FIRE for Founders

Financial independence looks different when your income is a business instead of a salary. The standard FIRE playbook assumes a steady paycheck, a fixed savings rate, and a portfolio you draw down at 4% — none of which describe a founder whose revenue swings month to month and whose biggest asset might be equity in a company they cannot sell tomorrow. This hub collects our writing on adapting FIRE to founder reality: stress-testing a plan against a bad decade, deciding whether business equity belongs in your FI number, managing sequence-of-returns risk when the “portfolio” is your company, and using geoarbitrage and spending tricks to buy time without killing momentum. Work through the framework pieces first, then the lifestyle and behavior pieces that keep the plan livable. Each link is a complete guide on this site.

Build Your FIRE Framework

• FIRE stress test: will your plan survive a bad decade?
• FIRE decision tree: buy vs rent vs relocate in 5 minutes
• FIRE opportunity cost calculator: purchases in months to FI
• Sequence-of-returns risk when your income is the business

Counting Business Equity in Your Number

• Counting your business equity in your FI number
• Can your business equity count toward your Coast FIRE number?
• Barista FIRE is broken for founders: the healthcare Plan B

Spend Less, Buy Time, Stay Sane

• The FIRE two-account trick: spend guilt-free, save more
• The FIRE travel paradox: travel more, spend less
• Vietnam geoarbitrage: the 0.30 price ratio explained
• Why founders flee: the countries entrepreneurs prefer
• Why social media might be hurting your FIRE dreams
• Moonwalking to FIRE: what entrepreneurs can learn from Michael Jackson