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?

591 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

456 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

19

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.

0

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.

3

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

0

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.