I currently work at CircleK and I have determined that I work at a (after tax and upsale bonus) rate of $9.9 an hour and I work around 27 hours a week. I know I need to get a better job but plenty of the available jobs in my area are practically "non existent" and I am already making a move that might be better (don't want to say, but you get the point).

I am already getting a budgeting book so I can better look at my finances and adjust as I need to.

I have been in and out the FIRE community since 2014. In my observation, FIRE was much more treated as a philosophy than a pure investment strategy ten years ago. The posts here usually provide two numbers: age and net worth. But there so many other important things to consider when it comes to spending, earning and retirement. Here are a few questions I'd like to see answered more often:

• How many books do you read every year? Are you happy with that number?

• How many steps do you walk every day (in nature)? Are you happy with that number?

• Are you happy with your relationships or social network?

• How often do you enter a flow state every week doing something you really enjoy?

• Do you feel comfortable in your body? Do you consider your diet healthy? How often do you eat leafy greens?

• Can you go to the toilet in peace?

• How long is your commute? How is your back feeling?

My NW is ridiculously low compared to many on here but I can give moderately to very satisfying answers to the questions listed above. I still need to work for quite some time to RE but that is okay because I have a high quality of life right now.

Do you also have more questions you'd like to see discussed more often here?

I’m really curious to see how it will do once the economy is actually doing well.

I haven’t contributed to my 401k in 9 years because I stay at home with our kids. Youngest just started school.

I have been tempted to cash it out and pay off student loans but my rate of return has been crushing it this last year! (husband wanted us to have a new vehicle, not put towards my loans).

I feel like you can retire physical from a job, however, you are just transitioning from physical work to money management..

Macro effects, poor investments and even fraud can change the course quickly, which need to be actively managed

So begs the question are we ever retired! Seems we always need to stay in tune with the market!

47M, invested 15% over near 30 years in low cost index funds and company match in tech. Total comp really took off after moving to sales. 20 years to hit my first $1M. 4 years to turn it into this…compound interest is truly the 8th, 9th and 10th wonder of the world.

I think $15-$20k a month would be a comfortable lifestyle (two kids headed to college next year, house at $300k at 3% fixed, wife a school teacher with state run medical).

I've got about $200k that I want to invest. Not sure what actions to take that will get me to a Fire goal of $1M in the next 8 years.

Hi everyone. I graduated college and started consulting with the intention of saving as much as possible and leaving after a few years (hard stop at 30). Ideally, I’d like to save enough to cover all the major life expenses that I can predict (house, children’s college, retirement, etc.) and leave consulting.

After that, I’d want to work a fulfilling job until I have kids and be a SAHD, maybe work part time/side hustle, and either send my kids to a Montessori School or home school them. My wife would be working full time, probably making anywhere from $50-$150k (assuming household income ~$100k).

I’m 2 years in, had some savings from working in college, now making $100k + ~$10-15k bonus and I have:

401(k): $35.5k

Roth 401(k): $4.4k

Roth IRA: $20.3k

Taxable Brokerage: $27.3k

529: $23k

December post tax pay: $5.8k

Total: ~$115k

Next year I will start my HSA. Also sometime next year I’m going to have to leave my parents house and start renting— budgeting at $25k per month to be safe.

After taxes, rent, $4.3k to HSA, $7k to Roth IRA, $6k to Roth 401(k), $10k to 529, I will have $25k + my bonus to live off / invest.

Is this a good strategy? Am I on track? How much longer should I expect to keep working like this?

Thanks!

P.S. I know this asset breakdown might seem weird, but I have several reasons for doing it like this:

-I’m contributing to a Roth 401(k) for the flexibility. Once I leave consulting I can rollover the money to a Roth IRA and withdraw the contributions (if needed, maybe for a house).

-I wanted to have $10k in 401(k) earnings for a downpayment on a house.

-My state offers very attractive benefits for the 529 plan, and I might need to use it for Montessori. I am hoping with 5-10 years of very early contributions, I will completely knock out education expenses/concerns.

Edit: messed the spacing up of the post

I feel like once you set a plan it’s definitely doable. However, do you guys ever run into times in which you might want to say spend more/meet a potential partner/party/travel abroad/help family/medical emergencies or just spend on discretionary stuff?

I do understand the importance of this but it’s tough “not to live”. Just asking for advice and stories of people that actually made it happen in the subreddit.

For context I am in my late 20s and considered FIRE at some point but never did it due to what I said above. I do have savings but not substantial compared to the chat. I live in a VHCOL area by myself so that doesn’t help either. Salary is slightly over six figs.

Hit 1.5m at right about 40. I know this is later compared to many on here. But it feels bit unreal to us since most of the gains have come in the last few years. I was in manufacturing for all of my 20s and early 30s. Partner in non profit role with median college grad pay. I went back to school in mid 30s and did a career change to relatively higher paid work.

1 kid. Home (30% paid off). 8-9 months of emergency funds in HYSA. Rest of it in index funds in retirement accounts. Sharing, celebrating, and thanking folks on here!

Wondering how others manage their own desire for FIRE with a spouse that is a spender and has no interest in investing.

I’m currently managing by getting her to agree to a fixed savings/investment rate and agreeing to let the rest be guilt free spending, but I know we could be doing more.

Edit: she isn’t financially illiterate and her spending habits are not negligent, but she just doesn’t share the same urgency to save and invest as I do. We don’t have any debt, and I don’t worry about her blowing all of our money, just that I know we could be saving a lot more than we currently are.

I am not working with a company that has a retirement plan so doing Roth.

I have money sitting in old 401k plan and the fees aren’t high but they’re there.

Should I roll this over to an IRA?

I have my Roth through Fidelity but also have a Schwab account.

What are the pros and cons of leaving it where it is. And the same for moving it Cons

NW includes two homes (in diff countries) worth 1.9M. Hate how my current job has turned out. Have long stretches of days when i feel like not getting off bed because of rhe stress from the job. The issue is that it pays exceptionally well (over 1M+) in MCOL location.

Next 2 years i stand to make 1.2 to 1.4M net from the job if i can brave it but the thought of the holding that long makes me sick. I could call it quits after 2 years though.

Taking a sabbatical is not an option because i am so done with tech. Have zero (negative) interest in corporate america. Want to spend time with family, travel and simple pleasures.

What are my options?

I think for FIRE having the stability of your own home is very important to me. However I want to get to 1M as fast as I can. I am 26 after all costs of the house I’ll be left with 150k liquid money. What is the right answer here ?

~throwaway account~

Hi everyone - I'm looking for advice on whether I can quit my job and travel for ~1 year, or whether I should keep working since I am pretty close to my FIRE target.

I'm 30M with $1.1M net worth ($1M in index funds, $100K in HYSA, rent with no debt) with annual expenses <$40K. My FIRE number is $1.5M based on a 3.5% SWR and estimated $50K expenses including taxes and healthcare.

My job pays well (250K total comp) but is stressful and is negatively affecting my mental health. Additionally, I really like to travel and would like to do more extended traveling while I am still relatively young.

While I think I have enough financially to take a break, I also think I am pretty close to reaching my FIRE number. Additionally, the job market is not strong right now for my field and I am worried it may take me awhile to find a new job, and that it likely will pay less than my current job.

What advice do you have for me? What would you do if you were in my shoes? Is there anything I'm missing in my evaluation? Thanks!

Since I don’t want to seem like Im bragging to people I know, I wanted to post here. Im 25F. My dad helped with a portion of it investing in bitcoin for me years ago, that account now worth 20k. My grandparents also gave me about 10k in investments which I put in an emergency fund. All I had to do was invest 20k this year. I never thought I would be able to have this much money or it was possible for me. And until I discovered this community i didn’t know that I could reach the freedom I craved a lot sooner than I expected. I cant wait to see what the next year holds, and I hope the blue chip stocks I picked will come through 🙏🏻

Hi all, so I am 21M and I currently make ~$50k a year. My only solid monthly expense is $700 rent the rest is just buying food or things like a new vacuum etc. I live with my dad who pays everything else for me as my gf who is also subject to the $700 rent only expense.

I currently have: 401k: $36,502.65 (all in an s&p 500 index fund) Fidelity Roth IRA: $1,996.54 (all in FTEC) Publix stock: $42,519.03

I currently have each week $132 direct deposit to a reoccurring investment into my IRA which will hit 7k a year given a full fresh year. I have 30% (the max I can) of my weekly paycheck going to my 401k. My hope is to have enough each year given no large expenses to put $10k into Publix stock to slowly build up dividends so by the time I'm 40 I'm getting a substantial amount of my income from dividends allowing me to step down to an easier role or even part time.

My main question is, should I reduce my 401k contributions maybe even to 0 so I can then open a taxable account which I can invest in SCHD instead of Publix stock to diversify allowing that to grow and give me more dividends as well. The 401k assuming a 6% annual increase would get me to over half a million by the time I'm 65 with 0 more contributions, obviously that's a long time from now and I would most definitely be able to invest more at some point.

Tldr: should I stop contributing to my 401k and allot that money to taxable accounts that pays dividends if I plan on wanting to partially retire at 40.

Thank you in advance.

My expenses range between $5,000 a year (when I live with my parents) to $20,000 (when I live on my own).

4% of $500k is around $20,000.

I am self-employed so there is no fear of getting my feet wet again if I need to jump back into the work force. But I am afraid of working so much that I miss out on my remaining youth.

What are your thoughts?

My current net worth is $525k ($500k index funds, $25k cash) at 35 years old. I never made more than $50k a year, no college degree. I lived with my parents until I was 30 though (no gf, no kids, and no prospects lol).

$1M 401k, $1M pension=$2M for retirement. 56F with disabled husband. We do not live large but do enjoy traveling and still have $100k mortgage balance at 2.8% interest. Will have my old employer’s health insurance which will cost 2x what I pay now in monthly premium.

2 family members almost died last year. Husband’s mobility is declining. Both parents are 80+. Life is feeling like it is going by too fast. I would like a $250k cushion but am so burnt out after working at this company for 35 years and think about retiring every single day. Lots of hobbies. I think I am ready but it is such a big decision. I’ll make the final call within the next month.

What was the final straw that helped others make the retirement decision?

Started with $500 to my name at 22. Just turned 28 with 350K net, mostly in investments (S&P500 mostly). 70K of that in 401K. I don't want to buy a house anytime soon as I want to spend a good bit of time travelling. Will probably think about getting a house after 40. I do want to have kids and my current boyfriend has about 50K net after all his debts. We both want a similar lifestyle. If we keep on this path, making about 160K a year each, would it be realistic to FIRE by 55 having 1-2 kids in between and still travelling abroad about 2 times a year? Is there anything additional I can do? I always feel a lot of anxiety on how I am doing in general with this stuff.

I'm starting a new job soon and have been working out a rough monthly budget. Here's what I have so far - I'll be making a gross $104k per year in a pretty HCOL area:

• +6100 (post-tax income)
• -1840 (rent)
• -99 (utilities)
• -400 (health insurance)
• -500 (groceries)
• -261 (discretionary ) = 3,000 leftover for investing/saving

Does this budget look reasonable to you? Am I not accounting for anything? I don't have a car or any debt. I'll be walking to work.

I know it kind of sucks my job doesn't offer any benefits or offer a 401k, but the pay is enough for me at this point and the market is tough. I'd rather get a start to my career than wait for something more ideal.

Also I am 22 with about 12k saved so far in a HYSA

Guys i's like to know if there's someone who wants to talk about money, i've been trying to do this with my friends but all of them just want to go to parties while i'm sit dow here learning how to make money.

there's someone who wants to talk about this e move on togheter?

57F single and comfortable to retire at 60 with pension and retirement income of net &7000 and full medical benefit until Medicare kicks in.

Recently, a position was posted in a diffferent organization. I am confident I will make it.

I need some advise and decision making support.

Present: salary $156000, 191 work days full medical benefit until Medicare kicks in , top of the seniority list (no worry of layoff) and when I retire at 60 ( 36 months to go), my net pension will be $6100 and I will not touch my 401k.

Opportunity: salary 190000, 227 work days, full medical benefit until I retire. When I retire at 60, my net pension will be $7500 and will not touch my 401k. But I will not have medical benefit for 60 to 65 then Medicare kicks in.

Should I accept the offer??

Title summarizes it. 37 M, single with a GF (33 F) . Had a $2.5 million FIRE number and got to $2.6 M this week. About $3.7 M NW. Today, I was laid off. Will get additional payments/severence/bonuses of almost $400k (not counted in the FIRE number). Still have an uneasy feeling that it’s not enough. She will continue working as well (she makes about $215k) and seems happy to keep climbing the corporate ladder. We’re not married, but close. I spend about $6k - $7k per month including mortgage (10 yrs, $2450/month, 330k left @2.6%) and car loan (3 years at $515/month left, approx $23k left).

Today... we officially have a net worth >$6M and I just wanted to share with internet strangers since we don't share with people we know!

Background, wife and I are DINK, both in our early 40's. She grew up in a lower middle class family and my family are immigrants... oddly enough, we were never really "savers". Not in the sense of budgeting and making sure XYZ% went to savings every month. In our 20's we saved very little and enjoyed our youth as much as we could knowing neither of us wanted kids in our future. We just always "felt" like things will work out (I am aware of how dumb/lucky this is)

We definitely had lean years, where both of us had college debt and credit card debt (I had some very dumb spending habits in my late teens and early 20's).., but both were able to get pretty good jobs out of college and pay things off in a timely manner. We didn't really save a lot in our 20's (if you're reading this don't make that mistake... put anything you can into savings on a normal basis... no matter how small and don't fucking touch it)

We both worked our way up to some of the most boring middle management positions and because of our DINK status, allowed us to move to places that paid us more. Our spending never really changed significantly. Yes lifestyle creep for sure happens... but any big ticket item was purchased well within our budget.

Oddly enough now is when we worry about money more than when we were in our 20's. Especially now that our number is so close that we can taste it.. getting there faster is our major priority. I would love to able to give my wife the opportunity to retire now and me working till 50, but she won't allow it. She wants to contribute evenly. I really hope she's done working in 2 years and realistically myself in 4, which puts us both under 50 for retirement.

Our breakdown

Cash: $100k (HYS)

Brokerage: $1.7M

Retirement accounts: $2.0M

Crypto: $515k

House 1: $800k

House 2: $900k (rental property)

And yes... crypto is what took me over this hill

Goal to exit $8M... I can see that realistically happening in the next 3-4 years given our current earnings. (Each Gross ~$450k annually). We live in a MCOL city

For those who might ask, at what point did you "feel comfortable"... once we started realizing that we never looked at our grocery bill.... to us that was one of the first areas of "financial freedom".

I realize this has probably been asked before, but I'm looking for resources or potential contacts for non-traditional mortgage. My current situation:

I am getting pretty close to FIRE-ing, surpassed my initial investment target, but realized that due to inflation, I probably was undershooting that target anyway.

- Current NW: 750k

- No debts, no other significant assets

- Aiming for ~3k/mo in expenses/potential income

- Current plan is to go to part time (hopefully) next year to taper off but keep accumulating until we move potentially in about 2 years

- Have a partner in a PhD program, which is the main reason we're living where we are, so plan to move after they are done with the program (lots of variables there, but not really the point)

- After "retiring" I expect to do some small part time work that I enjoy to buffer my investment draining and allow me to afford some fun things potentially.

Our loose plan is to live with their parents to save rent money, while they look for a job and then we check out places we might want to live more permanently.

Without a guarantee of taking part time job, I'm not sure I will have any on-paper income for a mortgage, but we probably wouldn't buy a house w/o my partner having a job, which would presumably be w-2 income. I have found some posts/resources on asset backed mortgages or FHA ones but I'm curious if anyone has been in a similar place and has any specific advice or know of a loan officer anywhere I could talk to about what might be necessary to get a loan with this strange mix of income.

I don't really have anyone else to tell this to except my wife.

I'm 32, just payed off the rest of the mortgage, and finally hit the retirement button. I'm also expecting to be a father in a few months!!! 2023 and 2024 were phenomenal bull years, which helped my portfolio grow astronomically (with the help of leap calls on Costco, Dollerama, Walmart, NVDA, and Amazon). Worked as a SWE for the past 9 years, and never made more than 160k a year. The best best decision I made was to live with my dad until marriage and invest everything I made.

Tried posting on fatFire, but got removed due to NW not being high enough... so hopefully this sub is fine. Current NW 7.1M between my wife and I.

I got lucky, I was on the path to Fire long before I knew it was a thing. My wife and I have lived frugally, and invested heavily over the course of 2+ decades. We’re late 40s sitting on roughly 2.5 M in 401ks and roth accts.

Burn rate annually of roughly 125k. Cars paid in full. Mortgage has about 10 years left at super low rate 2 something. We’re in the Midwest so the relatively low cost of living certainly helps.

I’m trying to formulate a plan to bridge the gap from 50 to 60. Since the bulk of my nest egg isn’t accessible without penalty until I hit 59.5…

My problem (I’m sure like others) is my taxable accounts aren’t big enough to cover expenses for the next 10 years.

What are my options? Pay the penalty and access retirement funds early? Find a part time job with insurance to keep busy and minimize the withdrawals? Access home equity? Just curious what other folks in this position have done to make the dream of early retirement a reality…

Hi all - I just wanted to get some input on where I stand right now with my investments. I just turned 27 and have the following asset distributions:

Brokerage account - $210K

• Mix of growth and value ETFs (DGRO, SPY, VUG, and VTV).
• I am currently holding $12K in cash and am looking to start investing this into REITS as this grows from my income (currently saving ~$4K a month).

Fidelity 401K (Personal Contributions - Roth) - $200K

• Primary holdings are the Fidelity growth and value products (Fidelity has limited offerings, but this is what my company uses for its 401K)

Real Estate - I own a condo with $150K in principal on the loan, and Redfin estimates that the condo has grown $80K in value since my purchase 3 years ago.

I have a great, steady job (pays ~$150K on 35-40 hours a week), but it is boring with limited growth potential. The job also has great benefits and a company 401K match. I live in a high COL area. While this sounds great, I feel like I am wasting-away in my cube every day and am not fulfilled. I feel like a Calculus student in Algebra 1.

I wanted to get your opinion on the following:

• Do you think that starting to invest in REITS is a good way for me to diversify my investments? I think that I am too-heavy into equities at the moment. This is not a big deal as-of now (given that I am a long-term investor and am not withdrawing any funds), but I want to start pivoting to a more balanced investment strategy for my 30s.
• I am thinking of quitting my job in a few years and doing something that I enjoy more, but is perhaps lower paying. I am very passionate about fitness and the outdoors, so working for a company in one of those industries or starting my own running/triathlon coaching business would be more fulfilling in my view. Do you think that I am crazy to give up my current situation and take this risk? My view is that life is short, and I would be kicking myself if I continued my current job until I have enough passive income to retire.

Thank you in-advance for your input. I really appreciate it!

Hi Reddit - I (31M) have been sitting on the sidelines reading posts here for a few years learning as much as I can from the various finance communities. Our net worth just passed $1M so I spent some time reflecting on how we got here and where we want to go. 

Background:

I began tracking my family’s finances in late 2020 after my wife and I married and combined our accounts. By this point we had both been working full time for about 3 years and our combined net worth was $76,000. We both hold marketable bachelors degrees from a local mid-tier state school, lived at home while pursuing our degrees, worked throughout university, and exited with minimal student loan debt in 2017 - roughly $20k combined. 

Salary progression over the years (rounded):

My income (includes bonus/vested equity):

My wife’s income (pre-tax after expenses):

Retirement accounts:

I had funded a Roth IRA when I was in school working - a few hundred to a few grand per year depending on what I could manage. From 2018-2021 I was contributing between $8,500 to $15,000 per year to my 401k (at which point there was a 4% match). My wife contributed $37k to a SEP IRA between 2021 and 2022. 2022 was the first year we “maxed” out our retirement accounts. I put “maxed” in quotations because at this point I was still not aware of all the available methods I could use to defer taxes, but to me we were maxing them out. Today we fully fund my 401k, my family HSA plan, her 401k (+ her company match of 25%). Future plans are to look into a Defined Benefit plan for her and assess the trade offs between that and a 401k.

Brokerage accounts:

We didn’t have any funds in our personal brokerage account until December 2020, when we deposited $13,000. When my wife’s business began generating revenue we invested into that account from 2021 to 2022 while saving for a house. We knew we wanted to buy a house in the next few years so we put about 80% in treasuries. Knowing that we want to FIRE this account will be something we’ll focus on more fully when we pay off our mortgage.

Home Equity:

Bought our first home in 2023 and put down 25% with a 15 year note. We have been paying towards the principle over the past year and a half on top of the monthly payment as we have the funds. If we continue down this path I estimate we’ll have saved roughly $190k in interest payments over the life of the loan. Mathematically I know this isn’t the ideal allocation for funds, but given our current income I am prioritizing having a home paid off for the removal of that stress. We are not focusing on this at the expense of other goals, but rather taking a combined approach to disbursement of funds between brokerage account and mortgage.

Other:

2022, 2023, and this year we donated to charities in our community that we feel strongly towards - this year was the most at $39,000. We are proponents of helping out organizations who we have worked with/for in the past and can see the difference they make in our city. While we are in the accumulation phase our time is best spent working and donating financially, but we are looking forward to being able to donate our time to these same organizations when we start winding down on work. 

Expenses:

We spend fairly liberally and our non-mortgage spending averages around $110k/year in our MCOL city.

Current state:

Our goals:

Pay off remaining mortgage of $430,000 - should happen late 2025 or early 2026 if business stays consistent

Continue fully funding retirement contributions

Continue donating what we feel is a good amount for us each year

FI part of FIRE in the next 10-15 years

Have you lost friends due to FIRE? Has the composition of your friends circle changed since? I found myself so uncomfortable around old college friends who chose the YOLO route for their life and have no assets or savings in their 40s but heavy on designer wear, international vacations, and high end restaurants. They also low key roll their eyes and made fun of us for making tough and frugal choices (small house, old cars, cheap clothes, etc) in our 30s. This same YOLO friend threw a lot of shade at me recently saying maybe I should reevaluate how stupid I was to be so frugal back then if it affected my mental health (it didn't, thats just her opinion). We spent a very hard decade in our 30s forgoing 'fun' to save for retirement while raising kids, while working on our careers, while only investing in our family's education and health pursuits. Now, we started our 40s with our net worth flushed, retirement extremely well funded, and stable and well paying jobs. We do take wonderful vacations that our kids get to choose for us. We also enjoy our jobs but willing to take 50% or even 70% pay cut if push came to shove. Turns out now we are happy being frugal and really value the mental peace of financial stability and a simple life. FIRE gave me some hard years but boy watching layoffs and not feeling worried has been so totally worth it. I decided to break my friendship of two decades with this friend due to her remarks. She said she considers me very stupid and diseased (like offered self help books) for my focus on financial stability and had made such comments on many occasions over the years. She insists she never thinks about money or future and life just always works out for her. However, over the last decade, I have found many new friends with similar financial focus. If you came to a gathering of our friends, you wouldn't be able to guess that all of these Costco clothes wearing people discussing the weeks grocery deals at different stores, each have a nw of $3M to $8M in their 40s. We didn't know their nw when I met them nor was it the focus of the friendships. We just appreciated how responsible these people were with their money and how content they were with simplicity (we spend time with each other working on collective yards). Though it was really sad to walk away from a friend who just couldn't respect my passion for FIRE. Has anyone experienced having to step away from old friends? How did you handle it? Should I have just continued to ignore her comments? It made me dread speaking to her so I gave myself the gift or removing toxicity (or so I think from my life).