Welcome to the ultimate list of resources for a successful FIRE journey. Indeed, accessing valuable information is critical to make the right decisions. Great news is that most resources are free, or charge a minimal price for the wealth of value it brings. There is also a list of services that we have used and been critical to our journey. This list will grow as we found more indispensable resources.
Before going through this valuable list of resources, it is important to understand who we are, and what we are looking for. You will find more information on our About us page. Happy reading!
Blogs
There are many many blogs and resource to choose from (thank you for reading ours). Below are the resources who had an influence on our FIRE journey.
Mr MMM is (almost) the founder of the FIRE movement. Most aspiring FIRE candidates have read some of his blog posts. His content is broad in topics. Although the financial part is US-centric in terms of financial products or taxes, the financial concepts are still applicable everywhere. There are also valuable resources on his blog to crack FIRE.
Living a FI – A Geek’s Guide to Financial Independence
Dr Doom is a geek and describes his journey towards with FIRE with lots of humour and anecdotes. His experience has inspired many of us to embark on this journey while being cognisant of some of the challenges ahead.
Early Retirement Now – You can’t afford not to retire early!
Big ERN has a PhD in Economics, and ran hundreds or even thousands of simulations, back-testing different portfolios and investment strategies. His content is a must read if you want to reassure you with the math behind FIRE. As mentioned, the accumulation phase is the simplest part of FIRE. Big ERN shares some invaluable light on the strategies of the distribution phase.
The Happy Philosopher – A guide to Freedom and Happiness
The Happy Philosopher had an influence on me about the psychological struggles which comes with FIRE. Now that you have reached your FIRE number, what is next? Should I continue to work, or dedicate my team to my hobbies? Or more simply why did I even get into FIRE? You will not find answers, but you might ask yourself the right question. And soon, you will embark in the search of Happiness.
This website is a fantastic source of information. It was built to commemorate Jack Bogle’s, the founder of Vanguard. His ETF products, replicating market indexes for a very low fee, enabled millions of people to invest for the long term without much investment knowledge. The site is a wealth of information especially for non-US residents and highlights the risks for non-US investors to invest into US domiciled financial products. I recommend you to check the Nonresident alien’s ETF domicile decision table.
Books
The bestselling The Millionaire Next Door identifies seven common traits that show up again and again among those who have accumulated wealth. Most of the truly wealthy in the USA don’t live in Beverly Hills or on Park Avenue-they live next door. This book recomforted me that true Millionaires do not show off their wealth, but are rather frugal, discrete and practice stealth wealth.
Another must read for anyone embarking on a FIRE journey. JL Collins has also a blog with lots of valuable FIRE resources. For us, the most influential part was about managing our emotions when the market goes down. And the simple answer is ‘Nothing’. Don’t try to sell your shares, just hold, and wait for the market to recover, as it always had. You are in the market on the long term, and these market fluctuations are normal. Overtime, you will become immune to swings.
Stoicism and the Art of Happiness: A Teach yourself guide by Donald Robertson
This book has nothing to do with FIRE. It has everything to deal with LIFE. Indeed, what is the meaning of life. There is no right or wrong answer. Everyone must choose his own path. Nevertheless, the Ancient Stoic opinion was about to maximize Happiness. The book is very accessible to understand the concept of Stoicism, happiness, and very easy to practice it in your daily life. Hope it will have a positive impact on you too.
Can’t hurt me: Master your mind and defy the odds by David Goggins
It is difficult to describe this autobiography. It is a story of a boy with a rough start in life, but had the will to fight for his way in this world. His accomplishments are beyond his own imagination, and also to the reader. It is a self-motivating book that may help you believe that everything is possible. #canthurtme
Geo-arbitrage / taxation guides
Every year or so, the big 4 account firms publish (for Free!!) a guide about global taxation and immigration policies. These documents are a must read if you want to dive more into a specific country. Here are the latest ones that we have used. If the link gets a bit old, just google for the newer version (as they keep updating their guides.
EY Worldwide Personal Tax and Immigration Guide 2021-22
Deloitte International Tax Source
KPMG is a great accounting firms, however they discontinued to publish documents about global taxation. They still produce contents on a specific country or topic, which are valuable if it covers what you are looking for.
Traveling Services
Airbnb is fantastic. It enables you the possibility to live in someone else home. And we mean live, like taking transportation, getting your groceries… Self-experience worth much more than any research you can do online.
VRBO is less know than Airbnb but you may found some gems on Vrbo. Indeed, it offers similar services to Airbnb, with listings which are not on Airbnb. It can be very handy also when you cannot find what you are looking for in terms of price, location and dates on other platforms. And when we had to use the customer service center during Covid, they were reachable, responsive and helpful.
In case you prefer a UI in French for booking your trip, you can use Abritel. The listings are similar to the ones you will get on VRBO. Happy booking!
Wherever you are going, you will need a heath insurance for yourself and your family. It is complicated to understand and research for an insurance in every country where you are going or living. Furthermore, most of the time, you will be enrolling on a medical plan for at least a year which might be longer that the time you plan to stay in a specific country. To solve that issue, we strongly recommend you to look into SafetyWing which offers Nomad Insurance. Their service is crystal clear. It is suited to (digital) nomads who are travelling across the globe and need an international health insurance. Their pricing is very competitive and at the time of writing, you can sign up 1 child for free for every adult who signs up for their service. It is definitely a fantastic service for a bargain. So please check their SafetyWing website and signup to cover you and your family! Stay safe and healthy!
Banking Services
Traditional banks are surviving by imposing huge fees for minimal service. Revolut is THE establish FinTech which offers all the services you need for a minimal fee. You might consider that their free basic package is already sufficient for you. Revolut enables you to exchange currency at market rate, transfer money overseas and withdraw cash at any ATM. Revolut has naturally become our primary bank. Please use this link to create your free account, and support our blog.
Wise is fantastic to transfer money internationally, and offers also international banking features. We used their service many times without a glitch, so we would also highly recommend it. If you use this link, you will enjoy a free transfer of up to US$600!
Free Multi-currency expense tracking tool
We have developed our own expense tracking tool using Google Sheet. As we are global travellers, we needed a tool to be customizable and offer to track expenses in several currencies, and consolidated these expenses into our base currency. More details are available in this post, or you can just access the file here.
We have developed our own Wealth Management tool using Google Sheet to help us manage our assets. All our assets, located in various markets and different currencies, are consolidated into one single sheet. We can also check our FIRE KPIs and theoritical Safe Withdrawal amounts based on CAPE ratio and Big ERN formula. You can access the post that explains the usage, and download your own copy here.
Investment Services
Interactive Brokers is THE broker with global coverage. IB is a key resource for investing in the long run. FIRE is a journey and you need a financial institutions who can provide you the services you deserve at the lowest possible fees. You can find more information about why we support IB in our post “How To Invest For The Long Term At Minimal Cost?”.
Security / Privacy Services
As early as you start investing and manage your finances online (banking, investing, trading), you need to protect:
- your computer, so install an anti-virus software, and avoid installing software you don’t use, nor downloading App not from the official website,
- your connexion / web traffic, thus use a VPN.
There are many free VPN available. But remember that when you don’t pay for a service, you are the product. It simply means that the ‘free’ VPN collects all your traffic data and sells it. To avoid scams or unsolicited tracking, it is safer to use a reliable and trustworthy VPN. We have been using Proton VPN for several years and we are fully satisfied with their service. We can safely connect to the Internet from all our devices (PC, Mac, iPhone, Android…). The setup is ultra simple, and very user friendly to use. Stay safe and use Proton VPN.
Furthermore, it can help you to avoid being blocked from accessing specific websites when you are travelling.
The first step when you get into crypto is to secure your assets. Ledger offers you to be in control of your assets, not an exchange or an DeFi platform who suddenly stops withdrawals of your funds or get hacked. Ledger offers institutional grade crypto security to individuals with their hardware / cold wallets. If you are serious about Crypto, holding a Ledger is a must have.
As a gentle reminder, download the Ledger software ONLY from the Ledger Official website. There was unfortunately a FAKE Ledger App on the Microsoft Store which asked to enter your 24-seed words. It is obviously a scam, so be cautious.
Note: In full transparency, we may be affiliated to some brands or services listed above. It doesn’t cost you anything, and it helps us to support the costs associated with the maintenance of this blog. Be reassured that we only list out services that we use and we are overly satisfied with.
Image source: pixabay.com