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The FIRE Exit

Start from zero.

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Start from zero.

You don’t need to know anything yet. That’s the point.

About 15 minutes. Nothing to sign up for. Leave whenever — it remembers where you were.

Lesson 1 of 10 · The idea

The whole thing, in one breath

Spend a little less than you earn. Invest the difference — not a bank account, where rising prices quietly eat it — and leave it alone for years, until its own growth can pay for your life. From that day on, work is something you choose. That’s the entire plan. The rest is just the how, one small piece at a time.

Explain it like I’m five

You get money. You don’t spend all of it. The part you keep goes to work and makes more money by itself. One day it makes enough to pay for your whole life. From then on, you only work if you want to.

Invest the gap between what you earn and what you spend, until it can pay for you.

Already know the basics? Skip to the tools

Lesson 2 of 10 · What investing is

It’s simpler than they make it sound

Most people freeze right here, so let’s kill the mystery. A share is a tiny slice of a real company. Picking which companies will win is mostly luck — so don’t. An index fund is one thing you buy that holds a tiny piece of thousands of companies at once — the whole market in one buy, not a bet on one winner. Cheap, boring, and the backbone of almost everything here.

Explain it like I’m five

A share is a tiny piece of one company. An index fund is a big bag holding tiny pieces of thousands of companies. You just buy the bag. Some companies do badly, the good ones carry you — you never have to guess.

But isn’t it risky?

One company can go bust — which is why you never bet on one. The whole market has crashed many times and, given enough years, always climbed back. The real danger is panicking and selling while it’s down. And it’s not locked away — you can cash out in days if you ever must; it just works best left alone.

1871€1 → ≈€18,547 by 2022, after rising prices

Don’t bet on one company — own a little of everything, cheaply, and give it time.

Go deeper: Index fund, in the glossary · ETF, in the glossary · Skip to the tools

Gut-check

Gut-check

Quick gut-check — no score, just curiosity. You’ve got €100 to invest. Which is closer to the smart move?

Pick the one company you’re sure will win

Tempting, but that’s betting on one horse. An index fund is owning a slice of the whole race — it doesn’t matter which horse wins, you always hold the winner.

Buy a tiny slice of thousands at once

Exactly. You’re not a fortune-teller, and you don’t need to be — own a bit of everything and let the winners carry you.

That’s the one idea most people never get — you just did.

Lesson 3 of 10 · Compounding

Why waiting is a superpower

Here’s the quiet magic. When your investments grow, that growth also grows — money earns money, which earns more money. It’s dull for years, then it bends sharply upward, like a snowball that’s finally big enough to matter. The biggest lever isn’t how much you put in. It’s how early you start. Drag the slider and watch the line bend.

Explain it like I’m five

Invested money makes baby money. The baby money grows up and makes babies of its own. The longer it all grows, the faster it snowballs — so starting early matters more than starting big.

Growth grows too. Starting early beats starting big.

todaythe pot, in 30 years →
Start now€292kWait 10 years€136k

Waiting skips €36k of saving — and costs €156k at the end. The difference is pure growth.

Thirty years at a steady 6% a year above rising prices — the same rate the full tools assume.

Open the full tool — The Exit Calculator

Go deeper: Compounding, in the glossary · Skip to the tools

Lesson 4 of 10 · First, get steady

Two checks before you start

Before your first euro goes in, two quick checks. One: keep some cash you can reach fast — a few months of life — so a surprise bill or a lost job never forces you to sell at a bad moment. Two: clear any expensive debt first. Killing a credit card charging 20% is like earning 20%, guaranteed — no investment promises that. Solid ground first, then build.

Explain it like I’m five

Before you start: keep some money in the bank where you can grab it fast, for surprises. And if a debt charges you a lot — a credit card — pay that off first. It’s a hole in your bucket; plug it before you pour.

Before investing: a few months of cash within reach, and no expensive debt.

Lesson 5 of 10 · How to actually start

The step nobody explains

This is smaller than the fear around it. You open an account with a broker — usually just an app. Inside it, you buy one low-cost fund that holds the whole world’s stock market: a global index fund. Then the real trick — set it to buy a little every month, automatically, and ignore the news. You can start today, before you’ve worked out one more thing.

Explain it like I’m five

You open an app called a broker. You put money in. You buy one thing: a fund that owns the whole world’s companies. Then you tell the app to buy a little more every month, on its own. That’s the entire move.

Three things to get right

Don’t wait for the perfect moment — nobody can spot it, and being in beats timing it. Keep the cost low — a fund charging about 0.2% a year, not 1–2%; over decades the gap is huge. The names you’ll keep meeting: funds that track MSCI World or FTSE All-World — two labels for the same idea, the world’s biggest companies in one buy; The Tracking Gap lines the real ones up side by side — examples, not recommendations. And ignore anyone promising fast, guaranteed, or “can’t-lose” returns — that’s always a scam. What you can open, and the tax-friendly accounts worth using, depend on your country — the atlas has yours.

Open a broker account, buy one cheap global index fund, and make it buy automatically.

Go deeper: The Tracking Gap — the real world-funds, compared · The Fee Drag — what fees really cost

Lesson 6 of 10 · Your number

How much is “enough”?

Now let’s make it yours. “Enough” is just a number, and it’s less scary than you think: your yearly spending times 30. Spend €20,000 a year, and your number is €600,000 — the pot that, invested, can pay for your life without ever draining away. Tell me what you spend in a month, and I’ll show you yours.

Explain it like I’m five

Add up what you spend in a whole year. Picture a pot of money 30 times that big, all invested. A pot that size makes enough new money every year to pay for your life. That pot is your number.

Your number ≈ your yearly spending × 30.

What do you spend in a month — roughly? Roughly is fine.

Open the full tool — Price the Life

Go deeper: Price the Life — build it line by line · The essay: The number

Gut-check

Gut-check

Gut-check: to live on about €20,000 a year, roughly how big a pot do you need invested?

About €100,000

Close enough to see the shape: your yearly spending times 30. €20,000 × 30 = €600,000 — and spend less, and the pot you need shrinks fast.

About €600,000

That’s it — about 30 times a year’s spending. Not a scary random number; just your spending, multiplied.

About €2,000,000

Close enough to see the shape: your yearly spending times 30. €20,000 × 30 = €600,000 — and spend less, and the pot you need shrinks fast.

Lesson 7 of 10 · The timeline

When could you actually stop?

A number is a finish line; now, how fast can you reach it? That depends less on your salary than on one thing: how much of what you earn you can invest each month — your savings rate. Save a tenth and it’s a long road. Save half and it’s shockingly short. Add what you could put away each month, and I’ll show you the years.

Explain it like I’m five

Every month you feed the pot. Feed it a little and it fills slowly; feed it a lot and it fills fast. How soon you’re free depends on what you keep, not what you earn.

How soon you’re free is mostly your savings rate — not the size of your paycheck.

This screen works best with your own numbers — add what you spend, back in lesson 6.

Open the full tool — The Exit Calculator

Go deeper: The Exit Calculator — the full version · The essay: Own your time

Lesson 8 of 10 · Living off it

The 3.33% rule

You’ve got a pot. How much can you take out each year, forever? You’ll hear “4%” everywhere — but that rule was built to last just 30 years. Mine is gentler: about 3.33% a year — one thirtieth of the pot, your ×30 from before just turned around. On €600,000 that’s €20,000 a year to live on, and the pot never has to run dry.

Explain it like I’m five

When the pot is full you stop feeding it and start taking small spoonfuls — about one thirtieth each year. The pot grows back about as fast as you eat from it, so it more or less never empties.

Take about 3.33% a year — a thirtieth of your pot — and it lasts, more or less, forever.

Using the example numbers for now — €20,000 a year.

To live on€19,980 a year

€1,665 a month, from a pot of €600,000. Gentle enough that the pot never has to run dry — the plan for a retirement measured in decades.

Open the full tool — The Three Endings

Go deeper: The 30× rule, in the glossary · The essay: How long are you planning for? · The Three Endings — the odds it lasts

Lesson 9 of 10 · After you stop

The part that actually breaks people

Here’s where retirements actually break. You don’t cash out — you keep it all invested and sell a little each year. Markets will crash, sometimes right after you stop. The mistake is panicking and selling at the bottom. The fix: keep a year or two of cash, live off that in the bad years, and let the rest recover.

Explain it like I’m five

Some years the market falls. It always has, and it has always climbed back. So keep a jar of cash for bad years: eat from the jar, leave the pot alone, let it heal. Never sell in a panic.

Keep a cash buffer, draw a little, and never sell in a crash.

Using the example numbers for now — €20,000 a year.

Same years, different order — flip the switch.

Good first€1.6MBad first€76k

This screen works best with your own numbers — add what you spend, back in lesson 6.

Open the full tool — The First Bad Decade

Go deeper: Sequence-of-returns risk, in the glossary · The First Bad Decade — the full tool

Gut-check

Gut-check

Last one. A year after you stop working, the market drops 30%. What’s the move?

Sell, before it gets worse

It feels safe, but it’s the one costly mistake. Selling in a crash is bailing out of a plane in turbulence — the shaking passes. The buffer is your seatbelt; that’s its job.

Live off your cash buffer and let it recover

Exactly. Crashes are normal and temporary — the buffer is what lets you wait one out instead of selling at the bottom.

Lesson 10 of 10 · Your plan

Look what you just built

Look at that: your number, your date, and a way to live off it without fear — most people never get this far. One last thing, bigger than any of the maths: freedom is only good if you know what it’s for. So start a list, today, of what you’d actually do with your days. Everything you built is saved on your page — yours whenever you’re ready. — Pablo

Explain it like I’m five

That’s the whole plan: spend less than you earn, put the rest in one world fund, wait, then live off small spoonfuls. One question left, the best one: what will you do with all that free time?

You’ve got a number, a date, and a way to live off it. Now decide what it’s for.

Everything you now understand
  • Invest the gap between what you earn and what you spend.
  • Own a slice of everything, cheaply — never one bet.
  • Growth grows too: starting early beats starting big.
  • First, get steady: months of cash in reach, no expensive debt.
  • One broker, one global index fund, buying automatically.
  • Your number ≈ your yearly spending × 30.
  • Draw about 3.33% a year, keep a cash buffer, never sell in a crash.
Your number
Your date
Your odds
Open your page — it’s all saved there →

Just the plain link — nothing about you travels with it.

Want this saved, and the odd new piece? Leave your email.

Where next: the library · the tools · a second pair of eyes on your plan

Your page — everything you built, saved

Go deeper: The essay: The blank page