Even before finding out about the FIRE movement, I have always been involved in the stock market. I remember being asked at work if I was interested in claiming my 13th month pay in advance… the HR was running a program to help employees prepare for the COVID Pandemic. I claimed mine because I had just opened an account with COL Financial; I planned to take advantage of the Bearish Market. Jollibee and BDO were my stocks of choice. In 2020, I was only earning Php 28,000 a month… a month’s worth of my time went straight to my first ever investment.

Fast-forward to February 2024, more than a year into earning from my global, “high-earning” tech job—and two weddings later… on a vivid sunny afternoon, I got on a jeep from the outskirts of Makati Med and got off at Buendia. I walked into an old building, went up the dark stairway, and reached the Pag-IBIG office. I asked the receptionist for the MP2 savings form. I was going to put all my eggs in one basket because a 7% un-taxed interest was what felt safe then. I ended up putting all I had into the account a couple of days later—around Php 400,000 coming from my Maya TD and COL account. That was a special day because it ignited the FIRE in me—pun intended. This was the beginning of my love affair with financial independence.

The Global Market was already in the picture then, but only for a few hundred dollars. IBKR is my trusted online broker. It’s frustrating how the Philippine government makes it so difficult to access credible global brokerages, yet let gambling apps get a “free” pass in the country. Kung mananatili nga namang mahirap, financially illiterate, at walang magandang opportunity for foreign investments ang mga Pilipino, mananatili tayong gipit, maledukado, at bobo… patuloy na maluluklok ang mga magnanakaw sa gobyerno. A well-informed Filipino is hard to fool.

With the constant news of Filipino tax money disappearing into maletas, I decided recently to stop adding more to my MP2 account and go all out on my Global Index Fund of choice: VWRA (and yes, with a few DNS tricks, I got the IBKR app to work perfectly). Ironically, it took a small side-line and watching layoffs shake our company to give me the confidence and urgency to take more risks—talk about reverse psychology. I should have started sooner, but it is what it is.

Presently, the plan is that a few hundred units of VWRA and 1.5 million pesos in a high-yield savings bank will be retiring me in just four years. Check my maths, projections and progress here: Google Sheet. My choice of 5% withdrawal rate post-FIRE is something worth discussing in another blog.

Finally, there is one last thing I want to share. Although growing up poor is my main motivation for financial independence (aren’t we all driven by our traumas?), marrying the right man has equally contributed to this. I cannot stress enough how much who you marry affects your lifestyle, your sanity, and how you see and treat money. Luckily, maaga akong lumandi, and so maaga ding namulat. Hindi kinakailangang mayaman ang mapangasawa; ang mahalaga, may pangarap, may respeto sa sarili, at sa perang pinagpaguran niya. Although, let’s be real—mas madaling magmahal kapag hindi kumukulo ang tiyan.