This is what I was trying to explain to the ferras in the Tbills and Bonds thread lakini wakaleta ujuaji.
You cannot achieve F.I.R.E at 10% Annualised. But imagine compounding 50% PER MONTH for 5 years. After those 5 years you can even have a ten year holiday in Bora Bora or the beautiful San Blas! But the best they could respond with is "we are lazy (ati peace of mind)" and "NKT" as that is the limit of their thinking so who can help them?

As a keen admirer of Jacob Fisker's philosophical approach, this is probably my favourite blog post in the FI-space:

www.getrichslowly.org/early-retirement-extreme/

And this documentary is an example of what I think is easily possible for us Kenyans:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeL8SpwZPtI

You cannot achieve F.I.R.E at 10% Annualised. But imagine compounding 50% PER MONTH for 5 years.

This is relative and not absolute. If someone is happy with 10% let it be. If another is happy at 50% let them be too. Happiness and related self actualization is complex.

Agreed Gathige, everything in life is complex, some are even happy losing money every month so I wasn't specifically talking about kutosheka. My argument is that ceteris paribus and starting from the same base, achieving FIRE on 50% pm is possible and on 10% is next to impossible otherwise everyone on the TBills thread would have been retired by now

I'm seated at home watching as you commit suicide by working during a pandemic.

OK comrade! Retired in 2014.Let's sit at the balcony and watch them commit suicide by working during the pandemic!! We are The Intelligent Investors.

So, let’s first give FIRE a Kenya perspective.

- For this to work, you need to establish how much you need (per month) to live comfortably when you retire. This is the bare minimum you need to maintain your preferred lifestyle.

- After you get this figure, explore guaranteed options of getting this amount every month with minimal effort.

- Now comes the hard bit, you need to sacrifice in your current situation by living below your means, save the surplus and invest this wisely (not in pyramid schemes or bonoko greenhouse deals) to potentially have enough returns to cover the amount you need to sustain your self when you retire.

- Some key hacks to achieving this earlier include living a frugal life (kujinyima) starting to invest early, avoid scams, cover your basics (build your house to avoid paying rent), diversify your portfolio (equities, MMFs, land, biz, real estate, farming etc).
- As life progresses and you achieve most of your milestones and recurring expenses reduce, you can start to slow down as your investment returns improve. When you hit equilibrium (returns equal your living expenses) you can now now retire!

NB, retiring doesn’t mean sleeping all day, it’s simply means having the freedom to do what you want, not what you have to do!

- The key is to develop this plan (and document it) early in life then put it into motion as you progress in life

- This is applicable to both employed and biz guys

- Depending on how the Almighty favours you in your life’ and your mindset retirement, you can achieve this quite early.

I have achieved FIRE but I don’t seat on the balcony all day as my lucky compatriots above! 🤣😂🤣😂

Good luck!

Retired General

Brilliantly put. But who says we sit on the balcony all day That is boredom defined. Remember when I talked about the Kenyan couple riding around the world in a couple of motorbikes and I correctly predicted their journey was doomed before it started even pre-covid due to poor planning and naivete? Wajuaji wazoooans who had never been past Githurai kimbo travelwise landed on me like a ton of bricks!!! Especially the usual wage-slave suspects, some of whom are still employees to this day . Life is an interesting journey though, there is more to life than even F.I.R.E because anyone can achieve it quite easily if they stop ujuaji and learn from people trying to teach them that tbills won't cut it, and teaching them to find out how to make 50%+ returns per month. Of course the wajuajis started their usual kelele because the shcool systems have dumbed them down into thinking a straight A makes them very smart earning 10% on TBills. This is why most of them need to go to church, jameni. When you get there (FIRE) (kufika) you will find that there is no "there." Tafakari haya yote tuuu. The wise ones will get it, wengine itawapita kabsaaa and that is fine too. Kila mtu na mzigo yage. Shalom.

it's easy, first get a job which pays good. For me, I was lucky and got a job paying me 7 figures. Then I started being frugal. And the saved cash translated to investments. Overtime, investments start earning good cash and you have the freedom to do what you want to do. There was a time BA flight attendants on Nairobi - Heathrow route used to know me because I was always on their flights, but lately I've slowed down. However, since it was fun, I'm restarting travel soon and will be flying to New York in June, of course after I get my second dose of the vaccine. Life is good and can't complain.

Wisdom has been associated with Amorphous was dust bowl ...... Hii pandemic is showing me things. Dunia imepasuka!!!!