Category: FIRE movement

Boosting your wealth can improve your health

In today’s fast-paced world, we often prioritize immediate gratification over long-term well-being. With constant advertisements, impulsive purchases, and a lifestyle driven by the latest trends, saving money might not seem like it has much to do with health. However, the act of managing your finances can significantly improve your overall well-being—both mentally and physically. Here’s how saving money can help you lead a healthier life:

1. Less Stress, Better Health

One of the most significant ways that saving money positively impacts your health is by reducing stress. Financial worries are a major source of anxiety for many people. Constantly thinking about how to pay bills, manage debt, or cover unexpected expenses can take a huge toll on your mental health. Studies have shown that chronic stress can contribute to various health issues, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and sleep disturbances.

When you create a savings cushion, whether it’s an emergency fund or simply setting aside money each month, you are proactively reducing this financial stress. Knowing that you have a financial safety net allows you to feel more secure and at ease, which can translate into better mental and physical health.

2. More Time for Self-Care and Healthy Habits

Saving money can encourage you to prioritize activities that improve your health. When you reduce your spending on non-essential things (like dining out, impulse purchases, or frequent shopping), you may find that you have more time and energy for healthier habits. For instance, you might choose to prepare meals at home, which can be both cost-effective and better for your nutrition. You may also decide to engage in free or low-cost activities like hiking, jogging, or yoga—activities that are beneficial for both your body and your wallet.

Additionally, having extra funds saved up can give you more flexibility to invest in activities that boost your mental well-being, such as therapy, hobbies, or vacations that provide relaxation and rejuvenation.

3. Better Sleep and Mental Clarity

Financial strain can lead to sleepless nights, whether from anxiety about upcoming bills or from the constant pressure of living paycheck to paycheck. Poor sleep is linked to a variety of health problems, including weight gain, weakened immune function, and decreased cognitive performance.

When you save money, you reduce the anxiety around financial instability, which can improve the quality of your sleep. A good night’s rest not only helps your body recover but also boosts your mental clarity and focus during the day. With better sleep, you’re more likely to feel energized and motivated to take on the challenges of everyday life, which can have a positive impact on both your work and personal life.

4. Increased Access to Health Care and Wellness Services

If you’re saving money, you may be in a better position to invest in your health long-term. This could include preventative care, health screenings, or treatments that you might otherwise delay due to cost concerns. Having a financial cushion means you can afford health insurance premiums, medications, or therapy sessions without compromising your well-being.

Additionally, saving money might free up funds to invest in things like gym memberships, fitness classes, or wellness retreats—things that can significantly improve your physical and mental health.

5. Healthier Relationships and Lifestyle Choices

When you’re less financially stressed, you’re likely to have healthier relationships. Financial troubles can cause tension in relationships, leading to arguments, misunderstandings, and even breakups. By managing your finances wisely, you help create a more peaceful environment at home, which can improve your emotional health.

Moreover, saving money often leads to smarter lifestyle choices. It can help you prioritize the things that truly matter—like spending quality time with loved ones or focusing on long-term goals. These lifestyle changes are not only good for your finances but also for your overall well-being.

6. The Psychological Benefits of Accomplishing Financial Goals

When you set savings goals—whether it’s for a vacation, a new house, or semi-retire FIRE—you get a sense of accomplishment as you meet them. This feeling of achievement boosts your self-esteem and confidence, which are crucial components of mental health. The act of saving itself can give you a sense of control over your life, which helps reduce feelings of helplessness or anxiety.

Moreover, accomplishing savings goals can help you develop a healthier mindset toward money. You’ll start to think of money as a tool for creating stability and freedom, rather than a source of stress and worry. This shift in mindset can have long-term benefits for your mental health.

7. Preventing Financial Burnout and Overwork

When people live paycheck to paycheck, they often feel forced to overwork themselves just to stay afloat. This constant grind can lead to burnout, which is detrimental to both physical and mental health. By saving money, you give yourself the flexibility to take breaks, reduce your workload, or even explore new career opportunities that align with your passions—without the constant pressure to make ends meet.

Overworking can lead to a variety of health issues, from exhaustion to more serious conditions like heart disease. Saving money allows you to take better care of yourself by ensuring that you don’t have to sacrifice your health just to pay the bills.

Conclusion

While it may seem like finances and health are separate entities, they are deeply interconnected. Saving money can have a direct and positive effect on your mental and physical health, reducing stress, improving sleep, enabling healthier habits, and even enhancing your overall quality of life. So, the next time you set a savings goal, remember that it’s not just about securing your future financially—it’s also about investing in your health and well-being today.

By taking small steps toward financial security, you’re paving the way for a healthier, happier life.

If you order take aways you can build an emergency fund!

Last Friday me and my partner splashed out and ordered a take away. It cost around £40 ($49). It arrived really quick which was great, but to be honest, I could have cooked something more tasty (and warmer!) for a lot less money.

This got me thinking. As a ‘now and again’ purchase its not really going to change my financial life, but, if this became a weekly habit it certainly could.

You may be wondering how is this one weekly indulgence going to change mine or anyone else’s financial future?

Well, be patient, I’m about to tell you!

When you write blogs like this there will always be some people that will push back on some of the ideas in the previous posts such as how to build an emergency fund or save a freedom fund. They will state they just about have enough to cover all their bills let alone start saving.

If this means absolute essential bills such as rent, energy and food then yes, building an emergency fund will be tricky. However, if these bills also include regular expenses such as take aways, eating out, alcohol or extra clothes shopping then its time to get honest with ourselves.

How much are we spending on these not so essential essentials?

Having an emergency fund, a savings buffer to sleep easy at night is an essential to start your positive financial future. So if you don’t have one but are spending on take aways and alcohol then I have a challenge for you which could change your life!

I challenge you to give these non essential essentials up for just 10 months. That is the beauty of this challenge. Its not permanent, its just for 10 months. After that you can go back to them if you want to but just going without for 10 months will give you a life time of sounder sleep. You will know that any surprise expense that pops up you can deal with. You will also know if you need to use the emergency fund (for an emergency) you can soon build it up again after another 10 month challenge. Win win.

Still not convinced? Here’s the maths to tempt you.

If you are spending say $200 a month on take aways, $100 on alcohol or drinking out and $150 a month on non essential clothes (do you need that 10th pair of jeans?) Over a ten month period of cutting these out (and also benefiting your health!) you would have accumulated a mighty $4500 (£3600). You may then realise you don’t really miss the above and would rather save $4500 every year! To me sacrificing a luke warm Chinese each week and 15th pair of jeans is worth it to know I have that buffer in the bank for any unexpected expenses. For those still not convinced, even cutting these expenses by half would save you an impressive $2250 (£1800)

So if you’re ordering pizza and dough balls there’s no excuse for not having that emergency fund. Let me know if you are willing to take up the challenge!

Unlocking the power of compound interest.

If you’ve ever heard the phrase “money makes money,” then you’re already halfway to understanding compound interest. It’s one of the most powerful financial concepts, but don’t worry—it doesn’t require an economics degree to grasp. In fact, compound interest is something you can start benefiting from today, even with just a small amount of money.

What is Compound Interest?

At its core, compound interest is the process of earning interest on both the money you originally invested (the principal) and the interest that has already been added to your account. In other words, your interest earns interest!

Think of it like a snowball rolling down a hill. At first, it’s small, but as it rolls, it picks up more snow and grows bigger and bigger. The same thing happens with your money—over time, your interest compounds, making your balance grow faster than if you were only earning interest on your initial deposit.

Why Compound Interest is a Game Changer

1. It Makes Your Money Work for You

The beauty of compound interest is that your money doesn’t just sit there doing nothing—it actively grows. For example, if you invest $1,000 and earn 5% interest, you’ll have $1,050 after one year. But in the second year, you earn interest on $1,050, not just $1,000. So, by the time you hit year three, you’re earning interest on a larger amount, and your money starts to grow exponentially.

2. It Benefits Long-Term Investors

The earlier you start investing, the more time your money has to grow. Compound interest rewards patience and persistence, so starting to save early is key. Even if you can only invest a small amount each month, compounding will work its magic over time. For example, saving just $50 a month for 10 years can turn into a surprisingly large sum thanks to the power of compounding.

3. It’s a Passive Way to Build Wealth

With compound interest, you don’t have to actively manage your investments every day. Once you invest your money, the interest compounds automatically—without you lifting a finger. This makes it an excellent tool for building wealth over the long run, especially if you have a busy life or don’t want to deal with the stress of constantly monitoring your investments.

4. It Makes Small Contributions Add Up

You don’t need to invest huge sums of money to take advantage of compound interest. Even small amounts, when invested regularly and allowed to compound over many years, can grow into something substantial. This is why setting up automatic contributions into a retirement account or savings plan can have such a big impact on your financial future.

A Simple Example of Compound Interest

Let’s say you invest $1,000 at an annual interest rate of 6%. After one year, you would earn $60 in interest (1,000 x 0.06). But in the second year, you don’t just earn interest on your original $1,000—you earn interest on the $1,060, which means you get $63.60 in interest. In year three, you earn interest on $1,123.60, and so on. The longer you let it grow, the faster it multiplies.

The Bottom Line

Compound interest is often called the “eighth wonder of the world,” and for good reason—it can transform your financial future. Whether you’re saving for retirement, a big purchase, or just building an emergency fund, compound interest helps your money grow without extra effort on your part.

Start small, be consistent, and give your investments time to compound. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your savings can snowball.

Make every weekend a long weekend.

Take more time to relax with semi-retire FIRE

What is better than having a long weekend off from work?

Having every weekend as a long weekend off from work!

Imagine having a 3 day weekend, or maybe even a 4 day weekend every week, not just when we have the occasional bank holiday here in the UK (or a public holiday elsewhere in the world).

An extra day to do as you please. Get all the chores out the way so you can relax and do fun stuff on the other 2 days. More quality time with family and friends, more adventures with your pet dog or more hours to work out or chill out, whatever floats you boat, your free time is yours!

Well, that is the idea of semi FIRE. Why do we have to follow the norm and work 5 days a week until retirement at some long distant date in the future, by which time we probably aren’t at our most healthy and active to enjoy all the free time.

Why can’t we do things a bit differently and on our own terms? Well you can!

Many work places will now try to accommodate more flexible working patterns so dropping a day a week in most industries shouldn’t be too hard. I think the number one reason most people don’t do this is the money.

So to do this we need to be able to take a drop in income. And that is why we are doing all the ground work on this blog so we can provide ourselves an additional income stream to make up for the reduced hours and reduced salary. This includes steps such as building your emergency fund, starting to invest and then growing your freedom fund. None of it is hard to do but also not necessarily easy! There have to be sacrifices along the way, things we may do without, budgets to follow. But building up your vision of your long weekends, more time spent with people and pets you love, more fun and time to relax on your terms will hopefully help you stay on the semi FIRE path and realise what you are doing it all for.

Its all about the habits – part 2

Following on from Its all about the habits part one here are a few more useful financial habits to try in order to secure a happy financial future.

Switch, switch, switch!

Recently I had my car insurance renewal quote come through, it was double that from the previous year. If I had just left it to auto renew I would be around £400 down now. Instead, I got another quote, put this to my insurance company via their app ( I didn’t even have to call them up) and they halved it just like that! It all took about 30 minutes. I just made £400 in 30 minutes not bad! This is the same for other expenses such as mobile phones, house insurance, broadband, TV package etc. A few hours spent getting some quotes and switching providers could save you thousands over a year. That will probably be the most profitable couple of hours of your whole year!

Regularly audit your bank statements.

Its a good idea to get into the habit of checking your bank statements on a regular basis. One reason to do this is to check what regular payments are going out and if they are correct. You don’t want to be paying twice for something or paying for services you no longer use because you forgot to cancel a direct debit. Another reason is so you can also check where your money has actually gone each month. You can then decide if you are happy with your spending decisions or if maybe the budget needs tweaking a little.

Create a budget

This one maybe should be top of the list but I think most people are aware they need a budget. However, we often put it off as it sounds too boring or restrictive. If this sounds like you then please read my post budgeting can be fun! to hopefully give you some inspiration to create and stick to a budget. We all need a plan for where we are going and why, this is all a budget is. It helps us reach our goals and make sure we are spending on things that align with our values and plans for the future.

And finally, Treat yourself

I know this can sound counter intuitive when discussing good financial habits, however money is there to enjoy. There is no point amassing a big number of digits in your bank account if you don’t actually do anything with it. If you have put the previous 6 habits in place, you should hopefully now be saving more and more each month. This maybe for future goals like retirement or a house purchase but we also have to enjoy the here and now as discussed in getting the balance right. So do remember to use some of the money to enjoy your life now. If there is a trip you want to make or a restaurant you really want to visit, do it! You are working hard to get your financial life in order so you should also enjoy the benefits!

Its all about the habits – part one

Following on from my last post about the benefits of a regular meditation practice, I realised that life really is all about the habits we develop. Good habits generally equals a good life and bad habits can equal a not so good one. Our life is the sum of our habits. Whether these be healthy habits, work habits, self care habits or financial habits. They all shape our life accordingly. However, as this is a financial blog I will focus on the good financial habits.

Getting into good financial habits, especially when we are younger, will pay dividends (literally!) as we get older.

Below I explore some of the good habits to get into now, so that the future you will be more wealthy and extremely grateful to the current you for getting your financial habits in order!

1. Set up automatic savings each month.

We all know we should save, but many people don’t. Often we wait until the end of the month to see what is left to save, usually not much! Instead, get into the habit of setting up an automatic transfer to a savings account at the start of each month. By paying yourself first and having it go out automatically each month, you are more likely to stick to this habit. This will then accumulate and compound over months and years into a very nice nest egg for the future you, hopefully enabling you to semi-retire FIRE.

2. Try not to emotionally spend

Sometimes we can get into the habit of spending to feel better, or emotional spending. We’ve had a bad day so treat ourselves to a new pair of shoes. We are feeling low so splash out on a luxury spa break to lift up our spirits. This isn’t wrong or bad, but its good to get into the habit of being more conscious about spending. Will this purchase actually help me feel better or would I be better calling a friend for a chat or taking some time out to exercise or meditate? Just getting into the habit of questioning our reason for the purchases can cut down our emotional spending.

3. Avoid all high interest debt

This is a super important habit to get into if you do want to become wealthy. Once you have high interest debt, the interest will compound against you and your outgoings will increase, making it even more hard to save for the future you. Some debt is useful debt, for example taking a mortgage to buy a home, but this is usually lower interest. High interest debt are things such as payday loans, credit cards and store cards. Once you start to accumulate this type of debt it is often very hard to find enough room in the budget for saving. If you already have such debt then the best thing you can do is pay this off as quickly as you can and then cut up those cards. Building an emergency fund should then help you to avoid having to take any further high interest debt out. If you have alot of debt you are struggling with do contact one of the many free debt advice organisations for advice. Here in the UK Stepchange is a good one to try.

These 3 financial habits are a great way to start getting on top of finances and building your wealth. In the next post we will look at a few more but do let me know in the comments below your number one good financial habit!

Getting the balance right

How meditation changed my life

With all this planning for semi-retirement its easy to fall into the trap of living for tomorrow rather than being in the here and now.

Its good to plan, but we don’t want to make the mistake of missing out on the present moment because we are thinking too much about our future goals. This can result in us missing out on enjoying life now, as we tell ourselves we will be happy once: I reach financial independence/can semi-retire FIRE/win the lottery (insert as applicable.)

So how can you stop yourself falling into this trap?

Well one way I have learnt to develop a better balance between planning for the future and living in the present is by Mindfulness Meditation. It is an excellent way of developing the habit of observing when your mind has wandered into all the future plans or worries and gently guiding it back to the present moment.

Its a skill and habit that needs to be cultivated by regular practice, but will benefit you in all areas of life.

A book I would recommend as a good starting point is Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Penman and Williams. It explains why Meditation and Mindfulness is so beneficial citing many scientific studies as evidence. There are weekly practices to follow that are all simple and short, to get into this life changing habit.

However, there are also lots of free resources on the internet and different meditation practices to download and follow. Or you can simply set aside a few minutes a day to sit in silence and follow your breath mindfully.

If you find yourself constantly thinking about the future and ignoring your present then I definitely recommend giving mindfulness meditation a try. I began the practice many years ago, and even though I don’t do it daily I still reap the benefits. It helps me not to focus too much on the semi-retire goal.

Let me know if you have tried meditation or if you have any other techniques to help stay in the here and now rather than focussing on the future too much.

The reason why most people aren’t wealthy.

When I was a student, I had very little money to live on. My only income came from a part time job in a bakery and some student loan payments. However I still managed to live pretty well. I had housing, transport, food, a good social life and a great education including all the very expensive books I had to buy!

So, if on a tiny student income I could live quite well, why is it that now I have a far higher monthly income, I am not able to save most of it and become super wealthy?

Well apart from regular inflation (which is a subject for another post) there is something else that will eat up the extra earnings you gain over the years and is why most people don’t become rich.

And that is ‘Lifestyle inflation’.

Put simply, as we earn more money over our careers and lifetime, the cost of funding our chosen lifestyles generally increases too. Bigger mortgages, bigger car payments, more holidays. Meaning despite the extra money coming in from pay rises, bonuses etc, there is still very little surplus income to save.

Comparing my student days to now is a good example of this. As I had very little money back then, my housing was a really tiny bedroom in a shared student house. My transport was a second hand bike I picked up from the local paper. Food was all savers/value ranges and an extravagant night out consisted of a bottle of Lambrini (who remembers that!) and a takeaway kebab.

Once I left university and started working and earning more, my lifestyle started costing more. The room became my own property, the transport became a next to new car and social life became expensive meals out and weekends away.

Now I’m not saying I could live like a student for the rest of my life, far from it! I consciously made that choice to increase my lifestyle with the increase in salary and I get lots of pleasure from nice holidays and a decent car. However, I got to a point where I could have increased further with a bigger house, a newer car, more exotic holidays, but decided more is not necessarily the answer. So instead of those extra purchases and expenses, I decided to use further pay increases to pay myself first and build a freedom fund.

I’m not sure many people have this realisation though. They earn more money but the lifestyle inflation (or lifestyle creep as its sometimes known) keeps on inflating. There is never much spare at the end of the month to put away for the future self and to grow wealth because we never reach ‘enough’.

I don’t want to say one way is right or wrong, everyone is different and has different priorities and goals. But its good to have that awareness so you can make a conscious decision rather than just unconsciously doing what everyone else does.

So maybe one evening, get out that bottle of Lambrini, grab a kebab and start thinking about what you really want to spend that extra income on. A bigger and better car or an earlier retirement? The choice is yours.