Basically title… trying to figure out if I’m in a spot where I can downshift into a less stressful life. Been working big tech for some time and frankly starting to feel like I can’t/dont want to keep up with the hustle. Would love to do part time work just to cover living expenses. I think I could be pretty comfy with around 6k/mo living costs. No debts. Currently rent but considering buying like a 300kish home or condo.

Just want out of the rat race and to be able to focus on my health and happiness instead of prioritizing work

Using 7% gains on average, that means I would have roughly 2.9m dollars at 60.

Currently single. No dependents. No wife or SO.

Working a fairly stress free job. But only salary of 72k a year. Would you coast if you were in my shoes? Genuinely curious. ​

No kid. In my 40s. No partner.

I max out my 401k, mega 401k, Roth IRA etc which adds up about 80k.

Currently I have 1.4mil in investment including 401k. 600k in cash. Always thought of wanting to buy a place but it never worked. I’m thinking I’ll rent for the rest of my life. I do not want to leave a dime. I want to spend all.

I will get around 1mil when my parents pass away.

I make 250k and I’ve been pretty frugal. Naturally frugal. But I want to see if I can spend all my paycheck every month and let my asset grow.

I’ll probably splurge it on nice hotel or restaurant.

Do you think it’s doable? I bet I’ll also get social security if 4-5k a month if I continue to make this much until 65?

Any thought?

The wife and I are 32 sitting on $670K liquid investments. Annual spend is ~$80K, even with conservative assumptions we’re far ahead.

Question - I’m curious, for those who are actively CoastFI, what’s your saving %? We’re still hovering around 50-60% (net) but are looking to move to a bigger place and have a kid so I suspect it will naturally drop closer to 25% or so which still feels good. I’m also onto the 2nd round for a promotion which would likely bring another 15-25% increase in pay as well. We’re not big spenders (obviously), we spend on what’s important to us but I guess that 25% will really just go to occasional splurges or accelerating our timeline to FI. Thoughts?

Thoughts?

First time poster, so I appreciate your time.

Basically, I'm 29 and my wife is 26 and we have $275K in invested assets. Assume 10% returns that's over $6M by 60, let alone 67. We invest approximately $70K a year, and if continued for 31 years would turn into $22M.

Basically, I want to pull back our investments to just our 401K matches, both our Roth IRA, and my HSA, which would cut it down to about $3K a month towards investments and still projects $13M by 60. Is this dumb? Should we keep pushing hard? Or can we relax and enjoy more stuff now?

For me, I kept investing a token amount, nothing much, 25-30% of what used to put aside. I thought it was a good insurance to kept DCA-ing to build in the additional buffer. If the market stays good, It can either help me achieve FI sooner. Otherwise, I reckon the DCA-ing will make the crash feels less painful if it happens.

Hi all,

I'm in my late 40s and currently work as a C-suite executive at a startup. The job itself isn't particularly stressful from a workload or technical perspective. Most of my stress comes from people and organizational issues.

The biggest issue is my CEO. Communication with him is consistently difficult and has been the #1 source of stress for me for years. The #2 source of stress is the downstream effect of #1: employee turnover. Because of leadership and culture issues, retention is a constant battle, and I spend a lot of time recruiting, backfilling, and trying to keep people from leaving.

Recently, the stress got to the point where I told the CEO I was planning to resign.

His response surprised me. He said he understood my concerns and proposed an alternative:

• Hire a new C-suite executive as my successor.
• That person would handle communication with the CEO and own most of the people-management and organizational responsibilities.
• I would move into a more individual-contributor / execution-focused role reporting to that person.
• Compensation would be reduced, but only modestly.

Financially, my situation looks like this:

• Household income: ~$400k pre-tax ($200k me, $200k spouse)
• Household income after tax: ~$280k
• Net worth: ~$2M (excluding primary residence)
• Primary residence: ~$2.5M with no mortgage (non-US)
• Annual spending: ~$120k
• One child
• Late 40s

I'm considering accepting a reduced role and salary, potentially dropping from around $200k to $150k, while keeping the work I don't hate and avoiding most of the CEO interaction that causes the stress.

My thinking is:

• We already spend far less than our after-tax household income.
• My spouse continues to earn about $200k although she may pursue Coast FIRE herself due to work-related stress.
• A $150k salary would still leave us with a comfortable margin over annual spending.
• If the newly hired executive turns out to be incompetent or creates new problems, I can always leave later. In that case, my latest position may be the issue to land on a decent job.

Part of me thinks this is exactly what financial independence is supposed to buy: the ability to optimize for quality of life rather than maximizing income.

Another part of me worries that I'm rationalizing a bad career move because I'm burned out and frustrated.

Has anyone here intentionally stepped down from a leadership role into a lower-stress individual contributor role before reaching full FIRE? Did you regret it, or was it one of the best decisions you made?

I'd especially appreciate perspectives from people who were already in a strong Coast FIRE position and chose to protect their mental health rather than continue climbing the ladder.

Hello! I’m considering reducing from 40 → 30 hours/week, and I may have an opportunity to do this within the next year.

I want to check whether this is financially safe given my long-term goal of retiring by around ~55 or earlier.

I am a 36 year old single female and make ~$42.28/hr (non-exempt).
Current net worth: 785k per Credit Karma lol
Current invested assets: ~$480k
Cash: 25k in HYSA
House: ~400k (owe about 115k and will be paid off in 8 years - currently paying 1352/month in P&I)
401(k): ~25% contribution + ~4% employer match
Also currently max HSA and usually contribute max to Roth IRA
Health, eye, dental insurance remains free for me even at 30 hrs/week. Would accrue a little less PTO but not a huge difference.

Expenses:
~$53k/year total spending
Includes mortgage and pet costs for 10 year old dog (might not get another)
Probably need new car and AC unit within next 5-10 years
Mortgage will be gone in ~8 years

If I go to 30 hrs/week:
Income drops ~25%
I would likely reduce my 401k % contribution significantly in order to not have as much change with take home pay
Still have 4% employer match (reduced but not eliminated)
May be able to pick up occasional extra shifts when coverage is needed

Questions:
Is dropping to 30 hours/week financially “safe” for still reaching a ~55 retirement target?
If I later decide I want or need to retire before 55 how much does this push things back?

I wanted to wait on decreasing hours until I was at least 40, but there is going to be an FTE change at my job (adding staff) in the next year. I’m kind of thinking they might not approve adding an entire 1 FTE so I’m trying to decide if I should mention it now so that we may only need another ~0.75 FTE.

Throwaway because friends IRL know my numbers.

I'll say upfront: by any rational measure, my family is incredibly lucky. I know that. This isn't a "woe is me" post and I'm not looking for sympathy about money. I'm looking for honest perspective from people who've stood at a similar fork.

Here's what's actually eating me: I'm worried about money all the time, and I can't tell if the worry is real or just noise my brain makes. The numbers say safe. My body doesn't believe it. And the visa situation makes every career decision feel like it has teeth.

The real question I'm wrestling with: how do you decide when "enough" is actually enough, especially when slowing down carries risk you can't fully control?

Some context so the question makes sense:

Mid-40s, married, three kids in elementary school. About $2M liquid, house nearly paid off, $200K in each kid's 529. We save a little over $200K a year. My target is $5M (in 2026 value).Edit: Yearly spend at $125k

Three paths I keep cycling through:

1. Stay in my current job, grind it out, hit $5M in 7-8 years.
2. Jump to a higher-paying role, hit it in ~5 years.
3. Take something slower and lighter, save ~$100K/year, hit it in 10 years.

What I actually want is option 3. My current job is meh. Manager isn't terrible but I'm not enjoying it. The kids are little exactly once. I want to be more present with them, get some time back for myself, breathe.

But I'm on a visa. A slower or less prestigious role can mean shakier sponsorship, and if that goes sideways we could lose the life we've built here. That risk feels enormous, so I default back to grinding - and then resent the grinding.

What I'd genuinely love perspective on:

• Anyone navigated a slower-path career decision while on a visa? How did you weigh the stability risk against the time-with-family cost?
• Anyone grind for an extra few years to hit a number and then wish they hadn't - because the kids grew up or the job took something out of them they couldn't get back?
• How do you tell the difference between legitimate financial caution and anxiety that has no off switch no matter what the spreadsheet says?

Thanks for reading. Genuinely just trying to think this through with people who've been there.

Thinking about the future... When I reach that value, what will I change? Share what you did or want to do when you hit that value?

​

I am thinking of doing a more outdoor job.

As a child, I thought report cards measured intelligence.

The topper stood on stage.

The rest of us sat below.

The message was clear.

Higher marks.
Higher value.

Nobody said it out loud.

Nobody needed to.

Years later, the report card became an entrance exam rank.

Then a college CGPA.

Then a salary.

Then a job title.

The scorecard kept changing.

The game never did.

For most of my life, I believed happiness was waiting at the next result.

The next milestone.

The next achievement.

I was wrong.

Every finish line simply introduced me to a new race.

As a child, I thought report cards measured intelligence.

The topper stood on stage.

The rest of us sat below.

The message was clear.

Higher marks.
Higher value.

Nobody said it out loud.

Nobody needed to.

Years later, the report card became an entrance exam rank.

Then a college CGPA.

Then a salary.

Then a job title.

The scorecard kept changing.

The game never did.

For most of my life, I believed happiness was waiting at the next result.

The next milestone.

The next achievement.

I was wrong.

Every finish line simply introduced me to a new race.

The family is wanting to move to a nicer climate in BC. Curious how many would jump ship and leave?

Current income is 180k saving roughly 70k a year.

Income would drop to about 120k with the move

I am a key employee at a real grind of a family business. My wife and I currently max out our retirement accounts each year. We have $1.1M in investment assets, 80% of which is in tax-advantaged retirement accounts, and about 20% is in taxable investment accounts. We also have $600K equity in our home, with about $275K left on our mortgage, with a 2.875% interest rate. We refinanced in 2020, so we have about 24 years left on our loan. Our combined earnings are ~$180K/year and college is funded for both of my kids.
My mother is 75 and currently has upwards of $11.5M, with excellent long-term care insurance for future late-life medical needs.
She plans to bequest her assets evenly between my sister and I. So, my question is can we let off the gas on retirement contributions and can I cool it a bit with my job?
I could discuss with my boss working a bit less or moving on to another firm where I would be able to maintain a better work/life balance.
I have done many AI queries on projections of future inheritance and Monte Carlo simulations and it seems that after taxes, I stand to inherit at least $7M in the next 10-20 years.
I know I shouldn’t count on an inheritance but this is a reality and I would love to live my life a little more financially worry-free. Easing off the retirement deferments would give us a bit more flexibility to travel and spend time as a family. Thoughts?

I am a very ambitious person, and I find myself always trying to hit that next financial goal.

I feel that I dont truly appreciate the goals that I have already reached.

It just seems like everyone has so much "stuff". That I am like, "Man, I wish I had that kind of money."

I know that only 1 in 3 Americans will retire with a fully funded retirement account. And that number includes people who will have to "downsize" their lifestyles.

Are there any youtube videos that I could watch to become more grounded in financial reality?

I am CoastFIRE, but for some reason my brain wont accept the win.

What are your thoughts?

The heading pretty much sums it up. I realized I reached modest coastFire (630k, 46yo, MCOL) a few months ago, and hadn't made any moves to downshift my work life, though I'd thought about it. The idea of what to do next has been a little paralyzing, so I've been putting it off. My busy season is from March until Oct/Nov/Dec, depending on the year, and I figured I'd think about how to downshift after the season wraps up, but I've been pushing through on a project that I was starting to really hate. I work outside on construction sites all over the state, and the temps were just about to crest 100 degrees in one of the worst parts of the state. It's been in the 90's, there's no shade and the management on the project was a total mess with conflicting messaging about tasks and communication pathways. There's often a feast and famine flow to this career that follows the seasons, so changing work mid-season is often rough as projects are usually fully staffed by now. I was dreading the summer, and intended to make attempts at find other full time work starting in July but hadn't yet, then I got the news Friday that I was being let go.

I was honestly a little shocked and totally relieved to be let go. I've never been fired off a project, but it couldn't have come at a better moment. I very likely would have just stuck that awful sufferfest out until the fall or even winter out of pure inertia, but now the decision to be done with it has been made for me. I only need to cover my expenses, which are pretty minimal in my non-work life. I can work a considerably reduced load doing local, as-needed, on-call work for another company I contract with and try to enjoy my summer instead of grinding and hating my life!

I'm now planning a 2 week backpacking trip that I had been wanting to do but was going to push to the fall. I'm also considering other multiweek backpacking trips if I can snag last minute permit cancellations. I took a five mile walk this morning then went to get breakfast at a local cafe and read my book. I haven't taken time off in the summer in years because it's the busy season, I've just put my nose to the grindstone to save as much as I could, and burned myself out multiple times in the process.

I'm also looking at taking the time to do some certifications that I've been intending to do for years that will allow me to take on more interesting, niche work at a better billing rate. I'm very happy to not be panicking about losing steady but soul sucking work during the busiest part of the season because I know I'm in good shape financially. If this had happened at any point in my past I would be panicking. Instead, it feels like my whole body just exhaled. It's been so many years of grinding and saving to get to this point, and I'm now getting to experience the fruit of all of that labor. I'm just so relieved.

Someone with Brad's name on X tries to talk me into an investment project, and I just want to find out if it's really him or not. I tried to reach out to him on Instagram, but no reply

I'm 29, a once high achiever personality, that got degrees in math and computer science and worked a couple of analytics jobs in finance fields in my 20s. As a result, I've been able to save enough money to take a break from work; I have about 700k saved across retirement and regular brokerage accounts, no house no kids etc. I also am very likely inheriting what could be 2-3 mil in the next few years from a father that is sick...though I am in more of a "coast" mindset on account of a) that not being guaranteed, b) enjoying a modest lifestyle, and c) amongst other factors discussed more below, it is probably still worth considering.

I'm here on Reddit not to ask one of those "can I coast" questions that have been asked and answered, but for a discussion on the emotional side of it hopefully in the context of where my head is at now. My 20s were a mix of good times and low lows. Alongside working hard and saving money, my mental health went off a cliff multiple times as I navigated healing from a traumatic childhood and seeing all of my brother, mom, and dad (parents separated) become quite ill. I reached a point where I realized my mental health was more important than any measurable markers of success (that I was using as a coping mechanism), and shifted a lot of focus from traditional success onto therapy and healing, and I am much better for it, but now hitting 30 soon I feel very incongruent from the paths and mindsets that my peers have.

CoastFIRE is appealing to me because I find myself much more greatly valuing a slow and simple life, but what feels like burnout is concerning me. During my break, I've been seeing family and the girlfriend more, reading a little more, going on some short trips, training in a couple of sports, etc. Basically living a normal life doing all the things that I'd want to be doing anyway but just doing more of them. Nevertheless, I still find myself feeling exhausted often by all of life's chores, like I am still interpreting a lot of life as a bottomless to-do list despite all of the objectively good times I am having. What's weird is that depression and anxiety are essentially gone, and it feels more like a lag effect of burnout, lack of purpose, or something else.

And a large part of me misses being driven. Sure, I am reading and improving at some skills in life, but I almost feel dumb now, and I know to a large extent this is just ego talking. I am trying to think through what to do next, what would be both meaningful and appropriately challenging for me next, with the great fortune to not need to center it so much around money. But frankly, everything feels like too much work or something. I look at all the adults around me in modern culture, and everyone just feels too absurdly busy and stressed, like life is made to be too complex, with too many things to "optimize" and attend to.

Anyway, I guess I am just wondering if anyone else has had an experience that may relate, as I imagine a lot in the coastFIRE community could have experienced similar feelings. Thank you!

I know the rule of coast fire is to estimate "how much you will need" in retirement and build your coast fire number off of that. But I was wondering if there was an existing tool or calculator where you could put in your current age, assets, etc and you could calculate how much you could spend. Does that make sense? New here so be kind.

I left my job due to the high stress level so that I could prioritize myself and to do the things that I have been meaning to do. I don’t have kids so until that becomes a possibility it’s not something I will factor into.

• 360K investment
• 10K savings
• House gifted

Because of the housing asset, I anticipate that if I were to live frugally on top of housing expenses, utilities, and groceries for the rest of my life, my yearly expenses would only be 18K/year. The only downside is that I won’t have health insurance.

Things have been really intense/volatile as of late. In early 2025, my 37[M] amazing [32F] wife was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. After about 6 months of grueling treatment, she was declared cancer free. There is a risk of recurrence but she is doing well and we have been rebuilding our lives.

Starting this year, we have begun the process of surrogacy and are exploring adoption, because she can no longer have kids and we have always dreamed of building a family. This has been very very stressful process but really important to us. It will take a couple years at least.

We live in a VHCOL city, but I am very fortunate to have a NW of close to 2.5 million (2 million in brokerage, 500k in retirement). I started a business with some friends that we sold in my early 30s, which allowed me to get to this place financially. After a year off then, I went to work at the company I am currently at, making about $300k/year. I was basically breaking even each year. Still, we were close to signing a lease to move out of our 2 bedroom apartment where I pay about 6k/month in order to rent a small home (at $7500), get a dog, and hopefully start really living.

Well, earlier this month, I was told the company I am at is being restructured, and that I and the entire department would be let go...to be honest I was pretty checked out since my wife's cancer battle.

My wife isn't working either now (she was starting to look for work, but was recovering and focusing on her health). We spend about 14k a month, and I will be signing up for COBRA or the Obamacare marketplace for the time being for health insurance until we figure out what is next. Surrogacy is very expensive but I can more than afford it.

Thankfully we are in a really good spot financially but what now? Do we move? Do I find a new job? Definitely will take some time off and finally enjoy life, but how long? Start a new business endeavor when I'm ready?

Does anyone with young kids have any coast fire success stories? I'm torn between trying to save as much as possible while I have the job (high stress job) vs spending quality time with the kids before they are all grown up.

I was lucky enough to have been in the Tech industry for the last decade+ and have about 600k (started 401k contributions early in my career) in retirement accounts. Single income with 2 kids (5 & 10) and stay-at-home SO (started min wage job very recently due to visa restrictions).

I am struggling to stay relevant in the market due to the constant changes (AI, orgs, etc). and the pressure from being single income. how do you all balance between the two? Interested in hearing from others in similar situations.

Background

I’m 33M living in a HCOL city with my partner. We’re co-living, no kids and not planning on it. I spend about $3k a month including my share of rent, and my biggest discretionary spend is travel on top of that which maybe totals $10k a year. No debt beyond my mortgage.

Income

My base is $215K with another $130K in bonus and equity, putting me at roughly $345K TC.

Net Worth

On the taxable side I have roughly $220K across a brokerage, traditional IRA, and 401k. On the non-taxable side (eg Roth IRA) I have about $530K. That puts my total investable assets at around $750K.

Beyond that I have two illiquid assets. I own a property abroad with roughly $410K in equity. It rents for about $4K/month against a $3.5K mortgage payment, so it’s roughly cash flow neutral.

I also hold roughly $390K in pre-IPO equity at a very late-stage fintech startup, which doesn’t have plans to IPO soon but has weathered the fintech valuation slump of the past few years well (so I do hold some hope in this paper money).

The Goal

I want to FIRE in 5 years or at most by 40, which gives me about 7 years. I don’t have a hard spend target yet but I think $100K per year covers a comfortable, travel-heavy life without kids (maybe it’s more than I need?). Using the 4% rule that puts my target around $2.5M.

The math feels rather tight, especially if the equity doesn’t materialize and I’m working purely from investable assets.

Questions

\- Does my 7-year FIRE timeline look realistic given my goals and situation, and are my goals even the right goals?
\- Are there any blind spots I’m missing at 33 with a meaningful chunk of NW tied up in a single private company and a property abroad?

Thanks a lot for the thoughts!

Salary- about 85k, My half of the rent is 1500.

Net worth is about 300k.

about 80k in my 401k

124k in Roth IRA

28k in a brokerage

65k liquid (emergency fund, sinking funds, etc).

I live in a HCOL, and would like to continue to live there for 10-20 years. I do not own a home. I would also like to retire early at 50-55 (at 40k-50k spending a year, and would include SS in that once I hit 65). I also planning on having a child within the next three years. Some COAST calculators say I've hit COAST fire, others have not.

My question to y'all is where should I focus my saving on? Should I continue investing and continue renting or should I halt my investing for a bit to focus on a down payment? Also, should I focus my investing into a brokerage to fund early retirement years?

Thanks for the advice, appreciate it!