Great story
Iām really lousy at job hunting
Iād disagree, it seems he has a high standard for where he wants to work. He wasnāt forced into a job because he needed money, as he had enough to get by with. Thatās the power of financial independence!
Edit: that quote was at the end of the article, I wasnāt quoting this thread
bit jealous of that line LOL.
cashing my ISA in full would likely only buy me 10months tops before I hit 0. 
Yes this is basically me.
I was pursuing a PhD doing some really high tech work that I loved. The problem was I couldnāt survive on the salary in the location I was so I left to join the corporate world. The problem is the work Iām doing is paying well but not so exciting.
Some financial independence would allow me to pursue the real work I want to. Either by finishing that PhD or doing self guided projects.
Just an off thought, but if you could drip feed into an ETF for free automatically, it could make 212 a platform that could have a new target market given its cost efficient to invest in ETFs here, once new customers can join again of course.
Iām currently contemplating making a sort of waterfall of pies.
This would sort of be along the lines of a Pie for each of my fixed bills. Every time I make a saving on a fixed bill, say I reduce my mobile contract from Ā£20 to Ā£18 a month as an example, I would add Ā£2 into my mobile pie.
If I find my electric and gas bills have reduced Ā£5 a month, it goes into my E&G pie.
The plan would be to save up enough in each pie, to cover that living cost using a 4% annual withdrawal rate.
Once a pie reaches its goal, the 4% can then be transferred to another pie. Any other residual funds would go into the pie that is closest %wise to its target figure(hence waterfall).
The question now being - could I automate this? I automate bill cover using the starling spaces, building up funds over the year to cover irregular bills. I just need a means to simplify transfer to 212.
Could a IFTTT widget be made to work?
Reading this, comes to mind, something like saving pots some neobanks apps have. Itās what you are thinking?
Maybe having saving pots on one of that apps, some pay little interest. When you had a minimum set amount saved, you transfer it and invest. (Because if you saved 1 GBP, itās so small to invest, that you spent more time that it deserve.)
Iām lost in here. IFTTT widget?
EDIT: Also creating a Beer Pie (Beer companies) with the pint savings? 
This?
An example from that article:
A partnership with UK startup bank Monzo lets customers automatically withdraw funds from a ārainy dayā savings pot when it is raining, or ārewardā themselves each time they go to the gym.
To use the IFTTT widget, donāt T212 have to do a partnership with IFTTT to work? Or just needs your bank to have a partnership with IFTTT?
Ok the IFTTT term is connection / applet.
It would potentially be a means to connect one service to another. Iām simply curious if I could get it to tell once my bank balance got above a certain level in a space or whatever, could it transfer that into a specific 212 pie.
Just an idea, and some rough numbers OTT:
Mortgage/Rent Pie of Ā£165k (550x12/4%).
Council tax pie if 30k (Ā£100x12/4%)
Groceries Pie of Ā£20k (Ā£15x52/4%).
E&G Pie target of Ā£15k(Ā£50x12).
Netflix Pie target of Ā£4198 Ā£13.99x12/4%.
Amazon Prime Pie target of Ā£1975(79/4%).
So once you fill up the bottom one, it helps contribute 4% or Ā£79 a year to the next one, which then helps contribute Ā£168 a year to the one after once full, then Ā£600 and so on.
A sort of waterfall. Once all are full, you are financially free to do what you want.
IFTTT could potentially be used to help others automate and achieve other goals as well.
So you need 2 IFTTT partnerships, 1 partnership between IFTTT and your bank to transfer, and 1 partnership between IFTTT and T212 to invest in a pre-determined pie.
After you manage to be FIRE, how do you live, trimming gains from the pie holdings and/or from dividends they provide?
It is entirely up to you. You can look at different stages.
1 Enough funds to cover your current lifestyle.
2 Enough funds to change your life to the one you would like to live.
There are probably more answers as well as each person is unique.
Iām sure youāve thought it through but seen as it hasnāt been mentioned, donāt forget about tax! Your target figures need to be after tax. So your actual profit will need to be far higher.
Only when you crystallise your profit when outside an ISA.
Oh yeah, I forgot you guys have ISAs. We donāt have them here in Ireland.
Do you think that ETFs/OEICs are better suited than stocks to implement a long term investment strategy to achieve FIRE?
Why stocks could be less efficient to create a FIRE portfolio?
The ETFs/OEICs (active and passive managed) could make the necessary alterations on their portfolio (via index or manager), taking out the zombie companies and putting in the new companies with better perspectives.
Passive investing in stocks for the long term, e.g. 20-30 years or even 10 years, in this fast-pacing world is act of faith, who knows what companies will survive in the next 10 or more years. A potential solution to mitigate this is to have a more active management strategy on his/her portfolio. If this active approach is done, what will be objectives and restrictions of the FIRE portfolio management? (Have you done your own IPS, a financial plan about your investment strategy, and one of the most important step in any investment strategy?)
IPS:
PS: Do you think about ESG in investing? (You would want to retire in if not a better world, at least in a not worse world than today.)
I would say that given most retail investors cant beat a simple index return over time, its something like 70% plus cant, then for ease of mind a cheap Index ETF/OEIC is the best route. It takes out the emotion of timing the market and the need to research.
Similarly active funds, even though I personally hold investments in some, statistically only tend to perform better than an index fund about 52% of the time.
ESG is a good point. I wouldnāt necessarily want to hold say British American Tobacco or Coca Cola.
Where is this from? And over how long of a period of time?
Then you live in Ireland, and have a deemed disposal tax every 8 years and have to pay 41% on gains periodically. Iād love if index funds were possible for me! I have to stick with investment trusts.
That sounds awful! What is the other tax you mention?
41% every 8 years on all ETFs regardless if you sell or not, and then 33% on gains when you do sell.
To be honest though, despite it pushing you into Investment Trusts, when you have the likes of SMT and other Baillie Gifford funds on offer, itās not a difficult decision!
Oh for sure, SMT is a great example of beating the market over a long period of time. Another plus of SMT is the low fee, comparatively to other trusts.
Very few and far between though!
