There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of voices in the personal finance/ Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) online community. Plenty of people talking about their own stories, challenges, investments, and missions of becoming financially free.
Many of these creators have massive followings, too. Some of them have likely made their blog and brand their primary source of income.
The amount of content available on any topic is endless. Many writers and creators (especially ones with a small/ no following) will publish content that may never be seen.
So why am I deciding to write online anyway? Why do I feel as though other people should dedicate time reading what I have to say?
Because the purpose of writing (at least to me) isn’t in publishing a perfect article. The true purpose of writing is the squeeze. The article is just the glass of juice you get when you’re done.
This blog and the posts on it thus far are the direct result of my fruit-squeezing. Without a desire to write, this blog would not exist. Distilling what I’ve learnt into something I can read later helps me to crystallise my thoughts from this period of my life.
I now feel as though my writing is useful to more than just myself. To use the metaphor again, I’m pretty sure I can make a nice glass of juice.
Therefore, if I want my content to be read and enjoyed by others, I also to make sure that that juice is good enough to drink.
“What’s the deal with Financial Independence Retire Early?”
Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) has been spoken about at length on social media, blogs, and forums. Despite this, I find that so many people I interact with aren’t aware of the concept. Aside from friends I have made in the community, there are few people I know who also found this topic online by themselves.
The idea that you can save your way to complete financial freedom decades before retirement age is unfathomable to some people. Even when I explain the maths behind it, people look at me as if I grew a second head.
To me, it’s clear that many people aren’t aware of how excessive spending, buying too much house, and an over-reliance on a high salary can shackle them. Many people live in prisons of their own creation.
I want to change that.
To use the juice metaphor again – I don’t think people are drinking enough juice. People need more education about personal finance, which means reading more. If financial knowledge was more common, we wouldn’t live in a society where nearly 50% of people have less than 1 month’s expenses saved.
For that reason alone, even if my content doesn’t reach the eyes of those who could benefit from it, I still want to capture my thoughts on the topic of personal finance.
“Back up – why should I listen to you in the first place?”
If you’ve read my about page or my X account, you may know a little bit about my story. If you don’t, here’s the summary:
Over the last 14 years, I’ve graduated university and worked a handful of jobs in different corporate offices.
I discovered Financial Independence Retire Early in 2019, and focused on saving and investing as much as I could.
Over time as my skill set grew, so did my salary, and I never stopped investing. Eventually, I quit my job to build a business and work the way I want to work, instead of relying on an employer to decide that for me.
My life isn’t an example to be followed to the letter. But I do know a lot about personal finance, investing, career growth, and building a life that you love living every day.
I have spent the last 5 months enjoying a period of what early retirement would be like. During this time, work was entirely optional to me. While I have been building a business during this time, I didn’t have to. I could have simply returned to paid employment and the life I left behind.
Instead, I want to use my newfound freedom to write about my story so far, and my journey from clueless university graduate to confident and independent investor & entrepreneur.
This isn’t about being some sort of “guru” and selling all kinds of crazy courses. I want to use the lifestyle I have built for myself as proof that I’m not spouting nonsense.
“What can I expect to see on your blog?”
I’m setting myself a schedule for when I will be publishing content. You can expect to see two posts a week on the blog:
Every Tuesday, I’ll publish a personal/ blog focused post, or about philosophy or work. These will likely be smaller pieces of content as I work out exactly what I plan to write on these days.
Every Friday, I’ll post a longer article about some sort of money topic, like investing or financial independence. I recently started the Investing Series by talking about what investing is, and I plan to continue that series soon. These will be more involved and formal posts than the Tuesday posts (however I hope that to achieve a similar quality level on Tuesdays. We’ll see).
As the amount of articles I write grows, I want to be able to create content that is valuable to others. The hope is that you’ll get some value out of what you read here. As a result, I’ll be avoid wild claims, clickbait titles, and other nonsense that takes advantage of your time.
I want to write quality articles that genuinely help people, and that is what I am going to do.
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If you’d like to read more, check out previous posts on the blog, and follow me on X @ScottOnFire, on my Facebook page Scott On Fire, and on my YouTube channel. You can also sign up to my newsletter below to get even more content, delivered straight to your inbox.