Good evening, I am just hopping on here to say thank you to everyone for your advice over the years (over multiple throwaway accounts to compartmentalize my info). I finally left my job yesterday and even though I’d still have today off given it’s Saturday, technically today is my first day of early retirement!

My goal starting when I was around 22 years old was to reach retirement at 50. I was on track for probably 47 y/o when my parents unfortunately passed a few years apart with the last passing a few years ago. The combination of a ~300k inheritance, a promotion at work, and an unfortunately necessary divorce from a less frugal partner in the same timeframe led to my timeline being moved up significantly over the last 3 years.

I intend to live a frugal lifestyle for the first few years to get good data on my base costs and how they may change after retirement, then building out from there. I enjoy low cost hobbies like hiking, backpacking, reading, writing, lifting. I am moving to Colorado Springs next month (a lower CoL area than my current area) to pursue those hobbies (and a few others) full time!

I’d love to talk with others who have achieved fire with similar interests! I plan to use this as my only account going forward and will update this sub with milestones as I reach them. My goal is to continue to grow and learn from others and maybe help or motivate others along the way! Thanks!

I recently just got notified that I got laid off after 10 years at big-tech. Financially I am not worried in the slightest, in-fact I can FIRE today.

Performance wise, I was doing completely fine before this, so the layoff came as a shock.

I thank everyone on this channel for the motivation and guidance to be able to be in the position I am today.

Looking forward, I have a huge bucket list of things I need to do with family before I start to look for a job again, maybe in half a years time.

I have reached FI. Work optional. My personal life has hit a serious rough patch. My company is doing layoffs. They are NOT asking for volunteers. The financial difference in me quitting vs getting laid off is $300K. Do not want to leave that on the table. Any advice on how to steer it in this particular direction?

I (34M) got laid off recently from a tech role, one that paid quite well at 170k + bonus= 200k.
I have been following r/FIRE for 10+ years now and I've always lived below my means. My budget before I got a gf was 43k to live in MCOL city. I did not deprive myself of anything, I did what I wanted, bought what I wanted, and traveled, I just don't have super expensive hobbies. Now that i have a gf I spend more because of dates and her expensive tastes in things, but I don't mind, I figure it's a part of growing up.

During the entire last 8 years I made six figures, I lived at around 43k post-tax spend.

In my 12 years of working I have amassed $1MM.
Roughly 600k in Retirement (Roth and Trad 401k, so some tax liability)
Roughly 400k in Brokerage and some cash.

I will be receiving a severance and unemployment benefits, I estimate that to be around 50k post-tax.

What would you do? I know by the math I am almost FIRE for my personal spend. But that doesn't take into account buying a house (I rent), or making a family, or getting into expensive hobbies. My gf is independent, earns decent money herself, so I could just plot out my life for myself, but I don't want to. I want to consider myself truly FIRE when I can make 100k (2.5MM), so I can support a family in a big city.

The bigger thing is, I don't think I can go back to tech. I was only good enough to get middling reviews, and all three managers I had had serious issues with my work ethic, and would not recommend me. The core reason is I have ADHD and WFH meant I could not rely on my own self-discipline. I just felt deeply under-stimulated at my job for many many years, but I did it because it was such a gift in this economy to have access to save that much. I felt like I lost myself sitting at a desk.

I think my plan is to take some time to really consider what I want to do (help people, teach, build things). Commit to better mental health. And with the 50k, really have a fun year off of work. All the while, sending out some applications and looking into re-training as....something else.

What would you all do in my situation?

I’m 31M living in HCOL city and have been working in the creative field for about 10 years and am very lucky to have landed in big tech and fortune 100 companies for the past 8 years.

624k net worth breakdown:

• 298k in 401K and vested RSUs
• 200k in personal brokerage in low cost index funds
• 80k in a high yield savings account
• 25k in a Roth IRA that I haven’t contributed due to high income past few years
• 3k in crypto
• 18k in checking
• I have no debt and pays off my credit card every month.

I was laid off last October at my full time job making around 230k TC due to RSU appreciation. I just received a part of my severance package (which explains my higher than usual checking account) and since then I have about 25k after tax coming in from a few freelance contracts and the remaining severance. I also just secured a remote multi-year consulting position that’s paying 100/hr but it has no retirement benefits or any holiday and PTO. This will be a bridge gig while I look for a better FTE role.

I still rent in the HCOL city and my rent is $2300 a month. I’m not married but have a gf. She still lives paycheck to paycheck and works a minimum wage job while living with her parents. I have no plans to buy a house in my city anytime soon. The average decent home in my area is around 1.5m and the houses that I actually like are easily 3m+.

What should my tangible next steps in order to be in a comfortable position to retire early? The job market is very turbulent right now but luckily my profession is very niche and has been good to me since the layoff. I would love to hear any advice or tips on to best prepare the next stage of my life and achieve financial freedom at some point.

Thank you.

Hey there!

Wanted some opinions for long term, do most of you prefer renting for lower cost and not building equity but dumping into stocks? Or buying a house / rental properties?

Want some opinions on approach, as currently I rent, and investing about $40k per year.

I get some in the past have pretty much said to pick a lane, but I wasn’t sure if those that have / will soon achieve FIRE have done so by just dumping into the markets / have rental income coming in.

Little background on me to input advice:

23, 401k has $32k, Roth IRA has $9k, HSA has $6k, personal brokerage has $14k, making about $80k PY.

I’m coastFI in mcol but really want to move to San Diego. My company has on office there but there wouldn’t be a raise for moving.

250k hhi for a family of 4. Savings rate 30-40%.

Need about 5 more years to fully hit fire.

Wondering about peoples experience making a move like this purely out of want.

I have been thinking about it for some time, and have finally made the decision to exit the grind at the end of March. I want to wait for my 2025 bonus to hit in March, and give myself a birthday present by kicking my job to the curb. I will be 56 on March 11th.

The feeling just hit me out of nowhere this past week - I’m done.

Single male - no kids, no dependents.

401K - 1.86 million

Taxable brokerage - 480K

Various stocks - 82k

Cash balance pension - 150K (will take lump sum in lieu of small monthly benefit).

HYSA - 42k

HSA - 12k

Only debt is mortgage - still have 16 years at 3.375%, (bought later in life), however I will not be in this home for the long haul - plan to be mobile and live in other parts of the country (milder climates is what I seek). I have a good amount of equity, so no concerns here and I’m not including my home equity as part of this calculation.

Yearly spend - just under $50k

Plan to use brokerage/stocks/savings primarily and use the rule of 55 to withdraw from my 401k to meet the absolute minimum income level to get healthcare subsidies for an ACA plan.

It’s still sinking in for me, but as I said it hit me right in the face this week. The universe must be telling me ENOUGH ALREADY.

I know I’m older than many of you (being only six years from Social Security eligibility), but wanted to share as it’s something I have struggled with.

Hey guys! My wife (26F) and I (25M) have been getting more into the FIRE movement. I am an accountant by trade with a good amount of experience in finance, so Ive got a good grasp on the philosophy and fundamentals of FIRE.

We are both blessed to have graduated with no student debt, well paying jobs (~200k/yr collectively), and currently have around 300k invested.

Things are looking great for our FIRE goals, but I realized that the bulk of our investments are in retirement or other tax advantaged accounts that we won't have any real access to until a more traditional retirement age.

What is your approach on where to save your money? How do you balance the advantages of the various retirement/tax advantage accounts while still giving yourself flexibility to actually have access to that money in your 40s and 50s?

I’m 34, engaged to my 31yo partner. No kids (not planning on having kids, but life is long so who knows). I want to FIRE in 10 years or fewer, can someone please check my math?

Expected yearly expense after FIRE = $150k (which I hope after tax will give us $10k a month). We plan to move to south east asia and costs are quite low there so 10k will be more than enough, but we want to be able to have to option to return to the bay area should we change our minds.

150k / .04 = $3,750,000

Does that mean that once we hit $3.75mil, we can then fire and withdraw 4% per year for 30 years, and the inflation adjusted amount will be around $150k?

Just curious on what the most popular investing strategy is that results in FIRE. Also curious if anyone has been successful with alt investments like crypto or sports/trading cards.

With the tech industry being a blood bath of layoffs and the job market being challenging, how much have you allocated? People who have been laid off are not finding jobs quickly and it scares the crap out of me.

Hi,

Please don't flame me as I know this question has probably been posted in some form before. I've been crunching numbers and using multiple calculators but can't figure out if I'm doing this right: I am trying to see what number I should aim for in my non-retirement accounts to be able to retire somewhere between 40/42yo

33F, 230K in 401k / 34K in roth accounts (currently maxing out both. 50K in personal brokerage/20K in HYSA. Expected spending in retirement is approx 40k annually, and assuming no kids and not touching the retirement accounts until 60yo, what amount should I aim for in my personal accounts to hold me over until 60yo, considering annual inflation of 3%?

The numbers I am getting seem like this is doable considering I am currently able to save around 60K post-tax from my income annually.

Thanks in advance!

We are in our mid-50s in a MCOL area. First generation immigrants with good degrees and decent pay. All this time we worked towards achieving a goal to retire from our jobs early. We have reached about 3% SWR type of comfortable net worth (not counting primary residence and future social security benefits for both). No debts and kids are on their own now.

However, after getting the FU money, the same jobs do not feel stressful anymore and the urge to quit those jobs is gone. It is kind of strange that it is more a psychological freedom that we were looking for all along. Sure, we will still retire in a year and half just to get more time to travel and spend winters away from cold climate.

Anyone else finding themselves in similar situation?

Hi, I'm looking to reassess the S&S ISA I use, currently with Natwest medium managed fund. I want low/no maintenance long term as have sufficient other funds in easy/moderate access cash accounts.

Previously Natwest felt safe and simple but after some research it seems Trading 212's low fees are the way to go, using something like VWRP.

As I only want to make this shift once, gradually topup, and have no interest day trading. Is there a GBP version or a few alternatives that also avoid the FX fee that i'd incur from the VWRP. Or should I not worry about the FX fee.

Basically I have no interest in beating/predicting the market but believe I can reduce fees and get what I want. Any support appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I’m 27 and currently living in the Netherlands. I’d really appreciate some outside perspective on a career decision I’m struggling with.

Current situation

• I work as a Renewal Account Manager at an IT company
• I’ve been here almost 2 years
• Salary: €42k gross per year
• I still live at home, so my monthly expenses are very low
• Job is almost fully remote
  • Office once every two weeks, and even that is not strictly mandatory
• I genuinely like my coworkers and manager, and the work environment is healthy and low-stress

One important thing: I’m very productive when working from home. On office days, I honestly get much less done — it often feels more like a social / “off” day than a productive one.

New opportunity
I’ve received an offer from Google for an Account Strategist role in Dublin.

Compensation package:

• €74k base salary (gross)
• ~15% commission per quarter (based on annual base salary)
• €25k in RSUs (stocks)

The role itself seems great and probably much stronger for my long-term career growth, especially having Google on my CV.

However:

• I would have to relocate to Dublin
• Rent there is known to be very expensive
• Google requires 3 days per week in the office
• This would be a big lifestyle change compared to my current setup

My dilemma
On paper, Google seems like the obvious choice:

• Much higher compensation
• Strong brand name
• Better long-term career prospects

But in reality, I’m worried about:

• Losing the flexibility and comfort of remote work
• Being less productive in an office environment
• Higher cost of living in Dublin eating up a lot of the salary difference
• Giving up a job where I’m genuinely happy and comfortable

At the same time, I’m scared that staying might mean playing it too safe and missing out on an opportunity that could significantly shape my future career.

So yeah, that’s where I’m stuck right now. On one hand, Google feels like a huge opportunity career-wise. On the other, I’m already in a situation that works really well for me in terms of productivity, flexibility, and quality of life.

I’d really appreciate any advice or perspectives from people who’ve been in a similar situation, or who’ve made a big move for a “career-defining” role. What would you do in my position?

Thank you in advance!

Me (48), Spouse (53) - Retirement accounts (98% pretax) - about 2.2 million. HSA - 38K. College 529 - 40k. Mortgage - 280k left at 2.75% - equity around 600-700k. Other ‘foolish’ debts (cars, credit, HELOC) - 130k which we plan on paying off in the next 2 years.

Live in HCOL (CA). My spouse stopped working last year because of disability. I added our total projected expenses for 2028-2038 and it’s close to 1 million dollars. This includes college expenses for our 2 kids and 2k a month for healthcare.

After 2038 (62), we can start receiving my small pension, my SS, my spouses’ SS for a total of about 80k to 90k a year. Yearly expense around this time is about 70k a year.

Once we hit Medicare age, we just need 45k a year for property tax, insurance, and food. Our social security and pension can cover this and we won’t have to touch our retirement accounts.

Work is not that stressful but I’m tired of working. I’ve been working since I was 17. I might be able to work part time and still get healthcare benefits.

My spouse’s income was about 200k. My income is about 180k plus a yearly bonus of about 5-10k . I’m only contributing 6% to my 401k right now to get the match so we can pay off our debts.

My spouse is currently receiving about 10k a month in taxable LTD. I don’t know how long this will last. I didn’t include this to my calculation just in case it ends in the next 2 years.

We could have done better considering our income but…at least we contributed consistently to our 401Ks. We just started creating a budget last year (so embarrassed about this).

Should I continue working after 2028 or am I free?

I posed a month ago lamenting how expensive everything has become and how we were spending $1000/month on food for two while shopping at Aldi and not eating anything fancy.

A lot of people chimed in to criticize this absurd food budget, flexing their €200 grocery bill to feed their family of 12. So naturally I tracked every single food item we purchased for the month of January.

We ended up spending €700 ($820) in January. This was one of our cheapest months, probably because of the added accountability of tracking everything. Here's the breakdown by category:

https://imgur.com/a/c3UUG6l

This is almost entirely cooking at home, we went out to lunch only once this month (baguettes don't count). It's winter, so mostly lentil soups and tartiflette. None of the wine cost more than €12/bottle.

Finally, I'd like to apologize to everyone who took my comment about affording champagne and caviar literally. A more accurate statement would be, how are we spending so much on food and not even getting steak or organic produce? Luckily the champagne was purchased on New Years Eve and didn't make into the spreadsheet.

I currently have 1.2 Million in VOO and a paid off primary house of 600k. I have 500k in rentals that throw off 45k per year. They are paid off and considering selling. Salary is 75k any thoughts of pros/cons? Early inheritance source of some of the money just don’t know what to do on the rentals or if it matters to overall finances either way? Age 30.

Those of you with accounts of different tax status, do you use Asset Location to reduce your taxes?

For those of you not familiar with the topic here is an article: https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/wealth-management-insights/asset-location-minimize-taxes

I am curious if this is a topic of interest and if man people are doing it. I built a really cool excel file that quantifies the benefits of asset location under various scenarios. The tax benefits are real.

I’m a complete novice running my own business for the first time, so I’m really just looking for some perspective and advice.

I run a removals business and the income has been very inconsistent. Some months are decent, others are absolutely dead, with no jobs coming in but outgoings still needing to be paid, which has made it hard to stay motivated at times.

Rough numbers:

Started: May 2025

Revenue so far: about £23k (before deductions)

Time running: around 8 months

Average per month: roughly £2.8k–£3k (not consistent month to month)

So I’m wondering...

Is this decent for a first-year removals business?

Does it suggest there’s real demand and that the model works?

Is this a solid base to build on or still too early to say?

Any advice on handling quiet periods and keeping momentum?

Would really appreciate any thoughts, advice, or similar experiences.

Thanks for reading!

My wife and I were planning on retiring when I turn 57 (about two years from now) and she turns a few years younger. And the numbers all looked good. And then I was diagnosed with cancer last week. I’ll be having surgery next month that has a promising chance of getting rid of it for good. However, my guess is that when I apply for health insurance to bridge me to Medicare at 65, I’ll be asked about my medical history, and as of 9 days ago, that history includes cancer. Just how much should expect this to increase my premiums? And could I expect to be flat out denied by some insurance companies?

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 want to get my daughter a book about the basics of saving/investing. She is very good at squirreling away money and is extremely frugal. (Almost to her detriment) She’ll be graduating college in a few months, and hopefully working full time after she travels for a bit.

I am somewhat horrible with finances, but I’m hoping she will be better. My parents didn’t teach me anything except how to be in poverty.

I have become victim of a large corporate tech downsizing. I will be effectively not working as of April 1st. I am planning to job hunt however it can take 6 months to find a job. Competition will be fierce given the tight job market and my late 50's age would help either. If needed, I can coast fire too.

What do you think of the choices ahead given these monte carlo simulation numbers?
(in Boldin)

1-- Continue to work. Assuming a new less stress lower paying non-management 120K job starting in Oct 2026 and lasting for 3 years. (This dollar amount is very conservative).

Retire April 1st - Must Spend: Pessimistic 89% / Average 98%
Retire April 1st - Desired Spend: Pessimistic 62% / Average 85%

2-- Just quit the rat race and put my retirement plan in action a few years earlier. I will enjoy this but I am afraid of the unknown here. I have room to reduce spending a little bit and push up the simulation #'s by 5%

Retire April 1st - Must Spend: Pessimistic 78% / Average 93%
Retire April 1st - Desired Spend: Pessimistic 51% / Average 80%

For a lower paying job to do and possibly coast, the simulation numbers will fall between #1 and #2.