Building financial freedom without putting life on hold.
Money is the tool that gives us choices.
We’re working towards financial independence, but our goal isn’t simply to accumulate as much money as possible or retire as early as we can.
We’re trying to build a financial position that gives our family more freedom — the freedom to choose how we spend our time, where we live, what we spend our money on and, ultimately, how we want our lives to look.
Along the way, we’re experimenting with spending less, investing more, questioning what we actually need and occasionally deciding that something is worth spending money on.
This is where we document that journey.
Our FIRE Journey
How close are we to financial independence?
We’re working towards a FIRE target of £375,000.
Rather than treating FIRE as a finish line, we see it as a way of creating more choices along the way.
We’ve been tracking our progress for years, through changes in jobs, countries, houses, family circumstances and our priorities.
[Follow our FIRE journey →]
Spending
What does our life actually cost?
One of the simplest ways we’ve found to understand our finances is to track where our money goes.
We record our household spending and regularly look at what we’re spending, where we could cut back and — just as importantly — where spending more actually makes our lives better.
Our monthly spending records provide a real-world picture of what it costs us to live the life we’re choosing.
[Explore our monthly spending →]
Financial Decisions
The big choices matter more than the small ones.
Saving a few pounds here and there is useful, but some of the biggest changes to our finances have come from much larger decisions.
Moving abroad. Buying a home. Changing jobs. Having children. Travelling. Deciding what we actually want our money to achieve.
We look at the financial side of those decisions — including the bits that don’t fit neatly into a spreadsheet.
Because sometimes the financially “optimal” decision isn’t necessarily the right decision for our family.
[Explore our financial decisions →]
Frugality
Spending less — without making life miserable.
We’re interested in frugality, but we’re not interested in deprivation.
The aim isn’t to spend as little as possible.
It’s to spend deliberately.
We’d rather cut the spending that doesn’t add much to our lives and use that money for the things that do.
Over the years we’ve experimented with everything from reducing everyday expenses to questioning some much bigger assumptions about what we need to live well.
[Explore frugality →]
Our Approach to Money
We’re not trying to follow a perfect financial plan.
Our circumstances change. Our priorities change. And sometimes we deliberately choose experiences over optimisation.
That’s part of the experiment.
For us, financial independence isn’t about reaching a number and suddenly starting to live.
It’s about gradually building enough financial security that we have more control over our time and our choices.
Spend less.
Invest the difference.
Make deliberate choices.
Use the freedom you’re building.
Where We Are Now
Our FIRE progress
£375,000
FIRE target
£249,581
Investments at our last major review
66.6%
Progress towards our target
We’re still on the journey — and we’re increasingly interested in what we can do with the freedom we’re building before we reach the finish line.
[See our latest financial update →]
What’s Next?
In January 2027, we’re putting some of these ideas into practice.
We’re taking our family on a six-week trip through Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
Our six-year-old will temporarily leave school for the trip, and we’ll be finding out what happens when you choose to use some of the freedom you’ve been working towards rather than waiting for financial independence.
It will cost us money.
It will probably disrupt our plans.
And we’re pretty sure it will be worth it.
[Follow the journey →]
Explore A Way to Less
FIRE
Our progress towards financial independence, how we calculate our target and what we’ve learned along the way.
Spending
Our real household spending, monthly updates and the things we’ve discovered by tracking our money.
Financial Decisions
The bigger choices that have shaped our finances and our lives.
Frugality
Ideas for spending less without sacrificing the things that matter.
[Start exploring →]