About

Welcome to Two FIREd up sloths. We are two engineers, a couple, living in the UK and slowly working our way towards financial independence. This is our journey.

We've always struggled to make sense of the retirement calculators (and the magical numbers they seem to produce) supplied by pension providers. Until recently, we were none the wiser as to when we'd likely be able to retire, or whether we were doing the right thing to get there. We had always hoped to retire a bit earlier than the usual expected age of 60-something, but we've never been able to conclude whether we'd be able to, or what it would take.

We had heard about Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) over the years, but never really took it seriously. In January 2022, we finally took the plunge and spent most of the month, and ever since, cluing up. It was time to work out how to claw back a few years of our work lives.

Suddenly the abstract concept of early retirement/financial independence became more concrete, and with it, the questions started to pile up: How much money do we need to retire? At what age would we be able to retire? How do we save in a smart way? When we finally retire, how do we withdraw money from the various accounts/investments? What about adverse conditions - after all, we were just going through a pandemic that changed the world - what else could throw our newly minted plans off track? How can we mitigate their impact?

We consider ourselves privileged to have been able to embark on this journey, and want to share what we learn with others. It is our hope that they will find it useful, too - and maybe, just maybe, help them reach financial independence earlier.