Burner account. I live in a VHCOL area. Own my own home with no mortgage.

Assets:

taxable investment account of $3.5 million.
Taxable retirement accounts of 2 million One investment property worth 440K, rented out at 2200 a month with a 600 a month in management fees.

Income:

$330k salary. Not including investments income and rental.

Here is my dilemma and I realize it is a pretty good one, but I still would like some advice. I have always planned to retire before 50 and I know I have the funds to do so, however, right now I have an extremely undemanding, low stress and pretty highly paid job that I feel like I would be crazy to give up. The only thing I dislike about the job is the inability to spend a few months abroad whenever I feel like (and I feel like it pretty often). The work is really slight, the people I work with are generally lovely. The job was absolutely perfect during COVID when we were fully remote, so I was basically changing countries every 3 months, but now we are required to be in the office 3 days a week. I ask myself, why work when I would be happier not working and busy globetrotting? But on the other hand, why not work when I am being paid a lot to answer a few emails a day? I don't even show up at the office until around lunch time and hang out until 6. Not really sure what my question is, but would like to get your thoughts on if FIRE is the right call for?

In retirement, I will probably spend at least a decade doing exactly what I did in COVID. Flitting from city to city and country to country with periodic breaks back home in the US. I am an experienced traveler that have been to most countries in the world, but still have many cities and towns to explore. Not sure how to handle my healthcare either. I am generally healthy, but have some systematic issues that require annual MRI and other tests for monitoring.

I’m curious to know how many of you decided to pay off your mortgage before reaching ChubbyFIRE and what influenced your decision.

Personally, I don’t plan to pay off my house early, as I consider the mortgage part of my living expenses, and my FIRE calculations are based on that.

How did you approach it? Share your thoughts in the comments too!

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With the new direct flight on Alaska from SFO-LIR I'm anticipating increased growth in the Costa Rican real estate market. The trick is that I’m unable to live there full-time, I’m looking for a place I can go one weekend per month and one month per year for vitamin D and overall health purposes, ideally moving there full time upon retirement. But renting Airbnb when I'm not there. Many places look beautiful and are within the 200-500K USD range but I'm wondering what the catch is. Has anyone purchased property there and if so do you have any recommendations?

Hi All,

This is a throwaway account (as I'm sure you can tell by the name).

I was hoping to get some opinions on deferred compensation plans.

A bit about our situation:

• My wife and I (early 30s) have been very fortunate to become high earners early in our career. This year we should gross around ~500k with close to a 50/50 split. This puts us in the second highest federal tax bracket.
• Total spend yearly is ~$100k.
• We already max out Roth IRAs (utilizing backdoor) and 401Ks
• No kids, but planning for one. Already have a 529 account set up.
• NW is roughly $2.9 m with the following breakdown:
  • Brokerage - $1 m
  • Retirement accounts - $1.1 m
  • Cash - $0.4 m (in a mix of HYSA type investments)
  • Equity in primary home $0.4 m (140k left on the loan @ sub 3% interest rate)

I am eligible for my companies deferred compensation plan this year. I work in the energy sector for a utility so I think the risk is minimal of a company default. I am considering putting a decent amount to the deferred comp plan to reduce our taxable income and try to get us down a tax bracket. Any thoughts? things I should look out for?

Also, if you have any other suggestions, I am happy to take them. I appreciate everyone's time!

I’m a devout JL Collins believer. I know the market is regularly at ATH’s. I believe you can’t time the market without insider information.

Yet, (1) valuations are frothy; (2) the greatest investor of our time is stockpiling cash; and most concerning to me (3) we’re disentangling the global order that has benefited the US market for my lifetime.

I still need to invest. So, stick to the plan? (Keep buying broad index funds?) Is anyone mixing in other strategies?

I’m trying to not make this a political post, but regardless of your political leanings, I think we can all agree that the next few years have lots of unknowns and will likely be volatile with possible tariffs, changes of alliances, labor, etc.

Given this, how are you protecting your portfolio against this? I’m not talking about timing the market, but perhaps things like changes to asset allocations, buying options as a hedge, etc.

I’m posting this here because the political subs seem to all be saying the world is coming to an end whereas the investment subs are just blissfully “VTI and chill.” Instead, I’m interested in people with chubby portfolios that aren’t just YOLO’ing it with 100% equities and have early retirement plans.

I’m about 10 years from retirement with current allocation of about 60% US equities, 25% ex-US equities, and 15% bonds. I’m pretty happy with the current allocation, but switching some bond funds to treasuries, maxing out Series I Bonds, and moving some individual stocks to index funds (already about 90% index funds). Anything else I should be doing?

Use this thread to discuss anything you don't feel warrants a full blown post

I am curious if anyone is using a Roth as a HYSA?

It dawned on me that if I take let's say $200k out of my IRA at the beginning of each year and drop into a HYSA earning 4% interest, throughout the year I would be paying taxes on the interest.

Being over 59-1/2 with a Roth that is more the 5 years old, I have switched to the default that all of my IRAs withdrawals would be Roth conversions. I would then have by Roth divided into two buckets. Long term investing, and short to mid term cash reserves that are in CD's, money market, etc. that I se to fund spending throughout the year.

I typically have an 80% stock allocation, and 20% fixed income to fund 5 years or so. With a cash balance of a few hundred grand or more, I thought why am I paying interest on ANY money via a HYSA when the Roth is available for more than just long-term investing.

Currently: 50 years old. No spouse or kids. HCOL in northeast coast. Living in current house and building retirement home in same city. W2 job pays 150k/year and side business generates anywhere from 250k-350k year. I have averaged 90k/year in expenses over the last three years.

VTI: 50k

Stocks: 800k

401: 750k

Checling/emergency funds: 200k

Current home value: 700k no mortgage

New build cost: 1.5k (800k land already bought and paid for)

The next 4-5 years: Use the business income to pay for the house build over the next 2 years as W2 salary pays for expenses. Once house is built sell current home and dump proceeds into VTI. In years 3,4, and possibly 5 I will use business income to build up VTI and sell the business. Business valuation worse case scenario should be around 600k.

I expect yearly expenses to rise during retirement as I have expensive hobbies (ie. country club membership for golf, personal trainer, collecting sports memorabilia). Also health insurance via ACA should increase yearly expenses.

43m / 5.9m in index funds + 500k in money market / 500k paid off on 700k house in VLCOL area. Current income 2.8m (work in FAANG as a senior engineer, RSUs have appreciated a lot). Wife doesn't work, 2 kids, we spend lavishly; 250k a year.

Here's my dilemma: I like my job a lot, but might want to RE two years from now when I hit an equity cliff that would bring my income down to 1.7m at current company stock price. Who knows what will happen to my index funds in the stock market by then, or to my unvested RSU value (and therefore income).

To manage risk, I could keep our aggressive index funds position or rebalance to a more conservative 60/40 index funds / bonds portfolio. This would lock in my FI status. Or I could stay the course, and stay mostly in index funds, figuring I like my work, probably won't retire early, and don't want to give up on time in market with most of our net worth.

Here's my question for readers: can anyone empathize with this situation, where you've hit FI and then have to decide whether to 'lock it in' through a lower risk portfolio balance, versus keep going? How have you navigated this emotionally and in terms of decisions? And, of course, any advice about how to approach this particular situation?

Hi 👋

Has anyone took a gap year while being chubby in Japan or elsewhere?

My goal would be to reset and take opportunity to live in somewhere very different from Western Europe.

I would love to have feedback of such experiences from some folks. Thanks!

Married with two kids (teens) in a MHCOL area. Both of us are 47. Spouse works a bit to keep busy, but we are effectively SIWK.

NW is about 3.7 M. This includes 750K in home equity. Home value about 1.3 M. Mortgage balance is 550K at 2.3%

Cash: 250K

Investments: 2.7 M

• 529s 185K
• Brokerage 355K
• IRAs 205K
• HSA 47K
• 401ks 1.82 M
• PE Real Estate 80K

Income: 600-650K

2023: 260K spend; 140K save

2024: (est) 210K spend ;180K save

Questions:

1. Cash is high, but we plan to start a 300K-400K remodel within the next year. We should pile up cash for that, right (rather than try a short term investment)?
2. College. Both kids should start within four years. It appears that we will have about 300K total in 529s at that point. If we assume 400K for college (200K for each kid), do we increase 529 contributions or just cover the rest with cash?
3. What else? After 401K and backdoor Roths, do we just add to the brokerage account? Would like to get to 10M, just not quite sure how long that might take. Any advice would be appreciated.

I believe we're on the edge of starting a transition to coasting, potentially as early as the end of 2025. I would like input on our thinking and position.

Background:
39M (185k/yr)/40F (140k/yr) and 7 y/o. HCOL.

$2.4M in invested assets across 401k, IRA, brokerage. 100% stock index funds.

Spending: About 140k/year including all housing and child-related expenses. About 20k/yr of this is directly on our mortgage principal/interest and 6-7k on the kiddo for direct expenses like camps, activities, etc. We also spend 12k/year in HOA fees and 12k/year on property taxes.

Debt: 342k mortgage, 10k car loan (we bought this year)

---

We think of our RE number as about $3M, our expenses are a bit beyond 4% of this as this time. We do expect some significant reductions in expenses such as paying off our mortgage (to be completed before RE), moving to a MCOL area (likely timed with either age 14 or age 18 of our child), and reduction of our HOA (as part of the MCOL move). These reductions are likely to be offset somewhat by capital gains taxes and health insurance costs in retirement. But overall, my expectation is that expenses will decrease somewhat from our current point. I would be interested to hear thoughts on this.

---

The larger concern is about the reality of the situation with our child. She is only 7 with 11 years of schooling before she goes away to college. We would prefer to keep her in her current school system, but that requires the HCOL situation we are in today. It is possible she will not place in an appropriate high school and our assigned HS is a non-started. Our current thinking is that this would trigger us to move to a MCOL area where she could complete high school.

However, to keep working and saving as we are for another 11 years.... would be insane. I don't have portfolio balances from 11 years ago, but it would have been below 500k, perhaps significantly. In 11 years, our $2.4M will likely be in excess of $5M, well beyond our target. Neither of us wish to work this long.

The Plan:

That leads us to coasting. This fall we have developed an outline of what we think we want to do and would love feedback on this.

• Starting in 2025 cease all non-401k, non-Roth contributions. AKA we will continue to save 61k in our retirement accounts. The remainder will go to our mortgage (expect this to be 50k+ towards the car/mortgage).
• Starting 2026 wife looks to move to part time, likely 24 hours/week. Her role makes this sort of change feasible. She should be paid proportionally the same rate and maintain flexibility to pick up additional hours if needed. She can then use the time to increase quality of life for the family by doing more at-home cooking, get chores done during the week instead of the weekend, etc.
• In 2026 Assess portfolio and mortgage balance, potentially reduce 401k contributions (but never below employer match limits) and increase mortgage pay down.
• 2027/2028 or later: If mortgage pay down/portfolio growth is significant enough, consider timing for myself to quit my job.
• Figure out what, if any further reduction in hours for my wife. She may wish to linger at a couple days/week.

In my mind, this sequence allows us to reduce our spend, increase quality of life, and mitigate some sequence of return risk as we approach/exceed our targets. It also gives us plenty of room to adjust our plans if there is a dramatic economic downturn or other developments require us to rethink our numbers/expectations.

Finally, I expect non-trivial promotions are possible for me at the role I'm in. This means I could be entirely offsetting the income loss we would experience with my wife going part time.

Feedback on things we might be missing, other ways to think about this, etc are very welcome.

Burner account. Curious as to whether anyone has found a tool that can accommodate planning for my situation? DINK with 7 years age difference (late 40s and mid 50s) looking to figure out what income we can plan to tap into on a yearly basis as we approach different milestones > age 55 401k rule spend plan > age 59 1/2 401k spend plan > social security 62 vs 67 vs 70 spend plan. We also plan on retiring abroad to stretch the savings further. In between the multiple types of retirement accounts with differing tax implications tied to when you start to spend down I'm having a hard time figuring out when I can fully retire early (good problem to have). Retirement savings spread over multiple 401ks, IRAs, HSA, brokerage accounts and home equity on house with 2.5% mortgage in a VHCOL area. NW ~3.2M HHI $400k

Chubby FIRE is such an interesting stage—enough to enjoy some lifestyle upgrades but not quite at "FU money" levels, especially if you're planning for a family or kids in the future. I'm curious how this balance influences your housing choices. Here are a few things I've been mulling over:

1. Rent vs. Own: Are you buying into the dream of homeownership, or does renting fit your goals better especially around flexibility to travel and the RE piece?
2. City vs. Suburbs: Do you prioritize a prime location in the city, or go for more space/land in the burbs?
3. Spending on Housing: How much of your wealth (or income) did you allocate to your primary residence? Did you think of it in terms of an appropriate % or more in terms of finding your dream house and then making it happen regardless of the numbers?
4. Cash vs. Mortgage: With cash potentially on the table, do you skip the mortgage for peace of mind? Or do you lean into the leverage and maybe even snag first-time homebuyer credits?
5. Other Factors: What else shaped your decision?

I'm especially interested in hearing from other single women in their 20s and 30s navigating these choices. What’s worked for you? And those who once were in my shoes, what would you have done differently?

Hey all,

One angle to deciding whether you're ready for fire is SWR and expected expenses. Has anyone had psychological block and thought of it another way:

Ratio of day job income to portfolio.

e.g. if you make 300k vs liquid NW of 3M, that's 1:10.

At some point, your passive gains per year get close to your job's income. At what point does it feel like your job "barely moves the needle" so it is easier to quit?

I (55M), a SINK, decided to add up my investments since I can't fall asleep. Total 4.608M. It's been a very good year. Retiring next year regardless of market. Burner account.

Curious how everyone thinks about asset allocation in their brokerage. Assuming like me this will be bridge money and used first before tax advantaged accounts. I’m 42m and currently have $925k in the brokerage with 100% equities (90% VTSAX and 10% international). Will be using this money starting in 5ish years. Do i allocate a portion to bonds, treasuries, barbell with cash?). How do you all think about this.

I recently sold my company of 15 years for $2 million in cash, with an additional $2 million to be received in a few years. Prior to the sale, I had $1.5 million in cash. Currently, I'm holding $3.3 million in a Wealthfront HYSA earning 4.5% interest. I don't own a home, am 35, single, and have about $200,000 invested in the market. I reside in a LCOL area.

I've been quite risk-averse over the years, which has cost me significant upside. I'm now eager to learn how to utilize this money effectively and make it grow safely.

Questions:

1. Is it safe to keep such a large amount in Wealthfront? Even with their sweep program guaranteeing FDIC insurance through partner banks, I feel uneasy.
2. How do people manage millions in a bank like Schwab when the FDIC insurance limit is only $250,000?
3. If there's something that you're thinking, "man this dude doesn't get it", please share. i'd very much like to get it. haha

Thank you in advance!

Edit: Thank you all for the advice and your patience with explaining even the basics to me. I am grateful to be in this position and hope i can add some value back into this sub.

35M and I make about 600k as a director at a fortune 500. Our combined NW is just north of 2.5M. I have a hard time with wife who makes about 130k and has no desire to progress her career or make more money. I fear its holding us back from FIRE'ing earlier. Anyone else in my position who can help guide how to manuevuer this...

As the year is ending it is a nice time to reflect.We are DINK, expensive town, and spend 120k all in (rent is 5k monthly). We know a couple with exactly the same spend except plus 60k for a nanny. We are obviously in the accumulation phase, maybe aiming for 10m.

I feel this is a good amount, very comfortable but not lavish. Definitively saying no to things that seem to expensive often, generally trying to consume intentionally.

What's your spending like?

41 and spouse is 38. Combined Gross income is 260-310K CAD a year. Net worth is 4.3M CAD 3.05M Cash, RRSP and CASH accounts. 1.25M home equity. 950K debt on principal.

Plan is to retire by 50 with $11k after tax/month.

So close yet so so so far. Liquid NW is around 3.2 million. Target # is about 6 million in HCOL area with multiple kids etc.

There is always the chance the market goes sideways for 10+ years.

Recently left my higher paying job and took a (hopefully) less stressful job paying $100k. I have very little motivation to work considering I really don’t like the field I’m in, but it’s the only thing I’m qualified to do. I’m terrified the market stagnants and it takes over a decade to FIRE. What’s wors is that my portfolio swings well over $100k every few days, so working almost feels futile. The only thing that really matters is my portfolio performance.

There is so much to be grateful for, but also a lot to complain about. Rip me for being spoiled if you would like. I will accept it lol. At least I can say FU to my new boss if they are an a$$hole and walk away.

Anyone else in my position?

I’m currently hoping to retire in ~10 years. Pretty much all of my net worth is currently in VTI or something similar. I have a fairly large chuck of cash sitting in VMFXX right now that I need to invest but I’m hitting some analysis paralysis on whether I continue to go all US equities or if I need to add bonds (or other asset classes) given that my target retirement date is getting closer.

Part of me is worried that the equities market is due for a correction and so I should bias toward bonds, but that’s tantamount to trying to time the market which I know is not a good strategy. Psychologically I’m not sure how I would react if my portfolio dipped 30% next year. I think I’d be ok with it since 10 years feels like plenty of time for it to come back, but at the same time it would also be nice to have some dry powder if that were to happen.

Curious to hear from others how you are thinking about asset allocation across the various phases of retirement accumulation and drawdown.

What if you have majority of your net worth in IRAs and house, but low on liquid? Do you have to wait your liquid to go high enough to bridge the years until 60 to count as your fire number?

Paid off home ($600k), one 2 yo, $1.6m split between us, MCOL area

R401k $330k T401k $320k HSA $80k RIRA $260k TIRA $50k Brokerage $520k Cash $40k

Combined income $300k/yr Yearly expenses $80k/yr (not including childcare)

Hoping for the wife to retire full-time at age 40 and I go part-time at 45 (cover insurance until 59). Are we on track?

Assume you have a revocable trust in place with 20% of your assets 401k/SEP assets.

How much umbrella insurance would you get -

1️⃣ Full net worth, regardless of asset distribution. 2️⃣ Net worth less 20% (retirement) assets 3️⃣ Other - explain

What do you consider chubbyFIRE vs. FatFIRE based on materialistic items and experiences? Not talking about financials.

i.e. Chubby is flying business class on every trip more than 6 hours. For Fat, I consider it is flying first class no matter how long or short the flight is.

So I know kids have to have income for a Roth IRA, and I dont want to figure out any sketchy questionable paths to “show income” for my 1 and 5 year old. However backdoor IRAs are supposed to be an option to get around income limits…. Is it an option for kids? Or are you blocked from putting after tax money into a traditional IRA at all?

I'm 50, my wife (45) doesn't work, 3 kids (11, 13, 18yo about to go to college). I live in far out DC metro area, affluent county. $300k salary, comfortable middle class suburban life, apart from high stress job. $328K remaining on mortgage, 10 years left at 1.99%. Have a vacation condo on a lake that is paid off but amenities fees amount to a small mortgage payment of about $1800/mo.

After several years of grueling startup life, we sold to a PE firm almost 3 years ago.. I have ~$3.6M in financial accounts and 401k, and rolled over $1M in equity, and 1.5% "profits interests" that will fully vest in 2026.

Always had a fire goal, target was age 50. extended my expectations to 52 after the sale, but am coming to realize that there really is no timeline and the PE firm's playbook is to hold for long periods, keep refinancing debt as a sort of dividend every few years....so that one last exit #2 likely isn't in my horizon timeline.

Business is good, but stressful, and frankly I'm a big part of it. I want to slow down. I have a standing offer to cash out my equity at 12x EBITDA, which at this moment amounts to almost exactly what I put in despite 30% topline growth....why? - added layers of opex which will enable us to scale.

I don't want this to get political, but the presidential appointees and DOGE strategy have me a bit freaked out about potential shock to the system, which may end up being better in a long run - but likely will not recover from the initial shock within my desired FIRE window.

Pros:

- a bird in hand

- ~20% of my NW is not in my company - despite the upside - I can diversify to weather a storm

- the stress of being beholden to the company and driving it to perform may be relieved if my FIRE prospects are not totally dependent on it. I'd likely stay through my vesting period for the PI and wind down or to something else after that.

Cons:

- I could be walking away from 5-6X more if I was willing to wait it out.

- taking the early buyout doesn't get me to my number. I'd like another $1M ($2M total) to be ready.

I know I need something to retire to, instead of from. I don't have it. I'm a workaholic and want to break that cycle. I know I need to find something else, but through the course of this journey I've sacrificed my social life, my hobbies, and my health.

A note on the PI - no way really to evaluate the value - the best I've been able to come up with is perhaps $3M, but not until an actual sale (not subject to the refi strategy) - so I'm basically not counting on it at all and just treating it as a nice surprise if it ever happens.

Edit: I'll likely work full time through the vesting period (March 2026), then likely part time for several years.

Edit: Everyone's advice is amazing. Many of you are suggesting selling the condo. Do I get as much use out of it as I would like? No, but it's only a few hours drive and a place for memories for the kids while they are still in the house. It also serves as a home base for visiting family without having to stay with them. Selling it at this point isn't really on the table. At some point I may start Airbnb-ing it to offset costs, but at this point I'm not really willing to dump it for a purely financial reason.