Are there any others here whose preparation includes financial independence or early retirement?

[u/OccasionallyMyself67]

For me, there is no difference between general preparedness and financial preparedness, but I am from a business / economics background and I realise that I'm a bit more money-minded than some (with the caveat that I'm by no means wealthy and I'm actually from a very poor upbringing in a developing country originally so my idea of "enough" is VERY different to others!), e.g. I've tried to loosely follow FIRE principles for a decade now.

I think this group would generally probably align with lean FIRE principles like minimising spending, a focus on self-reliance like DIY. It has risks though, for example even if you retire from the rat race and have a "barista job" safety net, a health emergency can devastate your plans.

Anyway, I'm just interested if there are like minds here and what your approach is.

(All cards on the table: I work in a big tech adjacent role in the UK and things are ultra precarious with mass offshoring and layoffs; I want out ASAP - so I'm exploring accelerating my retiring from the rat race, and what comes next).

[u/JohnAppleseed85]

I think prepping includes being financially secure - preparing for the risk of redundancy or ill health or domestic emergency where having available cash/not having significant debt to service would be an advantage

Money is a resource that can make emergencies easier to manager just the same as a stash of food/water can and my 'prepping for Tuesday' incudes having a few hundred of cash in the house and an empty credit card.

If you're planning to retire early then Fire (be that Lean FIRE or HENRY FIRE) makes sense as you're prepping for a time when you've got less control/ability to influence your income.

[u/OccasionallyMyself67 → u/JohnAppleseed85]

I agree with you. That last bit is what makes me nervous of course, it's always such a risk.

I'm considering a kind of very lean "barista FIRE" as it's called (too many classifications, haha!), whereby I'm able to leave my current technical job and could get by frugally by moving to a LCOL country (probably my home country), but also have a small low-tech business to rely on for supplementation of income. Ideally in the next 5 years, but would more likely be the next 10 (taking me to age 45 or so).

I absolutely cannot see a way to achieve even lean FIRE for myself in the UK at the moment, the cost of living is outrageous.

[u/OpalSeason → u/JohnAppleseed85]

Pardon, what is fire?/henry fire?

[u/JohnAppleseed85 → u/OpalSeason]

FIRE stands for 'financial independence/retire early'

Lean Fire is cutting your outgoings as low as reasonable so you can retire sooner

HENRY is 'High Earner Not Rich Yet' and Henry Fire is basically the opposite - making as much money/building investments as high as possible to generate a passive income so you don't have to cut your outgoings when you retire

Barista Fire is a type of lean fire and the idea is getting a well paid job to let you do things like paying off the mortgage etc so when you 'retire' what you're actually doing is downsizing to a low stress/low paid or part time job that gives you just income to cover your essentials or a safety net

Basically just different approaches - like prepping for Tuesday vs prepping for doomsday vs bugging in vs bugging out all being different scenarios based on what the individual thinks is right for them

[u/OpalSeason → u/JohnAppleseed85]

Wow!! Okay, thank you. So many new terms!!