About

Greek Fire investing

What this blog is about?

In this blog i write about investing, i am  sharing my results and strategy on achieving the goal of financial freedom. I also try to demystify the world of investing by giving a guide on how to invest and the thought process behind it. The name of the blog is a word playing of the acronym F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence, Retire Early) and my nationality which is Greek.Greek Fire  looked like a good reference to the byzantine secret weapon ,  My secret weapon is using a nice mix of knowledge and determination to guard my well being and reach financial freedom by generating more passive income as i grow up. Even if i dont achieve it, having a goal gives you a motivation that can  improve your  life in many  ways , surely by improving your pocket, its easier to improve your life!

Who am i?

I am a Greek citizen and even if  i studied economics i dont think,  that alone can qualify me to talk about investing, i can assure you hundreds of people have a degree on economics knowing nothing about investing, if you are willing to put some work , have some basic math skills and common sense you can get started. I got into adulthood at the worst time possible, at the beginning of Greek dept crisis , any past decisions were thrown into the bin, education and worthless degrees exposed to what they really were a piece of paper  hardly relating to the job market.Full unemployment but high expectations weren't compatible with the coming reality, previous generations  were trying hοpelessly to support the inflated expectations and dreams they created to the newer generation only to let the newcomers confused to the reality they were about to face. An environment surely hard to adjust for any newcomer with middle or upper middle class  background. That place of uncertainty, low income paying jobs along with my analytical personality intensified my need to start investing. Stocks have the advantage that you dont need to have a lot of money to get started and so i decided to make my first small purchase on  summer of 2017.I was interested before in trading currencies but i saw how unreliable, time consuming  it was and i didnt want to take that road,since that was more of a speculation rather than investing. So i am basically categorized as a stock market investor.I invest in individual  stocks because that's the asset that can give me the returns i want.

How i decided to start the blog?

I decided to start the blog after reading the blog of "The Wealthy Finn" and after discovering through the  Camp Fire Finance site, that  there is a community of people who have the same goals as me, to reach financial freedom.The movement is called F.I.R.E (Financial Independence, Retire Early). Although the original movement aims  on living frugally, saving a lot and investing in cash flow producing assets like bonds,dividend stocks,peer to peer lending platforms and passive funds like etfs , i have twisted it a little. My goal is the same , financial freedom, but not through frugality and  by  exclusively focusing on investments that pay me cash periodically ,but  by evaluating the benefits and cost of spending.I  am trying to maximize my returns from investments while  living a lifestyle that aligns to my personality. Thinking about dividends and monthly cash inflows, is not the best way to invest, since you end up reinvesting what you collect anyway until you decide that you are going to  re-invest less cash than you collect. So my goal is to reach the required capital  that will allow me to focus more on investing  in assets that produce me monthly,quarterly cash payments.Till then  i'll try to not be tempted by short term low yielding safe assets. You can only  reach to the stage  of covering your expenses  with this strategy  only   if you have  enormous income and too little expenses, if you don't,  i can't see how you can achieve early retirement or a good passive income by investing for example on low yielding safe dividend stocks.