Irish Financial Independence & Personal Finance Podcast

Thursday 3rd September 2026

50 Years to Spend €1 Million

For many years, my thought process when it came to building a portfolio was to live off the profit but protect the capital. Andrew from the Limerick FI meetup group used to describe it best: “live off the golden eggs, but don’t kill the goose”.

This stuck with me for many years and was a big reason why I invested so heavily in buy-to-let property, particularly property with high rental yields - potentially allowing me to live off the rental profits without needing to sell the properties themselves.

But as I started to get closer to hitting our FIRE number, my attitude towards this began to change.

Books like Die With Zero helped change the narrative by reminding us that the real purpose of FIRE is time freedom - and financial independence is simply the tool that allows us to buy that time freedom.

Part of this concept is understanding the trade-off between time and money. More money is all well and good, but not necessarily if it comes at the expense of time.

Is a €2 million portfolio better than a €1 million portfolio? The simple answer is yes - but perhaps not if it comes at the expense of another 10 years of grinding.

When we stop worrying so much about preserving our portfolio forever, and instead allow ourselves the freedom to plan to gradually spend it down, the possibility of retiring years earlier suddenly becomes very real.

This is particularly interesting in Ireland when you consider that the State Pension can provide a useful income floor later in life and our costs will likely reduce as we get older, as our children grow into adults and mortgages are paid down.

When you start accounting for these factors and inputting different scenarios into early-retirement calculators, it quickly becomes clear how a portfolio of, say, €1 million could actually be enough - even in our case, with three kids and hopefully another 50 years or more of life left to live.

And yes, our portfolio hasn’t hit the €1 million mark yet, and it might never do. But given that I still have seven months until I plan to retire and start withdrawing from our portfolio, there is still a little time left to see if it might just get there!

Our mindset has shifted significantly away from this idea that we need to withdraw exactly 4% a year or live entirely off our rental income.

Instead, we have found ourselves liberated by the idea that we can simply manage our portfolio as life unfolds.

We will be flexible in retirement. I can still work here and there if I want to, and I’ll probably take on the odd bit of ad hoc freelance work for some of my long-term clients as needed.

Flexibility is a big part of the plan.

These are exciting times, and I’m looking forward to sharing the journey with you as we move into this next stage.

The Future of the Podcast

When I launched The Irish FIRE Podcast in 2019, it was purely a hobby project.

Over the years, I have run it largely at my own expense and was always determined not to “become financially independent by having a podcast about financial independence”.

Now that we are moving towards early retirement, however, one of my retirement dreams is to have more time to commit to the podcast.

The podcast was recently named one of the top 10 FIRE podcasts worldwide by The FYI. Between this, the growth I’m seeing in download numbers, and the continued increase in subscribers, I’m feeling increasingly inspired to see how far I can take it.

That means releasing episodes more regularly, bringing more guests onto the podcast and, ideally, moving towards a weekly release schedule.

It also means bringing in more podcast sponsors. This has already worked well, with both Kennco Insurance and Moneycube sponsoring the podcast so far.

Sponsorship helps cover the costs associated with running and growing the podcast and gives me the opportunity to invest more time into producing it. The goal isn’t to replace my old software income or turn the podcast into another full-time job - it is simply to make the podcast sustainable and give me the freedom to spend more time creating something I genuinely enjoy.

At the same time, I’m very conscious that filling the podcast with ads is hardly a sustainable solution - or something listeners would particularly enjoy!

My current thinking is therefore to keep things simple: ideally one host-read advert per episode. That should give me a reasonable balance between generating some revenue to support the podcast while not distracting too much from the listener experience.

Much of this will be trial and error, but so far I’m really enjoying seeing what I can do to grow the podcast further and, hopefully, continue promoting the FIRE lifestyle and the benefits that financial independence can bring.

August 2026 Portfolio Update

Our tenant of our first investment property moved out voluntarily during August. I rented the property to him and his family way back in December 2020. The place needs some serious love to get to a position where I can sell it, so I have been busy out there getting it ready. More time away from the family, which is tough, but it is a bit of an early retirement countdown now.

While we could just put the house on the market now in its current condition, I know that by getting it painted, powerwashed and professionally cleaned, we can realistically expect another €10,000 - €20,000 more. As a buyer, I have always been amazed just how many houses are put on the market “as is”, where a quick paint, and a professional clean can make all the difference.

As frustrating as this is, that I am taking time away from my family to get the house ready, I know in the long run, it will pay off.

We are also waiting to close on our sixth investment property, but are still waiting for the vendor to counter sign the contracts. This house will need some love as well - I am well used to this at this stage!

Stocks were up during August and the rental properties were business as usual. Rental income will be down for the next few months, as we won’t have rental income coming in on our first investment property while we wait to sell it.

Our cash position changed from last month, due to a refinance and moving some of the money to the deposit on our new property. This should be fully reflected next month.

Let’s break down the numbers:

Monthly Portfolio Growth Report

Portfolio Breakdown

The table below shows the breakdown of my portfolio into the various asset classes:

2026 Year to Date Returns

Here is a summary of my year to date returns for 2026.

2025 Year to Date Growth Report
Opening Balance	€846,030.49
New Contributions	€640.00
Equities Capital Gains + Dividends	€28,293.54
Real Estate Capital Gains + Rental Income	€57,983.67
Interest on Cash Savings	€87.14
Closing Balance	€933,034.84
Portfolio Return	€86,364.35
% Return	10.2%

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