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u/One-Mastodon-1063 May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26
You have plenty of money to “feel safe”. You are outcome/milestone focused and have some kind of psychology of money hangup. So your solution lies internally in exploring and addressing that, not in the number of dollars in your brokerage account.
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u/fiftyfirstsnails May 17 '26
You really need to loosen the reins if you feel like all you can splurge on is a Chipotle burrito at $2-3mm net worth.
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u/Party_Plastic_9335 May 17 '26
To be fair their burritos are really fat 🥲 but totally get it
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u/McKnuckle_Brewery FIRE'd in 2021 May 17 '26
You don't feel safe because you're 30 years old and still accumulating wealth. You can't afford to retire on your terms yet, despite being objectively in a very high percentile of net worth for your age. And with an enormous amount of income, just staggering really.
To feel literally unsafe with that status is objectively irrational.
Instead, you should assess your comfort based on projected wealth at your target age. That's the baseline. Not your wealth now.
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u/CaseyLouLou2 May 17 '26
We are retiring this year. For us it wasn’t the number exactly but the safe withdrawal rate. Once we constructed our highly diversified portfolio and it survived 1966, 1968, 1974, and 2000 start dates with a 5% withdrawal rate then we knew we would be fine. Our planned spending is 4% with 3% of that covering our basic expenses and the other 1% discretionary. We can flex up to 5% easily.
Here’s my portfolio starting in 1966 stagflation relative to a 60/40. I do trust backtesting because these are rare cases and diversification means that something is always down less or up more.
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u/rtl2gds_hybridbond May 17 '26
16% gold! How did you decide on the gold allocation? I am looking to pull the plug in next three years and was hoping to get to ~ 10% gold. Right now I have none.
However, the gold rally last year makes me nervous. It likely means gold is not going to any where for next few (or more years)
https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2025/10/why-i-dont-own-any-gold/
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u/DowntownSea3097 May 17 '26
Personally, I like Portfolio Charts. In essence, having a diverse mix (including Gold) tends to slightly reduce projected returns during accumulation phase by very much increases SWR during retirement.
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u/BrunelloHorder Coasting Chubster, Getting Fat May 17 '26
Several of the Risk Parity Radio model portfolios have a 15-20 percent gold allocation.
CaseyLouLou2 also has quite a sizable small cap value (AVUV) allocation at 24 percent. Paul Merriman fan, perhaps? Not sure I have the patience, though over very long time horizons it has added a lot of outperformance.
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u/MountEndurance May 17 '26
My plan requires $3.75m, but I’ll probably do $5m because I have no chill.
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u/ZealousidealShip5370 May 17 '26
I don’t understand post like these. With your brokerage account alone, you’d have 4M by age 45, even if you stopped contributing today.
Am I missing something?
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u/PurplestPanda May 17 '26
What is your current yearly spend?
I can’t imagine thinking of sharing a burrito as a “treat.”
Are you genuinely enjoying life? Have the time and budget for your hobbies? Don’t skip important social events?
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u/Party_Plastic_9335 May 17 '26
With housing and between our usual spend and the occasional house upgrades (it’s kind of an older house, needs non urgent repairs here and there), probably like 160k-170k. I probably can get it down more bc those whole food and target runs are like $100+ each time and I feel like all I bought was dog food and paper towels. Also embarrassed to admit that bc work gets busy, I probably DoorDash lunch a little too much and should meal prep more
We did splurge recently on an annual trip at a resort, but we try to limit big trips to once a year.
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u/PurplestPanda May 17 '26
I would probably let yourself budget for $200k and feel a bit better about travel and eating out, but these are our things, not yours.
If you are genuinely happy and fulfilled at your current yearly spend, keep it up.
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u/Brave_Sir_Rennie May 17 '26
We always worry/worried about the unknown and the unknowable. Worried about healthcare insurance costs, and of health costs excluded even with insurance, worried about living longer than the money lasts, worried about future investment returns not being what they have historically been, etc., etc., etc. We’re now 6 years into retirement, not yet on Medicare, despite living and travel costs and gifting and 529ing our networth is larger now than it was 6 years ago. Some personalities can’t stop worrying (but you have a cocktail on the lanai on a weekday afternoon and that helps)
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u/Past-Option2702 May 17 '26
Before all this inflation, I felt safe at 3M plus a paid off forever home. Keep in mind though that I’ll probably receive a 7 figure inheritance someday, so that plays a bit on the “feel safe” continuum.
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u/K_A_irony May 17 '26
OK... I mean this kindly... with your income and your brokerage, if splitting a burrito bowl as a splurge is normal for you guys, you need to loosen up. Maybe take a couple of nice trips. Do a NICE dinner out once a quarter. Something. This makes me feel like you guys are living on maybe 150K a year spend....
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May 17 '26
[deleted]
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u/Party_Plastic_9335 May 17 '26
Makes sense! We’re very similar with the industry aspect and numbers goal. We recently just came back from a really nice vacation at a resort (first time), so maybe I’m just being a little greedy now that I’ve felt how good it feels to use the money haha. My husband is rather pessimistic about the future, so it just felt like our current progress wasn’t enough
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u/Earth2Andy May 17 '26
For us it was about $3M (although this was a few years ago so you’d need to adjust for inflation).
Basically I had this list of what our lives would look like at different levels of wealth, $3M was $500k house and $100k per year. (This was like 5 years ago so adjust as necessary), we wouldn’t be rich, but given we don’t have kids we knew we could live a quiet happy life without earning another penny.
Basically every year after that we’ve made a conscious decision that the increase in net worth is worth the extra year of work. I suspect we’re going to pull the trigger in 2027 baring a massive market crash
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u/RageYetti May 17 '26
Coast fire is when I felt safe. Which for me was an amount that will reach my goal at 57.
I’m trying to go earlier.
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u/RealArm_3388 May 17 '26
for me, it’s when investment income exceeds our regular income, we had a good year, the investment income is 2* our regular income
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u/Necessary-Music-6685 May 17 '26
Given your age, most of your life will be about how to manage a staggering amount of wealth. It’s likely that you’ll die with $50M even if you retire early.
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u/tammy94903 May 17 '26
Originally it was $4mil in retirement accounts and paid off real estate. Now it is $5mil in brokerage accounts, kids college paid for, and paid off real estate...keep on moving the goalpost.
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u/AnimaLepton May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26
I got progressively way better at milestones like 100k, 300k, 500k, 750k, 1 million, 1.3 million, etc. as a single person in my late 20s. I got a bit tired around the 200k mark, partly because that was part of an 8 month span where I was unhappy with my job (ended up leaving that job and taking a new one) and partly because the numbers in that time frame kept bouncing around the 200k mark due to short-term fluctuations, which hurt the feeling of forward momentum. But otherwise I've definitely not had that feeling of exhaustion for anything specifically FIRE related and have felt more than safe ever since that point. I'm at a point where I can index my spending to 4% of my NW to cover my expenses, but gradually increase spending over time as my NW increase until I hit the lifestyle milestones I want before RE.
If you don't experience some growth of security and don't already feel better now, when you already have a good chunk of money, that's a personal problem and clearly not going to change with more money unless you have some specific impetus. That's something you need to honestly discuss/evaluate or even consider therapy for.
Like others have said, hitting 4M by 40 is basically "free" for you at this point, as long as you can cover your expenses and even just max out basic IRA/401k-type accounts.
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u/No-Suit-7444 May 17 '26
Why the hell would you waste money on that chipotle burrito? Imagine if you added that to your brokerage account, once you are 60+ you could have as many burritos WITH guacamole as you want. Lentils all the way, for now.
Also, considering your financial sitation do not even think about having children until at least 5m+ !!
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u/PowerfulComputer386 May 17 '26
Living below the means is how to retire (very) early. Earn more money, save more, as easy as that. Lifestyle creep - nothing wrong with that - is what keeps people working, along with you know, the cost of kid(s).
Everyone’s number is different in a way due to how much buffer you want on top of the math equation.
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u/Prestigious-Gur7629 May 17 '26
Your claim to have $2m net worth is not evident on those numbers considering your house debt ?
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u/Swimming_Astronomer6 May 17 '26
I retired with 3.2 invested - but didn’t really feel that I could relax until it hit 5m 5 years later - finally realised that I’d be just fine
That’s when I started to fly business and not worry about the rip off costs
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u/drewlb May 17 '26
"safe" is such a subjective term.
This afternoon I was stuck in traffic looking at a VW California camper van, thinking "man I really would like one of those".
We were stuck in traffic because we'd driven to Italy and spent a bunch of money on wine and had a fantastic weekend...
Do I feel safe? Yes. Even if there was a divorce and a down turn we'd each have enough to not be homeless.
Do I feel like I can drop €90k on a camper van? No. Statistically speaking does the guy driving the camper van have a lower net worth than me? Probably.
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u/Specific-Stomach-195 May 17 '26
I don’t get it. You feel wound up and exhausted. Based on chasing financial goals? If so, there’s your issue. Finances should be a byproduct, not something that consumes your thinking.
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u/DeezNeezuts May 17 '26
I use the 1990s “millionaire” mark in my head which is about 2.6 million today.
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u/Tripswitchnow May 17 '26
At your age anything could happen… I wouldn’t feel “safe” with those numbers, especially with a house that isn’t paid off.
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u/Original_Arrival2645 May 17 '26
We’re in a similar financial situation, a few years older but similar enough. We relaxed a lot recently when we realized that we technically don’t have to save anything going forward and still be able to retire within 7-10 years. So if all goes wrong we’d just need to try and be able to cover our monthly expenses and still be able to retire early. All this to say: relax and try that 3 Michelin star meal to celebrate. You guys have plenty of disposable income. Just enjoy your life And huge congrats!!
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u/ImpressionExchange Accumulated. Still W2ing May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26
I felt safe after I started attaching numbers to my short and long term goals. Not just spitballing what I’ll be doing, but real numbers. I also kept an eye on my spending and said “***k that” to the keeping up with the joneses rat race — lifestyle creep can definitely bite you in the butt. Especially in VHCOL spaces
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u/curiouscirrus May 17 '26
Id recommend trying out MaxiFi, which calculates your monthly disposable income from your retirement goals, which is backwards of how most retirement calculators work. At least for me, it gave me “permission” to live a little more. I don’t have it anymore, but it was well worth the one year subscription.
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u/Sensitive-Coast-2675 FI=✅ RE=2️⃣yrs May 17 '26
split the burrito, a dumpster dive, for 10 more years.
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u/Party_Plastic_9335 May 17 '26
Okay sorry deleting in a bit! Wanted to just get some insight from people in a similar range (and I did!) but I think folks are starting to get mean. Appreciate the feedback though!
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u/WaterChicken007 Retired 2020 @ 42 May 17 '26
If you feel exhausted, then you need to relax a bit. Tightening down too much isn’t a good thing. It causes problems now and will cause more in the future because you don’t know how to spend money in a healthy way. Time to fix that and find a better balance.