正如之前提及，FIRE的核心理論就是儲備足夠的資產，以投資收入維持生活質素。
那麼，我們有甚麼投資工具可以選擇？主要可以分為以下幾類：
因為時間關係，今天沒有可能把各類投資都詳細討論一番，因此今天主要集中討論的，只有首兩類投資：一般股票、美國國債。從務實的角度來說，即使只使用這兩種資產，只要配搭得宜，就已經足以維持FIRE所需。至於其餘幾類投資，則留待以後再探討。
首先談股票投資，筆者的建議是使用分散全球、指數型的ETF，以在美國上市的ETF為例，以下的都是好選擇：
投資者可以選擇直接使用全球型的ETF例如VT，又或者基於各種理由，採用「切割法 (Slice-and-dice)」的策略，以超過一檔ETF組成一個類似全球的投資組合，例如VTI+VXUS，或者VTI+VEA+VWO等。但基本原則都是一樣，要全球分散，不應只集中投資於單一國家或地區。
那麼，我們在那裏可以買到這些指數型ETF？整體來說，美國市場最方便，但英國市場亦做得不錯。對於非美國投資者來說，現時投資美國市場的渠道有很多，較著名的選擇包括Charles Schwab、TD Ameritrade、Fistrade、Interactive Brokers等等，在這些投資券商開戶，可以投資美國市場。至於投資英國市場的渠道則較少，較著名的選擇包括Interactive Brokers等等。
至於為甚麼建議用指數化投資？這就涉及很多不同角度的原理，需要日後由淺入深逐步探討了。
然後，再來回顧債券投資的選擇，亦以美國上市的ETF為例。
債券一般被視為較安全的投資，不過其實不同年期的債券，波動程度亦大有不同。理論上，年期越長的債券，對利率的敏感度更高，價格波動亦會更大。由於較長年期的債券風險更高，因此長遠來說，通常長年期的債券回報亦高一點。但一般來說，把投資組合內債券的年期保持在短至中期比較妥當。
一般國債在通脹大幅升溫的時期表現較差 (例如近期情況、1970年代)，因此建議加入一定比例的通脹保護型國債。但相反來說，通脹保護型國債在金融危機或通脹預期大幅降溫時的表現則較差 (例如2008年、2020年疫情期間)，因此亦應該保持一定比例的一般國債。以不嘗試預測市場的前提底下，把一般/通脹保護型國債比例設定於50/50也是不錯的選擇。
一般來說，股票能提供較佳回報，要達至利用投資收入來維持生活的目標，投資組合內至少要有一定比例的股票。但股票波動亦較大，因此會建議投資組合內加入一定比例的債券作為緩衝。如果以FIRE族群來說，比較熱門的選擇是大約60-90%股票 / 10-40%債券，但不同人的風險承受能力不同，因此選擇的股債比例亦可以大有不同。
股票與債券的表現相關性不大，有時在股市大跌的時候，債券會上升 (例如2000、2008、2020) 並發揮保護作用，但有時亦會出現股債同時下跌 (例如1970年代、2022)。因此，亦不應該以為每逢股市大跌時，債券都必定能夠提供很大緩衝。而正如前文所說，不同環境底下，選擇的債券類型亦對表現有很大影響。但無論如何，根據Modern Portfolio Theory，加入少量債券能夠提升投資組合的效率，日後詳細再討論。而根據已有的研究，加入少量的債券亦有助提高FIRE的成功率。
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As mentioned before, the essence of FIRE is to accumulate enough wealth, so that one can maintain his quality of life solely on investment income.
When it
comes to investment instruments, there are several asset classes that we could consider:
For the sake of time, we will only discuss the first two asset classes above, i.e. stocks and treasury bonds. Practically, a carefully planned investment portfolio with only stocks and treasury bonds is good enough to achieve the goal of FIRE. We will discuss the other asset classes later.
First, for stocks, I will recommend a globally diversified
INDEX ETF. There are some good choices which are listed on the US Stock
Exchange:
You may invest
in an All-Word stocks ETF like VT for simplicity. Due to different reasons,
some investors might prefer adopting “slice-and-dice” strategies to mimic an
All-World stocks portfolio, such as using VTI+VXUS, or VTI+VEA+VWO, etc.
However, the principle is always the same, in which we aim to build a globally
diversified portfolio, rather than betting on a single country or region.
Where can we buy such ETFs? The most convenient way is to open an US stocks brokerage account, but sometimes we may also consider using an UK stocks brokerage account. Nowadays, there are many choices. For non-US investors, some notable US brokers that are available include Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Firstrade and Interactive Brokers. You may also invest in UK stocks with Interactive Brokers.
Why do I recommend index ETFs? It is quite a long story, there are many theories behind, but we will discuss them later.
Now we come
back with treasury bonds. Here are some good choices which are listed on the US
Stock Exchange again:
Treasuries bonds are viewed as safer investments in general. However, bonds of different duration (or length of time towards maturity) can behave very differently in terms of risk (volatility). In theory, bonds of longer duration are more sensitive to interest rate changes, thus the volatility of their performance are also much higher. As long-term bonds carry more risks, they have slightly higher expected return in general. However, we usually keep the bond side of our portfolio at short to intermediate term.
Nominal bonds usually perform badly during times of (unexpected) rising inflation (such as the recent years or during the 1970s). Thus, I would recommend including some inflation protected bonds (TIPS) in your portfolio. However, TIPS usually perform worse during times of financial crisis or (unexpected) falling inflation (such as during 2008 and 2020). So, we should also keep some nominal treasuries. Under the principle of not trying to predict the market, it is a reasonable choice to set the ratio of nominal bonds/TIPS at 50/50.
Usually, stocks provide better returns. To maintain our quality of life with investment return, we should include a reasonable amount of stocks in our portfolio. However, stocks are quite volatile in general, thus I would also recommend you to include some bonds in your portfolio. For those who aim at FIRE, most of them invest 60-90% in stocks and the rests in treasury bonds. However, different people could have very different risk appetite and the choice of their mix could be very different.
The correlation in performance between stocks and treasuries is quite low in general. When stocks are falling, sometimes bond prices will rise (such as 2000, 2008, 2020) which gives you some buffer. However, sometimes stocks and bonds could also fall together (such as 1970s and 2022). Therefore, you should not expect bonds to save you every time during bear markets. As mentioned before, different kinds of bonds could also perform very differently. Anyway, according to Modern Portfolio Theory, including a small amount of bonds would increase the efficiency of a portfolio significantly. Again, the mathematics behind will be discussed later. According to existing research, including some bonds in a portfolio would also increase the successful rate of FIRE.
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