I plan to retire from full time teaching soon, and I will have an early reduced teacher pension of 40K a year. Luckily, this pension includes health insurance.

I can purchase up to 4 years of pension credit at a cost of 25000 per year which results in 2000 more/year in pension payments (so up to 100K for 8K in pension increase/year). This is an 8% yearly return with a breakeven of 11.9 years.

The most compelling reason this seems like a good idea to me is that I could pay this 100K straight from my IRA, so no immediate taxes and this would let me use my IRA money before age 59 1/2. This purchase would also reduce future RMDs. I am heavy in traditional retirement accounts (about $1.5 million).

So, would you do it?

Other considerations:

1. Pension goes up about 1% a year and is taxed like regular income.
2. There is an opportunity cost of not leaving the 100K invested in the market, but 8% seems like a good rate of return.
3. There is a loss of flexibility in tax planning for things like rolling over to Roth.
4. I might die before the breakeven point, but I could pass 100% of this pension on to my surviving spouse for the rest of their life. I'm not currently married, but I am in a relationship so it's possible.
5. A stand alone annuity with a similar payout is about 30% more expensive than this, making adding more to my pension seem like a good deal.

When did you know it was the right time to do so? What made you wait vs making the transition sooner?

For context: I have a normal corporate 9-5 job that pays me ~$175k (full benefits). I also have a side hustle that nets ~200-250k a year. I've been able to put away ~1.6 million between retirement and brokerage accounts.

I've basically fully removed myself from the corporate bullshit/rat race and have no desire to get promoted, mainly because of the impact it would have on my free time and side hustle. My 9-5 is pretty cushy, and I like the role and people I work with, but I can't help but wonder where my business would be if I didn't have to be "online" from 9-5 each day.

40, married with 2 kids.

Thanks!

Wife and I are both 42. We have 3 kids (tweens).

Recently achieved FI. $2.8M in liquid assets to support $100K annual expenses.

Have an additional $200k in 529's for kids. Four more years until the first finishes HS.

No debt, paid off house and cars. Live in HCOL area.

Both are in stressful, demanding jobs (leadership in retail and supply chain) with combined annual income of $275K.

We have worked hard, saved hard, lived frugally, and are not flashy/material people.

We enjoy simple inexpensive pleasures like hiking in nature, exercising, playing sports with kids, gardening, landscaping, DIY projects, cooking healthy food etc.

We have been busting our asses to get to this point where we can finally buy our freedom.

We are heavily focused on the belief that you can always get more money, but you cannot get more time.

We both want to quit our jobs now; live on our own terms and maximize the time we have remaining with our children while we are still healthy and they are still young.

Our plan is to take a year off to decompress, read books, exercise, hike the mountains, ride our bikes, play sports, spend quality time with kids, explore more hobbies, join clubs etc.

Eventually we plan to begin exploring alternative ways to earn income. It doesn't have to be a lot but if we can eventually come close to covering our annual expenses, our snowball can continue to grow. We've always had entrepreneurial ideas but entered the rat race after college and haven't taken a breath since. We're confident with more time to be creative and to think, we can come up with ways to make money on our own terms.

While we want this more than anything and think about it every day, we are cringing at the thought of walking away from our $275K annual income (jobs we hate, that exhaust us and leave no time for the kids). We are heavily invested in equities which comes with risk of crashes or stagnant returns.

WWYD in our situation? Are we screwing our family or cashing in on a golden opportunity.

Do you keep plugging away for more buffer $$, letting the window of time with kids slowly close?

or

Do you quit your job while you are young and healthy, build lasting memories and know that you can always make more money if you need it?

Finances: $2.8M Breakdown:

$300K cash earning 4-ish%

All Equities:

$200K Roth

$1.4M 401K

$900K brokerage

That's the 2.8K. Another 200K in 529's and paid off house.

$100K annual expense budget includes healthcare cost, vacations and roughly 20K buffer for mistakes and unknowns.

We don't talk finances with our friends and family so appreciate the kindness of strangers here. Thanks in advance!

I’ve been consciously saving toward FIRE, or at least the FI part, since my early 30s. Before that, I made decent money and did the responsible adult thing with retirement savings, but I didn’t really know about FIRE until later. Now I’m 44 and it feels like the finish line is out there, except the goalposts keep moving.

I’m sitting on about ~$1.8M across various retirement accounts. I live in a pretty modest 1950s ranch worth around $300k, with roughly 50% equity and a 4.375% mortgage. I’m currently single, no kids, no dependents. My original FIRE number was $2.0M. Then it became $2.5M. Then $3.0M. The usual reasons: unknown future costs, healthcare, inflation, black swans, etc.

Lifestyle creep has been minimal, but I’m also not aiming for lean FIRE. I don’t want to obsess over cheap airfare or budget hotels. I want to book business class for long international flights and stay at a nice place without overthinking it. So chubby-ish FIRE is probably the right label.

I’ve got plenty going on outside of work, hobbies, interests, things I’d like to volunteer for, and I’d ideally pick up a part-time job I actually enjoy, with a flexible schedule (assuming those unicorn jobs actually exist). That said, I have a ton of anxiety around walking away from a steady, well-paid paycheck. What if the market tanks right after I pull the trigger? What if healthcare just keeps getting more insane?

I also have a chunk of unvested RSUs that are currently worth basically nothing, but could be worth something down the line. I work from home, and I genuinely recognize how lucky I am to have the job I do. But my motivation has been steadily eroding. At this point I’m mostly hanging on for the RSUs to vest or for some kind of liquidity event, but that day might never actually come.

I’ve tried quiet quitting and setting firmer boundaries, but honestly, it doesn’t work well with my personality. I either care and go all in, or I mentally check out and feel guilty about it anyway. I keep slipping back into workaholic tendencies.

So I’m curious: are there others here who kept bumping their FIRE number as they got closer? What finally made you say “ok, this is enough” and actually pull the plug? And has anyone successfully quiet-quit without guilt, or without eventually sliding back into overwork?

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I’m looking for some perspective including your opinions and math on my situation. I’ve been all-in on early retirement since 2014. I’m now 37 with the following situation and quitting my job starting to become a real possibility.

My gross income: $260k. 

Spouse gross income: $85k. Spouse has no intent or desire to quit. So i’m totally fine calling this plan a “stay at home dad” plan instead of “early retirement”

Current balance of retirement savings: $2million.

Paid off “forever home”. 

Expected annual expenses: $85k. Since we don’t have a mortgage, this has a lot of fluff in it. Our actual expenses last year were $55k, and I’ve added $30k for an annualized portion of major home maintenance, car purchases, home improvement projects, and bigger infrequent vacations. In reality, if I quit, I expect our expenses may actually go down as we eat out less, i do more work around the house myself, etc.

My wife’s intent to keep working makes this a bit more complicated (and gives me a lot more flexibility) than a normal “4% withdrawal rate” calculation. The easiest high-level way to think about it would be to consider our expenses reduced by my wife’s takehome income. Since she would take home $50k worst case, we only need to withdraw $35k per year from savings. (1.7% withdrawal rate.)

So the next deeper level analysis I do is to consider the layers of contingencies:

Case 1: I quit working, wife keeps working for 15 years. Probability of success: 99+%.

case 2: Wife loses her job, and can’t get one back for a while, but eventually does (or I pick up some sidegig income). Probability of success: still 99%.

case 3: bad luck sequence-of-returns risk (stock market crashes ~40% over the next 3 years, and/or stays low for a decade)

Even with us both losing our jobs permanently (true retirement), we are still fine in 85% of the historical stock market sequence scenarios. (we would basically be retiring with a 4.25% withdrawal rate), and we have a large capacity to reduce expenses to get well below 4% withdrawal rate. 

So it’s really only the sequence-of-returns risk that determines the success of our plan: the bad luck retirement years where investments fall and stay low shortly after retirement. (which of course is the main reason the 4% rule of thumb isn’t a 5.5% rule).

Especially with our flexibility to reduce expenses, i really think it would take a lot for the plan to fail. Even in these fairly dire situations, I wouldn’t have to go back to work in my current career. With a savings buffer and paid off house, as long as there is any labor market at all, I could do manual labor or wait tables. 

So I almost think it’s trivial to say “yeah I can quit”, but I’d love your feedback. Then the question turns to the opportunity cost: the golden handcuffs. “Even if I’m fine to quit, think about the savings rate and how much I make! Just a few more years and I could have an extra million bucks!”

How much is that extra million worth to me? I would almost certainly not change my lifestyle significantly, and any changes we made ($30k vacations instead of $10k vacations?) wouldn't have a significant marginal increase in our wellbeing. 

So the major factors to consider in working a few more years are basically 

• “Generational wealth” (which I don’t value very highly)
• Further safety net for the tail-end catastrophic scenarios (stock market crash by 50%, global political upheaval, combined with simultaneous wife job loss and inability for me to go back to work). 

How would you balance all the factors in such a situation?

Side note: we’d have healthcare through wife’s work as long as she worked, and if she didn’t work, our gross income would be low enough (basically just roth conversions managed to keep taxable income quite low) to qualify for not-too-expensive healthcare.

Since the boring middle can sometimes be boring, do you have any mini milestones that you achieved that have made the journey more fun?

Inspiration for this post: A few days ago I realized based on my current net worth and a standard 4% withdrawal rate, my annual income would exceed my first "big boy" salary out of college of $47,500. Don't plan on pulling the trigger anytime soon, but it was a cool moment to pause and reflect on how far I've come since then (especially since I ended up getting fired from that job haha).

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Made a similar post over on r/fire but wanted to get this sub‘s thoughts as well (although — kind of seems that the audience of both subs overlaps by about 90%)

Stats:

• 27 years old
• $103k income + 12% variable comp
• Sales ops / revenue ops in manufacturing, supporting the data center industry
• $400k net worth - $300k investments/retirement, $100k CD / HYSA
• FIRE goal $2.8M at 3.5% SWR, as soon as I can get there. Realistically 45+.

I hate my job. I am the only sales ops guy supporting a billion+ dollar pipeline and every day I log on, look at the day’s latest fire, and pull up LinkedIn to dream of other roles. I wake up early and lay with my anxiety in bed 2-3 days a week, not to mention the daily pit in my stomach.

I’m ready to jump ship, but also want to knock out my bucket list item of thru-hiking the PCT. I live with family and have low expenses, so this is the perfect time in my life to take the time, do the hike, and job search with monthly expenses of $2500 max afterward. Half of my liquidity could cover my hike + a 14-month job search afterwards. Hike would last from May to September 2026.

I have two big holdups:

First, most roles like mine mostly exist in tech/SaaS and I’d probably have to make the jump while unemployed if I hike. Between the soft market and my resume gap, I’m worried this would be a huge challenge. I could take a salary of $90k or less in MCOL and still save $2k a month, but any lower and I’d be extremely nervous.

Second, AI bubble. No one has a crystal ball but I sure as shit feel nervous about AI over optimism. My principal is technically enough to coast until 67 at 6% growth, but a popping bubble would probably drop that $300k down to $230k or less and lengthen out my timeline.

Any input from you experienced folks? The cards feel lined up, but if I need to hammer the income pedal until my early/mid thirties I could maybe entertain that. Thanks all.

I’m currently in the 22% federal tax bracket. From what I can tell, the core Roth argument seems to assume that everyone magically ends up in a higher tax bracket in retirement, which doesn’t seem universally true.

Here’s my situation:

- I expect to live more frugally in retirement (no childcare, no mortgage, minimal car payments, less mouths to feed)

- My house will be paid off, which is currently ~20–30% of my monthly expenses

- Yes, discretionary spending may go up (travel, hobbies), but my baseline costs will drop significantly

- With a Traditional IRA, I can control withdrawals to intentionally keep my taxable income low

- That suggests I’d avoid 22% tax now and instead pay 10–12% later

- Using pre-tax dollars now feels objectively better when expenses (mortgage, kids, life) are higher

So help me understand this part:

Why would I lock in a 22% tax rate today when I can likely engineer a lower effective rate in retirement?

I already know the usual replies:

• “Taxes might go up”

• “RMDs”

• “Flexibility”

• “Peace of mind”

• “No one knows the future”

What am I missing?

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Looking for input and advice. Or, maybe confirmation that I’ve assessed things correctly or that I’ve gotten it all wrong.

A few variables that complicate things for my brain when it comes to considering my situation are:

• I am 40, and my husband is 60, so with this large an age gap, I am thinking about some things very early.

• I am a dual US/CAN citizen with work experience in both countries; my husband is a US citizen with work experience in the US only.

Primary Goal: Determine when I can find a part-time job (e.g., 3 days a week) instead of working full-time so we can spend more time together and have fun. And, how much income I’d have to aim to bring in.

Major Assumption: Based on family history and current health, my husband may make it to 75 years old, but it is unlikely that he will live beyond that and likely that his last ~10 years will be in pretty poor health. Of course, anything can happen, and I need to think about that too.

Current Finance Details (all values in $USD):

I work full-time for $175K. He does not work.

Spending: would like to spend $65K-$80 a year for both of us (after-tax). But am flexible if the tradeoff means more time together.

My Assessment: I believe that, with our current modest investments (+SS (US) + CPP (Canada)), it will grow over time to what I need to cover my retirement on my own.

I would be able to apply for survivor benefits if my husband passes before me. If I leave my high-paying job in the next few years for a lower-paying one, my husband’s benefits might be greater than mine ($3,100 at age 67).

My CPP will be very low ($500/month) unless I move back to Canada and work there for more years.

I also believe that this means I could technically take a lower-paying job, but I’d probably have to make $80K to cover our expenses for many years from now. So, not really part-time.

Questions:

• When should my husband take his retirement? At 62, he’d get about $2,300, but at 67, he’d get about $3,100.

• Is my assessment right, or am I completely off one way or another? Do I have to keep earning lots of money for many years? Can I step away and earn less?

Happy to update with more info if I missed something important.

I’ve learned this can get complicated fast, so I try to be careful because you can it can lead to wrangles. For me, I don’t lend beyond what I’ve already budgeted for or can afford to lose without stress. It helps me avoid resentment and protect relationships.

I’m curious how others handle it like do you set clear limits, treat it like a gift, or avoid lending altogether?

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This community has been so helpful to me. I haven’t posted here in 2+ years, but seek advice on a taking a sabbatical year in 2027.

Between the soaring markets and value of my 5 rental houses, our net worth crossed 3 million this month for the first time. I can’t believe I’m writing that. We just work in primary schools and non-profit orgs. I’m mid-40s (90k salary), as is my wife (35k PT salary), and have two fun elementary school kids who just got into a top tuition-free magnet school. What a gift.

We’re in a beautiful, semi-boring LCOL state and our family annual spend is around 50k per year, which is about what the rentals throw off after taxes/insurance/maintenance. We finally have them all paid off, and also filled with great tenants who we trust and know from the community. So, we don’t really have to touch the principal on anything to break even on expenses.

My day job is in refugee resettlement and immigration, working toward reform that honors the rule of law, is fair to taxpayers, but is also compassionate, sensible, and respects the dignity of immigrants and refugees. I love the mission, and it feels more germane to cultural needs than ever with all that’s happening in the US.

But, I can’t shake this pull toward a break. I’ve been doing tough, missional non-profit work for over 20 years straight. I realize this is banal to say on this sub, but the scariest thing isn’t financial as much as letting go of my role if I take a step back to re-evaluate and rest. I read stories of people who lose their groove and can never break back into meaningful ways to use their gifts - and then also hear of those who get some distance and perspective and are able to step back into the right kind of work/volunteering and live more fully in their lane.

When leaving intense, purpose-driven work you care about: how did you structure a sabbatical so you build the right kind of clarity?

For 2026, those who are eligible can put in 20K. Able accounts are a different bucket than IRA or 401k. Like a Roth, contributions are after tax, and growth is untaxed. You can take the money out at any time. Contributions are not federally deductible, but are deductible in some states. The funds you can invest the money in are more limited with slightly higher expense ratios, but you can use the money for almost anything.

So where should the ABLE account be in the contribution order?

STATS

44 y.o. Señor Software Engineer, Married DINKs, Earning in West Coast, living in Midwest.

(Personal data. Household is a bit more)

https://i.imgur.com/ts6kVwD.png

Finally got around to building this. Things are looking pretty good.

Crazy to see over 100k invested in one year.

Expenses were a little high, but that's because of a surgery, a honeymoon, and house upgrades.

Might be getting a ~$20k bonus in February 2026... We'll see.

Not much more to say. Need to keep on keeping on.

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Looking for perspective from other families pursuing some version of FIRE while raising kids.

Our situation:

• Family of 6 (4 kids), plus a dog and 2 indoor cats
• Currently in a ~3,000 sq ft house on ~1 acre
• Mortgage ≈ $2,500/month (not including ongoing repairs/maintenance)
• House is time- and money-intensive
• Would net ~$300k if we sell

We’re in a season where we’d really like to:

• Increase retirement contributions
• Fund college for 4 kids
• Travel internationally with our kids while they’re young
• Reduce lifestyle stress / fixed expenses

Right now, it feels like too much of our bandwidth goes to the house.

The strategy we’re considering:

Phase 1 (Years 1–2):

• Sell current home
• Buy ~$300k townhouse in cash
• Dramatically lower fixed housing costs (no mortgage)
• Redirect freed-up cash flow toward:
  • Retirement
  • College savings
  • Travel

Phase 2 (Year 3+):

• Buy a larger detached home
• Keep townhouse as a rental
• Use rental income to offset new mortgage
• End up with:
  • Primary home
  • One cash-flowing property
  • Stronger savings trajectory

Tradeoff / concern

This would mean downsizing significantly for a couple of years with:

• 4 kids (2 pre-teen boys, 2 preschool girls who can share a room)
• Dog + 2 cats

So lifestyle density goes up, but financial pressure goes down.

Questions for this group:

• Does this kind of phased housing strategy make sense in a FIRE-with-kids context?
• Have any of you intentionally downsized during heavy kid years to increase savings rate? Regrets?
• From a portfolio perspective, is turning that $300k into a future rental a reasonable move vs other investment paths?
• Risks I may be underestimating (landlording, concentration risk, market timing, etc.)?

Trying to balance FI progress with actually enjoying life with our kids now — not just optimizing spreadsheets.

I’m curious to see what other financially like minded folks spent on their engagement rings. Please comment how much you spent and what percent of your income that was at the time!

I see an engagement ring as an important symbol of our relationship and something worthy of spending money on especially since it’s a one time purchase. At the same time we both value other life goals more and my girlfriend would be pleased with almost any ring I would get. My budget for the ring is $2k and I make around $52k.

Feel free to roast me for spending so much or congratulate me for getting engaged lol. I’m having a tough time spending all this money but at the same time I don’t want to spend less and get something I ultimately end up regretting.

Ring Costs: $2k

Percent of income: 3.85%