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I am burnt out in a job I hate, as a working mom of two littles. My husband loves his job and is supportive of me taking a career break. The break would be approx 1 year, but I realize it could be longer, depending on how long it takes me to find a new job, but I would like to find something part time, so assume my income is decreasing significantly. I am ready to quit after bonus payout this year, but I want to make sure we're set up with an appropriate emergency fund and liquid savings to use in case we find ourselves going over budget during this period.

Expenses: currently $11k/mo. Plan to reduce to $10k in my career break.

Current income: 400-500k. We were saving close to half of our income.

New income: 200-250k but a lot of it is bonus money so not totally reliable for a regular paycheck.

Investments: 2.8M ($1M brokerage, $700k in 401ks, $1.1M inherited IRA but will be taxable to withdraw - we are required to do this over next few years so this may be a time to do it in a lower tax bracket) All primarily s&p index funds.

Cash: $210k (high yield savings, now at 3.7%)

I am trying to figure out what to do with this cash. It's been sitting there in a high yield savings account but with interest rates moving downward, would it make sense to move a portion to bonds, CDs, or high dividend index fund, so we could use the dividends and interest to supplement our income if needed?

Would you change anything else in your investment strategy when taking a career break? It feels like a time of uncertainty and my gut is to hoard cash, but I know that's likely not the smartest thing to do.

I started a new job last year and finally have access to a 401k. I have been contributing to a traditional IRA and was able to contribute to it tax-free as a result of not having a 401k previously. Last year (2024) I made a $6500 (post-tax) contribution and have mixed the funds (pre-tax and post-tax) in the tIRA. I want to start to backdoor Roth this year and my understand is as follows:

1. $60k traditional IRA now falls under pro-rata rule.

2. Rollover traditional IRA to 401k, pay taxes on ~11% (6500/60000) of the tIRA

3. Have a clean tIRA account to do the backdoor Roth IRA for 2025

Is my understanding of this correct? I know I should have probably done the rollover of the tIRA into the 401k in 2024, before contributing the $6500, but that's done now unfortunately. Would appreciate any insight.

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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I questioned whether this post belonged here or in r/personalfinance. I decided it makes more sense here and that the people here probably have more in common with my view points and the discussions that I aim to have.

M29 almost 30, currently unmarried with no children.

Present value of my retirement portfolio is just under 110k which is quite substantial for my age. I was lucky enough to get a good financial backing when young and ended up getting a finance/accounting degree so money is something I aim to understand well.

Here comes the math.

Salary: $70,000 401k contribution: 9% (5% personal + 4% company match) Annual Salary Increase: 4.5% (estimate based on small sample size)

I built an excel document to project out portfolio balances based on a variety of variables that I can change and adjust to test different withholding percentages, return rates, & inflation rates.

I am currently using a 35 year investment timeframe, I know retiring at 65 isn’t early but it is retiring which is more than a lot of people my age expect to do.

With a 10% stock return, a 2.5% inflation rate, annual deferral rate of 9%, & a present value of ~110k I calculate the FV to be 5.6M in 2060 dollars or 2.3M in 2025 dollars.

When I add in my rough annual salary increase, assuming it maintains its historical pattern of beating inflation then those numbers become 6.9M & 2.9M respectively. This does not account for career advancement. This is assuming I spend every dollar other than the 5% that I am deferring. Which obviously is hopefully not the case.

Translating those retirement account balances into retirement spending utilizing the 4% withdrawal rule I’m getting 93k/year and 114k/year spending power in 2025 dollars between my two methods. Which is above what my current salary is but I have yet to really hit my “stride” as far as living a good life so I know my expenses will go up with time and of course there is medical care to be aware of in retirement.

I rent and don’t have short term plans of becoming a homeowner. I currently date and could see myself marrying at some point. Children or at least child could be on the table for discussion pending financial ability. There in lies the question. I don’t feel like I’m financially well off enough to be thinking about children. I am in the first few years of my career having taken some time to finish my degree. I’m still very much in the young adult life stage of living on my own and learning how expensive the world is to exist in. Which is weirdly contrasted by how much I’ll theoretically have in retirement accounts at age 65.

I guess I am just looking for a neutral party to review where I am at in my financial independence journey. I feel behind because my lack of emergency fund as well as my inability to go do the things that I want to do with my time, energy, & youth.

TL;DR M30 110k in retirement accounts, 70k salary, feeling behind financially. Please confirm or deny if I’m being an idiot.

Pure Math Section:

Static Contribution Model:

PV: 110,000

n: 35

Payment: $6,300

r: 10%

FV=$5,583,487

Annual retirement income (4%)=$223,339 (2060 Dollars)

FV=$5,583,487

n: 35

r:2.5%

PV=$2,329,663

Annual retirement income (4%)=$93,187 (2025 Dollars)

Variable Contribution Model:

PV: 110,000

n: 35

Payment: 9% of $70,000 Salary which increases at an estimated 4.5% annually

r: 10%

FV=$6,879,774

Annual retirement income (4%)=$275,191 (2060 Dollars)

FV=$6,879,774

n: 35

r:2.5%

PV=$2,870,528

Annual retirement income (4%)=$114,821 (2025 Dollars)

There might be computational errors in my second model due to the complicated nature of the document but I believe the number is within a reasonable standard and I have confidence in the work that I did in creating it. Unable to post the model at the present but I may look at recreating it in google sheets in order to facilitate sharing it at some point in the future.

EDIT: Mobile formatting, I’m sorry.

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Use this thread to talk about your blog, talk about your business, ask for feedback, etc. If the self-promotion starts to leak outside of this thread, we will once again return to a time where 100% of self-promotion posts are banned. Please use this space wisely.

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Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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Mid 30 couple with 2 toddlers finally looking into term life insurance. Sorry. We already have 500K saved up, FI date is about 15 years out with a projected amount of 2M in today’s money. We are planning to take out a 20 year term life insurance for both of us to ensure we do hit the 2M FI in 15 years even if one passes away, as well as our kids are generationally taken care of. For us, that requires my wife take out a 500K policy and I take a 1M policy.

In my greed crunching the numbers, I realize if we simply take out a 1.5M plan instead, the living spouse immediately hits FI. To pay for that, we are talking about an extra $100 / month, or 2 meals out, or a few streaming services plus popcorn money, etc.

Am I stupid to be ‘greedy’? Am I stupid not being greedy? It’s midnight, the kids will be awake in 5 hours and I’ve been circling this thought for too long. Somebody smarter than me please suggest the even better option I’m not thinking about . Thank you.

I have been considering a career break for quite some time. I have talked myself out of it, mostly due to fear around finances and the future. That said, I am burned out. My husband and I (ages 43 and 42) are DINKS and it will remain that way. We're considering taking a 2-3 month trip to Europe in the late fall through winter this year. My husband can easily take a sabbatical and return to work, which is his plan. It will be nearly impossible for me to get a sabbatical after new management came in, so I will likely have to quit ot take FMLA. My Therapist has confirmed all signs point to burnout and I know it's going to be a tough 2025 at my employer. I have been in my role for 13 years through 7 management changed and multiple acquisitions, so I have solid tenure. I have been in therapy for years, exercise regulary, eat fairly well, cut out alcohol, take trips annually etc. & still feel this way. I have essentially worked in some capacity since I was 18. Has anyone experienced this and have any stories or thoughts? Also, here are our financial details:

$950,000 in retirement and investment accounts, pretty evenly split

$150,000 in an HYSA

$75,000 additionally earmarked for the trip and time off

We just bit the bullet and paid off are home. (Worth roughly $500K)

No other deft - cars and student loans have been paid off

Annual spending is changing after the mortgage was paid off, and will likely be $60,000.

I plan to save the next 8 months for the earmarked cost of the trip and my subsequent 2-3 months off.

Other notes: My income has increased dramatically the past few years, so we were able to save a lot and pay off our home, so this is why I'm finally considering this break. My husband's income will cover the basics. He will return to work after the trip. We plan to mostly retire in our mid-50's, but my husband wants to continue to work in a part-time capacity and I'm not opposed to it either.

Thanks in advance!

We reached $1M in investments last year. Also, have a pension.

Started off with a $1,000 investment in 2003. Only I (45F) had paying job. My husband (45M) did college, and then stayed home with our kids after they were born until last year. So, for the past 20+ years, we've been a one-income family.

Started by investing $25 per month, per IRA in 2003, and gradually increased until I could max both of them out a few years later. In about 2018/2019, I started investing in my work TSP (military) and maxing it out. (I know, I should've started investing in this when it first became available in 2006/2007 to me, but I didn't.)🙁

I retired from the military last year, and two months later, our investments were at $1M. I can no longer contribute to the TSP, but I still add to our IRAs, and I plan to continue adding to our taxable brokerage accounts as well.

We have two children. One college-aged, the other still in high school. College will be paid for both due to military benefits.

We currently live in Germany - my husband now has a part-time job to allow us to stay out here. I currently stay home and will probably start college courses soon. Medical is mostly paid for by retirement benefits. Cost of living is a bit less here than in the US.

No big bills (we sold our house before we left the US, so no mortgage and now we rent an apartment in Germany); we're a one-car family and also use public transportation if we need to; credit card bills are paid off within a month or two (if the purchase was large); no loans. We do enjoy lots of travel...lots...and some of it can be expensive...so that's our only big thing.

My pension and disability payments come out to around $100K per year, so we're definitely not strapped for money.

My question: With this amount in investments and it slowly continuing to grow, coupled with my pension/disability...are we set? When in initially made our calculations, we needed about $1.5M, but that was before taking into account pension (not to mention disability).

I feel like with my pension/disability alone, we should be good to go, but I just don't know if I should be considering something else. Also, we really like traveling and that can add up.

Any suggestions?

EDIT: Annual expenses (excluding contributions to investments) are around $70-75K. These are just things like bills, necessities, and subscriptions/etc., (I track everything, even if we only pay it once a year).

Travel kind of depends on where we're going. If it's a big trip, I do tend to save up as much as I can ahead of time to pay as well go, or charge it to a credit card and then pay off so we get the points. Typical trips can range from $3-10K, although we did have a $50K trip...but I saved up for 3 years before we went on that and I basically paid it completely off as I purchased things or when we returned. That was a very unique trip, though, so costs were unusually high.

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35M, Wife 34F

LCOL Area in Southeast

2 kids: 3.5 yr/1yr

Household Income: $360k

W2 Combined $330K W2 Jobs in Med Tech/Human Resources

Rental properties $30k annually

Annual expense is $90k

Assets:

Cash: $100k,

401(k): $700k

Roth IRA: $250k

Taxable Brokerage (Stocks/VTI/VOO): $2.5M,

Investment Real Estate Equity: $650k,

529 Plan: $47k

Personal Residence Equity: $300k (Worth $395k owe $95k @ 3.8%)

Only Debt $26k Vehicle (5.4% interest $600 month) currently paid by company reimbursement

FIRE GOAL

Wife is not interested in working her job anymore ($150k of the total combined Income above). She is having to put in long hours, not allowing enough time with kids. She wants to stay home full-time. I would like to change roles in next 2-3 years and pursue a career that fits my true passion, would lead to a big pay cut (New Role pay $60-75k annually) would include health benefits.

My current fear is due to the age of our children I am underestimating future costs. I want to support them financially via college tuition, weddings etc. Also, with the real estate/stock market on a huge bull run, a potential market reset is a real risk. I don't want to touch the money in retirement accounts, which leaves around $3million in non-retirement investments to draw off of. My current calculation ($3.1 million x 3.5%) = $110k plus $30k in rental income ($140k annual income that wouldn't impact investment principle).

We have always been very frugal but have already noticed a sizeable bump in expenses with children mainly from daycare costs.

I would love any suggestions on if you think we are in a position to make this move, and any other things to consider.

Early in the days of this forum, people thought 2000 would turn out to be one of the worst times to retire. A 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate is usually the starting point for people on this sub when starting to think about how much they'll need when they retire, and by 2009 it looked like year-2000 retirees would be one of the few cohorts who wouldn't succeed with a 4% SWR lasting 30 years (after just 9 years their portfolio would have dropped by 77%). So, at the end of each year I like to look at their performance.

Data

This rough analysis looks at the results of different withdrawal rates under 2 scenarios, 100% invested in S&P 500, and a 60/40 split between SP500/10-YR-Treasuries. It adjusts for inflation, assumes dividends/interest are reinvested, and uses fixed withdrawal rates based on the starting portfolio amount (like with the 4% SWR rule).

https://imgur.com/a/To5mreB

Thoughts

2024 was a good year for these retirees. It is unclear if a 4% SWR will make it the standard 30 years with a 100% stock allocation, but with a 60/40 allocation it is almost certain to last for 30 years. If you have a much longer retirement horizon than 30 years, then you'd want much more of your portfolio remaining at this point, and a withdrawal rate of 2.5-3% would have worked out better with the 60/40 portfolio.

There's two reasons I think it's worth looking at this cohort. First, it is a real and recent example of a situation where there were big negative returns early in your retirement period. So it provides a good opportunity to think about how you might handle a similar situation. Second, because it's worth remembering that you are disproportionately likely to voluntarily retire at a bad time. A lot of people were retiring when stocks were reaching all time highs in 1999 and 2000, but very few people were choosing to stop working while their portfolios were dropping in 2001-2003. Big ERN as a good article on this: https://earlyretirementnow.com/2017/12/13/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-22-endogenous-retirement-timing/

What does this mean going forward? Well, I have an absolutely terrible track record of predicting stock market trends; when I retired about 10 years ago I thought we were heading toward a major correction in the next few years! I'm still pessimistic about future returns, so these results are comforting to me. During what (I think) was the worst time to retire in the past 50 years, your portfolio would have mostly maintained it's value with a 3.5% fixed SWR over a 25 year period if you had some bonds to go with your equities. My 3% withdrawal rate should be safe!

Source

ERN's data that I used: https://earlyretirementnow.com/2018/08/29/google-sheet-updates-swr-series-part-28/ . You can use this to look at different asset allocations and to adjust other assumptions. If you don't want to work with the raw data directly, he has some tools in the spreadsheet that will do the analysis for you when you adjust assumptions.

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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34M, $1.5M NW (joint with spouse). ~$1M in non-retirement accounts.

Thankfully had some high income roles and lucky investment success during this roaring bull market for equities. Current company is pivoting in their mission and my role is no longer necessary so my role was eliminated. Saw the writing on the wall for months so not a shock.

Had been planning on moving this summer when our lease ends to be closer to family and finding new work then, but now that I am out of work earlier than anticipated, I think it makes sense to take advantage of this period and explore funemployment for a few months until closer to the move. (In addition, the tech job market is not what it used to be, so I'm expecting the job search to take some time regardless).

This is a radical shift in mindset from my entire working life - where income/savings maximization was a number 1 priority and the total break between jobs across my life has totaled just 3 weeks.

For those who have had similar pauses in their FIRE journey, how did you overcome the mental hurdle of "number not going up" for an indefinite period of time? My rational brain knows I have enough of a nest egg to support this time out of work while still having a strong financial future, but it's totally foreign to me to be out of work for an indefinite period of time, so there's some natural anxiety there.

Hey everyone,

I know the saying "comparison is the thief of joy," but I'm curious to hear what you would do in my situation. I'm approaching 31 years old this July and have been with my girlfriend for 5 years. While I don't plan on proposing until the end of next year, we're currently renting and I’d rather wait to purchase a home until we are engaged or married.

Here’s a breakdown of my current assets:

• No Savings Account (just used my $5K to pay down debts)
• Traditional 401K: $91,500
• Roth IRA (After Tax): $35,600
• Brokerage account #1 (index funds): $29,100
• Brokerage account #2 (stocks, dividends): $33,900
• Coinbase: $0 but I plan to invest $500 a month into BTC & ETH
• $5000 in credit debt

Right now, I have roughly $2,500 to $3,000 a month to save and invest. How would you allocate that money? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Thanks in advance!

I am wondering whether I can retire now or whether I should work longer? I am a 49 year old single female. Kids are adults and independent. I have a net worth of 1.7 million Canadian dollars. I live in a low cost of living city in Canada.

My TFSA and RRSP accounts are maxed out. In total I have $750,000 in investment funds, mostly index funds. I don’t have a pension from my work. But can collect CPP and OAS when I am eligible.

In addition, my primary residence of $650,000 is paid off. No mortgage.

Rental property #1 is worth $550,000. The mortgage on that is $350,000.

Rental property #2 is worth $350,000. The mortgage on that is $250,000.

I have no other debt other than the mortgages. Can I retire now or should I keep working? I live a very minimalistic life, and don’t spend much money on stuff.

I make a total of $1000 on both my rentals combined each month. I can live on $40,000 a year.

34M, I was lucky enough to have the right colleagues in my life when I started my career about 8 years ago mentoring me on making sure I set up my 401K immediately and even though I've only contributed enough to get the match all this time, it's hard to believe how fast it all accumulates. I've run the numbers and FI by 48 is a conservative trajectory and that's assuming my income never even goes up.

I know what my savings rate should be in order to get there. The biggest unknown for me still is I'm only dating right now. I understand that finding someone who aligns with my financial goals is imperative for longterm compatibility. I think a partner on the same page would possibly even just accelerate things.

Curious to hear other's stories on whether they discovered FI/RE before meeting their partners? Or after and yet both got on the same page? How many discovered it and could never get their partner on board etc.

Not to say that this is the only important goal in life, at the very least I need someone who is simply responsible with money. Even if I did retire at 48, I would would keep up part-time work. Not simply stop working.

Getting married in the near future and trying to plan honeymoon. For the dream trip, I believe it would be ~17.5K all in for 9 nights, covering most of the cost with a Costco package and assuming a few grand for activities

Both at the end of our 20s, have a joint nw of around 500k excluding home equity. Probably 50k cash reserves and gross income of around 180k. Luckily majority of wedding will be covered by parents. On the other hand would feel a little guilty spending so much on vacation after our parents are helping so much on the wedding so that we don’t have to dip way into savings. Conflicted as feels like we are well off enough that we can afford it but not well off enough that it is wise

Would love some outside opinions

Edit: thanks all for advice so far. This is bora bora / moorea so the majority of the cost would be for the overwater huts. 2.5-3k for boat rides, jet skis, a spa morning for her, etc is probably overshooting it by a wide margin, but figured would estimate high. Have not discussed with parents at all

Been following this sub for 3 years now. Learned a lot from other members and enjoyed reading from others.

It’s time to share my milestone.

It’s going to be 10 years in 6 months since I moved to US.

31M, stay at home wife with 1 kid(2 yr) W2: 140k + 20k in tier 2 city based in North East Networth: 970k

Salary progression: gross Working since 2017: 85k 2018: 94k 2019:98k 2020: 100k 2021: 105k +15k, started contributing to 401k, hsa, roth ira, married 2022: 117k+20k 2023: 127k + 20k 2024: 136k + 22k

Rental-1: 490k mortgage @5.875, worth 775k, gross rents: 6500, 4 unit

Rental-2: 340k mortgage @6.375, worth 550k, gross rents: 4000, 2 unit

Land: 120k, planning to build a 2 unit once permit is approved by city(working with surveyor currently)

Rental-3: 585k mortgage @6.375 worth 650k, gross rents: 3200, I live in one 2bed apartment, total of 3 units.

I only pay water/sewer, all other utilities are paid by tenants.

401k: 150k(all vested) - attached current positions Roth Ira: 20k HSA: 19k 529: 3k Gold & Diamonds: 100k, I know, I know, it’s a cultural thing, bought it over time for my wife. Diamonds value is only 5k of it.

This is all since 2020. All income I earned before 2020, I purchased a home with 2 rentals on 2nd floor for my parents, worth: 200k And purchased an apartment and single family for my brother, both worth around 120k.

I’m frugal when it comes to materials, but I splurge on experiences. We go international vacations every other year and domestic vacations twice a year. After 31, my thought process changed a lot.

If you are willing to work and minimal smartness, you can achieve your goals in this country. My family couldn’t afford to pay our(3 siblings) school fees when I was in middle school, they used to send us home(very common to go to private schools in my country) to get some money before exams, my dad gave us around $5 each and send us back to school. Achieving the current state feels so good.

Goals:

• Hope to buy a single family in 2-3 years if I can save 10% down payment for 600-650k
• Increase my w2 income

Hi all, I’m a long-time management consultant and the pace, travel and stressful projects are slowly starting to take a toll on my health.  Stats below – but the crux of my internal debate is 1) Do I try to tough it out and make it ~ 4 more years for FI ($3M Goal) and I can Rule of 55?  Or 2) Do I slow down now, either PT independent consulting or find an in-house corporate job, knowing I may have to work a few years longer but at a more reasonable pace.

My wife (47/F) and I (51/M) have 2 children (20 & 17). 

$1.58M in pre-tax 401k, IRAs

$340K taxable brokerage

$64k in HYSA

$28k HSA

$620k paid off house in HCOL area

~$400k current combined income.  My wife makes $80k and will continue to work (and will carry health, etc. benefits for the family). 

529s for both kids.  Child 1 has enough in his account to cover his last 2 semesters of college.  Child 2 we’re short about $50k to meet our commitment to him.  Currently planning to cover through cash flow.

Expenses - $10k per month would reasonably cover our expenses in retirement but aiming for ~$13k to allow for additional travel/social/etc.

 Early Retirement for me means getting out of this consulting grind/lifestyle.  I envision continuing to work when retired, likely part-time, at a golf course, non-profit, Veteran’ organization, etc.  Something more closely aligned to a personal passion but that also generates a little spending money.  If I slow down now, I’ll need to find something that pays much better than those roles.

Last – I believe I have enough FU money to quit my job (sabbatical probably not an option) and take the summer off, reset, and decide my next move…but it’s so hard to get my brain around “leaving money on the table” if I go. 

Thoughts on whether or not my financial situation is strong enough that I can make a change?

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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As the title says, I have collected data to see which cities are theoretically easiest to save in, factoring in average rent as the highest living expense, however not factoring in transportation or food costs.

Here is a link to the entire table on Google Sheets.

Here is the table snapshotted as PNG.

Sources are listed by the table, but they are here:

Income Tax by location

US Census Bureau for median gross income

Apartment average rent by city or state

Worth noting the median income is household income, which means it includes married couples filing jointly (before anyone gets shocked at the numbers being higher than expected). I'd make it individual incomes, but that doesn't seem obtainable on the census bureau.

Take into account that top cities like Gilbert may end up costing more than lower cities (ie Seattle) due to transportation costs being higher (car requirement, longer distance between places).

Hi All,

I'm a 43M with a wife (42F) and a 10-year-old daughter. I'm contemplating taking an extended break from work because my job has been stressful with long hours, and I want to spend more time with my family. My wife is fully supportive, and she runs her own consulting business, which she plans to continue. I’ve done a lot of financial calculations, but since I’ve never discussed this with anyone outside my wife (who defers to me on these decisions), I wanted to post here to get feedback on any blind spots or risks I may not be considering.

Income:

• My W2 income: ~$170K/year (family's health insurance is through this job; this will be lost if I quit)
• Wife's income: ~$240K/year (S-corp business; she plans to continue running it)

Expenses:

• Current monthly expenses: ~$15K
  • Potential savings: ~$2K/month (I could handle household work and cut expenses)
  • ACA health insurance quotes: ~$2K/month (negates the household savings, so expenses likely stay ~$15K/month)

Liabilities:

• Mortgage: $230K remaining (2.75% fixed rate; I plan to make minimum payments)
• No other loans or debts

Assets:

• Post-Tax Brokerage: $950K (invested mostly in VTSAX/VTI, ~10% bonds/individual stocks)
• My 401(k): $912K
• Wife’s SEP IRA: $177K
• Wife’s Roth IRA: $74K
• My Roth IRA: $82K
• Company ESPP: $50K
• Daughter’s 529: $37K
• Home equity: ~$400K

Questions:

1. Are there any potential risks, blind spots, or costs I’m not accounting for?
2. Do you see any financial concerns if we break even annually with my wife’s income while investments grow over time?
3. Any specific steps I should take to ensure this break doesn’t derail our long-term goals?

We are open to relocating to a lower cost of living (LCOL) area in the U.S. or exploring expat FIRE options once our daughter heads to college in about 8 years. I’m also open to returning to the workforce or helping my wife grow her business in the future, depending on how things pan out. This is my first post here, so please let me know if there are any additional details I might have missed. Thanks!

I’m posting this to try to get some feedback from this community on whether or not my wife and I could exit the work force now.

We are 37, live in Brisbane (Australia), both working, one kid and likely one more in the next year or so. I currently earn about $220k before tax, my wife makes about $460k. Obviously when we retire that income will go away and we will be relying on the below situation:

• A property portfolio, making around $55k per year after expenses.
• A share portfolio, making around $52k in dividends
• One of us has a pension, making $74k. It’s indexed to CPI so will increase over time but will stop when we reach age 65.
• A mortgage of $264k.

We also have about $530k Super (Australia’s version of the 401k), which we don’t plan to touch until we are in our 60’s or 70’s (or maybe not at all).

All of these numbers are in Australian Dollars.

I think it’s obvious that we could retire now if it were just my wife and I, but with a young family I’m not so sure. What are people’s thoughts on this level of income supporting a family indefinitely?

Long-time lurker on FI and finally bit the bullet on contributing to the conversation! Wanted to share where I'm at after doing my EOY 2024 review as my last paychecks come in (bonus just hit my bank account); any advice on asset allocation/short-term goals are very much appreciated! The goal is to make bi-annual update posts like this one as a financial self-review and to contribute to the community I've learned so much from! TIA all

The Basics: mid 20s, VHCOL, 135 base, 2024 bonus came in at 80 (got a raise to 145 base for 2025). Single with no large assets (home, car, etc.) so figured I will pummel in as much money into liquid investments before responsibilities start compounding.

Goals:

• Long-term would like to FIRE in the range of 40-45
• Medium-term I'm focused on getting my income as high and stable as possible and save up for a down payment to buy a primary residence in the next 5-7 years.
• Short term will have to anticipate a job switch this year, where I'm not convinced I will be able to replicate my TC, so aim to have about 6mo of short-term cash

2025 financial goals:

• 200k in retirement accounts (401k - pretax and MBDR, backdoor Roth)
• 210k in taxable brokerage
• 25k saved/invested earmarked for house down payment
• Overall NW of ~440k including cash/emergency fund by EOY 2025

Current Stats (Jan 2025):

• 157k in taxable brokerage, 95% VTI
• 90k in 401k (mostly pre-tax with ~15k MBDR, includes a vested 12.5% match on each $ I contribute for pre-tax and will hit a vesting cliff later in the year that brings up my vested match to 25%), 100% in VTI or mutual fund equivalents
• 43k in Roth IRA (have been contributing backdoor the last few years and just maxed out my 2025 contribution!), 100% in VTI
• 25k in MMF as an emergency fund (SGOV for favorable state tax treatment)
• 15k in future down payment

Questions:

• I am not convinced on the math of renting vs. buying especially in VHCOL when I'm most likely going to retire in a MCOL/HCOL - does it make sense to invest my down payment in the meantime in something like VTI/SGOV 80/20 and slowly move into 100% SGOV as I get closer to buying a place? At what time horizon does the math of investing down payment money make sense vs. short term bonds/HYSA?
• I have not been doing tax-loss harvesting - most of my investments are in VTI which has netted positive, when/does it make sense to do tax-loss harvesting?
• I've been living off my base and intend to save the entirety of my bonus. Given my lumpy one-time bonus payments, would it make sense to pummel first few paychecks to 401k to let an early match (my employer does this) grow over the year and float some expenses using my bonus, or dump the bonus into my brokerage?

I posted a little over 1 year ago and had meant to post again at the end of 2024. I am a little late but thought I'd go ahead and do it now. We are four person household with two earners and two young children.

2023 Post

Rough Investment/Cash Timeline (Excluding home):

Income:

HHI: ~$240K

Me: ~$145K

Spouse: ~$72K

Ecommerce:~$22K

In the last year my spouse received a raise while I did not. Our side business profits doubled, and we will continue working on that at a slow pace.

Expenses:

$75k-$80K

I do find that we are spending a bit more than in previous years. I think this is a combination of inflation and purposeful spending. We do not budget or even log spending very closely. We are both low spenders naturally and I have been looking at the broad spending a few point during the year to keep track of overall expenses. Currently no intention change this as things are working. Possibly even increasing our spending a bit more.

Goals:

$2.5M

Our current goal is about $2.5m with a SWR of 3.5% $87K spend. An optimistic goal is to hit that in the next ~5 years.

There is a very high likelihood my spouse will continue working 5-10 years after we hit FI, and in the last year I have been debating what I will do. Our youngest child would be in full time school by then and my current job has become very low stress (and low hours). At the very least I'd probably continue to run our ecommerce business if that is still around, with a reasonable likelihood I would keep working. I also would like to support our kids in college so, that will likely tip the scales.

I am still very much emotionally invested in FI. Nothing is guaranteed, and money doesn't fix everything, but if we lost an income, or jobs became unbearable, or many other situations can be mitigated with enough money put away.

I am using new retirement/bolden. Their monte Carlo says we have 89% chance of success. Under my assumptions, my portfolio will grow to $28m in today's dollars at age 100. The poor outcome they calculate is 90% chance of having at least this screnario....The poor outcome scenario shows we run out of money at 98 which we could easily course correct and cut expenses earlier in retirement if we arent trending favorably.

How do people interpret this? It just feels like this is overly conservative and we can retirement earlier. Having 28m at age 100 feels like a massive failure in the sense that we could have retired earlier.

It goes without saying that the 4% rule is a good rule of thumb when you're first starting off, but a real model requires more granularity. Now that I'm 10+ years into my FIRE journey, I need a serious think about how much I really need. [Edited for formatting and with example numbers.]

Tranche 1 (baseline FIRE number):

*Projected annual spend in retirement: $70,000

*Taxes: $12,000 (assume 15% effective tax rate)

*Healthcare premiums: $28,000 for 10 years from age 55-65 ($2,000/month after tax)

*Support for my kids: $41,500 for 10 years until they're 30 ($1,500/month/kid after tax. Conservative estimate)

Add in Social Security at age 65, discounted 25% to account for potential trust fund running out. Throw this into FI Calc, and it spits out $2.5M

Tranche 2 (self-insurance for long term care):

This is just my home equity. Let's say $1M.

Tranche 3 (fun):

I'm setting the withdrawal rate for this at 5-6%, because I won't need it for 30 years, and not a big deal if it runs out. Let's say $50,000/year for another $1M.

So my FIRE net worth number is $2.5+1+1=4.5M. Does this make sense? Is there something I'm forgetting? Are any of the numbers I have out of whack?

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