What Is the FIRE Movement Anyway?

A growing number of people are gaining an interest in something called the FIRE movement. What is this, and could this be of use to you?

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FIRE Defined

FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. According to Investopia, FIRE is a system involving a program of extreme savings and investments. This allows followers to retire earlier than traditional budgets and retirement plans allow.

Rise in Popularity

The FIRE movement first came about following the release of a book in 1992 entitled Your Money or Your Life. The book explored the comparison of expenses versus the time spent earning the money to pay for these expenses.

A growing number of people started to become fans of the so-called FIRE movement, and today there are countless books, blogs, and podcasts written on the topic. Many advocates claim they can retire at a younger age compared to the general population, with some well-known FIRE fans even retiring as young as 30.

However, FIRE supporters stress that following this movement isn’t necessarily about giving up work early. Many continue to enjoy a fulfilled career. Crucially, the goal of FIRE is to give the person options so that they could retire if they wanted to.

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How FIRE Works

In order to become financially independent and retire early according to the FIRE movement, experts claim you need to devote 70% of your income to savings. This is fairly extreme, and many people would need to be very disciplined in order to achieve this goal. Seeking financial assistance from experts such as www.intelliflo.com, who provide financial advisor software, would be one way to help you organize your savings more efficiently to yield maximum returns.

Supporters of FIRE argue that you need to save 70% of your annual income to the point where you’ve gained savings that are around 30 times your yearly expenses. At this point, you can then retire. However, you may need to adjust timescales according to interest rate fluctuations.

In order to maintain FIRE principles, followers must also only make meager withdrawals. This will involve cutting back on unnecessary expenses and living a fairly frugal existence. Typically, FIRE followers will make just 3-4% withdrawals from their annual savings. This again requires strict discipline, and you might need to consider your quality of life and current lifestyle to assess whether this rate is even achievable.

A landlord’s guide to attracting the best tenants

Great tenants can help to look after your property and your bank balance, which is why it is important to make an effort to attract the best – and keep them. To do this, start by following these top tips.

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Look at the competition

Get online or talk to local agents and make sure that you are offering as good as, if not better than, the competition. Look at what tenants are getting for their money elsewhere and make sure that you are offering these features and benefits at a price that will attract the best tenants around.

Market your property

The best tenants have to know about the property you want to rent it, so get it out there. Make full use of the internet, social media, local publications, etc.

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Be ready for viewings

Make sure that you can be as flexible as possible to accommodate viewings and be ready to sell your property and the services you can offer, such as comprehensive inventories using property inventory software from providers such as https://inventorybase.co.uk.

Present well

Make sure your property is presented in the best possible way. Ensure it is clean and smell-free and that the garden is tidy and looks well-kept.

Appeal to a target market

Decide what sort of tenants you want and focus your efforts on attracting these; for example, if you are offering a professional let, make sure that you are advertising your property somewhere that the right sort of people will come across it.

Know your tenants

Get as much information as possible from prospective tenants and make sure that you check their references thoroughly. You may also need to consider your tenants’ right to rent and should always arrange for a credit check to be carried out.

Keep good tenants happy

Once you have found good tenants, try to keep them by ensuring they are happy. Carry out regular checks and keep on top of maintenance issues. Being proactive can often prevent problems from occurring and save you time and money in the long run.

Make sure that someone is available to respond to queries or issues promptly and always be willing to listen to what your tenants have to say. A good relationship can be the key to keeping great tenants in place.

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