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REAPS FIRE Group!! this month at the MERCER ISLAND LIBRARY
Saturday at 11:00 AM
REAPS Members Free | Guests: FREE to this meeting
Speaker: Ron Breitenbach, fellow investor
Rapid Debt Paydown Strategies
Mortgages • Car Loans • Student Loans • Lines of Credit
What if you could shave years off your mortgage — without increasing your income?
At this month’s FIRE Group meeting, we’ll explore creative and practical strategies people are using right now to accelerate debt payoff and improve monthly cash flow. Whether you're tackling a home loan, student debt, car payments, or business lines of credit, this session will introduce concepts designed to help you regain financial momentum faster.
Topics Ron may include:
- Accelerated mortgage payoff methods
- Velocity banking concepts
- Strategic use of HELOCs and lines of credit
- Cash flow optimization techniques
- Debt snowball vs. debt avalanche strategies
- How investors and entrepreneurs structure debt differently
- Reducing interest costs
Whether your goal is financial independence, improved cash flow, or simply reducing financial stress, this discussion will give you tools and ideas to evaluate for your own situation.
Perfect for:
- Homeowners
- Real estate investors
- Entrepreneurs
- Anyone looking to become debt-free faster!
Come network, ask questions, and learn alongside others pursuing financial freedom!
Better Lifestyle thru smart investing, applying yourself, discipline, knowledge and savings.~
--- Bringing the FIRE Movement Seattle area!! ---
The F.I.R.E. Movement is about being thrifty strong saver, strategic with smart investing, and maybe entrepreneurial, so that you can retire early!
F.I.R.E. = Financial Independence, Retire Early
More details below...
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~Local investor volunteered to lead the FIRE group
Hamed Dadgour
~About Our Moderator.... Hamed Dadgour - AI Tech innovator and Real Estate Investor, On the hunt for a business to buy.
REAPS Members Free | Guests: FREE to this meeting
From Wikipedia: The FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement is a lifestyle movement with the goal of gaining financial independence and retiring early. The model became particularly popular among millennials in the 2010s, gaining traction through online communities via information shared in blogs, podcasts, and online discussion forums.
Those seeking to attain FIRE intentionally maximize their savings rate by growing the gap between their living expenses and their income, and investing the difference. JL Collins, an author who has been called the "godfather" of financial independence, has advocated:
"Spend less than you earn—invest the surplus—avoid debt. Do simply this and you'll wind up rich."
The objective is to accumulate assets until the passive income from these assets provide enough money to cover living expenses. Some proponents of the FIRE movement suggest the 4% rule as a rough withdrawal guideline, thus setting a goal of at least 25 times one's estimated annual living expenses. Others, such as economist Karsten Jeske, suggest planning for a more conservative withdrawal rate such as 3.25% or 3.5% (accumulating around 28 to 30 times one's estimated annual living expenses) when planning to retire very early.
When a person reaches financial independence, paid work becomes optional, allowing them to pursue new activities or retire before reaching a typical retirement age.
Background
FIRE is achieved through aggressive saving, far more than the standard 10–15% typically recommended by financial planners. Assuming expenses are equal to income minus savings, and neglecting investment returns, observe that:
- At a savings rate of 10%, it takes (1-0.1)/0.1 = 9 years of work to save for 1 year of living expenses.
- At a savings rate of 25%, it takes (1-0.25)/0.25 = 3 years of work to save for 1 year of living expenses.
- At a savings rate of 50%, it takes (1-0.5)/0.5 = 1 year of work to save for 1 year of living expenses
From this example, it can be concluded that the time to retirement decreases significantly as savings rate is increased. For this reason, those pursuing FIRE attempt to save 50% or more of their income. At a 75% savings rate, it would take less than 10 years of work to accumulate 25 times the average annual living expenses suggested by 'the 4% safe withdrawal' rule.
There are several ways to pursue FIRE. Some of the best-known are:
LeanFIRE is about achieving financial independence earlier by living exceedingly frugally. With very low expenses, a smaller investment portfolio is needed to achieve financial independence.
FatFIRE is a strategy for achieving financial freedom and early retirement with a larger budget than traditional retirement planning. Unlike other FIRE methods that may focus on minimalism and reducing expenses, Fat FIRE allows for a more luxurious lifestyle in retirement. This approach requires saving and investing a significant portion of income to build a substantial nest egg, enabling individuals to retire earlier than conventional retirement age while maintaining a higher standard of living.
CoastFIRE has at least two stages. In the first, an investor aggressively saves and builds their investment portfolio. This continues until the investor is satisfied that their portfolio will grow sufficiently through the power of compound interest alone. In the second stage, the investor can stop or reduce their investing, and enjoy a measure of freedom without being fully financially independent.
BaristaFIRE allows people to partially retire before they are fully financially independent. It involves switching to a less-demanding (usually part-time) job that provides some income, and perhaps benefits such as health insurance. (The term is a reference to part-time jobs at Starbucks, which provide health insurance.) With this approach, a person covers their living expenses with income as well as modest withdrawals from an investment portfolio. During this period, the investment portfolio should continue to grow.
FIRE is viewed as a lifestyle, not simply an investment strategy. A common thread that challenges individuals that subscribe to the FIRE lifestyle is finding partners that share the same fiscal goals. Availability of online resources helps the movement to expand among Millennial high-net-worth individuals.
The emergence of social media has brought more attention to workers discussing their dissatisfaction. "Social media has made lives appear more glorious and expensive, but also allows others to broadly share about their financial freedom." said Zachary A. Bachner, CFP of Summit Financial.