2️⃣1️⃣ Resolutions for 2025
FIRE BTC Issue #15 - Bitcoin + FIRE goals for the new year
A new year is upon us.
As we head into 2025, it’s a great time to reflect on the previous year, make changes where needed, and set some priorities for the coming year.
2024 has come and gone, and boy, was it a doozy! It feels like the year flew by, yet some of the big events already seem like ancient history.
Trump was re-elected in a landslide after surviving two assassination attempts.
Two hurricanes hit Florida back-to-back, with Helene wreaking havoc in North Carolina.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after being hit by a ship.
Diddy is facing criminal charges for sex trafficking.
The United Healthcare CEO was shot in the streets of NYC.
In the bitcoin world:
Spot bitcoin ETFs launched and became the most successful new ETFs in history.
The 4th halving took place, bringing the mining block subsidy to 3.125 BTC from 6.25 BTC.
The bitcoin price hit a new all-time high of ~$108k.
Trump spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville and pledged to create a bitcoin strategic reserve for the US.
And for me:
I played only 15 rounds of golf 👎
Traveled to 13 bitcoin conferences or events in Naples (FL), NYC, St. Petersburg, Nashville, Miami, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Big Sky (MT), St. Louis, and Los Angeles
Spent a month exploring Croatia with my family
Built a pool and outdoor kitchen at my home
Became an advisor to Cantilever
Reached financial independence!
Launched FIRE BTC
I expect 2025 to be an incredible year as well. Below is a list of 21 resolutions that you can adopt to help you progress on your FIRE and bitcoin journeys this year.
🎯 21 Bitcoin + FIRE resolutions for 2025
Review last year’s expenses
Understanding what is needed for you to achieve FIRE starts with understanding your expenses. Review what you spent last year in a detailed way. Categorize them to see where your money is going. What is necessary for 2025? What expenses were wasteful and didn’t really add value to your lifestyle? Is there any low-hanging fruit for cutting? Is there reason to expect that your 2025 expenses will be higher or lower than last year? This type of analysis sets the foundation for knowing what your FIRE goal should be.Cut out wasted expenditures
After reviewing your expenses from 2024, you should have a good idea for where you wasted money. If you have subscriptions you're no longer using, cancel them. If you regret buying certain things, you'll know going forward and can avoid making similar mistakes. Take a look at your biggest expenses. What levers could you pull the decrease them in 2025? Spending is OK and necessary, but we want to maximize the value we get from it. Any excess savings can be used to buy more assets, and lower total expenditures decreases the savings you need to reach FIRE — a double whammy!Increase your savings rate
After you have cut wasteful spending, any new freed-up funds should be redirected to your savings portfolio. The more you save, the more quickly your assets will compound toward your FIRE goal. Your savings rate will have naturally increased as well. Getting more with less!Increase your bitcoin allocation to savings
If you're currently splitting contributions between bitcoin and VTI or some other asset, consider shifting the relative allocation more towards bitcoin. This can be done by reducing the amount going towards other assets and increasing the amount going towards bitcoin proportionally. Or you could allocate the increased savings from point 3 above to bitcoin, thereby increasing the relative allocation as a byproduct. As Paul Tudor Jones said in 2021, bitcoin is “the fastest horse,” so as your conviction in it increases, it makes sense to increase your allocation as well.Automate your savings through DCA
The baseline of your savings plan should be automated. Regardless of your savings rate, regularly scheduled and automated asset purchases make dollar cost averaging (DCA) easy. You need to pay yourself first, and automated DCA is the best tool for the job. For my automated weekly bitcoin purchases, I use River (referral link).Sell old stuff to stack more sats
We all have stuff laying around the house that we no longer use. Whether clothes, appliances, toys, gadgets, or furniture, it’s never been easier to sell your stuff so you can stack more sats. Use sites like Facebook Marketplace to de-clutter your home and boost your savings rate. That extra money can be used to give a boost to your savings portfolio.Get bitcoin rewards
Spending rewards programs are a popular way to earn benefits in cash or points that can be used for travel and other purposes. There are gurus who can teach you to maximize the value of your spending with credit cards, which I recommend you dig into. Beyond that, you can also earn bitcoin as a reward for your spending. I use both Fold and Lolli for this purpose (referral links). You’re spending the money anyways, so you might as well get some bitcoin back in the process.Get BTC-paid yield on cash
I keep the bare minimum amount of cash on hand. However, there are times when my dollar balance stays higher than normal to prepare for known upcoming expenses. Regardless, excess cash can earn yield (currently 3.8%) in bitcoin at River (referral link). This is an easy way to use that excess cash to stack a little extra bitcoin. Importantly, this is yield paid from the cash balance, not from a bitcoin balance. If you’re being offered yield on your bitcoin, avoid it like the plague!Create a speculative attack
In our credit-based world, debt is a powerful weapon to increase your wealth. I described the concept of Aikido Finance in issue 9 of FIRE BTC. You can use the weight and momentum of the fiat financial system against itself and to your benefit. We call this a “speculative attack”. Borrow in a weak currency to buy strong assets, like stocks and bitcoin.Learn to self-custody your bitcoin (if you haven’t already)
Bitcoin is a bearer asset that provides distinct advantages when you control it directly. Holding the private keys to your bitcoin gives you financial independence in a unique way — you’re in full, unilateral control of your wealth. With great power comes great responsibility, but it is easily learned with a bit of intentionality. If your bitcoin is sitting with an exchange or other custodian, it’s time to take control.Upgrade to multisig (if your bitcoin stack is big enough)
Controlling your own bitcoin directly is a double-edged sword. You gain complete sovereignty over the asset, and with it, true financial independence. You also take on the responsibility for keeping those private keys safe. You need to solve two main problems: 1) How do you not lose your bitcoin, and 2) how do you pass it down to your family. Bitcoin enables you to control it with multiple private keys, not just one. This means you can eliminate single points of failure and much more easily plan for succession. I use Unchained for this purpose (disclaimer: I work for Unchained!), which offers a “collaborative custody” solution. If you have a substantial amount of bitcoin, you should upgrade your security.Set up your estate plan
Bitcoin is a multi-generational asset. As a FIRE practitioner, your savings portfolio has a good chance of not only sustaining your lifestyle, but also that of your children. Regardless of your age, it’s important to plan for how your estate should pass to your heirs. For some, a will is sufficient. For others, a trust structure is better. You’ll need to speak to an estate attorney. If you don’t have this in place yet, don’t neglect it in 2025.Set up your bitcoin succession plan.
The bitcoin network knows nothing about the estate plan you’ve set up or the legal process in place for transferring title of your assets wherever you live. The only thing bitcoin recognizes is valid digital signatures from private keys. If those signatures can’t be provided after you’ve passed on, your heirs have no way to access the bitcoin, regardless of what the paperwork says. As mentioned above, Unchained offers a great solution that keeps you in full control of your bitcoin while you’re alive while making it easy for your family to access the bitcoin after you die.Play with lightning
The Lightning Network is a “second layer protocol” built for payments on bitcoin. It allows you to send and receive bitcoin instantly and for almost no cost. It is still somewhat early in development, but the tools have improved dramatically over the last few years. Playing with lightning will give you a new appreciation for bitcoin’s ability to be used to exchange small amounts of value. The next time you need to pay your buddy back for a beer he bought you, pay him back with bitcoin using lightning.Pay with lightning
As bitcoin adoption grows, more businesses will accept it as payment for goods and services. If you find a business that does, pay them with bitcoin via lightning. I just returned from a trip to El Salvador, aka “bitcoin country.” I paid for various services with bitcoin during my stay. I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed supporting local businesses with freedom money.Model your aspirational lifestyle
FIRE isn’t just about quitting your job. It’s about striving for the lifestyle you want, paid for without relying on a job. Many people could retire right now if they were willing to live in a cardboard box, eat rice and beans, and forego all other luxuries. But, of course, that’s not the goal. Think aspirationally about what you want your retirement lifestyle to look like. Model it out, and figure out what your expenses would be to achieve it. It may not be far off from your current FIRE plan, and having this vision may alter your approach in a positive way.Exercise your spending muscles
Many FIRE practitioners develop an aversion to spending money, myself included. This aversion helps to accelerate reaching financial independence, but everything comes with a tradeoff. Being able to improve your lifestyle is a core reason we pursue FIRE. To do so, you may need to train yourself to spend money on products, services, and experiences that make your life better, especially after you’ve reached financial independence. I’m working on this myself!Get smart with credit cards
If you’re spending money anyway, you might as well take advantage of the benefits that credit card companies use to attract customers. The sign-up bonuses and point systems they employ can be really lucrative if you approach it the right way. Some people go way down this rabbit hole and probably spend too much energy trying to game the system. I think the 80/20 rule applies, but it’s worth it to put in a little effort to use this corner of the fiat financial system to your advantage.Get off zero
If you’re new to bitcoin, make 2025 the year you take the plunge. In my opinion, there has never been a more favorable time to begin saving in bitcoin. So much risk has been removed in the last few years, and yet bitcoin is still in the very early stages of its adoption story. As Satoshi said years ago, “It might make sense to get some in case it catches on.” Well, guess what? It’s catching on…Get on zero
If you’ve already adopted bitcoin as your primary savings vehicle, think about the possibility of holding zero dollars. After all, they consistently lose value, and bitcoin consistently gains value, so why hold any dollars at all? With the tools and services available today, you can pretty easily hold exclusively bitcoin and use the dollar payment rails as needed. Check out Fold and Strike (referral links) if you want to get on zero dollars.Stack sats with your kids
When the time comes, you’ll likely be passing significant bitcoin wealth to your kids. In fact, our children now will probably grow up with bitcoin being a significant part of their financial lives. Digital money is pretty intuitive when so much of the world around them is digital as well. In 2025, help your kids stack some sats, and use it as a way to teach them about money, FIRE, and bitcoin. They’ll thank you later.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for reading!
💡 Enjoyed this content? Share FIRE BTC with someone who’d love to learn about financial independence and bitcoin!
Until next week,
Trey ✌️