Reader Analytics Survey + Book Club
FAANG FIRE Reader Survey
This is the first annual FAANG FIRE reader survey. Were you ever curious who reads FAANG FIRE and how you compare? How many are already FIRE? What are there FIRE numbers? Do they plan on retiring in the US or abroad?
I hope to answer these and many more questions based on the survey results. At the very least this survey will make for an interesting analysis to share back to you all.
This is a completely anonymous survey. It is modeled off survey’s run by various FIRE subreddits over the years along with FAANG FIRE specific topics so we can all learn more about this community.
The survey is on Google Forms. It is completely optional. It doesn’t collect names or email addresses (it requires a google login to control spam but that isn’t passed to me). I will be sharing with all of you an aggregated analysis of the results. I will not publicly share the raw output. The survey will be open for 2 weeks and close down on October 8th.
Go take the survey now! Then come back and learn about the FAANG FIRE Bookclub.
FAANG FIRE Bookclub
There was overwhelming support for a broadly FIRE themed book club! So let’s do it!
We’ll cover a mix of classic staples like The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins and The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Jack Bogle, along with newer books that approach financial education from different angles like Financial Feminist by Tori Dunlap and Die with Zero by Bill Perkins.
We’re kicking things off with Christine Benz’s brand new book “How to Retire” which just came out last week. I think it will be an excellent first book to discuss because it features 20 different authors, each with their own lessons on a successful retirement.
This will instantly expose us to some of the other authors already on my short list like JL Collins (Simple Path to Wealth), Wade Pfau, William Bernstein, Ramit Sethi… and the list goes on.
The first discussion will be open to the full FAANG FIRE community. After that the discussions will be available to paid subscribers. You are able to upgrade you subscription for $5/month via substack. This supports my work, incentivizes me to write more, and will help make the live book club discussions more intimate. If you were recently impacted by a layoff or are in a tight spot at the moment, shoot me a message. This will also be fully incremental to all the usual freely published 2x-ish per month newsletter.
Make sure you have a copy of the book. It is available on Amazon Paperback, Kindle, bookshop, your local bookstore, and as an Audible Audiobook.
FAANG FIRE Book Club Specifics
I know most of you are busy with very demanding jobs. This reality will be reflected in the pace of discussion. The first book is conveniently broken up into 20 different life lessons. We will go through the book over the next two months, 10 lessons at a time.
Tentative timeline:
October 18th 12-1:30 pm PST we will discuss the first 10 lessons. (~145 pages)
November 15th 12-1:30 pm PST we will discuss the final 10 lessons (~150 pages)
Live book club meetings will be hosted virtually over Google Meet. The exact dates and times will be adjusted to accommodate participation. If there was enough San Francisco based interest it might even be fun to do something in person too.
Discussion threads will also be created via Substack Chat for each book.
FAANG FIRE Reader Win
I finally finished my 2023 taxes, which prompted me to post on LinkedIn about the 3 Most Common Tax Mistakes FAANG Workers Make that I wrote about earlier in the year. That led to this message from a reader letting me know that post helped them catch a big ESPP cost basis issue!
I live for messages like this. Nothing energizes me more.
-Andre