People sometimes ask me how we are able to save over 50% of our take home pay. Well below is the answer to this.  This post is long!​
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​1. Housing

One of the biggest expenses we all have is our housing cost. Not many people are lucky enough to live mortgage or rent-free. There are a couple of considerations which everyone should take into account when deciding where to live.
First and very often an important factor for all is the size of the property. Very often people find themselves living in large houses far from work which they hardly use due to working all the time. We found ourselves the happiest when living in a tiny apartment a few years ago. It was very warm, the neighbours were fairly decent most of the time and the bills were minimal.
We are always considering the following:

1. Is it close to our workplaces
2. What is the cost
3. What will the ongoing cost be (bills, mortgage or rent)
4. Standard of accommodation​​

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 "Happy wife = happy life! "

​The above four are satisfied because Mrs Frugal can walk to work, this cuts down the cost of having an additional car. It also saves time which is handy since we have a dog called Obi-Wan Kenobi. Mrs Frugal can see him during her lunch break which is great. It makes her and the dog happy. Happy wife = happy life! Oh and yes I am a Star Wars nerd.
 
Rent has to be lower than the local rate, this is usually because the property is not of an amazing standard with a cheap finish and or is outdated. These things don’t bother us too much as long as it can be kept warm, can be cleaned and maintained, and there is no mould.
Since we delayed getting onto the housing ladder due to Brexit we had the flexibility of where to live. We are currently considering buying a property, which is a completely new topic all on its own. Let's just say that we are not looking at the top of our budget and that I will need to learn a lot of DYI.

2. Saving vs investing, savings rate and automation

Sooooo everyone’s favourite topic of saving money. This is a very broad topic, but the key things to consider here are:

1. Increase your savings rate – it doesn’t matter whether you save 1% or 10% of your take-home pay. Try to increase it, hopefully by following some of the tips included in this post.
2. Create an emergency fund – different people have a different level of tolerability when it comes to this. Some say it should be at least three months expenses, some say six or twelve is better. It depends on the situation and where you are on your FI journey.
3. Invest rather than just save money. Banks are now offering very low rates of return on any savings you may keep with them. A bank is possibly good to keep your emergency fund in, but not your overall money. Inflation will eat away at it faster than you can gain any interest. By keeping your money in the bank you are losing money in the long run. Low cost index funds are your best friends.
4. Automate your savings by creating direct debits and standing orders. You’ll soon get used to not having that money to play with!

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“Poor people pay interest.
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Rich people earn interest” 

​So you probably wonder what is that FIRE thing and why on earth would I want to be part of this. 
FIRE stands for Financial Independence Retire Early.  Well OK, so now you know what it stands for, but why should you care? You should care because maybe you don't want to spend most of your waking hours at work for the rest of your life or maybe you'd like to travel more or maybe you'd just love to be able to decide when you want to work and when you'd rather not. 
Once you achieve FI or financial independence it simply means that you can support your normal spending needs from your investments, so you can make a choice of what you want to do without financial pressure to do it. Hell, you could work for free volunteering your time at the local charity you care about if you wanted. Financial independence can come from many sources. You could draw money from an Investment portfolio, getting money from rental properties you own or from a business you created.
And I know what your thinking "he is already talking about Investments and I don't understand that mambo jumbo". What if I told you that you could open an investment account and be an investor within fifteen minutes. I might just get your attention there.
What if I told you that historically one of America's most popular index fund called S&P 500 returned on average 10% yearly since its inception?* You might say, well fine so what? Well due to something called the compound interest or as Albert Einstein called it - the eighth wonder of the world, you could rake up more than you think.