The Irish FIRE Podcast

March 2024 Portfolio Update

Michael — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 09:02:20 +0000

Back in 2021-22, I made the brave decision to work on multiple projects at the same time. Over the course of an 18 month period I worked harder and longer than I ever had before, burning the candles at both ends so to speak. Hourly and day rates for software development were booming and I was able to maximise my income and thus increase our savings rate at the time to around 75%.

February 2024 Portfolio Update

Michael — Sun, 03 Mar 2024 21:17:26 +0000

The further I get along in my FIRE journey, the more I have begun reflecting on just how far I have come. When I started my FIRE journey in 2018 most of the content was around the standard FIRE approach - build 25x your annual expenses and you can retire. As my journey has progressed, thankfully there are a lot more options when it comes to choosing a path to FI.

January 2024 Portfolio Update

Michael — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 11:20:58 +0000

Way back in July 2022, I announced a goal to try to grow our portfolio from around €260k to €500k in a little over 18 months. I turn 40 in April and I planned to try to hit the €500k mark on the portfolio by then.

December 2023 Portfolio Update

Michael — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 22:43:22 +0000

I spent most of December off taking a long 3 week break from work. We didn’t go away, we didn’t even technically staycation – we just lived our lives for a 3 week period without the need to go to work – a very small mini retirement.

November 2023 Portfolio Update

Michael — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 22:12:53 +0000

I am excited to announce that in December I am looking to take a sort of mini-retirement. It is largely accidental - with us buying our fourth investment property this year, I had to take the tough decision to delay taking some days off work over the summer in exchange for working through and earning a little more.

October 2023 Portfolio Update

Michael — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 15:32:19 +0000

Firstly, I have to apoligise to you dear reader. I have become increasingly lazy and unmotivated recently. But don’t fret - this is a good thing! I am finding myself spending more time on things I want to do, rather than things that I have to do.

September 2023 Portfolio Update

Michael — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 22:18:04 +0000

I don’t have a huge amount to report on in September. In many ways, I have hit the “boring middle”, a period in one’s FI journey where the hard work is done, we simply are in the waiting game until we hit our FI number.

August 2023 Portfolio Update

Michael — Sun, 03 Sep 2023 20:03:15 +0000

2023 is my sixth year into my FIRE journey, and it is shaping up to be a very good one. After a disappointing 2022, the portfolio is back in the black, returning a solid 12% return in the year to date - due largely to an improving sharemarket and an increase in valuation of our investment properties.

July 2023 Portfolio Update

Michael — Sat, 05 Aug 2023 21:51:27 +0000

We went ‘sale agreed’ on investment property number four in July. A nice 3 bedroom cottage 20 minutes from Limerick City. I wrote in May about potentially looking for one more property to purchase - this is very likely to be the last asset we will need to purchase as part of our FI strategy.

June 2023 Portfolio Update

Michael — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 22:22:41 +0000

Life is good! It took me a few weeks to find my feet on my new work routine, but I have found a great place and am happy at work. As much as I am keen to adopt full semi-retirement at some point, I am in a great place and am content.

May 2023 Portfolio Update

Michael — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 20:19:05 +0000

It is official! During May I hit my Flamingo FIRE number! This means I am officially halfway towards my FI number and in theory could start to embrace semi-retirement from today!

April 2023 Portfolio Update

Michael — Wed, 03 May 2023 07:05:49 +0000

What's different about this week compared to others? Well, it's my last week of working overtime. For the past 18 months, I've been pushing myself to take on as much work as possible to maximize my earning potential and get closer to achieving FIRE.

March 2023 Portfolio Update

Michael — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 20:59:26 +0000

I wrote last month about how I was concerned with how I planned to withdraw funds in early retirement. I mentioned that I didn’t want to have to sell our investment properties (at least until we are much older) and that I was concerned with how I could actually look to retire and withdraw €40k per year. Calculating a withdrawal strategy is an interesting thing about FIRE. It doesn’t seem to matter so much earlier on, but as hitting my FI number gets closer, planning for how I can withdraw is becoming more and more important.

February 2023 Portfolio Update

Michael — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 22:06:54 +0000

Back in July last year, I challenged myself to build a portfolio of €500k by the time I was 40. However, the time has come for me to let go of this goal. I will likely hit the €400k mark over the next couple of months, but I am on track to reduce my monthly savings from €10k a month to €5k a month by June this year.

January 2023 Portfolio Update

Michael — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 23:13:00 +0000

Five years into my FIRE journey, I have to be honest, I don’t always appreciate the impact of compounding interest. As it is, bar our first investment property, our returns to date have been average to say the least.

December 2022 Portfolio Update

Michael — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 00:04:06 +0000

2022 was my fifth year pursuing FIRE and in terms of financials, was my best FI year to date. We added €120k to our portfolio and saw our portfolio rise from around €220k at the start of the year to €343k by the end of the year. While the numbers look great, I have been reflecting in December over my work-life balance in general.

November 2022 Portfolio Update

Michael — Sun, 04 Dec 2022 22:05:33 +0000

Defining a FI number is a changing thing and the Cost of living Crisis is having an impact on this. Inflation has been a silent killer for the dreams of so many trying to retire early. This is because as expenses grow, one's FI number also gets larger as a result.

October 2022 Portfolio Update

Michael — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 21:57:39 +0000

Back in 2017 our family was deep in the rat race. I was working 8 hours per day as a freelance software developer and we had a spending problem. Money was coming in, but going out even faster. After learning about FIRE, it all made sense - if we can reduce our expenses, increase our income and save the difference, I can finally get away from working 8 hours per day managing multiple clients and dealing with multiple problems per day.

September 2022 Portfolio Update

Michael — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 21:19:12 +0000

I sat down in September to crunch the numbers on my investment properties. One of the frustrations in Ireland is that 50% tax rates mean that rental properties with mortgages typically provide no positive cash flow. While this is frustrating when building your portfolio, I made the realisation that when 20% tax rates are applied, positive cashflow is possible from mortgaged investment properties, though it would likely require me to manage the properties myself.

August 2022 Portfolio Update

Michael — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 08:08:30 +0000

Over the years, I have heard time and time again that when pursuing financial independence, it was so important to find your “why”. Why is one doing this, and what is getting them up in the morning. I will be honest, for so many years I didn’t really know what my “why” was. I knew I wanted to take back my time, and have a feeling of being in control of my time and finances, but my big “why” was always about time freedom.

July 2022 Portfolio Update

Michael — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 19:50:40 +0000

We ordered Solar Panels back in March and they were finally installed during July. We purchased nine 400 watt panels and a 5KWh battery. It has been a dream so far, and in fact due to long summer days in July, nearly all of our electricity was powered by the panels.

June 2022 Portfolio Update

Michael — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 11:35:40 +0000

June marked 7 months of me working overtime. It is tough - long days, with weekends being tired and simply trying to recover. As tough as working overtime is, it is for one simple reason - to build up my portfolio!

May 2022 Portfolio Update

Michael — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 22:42:48 +0000

Ben from the Limerick FI group made the suggestion in the recent meet up that financial Independence is “just a mathematical problem”. One could argue truer words have never been spoken. FI of course is just about getting the numbers to work in your favour - naturally, in practice it is a lot harder than that.

April 2022 Portfolio Update

Michael — Tue, 03 May 2022 19:53:48 +0000

April marked the fourth month in a row that I have been able to make a decent monthly contribution to my portfolio - in fact I have now added €40k to my portfolio in the first 4 months of the year - averaging €10k per month. There is no secret to my success. I have been able to increase my monthly contributions by simply working longer hours each day.

March 2022 Portfolio Update

Michael — Sun, 03 Apr 2022 22:13:07 +0000

I sat down recently to work through our monthly budgeting. Like many families out there, with inflation kicking in pretty hard at the moment, there has been a noticeable squeeze on the bottom line!

February 2022 Portfolio Update

Michael — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 19:51:02 +0000

February was a record month in terms of new contributions. We have been looking to put together a deposit for a new investment property in quick time, so I have been working harder than ever before. While there is much to dislike in the post COVID world, such as high inflation, lack of supply etc, one positive thing has been the ability to work remotely. While I have always worked from home, in the post COVID world there are more remote work opportunities than ever before.

January 2022 Portfolio Update

Michael — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 20:49:22 +0000

From an investing point of view, January started off in the red. While it looks like 2022 might be a rocky road ahead, most of us should relish the opportunity to buy at a discount. I decided to be brave, and purchase some additional shares in the Vanguard S&P 500 fund that is available through Davy via my pension.

December 2021 Portfolio Update

Michael — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 21:46:49 +0000

Looking back on the year 2021, it's been a year of internal conflict. One month I'm looking to slow down on work, the next I'm taking a new opportunity. Reading back, it's been a difficult read to see so much inconsistency, but it highlights the internal struggle one goes through when following the FIRE Path.

November 2021 Portfolio Update

Michael — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 22:37:55 +0000

Back in 2019, I did a podcast episode on The Mexican Fisherman about living today like you're retired. It is still one of my favourite episodes, but there is one aspect which is missing from the tale. The Mexican Fisherman has to get up each day to fish! There is no option for him to take a day off. Yes, he loves fishing now, but will he always love fishing? Will his health always be good and allow him to fish each day, or what if his boat is blown away by a storm. Here lies the issue I was facing when deciding to adopt the semi-retirement lifestyle...

October 2021 Portfolio Update

Michael — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 11:51:56 +0000

In October, I started to reduce my workload. I gave notice to clients who I have worked on and off with for many years that I was no longer going to be available to work on their software projects. I started the journey into the semi-retirement phase of my FI journey. But was this the right time to be doing this? Was I missing out on other opportunities?

September 2021 Portfolio Update

Michael — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 21:02:09 +0000

When I first got started on my FIRE journey, I was under the false idea that €200k was going to be more than enough to retire on! I had the logic that if I could withdraw 1% per month, that would give me an income of €2,000 a month, which would cover my basic expenses. I thought it would take me at least 5 years to hit my FI number back in 2018. In the end, it has taken me a little over 3.5 years - I will likely hit €200k in October.

August 2021 Portfolio Update

Michael — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 16:08:06 +0000

Over the last few months, I have had a frustration when it comes to FIRE in Ireland. 50% tax rates kick in so early, we are forced to use pensions to limit the tax we pay. This is all well and good, but that then rules out early retirement, with no option to retire in our 30's or 40's, because we can't access a pension until we are at least 50.

July 2021 Portfolio Update

Michael — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 18:16:00 +0000

I often look back on my early investing mistakes with regret. Yes, I have learned from so many mistakes and I am now in a far better investor mindset, but the cost of the lesson has been significant. In 2018 I invested around €36,000. Of that, €6,000 went into my pension and €30,000 went into high risk investments. Had the full €36,000 been invested in my pension in a US Indexed Fund, I would be a long way ahead today than I currently am - highlighting the cost of my mistakes in the past.

June 2021 Portfolio Update

Michael — Sun, 04 Jul 2021 19:53:21 +0000

One of the reasons that I love to share my own FI journey, is that I get feedback from you guys - those who are following my story! Last month was a great example of this. I made the comment that I thought I was going to need a portfolio of around €1 million in today’s money to retire comfortably and it didn’t take long to get feedback that this was likely too high!

May 2021 Portfolio Update

Michael — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 14:21:26 +0000

I recently podcasted about The Coast FI approach. Being self employed and being able to utilise a Director’s Pensions (where I can put over half my salary into it each year), means that this approach is likely the fastest way for me to become FI in Ireland. While this is great in principle, there are a couple of considerations I didn’t fully factor in, until I sat down and tried to forecast how that would look in 18 years time.

April 2021 Portfolio Update

Michael — Mon, 03 May 2021 16:22:00 +0000

I turned 37 in April. As I blew out my birthday candles, I released I had nothing to wish for - I had everything I needed and was content with my life. Contentment is an important aspect of the FIRE movement, and one which is often not mentioned. Often when blogging and podcasting, it is easy to focus on the exciting things about trying to become financially independent... in truth, 90% of the FIRE movement is simply good old fashioned hard work.

March 2021 Portfolio Update

Michael — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 18:31:04 +0000

Improving My Work Situation

I have often moaned on the podcast that I no longer enjoy being a freelance software developer. On reflection recently, I felt this was unfair. I enjoy 80% of what I do, it was just the 20% of my work that was making me unhappy.

I decided that I was going to keep the freelancing clients that made me happy - keeping the clients that I liked working with and where I enjoyed the coding side of their projects. I decided I would stop working for any clients that either added stress, made me unhappy or the coding side just didn't bring me joy.

This resulted in me dropping around 20% of my current client base.

You wouldn't believe what happened. My productivity went through the roof, I started getting up earlier to start work and working later. I wasn't tired anymore and any ill feeling about Monday's went away very quickly. Because I was working more efficiently and turning around solutions for my existing clients, they sent me more work. Even though I had less clients, I was now busier than before.

Passive Income Update

In March, I learned first hand that passive income isn't something that can truly be relied on long term. One of my passive income projects that had been providing me passive income for around two years changed their revenue structure with one week’s notice. My passive income stream from that project pretty much stopped overnight!

It was pretty frustrating, as years of hard work had gone into generating the passive income and I had finally started to see some significant benefits. I am now fully focused on becoming FI through portfolio income alone. I still think passive income is an important way to build wealth, but it shouldn't be depended on as a means of early retirement.

March 2021 Portfolio Report

Stocks continued their rise in March and 2021 is off to a flying start! Likewise my Bitcoin investment was way up in March.

I am still looking to move away from my investments in peer to peer lending. Thankfully, as I continue to pump new capital into safer investments (namely equities through my pension), these earlier foolish investments are not as prominent in the portfolio.

I also decided to stop trading my own capital in the Forex markets in March. The income I was making was simply not worth my time. I have really started to appreciate my own ability to generate income through software development recently, that the time I spent studying a short term market chart just didn’t seem worth it. I thought I could find some edge, or build some system in the Forex market, but the reality is, I was just another sucker trying to make an easy buck. Overall, I pretty much broke even in the end after trading for 2.5 years - just going to show that short term trading is a game of luck as much as anything else.

Moving away from short term trading is definitely a massive fundamental change for me. I have been doing short term trading in the markets since 2018, but it has been a great relief to finally give up any dream of being a trader and focus instead on my primary skill of software development.

My path to FIRE is now far more easily defined. Earn money through my primary skill, save at least half, and invest it wisely.

Portfolio Summary (as at 31st March 2021)
Opening Balance	€136,460.54
New Contributions	€4,000.00
Portfolio Capital Gain + Income	€3,611.70
Closing Balance	€144,072.24

Monthly Portfolio Growth Report

Monthly Portfolio Growth Report
Capital Gain + Dividend Income from Equities	€3,116.71
Real Estate Income	€76.34
Peer to Peer Lending Income	€4.99
Cryptocurrency Capital Gain	€413.66
Total Change	€3,611.70

Portfolio Breakdown

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

Portfolio Asset Breakdown (as at 31st March 2021)
Equities	€69,663.48	48.35%
Real Estate	€64,366.39	44.68%
Cryptocurrency	€1,909.34	1.33%
Peer to Peer Lending	€1,280.30	0.89%
Cash	€6,852.73	4.76%
Total	€144,072.24	100.00%

February 2021 Portfolio Update

Michael — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 19:29:18 +0000

Preparing for Higher Inflation

February was a volatile month! We saw some record market prices, with the S&P 500 and Bitcoin both hitting record highs.

We saw a small correction on the last day of February, but overall asset prices are rocketing - which is likely a reaction to the share amount of cash which is being printed by governments at the moment.

Inflation is the next natural symptom of printing money, and there are signs that it is starting to kick in. Noticing prices going up yet? Petrol prices are certainly on their way up, and with the VAT rate going back to 23% in March, no doubt more prices will be on their way up. Unfortunately, inflation is the only real way out of negative interest rates. We will see prices rise, and then interest rates rise as a result because that will be the natural way to stop inflation.

This will likely have a negative impact on the share market but as always, there is no real way of knowing - so for now, just keep cost averaging in!

February 2021 Portfolio Report

It wasn't the best month for my own Forex Trading, but I will take a small loss on the chin and learn from that. On the Peer to Peer lending side, I finally sold out of Crowdestor (using their secondary market), thus the loss there. Our rental property had another solid month - the property is yielding close to 1% per month, which is fantastic. The tenants are very happy with the house and its a win:win all around.

Portfolio Summary (as at 28th Feb 2021)
Opening Balance	€131,703.64
New Contributions	€4,000.00
Portfolio Capital Gain + Income	€756.90
Closing Balance	€136,460.54

Monthly Portfolio Growth Report

Monthly Portfolio Growth Report
Capital Gain + Dividend Income from Equities	€194.31
Real Estate Income	€644.36
Forex Trading Income	-€120.86
Peer to Peer Lending Income	-€-32.05
Cryptocurrency Capital Gain	€71.14
Total Change	€756.90

Portfolio Breakdown

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

Portfolio Asset Breakdown (as at 28th Feb 2021)
Equities	€64,046.77	46.93%
Real Estate	€64,186.73	47.04%
Forex Trading Account	€2,347.18	1.72%
Peer to Peer Lending	€1,275.31	0.93%
Cryptocurrency	€495.68	0.36%
Cash	€4,108.87	3.01%
Total	€136,460.54	100.00%

January 2021 Portfolio Update

Michael — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 15:49:22 +0000

From 2021 I will be providing monthly updates on the portfolio.

My Passive Income Idea

I have been working on a few passive income projects recently. I released a podcast episode on passive income in late January. Up until recently, my most recent plan had been to work full time until I hit my FI target of €600k. However, I have been thinking a lot recently about building passive income streams which complement my portfolio income.

As a result, I started implementing a “happy hour” into my work day. This was one hour per work day that I gave to myself, to work on passive income projects.

I do currently receive an income from passive income projects of around €500 per month. Hardly hugely exciting, but I am hopeful that it will grow in the future the more I work on my passive income projects. I will look to update this moving forward.

January 2021 Portfolio Report

January was a solid month overall. It was officially our first month as a landlord, after renting out our house in mid December. The rent was paid on time and there were no issues.

Stocks were up and it was a solid start to the year for equities.

I am also trading a very small Forex trading account myself, which returned a small profit for the month, as well as my Bitcoin portfolio which grew slightly as well.

My Peer to Peer lending portfolio is still at a risk. More loans were written off in January and I expect it to be a rocky first few months of the year for my P2P portfolio, with a possible write off later in the year.

I added a little over €4,500 to the portfolio from my own contributions in January. I returned to full time work in September 2020 so it has been great to see the portfolio grow considerably in the last six months - after what was a very shaky start to 2020!

Portfolio Summary (as at 31st Jan 2021)
Opening Balance	125,549.27
New Contributions	€4,534.23
Portfolio Capital Gain + Income	€1,620.14
Closing Balance	€131,703.64

Monthly Portfolio Growth Report

Monthly Portfolio Growth Report
Capital Gain + Dividend Income from Equities	€1,151.21
Real Estate Income	€373.81
Forex Trading Income	€68.04
Peer to Peer Lending Income	-€28.74
Cryptocurrency Capital Gain	€55.82
Total Change	€1,620.14

Portfolio Breakdown

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

Portfolio Asset Breakdown (as at 31st Jan 2021)
Equities	€61,352.46	46.58%
Real Estate	€63,600.64	48.29%
Forex Trading Account	€1,268.04	0.96%
Peer to Peer Lending	€1,371.06	1.04%
Cryptocurrency	€324.54	0.25%
Cash	€3,786.90	2.88%
Total	€131,703.64	100.00%

Review of my third full year of investing - 2020

Michael — Sat, 04 Feb 2023 23:01:25 +0000

Throw any plans out the window - in 2020 along came COVID and the whole world got turned upside down. Much of what I had planned for 2020 never actually happened. The year started out normal enough, but things changed pretty quickly.

Review of my second full year of investing - 2019

Michael — Sat, 04 Feb 2023 23:01:25 +0000

Finding a balance between making contributions to my portfolio and enjoying life was the story of 2019. I made contributions of around €1,500 a month on average and worked less than 4 hours per day in 2019.

Review of my first full year of investing - 2018

Michael — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 21:17:22 +0000

This article is going to look back on the last 12 months and share my investing experience. Investing should be simple, but when it's your first time around it seems so much more complicated.