I'm a 29M (will be 30 in a few days) and currently I have 75% of what my FIRE number is.

Most of my NW is tied to RSUs (Restricted Stock Units) that have vested throughout my employment. I have never sold anything in my life be it the RSUs or any other equity. So I have never realized any gains. Since I am close to my FIRE number, I think I should be risk-off and sell some RSUs. However, if I sell now while I am actively employed, I will have to pay massive amount of capital gains tax. Would it not be better to sell RSUs after I FIRE and move to a lower tax bracket?

Current Asset Allocation:

AMZN (RSUs) - 40%

VOO - 20%

Cash/CDs/HYSA - 30%

Gold ETFs - 2%

Individual stocks (to remind myself why buying ETFs is always a better idea) - 8%

I want to trim/sell my AMZN position, but I am not sure if I should. Even if I do, I feel uncomfortable buying VOO with the trade war that's about to start.

How would you suggest I change the allocation?

Hi everyone,

I’m (M-21) currently an international student in Australia, planning to stay here for around 3.5 years. I want to optimize my savings and investments as best as possible. Right now, I have a small amount of savings (~AUD 10k) in Vietnam that I don’t plan to use anytime soon. I’ve invested this in large-cap Vietnamese stocks, primarily in banks and tech companies, and I intend to hold these positions long-term, at least until I finish my studies and return home.

Additionally, I’ve set up a brokerage account in Australia, where I invest around $200 per week into ETFs. My Australian brokerage account currently has about $3k, split between VAS, IVV, and NDQ.

Lastly, I also hold around AUD$1,500 in crypto (BTC, ETH, and XRP) on Binance, which I plan to keep long-term, at least until I return to Vietnam.

Does this investment strategy seem reasonable? Any suggestions on how I can improve it?

I also have a few questions regarding my investments:

1. After my student visa expires and I return home, will I still be able to keep my Australian brokerage and bank accounts? I noticed that in Vietnam, it’s difficult to invest in international ETFs.
2. If I am allowed to keep my investment account, is there any way I can continue regularly investing in these ETFs from Vietnam? One option I can think of is using USDT to convert VND to AUD, since Vietnam makes it difficult to transfer money abroad. However, this method comes with currency exchange fees.

Would love to hear your thoughts and advice!

Thanks in advance!

Morningstar pegged 3.7% as a baseline safe starting withdrawal percentage for people who are just embarking on retirement. The chart that shows SWR by asset allocation is informative.

https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/how-retirees-can-determine-safe-withdrawal-rate-2025

We are planning to potentially move to a single income as I ease into FIRE. My wife makes $87,000 a year and there is some pretty heavy incentive to avoid the 200% of FPL cliff in getting ACA. That's potentially $10k of additional premiums for a similar plan. We can max her 401k and fill a traditional IRA for both of us. That's about $37000 off of MAGI. And will get us down below the threshold. But we have about $25000 in taxable interest/dividends etc. Are there some investment options that would function as fixed yield investments that wouldn't payout until we are both FIRED and would be able to better take the hit in MAGI?

Ah, FIRE. The plan to quit work and live life on your own terms - until you realize your own terms are mostly snacks and streaming services. You trade in office stress for which show to binge next stress. Meanwhile, the "non-FIRE" crowd is busy looking at us like we're the ones who need saving. 😂 Who's with me?

We’ve been thinking about taking the plunge for a couple of years now and believe that 2025 is going to be the year. In preparation we’re wondering how we should structure our portfolio since I believe we’re currently very heavy on growth stocks and funds. We’ve got mostly long term gains so I’m not going to get hit too badly with capital gains. Our current net worth portfolio distribution looks something like this:

Stocks (growth)- 29% Real estate (2nd home, rentals) - 24% Retirement mutual funds (growth) - 22% Primary home - 19% Mutual funds (growth) - 7% Mortgage loans (total) - -5% Private real estate investments - 4% Cash - 1%

Questions:

1. What funds or bonds should I invest in to safely (relatively) generate income in retirement?
2. My wife and I are 54, so a long ways from Medicare; I hope ACA will stick around, what should we budget for healthcare with/without ACA?

My wife (40F) and I (44M) have been plodding toward fire in the next 3-5 years. I'm a fed and, given the current turmoil, I'm trying to work some centengency plans for if I'm no longer able (or willing) to work for the government any longer. My wife would still be working, but her insurance offered is junk. As with most people reaching fire, insurance is the biggest limiting factor for us. I was investigating on healthcare.gov for Indiana, and there seems to be a huge cliff where deductibles, out of pocket and premiums all jump at $62k MAGI. At 62k MAGI there are tons of plans with essentially no deductible and a maximum of $6k out of pocket. At $63k MAGI all the same plans jump to the $5000k deductible range, and $15000 OOP. And the premium of low deductible plans jumps from $1500 a year to over $10k. In both cases my kids would still be on CHIP according to the calculator. So those increases are just for my wife and I. Whats the cause of the penalty at $63k? Is the CSR rule really designed to drop off so abruptly?

Update: answered really quick. Thanks so much. So what do folks do to reduce magi? My wife will make about $87,000 and we will have about $20k in taxable gains. She will max her 401k and IRA and spouse IRA for me. That's $36500 off magi. We will have to shed another $10 or so to avoid the cliff. But seems like the cliff is so large it may be beneficial to just take the loss on interest gains to stay under the threshold. Any other good tricks?

As I (44m) think about where I am in my Fire journey and where I am in my career currently, I mostly have been considering strategies to potentially downgrade my career when I am around 50 depending on how the market performs. However, I could play my cards and start being more aggressive with my career as I approach and reach my fire numbers and health willing. Maybe freelancing in my field as an independent contractor or maybe take on that higher risk bigger impact role that may be a lot more responsibility or a bigger gamble of risk/return. I guess if it isn’t for me I could move on and be confident I have things covered until the next opportunity comes along.

Hi,

I’ve been researching about remittance based tax systems which only tax income that is remitted to the country. I’m finding this to be a great way to save some money for 3 or 4 years. Also, what seems the only chance from escaping costly lifetime mortgages.

From what i learned, I can live from own savings. Keep any remote work earnings in an international account such as HSBC Expats for a period of 4 years. I will not remit any money to Thailand from any income during the stay period.

I’d expect to have:

• A Visa and the tax residency,
• Tax ID, e.g. stay longer than 183 days
• Inform HMRC of my leave, e. g. no interest in coming back and have no assets, family ties, etc. I’ll pay every penny on departure for previous tax year or any other tax liability. If need to visit would never be more than 14 days in a year.

I’m going to contact a tax accountant to confirm this is correct, but until then I wonder if there’s anything I’m missing or of any concern I should research about?

Thank you!

Just wondering.

25M, $89.5k salary WFH, renting in LCOL city with my girlfriend, ramping up how much I save for about 2 years. My story so far: Started with a NW of ($27.5k) from student loans in January 2022. Lived at home and threw 90% of my paycheck towards my loans to pay them off ASAP. Started tracking at the beginning of 2024 when I had a NW of $37k. Lucky to have accessed $20k through a custodial Roth IRA halfway through the year. Hit $100k NW at the beginning of February. Here's my breakdown:

Bank...

• Checking - $5.4k
• Emergency Fund - $300
• Treasuries Fund - $200

Treasuries...

• Laddered 4-week Bills - $24.4k (money coming from emergency/Treasury funds)

Credit...

• Discover Credit Card - ($500)

Retirement...

• Roth IRA - $37.7k (60% FSKAX 40% FTIHX)
• Traditional 401k - $6.1k (100% RFVTX)
• Roth 401k - $29k (100% RFVTX)
• Company ESOP - $3.4k ($8.4k @ 40% vesting)

TOTAL: $106k

More info:

• I will be maxing out my trad 401k and Roth IRA this year with automatic payments for the first time (yay).
• All Treasury gains go to emergency fund. I reinvest when I can. $ sitting in these accounts are just to maintain the minimum balance.

Would love to hear from everyone their thoughts on treasuries. I originally invested in them since it's relatively safe, liquid, and makes a good % for my emergency fund. I'm wondering if I should open up another brokerage account and invest non-emergency fund $ instead of making a safe ~4.5%. Are rates poised to continue decreasing this year?

I still feel very new to this game so any and all feedback is welcome... Thanks!

Tried to post in a Canada personal finances first but it was removed*

I am 26 and I am doing quite well for my age I believe (top% in portfolio value and set up to be able to retire by early 40s). I am passionate about finance and economy but also don’t have THAT much experience either.

Right now with trade war tension and everything that is going on I think we will se very good investment opportunities , but on the other hand i know there is a risk for our dollar value and see our purchasing power decrease with high inflation -fingers crossed not super inflation or it will be sad to witness).

When in doubt I have the selfish habit to tell myself - whatever happens im in the top% there is no way the canada will let their population bleed until it reaches my level there will chaos and changes in politics way before . (Being 26 I also dont know lots about politics)

Hence today my question is : is it legitimate for me to brush off that stress using this argument ? Am I right thinking this?

As mentioned above I know its a selfis question but know it comes from a good place. Thank you

Not taking account any tax bracket stuff or if it makes more tax sense to do one or the other. Just in terms of dollar amount that is yours to withdraw when it’s time, is a maxed Roth 401k have more dollars in it than traditional when it’s time to withdraw?

As I am FI but not RE, more on that another day, what are some things you regret while work to get to Fire?

For example, did you have to sacrifice relationships, vacations, etc. that you now regret?

For me, I regret some of the friendships I should have nurtured more as I was too busy trying to maximize earnings, with taking high pay jobs and relocating, to try to hit my numbers.

Hi, I sometimes get offers from banks to increase the credit limit on my credit card. But I don't really need to spend that much money and I never hit the current limit anyway. On the other hand I was wondering if there is actually any harm in increasing the limit. Two points I can think of:

1. It may encourage more spending. But I am confident in my self-control, so this is not a problem.

2. The potential loss would be larger if the credit card were stolen (if not all of the thief's transactions can be cancelled).

Apart from these two points, are there any other drawbacks to increasing the limit?

Thanks a lot!

Hey everyone. Last year, I was a casualty of a tech reorg and, instead of trying to find comparable employment, I decided to take a low-stress, low pay job and coast the rest of the way. I'm FI, but still deciding when to RE. I kinda like my current gig, so I'm not in any rush to RE if I'm honest. I'm 48 and I may very well decide to hang on until Rule of 55 distributions.

Anywho, for 2025 I should wind up in the 12% bracket. I'd like to stuff the bracket with Roth conversions, but not exceed the 12% bracket. I can't seem to find a calculator I like where I can plug in variables to get an estimate on what I can convert.

I assumed I had a few years to study and plan for this phase, but I was thrust here pretty suddenly so I want to make sure I'm on the right track.

Given these numbers:

$100K earnings - $8,550 HSA contrib - $4,500 401k contribution (not roth) - $30,000 standard deduction = $56,950 in taxable income.

This would give me $40,000 to convert before hitting $96,950 for 2025, correct?

These actual numbers may not be 100% accurate, but I'm curious if the logic for arriving at the amount I can convert is correct.

Thanks and good luck to all!

Back in 2018, I restarted from nothing after moving to Southeast Asia to build a remote business. A few months ago, I cashed out some profits from my company and used them to clear over $30K in old education debts and taxes.

Now, for the first time, I have zero debts, everything I need is fully paid off—car, motorbikes, a furnished place—and my fixed costs are super low. I went through a phase of spending a lot just because I could, going heavy on luxury, restaurants, and all the fun stuff. It was great for a while, but eventually, I came back to the realization that real freedom isn’t about spending—it’s about knowing you’re covered no matter what.

I’m not technically retired, but at this point, I have steady income, enough reserves to not worry even if I made zero for a full year, and nothing tying me down. It’s not full FIRE, but it feels like I’ve already hit the core of what makes it worth chasing. Anyone else reached this kind of stage? How did it change your perspective?

I am 20, work a part time job, and currently am in school. Prospectively I will be working a full time job in the next year and a half. I have around $7.2k in a personal account with Robinhood that is mostly VOO and some other ETFs. There is another $8.7k in a Roth IRA with a financial advisor which they do a great job with. I am basically asking If I should prioritize the personal account, or the one with the advisor. For the advisor account, I get a fantastic rate since it is a part of a family deal so I get my parents rate.

Some context: no high interest debt, maxed out / in process of maxing out tax advantaged accounts already (Roth IRA, 401k). Under 30yro. No planned expenses (e.g., car or house) in next 3-5 years.

The $50k is currently in HYSA cuz I didn’t know what else to do with it. Know I should save some of it for emergency fund (maybe 20-30k of it) but think I could probably be doing something more productive with the rest…

Leading thought is just throw it in taxable brokerage in VOO… or try to save up for down payment on rental?? Idk- pls help me out!!

What is the best order to max out accounts to invest for FIRE? I am looking at retiring by age 36. My income now is more than 3 times than I plan to spend on retirement. No consumer debt, only a low rate mortgage.

My current order is as follows

1. 401k employer match
2. Max out HSA
3. Max out Roth IRA
4. Max out 401k
5. Anything else goes to Taxable Investments

This order is the generally accepted order in traditional retirement (65 years old) when you retire with about the same income as you earned while working.

Although, With FIRE, does it make more sense to max out 401k before maxing out Roth IRA? (Assuming tax rates are similar in the future as they are today)

Let me know what you think a FIRE W2 employee should prioritize their passive investments?

What interesting and/or useful insights do you generate for FIRE purposes based on your real data?

—

I love budgeting. Part of what makes it so fun for me are the interesting insights I can draw from keeping up with a monthly budget.

I added a few tweaks to my budget this year to include some interesting (but not entirely useful), FIRE stats for myself.

I find my average monthly expenses, annualize it, add in taxes, then assume a SWR of both 4% and 5% to see what my portfolio would need to be to retire today. I take it a step further and calculate what I would need to save and invest each month to FIRE at age 50, based on today’s expenses (again, not entirely useful since I highly doubt my expenses will match today’s, but interesting nonetheless).

Me (M38) and partner (F35), have a 1 yr old. Considering one more in future. Working in tech and growing tired of it. Currently daycare is heavily discounted if we both work, and it will become free from next year.

What’s my chances of FIRE? Anything I’m missing?

• Income: $400k (me 230k + hers 170k)

• Expenses: $150k (me 80k + hers 70k. 45k of that is tax on RSUs).

• Liquid assets: $3.8M (Me 2.2M + hers 1.6M) brokerage, some crypto + cash.

• Illiquid assets: $500k (me 330k + hers 170k) 401k/pension.

• Home: $630k mortgage. interest <1%. Current market value 800k.

I've been trying to get more organized and disciplined in my investing. One of the things I undertook was create a written description of my investing goals because I thought my decisions were too much about "what do I feel is right today?"

Below is my investing statement. Have any of you done anything similar?

EDIT I'm not advocating this particular investment strategy - just using it as an example of what I've done. I'd expect most people's statements would be substantially different.

Investment Policy Statement

• Investments are primarily for the long term acquisition of wealth to fund retirement or to pass to heirs.
• Investments will be long term, buy and hold, low cost, broad market, maximum diversification. There is a preference for index funds and ETFs over mutual funds.
• Investments are for the long term - 10 years or more - and anticipate a high tolerance for risk. Investments will try to assume only market risk.
• Investments seek to exclude additional exposure to real estate because of existing, large allocations in farm land or anticipated inheritance of farm land.
• Tax efficiency is a high priority and may take priority over rebalancing - although long term efforts should be made towards the desired allocation. Investments will try to shelter tax-inefficient funds (interest bearing and dividends - especially non-qualified dividends) in tax-advantaged accounts to reduce tax drag - first in pre-tax account; then in post tax accounts. There is a preference for US treasuries because of reduced state income tax. In general, this means bonds and international in tax advantaged accounts.
• Accounts will be rebalanced yearly in Q1 and will have a goal of being monitored monthly. Dividend reinvestment is enabled for simplicity and to keep money invested if monitoring is not accomplished for some period of time.
• Investing will not attempt to time the market - exception may be made to demonstrate DCA principles to young investors.
• Long term investments, greater than 5-7 years, will seek to maintain a 90% stock allocation and a 10% short term US treasury allocation (Warren Buffett's Investment Strategy). The stock allocation may have a bias towards growth stocks. Stock allocations will be 75% broad US, 15% technology or growth, and 10% international growth. The will be no speculative asset exposure.
• Intermediate term, 1 to 10 year, investments will be placed in US treasuries or CDs. Bonds or CDs may be acquired in a ladder to increase liquidity.
• Short term investments, less than 1 year, will be placed in money market funds or 3/6/9 month US treasuries or CDs.
• Fixed amounts may be set aside for short or intermediate term uses such as student loans or home purchases.
• Investments are expected to grow at a nominal 10% average yield. Inflation is expected to average 3%. The portfolio has a 12.73% CAGR and 0.94 beta from 2020 to 2025.

Assumptions:

• Returns 10%
• Inflation 3%
• SWR 4%

Only recently started really thinking about FIREing, but realized I was at my number, though quite a lot (3/4) is in taxable, of which another 75% is in equities (broad market), sitting on 1.8MM in cap gains (yes I'm in chubby or even low-fat territory, but my question is general)

Recent conditions and market sentiment particularly the last week has made me very nervous about SORR even though I haven't actually FIRE'd yet (although I did give notice to coast-FIRE effective in about 9 months). I'm worried about seeing my portfolio drop by 20% at which point I wouldn't be at my FIRE number anymore. Five years ago, I wouldn't have cared still in the accumulation phase, it would have been a buying opportunity, but my income has actually already reduced 40% since then

I have moved all money in tax-advantaged to bond/cash (which probably should have been where the bonds were all along) but am thinking about the large chunk of equity exposure in the taxable

Anyone in the peri-FIRE time period thinking about taking a cap gains hit and moving out of equities until some dust settles?

My question is how should one allocation the portfolio in 2025 if you in retirement stage?

The 4% is based on the 60 stock/40 bond split with 95% successful rate and based on my reading, a 100% stocks allocation has a higher failure rate.

However, often I read in reddit that people are suggesting doing 100% stock with all in VOO or mix with VTI, not only during the accumulate years, but also in retirement.

Do people still do 40% bond in 2025? If so, are you going with company bond? T-Bill? TIPs? Or totally different, like Gold?

What are some things I need to do between now and 3/31 to ensure a smooth transition to FIRE at 47?

Currently 2.13 mil in savings. Have a $3800 monthly disability pension as well.

Hello,

I'm a 26 year old. Currently, I own several accounts including HYSA, Roth, 401k, HSA and a taxable account. My total portfolio is about 40% cash and 60% in index funds and etfs. I have a taxable brokerage account and it is also all index funds(85% US and 15% international, trying to rebalance into more international funds across my accounts). My taxable account has two purposes, 1) act as a buffer if I decide to retire early between when I retire and when I can withdraw from retirement accounts and 2) allow me to pay for a downpayment on house when an opportunity opens up. I have enough cash savings to allow me to survive an emergency for 1 year or more. I am trying to rebalance my portfolio and looking at my options. I'm alright with having full equities in my retirement accounts but I don't want the risk of having all my taxable brokerage account to be all equities since I may need to withdraw from it early and I don't want the volatility. However, investing in bond funds in a taxable account has tax implications. Is there anyone with a similar retirement and life goal who would be able to guide me?

Age 29, make about 80k, about $220k in retirement accounts invested in mostly sp500 and some choice individual stocks for fun

Hear me out. I know people here will advise that I should enjoy life now while I'm young, but I would rather max out early and then ween off the max contributions since time is more important with compound interest, rather than invest low and take trips now and max out later on.

I'm in just the right spot that I can max out 401k, IRA, and HSA (so far for the last 2-3 years) but it leaves me with just enough for expenses and a little bit of liquid savings for emergencies.

I don't really splurge on vacations or shopping trips. Im very frugal since starting m aggressive savings journey, but it has become a habit. A habit I'm not necessarily opposed to because I'm glad to save. I just always had the goal of being super aggressive early and then when compounding interest really starts to take off on its own, reduce contributions and have some fun spending while it's still growing.

I know there isn't a definite answer but around when can I start to ween off the max annual contributions and have more liquid spending money?

I choose to live in a very crappy home to reduce rent, and meal prep where I can. I'm satisfied with the same 15 Tshirts Ive had for the last decade and don't buy more just because they look cool. I dont eat out and when I do it's not even a treat because eating out for me is just using the McDonald's app for a cheap meal that I don't have to cook. I'm fortunate for a cheap rent, but it comes at the cost of some happiness because it's very limited space with no animals allowed (I'm single and would like a pet companion for company). A step up in living arrangement would be about double my rent now.

Basically I limit myself a lot in hopes for a more fruitful and laid back future, but it feels like a grind. I want to enjoy it soon. Any advice besides the usual "just spend money now"?

What are the best fire calcs? Also are there any that model different scenarios based on planned breaks in savings? For example, I’d like to model scenarios like: 1. The impact of a 1-2 year sabbatical; 2. What it would look like if I stopped saving for retirement in 5 years but then started saving again at year 8; 3. How many more years would my FIRE plan be extended if I sent my kids to private school…and other similar scenarios.

TIA!

Hello FIRE community. I need some help/advice about life insurance. I (26F) have considered taking out a life insurance policy. I figured since I am still young but have a chronic condition it will only get more expensive. I do not plan to have children to pass the money on to but I do plan to use the policy as an investment to borrow against in the future. Is it even worth having a life insurance policy? What are your opinions on life insurance?

Edit: Thank you everyone for the opinions. I think I need to stay off finance tiktok for a while and do some more research on term insurance policies. But as most of you said if I do not have dependents it would not be worth it. Thank you again!!