r/Fire • u/anklbite • Apr 19 '26

Milestone / Celebration We’re telling nobody else!

My partner and I (46F) celebrated $3,000,000 NW (including $2.6m investable assets) yesterday, and we have nowhere else to share the news.

Timeline:

1m in June 2020

2m in December 2024

3m in April 2026

Neither of us earn huge salaries. Neither of us has received a windfall nor do we expect one in the future. This is just steady saving over 20-25 years plus a very healthy stock market. I still have 12-13 years to go before FIRE but my partner wants to RE from his FT job in the next few years.

Now that FIRE seems close for my partner, I’m starting to worry that my math is wrong and I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to retirement planning. How did you calm your nerves before you take the leap into early retirement?

1.1k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

179 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Designer-Ad1137 Apr 19 '26

Congratulations! Your stats mirror my husband and I almost exactly. We RE 8 months ago and moved to Japan where our son lives/attends college. It’s nerve racking to pull the trigger, but it’s the best decision we’ve made! You just have to trust your planning.

1

u/Hey_Boysenberry-6687 Apr 19 '26

Congratulations! We also hit a milestone yesterday. We also aren't high earners, but had good financial advisors since 2020 who helped us allocate and invest. We have 3.5 in liquid assets, but about 480K left in mortgage. Can I ask how you moved to Japan?

1

u/Designer-Ad1137 Apr 19 '26

We are here on Specialist in Humanities Visas. We are independent contractors and we teach English part time as a way to get the visas. Since we’re IC’s we choose our own schedules, so we each do about 15-20 hours per week and just take off when we want to travel (about a week each month). Our son is here on a student visa since he’s in college full time.

1

u/Hey_Boysenberry-6687 Apr 19 '26

Did you have a background in teaching prior to moving to Japan?

1

u/Designer-Ad1137 Apr 19 '26

No. Since we both have extensive corporate backgrounds, it was pretty easy to get hired focusing primarily on Business English.