In an effort to prepare for the future, Mayo-born Vince Doherty switched from cable TV subscription to a satellite dish to save €840 a year
Vince Doherty joined the Fire (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement to get more control over his savings. Photo: Mark Condren
I’m part of a movement called Fire (Financial Independence Retire Early), which I joined in 2017. I hit my 50th birthday, realised I had no pension and that retirement age was coming quickly. I didn’t have any plan in place. I wasn’t taking care of my personal finances and I wasn’t thinking about the future at all. I suppose I went into panic stations.
I started researching the Fire movement, which is all about lowering your expenses to save money and hopefully achieve financial independence before retirement age. But everything I found was about US taxes and savings plans. I decided to set up a meet-up group in Dublin for people of a similar mindset. The first one was attended by six people. There are now over 1,000 members.