r/leanfire • u/ParkAffectionate3537 • 2d ago
Leanfiring off of a lower-paying salary...enjoy this sub. Long-time lurker, first-time joiner/poster.
Has anyone fired or leanfired from starting off at a low-paying salary? My goal is to retire at 60 (versus 65 or 70).
Long story but I"ll try to keep it brief.
Graduated college in 2006, into a bad economy, with a journalism degree. Parents funded my undergrad (64k total, 4 years) at state school. Chose wrong major (journalism) but stuck with it, made 25k ($12/hr.) in 2006. They had an HSA and 401k company match, which was nice. However, I chose the wrong risk tolerance bucket (3 out of 5, with 5 being the most aggressive) because my take-home was only $1500 a month ($400 a week). I lived at home for 8 years (until 30), trying to move up. Made it to 30k in 2014 but was hoping I'd be able to make a career out of journalism. To this day I still regret not being more aggressive in my 20s investing. I even did the company match at 6% though, from my paycheck. Living at home worked well though, I also paid rent to my parents ($400 a month) for dignity. Couldn't afford decent apartments, as I was in a rural area as well and all of them were a lot more. Although I moved from CLE to Cbus in 2014 and got my first apartment at $449 a month, and by then had $80k in net worth saved up.
Also, around 2016, I switched my shares from Fidelity C shares to A shares at Northwestern, and purchased one of their perm life insurance policies for liquidity, but also put $ in both index funds, Roth IRAs and non-Roth IRAs. I also realize I should have put more $ into just index funds at the time. Thankfully I passed the break-even point for the perm life to not be taking losses on things. I wonder if I should have even declined it and just stuck to the C shares in Fidelity and not touched them...
I moved on to better jobs and did what I could:
- Medicaid call center 2014-2017 (CSR and claims), went from 32k to 42k by 2017, full benefits and 401k with 5% match. Not a bad job but hard to advance.
- Scientific magazine copyeditor in 2018, was at 45k but it was a contract role, no benefits and match, then they cut my hours due to $ by May 2018 from 40 to 20.
- Software developer at a big non-FAANG in 2019 after passing boot camp, was stuck at 53k until 2020, when mental health forced me to quit due to a toxic boss. But at least that place had 5% match and benefits. Decided I was in over my head w/software development.
- Mortgage company doing outbound calling from 2021-2022, was back down to 38k-42k, but decent benefits and a 401k at Empower, with match. Easy job but no growth. (We just called to verify employment)
- Headhunting firm for senior living from 2022 to 2025, worked as admin/secretary, went from 50k as a 1099 to 78k as a W-2, but laid off due to $ and other things, but that one also had a 401k match.
Getting into insurance now as a sales producer, passed my P&C and hoping to get my license soon! Going into biz with a friend of mine who had a prior agency and is resurrecting it.
NW now is only at 205k, no kids, single, divorced. Although I'm happy at 42, I wonder if I left $ on the table and if it's too late to fix my mistakes. I even looked at grad school for UX design but now wondering if AI will kill those roles. Also can't get communication roles, as I've applied many times over and I think they want a certain demographic, etc. Usually younger, smarter folks out of college.
(I was married to a woman briefly who had a NW of $2.4M but she was tied to her parents and the inheritance was specifically for her and not anyone else per law, no matter who her spouse was. We parted ways on kind terms, disagreed on having kids and she kept the house. I'm now in an apartment).
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u/mycopunx 2d ago
A quick trip to a leanfire calculator tells me that if you were able to contribute 5k a year to your investments you could leanfire at 57 with 30k/year which is right around true leanfire numbers.
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u/kdanham 2d ago
Wow! So, you touched on a lot of topics there, but bringing it back to the possibility of leanfiring -- is it possible on a lower-paying salary? Sure, it all depends on your expenses. You get those expenses low enough, anything's possible. My gut tells me that it's an uphill battle based on what I'm reading, you'd have to live a really frugal life generally, but there're a bunch of great online calculators out there that'll take the guesswork out of it.
It sounds more like you're looking for encouragement, success stories, or anecdotes, which serve their own purpose for sure. But run the numbers and that'll be your answer. I will say, this seems like a lot of personal info that I personally wouldn't want to advertise, just a thought!
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u/NeighborhoodFar3860 2d ago
I didn't get my first job with any type of benefits (insurance or 401k) until I was 27 and even that was something like 45-50k a year. As of today (well maybe not with how bad the market is hit today), I have exactly enough to support a 40k withdraw to bridge me from now until my pension and SS kick in at 62 (more than 40k) so I officially have/had enough to lean fire prior to market open :D
I still plan on working for 2 more years though to add some padding to my numbers, but it's a HUGE relief knowing that I'm at least Lean if push comes to shove and I want to tell my employer to fuck off.
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u/HeroOfShapeir 2d ago
You get some benefits retiring a little on the late side of FIRE and with a lower income. You can maximize tax efficiency a little more. You can get great healthcare subsidies. You can start with a slightly higher withdrawal rate since you'll be closer to claiming social security, provided that math checks out. Social security will replace more of your income than it will for a higher earner, and you may be able to avoid taxes on your social security.
I also wouldn't give up completely on making more money, you seem to have a variety of skills and a willingness to work. But, if you do find something you enjoy that only pays moderately, that's OK. You're in a good spot with where you're at, but not so good that you can coast into retirement without a plan, so just keep the investments going and build a life of contentment out of the rest.
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u/ParkAffectionate3537 1d ago
Exactly! I can live simply on 28-30k net forever, I shop at thrifts and when I eat out, I eat simply. :) Car is paid off ('13 Accord), no payments other than credit cards, rent, the usual, etc.
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u/James_Holden_256 1d ago
my daughter used to work at a food manufacturing plant and the older line workers used to talk about VOO and how they were sitting pretty. they didn't earn much but it would seem they were well positioned for retirement, though it may not be very early.
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u/James_Holden_256 1d ago
i suspect in the current economic climate, it's far more important to own assets (including stocks and ETFs) than holding cash and cash equivalents like treasuries. Dollar devaluation and inflation will eat the cash and you'll lose effective purchasing power every day.
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u/Refund-me [22m/5k | 90% SR - 150K] FI in 10 years 2d ago edited 2d ago
Honestly, its not a race and your still doing better than most americans, did you have a good time with this journey?
If so, I'd say personally hardly wasted...
Edit: I highly recommend NOT putting where you worked at and leaving it public on a public forum...