FIRS: The Wealth Building ETF You Need To Achieve Financial Independence And Retire Early

Introduction to the FIRE Movement

As made popular by Pete Adeney in 2011 via his Mr. Money Mustache blog, the FIRE movement stands for "Financial Independence, Retire Early." 

It's a financial strategy where people aim to save and invest aggressively — sometimes as much as 50-70% of their income — so they can achieve financial independence and retire much earlier than the traditional retirement age of 65. 

The strategy is simple — build a big enough nest egg that you can live off the returns, typically using something like the 4% withdrawal rule, as soon as possible. 

This lifestyle has gained immense popularity among younger people who value freedom and flexibility over the standard 9-to-5 grind. The movement's momentum over the last few decades seemed to have been catalyzed by a "perfect storm" that included the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, digital platforms like Reddit and YouTube spreading the word, and a cultural shift toward valuing time over stuff. 

With that being said, it took until November of 2024 for the first-of-its-kind FIRE Movement-focused ETF to be launched. 

Introducing the FIRE Funds Wealth Builder ETF (FIRS) — designed to support your journey toward achieving financial independence, and hopefully an early retirement. 

In this post I'll dig into…

• Exactly what FIRS is
• Why FIRS exists
• Who FIRS is for
• Who is behind FIRS

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Exactly What FIRS Is

The FIRE Funds Wealth Builder ETF (FIRS) is an investment product designed to support your journey toward achieving FIRE. 

With a focus on resilience and potential growth across various market cycles, FIRS seeks long-term capital appreciation and diversification across four strategically constructed ETF baskets that align with the four most popular market conditions — Prosperity, Recession, Inflation, and Deflation. 

This unique approach seeks to position your investments to respond effectively to changing economic environments — something bound to happen when you spend a decade or more focused on saving and building wealth via the US equity markets. 

According to the fund's website, "FIRS aims to provide transparency, liquidity, and tax-efficiency, offering a streamlined option for those looking to align their investments with FIRE goals." 

As we dig into the fund's prospectus, we learn that FIRS is a "fund of funds," which essentially just means it's an ETF composed of other ETFs. 

As we read further, we learn about the fund's strategy — a portfolio equally weighted among four baskets of Underlying ETFs designed to track the behavior of four distinct economic regimes. 

The four distinct economic regimes include:

• Prosperity, which will generally be comprised of Underlying ETFs that invest primarily in equity securities. 
• Recession, which will generally consist of Underlying ETFs that aim to reduce risk and provide stable returns, take both long and short positions to seek profit from market fluctuations, and provide uncorrelated returns to the overall market. 
• Inflation, which will generally be comprised of Underlying ETFs that primarily invest in commodities, real estate, and other inflation beneficiaries. 
• Deflation, which will generally be comprised of Underlying ETFs that invest primarily in fixed income securities and bonds. 

As we dig further into the methodology used to select the Underlying ETFs, we learn that the Prosperity regime is benchmarked against the US equities via the Vanguard Total US Equity ETF (VTI), the Recession regime is benchmarked against Gold via the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD), the Inflation regime is benchmarked against short-term treasuries via the iShares 1 to 3 Treasury Body ETF (SHY), and the Deflation regime is benchmarked against aggregate bonds via the iShares Core US Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG). 

Portfolio construction is pretty straightforward. According to their prospectus, the FIRS ETF will hold between 10 and 25 Underlying ETFs with the overall goal of assigning a 25% weighting to each of the four regimes mentioned above. 

Now that we're all on the same page as to what FIRS is, fundamentally speaking, let's explore why it exists in the first place. 

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Why FIRS Exists

As shared above, the FIRE movement encourages individuals to achieve financial independence by aggressively saving and investing with the goal of building a large enough nest egg they can retire early. Participants typically aim to reduce monthly expenses and accumulate substantial wealth through a combination of disciplined saving, consistently investing in growth-oriented assets, and optimizing portfolio construction to maximize returns over time. 

There are two phases of the FIRE movement — the Wealth Accumulation phase and the Retirement phase. 

They're exactly what they sound like. During the Wealth Accumulation phase you're building wealth. You're saving as much of your monthly income as you possibly can so that you can invest it into growth-oriented assets.

The FIRS ETF exists to optimize the Wealth Accumulation phase.

Through the Fund's four regime approach, it optimizes for long-term capital appreciation, offering a diversified mix of stocks, bonds, and other growth-oriented investments — no matter the market condition. 

Then once you've accumulated enough wealth and hit your "FIRE Number," you can now implement the 4% Rule – enjoying your financial independence and retiring early. 

Instead of trying to optimize your portfolio for these four common market conditions — prosperity, recession, inflation, and deflation — the FIRS ETF will automatically do this for you. 

Let's now dig into who this ETF is specifically for. 

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Who FIRS Is For

Let's be real, if you're someone who's participating in the FIRE movement you're likely a money nerd. Being a money nerd, more often than not, also includes being a sophisticated investor — or at least the idea of learning about investing doesn't completely put you to sleep. In pursuit of becoming a sophisticated investor, I've spent thousands of hours learning about personal finance and investing over the last 10 years. 

Now with the introduction of the Fire Funds Wealth Building ETF (FIRS), you no longer have to be a sophisticated investor to optimize your Wealth Accumulation phase of achieving FIRE. 

Instead of burning countless brain calories trying to figure out what commodities to own during inflationary times, or what US equities to own during prosperous times — FIRS automatically optimizes all of that for you. 

As a fellow money nerd, I'm obsessed with understanding where my money is going and how it's working for me on a daily basis — which is why transparency is a key word used when describing this fund on their website. 

At any moment, you can check out the fund's holdings — broken down by weighting — on their website. As of today's writing (2/28/25), some of the fund's largest Underlying ETFs include the SoFi Select 500 (SFY), Madison Aggregate Bond ETF (MAGG), and the SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust (GLDM). 

If you're a fellow FIRE movement individual looking for a "set it and forget it" ETF to aid you during your Wealth Accumulation phase, FIRS might be for you. 

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Who is Behind FIRS

Michael Venuto and Daniel Weiskopf are the portfolio managers for the fund. Michael Venuto has over $8B in assets under management across all of the 55+ ETFs and 213+ SMAs he manages, and Dan Weiskopf has over $1B+ in assets under management across the 3 ETFs and 29 SMAs he manages. 

Michael brings over 20 years of experience in building efficient, income-generating portfolios designed to support long-term financial freedom. Dan brings 25 years of experience to FIRE Funds and is committed to providing investors with the tools and strategies needed to support their financial goals and retire on their terms. 

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Investor Takeaway

It has never been easier to learn about personal finance and investing — enabling people to take back control of their money and their financial futures. The FIRE movement is real, and it's here to stay. 

If you're someone who's looking to participate in the FIRE movement, but the Wealth Accumulation phase is a bit too complicated for your liking — the Fire Funds Wealth Builder ETF (FIRS) could be a solid place to start. 

Not only is it managed by industry veterans, but the strategy is simple — optimize portfolio returns no matter the market condition. I look forward to keeping tabs on the performance of this ETF over the coming quarters and years! 

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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice or recommendation for any investment. The content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of FIRS either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor.