What Is PovertyFIRE? The Most Extreme FIRE Flavour Explained
Retiring on £15,000 sits at the UK official poverty line. The capital required is tiny. The lifestyle is one boiler away from collapse. The maths only works in one situation.
FIRE flavours by spend and pot required
| Flavour | Annual spend | Pot (Rule of 25) |
|---|---|---|
| PovertyFIRE | £12,000-£18,000 | £300k-£450k |
| Lean FIRE | £20,000-£28,000 | £500k-£700k |
| Standard FIRE | £30,000-£45,000 | £750k-£1.1m |
| Fat FIRE | £60,000+ | £1.5m+ |
UK adult, single. State pension (~£11,973/yr from 67) backstops the after-housing poverty line.
Key takeaways
PovertyFIRE means retiring on a budget at or below the UK official poverty line, typically £12,000-£18,000 a year for a single adult after housing.
It is the most extreme flavour of FIRE, sitting one notch below Lean FIRE on the spending scale and treating subsistence as the entire goal.
The maths only works if your housing is already paid off, or you have permanent low-rent housing, or you live in a country where shelter is genuinely cheap.
A single boiler replacement, dental bill, or council tax revaluation can blow up the plan, because there is no slack in the budget for unexpected costs.