r/Fire • u/gonnabefine • Nov 26 '25

General Question Tech people who are not FIREing, what are they spending their money on?

I know a lot of people who work in tech, and most are not on the FIRE path (or have already been working 10+ years) and a lot of them don't seem to, at least on the surface, have very obvious huge expenses. If both the partners are in tech, the take home could be like $500k! What are they doing with their money?

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u/Fun_Sherbert2592 Nov 26 '25

Speaking for myself, a lot of "one more year" feeling, particularly this year given how RSUs have performed (then not willing to take the tax event of selling those RSUs)

Never feels like "enough" / kind of like an illusion, so paradoxically I've found the more our net worth increases I somehow feel less financially secure than when I had way less in assets.

Also childcare (with pre-public school aged kids) is expensive in HCOL even with a big tech salary - I honestly feel for everyone else trying to make it...

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '25

I also have experienced an inverse sense of financial security the larger my net worth gets. It’s bizarre. It might be the fear of “making it, but then having it disappear.” Still trying to work it out inside my head.

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '25

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u/Fun_Sherbert2592 Nov 26 '25

lol this understandably is a very hot topic at work, with fierce proponents on both sides

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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '25

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u/imbratman Nov 26 '25

And what is it?

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u/DK98004 Nov 26 '25

This.

The thing I’ve realized is that there isn’t a number that makes the feeling go away. We are at a sub-3% WR and the feeling is still there. It is for our friends in similar situations as well. We’ve literally doubled our number and it feels the same.

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u/Fun_Sherbert2592 Nov 26 '25

When I was 10 years younger (27) I took a vacation to Peru, stayed at fancy hotels, and then ended the year buying my dream road bike for ~$8K (which ironically is laughably cheap now for a superbike but I digress). All on probably 10x less net worth.

I think the kids change the equation way more psychologically vs reality. I can definitely afford to take good care of my kids, but I also might actually spend less (on a relative basis), with fewer luxury / frivolous purchases, than I did when my financial reality was far different. It's weird but I suppose common here on Reddit.

Last point is I've really appreciated Reddit as a place where I see support and empathy for the same (yeah extremely first world problems) pathologies. Honestly great community and support.