Your FIRE Starting Point: A First-Steps Workbook for Financial Independence

Understanding the FIRE movement in theory and knowing where you personally stand — your current savings rate, your rough financial independence number, and your first practical actions — are two very different things. This course bridges that gap through a structured workbook that guides you from orientation to a documented, personalized starting plan. By the end of this course you will be able to calculate your current savings rate, produce a preliminary estimate of your FIRE number, identify the two or three highest-impact changes you can make immediately, and write a first-draft financial independence roadmap with milestones. What you will learn: - How to calculate your current savings rate using your actual income and expense figures, with a step-by-step template - Using the savings rate to FI timeline table to estimate how many years remain to financial independence under your current trajectory - Defining your version of FIRE: what annual spending level you actually want in financial independence, and which FIRE variant (lean, moderate, fat) fits your goals - Producing a rough FIRE number based on your projected expenses and a chosen withdrawal rate - Identifying the three highest-leverage changes in your current financial picture: savings rate, income, investment choices, or expense categories - Writing a 90-day FIRE action plan: the specific changes you will make, in what order, with what measurable targets - Setting up a simple monthly tracking system for your savings rate and net worth progress - Building a FIRE milestone chart: target portfolio at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of your FIRE number The workbook format means every module asks you to fill in something — a number, a decision, a commitment — using templates provided in the course. Worked examples follow two different households (a single earner on a modest salary and a dual-income household) through the same exercises to show how the same process yields very different but equally valid starting plans. This course is suitable for anyone who wants to move from FIRE awareness to FIRE action. No prior financial planning experience is required. You will need access to your recent income and expense information to complete the core calculations.