FIDERMAN

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No – It’s FIDERMAN!

So, how do you to start a blog, and a FIRE Blog at that? And I don’t mean in terms of the physical steps (even in an on-line world as I obviously mastered those!), but in terms of what you write – particularly for post #1/ the main page!. Trying to answer that question stopped me starting for months until I listened to this great interview by ChooseFI with James Clear on Atomic Habits.

So, without further ado, welcome to the adventures of “Financial Independence, Discretionary Early Retirement man” aka FIDERman.

So that you don’t have to email me, I will now quickly answer your two immediate questions:

1) Yes, it is play on the FIRE acronym and the greatest superhero ever.

2) Yes, I had to back-solve for the words to suit the acronym (if it is good enough for S.H.I.E.L.D it is good enough for me).

And I will now answer your next question after reading answer 2 above

3) Yes, there will be jokes (mostly “dad” type) and references to culture (mostly nerd culture).

Why I started this Fire Blog

I first thought about writing this blog in early 2019. So, why did it take so long to actually start this blog? Apart from the usual fears I am sure everyone has in putting themselves “out there on the web” I don’t having a writing pedigree. In addition, I actually enjoy numbers (and really enjoy Excel) and in all honestly I just “got” a lot of the maths behind early retirement once it was shown to me.

With that background, I questioned whether I even had a right to share my views, let alone what I could actually share with people who are almost certainly starting off in tougher spots and facing bigger challenges. I guess I felt more like a Peter Parker than a potential financial independence superhero.

Then I realised that was a huge cop-out. Not only have I made some horrendous financial mistakes (details to be revealed in future posts), but even with my natural affinity for numbers and frugal nature, I still took a while to embark on a formal FIRE journey  – I mean it took 3+ years after I discovered Mr Money Moustache! How could that be??

Also, many of the concepts and lessons on the FIRE journey are hard, and a different perspective can help. I have also been reading many other people’s FIRE blogs and comments, and listening to podcasts and realise the FIRE community is an incredibly supportive and sharing community. It is all about people who want to help and encourage others and when they find something that they believe is of value to others their first thought is to give it away from free. Who wouldn’t want to be part of a community like that??

So, I now believe that if I can stop others making some of the mistakes I have made, or help someone embark on their own FIRE journey because I provided a different take or explained something in a different way (like my take on the “Latte Factor”), then I have a responsibility to do that. Like Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben said:  “With great responsibility, comes great power”, and great power sounds pretty good😊

Only joking. That was not the actual quote, and I actually really only hope that my blog will be a way to keep me accountable to me on my FIDERpath. Plus, if it helps others on their path, or contribute to them starting a path, to FIRE then that is even better. 

And if this blog does have a long enough life, I hope to introduce you to the rest of the FIDER-family as they have their own unique takes on living with a FIDERman and being on a FIRE journey.!

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The adventures of a wannabe early-retiree. Here is where I share the why and how (and maybe when) of achieving financial independence through my successes, mistakes and musings.