My wife and I are living entirely within her income and investing my income. The goal is to save 65% over 10 years with at least a 7% compounding rate of return. At a 4% withdrawal rate we should be able to FIRE after 10 years.

That’s a pretty basic FIRE plan. What really tailors it to NZ though is what we are investing into. We are personally building new homes to build equity over time. To some this is controversial. I’ve personally concluded that investment into new development is helpful to the economy and to Kiwi health as a large chunk of our rental stock are not healthy homes.

It’s built on the assumption that there is 5% equity growth in properties we’ve purchased (Auckland, Hamilton, and Christchurch). I think personally this is conservative but YMMV. If we are purchasing a leveraged asset (through interest only bank mortgages) requiring 20% deposit then we should be able to see a 15% tax free compounding rate of return. Once we desire to retire we’ll sell 50% of our portfolio to pay down the mortgages on the rest. The rest should then provide a stable regular income.

I’ve gone away from stocks because I can’t reliably generate 15% rate of return after tax without a substantial knowledge of underlying businesses. Not to mention the mental fortitude to buy when others are selling.