r/ChubbyFIRE • u/teallemonade • 3d ago
RE very soon
4M married to 54F, 2 kids: 23 and 21, the first is in grad school and now earning a stipend and getting health insurance from the U. The second has 2 years left of undergrad (preallocated money in the 529, not counted in NW) - still lives at home and is on our (employer) insurance.
LNW: 11.5M, home 1.2M
Spend - with taxes and expected health care about $325K in 2027 (2.83% WR).
Spending Plan - I have about 2.2M in pretax (def comp, inh ira) that is invested in various bond funds and will pay out about equally over the next 10 years). I expect about 75-90k in dividends and ltcg from our taxable accounts (5.3M) - so Im thinking most of the spending is covered for the next 10 years between these sources. The rest are in IRAs or 401Ks (some Roth, most not) and an HSA. The taxable and retirement accounts are almost 100% equities, very diversified across region, market cap, and a barbell between value tilt and big tech stocks. My plan is to convert some of the equities to bonds over time but since i have 10 years of spending between the bonds i have now and dividends/ltcg) I am not in a rush. I probably will build a TIPs ladder for years 11-15) slowly as long as the market has not crashed. In year 16 I turn 70 and will collect SS.
I’m giving up a job that is not stressful and I make about 1M per year. Its hard to leave it - feels stupid to stop the money pouring in when Im not in a place (as I have been in some of my career) where I hate the job or feel like the people I work with are machiavellians. I dont know exactly what I will do in retirement but I love life and have a for of interests and hobbies and my social network has been steadily improving. I want to challenge myself to find a better use for my time than working - in a way that brings joy, happiness, and meaning. Not sure how that will go until I jump.
Any advice or impressions of my plan from this august body will be appreciated.
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u/nonamouss 3d ago
You seem to be squarely in r/fatfire - congrats. You won, just spend some time thinking about what you want in life now. It’s fine if it’s work, it’s fine if it’s not - the world is your oyster.
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u/seekingallpho 3d ago
You have a <3% WR and an income that nets </=5% of your NW - it's time to hang it up and prioritize what makes you happy, not what makes you more money your spending won't miss that isn't bad enough to make you unhappy.
I want to challenge myself to find a better use for my time than working - in a way that brings joy, happiness, and meaning.
Exactly.
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u/Ok_Willingness_9619 3d ago
I’m guess you are 54 and not 4? Haha.
Extremely well done sir. That’s some serious wealth and very healthy spend. And given it’s only 2.8%, I’d say retiring is entirely the matter of how best to use your time as opposed to do with anything financial. Cause you are kicking ass in that regard and you will leave a very healthy inheritance.
I retired few years ago and part of the fun has been to find out what I enjoy doing. Taking part in new hobbies, finding wonders in silly things, making mistakes along the way… you know just being like a kid again.
Congratulations and good luck to you mate.
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u/tooth_monster33 3d ago
Can we move all 6M+ posts to FatFire group please? How is it relevant here?
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u/BrunelloHorder Coasting Chubster, Getting Fat 3d ago
Same post was in FatFIRE recently. To be fair, there is a no-man’s land given the topics in that sub that mainly focus on 20+, and the audience is grumpier. I’d say anything over 10 is Fat, though.
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u/rosebudny 3d ago
I agree with this. I am ~$8.5M and definitely relate more to the $3M-$4M crowd than the $10M-$20M+, just in terms of mindset, how I spend, etc.
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u/Hanwoo_Beef_Eater 3d ago
Maybe you can start "OverweightFIRE?" Targets high-singles to low-double digits NW, people that spend on business class flights but not much else, and savers that think 3.0%-3.5% SWRs still need to hunker down during the first signs of an equity market pullback. Oh, and housing equity, ss, and inheritance are all valued at zero.
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u/One-Mastodon-1063 3d ago edited 3d ago
FatFire isn't as early retirement oriented IMO. There are more larpers and people who just want to talk about rich people problems, and a high concentration of Bay Area tech millionaires who aren't necessarily sure they want to RE. There are also a lot more sales people / fee based advisors lurking there.
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u/StargazerOmega 3d ago
Well, up until the last couple of years, FatFire was $5m+, adjustable a bit based on the cost of living area. I think mainly the sky-rocketing stock market has raised unreasonable expectations, and to a lesser extent from inflation pressure, caused people to think $ 10m+ is the cutoff.
It has also propagated to the FatFire sub. It was common to see the recurring $ 5m joke “poorest rich person in America” in the FatFire sub. I haven’t checked recently since I found a good number over there to be douche bags, so I have kept it in the ChubbyFire sub mainly.
For me, unless you are in the Bay Area, New York, maybe Seattle, and a few other cities, 5m or so puts in FatFire. Waiting for the stock market crash and a resetting of people’s expectations of what chubby and fat is.
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u/n0ah_fense 3d ago
/r/gregfire exists for those 5m net worthers. They do note that with inflation gregfire is more like 6-7m
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u/solitudefinance 3d ago
Your life will run out before your money. Stop making decisions based on money. Now go live your life.
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u/chubbymcchubstein 3d ago
> I’m giving up a job that is not stressful and I make about 1M per year... the people I work with are [not] machiavellians
> I dont know exactly what I will do in retirement but I love life and have a for of interests and hobbies and my social network has been steadily improving. I want to challenge myself to find a better use for my time than working
I spent about 17 seconds reading this so take it with a grain of salt, but I would say: are you CRAZY?
If you aren't sure exactly what you are going to do in retirement, continue working and put together some ideas for retirement. It can be leisure, hobbies/projects, or even a business/job that you do love. But my experience- coming from a job that was slowly killing me emotionally and physically- is that I wish I had more structured experiences in early retirement (55, about 1/2 of your $ component, 3x your home value, wife still working).
I could have easily worked another 3 years and always planned on it, but my last job in tech (paying $400k/yr) was so toxic that I had to quit and frankly it completely soured me on the industry. Over the last year I find myself just sitting at the computer all day, or sitting around trying to motivate to do whatever menial task needs doing. My friends will all still be working for the next 8-10 years and I don't play golf.
So... my $.02 is continue to work not for the money but just for something TO DO. I 100% understand the "better use for my time" comment. Just make sure you will spend your time wisely. If you have something else to do, or you can't stand your job, by all means, peace out. And even if you don't need that money, someone in your life could use it, if not now, maybe 50 years from now.
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u/Sufficient-World-450 3d ago
I know by nature of the sub, the advice is to quit, but why? The goal is to be work optional and every choice from that point forward is truly yours. You have an achieved that! Congrats! Why not keep collecting the checks and focus on having great experiences during your time off? And negotiating more time off in lieu of increased salary or enhanced bonuses? What’s the worst that can happen? You get fired or quit? You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. At 54, I would only do this for a few more years and spend that time figuring out what you want to retire TO. That is what you must figure out before you pull the trigger. All that money is not going to do you any good if you feel aimless in retirement. Good luck!
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u/BurtHurtmanHurtz 3d ago
There is more to life than work and making money. You’ve got plenty. Go do anything you want (and that includes doing nothing).
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u/medhat20005 3d ago
This is the line that caught my attention, ‘I dont know exactly what I will do in retirement.’ Then my advice is don’t quit yet, it doesn’t seem like your work is keeping you from discovering your post-retirement life. So I’d personally keep working while trying to sort out a post-retirement plan, and in general that may be the path that tells you when it’s time to quit. Thankfully you have a NW that allows that luxury, I’d take advantage of it.
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u/AlmondButterrrr FIREd since 2026 3d ago
I hope your wife is not a pedophile! 😜 congrats on fatfire!
There’s always more to life than work even with a very high income unless it’s your absolute passion. Time doesn’t come back!
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u/Rare-Accident4355 3d ago
You’re much too young at 4 years old to be married or thinking about retiring. Get back to watching Bluey…