semi-retire – Page 2 – Semi-Retire FIRE

Why I chose Semi-Retire FIRE over traditional FIRE

Some reasons why semi-retire FIRE is better than full financial independence retire early.

For anyone new to the concept, FIRE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. The movement began in the US in the 1990s and gained popularity in the UK during the 2000s.

The core idea of traditional FIRE is simple in theory:
save and invest aggressively until your portfolio is large enough to cover all of your living expenses for the rest of your life. Once you reach that point, you can stop working entirely — often decades earlier than the state retirement age.

Some people have achieved this in their 20s or 30s. For most of us, however, the reality looks very different.

Why Traditional FIRE Didn’t Fully Work for Me

I discovered the FIRE movement in my thirties, and many of its principles immediately resonated with me. I liked the focus on:

Spending intentionally
Reducing consumerism
Saving and investing for freedom and flexibility
Not working full-time until nearly 70

But when I ran the numbers for full FIRE, the timeline was sobering. Even with disciplined saving, my FIRE “number” was so high that I wouldn’t realistically retire much earlier than a normal retirement age.

That’s when I started exploring semi-retirement FIRE — and it completely changed my approach.

Instead of aiming to never work again, my goal became much simpler:

Build enough assets so I never have to work full-time again.

Over time, I realised there are many advantages to semi-retirement — and for many people, it may be a more realistic and enjoyable path than traditional FIRE.

Semi-Retirement vs Traditional FIRE: Key Differences

Before diving into the reasons, here’s a quick comparison:

Factor	Semi-Retirement	Traditional FIRE
Savings required	Lower	Much higher
Time to reach	Shorter	Longer
Ongoing work	Part-time or flexible	None
Lifestyle balance	High	All-or-nothing
Accessibility	More realistic for average earners	Often favours high earners

1. Semi-Retirement Can Be Reached Much Sooner Than Full FIRE

Because semi-retirement includes some ongoing income, you don’t need to accumulate such a large investment portfolio before stepping back from full-time work.

Even modest part-time income can significantly reduce how much you need invested, which means:

Less pressure to save extreme percentages
A shorter timeline
More flexibility if markets perform poorly

For me, this made the goal feel achievable rather than overwhelming.

2. Doing Some Work Is Actually Good for Us

The dream of never working again at 40 sounds appealing — but for many people, complete retirement can feel empty surprisingly quickly.

After the novelty wears off, unlimited free time can lead to:

Loss of structure
Reduced sense of purpose
Less appreciation for leisure time

Working two or three days a week provides balance. It gives structure to the week and makes the days off far more enjoyable.

3. Semi-Retirement Avoids the “Cliff Edge” of Full FIRE

Traditional FIRE can feel like an all-or-nothing leap:

Decades of intense saving
Constantly watching every expense
Then suddenly stopping work forever

Semi-retirement is a gentler transition. You gradually rebalance work and life instead of switching everything off overnight.

For me, that feels far more sustainable — both financially and psychologically.

4. You Don’t Have to Sacrifice Your Best Years

Reaching full FIRE often requires major sacrifices:

Fewer holidays
Tight budgets
Saying no to experiences

If you’re doing this throughout your 20s and 30s, those sacrifices can add up to real regret later on.

Semi-retirement allows you to:

Save consistently without extreme deprivation
Enjoy life now and plan for the future
Avoid postponing happiness for a date decades away

5. You Still Get Most of the Benefits of Full FIRE

The main appeal of FIRE isn’t never working again — it’s:

Escaping a stressful 9–5
Gaining control over your time
Spending more time on what you love

Semi-retirement delivers most of these benefits:

More flexibility
Less stress
More time with family and hobbies

The difference is you get them sooner.

6. Semi-Retirement Is More Achievable for Average Earners

One of the biggest criticisms of FIRE is that it mainly benefits high earners.

While there’s some truth to that for full FIRE, semi-retirement is far more accessible. You don’t need a massive salary — just consistency, planning, and realistic expectations.

As an average earner myself, semi-retirement felt like a goal that actually fit my life rather than forcing my life to fit the goal.

Final Thoughts: Is Semi-Retirement Better Than Traditional FIRE?

For some people, traditional FIRE will always be the goal — and that’s great.

But for many others, semi-retirement offers:

A faster path to freedom
Less stress
More balance
Fewer sacrifices

For me, the semi-retirement journey feels not just easier, but more enjoyable and sustainable in the long run.

If you’re weighing up semi-retirement vs traditional FIRE, this middle path may be worth serious consideration.

Grow your freedom fund!

Once you’ve mastered your budget, paid off any high debts and built up your emergency fund its time to look at the most exciting part of the plan…the freedom fund!

So what is a freedom fund??

A freedom fund is your pool of savings and investments that will be used for your path to semi FIRE or full FIRE, if that’s what you decide to do. Its the pot of money that you will be able to draw out an income each year to cover some or all of your expenses. Its your escape from the 9 to 5 rat race. Its your route to a different lifestyle and better work life balance.

In the next few posts we will cover all the things you need to know to start your own freedom fund including the 4% rule, some investing basics, compound interest and working out how much you need in your freedom fund. So keep on reading and start your journey to freedom today!

Budgeting can be fun!

I know this title is going to be a hard one to sell. But hear me out…

Most people wince or roll their eyes at the thought of budgeting. They see it as depriving themselves in some way. Not being able to buy the things they enjoy or have any fun.

But I like to think of having a budget as the opposite of that. Its all about making sure you allocate spending to the important things in life (such as financial freedom) and reducing the amount to the things not adding any value (do you really need another pair of jeans, shoes, handbag….insert as applicable).

So where to start?

A good place to start is with a budget planner or spreadsheet that you can fill in with all your monthly expenses. There are lots of free budgeting spreadsheets on the internet, here is a good one – Budget Planner: how to manage your money – MoneySavingExpert you can save the excel version to your computer or print it out. If feeling adventurous you can create one yourself, you get bonus points for that!

Then look over your bank statements from the past few months and see where your income has been going. You don’t need to beat yourself up on this. But “What isn’t measured isn’t managed” (a famous person once said) so you need to know where things stand at the moment without judging yourself, so you can manage it going forward.

Next step is to think about whether the spending in each area is adding value to your life or not. If the answer is no then this is probably an area you could cut back on or eliminate altogether. Some expenses probably can’t be changed very easily such as rent or mortgage. But other areas such as TV packages, subscriptions, eating out or clothes shopping usually can.

By reducing the expenses that aren’t adding value to your life you can pay more into the exciting expenses that align with your values like your financial freedom. You will then literally be buying more free time. Now hopefully you’ll agree that does sound like fun!

Financial independence fundamentals: Pay yourself first!

Yes pay yourself first. Not McDonalds, not Costa, not Dunkin Donuts home delivery service (ok that might just be me..) but YOU.

Obviously you need to pay all your regular household bills too but if you then wait until the end of the month to save what ever is left, guess what, you will probably have aided the Dunkin Donuts CEO in his early retirement and not yours!

So how much should I pay myself?

Well it depends how quickly you want to semi-retire FIRE. But start off with something, anything, just make sure you start.

You will need to work out your budget which we will cover in another post, but getting into the habit of paying yourself first is half the battle. The other half is consistently keeping it up, month by month, year by year until hey presto eventually you will be able to quit that job, or at least work less.

Ideally set this up as an automatic payment each month. So you can set it up and not have to think about it again. It will just go from your pay cheque into your savings or investments every single month and your future you will be extremely grateful you did.

If you can get this FI fundamental up and running you are well on your path to financial freedom and Semi-retire FIRE so keep on reading and let me know how you get on.

What is Semi-Retire FIRE?

I like to think of semi-retire FIRE as a more chilled out version of the traditional FIRE (financial independence retire early) movement.

Before I came across the FIRE movement, I often used to think the idea of working 5 days a week and getting just 2 days off to do what I chose to do, for the next 30 to 40 years just didn’t seem like a well balanced life to me.

So when I came across the idea of FIRE in my mid thirties it immediately piqued my interest.

I read all the classic FIRE blogs like Mr Money Moustache and JL Collins The simple path to wealth. But after doing the calculations to work out when I would hit financial independence, on my average salary and potential savings rate, I wasn’t going to reach FIRE much before age 60, and not that many years before my official retirement age. The trade off wasn’t worth that. I didn’t want to put my life on hold until a magical date 25 years in the future when I could finally get my freedom and financial independence.

But rather than give up on the idea as nonsense or only for other people, I decided to embark on my own version of it.

Introducing Semi-Retire FIRE

I’m writing this from the perspective of someone aiming for semi-retirement rather than a traditional early retirement date. After running the numbers and realising full FIRE wasn’t realistic for me, I focused on building enough flexibility to never need full-time work again.

I still use the same principles and techniques of FIRE but to reach a stage where I have enough passive income from investments to never have to work full time again. I could subsidise my lifestyle and current income to work just 2 or 3 days a week, or work part time on a lifestyle business or freelance basis. Still giving me flexibility and more time to do what I wanted to do. And crucially would hit that number far sooner than 25 years!

And that’s how it all started.

If you want to find out more about how I did this I will be posting regularly on this site but here are some of my most popular posts to get you started –

Make every weekend a long weekend

How much do you need to semi-retire FIRE

Investing for beginners

Getting the balance right

How do I buy an index fund?

Or check out the Semi-Retire FIRE FAQs page