How to keep your FIRE alive: Smart financial planning tips

Financial experts came together at the Mint Money Festival 2024 to discuss FIRE (financial independence, retire early), how to execute it, and things to look out for along the way.

- Sashind Ningthoukhongjam

FIRE was popularized by a 1992 bestselling book Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. Here, people seek to save extreme amounts of money while working with the ultimate goal of exiting the workforce early.

Naveen Fernandes, who retired at 52, said FIRE stands for "fixed income for retirement" for him. Fernandes is currently financing his entire household expenses through the interest income he gets from his corporate bond holdings. The former mutual fund sales executive, who is now 62, has been battling Stage 4 cancer.

"I've been a portfolio manager, and I've been into equities since 1982 but now (in retirement) 80% of my portfolio is in fixed income earnings of around 12% (9% after tax)," said Fernandes, currently chairman of BSE Administration and Supervision Ltd, a subsidiary of BSE.

He also mentioned that the interest income he receives finances the education of two girls they fostered after a crisis that broke out in Manipur in 2023. They have a portfolio of around ₹2.5 crore, of which nearly 80% is deployed in corporate bonds and the rest in equities.