Episode 11 (Blog Edition): If I decide Entrepreneurship isn't for me, how else can I achieve FIRE?

In this article, we will be exploring what other options are out there to achieve FIRE other than entrepreneurship.

Although entrepreneurship is a great way to reach FIRE due to its potential for high returns and basically automated lifestyle (if you do it right), it's not the only path to FIRE.

FIREpreneurship.com is all about entrepreneurship and using it as a way to reach FIRE.

The word “FIREpreneurship” is, in fact, FIRE and Entrepreneurship smooshed together, afterall, So the purpose of this article is only to give some alternatives and is not the focus of this company.

To start this article off, we will need to go over some definitions.

What is FIRE?

FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. A great definition of financial independence is the point where work is optional. This means that you either have enough passive income or savings to live off of so you don’t have to work actively to make money.

Retiring early can be your typical definition of leaving work and moving to a beach somewhere sipping piña coladas. However, retiring early can have a totally different look entirely. This can be whatever you decide, really. A lot of people look at retiring early as being able to leave their typical 9-5 job and work on what they love doing. Others look at it as working and having the flexibility to go on vacation whenever they want and their income not be affected.

Whatever your definition of retiring early is, there are many ways you can reach your goals of becoming financially independent and retiring early.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about the alternative to entrepreneurship to reach FIRE.

The “Traditional” Path to FIRE

In most places where you would find information on FIRE and how to reach it, you will find the common path to FIRE that most people will take.

That path is having a traditional 9-5 job and saving your income and investing it in ways that will bring you to your goals.

FIRE definitely is not an easy thing to reach no matter how you pursue it, no matter what path you take. Your strategy to get there will always be complex, and the traditional path is no different.

I will go over this strategy briefly so you can get an idea of it, but I would recommend looking into other resources that focus more on it to get more information.

Cut Out Unnecessary Spending

Living a frugal, bare-boned life is a very big part of the traditional way to reach your FIRE goals. This means cutting out every little thing you are spending money on that you just don’t need. It means making a budget and only spending money on those things you value the most and that you need to live.

I will mention here, though, that living frugally is a great way to get into entrepreneurship full-time since you don’t have too many expenses your business needs to cover before you make the jump into full-time entrepreneurship making said jump closer than it would otherwise be.

The same concept is true with the traditional path to FIRE. The less your expenses are, the less you have to save up and invest to cover those expenses when you leave the workforce. So, this is a great strategy overall, but make sure you don’t take it to the extreme.

Save, Save, Save, and Save Some More

Setting aside money for a rainy day or for something you might want later down the road is a great practice to have in your financial life in general.

When it comes to the traditional path to FIRE, it's recommended you save up 25-30X your yearly income before you retire. Depending on how soon you want to retire, this means setting aside 50%, 75%, even 90% of your income. There are great resources out there to know just how much you should be saving to reach FIRE when you want to.

Let’s talk more about what is called the “25x Rule of Thumb”. As I mentioned before, this is usually the recommended amount of money you should have saved and invested so you can live off of the interest for the rest of your life. Another way of looking at this is you will have enough saved up to where your expenses will be about 4% what you have saved up, and going off the average growth of the stock market, which is 8%, you should be set living off of just 4% and still have your investments grow. I mentioned up to 30x before because there are people that are even more conservative and save more for retirement before actually retiring.

Here is a quick example to illustrate the “25x Rule of Thumb”:

You cut spending dramatically and work your monthly expenses down to just $2,500 dollars per month. Obviously, to calculate your yearly expenses from this, you multiply $2,500 by 12, which is $30,000. Now that you have your yearly expenses, you can now calculate how much you will need to save to retire according to the “25x Rule of Thumb”; $30,000 multiplied by 25 is $750,000.

Now, the average person makes about $52,000 per year. This means that the person in this example is saving about 42.31% of their income annually or $22,000 per year. At this rate, this person will take about 20 years to reach their goals and retire. This seems like a long way off, but there is a way to do it faster…

Make More Money

The final part of the traditional path to FIRE is making more money. This can be done by getting a raise on a consistent basis/climbing the corporate ladder, working more than one job, having your spouse or partner work as well, starting a side hustle, (which really fits into the entrepreneurship category), etc.

If you're able to keep your expenses down and boost your income, you will naturally be saving more and will therefore cut down the time it'll take to reach your goals and retire.

Conclusion

As I stated before, no matter what route you take to reach your financial goals, it will not be an easy road. It will take time and a whole lot of effort, but if you keep your eyes on your goal and your why behind achieving your goals then you'll for sure be able to make it.

So, if the traditional way to FIRE is what you would rather do, then we wish you the best of luck on your journey there.

However, if you would like to take up entrepreneurship in any way, shape or form, whether that be through full-time entrepreneurship or starting a side hustle or what have you, we are here for you. Our mission is to help you achieve your FIRE goals through entrepreneurship through our content and services. If you would like to learn more about us and what we do you can check out other blog articles, or podcast episodes, or you can check out the services we offer here. We would love to work with you some time in the near future.

If you liked this content please let us know by leaving a comment. If you'd like to be a part of the conversation, you can also do this by leaving a comment or by sending us either a written email or by sending us a voice recording. We may include your comments in a future blog post or podcast episode, you never know.