5mi165br8bx)
- (You may also be able to get cashback from topcashback/similar)
Freetrade
- GIA, ISA and SIPP
- Free (one of 3 service levels) plus free shares with a referral and 1% cashback until financial year end
- Simple App - a bit basic but does everything the FIRE investor needs
- ETFs and OEICs
- Referral: Get started with a free share worth £10 to £100.
https://magic.freetrade.io/join/christopher/cde84b56
- Freetrade also has a 1% cashback offer on SIPP and ISA running until financial year end