I am a new grad making $62,000 working 4 days a week. I have $50,000 in student loan debt that I am trying to rigorously pay off during its grace period (paying about $2,000 a month towards it). I have no credit card debt. I have 5k in savings and have 2k a month in expenses. I want to eventually be financially free and become a homeowner someday with my partner.
I work in healthcare and could work a 5th day, but it would be physically taxing and cause me to leave the profession early due to burnout. (This is something I am thinking of doing twice a month for extra income)
I am expecting a 20,000 check from a settlement in the upcoming months that I expect to put mostly towards my student loans and some in emergency savings. I would like to try to invest in S&P, and save towards my wedding in the future. Any advice on how I can take steps now to be financially comfortable? Thanks !

Currently maxing out and would like to invest more, did lotta research but unable to find any. wassup?

When do rates change for HYSA? Is it yearly or a monthly thing? I just want a stable income.

Bought a house in October 2020 with a 2.5% rate. Normally I’d never pay something off early at that rate but I’m planning to retire in 2038 and I’m torn whether to pay off early or keep it the full term. I can pay an extra 600 a month and pay it off by late 2038 (I’ve already prepaid about 12k early and I can afford the difference). Projected retirement income Is 15k a month and mortgage is 2200. I suspect my spouse will keep working 3-5 years after I hang it up. Obviously projections require a whole lotta things to go right to become reality. For those of you that retired with a mortgage do you regret it?? What would you do in my situation??

So I am a 44M who is currently unemployed since August 2023. Having a hard time finding a job in my field. I have $664K in my IRA and $114K in a Roth. $18 in an emergency fund which covers 6 months mortgage. Also have $10K cash for a down payment to replace my 2008 Xterra. $44K in a high yield savings account.

My wife make $133K per year and has $250K in her 403b and is maxing out annual contributions.

Have a $450K left on the mortgage and $39K in student loans for my wife as our only debt.

I’m sick of the corporate grind and kinda want to say F it and get a job as a bartender or work at Costco just to get insurance.

My perfect scenario is to move to an island with a LCOL, get a low stress job and have my wife work as a nurse. Not sure I can convince her of that though.

Am I just dreaming or could I actually make this happen?

For those of you who have reached your FIRE goal or are doing well professionally, how many years do you think is the right amount to stay in any one particular job before moving to the next. In the context of increasing your salary as high as possible so saving and investments can be maxed out. Thanks.

I'm interested in retiring but I'm not sure it's enough.

Hi all,

I (22m) am about to graduate soon, and as I approach graduation I’ve been coming up with goals I want to achieve by approximately 30. One of those goals being substantial finance security, security in which I could FIRE on and possibly choose to keep working if I feel inclined.

As for some background on me, I grew up extremely poor, and I’d very much like the opposite for myself and my future family. I’m a US native citizen, I am about to graduate from a T10 college in the US with a bachelors in CS, and I’m professionally fluent in several (human) languages. I have $15k in savings currently, almost all of which is currently in CDs. I have 0 family net worth that will be transferred to me (if anything there will be debt). However I will inherit in an indefinite amount of years a condo near a lower tier ski resort. I’ve done the math on my expenses, and my monthly necessities expenditure will be roughly $1200 a month (rent included), and my starting salary will be $~45k working in research at a top university/hospital, where I will also be getting my masters (for free, expensed by the university) in another unrelated STEM field and perhaps a PhD later.

If you were in my shoes, what would be your game plan to achieving FIRE with these initial conditions? What is your advice for investing, saving, etc?

Health Check! 25f starting a new job

Hi!

I am 25m and am very new to FIRE. I am starting a new job at comp of 105k + 22k bonus + 11,250 in stock options a year in VHCOL area in high tax state.

I am hoping you lovely people can help me out with defining realistic goals and how I can best manage and start building towards them.

Current Stats:

Total liquid: $20,000

Total taxable brokerage: $37,000

Total retirement accounts: $51,000

Debt: None currently, but my car is on last legs and a replacement will be needed soon

Recurring Expenses: $1,100 housing and utilities (many roommates)

$250 groceries

$300 restaurants and entertainment

$120 Transportation

$500 misc spending

It is clear my spending needs reducing and my saving needs increasing. That is my goal for the immediate future.

What I am needing help with is how and where to set goals.

Should I max out my 401k, beyond the company match? if yes, how do I spend out of it when I (hopefully) retire under 60?

How do I make a yearly spend budget? How do I reasonably track towards it and make sure I am reaching it by my target dates? Any suggested tools? How do I set target dates?

Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone, just making a post because I am looking for advice on how others will go about this situation. My question is how should I go about taking advantage of staying at my mom's house before I move? I am not sure if I should pay my debt off aggressively or save aggressively for the time being before I head down, or should I Balance between the two and pay a good amount and save a good amount**.**

My background is that I am 23 currently living with my mom paying her $500/month, I have $36k saved up in a Hysa, about $18k in loans and $1K in credit card debt, with a 730 CS, I have a fairly good paying job of about $80k/year (not salary based, weekly pay) in Aviation maintenance. Currently I am planning on moving down to Florida towards the end of summer and transferring to my company's location down there. My goal is wanting to get into REI later down the line after my move to Florida.

I go back and forth between aggressive saving or paying off my debt aggressive, I try to put $400/week into my savings and $400/week into paying my debt, so $800/week in total, but I'm not sure if I should put more towards one while easing back on the other or just keep it the same. I just want to know what will put me in the Ideal situation for when I am in FL and start working towards my goal in RE.

Thank you for any input I can get. I am sorry if this post is not appropriate for this community, Thank you.

My wife, kids, and I (36) are technically FI based on the numbers ($2.3MM NW) and current living situation ($80k/yr spend) but are in the process of relocating from the Midwest US with a cushy sub 2.5% mortgage rate to a more desirable place that better suits our interests and passions. If we stay in the Midwest, I could RE now but would likely wait 1.5 years based on circumstances. In our new location, I estimate we will be able to RE 4-5 years from now, (aiming for my 40th birthday but will firm that up after settling into our new lifestyle and cost of living).

The financial side of this decision pains me, but we are confident that our family will be happier in the new location.

Our new home will be about $700k or ~30% of our net worth and we need to decide how to finance given the 6.8% interest rates today. The options we are considering are:

1. Sell current house to fund 20% down payment then traditional mortgage given that historic market returns outpace the current mortgage rates (even if only barely).
2. Sell current house then liquidate some after tax savings and eat ~$15k cap gains tax to pay cash.
3. We could also rent out the old place but would likely not (or barely)cash flow since we have 15 yr mortgage. We don’t love the idea of being landlords either. This would mean that we’d have to at least partially finance the new house (or otherwise eat pretty significant cap gains tax).
4. Some hybrid or other plan that one of you brilliant people suggests?

I think our proximity to RE is what makes this decision tough for me. For example, if we were planning out 20+ years I’d confidently go with option 1 and trust the numbers. Instead, I am leaning towards option 2 because I like the idea of minimizing annual costs as we approach FIRE plus I would be selling equities at near all time highs which gives the flexibility to finance later if rates return lower and/or there is a market correction or other investment opportunity (yes, I know, timing the market etc.).

So, would you make the move? If so, how would you finance the new home?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts, I’m greatful to have a like minded community like this to mull these big decisions!

I'm almost 39 and the director/owner of a highly stressful IT services company.

471K saved in s&p500 pension fund (locked until im 50).

I own a rental property worth 220k generating 20k in rental income but after taxes and expenses I'm left with about 8k - 10k (I say about because my company is currently the tenant so this will need to change in the future and I'm paying higher rate of personal tax but in the future I don't suspect il pay the higher rate).

My home is mortgage paid.

Car is paid but 5 years old suv now - probably need to spend 20k to upgrade.

My savings equal my debt (basically I have no money but no debt).

Wages currently €800 into my pocket per week after taxes. I'm also putting 1k per week into pension although business has been in a down turn and my pension might need to be substantially reduced.

I'd like to get to fire as soon as I can but I struggle to know how to know if I'm at that point yet or what is need to make this happen.

I need €800 per week (€41,600) adjusted for inflation to survive. Assuming I can get ~10k from rental income I still need to come up with 32k to live adjusted for inflation. What would be a strategy to get to this point as soon a possible?

I work in tech and I'm 38. But I live in the Midwest and I've only been in tech 12 years so I'm not necessarily the person who has had a huge salary or a big windfall yet. I also am the only one who works as my wife is a stay at home for our 2 young kids 8 and 3.

That said I'm doing better financially than I ever have despite being laid off for the last 6 months. I have 75k in my 401k, 25k in savings, and no debt besides my mortgage of around 130k. I've started consulting after being laid off so my financial future is a bit unknown but I ultimately plan on getting a new full time job soon. My previous salary was 170k and I plan on getting something close to that with my next role, ideally higher. So a good salary for such LCOL but being the only one who works leaves a lot less than I'd like for savings and investment.

With all that, I hear kind of a repeated sense that you start to age out of tech eventually, certainly before retirement age and it's made me think that perhaps I should try to plan to retire by 55 so I don't get to that point and then can't get a well paying tech job and I'm hosed. Even if I don't retire completely i think if I approach things with this mindset I'll be able to at least slow down, do something part-time, consult, etc.

Currently my 401k is in a standard 2050 fund. It's performed pretty well in the bull market so unless things tank I don't see much need to change the fund it's invested in but I think even those funds tend to rebalance when the market changes. As for the 25k I'm not sure how to start investing it to grow it. At the very least I figure nice it to an online savings account that can get 5%? Any other suggestions or things I should start thinking about to continue to build my savings and 401k so I can be in a good spot in 17 years? Any recommendations for a forum, book, sticky post, website, etc are all welcome beyond any personal recommendations. Thanks!

Hi everyone. As the title suggests, I 20 (M) am a third-year nursing student who is sincerely committed to FIRE; however, as of right now, I’m not very educated in finance and am wondering where to start.

As a new grad RN next year, I will be making approximately $40 an hour - this follows a step program where I step up roughly every 2,000 hours and max out at 57.38 an hour. I have paid off all of my school outright and will have zero debt when I graduate. Plus, I live at home rent free.

After two years of working as an RN, I am thinking of travel nursing to maximize my income. I have seen postings for 4-5k per week in some areas. With some financial footwork, I think I could pull in around 150k+ per year by the time I am 24. The drawback of this is that I likely will have to return to the lower wage of staff nursing once my circumstances change (i.e starting a family, settling down, etc.). This means I only have about 10 good years of travel nursing if I am lucky.

Alternatively, I have also thought of a degree in dentistry, as the financial ceiling is much higher. Using my BSN, I anticipate this route would take around 7-8 years more study and I would come out with approximately 300k in debt. However, I would be making a consistent 200k+ per year or more depending if I open my own practice. Unlike travel nursing, this salary would be more fixed and sustainable but it would take longer for the money to roll in.

At the end of the day, I know the choice will be mine and there are many considerations I must make. This is just a surface level explanation, but I’m wondering what you fellow mentors might think? From a pure investment standpoint, what route seems more logical to reach the ultimate goal of FIRE? I want to retire early, but comfortably and with enough saved to do things like travel and enjoy life.

[edit]: I just wanted to highlight that I live in Canada. A lot do you have some really great advice with the CRNA track, but unfortunately we don’t have that here. It is definitely something I will consider along with the opportunities that are in the states - potentially moving might be in my best interest for FIRE

37m with NW of about 750k - Living in Denmark w/ a rental house in US

My current market investments are around $480k, but I’m a bit nervous because about 25% of that is in a single company (Meta) and about 13% in another (BRK/B). The BRK/B is intentional, Denmark taxes ETFs/Mutual Funds different than common stock, they tax unrealized gains. Because of that, I’ve stopped investing in my ETF’s/Mutual Funds (hold QQQ, SWPPX and a REIT) and have been funding Berkshire instead because I view it as a ETF/mutual fund advantages with all the companies and holdings they have without the dumbass unrealized gains tax.

Breakdown of the 480k

180k - 401k (60% total market, 30% international, 10% bond)

230k - Taxable Brokerage (51% Meta, 26% BRK/B, 12% SP500 Index, 5% QQQ)

Other ~70k - 30k in Danish retirement account, 10k ish in Crypto, Rest in individual stocks or small “I don’t care if I lose it” YOLOs

I get about 60-80k a year in Meta stock as part of my comp, so that balance will continue to grow, and I hadn’t sold because I felt we were very undervalued so was confident in the last 1.5 years. All that said, I’m pretty aggressive on my FI goal of 2.5 mil, and while the last year has been really good (despite a whole slew of new grey hairs from layoff chaos), I’m curious on y’all’s thoughts if you think this should be rebalanced significantly. I’m already in a high tax bracket, and am hesitant to sell as the average of my Meta holdings are up over 100%

I’ve been lurking here for some time and I admire the overall message of financial literacy but wonder about the human side of this. What is the experience of these early FIRE folks say 30 years later? My concern is that 25 year old ME (the same guy who got this sweet “keep on trucking” tattoo) is the same guy who’s is setting an irrevocable path for my financial future. Living on whatever lean FIRE amount in some low cost area or even foreign country might sound cool as a 30 year old but how is it as a 65 year old? I can’t imagine that I still feel the same about many things now as I did when I was 25. And once I’m old enough to realize I don’t want that anymore, it too late. The math is the math. Numbers are numbers, but humans change and evolve. I think it might be interesting to hear from some folks who have been living in a rental above a bike shop at a beach in Honduras for 20 years. Do they regret any of this?

I'm trying to figure out FI and need help w/what to do for the mortgages on our rental properties

We are 35 & 34 with 2 kids under 4.

We have $650k in investments

We have 2 rentals and I'm trying to figure out if this strategy makes sense:

Step 1: Save to our FI number $4.5m (excluding rental income), and once that is done, Step 2: Save for college education Step 3: Pay off mortgages

The goal is to have the rental income as part of our FI income. Gross rental income is ~$90k.

Note: estimating $150k spend/our on the high end; cumulative mortgages are ~$700k, rents are about break even at the moment

A nice to have is buying a house for each kid for later on, but not sure we can eat there.

Question: is my FI number too high?

Update:

Yikes, I just redid my long form of calculations and came up with needing $10.2m using time value calculators. Here's my input:

Years to retire: 20 years (ideally ASAP 😭) Years in retirement: 45 (I took us both out to 100) Est spend: $150k present value Est inflation: 5% Est interest rate (adjusted for inflation): 2.91% Interest rate (not adjusted for inflation): 7% Current investments $643k

Est need to save every year: $175,857

I'm currently a 30M and was aiming to retire on the earlier side (late 40s, early 50s) and was recently learned that if you retire early it makes sense to have your money in a regular 401k and to do a Roth IRA rollover conversion up to a 10%/12% tax bracket max.

I never really thought too hard about this and have been funneling all my money into a Roth 401k and occasionally doing an after tax 401k contribution and then immediately converting this money into a Roth After Tax 401k contribution. My 401k is currently 36k regular 401k (17.5%) and 169k Roth 401k (82.5%) / After Tax. I have 50k in my Roth IRA, 2.5k HSA, and 23k in a brokerage account. I am approaching the MAGI contribution for the first this year which has led me to looking to funnel more money in regular 401k and HSA.

Lets say I plan on retiring at Age 50. I would have immediate access to my Roth IRA contributions, and I imagine if I rollover my Roth 401k to a Roth IRA I would have immediate access to those funds because both accounts would be well over 5 years old. Am I in a situation where I need 5 years funds in a Roth IRA, and then do a Roth ladder conversion annually to the 12% limit?

Lets say target income is 100k in this hypothetical. I'll ignore the brokerage long term capital gains in this scenario to keep it simple and assume filing as single.

I would need to pull 100k from the Roth IRA, I can replenish 44k with current tax rates by doing an 401k to Roth IRA rollover and then waiting 5 years. Rinse and repeat until I take social security at 67. Based on this simple example does this mean my ratio of 401k to Roth 401k should be 1.75M Roth 401k (70%) / 750k 401k (30%) for maximum tax efficiency?

Oversimplified example, but was looking for anyone's insight on how to maximize savings now and minimize taxes in early retirement.

For the last few months - I am sitting on cash. Usually i would buy VOO, or some index, now all seems very expensive with the recent tech rally - I just cant force myself to buy it. What do you do with extra cash you generate nowadays?

24 over 300k net worth been working since 16 lol so almost a decade that’s why it’s high plus staying at partner house . Over time when I turn 22 I took over the home bills so pretty much property tax to cable to phones .. about 1.5k . have a warehouse bill to 1.6k all in . Business make 8-11k a month profit with about 20k on average during December !

But sadly I have a bad habit of not spending $ on things or taking the cheaper option of things . I realized if could some what hinder my growth social and economical 🥲.

Any tips to get over the habit

Anyone know if I can withdraw my contributions from a Roth 401k tax/penalty free after I receive the company match?

I’m working to pay off a HELOC (7.75% interest), and could make a pretty significant dent in it if I were to use those 401k funds.

Since the problem with sequence of returns risk and FIRE is the need to sell shares during a down period early on in retirement, has anyone experimented with the idea of having a portfolio composed of high dividend paying stocks and ETF’s during the first few years to help mitigate this?

Using SCHD as an example, CAGR is about the same as SPY over the past ten years per portfolio visualizer. But If a portfolio is composed of SCHD, would the ability to survive off of the annual dividend payout without having to sell shares be advantageous during a down period? Assuming all assets are in retirement accounts and can be rebalanced without tax consequence, is there any argument to launch into fire on something like SCHD as a hedge against sequence of returns risk in the first three years, then rebalance back to total market index after you’re “out of the woods” on early risk?

Hey Peeps -

While I (37M) realize the end number is different for everyone, it would be great to get a collective opinion to see how far Ive got to go. Some background, while I am married, these are my individual numbers (wife 33F also has her own job and NW, maybe in the name of 500K).

Expenses: ~60K/year (with about 40K going towards primary housing: hoa, mortgage, interest, taxes, insurance costs).

NW: ~1.8M

575K in Stocks (lots of this are RSUs) 350K 401K w/ Vanguard 100K HYSA

Condo 1 (rented / paid off / est. value ~525K): generates +1500$/month Condo 2 (primary / est. value ~900K): 550K left on mortgage, all costs about -4000$/month

Our combined salary right now is ~450K/year

What would you do?

Where and how do absolute newbies to FIRE start?

I always planned my FIRE number without taking SS into consideration. I recently logged into ssa.gov and found my benefit would be over 4k per month at 70 years old (delayed) I assume it’s because I have been a relatively high earner. This is the number ssa.gov is giving me even when I put in 0 as future income. I am in my early fifties and married. I assume my wife’s SS will be perhaps half that. So combined, our SS would be around 75k. That seems a lot to me given we’ll be 70 and probably in our slow go years. My house is paid off and children’s college is fully funded via 529 plans. Does this mean my FIRE number really only needs to cover us for the next 15+ years ? What am I missing ?

I’m moving to Orange County California for a new job. The housing prices are outrageous. Do you think it’s worth buying a place during this market? The inventory is low and there are more buyers than there are properties by a large margin. I have kids so I don’t want to have to rent and then move again as it might be disruptive to their school zone assignment. But I also don’t want to get stuck in a mortgage for an overpriced property that may later be worth less. I’ll be able to afford a place based on affordability calculators but I will be draining all my savings for a down payment for a high mortgage.

Hi everyone, I recently turned 20 and I'm going to be a software engineering intern this summer earning $70 an hour. I will be working in my HCOL home city so I won't have living expenses. My parents are also paying entirely for my college tuition.

Context on my FIRE journey: Since the age of 19, I've been managing a personal brokerage account with Fidelity that is 100% VOO as well as a closed deposit account with my bank, totaling to around $20k.

Considering I will be making a considerable amount this summer, I hope to save as much as I can towards FIRE. My employer offers a 50% match of contributions up to 6% of eligible income, essentially a 3% match.

Currently, my plan is to max out my 401k to the extent that my company can match during my internship. Once I finish work, I will roll over the funds to my Roth IRA to invest 100% in VOO.

I'd appreciate any advice or guidance on if my logic is sound. I also never plan to touch my retirement fund (Roth IRA) until I stop working. Thank you!

Vent. I'm putting a significant amount of my jncome towards my parents, but feeling burnt out at work and frustrated that I can't cut back hours or invest more for FI. Guilty that I have resentful thoughts when I do really want my mom to enjoy the last years of her life to the fullest. Looking for others with similar struggles.

Me (34) and partner (39) are financially supporting my mom almost entirely (2.5 k/mo) and my dad partially (650/mo, sometimes more). They are retired, but poor financial planners. I know these are limited duration expenses because they are both in their 70s and my mom has only a couple years left due to health issues. We have a great income (330 k) and max our 403bs/HSA, but are relatively recent to earning years after a long education and just starting a family. I want so badly to just throw $ at my loans/retirement and cut my working hours as much as possible to allow for family time, but the parental support is non-negotiable.

Anyone else in a similar boat?

I was trying to find a post that polled this group about their vehicles to fire. Didn’t find one.

So here it is.

What was your investment vehicle to get to fire? Was it real estate? A business? A w-2 and 1099 income?

I'd like to retire in a cheap country. I already bought a vacation home abroad for 50 000$ in the 2008 crash.

I only need, maybe, 10 000$/year for a comfortable life. 5000-7500 minimum for affording it.

I'd maybe like to get an annuity, but I plan to retire at 35. All the ones I've found, start at, at least like your 50s. But I don't get why. They obviously re-invest your money, and you give you small, guaranteed returns... What are my options for retiring early abroad, w/o any risk? Even at 3%, 300k invested gives you 9k/year. Which is fine. Except something like a GIC still carries fluctuations.

Are there really no options to retire at 35 fully safe? Surely some companies have some products offering at least 3% returns for life? I only want around 10k/year, but I don't want to carry any annual risk through investing in ETFs while retired.

I'm in Canada, btw, not USA.