Welcome

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Let’s begin that journey together.

The What of F.I.R.E.

Financial Independence Retire Early (F.I.R.E. but without the periods going forward) is the process of taking the reins of your own retirement. Much has been said elsewhere on the internet about this process, but it is essentially threefold.

• Probably earn more
• Temporarily spend less
• Definitely invest the difference

If you save p proportion of your take-home pay, then you can retire in -25\ln(p),~0<p\leq 1 years.

Unexpected New Hobbies

None of the FIRE literature explains, however, that you’ll develop some interesting new hobbies along the way. Everyone turns into a spreadsheet wizard. Financial math becomes a tool of freedom and, therefore, something to be excited about. But of course, everyone who accomplishes their goal of becoming financially independent has to start their own blog (no, not really, but it sure seems like it).

Welcome to mine!

The New Goals

FIRE doesn’t necessarily mean sitting on a beach all day. The sorts of people who work so hard to buy their freedom (i.e. retiring early) usually aren’t the sort of people who want to sit around all day. Even the acronym has evolved to mean pretty much whatever an author wants.

• Financial Independence Retire Early (OG FIRE)
• Financial Independence Retire Eventually
• Financial Independence Recreational Employment

Personally, I want to eventually contribute to a couple of open-source projects like Linux or LineageOS. Same career but on my terms, according to my schedule, and toward my passion projects.

Overthinking Finance

Many authors have already posted tons of great content on the subject. This website seeks to expand, make intuitive, or formalize some of what’s available elsewhere. In some cases, slightly advanced mathematics has allowed the development of eventually simpler results. And who doesn’t like that?

Posts are generally arranged reverse chronologically (except this welcome post). Going in order is generally your easiest option, but if something grabs your attention, we’ll have links to the relevant content.

First up is a post that builds intuition (and our mathematical framework) about why early retirement works: Introducing the Savings Ratio.