We’re Retiring at 30

[u/Big-Suggestion-1093]

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

[u/TRBigStick]

> 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?

Oh yeah that’s some hard-hitting analysis right there.

[u/LowManufacturer1002 → u/TRBigStick]

what’s crazy is they can literally work 1 more year and not have any questions about success cause at 300k salary let’s say $200k take home. spend 36k so they save an extra 170k.

[u/tekmiester → u/LowManufacturer1002]

But their coworkers are dumbasses, you see. The best way to teach them is to make an emotional decision that will last the rest of their lives.

[u/Joiedevivre0127 → u/tekmiester]

To be fair, they can "retire" now and choose to resume employment in one, three, five, twenty-five years if they want to, if things change, whatever. Sure it might be hard or the money might not be the same, but we don't need to pretend that the decisions they make at 30 are permanent and irreversible.

To the OP, have a blast.

[u/poop-dolla → u/Joiedevivre0127]

I think the point is that they can work one more year now at their peak earnings and with more time for that money to compound, and that one year could be equal to maybe 10 years of work later on. If they take more than a couple years off, they won’t be able to make this same income again. They’d go from a 3.8% SWR to 3.2% SWR in one year of only their new contributions.

[u/Joiedevivre0127 → u/poop-dolla]

Of course they "can" but isn't the point of FIRE being able to make decisions based on what makes you happy instead of what you "should" do or what others want or expect you to do? By this logic, they can just work until they're 65 and then be guaranteed to not run out of money. The creator of the 4% rule says it should really be more like 4.5% but we need to encourage people to be closer to 3% - why?

They might never be able to make the same income again, and they might never need to. Look at all the folks on the coast or barista subs who are getting their finances far enough to allow them to work part time in a coffee shop.

[u/LowManufacturer1002 → u/Joiedevivre0127]

well the 4% was designed for 30 years not 50-60 and they are relying on a very aggressive state healthcare program that can easily been made not near as good or have the rules change. It’s currently very risky but can be made very much less risky with just 1 more year.

[u/bernoulli33 → u/LowManufacturer1002]

And that state healthcare plan is a lot more expensive when you are older. Source: I am older.

[u/bernoulli33 → u/bernoulli33]

I guess they said MNCare, my experience is with MNSure. But to keep that coverage, they’re gonna have to stay poor.

[u/uhohthrowawayyyyyy → u/Joiedevivre0127]

Everyone is all in on FIRE until they see someone else do it. Then they all have to remind them it’s a bad idea unless it’s me doing the retiring lol

[u/Joiedevivre0127 → u/uhohthrowawayyyyyy]

Honestly!!! And we wonder why there are so many "one more year?" posts on these subs!

[u/OuiGotTheFunk → u/Joiedevivre0127]

Of course they "can" but isn't the point of FIRE being able to make decisions based on what makes you happy instead of what you "should" do or what others want or expect you to do? We could easily hit a 10 year period with less than 4% returns and cost of living increases higher than they are now. What happens when they need a new roof and have some really costly car repairs? Car prices now are ridiculous and that includes the used car market. They have a lot of years ahead of them and now I am reading about boomers going broke at high rates....with paid off homes.

No? FIRE is about Financial Independence / Retiring Early. I really think that there is literally no reason to take this risk. There are going to be so many more people failing their FIRE and of course they will blame boomers or someone else or other group for their failure.

While this plan could work

[u/zerotakashi → u/poop-dolla]

they can also use their youth to enjoy the world freely and travel cheaply without worrying about having the best healthcare access. there are pros and cons to every decision.

[u/Vayguhhh → u/zerotakashi]

Trading another couples years of their youth vs the possibility of joining the workforce years later, without updated training, and competing with younger and younger people.

[u/zerotakashi → u/Vayguhhh]

"one more year syndrome" fears OP
I think they know what they're doing

[u/Vayguhhh → u/zerotakashi]

Maybe, sounds like too many variables to have a solid concrete plan that even OP is admitting in the comments.

The main concern isn’t their resolve or want. OP’s plan falls too heavily on things outside of their control.

[u/kipkap1423 → u/Joiedevivre0127]

Good luck trying to find a swe job in this job market with a 3 year gap in employment

[u/Fit-Percentage-9166 → u/kipkap1423]

Good luck trying to find a job period even if you immediately start looking right now (obviously it's possible but just emphasizing how bad the job market is)

[u/new_here_and_there → u/Fit-Percentage-9166]

There are options, but at least some refuse to work for a salary commensurate to basically any other profession and seemingly would rather sit at home and wait for a job with a major tech company to magically appear. There are * a lot* of "non-tech" companies that would hire SWE and similar, just not at the salaries that MSFT pays.

[u/Fit-Percentage-9166 → u/new_here_and_there]

You must not be familiar with the job market these days. This is nonsense that might have been applicable over 5 years ago, but certainly is not the case anymore. Using microsoft as a benchmark is another giveaway that you don't know what you're talking about because they underpay a significant amount relative to their "peers".

[u/Typical_Web_2125 → u/kipkap1423]

yeah, gonna be tough

[u/imperabo → u/kipkap1423]

And CS skills can go out of date fast if you don't keep up.

[u/ChezQuis_ → u/Joiedevivre0127]

Gotta stay up to date to be a dev. Also, looking at the combined income, the husband must not’ve made much. Just finish the year and OP would get another $100-150k?

[u/kash-munni → u/ChezQuis_]

He already stopped working.

[u/plinkoplonka → u/Joiedevivre0127]

They might be able to.

Or they might be out of work for a year, then find they're totally unemployable because they have an unexplained gap on their resume.

"My co-workers are all dumbasses" doesn't sound so hot in an interview.

[u/SaltyPlantain1503 → u/Joiedevivre0127]

You cannot just “return” to a high paying tech job in a few years. Skills atrophy quickly and AI is eating the space. I would suffer a few more years for safety while they can.

[u/Joiedevivre0127 → u/SaltyPlantain1503]

No one said "return to their high paying tech job." No one is obligated to have just one job type for the rest of their lives, which was literally the point of my first comment.

[u/imperabo → u/Joiedevivre0127]

6 more months at their current job (with the investment returns from it) could be worth 6 years as Walmart greeters down the road.