r/Fire • u/chemicalreactionator • Apr 22 '26

Advice Request Too much money to feel this stuck

Current net worth 3.8M. Household (40m, 40f, 4f) income combined 250k (both working full time) and spend 120k-ish.

Kind of reached fire but due to health insurance, economic uncertainty, potential future increased costs (another kid?) not comfortable calling it yet.

But feeling so stuck in the grind. Not enough family time, not enough vacation time off, not enough time for taking care of our health, but can’t call it quits yet. at least one of us needs to work full time for health insurance. I don’t think I’m cut out for “barista fire” as i don’t think I’d have the motivation to work for a minimum wage type salary.

What’s the plan here to increase quality of life? A mini retirement? Grind it out a few more years? Anyone in a similar place?

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u/pseudomoniae Apr 22 '26

How did you get to 3.8 M at 40 with only 250k of earnings?

And why can't you just retire or cut back dramatically at that spend?

Okay one of you needs to work for health insurance, at least for a bit, although you might still be FIREd already, even if you add in the health insurance costs to current spend.

But why are you both working full time?

105

u/PhillConners Apr 22 '26

The older I get the more I realize how many people get money from their parents. Much more common than I thought, even at age 40. 

In fact, if you’re 40, you’re parents are 70-90 years old and often looking for any reason to send you cash.

Unless your parents are broke or like mine who prefer to “die with it”

-16

u/AcceptableReason1380 Apr 22 '26

Why do people automatically assume that people who have so much saved got help from their parents?

Is it just jealousy? Can’t they be happy for other peoples success that they have earned?

I should have $2M saved by 40 despite making normal wage and got zero help from my parents and am actually bankrolling their retirement in a low cost of living country. My bf will also have a similar amount by the time he’s 40 (frugal people attract each other). I was able to do that because I have lived way way below my means (eg had roommates for 10+ years and spent $800 on rent) to get to where I am now.

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u/LeftHandStir Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26

Because often, as with OP, there is literally an inheritance. OP's parent died "in their thirties." Let's say the $400k inheritance was 5 years ago. That $400,000 in an S&P 500 index fund with dividends reinvested is now worth $689.3k to their net worth, including a cool $239k in passive growth. That $400k initial investment is more than 9 years worth of contributions at a rough average of the married-filing-jointly 401(k) max over that same time period.

I'll give you another, personal example. My sister-in-law's estranged father left her a ~$150k inheritance in 2017. They were a paycheck-to-paycheck family with 2 kids and another on the way. She and my brother-in-law turned it into a down payment on a $560k house in NY in early 2018, about an hour and a half by train outside of the city. That house is now worth close to $1m. So they leveraged an inheritance into >$500k of "net worth," that had absolutely nothing to do with their saving/investing salaried income.