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This was touched on briefly in the Energy Prices thread and @reskthinks there isn't enough interest for a new thread. Prove me wrong P&B (I'm hoping Monday morning is a good time for this topic). FIRE stands for Financial Indepedence Retire Early and has gradually become more popular since the financial crash of 2008. To surmise, the idea is to restrict your lifestyle and aggressively save to be able to retire (or have the option to retire) years before the state pension age which is currently 68. Once you have saved up enough to live on 4% (or the ultra conservative 3%) of your net worth you can retire. Studies on this have shown that over a 25 year lifespan, on a 4% annual drawdown, your net worth will almost certainly be higher than when you started. Obviously, this is based on historical data that may not continue, and many people pursuing FIRE intend to live far beyond 25 years. There is plenty of boring discussion on how to account for market crashes, taxation etc. within that 4% which I won't go into. Of the money you save, you invest this into low cost, passive tracker ETFs which have proven to consistently outperform actively managed funds. Vanguard is the market leader in such funds but there are few other even cheaper competitors around now. Depending on close you are to retirement you can also invest a varying % in bonds (or alternative investments like crypto) but the majority of your savings will go into EFTs either through a stocks & shares ISA or your pension (or both). For me, this is exactly the kind of stuff that should be taught in school but sadly isn't. There is no wrong time to start the journey though, I had a rubbish cash ISA until about 5 years ago (and actively managed funds until about 2 years ago). Indeed, if you were thinking about this a year ago and didn't do it - congrats, you have potentially saved yourself a big chunk of losses. No time like a market crash to dive in though. The benefits of FIRE include helping the environmental by reducing your material consumption and giving you more flexibility in how you choose to live your life. FIRE is not perfect though, it is only really accessible to a small number of people in the rich world (even if the basic principles will broadly help everyone) and there is a moral quandry that if you retire early and live off the increasing value of ETFs - the work is still happening you are just not doing it (even though you are still able to). I assuage my guilt on the latter by being so bad at my job, it's probably better for everyone that I'm no longer involved going forward. Conversely, the more people take up FIRE the more reduced spending will negatively impact the world economy and the harder FIRE will be to achieve. On my personal journey, I'm aiming to be Financially Independent by around 40. This is ambitious but certainly achievable, and very much dependent on my short term career trajectory. I probably won't stop working entirely but intend to spend my 40s and 50s working on my terms, not others. Shortcuts to FIRE include drug dealing and/or robbing drug dealers. There's lots of other stuff about van living and moving abroad but this post is already too long as it is. Let's hear your thoughts. Some resources for those interested (I can keep this updated) Mr Money Moustache https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ (blog) Monveator https://monevator.com/ (blog) The escape artist https://theescapeartist.me/about/ (blog) Your money is your life https://www.amazon.com/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-Relationship/dp/0143115766 (book) How to own the world https://www.amazon.com/How-Own-World-Thinking-Investing/dp/1517254469 (book) The Simple Path to Wealth https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Path-Wealth-financial-independence/dp/1533667926 (book) The Barefoot Investor https://www.amazon.com/Barefoot-Investor-Money-Guide-Youll/dp/0730324214 (book) Myfe (book) https://www.myfe.guide/ Financial Independence UK https://www.facebook.com/groups/FinancialIndependenceUK/ (facebook group) Meaningful Money https://meaningfulmoney.tv/ (podcast) Mad FIesntist https://www.madfientist.com/ (podcast) Choose FI https://www.choosefi.com/listen/choose-fi-podcast/ (podcacst) Full disclosure, I've actually only read two of the books (and none of the blogs).

It's clear that the blonde clown and his fascist cabinet are not going to devolve section 30 powers or consent and assist with a new referendum. Now that consistently more than 50% of Scotland's population want independence, where does that leave us? No one wants things to get out of hand....so to keep things peaceful and legal......what are the options?