Dear Friends,

Th word FIRE getting momentum and widely speak now-a-days.

Everyone is talking widely about Financial Independence and Retire Early (F.I.R.E) now. There is a growing trend of people quitting their jobs in their forties/mid forties or late thirtees to pursue activities that they truly enjoy. In just the last two years, five or six people within my own circle of friends have opted for F.I.R.E.

There are three distinct types of F.I.R.E:

1. Lean F.I.R.E
2. Fat F.I.R.E
3. Barista F.I.R.E

First, calculate your annual living expenses. Multiply this by 25. This is the total cost required to cover twenty-five years of expenses is the basic financial requirement for F.I.R.E. Note that this calculation typically excludes all the major expenses that includes your children's education, weddings expenses and home loan repayments.

Resigning from your job after accumulating a reserve fund equivalent to 25 -30 times of your annual expenses is known as Lean F.I.R.E. If you possess a reserve fund equivalent to 50-100 times of your annual expenses, then this is  Fat F.I.R.E. With such a great reserve, one can live a lifetime completely free of financial worries and stress and live your life that drive according to your passion.

The third type is Barista F.I.R.E. This involves quitting your full-time job, typically an eight-to-twelve-hour workday and try to work for part time jobs with mere 1-3 hours for our earning.

Those who work in the IT sector know all too well how physically and mentally draining that line of work can be.

Travelling from home to the workplace alone can consume four hours of a day, followed by ten hours of actual work at the office. Consequently, people often return home only to sleep at night. Their only rest that of the two days of leave they get each week. It is precisely within the IT sector that the adoption of F.I.R.E. is most prevalent. There is a growing trend of people that I know many of my circle from moving abroad to places like Dubai or Singapore working and earning well for twenty years, and then returning to their hometowns to settle down permanently.

There was once a previous generation...

On one side, there are those who worked in government service until the age of fifty-eight before retiring here in India. On the other, who are those who retired after working for up to thirty years in private companies. These individuals shared a deep sense of attachment, of a true "bonding" with their workplaces.

They often viewed their offices as extensions of their own families. Upon their retirement, farewell ceremonies would be organised at the workplaces by the employers and co-employees. They would be garlanded, presented with gifts and even personally escorted back to their homes.

Contrary to this, today we have corporate organisations and we follow corporate cultures.

Here, the moment you offer your resignation, even your colleagues stop speaking to you starting the very next day. The HR department itself might even caution you not to mention your resignation to anyone in the office. The corporates offer lavish salaries, but their organisational structure lacks any genuine affection for the working people. The employees, too have come to realize this hard sense of reality.

If someone remains with the same company for more than ten years, they are labeled a "Boomer Uncle." Consequently, the employees now tend to switch companies for every five years or so. Many entering this sector decide right from the outset that they do not wish to remain in the IT industry past the age of fifty.

Many people reach out to me to inquire about achieving F.I.R.E. I have also provided my known financial advice to numerous individuals and have explained concepts such as the "4% Rule." Drawing upon the wisdom gained from my own experiences over the years—regarding the distinctions between saving, investing, trading as well as the common pitfalls to avoid.

I offer them proactive guidance. Some have already quit their full-time jobs and are now enjoying a life of leisure while pursuing their true passions.

Are you wondering when I am gonna to plan to achieve F.I.R.E.? Soon.

I simply needed a little more time to achieve "Fat F.I.R.E."

Have a great time and think seriously about the concept of FIRE.