Could you save enough to get financial independence?

Financial independence and retiring early sounds great, but could you sacrifice enough of your spending to get there? The so-called Fire movement involves living a frugal live, saving as much of your income as possible – 50 per cent or more – and investing to build a pot to retire early on. Ideally, this needs to be 25 times your annual spending requirements, so that you can follow the 4 per cent rule on how much of your pot you spend each year. Advocates of financial independence will tell you that this requires giving up much of our modern-day consumer lifestyle but that it’s worth it in the end, as they can then live their lives on their own terms. Could you do this and would the This is Money podcast’s Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert be able to stomach the hardcore budgeting and saving it requires? On this podcast, the team discuss financial independence, its attractions and the drawbacks of getting there. And don't miss our second special bonus podcast this week, where Simon speaks Barney Whiter, of The Escape Artist blog, who helps others to try to achieve the same financial independence he has. Also, on this week’s podcast, inheritance tax is catching more people in its net, what can you do about that and is it time for the tax to change? Plus, why inflation is causing problems for the national debt and should a reader use a £60,000 sum sitting in a low rate cash Isa to pay off some of their mortgage?

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