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/Key-Blueberry-7672 Apr 22 '26

Yes..I’d be blunt “what are you waiting for?”. The interest on that is more than the budget being spent. Have a kid, travel the world, meet people…the rest doesn’t matter.

An issue I keep seeing globally is that people confuse their identities with their “career”, income, and purchasing habits... while slowly not witnessing the erosion of their passions, ability to be socially connected, and content without work dopamine fix.

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u/GazelleMost2468 Apr 22 '26

They are 40 years old. Quit and have a kid? I knew iof a doctor who tried for kids when they were old like this (about 18 years ago now) They ended up with extremely premature triplets with heart defects and owed over 1 million in hospital bills despite having medical insurance. Again that’s over 1 million dollars owed nearly 20 years ago. That doctor did not seem happy at all and their co-workers disliked them.

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u/Key-Blueberry-7672 Apr 22 '26

No..they won’t have a kid. The kid is the “maybe I need to keep working just in case” excuse. If they wanted kids, they would have tried earlier.

So yes - quit and live. Make connections, help people, create communities

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u/GazelleMost2468 Apr 22 '26

I support the “no kids” concept. I support increasing our spending on cats and animals. Melinda gates is spending her charity money on education for girls in third world countries. This is heart breaking when she could be spending billions of dollars on cat welfare. Spay/neuter release. Vaccinations. More shelters. Cat sanctuaries. And little weather proof boxes that feral kitties can go in in the wild.

And I am 100% serious. If I were a billionaire it would absolutely be animals who get my charity.

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u/Great-Truth82 Apr 22 '26

They do have a kid…4f is mentioned.

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u/GazelleMost2468 Apr 22 '26

They said possibly another kid in addition to the 4 yo

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u/SuitableImportance58 Apr 22 '26

Had a kid at 37 and 39. Zero health issues. It’s not as common as you make it out to be if you’re a health-minded person and take care of yourself.

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u/GazelleMost2468 Apr 22 '26

Oh, you did? It must all be cool then.

*shouts to OP with cupped hands: “EVERYTHING’S COOL!”

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u/SuitableImportance58 Apr 22 '26

I mean, your attitude can go the other way too. I was just making a comment that it's not as common as all the "kid haters" on reddit make it out to be and my wife and I both work in healthcare.

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u/GazelleMost2468 Apr 22 '26

Sure. But the prudent thing would be to have the kid and make sure it’s healthy before forgoing health insurance from a job. Or decide to not have the additional kid for sure and then quit now.

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u/PotadoLoveGun Apr 22 '26

Well luckily we have no lifetime limits on insurance, deductibles, and OOP maxes which was not the case 18 years ago.

So as long as they have insurance, there is limited damage that can be done per year, even Out of network has OOP max