These 6 Financial Independence Retire Early blogs changed my life. These families and individuals changed the way I thought about money in a huge way. I was lucky enough to find the best financial independence, retire early (FIRE) blogs.
These blogs will fast-track your FIRE journey. These FIRE blogs can make the difference between building your excitement around the concept, and acquiring the practical knowledge required to get there. Read these FIRE blogs and get to know their authentic journeys to creating passive income.
These FIRE blogs give away all of their knowledge and wisdom for free! They were some of the original F.I.R.E people. Their investing wisdom is makes the complex world of investing highly accessible.
My Discovery Of FIRE
The FIRE blogs I found are some of the most original and authentic out there. They helped me understand the raw components of financial independence in a way that I could relate to. Albeit, many of these people were on incomes far greater than my own. However, the fundamentals were all there to be applied to my regular income.
These blogs helped teach me the basics of FIRE and simple investment strategy. Which was combined with the rich philosophy enriching ones life, not just getting rich. So I wanted to share just #6 of the blogs that most influenced my journey, so they can drive your FIRE journey too.
6 Amazing Financial Independence Retire Early Blogs
#1 Go Curry Cracker (GCC) – https://www.gocurrycracker.com/ Twitter: @GoCurryCracker
This is the very first FIRE blog I stumbled across back in late 2015 or perhaps early 2016. The idea of retiring early to travel the world sparked a fire in me. Before this point, I was very much struggling to come to terms with the idea of working until 65+. Discovering this blog was a psychological revolution.
The idea that you could not only build but sustain a portfolio forever blew my mind. I found the specific posts on asset allocation were especially engaging. It also changed my thinking around needing a ‘balanced’ portfolio and set me on a path to 100% equities (Asset Allocation by GCC).
Before this, I had started to build a very balanced portfolio, with a 20% to 40% bond allocation. This would have been a major mistake, especially at my stage of wealth accumulation. Go Curry Cracker really directed my thinking around how I wanted to approach saving, investing, and early retirement.
Following this unexpected discovery, I simply couldn’t get enough of the Financial Independence Retire Early movement. When you venture into a crazy concept like retiring decades early, you need a powerful driver of behaviour change.Quitting the rat race to travel full-time with not a care in the world, seemed like a good enough one for me.
#2 JL Collins Stock Series – https://jlcollinsnh.com/ Twitter: @JLCollinsNH
JL Collins combines masterful knowledge for decades of experience. This blog was the next stop on my FIRE journey, more specifically the stock series section of the blog. This is where my investing knowledge started to solidify, it reinvigorated how I thought about money and investing in two significant ways:
- I understood the concept of using your assets to provide an income that you then spend.
- My perception of investing ‘risk’ transformed into a more nuanced understanding of volatility.
- That investing in index funds is a simple path to wealth. No complex stock-picking required.
The reason this blog is so incredible is because in a series of short posts, you become aware that historically speaking; the stock market always goes up.
You start to realise that despite common fallacies that investing is not just gambling, and you won’t just lose all your money in a crash unless you sell. That if you invest in index funds, you weed out losing stocks and weight your portfolio to growing stocks, without even lifting a finger. It’s all automated.
JL Collins structured my first venture into Index funds and gave me the confidence to build a logical investing plan. So give the below video a watch, to get a brief intro. I would also recommend his longer talk at Google. Perhaps, this isn’t a FIRE blog as such but it gives you the tools you need to achieve it yourself.
#3 Millennial Revolution – https://www.millennial-revolution.com/ Twitter: @FIRECracker_Rev
When I mentioned not being able to get enough of the FIRE movement, I think that Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung’s blog certainly gave me some articles to get my teeth into. Retiring at age 31 is an astounding financial feat. Kristy is Canada’s youngest ever retiree, at 31. Generally speaking, these are two great personalities in the FIRE community.
The Investment Workshop and Binge Read sections of the blog are partially great for this. You can also get their book; ‘Quit Like A Millionaire‘. It’s helpful to read about other people’s journey to FIRE, their investment strategy, and even the mistakes they made.
In theory, Financial Independence works but it’s also encouraging to see the evidence that it actually works in practice too. That’s why blogs such as this are so important in the Financial Independence Retire Early literature. You should definitely check out their interview with Grant Sabatier below.
#4 Route to Retire – https://www.routetoretire.com/ – Twitter: @RouteToRetire
Jim retired at 43 with a million dollars and now lives in Panama with his family. Sometimes you might want to dismiss FIRE as being unachievable or unrelatable. When I started my FIRE journey at around 25 I remember thinking, on my salary, there’s no chance of retiring in my 30s. I was just starting out on a regular income, somewhere between £22,000 to £24,000.
Now at 29, I have recently grown my income to just over the £30,000 mark. So saving and investing a high percentage of my income is more achievable. However, what I liked about Jim’s blog was that retirement by 43 seemed realistic and by maintaining a solid savings rate and a simple investment strategy financial independence can be achieved.
#5 Mr Money Mustache – http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/blog/ Twitter: @mrmoneymustache
Mr MMM (Pete Adeney) has written some of the most seminal articles of FIRE such as The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement. Pete has gained an almost cult-like following in the personal finance community, check out his blog and you may too become a ‘Mustachian’.
Another of my favourite reads is Mr. MMM and his wife’s year-by-year journey to retirement in 9 years, on two reasonable salaries. Which all demonstrates the power of maintaining a ridiculously high savings rate. Use should use this blog to learn more about investing in the stock market and why you need 25x your income to retire. This is just some of the inspiring and informative information that helped me flesh out my knowledge around FIRE.
The 25x your income (also see 4% rule) is also something that is covered in Pete Adeney’s interview on the Tim Ferris Podcast (if you skip to about 15 minutes in). It’s also generally an excellent guide to financial independence and early retirement.
#6 Think Save Retire – https://thinksaveretire.com/ Twitter: @ThinkSaveRetire
Steve Adcock and his wife, Courtney, started Think Save Retire with the dreams of retiring early from their jobs in IT. That dream became a reality in December 2016. Since I first read this blog, it’s become a real powerhouse of content.
As I rapidly fell down the rabbit hole of FIRE, I naturally looked to digest more and more content around the topic. This is both in terms of investing knowledge and people’s personal stories. One of my favourite articles in recent years is 8 not-so-extreme and non-ridiculous principles of early retirement.
How My FIRE Journey Has Evolved
Since finding these blogs I now have over £50,000 in investments and over £65,000 in net worth. My wealth is now starting to compound and I’m really starting to see the impact of investing in the way that these blogs taught me. As my income and savings rate has increased my trajectory to Financial Independence has improved. I’m now on track to retire by 45 in 2036.
What’s The Next Step On Your FIRE Journey?
Having visited some of these financial independence retire early blogs, you might be looking for some immediate next steps. If you are wanting some step-by-step tools on what’s needed to start investing and get on the path to passive income, I have some FREE resources for you:
- Grow Your Own Money Tree – 5 Steps to Passive Income.
- Reverse Budget spreadsheet
- Net worth spreadsheet
- Beginner Investing Series
- Financial Freedom Calculator.
- Financial Independence Planner – With Compound Interest Calculator & Safe Withdrawal Rate Spreadsheet
All of these will help you to save more money, invest, track your journey to financial freedom and make sure you are on the right FIRE trajectory. You can also find more blogs with amazing stories and Financial Independence and Retire Early bloggers on the Financial Independence blogs page.
Hey Andrew – I’m honored that my blog has had some influence on your journey to FI. As you mentioned, FIRE can seem like a pipe-dream but I’m living proof that it’s realistic to attain with a normal salary and some dedication (even with kids!). Keep up the great work and thanks again for the shout-out!
Hi Jim, yes exactly and I think the proof that FI can be attained and sustained is essential. Understanding the logic is one thing but being inspired and unafraid to go for it is perhaps even more important. Thank you, I will do!