Hello everyone normally I never discuss finances publicly but I am wondering how I am doing for my age. M48 living kinda comfortable and don't really worry about money much. I own 6 properties main home 1.8m/ investment apartment 523k/ two homes in other states worth 981k combined/ vacation home 289k / new apartment 667k. Current stock portfolio is worth 386k plus checking sitting at 43k. I drive a drive 2021 Toyota rav 4. My company doesn't have a current valuation but planning on closing since not making much money. Overall how am I doing for my age? Am I considered rich for my age? How can I grow my portfolio? What financial class am I in?

This is not a brag genuinely wondering how I am doing financially

Most importantly can I retire. I have worked my whole life where should I travel places?

I’m about to make the boring middle exciting for myself. Feel uncomfortable sharing numbers in real life so typing it here.

Household of 3 (34,29,1) will be making a move largely due to the boring middle safety. With $1.6M net worth (house included) we’re going to sell our house in MCOL and move to (V?)HCOL for my new job. I’ve avoided high cost of living my entire life despite my history key hubs being in expensive areas. I think I’m developing what people call an abundance mentality.

Current total take home is about $215k total. New job will start off around $290k and a few years in with vesting be around $360k not including raises or promotions so wife should be able to still stay home.

I will deal with an office 3 days a week and much more expensive NE city but I feel reinvigorated to push my career and earnings that have started to feel pointless. Planning to stay up there for maybe 5-10 years and come back to MCOL.

Was watching this clip of "American Beauty" and noticed at the :32 mark, they cut to Annett Benning's gun next to her in the car and there is "Your Money or Your life" next to it.

https://youtu.be/lizDEo04dGA?si=JkN69tbBePUouQS0

Hi, Big follower of the FIRE flow chart and would like advice on my situation:

• So far, I contributed ~$5k in traditional 401k for 2024 through my employer (they contribute 50% of what I put in)
• have over 1.5years of expenses saved in HYSA

If I update my 401k contributions to be about 75% of my paychecks (I think), I can max out my 2024 contributions last minute in the final 2 months of the year. If I did this, I’d have to live outta my savings a bit. Is this the move? Or should I just keep my normal 401k contribution and put my savings into an individual brokerage?

Other context:

• opened up an individual brokerage last month and auto invest every week funded by my HYSA until I only have 1yr of expenses in savings
• already maxing Roth IRA & HSA contributions and part of company’s ESPP
• reside in VHCOL area and do not expect to be a home owner for over a decade tbh (I’m 24)

Would love to hear any suggestions/advice as to how I I should move on or other things I gotta consider. Been educating myself a lot on personal finance and love to learn more

If you were 25-30 age again, single, remote job, 150k USD yearly income, around 200k USD saved/invested, what would you be doing?

Hi guys!

We are a couple, no children, 43 year old. We live in Perth, Australia. We are close to achieving the following financial position (over the next 4-5 yrs), in todays dollars:

• PPOR fully paid off (3/2/3 villa in South Perth): 1M, rental yield after all expenses around 3.2%
• IP in Montenegro (south East Europe): 200k, 4% rental yield after all expenses
• Shares outside super (80%Vas, 20%vgs): 1.3M
• Shares inside super (20%vas, 80% vgs): 500k
• Total assets: 3M

Having a european origin, we also have an opportunity to retire in Montenegro (South Eeast Europe), where living costs are around 40% cheaper. We could live in our apartment there.

We are thinking of retiring in 4-5 yrs. Could you please share your view on which of the following two options may be financially better for us (or any other option)?

1. Retire in Australia:

• Live in our PPOR or downsize to 1 or 2 br apartment.
• Withdraw about 3.5% from our total portfolio (2M comprising of: 200k apartment, 1.3M shares outside of super, 500k in super). Total income before tax: 70k py

2. Retire in MNE:

• Live in our apartment,
• Rent out PPOR in Perth,
• Withdraw 3.2% of 2.8M portfolio (1M Perth rental, 1.8M shares portfolio). Total income: 75k after paying tax in Europe.

I think option 2 seems more attractive, as the lifestyle would be more comfortable and we could have more frequent (and relatively affordable) holidays around europe (4 ten day holidays per year). However we might become australian non-residents for tax purposes which complicates our situation.

Can anyone please advise?

Thanks a lot!

I’m a 32-year-old male with a wife and a child. Both of us work in the technology industry, and our household income is $600,000.

Our financial independence, retirement, and early exit (FIRE) goals were put in jeopardy when my wife lost her first job in 2020. This event caused significant stress and disrupted our plans. However, my wife quickly recovered, worked diligently, and secured another job relatively soon. In the meantime, I also worked hard to double my compensation. My wife also increased her compensation by about 40% over last 3 years

It feels surreal to reflect on the journey we’ve been on over the past three years. Once both of us secured stable jobs again, we made a pact to first reach 300 times our monthly expenses before indulging in lifestyle inflation. Our friends often tease us for being stingy, but they don’t know that this frugality is what brings us peace of mind, knowing the hardships and stress we endured during the COVID pandemic.

Our asset allocation is as follows:

• Brokerage: $1.2 million
• Retirement accounts: $350,000
• Home equity: $160,000
• Remaining mortgage: $740,000 (at 2.5% interest, with a 10/6 ARM. We have 6 more years to worry about refinancing.)

Our monthly expenses have remained relatively stable at around $120,000 over the past three years.

Our target liquid corpus is $3 million, plus $200,000 for our child’s education.

We currently have a savings rate of approximately 65%, and we are hopeful of achieving this goal within the next three years, assuming an average annual return of 10%.

25 years old and just over 110k net worth in vanguard(78k), hysa(21k), robinhood(4.8k), 401k(10k). was unemployed for a bit and currently making 55k which is far less than I'd hope to be making with my role. $863 weekly post tax with 10% being deducted automatically for 401k with 6% company match, $150 automatically invested for hysa and $130 for brokerage(roth ira maxed out back in september). I track all my spending on a weekly basis as well. Next goal is to move out next year and make around $80k.

42 years old and in good health. Single with no kids. No debt. Rent a one bedroom apartment. My cost of living is $72K/year. It’s a pretty simple life in a high cost of living area.

$2.1M in individual brokerage account (SPY and Magnificent Seven) $750K in Bitcoin $100K in alternative investment (can liquidate with 90 days notice) $550K in retirement accounts (Traditional 401K, Traditional IRA, and Roth IRA) $35K in gold bars

My concern about resigning now is that the S&P 500 is so overvalued that we may face a serious, prolonged bear market in the next few years which would decimate my portfolio. I’m also trying to avoid selling any Bitcoin for another seven years to see if it can 5x - 10x which would mean instant retirement.

What should I do? I am extremely unhappy, despise my job, and think about resigning daily. I’ve also thought about taking a break for a year to retrain myself and become an EMT, firefighter, or another occupation that actually gives value to the world, but those jobs don’t seem to pay much. Regardless, they could be good part-time jobs to have once you FIRE to help minimize withdrawing from your portfolio.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

At a glance...

HSA: $4,150 -> $4,300 (+$150 - this was announced a while back and not part of the linked resource)

401k Employee Contributions: $23,000 -> $23,500 (+$500)

401k Total (Relevant for Megabackdoor): $69,000 -> $70,000 (+$1,000)

IRA: $7,000 (No change)

There are increases in catch-up contributions and income limits for certain accounts, but small adjustments all around.

Source if you want to check it out: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-24-80.pdf

Thinking of doing a withdrawal from IRA to pay off the majority of my CC debt (14k total)

58 and in a well paying but stressful high-tech job for 36 years. Have not enjoyed it for years and I accomplish less and less doing a %100 work-from-home job for over a decade with no social interaction. I have coastfired for years but feel I’ve had enough. I’m shocked I have not been laid off yet! My Parents died in their mid-60s, so feel need to have more time to do things I enjoy more than work and to hopefully stay healthy. We have been all set financially for years, and feel most of anything I make now will either go to my kids (who I have already set up nicely) or to the government through estate taxes. My wife wants to continue doing her low-paying part time job with no benefits even though I showed her my projections and we clearly don’t need her income. I’m hoping she changes her mind after she sees me having fun so we can travel more. Anyone travel without their spouse??? I’m hoping retiring does not cause relationship issues due to her still working. Guess I’ll probably have to start cooking dinner. I feel like I have plenty of hobbies and things on my bucket list so boredom will not be an issue, although the winter might be challenging. My job has not given me much sense of identity or purpose for years, which I know is one reason some choose to keep working. Hoping to do some charity work that will be much more satisfying.

Our Investment income will result in not qualifying for ACA subsidies. I looked at 2025 enrollment options and looks like around $30k/year for health care for family of 4. (silver plan premiums plus likely deductible plus some co-pays for medical and dental coverage). Ouch! COBRA looks a little cheaper so may do that for 1.5 years, at which time kids will be out of college and can hopefully get their own insurance to save me around $5.5k. I’m not sure if I should just get my own insurance now so that if the laws change and pre-existing conditions can be used to deny coverage, I would already be locked in. Unfortunately my company cut retiree healthcare plan just as I became eligible for it. (why is why I don’t feel so bad about saying “FU”, even though I will do it politely…)

Hard to justify quitting and having to spend that much since have always been a saver. (like most here). Feeling kind of selfish for doing this as several friends are out of work and struggling to make ends meet. We don’t flaunt our wealth so many were shocked I was considering this. I will be hard to replace me at work and will leave them in a bind, so thinking of giving 1 month notice then quit early December so I get my vacation balance paid out and health insurance coverage to end of year. (have 24 days saved that would be lost at the end of the year) Not sure they will try to talk me out of it with more pay, or will show me the door immediately. The only thing I might accept is staying through winter but with a guarantee of a layoff package by spring that would include 26 weeks of pay. I think I could also go on unemployment, but prefer not to do that. Hoping I don’t “chicken out” and suffer for yet another year then regret it later. I feel determined to go through with it, but having a hard time actually notifying my boss. Any advice from those who have been through this is appreciated!

Age 53, wife is 51. We plan on retiring when we each turn 55, so I'll retire in 2 years, she's retire in 4. No debt of any kind. All figures in today's dollars:

Estimated expenses in retirement: $71k, includes health insurance and 1% home upkeep, travel and new cars allowance ($30k cars every 10 years)

She'll get a take home pension of $44k at age 55, inflation adjusted only on the first $13k

I'll get a take home pension of $14k age 60, adjusts for inflation

I'll take SS at age 62, net $8500 per year

Investment accounts / 401k's total $1.2 million

How does this look?

Let's say you are mid 30s and had a relatively sudden windfall of $10mil. You live in a medium/hcol area, and spend about $100k per year and own your home with a 3% mortgage for $250k. What would you do with the money?

I'm thinking $1mil in HYSA, and 9mil into VOO.... Any reason to diversify further?

Edit: the $10mil is after taxes.

Let's say I'm retired (age 65+) and have $400K in cash. And this is all I have, but I don't have to worry about mortgage. What would you do with the $400K?

Longtime lurker + recent poster of this movement and subreddit but I am really just not sure what to do because I do not feel like I can get ahead right now.

Background:

27M living w GF. We are essentially life partners just not married. We have dual income of around 160k.

Financials:

I personally have around 14k in CC consumer debt right now from years of being an idiot and not having a grip on my spending. I am not sure of whether I should try and work with a debt company or something or just try and do the snowball effect. Luckily, my balances are on 0% APR CCs so I am not being charged interest ATM.

I make around 90k yearly give or take depending on some various factors. I also have around 40k in my investment portfolio between 401k, IRA, and brokerage.

Really just looking for advice from someone who has been in a similar situation. I know it is 100% doable and that I just have to be very strict with spending and tracking it meticulously.

Hi, I’m curious how retired folks pull out funds for retirement. Do you pull out a big chunk of money at the start of the year to cover annual expenses or pull out just what’s needed each month? Maybe some other way? I realize where you pull from can be complicated because of taxes and balancing the portfolio but I’m unsure if I should take out a huge lump sum or not.

have been looking for a simple tax planner and couldn't find anything so I threw this together, it only does MFJ and standard deduction, I think it calculates correctly but would like to see if someone else could look at it. Please make a copy and try it if you want.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VVuO_NIVeQVKt2CAqWyMC4tCZHpNoTOvAZDdX1PhDR4/edit?gid=1072489698#gid=1072489698

Lurking for a few years and I think I'm ready to RE. I'm 57, married and only wage earner and was impacted by a (tech) restructuring about 6 weeks ago. I'm done with Corporate life.

From a financial perspective, I have about $200K in the bank, $810K in stocks (includes $175K of unvested company stock that I won't lose). I also have $1.5M in a traditional IRA and another $790K in my former company's 401K plan. Total is about $3.4M. Kids are on their own, primary home is in a HCOL area, worth about $750, and will be paid for by Feb '25; house 2 we owe about $170K @ 3.25%, we pay about $1500 a month for it. Wife and I figure we can live off $120-$130K, though i guesstimated a 25% tax rate. Eventually, my SS would be $2700 at 62 or $3900 at 67. I plan to speak to a financial planner for their input, but wanted to ask the group for some of their thoughts on my financial situation and how best to execute. I've run it through some of the models and it looks fine, but it still feels weird going from saving to spending

My severance will be about $200K (not included above), and they are covering COBRA completely for 18 months (my last day will be end of Nov). Since I'm over 55 and with the company 10 years, I can withdraw from my 401k without a penalty, I need to read the SPD to understand how that will work (anyone who has done that, I'd love to hear your experience). Two things I am concerned about 1) medical benefits from May 2026 until medicare kicks in; COBRA now is about $2200 a month, so I'll have about 6 years of that expense or maybe use ACA to bridge me; and 2) making withdrawals in the most efficient way.

Any additional thoughts/suggestions? Am I missing anything? Thanks in advance.

I'm at a crossroads and hoping to get some input from people more knowledgeable about finances than I am.

I'm a single 47F, with 2 relatively young kids, about 8 yrs. out til college for both. I had a windfall a few years back of about $4M that I put into stocks that I pay a CFP to manage. I've watched the value over time and now they are at about $5.5M depending on the day. I have a lot of anxiety about how the funds perform, but am trying to educate myself about finances in the little free time I have.

I have employment income amounting to $200k/yr, but that amount will change later this year and I expect drop to $125k. At the 8-year mark, income drops further to roughly $50K (unless I find new employment to supplement. I don't anticipate being able to top $50k salary given my skill set. College funds are set up and funded for the kids.

I live in a HCOL area and as the sole parent, my spend rate is about $150k to keep us reasonably fed, housed, etc. I've run some scenarios in different retirement calculators online, but none seems to be able to account for the steps down in income that I have coming down the road. FWIW, I don't anticipate being able to earn greater than $50k/yr at any given job that aligns with my skill set.

I'd love to leave my HCOL area someday, but need to wait until the kids are out of the house and away at college to do that. Since that's not happening for awhile, I'm trying to anticipate what retirement age could be feasible given this set of circumstances.

To sum up:

• Are there online retirement calculators that I can use online that are more granular, with toggles for differing incomes over the years leading up to retirement?

• I feel stupid asking this at all because I never imagined I'd be sitting here even considering early retirement. Am I overthinking this? It's the kids and the HCOL area we live in that have me questioning when and whether Fire is workable for me. There's a lot of pressure as the sole parent to insure that the kids are supported and that I'll be independently supported into old age as a single woman.

Many thanks for reading this far and for advice/info.

23M, 95k.

I know the sub generally liked 401k traditional over Roth 401k, but the financial advisors my dad knows suggest Roth is better at my age and tax bracket since I have a lot of time for compounding.

What I don’t understand is why people think 401k traditional is better. If I do 22% Roth, wouldn’t it be better than 22% traditional? Wouldn’t I pay less taxes than when I withdraw, especially since I do plan to be in a similar tax bracket?

Another benefit is the ability to withdraw contributions tax free, so if I do end up being able to FIRE I would essentially pay less taxes than if I withdrew from a 401k trad.

Any advice or explanation would be helpful, just trying to make sure I do what’s best for the future.

So I just graduated school as a hand therapist after 8 years. I’m 27 years old & don’t have any savings/investments. I’m married, just had a new born & have $7000 in credit card debt. I will start paying for student loans in February at $150 monthly. My house hold income is $120k. I want to begin saving/investing, but I’m not sure where to begin. I don’t spend a lot of money on wants really, mainly on needs. I would really appreciate some advice as to just where to start this journey… thank you 🙏🏽

Anyone make any plans and/or work with their spouse to ensure their fire future without them even though it may be years off?

Im going through some major/rapid estate planning now and the assets are safely going to transfer but i feel they are stuck in not withdrawing money mindset.

My (47m) wife (47f) and I have sizeable assets spread across different platforms including traditional 401k, Roth IRA, taxable brokerage, etc. I'd like to compile this together in one chart so we can track our overall portfolio of assets. I've seen people use some type of common chart tracking their assets elsewhere here on Reddit.

Do you guys have any suggestions on financial software or websites where we can track all of our assets together? I'm really not as computer literate as I used to be, so I'm open to any advice here. Thanks in advance.

Hey All,

I'm a long time lurker and just as a heads up, this is a throwaway account.

I see post after post about how people have a ridiculous amount of money and wanted to see if we are on track or behind. Here is a breakdown of my spouse and I (both 35 years old):

Income:
Monthly VA Disability (Permanent): $2180 + increase annually for inflation

Net Income w/o disability: $157K

Savings rate: ~55%

Combined total: $183k

Investments:

Combined 401: ~$148k

Combined Roth IRA: ~$115K

Combined HSA: $35K

Non-Retirement (VTI & VGT, 80% / 20% weighted, respectively): ~260K

Crypto: ~8K

Home Equity: +332K

Student Loans: ~$140K

Net worth: $498K (with 52% of our assets being in home equity)

My wife (29) and I (30) just hit 200k across our accounts! Have about $25k of student loans but besides that debt free (besides mortgage). Happy to do this with two kids!

Started tracking in march 2020 and had $-15k networth. Looking forward to continuousgrowth!

What is this communities thoughts on using annuities to have guaranteed income for the rest of your life. Especially if you plan on using most of your portfolio you have saved.

What milestones did you hit that finally for you to pull the trigger and retire?

I'm 41, have a very decent portfolio; 5MM totally liquid (cash, stock, and cash equivalents) , another 1MM locked away in retirement accounts. My wife has probably close to 200k on her own in retirement accounts. I also have two young kids....which are the two reasons I haven't retired yet to be honest. I know the numbers say I can do it but I have a mental block with retiring while having dependents. Not sure what I'm even asking, has anyone here retired while having dependents?

Hi

I often read people keep 2 years cash in an emergency fund, in case stock/bonds tank. That makes sense to me (maybe not the optimal approach from financial perspective, but it does give you peace of mind)

I wonder, however, in which circumstances I should use it. Ideally, I would use some kind of decision rule during retirement.

Say, you have a nest egg of 1M. When market drops 10%, I think this is part of the deal. No need to stress and touch the EF. In contrast, if you wait until you fully deplete your portfolio (due to extreme market conditions and too much spending) before touching your EF, you are "too late". Even if you get by until the market recovers, you won't have any stock left to grow.

So, when would it make sense to use your EF? I am thinking of (fictive) rules like this:

- If portfolio dropped 50%, don't sell stocks/bonds, but live off your EF

- when portfolio recovers to 75% of original value, use EF to cover 50% of expenses, and the rest from selling portfolio assets

- when portfolio recovers to 100%, start fully living of your portfolio again

- when portfolio passed 110%, start replenishing the EF for the next bear market

These numbers are pretty random (except that 50% drop is the worst case scenario I would like to plan for). They are just examples.

Does anybody with an EF have such decision rules for bear markets during retirement? When would you decide to start using your EF? And when to stop and replenish?

(please note, I am not asking about the size of the EF, bond vs stock allocation, etc. That is a different discussion. Just looking for how people with an EF envision using it. Also note, I am not talking about a EF to pay for if the car brakes down, house repairs, etc. We have that covered with 'normal' savings which I do not consider part of my FIRE EF)

Basically, I'm about to graduate and have an offer to start May 22 at a company offering a $9.5k sign-on bonus. I've read the contract thoroughly, and the bonus is paid within the first two months with no requirement to pay it back, regardless of the circumstances.

Here's the controversial part, I also have an offer at a company that’s a much better fit and that I plan to stay with long-term. However, that role doesn’t start until August. I’m considering starting with the first company, collecting the initial two months’ salary along with the sign-on bonus, and then leaving in July to join the other company.

I don’t plan on ever returning to the first company, so burning bridges there isn’t a concern for me.

I've done some math, I'd be taking in 25k for those two months, and it's the training period so it'll be pretty light from what I've heard. Any thoughts? I haven't decided anything, just thinking and wanted to ask around. I grew up pretty poor so 25k is a lot and has me debating.

Alt for obvious reason. I understand this isn't ethical.