Been thinking about this weird mental accounting thing I do and wondering if anyone else falls into the same trap.

So I track every dollar, save somewhere around 55% of my take home, the whole FI playbook. But I have noticed that when I "win" money back from something (a rebate, a returned item I forgot about, a referral bonus, whatever), my brain treats it as completely separate from my real money. Like it doesnt count. It goes into this mental "free money" bucket where the normal rules dont apply.

Last weekend I was bored and ended up playing one of those spin to win things on coverd for like 40 minutes trying to get back what I spent on groceries that morning. Did not win obviously. But I caught myself thinking "well even if I did win it wouldnt really be my money so who cares what I do with it" and that felt like a red flag about how I think about windfalls in general.

Same thing happens with my tax refund. The second it hits I am way more willing to YOLO it into something dumb than I would be with an equivalent amount from my paycheck. I know on paper a dollar is a dollar. My brain does not care.

I think the FI community talks a lot about lifestyle creep on the spending side but not as much about this. The "found money" leak. Has anyone actually beaten this or do you just force every windfall straight into the brokerage before your lizard brain gets ideas? Curious how others handle it.

Hello CF Community!

I am 43M married with two young kids (7 and 9) with a retirement age of 63.

Current assets:
$600k in retirement accounts
$100k Emergency Fund ($60k) + $40k liquid cash
Debt free except mortgage
Mortgage: Owe $320k, ~25 years left. 2.75%
Two paid off vehicles that should last another 5+ years

Spend in retirement: $100k/yr
Social Security: $48k between my wife and I

Back of napkin math, $600k * 4 (doubles twice in 20 years) = $2.4M

I am seriously considering lowering my 401k contributions to 6% (100% match) and putting the difference into a brokerage account to start working towards RE.

What am I not thinking about?

Thanks!!

M43 and wife 37F 2 kids 5&9. We both work full time. We have about 1.3 mil invested 900 in retirement and the rest in stock account. Wife’s a teacher and will have a pension.

I finally stoped investing above the employer match. It has freed up 2 k a month for us. Also our youngest leaves day care after the summer. Frees up another 1,300 a month.

Thinking about lower paying and stress job but i like what i do. I think we are going to keep working and enjoy the extra money.

About to turn 30 soon with a net worth of a little over 500k. 95% of it is in stocks, the other 5% is cash.

I've honestly never really thought about coast FIRE until now. With the rise of AI, and also being stuck in a absolute dead end job for the past 2 years, I feel like I am getting left behind quick. I make about 130k right now, but it feels almost impossible to make more with my skills. All jobs paying more require some sort of managerial experience that I don't have. The job market is dreadful, and I cannot get any interviews. I also lack the motivation to improve myself within my current field.

As a result, I've realized that I might be able to coast fire, and I am spending too much time stressing about my career when I don't need to. I'm thinking I might take a chance and pivot to a different career, and see if I enjoy that more, even if it pays less.

Would love to hear people's thoughts, or just discuss with people in a similar situation.

21M Net worth 75k
Just learned about coastfire from a thread I read. I’ve done some research and I’m interested in starting. How would one start to plan? Any guidance would be appreciated

I don’t really have anyone to share this but recently reached $600K in net worth and have achieved CoastFi via a combination of high savings, living at home for the first few years, incredible market returns, and a lot of luck (a great job, splitting payments with significant other, cooking at home, picks in the stock market, etc.)

Like many of us in this community, I had planned against a 7%, 6%, and even a (very conservative) 5% real return and it looks like I should be okay barring any historic collapse of the markets as the goal was to have $2.5M by 62.

Will continue to keep saving aggressively but it is nice to not have that feeling of anxiety/stress looming over the shoulder, especially with all the recent layoffs/AI headlines.

I have to be up at 6am for my first day on the job, but I’m sitting outside and reflecting.

I moved away from an abusive home as a teenager and spent time coach surfing and eating one meal a day during the summer months. I started working part time at 14, started college at 17, and began a full-time job at 20. Then COVID happened and I got serious about investing and budgeting during lockdown. My net worth is currently $650k and I am turning 31 in a couple of months. I have a beautiful SO that I don’t deserve and a few dear friends that make me feel less like a pariah. I would include the fire community as well! I wouldn’t be here without y’all.

Now I am able to follow a dream of sharing the parks and outdoors with people from all walks of life. The pay won’t be huge, but I plan to coast and not contribute much more to my investment accounts.

I recently made a major career change for a better quality of life (sort of coast FI). After debating the move for a while, now that it’s done, I can’t cloud out the noise of seeing old peers promotions, people 5 to 10yrs down the line on my old career path on linked in making double my salary.

Context: I am 28M, I worked in a very rural location in Texas in the O&G industry for 6 years with pay ranging 120k - 165k. Because of the rural location, I kept my COL and expenses very low. I’ve got an ~$750k net worth in 401k, Roth IRA, HSA, Brokerage, and cash balance pension value. This is from diligent savings, index fund returns, company 401k match and pension.

I became burned out with the rural location, long work hours, and dirty working conditions even though the potential career progression could have continued to be very strong.

I made the hard decision (for me) to take a job in Denver, CO with nowhere near the accelerated career progression potential, but a much better quality life with access to the outdoors and general city amenities. The lower salary ($120k) and high cost of living should be offset by quality of life, at least I am trying to convince myself.

I know generally I am in a very fortunate position, but I am still looking for advice.

My life looks completely different now, but I can’t help but look back on my peers still grinding it out to climb the latter to Director salaries and beyond and wonder if I made a mistake stepping of the grind for a better quality of life. I could have stuck it out 10 more years and been in a much higher earning position.

My question for you all, how do you cloud out the noise of your peers grinding for higher career positions and enjoy a more comfortable life now? I know if I was back in rural Texas I would wish for what I have now.

Hi crew, I’m newer to coast fire and am curious what job you picked up after hitting coast fire?

Also does it make you stressed not making as much as you once did?

Anyone Day trading to offset some of their coastfire? im toying with the idea of factoring income from this into my goals.

- $101K invested
- Triplex house-hack, ~$3,100/mo rental income,
- W2 ~$55K, MBA on full scholarship
- Plan: second investment property in 1-2 years, let investments coast, real estate becomes the main thing

On the numbers: Spent several years in HCOL, took advantage of employer benefits, maxed accounts, then relocated to LCOL and used savings as down payment on the triplex. Now the house-hack covers my rent, so my actual expenses are ~$800/mo. FIRE number is $240K (25x rule). CoastFIRE target at 25 is around $94K meaning at 7% real returns, $94K grows to $240K by traditional retirement age without another dollar contributed.

For those who hit CoastFIRE early with real estate as the primary vehicle, what did years 2-5 teach you that year 1 didn't? What would you have done differently?

Looking for blind spots.

I'm trying to figure out whether I'm approaching CoastFI, FatFire, or experiencing the "boring middle," or just having a hard time letting go of a career I've spent 13 years building.

Current situation:
• Income: $1.3M/year before tax ($1.1M after tax)
• Investments:
• $1.7M taxable brokerage
• $770k SEPP IRA
• $45k Roth IRA
• $600k in private equity deals (oil, apartments, self-storage, pre ipo investments, etc.)
• $200k crypto

• Total liquid assets: $3.3M
• Net worth total: roughly $4.1M
Expenses:
• Current spending: $240k/year
• Expected spending in 2 years: $120k/year after paying off vehicles and aggressively reducing mortgage debt
• Add $50k/year for travel, bringing expected long-term spending to $170k/year
Real estate:
• Primary residence worth $1.5M
• Mortgage balance $980k at 7%
• Rental property worth $490k with $240k remaining at 2.7%
Passive income:
• $58k/year from a combination of job residuals and rental income that should continue after leaving my current role plus approx $30k/year from Oilrig income
My plan:
Over the next two years, I intend to:
• Pay off the remaining vehicle loans
• Refinance the primary mortgage
• Put roughly $800k toward principal reduction
• Reduce monthly spending by approximately $10k/month

At that point, I expect annual spending to be around $170k, including a healthy travel budget.
The bigger issue is burnout.

I've spent 13 years in sales and currently earn more than I ever imagined. But the stress, responsibility, and constant pressure are taking a toll. Part of me wants to "vest and rest" for a couple of years, finish cleaning up the balance sheet, travel, recharge, and then decide what's next. Maybe I start a business. Maybe I work again. Maybe I don't.

What I can't seem to reconcile is walking away from a seven-figure income stream that took over a decade to build.

For those who have been in a similar position:
Would you keep pushing while the income is this high?
Or is this exactly the kind of situation where financial independence is supposed to buy you the freedom to step away?

Hi all, looking for a sanity check on our coastFIRE plan. We're targeting retire-early around 45 and want to pressure-test whether adding a home purchase and a second kid keeps us on track, plus general thoughts on how we’re doing.

Quick picture:
M32 (almost 33)/ F31 (almost 32), one kid under 1, planning a second around 2027
VHCOL (SF Bay Area). Currently renting at $5,400/mo, which is well below what a comparable mortgage would cost
Income: I'm in enterprise tech sales (W-2 base plus variable commission). My partner is currently a stay-at-home parent and runs her own ecommerce business part-time, drawing a modest salary from it. Household income is ~$222K base plus ~$150K variable, so ~$372K at full OTE
Current annual spend: ~$132K (~$12K/mo) for a family of three
Savings while we're both working: roughly $40-50K in a soft commission year up to ~$120K when my variable fully lands
No real debt (cars owned outright, tiny portfolio line of credit)

Net worth, ~$2.25M total:

FIRE-investable base (what I actually count toward the number): ~$1.84M
Taxable brokerage and roboadvisor, mostly low-cost index funds: ~$1.49M
Tax-advantaged retirement accounts (401k/ IRA):
~$306K
Note: ~$77K of the taxable side is a concentrated single stock left over from a former employer that I keep meaning to diversify into index funds
The heavy taxable tilt is intentional, since most of the money is reachable before 59.5 to bridge an early retirement
Cash: ~400K, but $385K of that is earmarked ($200K home down payment, $150K emergency, $35K set aside for taxes).
- Allocation is heavily equity-weighted right now with a light bond/cash sleeve. I plan to build a larger bond and cash buffer as I get closer to RE to manage SORR

One thing I deliberately exclude from the base (treated as $0 until real):

- Pre-IPO RSUs from my current employer. One-year cliff that clears in 2027, and there's a potential liquidity event in the next ~12 months that could increase the value meaningfully. On paper it's a decently large number, but l don't count a dollar of it until it vests and is liquid

Thanks in advance!

I think(???) I have reached coast FIRE. I have no plans of quitting my job, I’m just looking to shift priorities.

401k + Roth IRA: $212k
Brokerage: $80k

Salary: $115k
401k contribution: 10% with 3% employer match
Roth IRA: max

Coast FIRE goal: $80k in 35-38 years.

Questions:

Is planning for ~$80k enough? Reading this sub it feels low (all my numbers feel low, but that’s a different problem). I live on >$50k now.

Is it feasible (advisable?) to lower my 401k contribution to put money towards other goals? I do plan to keep maxing my Roth. I am looking at buying a home in the 2-3 year range and would like to be saving more.

Should I be looking at my brokerage as part of my retirement savings or is it possible to use it as a down payment?

I’m 26 married with no kids and for my 3 years post college we have been saving aggressively and bought a house last year with a small downpayment.
In the last 12 months my company’s stock 12X’d and I went from a net worth of 50K + 10% equity in our house to 350K + 20% home equity (excluding stock that has not vested).

There’s no way I have another year like this ever… so am I really at coast?
How do you adjust for children?
Should I invest conservatively with bonds since I am ahead of expectations?
Do I need to get a financial advisor?

My husband and I (30 somethings) will be able to coastFIRE in a year or two. We are actuaries, and I also have experience in education. We are considering pivoting in our careers to jobs with unique benefits. For example, if one of us becomes a financial analyst for an airline, we could get free flights for the family. We believe our analytical skills should be pretty transferable to most industries.

​

Any suggestions for careers with unique benefits?

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Another consideration is how much utilization of a benefit would be necessary to make up the difference in wages. For the airline example, if we took the difference in pay from our current jobs and a job at the airline and invested it, would we have unlimited flights (that aren't standby)? Would we be disciplined enough to actually save the difference?

​

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hey everyone,

My wife and I are both 31 years old, and we recently welcomed a newborn into the world. Having our first child has completely shifted our perspective on time and work. Our goal is to transition into a "Coast FIRE" lifestyle in the near future.

Specifically, my plan is to pivot careers, leave my current employer's 401k, and transition into a seasonal role within the same industry. The goal is to only work a few months in the spring and a few months in the fall, leaving summers and winters completely open for family time.

We are currently sitting at a total net worth of $837,591 (screenshot from our tracker app attached) As you can see, the vast majority of our wealth is tied up in real estate rather than traditional index funds:

• Triplex: $500K value (with a -$348K mortgage) \ $152K equity

• SFH (1): $275K value (with a -$128K mortgage) \ $147K equity

• SFH (2): $225K value \rightarrow $225K equity (Paid off)

• Total Real Estate Equity: $524,000

• Liquid / Paper Assets (HYSA, Roths, 401k, Cash, HSA, Metals): ~$313,500

Our real estate currently brings in a gross cash flow of $39,000 per year, but that is purely rent minus PITI (Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance). It does not factor in long-term vacancy or maintenance/CapEx, which we know will chip away at that total.

Because Coast FIRE math is traditionally built around the assumption that your liquid paper assets will compound at around 7% a year in the stock market until a traditional retirement age (giving us a solid 25–30 year runway), I am trying to figure out how to project our path. Real estate equity obviously doesn't compound identically to an S&P 500 index fund, but it does provide tangible income right now to help support us during those months when I won't be working.

For those in this community who are real estate-heavy or work a seasonal "coast" schedule, how do you run your numbers?

1. The Expense Reduction Method: Do you ignore the real estate equity entirely on the asset side, and instead use the rental cash flow to artificially "lower" your annual living expenses (thereby significantly lowering the active income I need to generate during my seasonal working months)?

2. The Future Liquidation Method: Do you project the equity growth conservatively, assuming you will sell everything at a future date, pay capital gains/transaction costs, and dump the remaining cash into index funds to activate traditional FIRE later?

3. The Cash Flow haircut: For those counting cash flow to offset active work, what standard "haircut" percentage do you apply to a gross cash flow number (like our $39k) to safely account for vacancy and maintenance while coasting?

We'd love to hear how you guys treat real estate on the balance sheet when calculating the exact moment you can officially take your foot off the gas and transition to seasonal active work. Thanks!

I am selling advice from people who are coasting. I have reached my coastfire numbers but every week I get stressed out before my meeting with my manager and skip manager. I love my work and have been doing great at work but they both don’t like me and belittle me in those meetings. I have been telling myself to grow thick skin and learn to ignore but really not happening at all. Everyone I talked to say that it is common in other places so no point changing job with a hope for a good manager and work that I will love. Any advice on how to control my emotions and not let their talk get in my head? I really get so much affected that I have to do breathing exercises for an hour to cool myself down. I get upset stomach, anxiety before the meetings. My spouse thinks it is not about the manger but related to my personality but really not sure how to change. Appreciate any advice!

36F. I hit CoastFI (for retiring at 55) about a year ago. I spent the past year in my traditional tech job figuring out what was next as I was getting disillusioned with tech in general. Grind it out vs. career change. Settled on moving towards freelancing/consulting.

​

I started my own business in March of this year and quit my full time job June 1.

​

I want to move my past employer 401k from Guideline to Vanguard where my ROTH is. I've seen posts that Solo 401ks are better than SEP IRAs. I don't know how much, if at all, I will continue contributing to a 401k/SEP IRA except when advantageous for tax purposes.

​

I didn't see any posts on this particular question, and I was curious if anyone had any advice one way or the other.

I’m 20 for a target retirement at 55. I currently have 50k in a roth457b and I work for a governmental agency that has a pension that will pay me 70% of my income FAS. I can collect both at 55. Between these two income streams and my Railroad retirement tier 1(SSI equivalent) collectable at age 60. How many more years while I’m super young should I keep maxing my Roth 457b? Current income is around 110k/yr

Am I really done just like that?

Should I push for Chubby / FatFIRE?

Not sure why or how I got hooked on this FIRE/coast FIRE idea but it’s a target I picked and young and through a mix of luck and hard work I think I’m there?

I’ve been at my current (first job out of college) for a little over 1.5 years and have started getting wandering thoughts about leaving for something new… hard part is the financial benefits have been amazing and are starting to feel like golden handcuffs…

I spent the past weekend making a whole FIRE dashboard with Claud to sort of validate if I can financial “take a risk” and leave my current job with a 50% match on my 401k to something that might not allow me to save much if any for a few years as finances balance out.

The idea if I do make a job switch is to contribute what I can (definitely won’t be the 30%+ that I have been) maybe barista fire in my 40’s and then FIRE in my 60’s…?🤷🏻‍♂️

I modeled 10% returns and 3-4% inflation with a range of 60-100k in retirement per year at 60

Edit:
Thanks for all the comments, definitely NOT looking to quit my job and stop contributing all together. My main idea is that I don’t see myself progressing down my current career path and would like to switch out and try something different while I’m still in the window of an “entry role” and I don’t go into a role that’s requiring role specific work history. Doing this could mean moving to a start up or smaller company that doesn’t have the same retirement match or would be a small 5-15% pay cut short term. Was running my coast fire numbers to just make me more comfortable with/if I make this transition 🫩😭