FIRE Survey Playback
Last month we sent out a survey to better understand how our community is interacting with the FIRE ‘Financial Independence Retire Early’ movement.
The FIRE movement is all about making smarter saving and investment decisions now, so you can chase your dreams earlier in your life rather than live pay stub to pay stub until the end of time. Whether it’s spending your days travelling to the wine regions of the world learning viticulture or building an algorithm to manage your daily calorie intake — FIRE can help you achieve these goals sooner.
Here’s what people said.
Are you a follower of the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement?
While most of you indicated you weren’t following the FIRE movement directly, the rest of your answers indicated that you were believers of the lifestyle, even if you might not call it FIRE.
How did you find out about FIRE?
What do you consider to be a comfortable amount of money to retire with?
At what age would you ideally like to retire?
Why do you want to retire early?
Most Stake users want more time to do what they want rather than what their boss wants with the majority of users answering that they want to retire early for “More Freedom”, “To Travel More”, or “More Time”.
What’s your biggest cash drain at the moment?
…but users also feel currently constrained by their heavy spending toward high rents/mortgages, social activities, or groceries.
How are you saving money?
Warren Buffett famously said “spend what is left after saving, not the other way around.” However Stake users have their savings hacks down to a science. At a high level, you answered that you’re mostly saving money in these three ways:
#1 Not going out for social activities as often (48%)
#2 Reducing the amount of expenditure on food (45%)
#3 Not going on as many holidays (39%)
We also provided users with an opportunity to tell us their own savings tips and tricks.
Here are a couple of our favorites:
“Wait 10 mins for impulse buys…usually you don’t buy it if you wait a bit.”
“DIY all you can. It’s fun and you save a bundle.”
“Spend less invest more. Stop buying fancy drinks and invest instead.”
“Write down all your spending.”
“Walk everywhere. It’s free.”
“Making my own peanut butter.”
“52 week challenge — save $1 week one, $2 week two. Add a dollar each week and you’ll hardly notice $52 by the last week of the year as you would have saved $1,378.”
How are you investing your money?
While the answers surrounding sources for investing varied (see below), Stake users are investing their money in three clear ways:
#1 US stocks (61%)
#2 ASX stocks (50%)
#3 Exchange-Traded Funds ETF (47%)
Which sector do you think is the best for investing in to drive long-term wealth?
Stake users know where the $$$ is to drive long-term wealth, with the majority of users indicating that tech companies are where the value is.
We’re adding to Liam M’s savings account $$$
Thanks to everyone who took a few minutes out of their day to share their stance on the FIRE movement. We’ve even picked up a few new savings hacks for ourselves .
Congrats to Liam who won the $200 trading credit!
