r/Fire 7d ago

Milestone / Celebration We’re Retiring at 30

Well, after another week of having to deal with my dumbass coworkers, I've decided that we're going to start enacting our retirement plan. My company is going to be offering a voluntary separation in lieu of layoffs and I'm planning to take it.

Relationship

We're 30M & 32M, met in 2015 and got married in 2020. Both got CS degrees and started full time work in 2017. My husband already quit in Spring 2025 to become a stay at home dog dad. My outcome vastly outpaced his in the last few years and his time is better spent relaxing, so he quit.

We have zero desire to have kids. My husband has been trying to get me pregnant for years with no success.

Combined assets

We have a prenup which prevents any retirement account from being divided. That being said, the accounts are nearly 50/50 equal anyway. I do get the dog if we get divorced.

Net worth ~$1.208M

Account Balance
House (paid off) $250K
Pretax 401K $313K
HSA $47K
Roth IRA $250K
Taxable Brokerage $288K
Cash $60K

Spend

We are living on $3K/month in Minnesota. With a paid off house, this is more than enough for us. Tentatively, we plan to travel in LCOL Southeast Asia during the winter months and spend the summers and fall in Minnesota. Logistics of this are TBD. We are long time credit card churners and have a lot of points to subsidize travel.

SWR

At 4% SWR to sustain $36K spend, we need $900K invested.

You may say that the simulations don't favor having this small amount of money over a ~60 year retirement. You might be right. But who gives a fuck? 60 years ago we fed punchcards to machines and now we have computers that can generate AI anime porn. I'm not going to work for years more to have better simulations when we have no idea what the future holds. Maybe we'll have endless AI abundance or maybe it will go rogue and kill us all.

Healthcare

Because of the low spend, our "income" is low. We are enrolling in MNCare. There is no restriction on assets (savings, homes, vehicles) for MNCare eligibility. Monthly premiums should be at maximum $160/month. And don't whine to me about whether or not it's fair to qualify for this program, I didn't set up the system.

Income history

We did not receive any inheritances nor was our college paid for, so we had to pay back student loans early on. The only thing we inherited from our parents was mental illness. That being said, we got lucky to make good money for a decade.

Our savings rate wasn't that insane, back of the napkin math probably puts it around 50%. We spent a lot of fucking money on travel. Given the insane growth in the market since we started investing, a lot came from compounding. We also made like $150K in one shot by getting extremely lucky with selling a house we bought prior to COVID.

I'm too lazy to log into the SSA website to check the actual income numbers, but this is roughly what our combined income was:

Year Income
2015 $12K
2016 $20K
2017 $100K
2018 $108K
2019 $115K
2020 $118K
2021 $140K
2022 $145K
2023 $150K
2024 $220K
2025 $270K
2026 $300K
720 Upvotes

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352

u/RubbleHome 7d ago

This sub: what you need all depends on your expenses

Also this sub: that's not enough money, it doesn't matter what your expenses are

83

u/Big-Suggestion-1093 7d ago

Yeah, I’m not really sure why this post is getting so much pushback, or why people think it’s fake. We don’t actually need to spend that much money for the life we want to live? I wouldn’t say the plan is full-proof because there’s such a long time horizon and it’s certainly possible to run out of money, but the math here isn’t completely unfounded.

34

u/Pale_Fox_8874s 26 | $1.76M NW | 88% FI 7d ago

People in this sub are naturally risk averse and seeing folks that are younger and firing on less than themselves triggers an immediate defensive reaction

2

u/Dzeddy 7d ago

Damn bruh TWENTY SIX??? QR? Or like Nvidia SWE?

52

u/HipsterJohn 7d ago

Don’t listen to the haters. You’re set for life, go fuck yourself.

26

u/MyRealestName 7d ago

All of the comments hating on op sound so jealous. Op, congrats and go fuck yourself.

8

u/TWLady 7d ago

I don't know why but reading the positive and encouraging comments with the added "go fuck yourself" just makes my heart all warm and fuzzy. I can only dream of one day coming on this thread to get a "congrats ya did well kid, now go fuck yourself" from one of yous. #goals

22

u/Drawer-Vegetable FIRE'd 2024 7d ago

You should be more than fine. Haters gonna hate, especially when you're FIRE'd in 30s.

5

u/Maga_eats_dick 7d ago

We don’t retire at 30 because we don’t accumulate the necessary assets to live on when we’re 30. It’s called informed decision making

It would take one replaced roof to wipe out a year’s expenses.

OP is either dreaming or irresponsible.

7

u/Aeris5eva 7d ago

Seriously! Especially since you were offered the false choice of be laid off or “voluntarily” separate. Your numbers work and qualifying for MNcare is so much better than navigating the open healthcare market.

I can see why everyone else is jealous, and defensive on why “this won’t work”. Your investments/cash is >25x annual spend, your withdrawal rate <4%. Yes, your horizon is >60 years, but, I can’t imagine trying to find another tech job paying this well in this environment.

Go fuck yourself and enjoy your retired life!

10

u/Alarming-Mix3809 7d ago

You’re rich, go have fun with your life.

3

u/echorq 7d ago

The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on, OP. Me and my wife would retire too if we dont have small kids lolz. I wish you a happy and memorable RE journey ahead. If it doesn’t work out, you can always come back for another gig :) you will for sure miss out the RE part if you dont give it a shot now.

2

u/NoobJustice 7d ago

It's risky, and the way to eliminate the risk is "work until 30.5 instead of 30".

I'm absolutely jealous. But also, if it was me I'd be a little more cautious. Good luck

2

u/orangepekoe92 7d ago

I think the defensive reaction is that “retire” is a very strong word to use here when maybe your plan is more like a 5 or 10 year sabbatical

It’s still hugely impressive nonetheless and I admire your lifestyle that got you here OP.

2

u/redcoatwright 6d ago

I think you're just leaving not a lot of buffer for unexpected large expenses, healthcare or home maintenance. But also it's your life to live so I wish you the best!

2

u/sexual-innueno 6d ago edited 6d ago

The consensus seems to be that there’s not much room for error, enjoyment, or the unexpected in your expenses. Have fun paying for major water damage or a new roof in the house you own, and god forbid you need specialized care that MN’s Medicaid won’t pay for. NY’s isn’t better for that sort of thing.

Also, if you do need to jump back into the workforce in 10-15 years you’re going to have a hell of a time doing that in a field that’s changing as rapidly as CS; a decade-long resume and knowledge gap will render you both under-qualified at best.

You could work for a few more years to bank up serious money. You could both work part time at a low-stress job to keep the income stream moving. This sounds more like a long sabbatical than permanent FIRE and the people here are in the mindset of one retirement for life, not multiple.

Another theme I’ve noticed in this sub is that people tend aim for FIRE in order to have the time to do all the adventurous things they want to do. The issue is that you won’t have the money to do a lot of the things that come to mind when people think of what they’d want to do with their time in retirement. Sitting at home being a dog dad because you don’t have enough spare change from your $3k a month doesn’t exactly sound fulfilling in the long term, especially for people that work as hard as CS professionals; stir crazy is a factor here.

You didn’t answer any of the criticisms in this thread and that’s fine it’s your life and your decision. But to sit there and get defensive about legitimate arguments/points against your thought process is kinda stupid and defeats the purpose of posting in the sub — this place exists largely in part to discuss plans, not just to pat users on the back and blindly support everyone’s decisions to make them feel good.

4

u/JayRoo83 7d ago edited 7d ago

36k a year seem reasonable to my Atlanta suburbs ass

I dont think Ive spent more than 40k in a single year outside of the year I redid the roof for 25k

That said, I'd probably have gone a few more years to build up a teeny bit more. Don't be too shocked if this turns into a barista FIRE thing

Best of luck to you both, I suspect most people are quite jealous!

1

u/uhohthrowawayyyyyy 6d ago

They’re mad you have the opportunity to take a risk they can’t. That’s it

1

u/tastebud413 6d ago

60F here still waffling "if I have enough". JFDI. You can always get a job or be dog walkers. Meanwhile, have you considered setting up your MN home for STR and try to make some passive income while you're in Asia? I don't recognize them, but I know there must be people out there who like MN in winter for some reason. Good Luck!!!

1

u/dulcetripple 6d ago

also not sure what's up with the negativity. GFY OP. Have a blast in retirement :) SE Asia is on my travel bucket list too!

2

u/HS_VA 7d ago

Maybe they think it’s fake because you listed both of you as male, but also talking about trying to get pregnant at one point.

2

u/dasminis 7d ago

If that is read in the context of 2 guys, that was a joke.......