Guides: FIRE, debt and saving, explained properly
Each guide answers one question with worked numbers, then hands you the calculator that produced them.
42 guides · page 4 of 5
How to use the Barista FIRE calculator
Modelling a part-time income during early retirement, how much less pot you need, and what the arrangement costs you in flexibility.
How to run the 52-week challenge
Picking a start date, the standard and reverse versions, and how to keep a year-long savings streak alive past February.
How to use the 50/30/20 budget planner
Splitting take-home pay into needs, wants and savings, sorting the awkward categories, and what to do when the numbers refuse to fit.
How to use the 25x rule
The mental shortcut for a retirement target, why the multiple is the reciprocal of a withdrawal rate, and when 25 is the wrong number.
How to set up sinking funds
Saving monthly for costs you know are coming, which expenses deserve their own pot, and why this is not the same as an emergency fund.
How to turn a pension pot into income
Working out what a pot actually pays, comparing drawdown against an annuity, and the tax that applies on the way out.
How to read net worth by age
Comparing your position against national figures, why the average is a poor benchmark, and what to do with the answer either way.
How to use the FIRE sensitivity tool
Finding which single assumption your retirement date actually hangs on, why the tallest bar is the one you cannot control, and where the real leverage sits.
How to read Rich, Broke or Dead
The retirement chart that includes mortality, why dying with money is an outcome too, and what it changes about how much you save.
What Is a FIRE Number, and How Do You Calculate Yours?
Your FIRE number is annual spending divided by a withdrawal rate. Three worked examples, and the assumptions that decide whether it holds.