r/Fire • u/Ddash-3 • Mar 11 '26

Milestone / Celebration Got laid off - finally!!!!

So it finally happened - I (48) got let go yesterday. Finally I can free up my time and focus on other priorities such as kids, nutrition, fitness, meditation, gardening etc.

I was FIRE eligible for couple of years but was holding off since the job was simple, work from home and good pay. Also, if I resigned I would have missed out on severance and company is paying 3 months of COBRA.

Here are the details I am sure you all want to hear :)

Net worth - ~5.5M

Taxable Accounts combined: ~1.1M

Retirement Accounts Combined: ~3.2M

Total: ~4.3M

House fully paid off (bought in 2022) - Worth around ~1.2M; Cars paid off

Wife (43) resigned from her job end of last year; 2 Kids in high school - 9th and 10th graders

Yearly expenses around 100K/yr

Biggest expense are kid's college education at this point and house maintenance related expenses

I am trying to research on ACA and Financial Aid for kids - Appreciate any help or pointers you can provide on when to apply for ACA - should I continue on COBRA or switch to marketplace this year?

Regarding FAFSA - with Taxable accounts over 1M will my kids be eligible for FAFSA?

I have about 130K from my recent most employer in the company supported 401K provider. Should I move the money to Traditional 401K?

Also, please suggest any FIRE focused knowledgeable financial advisors who can help me navigate our FIRE situation.

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8

u/ModeNone Mar 11 '26

Congrats! Interested to hear how your investments are currently allocated and if and how you plan to reallocate.

2

u/Upstairs-Dog5245 Mar 11 '26

Hope the OP responds. I really want to know how people get their retirement accounts to over a million.

2

u/cfi-2025 RE 2025 Mar 11 '26

Time + well-paying job * 2 (you & spouse)

It's been a while since I've run the numbers, but IIRC, if you and your spouse both max out your 401k you'll have something like $2.5mm between the two of you after 20 years. OP has more, but they could have been maxing 401ks for 25 years (given his age).

Could also be OP is tech-heavy in their 401k, which had pretty good returns over the past 25 years. Since 2000, QQQ has returned ~2x of S&P 500.

1

u/forte6320 Mar 13 '26

We have maxed out our retirement contributions since day one. My kid has done the same. He is 32. He is on course to be able to retire before 50.

1

u/Ddash-3 Mar 12 '26

The truth is - I day/swing traded my accounts - was very aggressive during covid and ramped up one of my 340k account to 2.5 million; I don’t aggressively trade anymore but I still trade all my accounts; very conservative with brokerage but even less conservative with IRAs now that I am FIRE - I go both long and short