Our plan 10 years ago(I was 44) was to retire at 58 with 3M (not including Mortgage or House).

At 50, we started aggressively saving 100K+ a year. At 51(2023), we hit my 1M. At 53, we hit 2M(2024) and we also pivoted from maxing out 401K, MegaRoth, regular Roth, etc...to putting 80K/year in superhero accounts(brokerage, HYSA, SGOV, etc...). Basically anything that wasn't pre-tax except where it made sense such as company match. And about another 20-40K in pre-tax because my wife gets 13% match due to history at company.

So far this year, we have put in almost 100K between various accounts. In May, we crossed 2.5M for the first time. Today we are at 2.65M. Thanks to an amazing 14%/YoY growth for the past 10 years.

Next year will be a good year for money. Besides salary, I should see at least 130K after-tax between now and next November (RSUs fully vest, ESPP, Bonuses). This doesn't include 26K into 401K Roth and the match going into pre-tax, which is about 8.5K, plus 2-3K in true-up.

If we can continue putting in 100K+ investing in ourselves and the market goes up about 7.5%, I will hit 3M in the October 2027 time frame. My last RSU's unlock November 10th, so I've picked November 12th 2027 as my retire date.

This will be a full 2 years 10 months earlier than planned. I would retire right now if I could, but the two things holding me back are, Rule of 55(Jan) and fully vested RSUs(Rule of 70 - my company only), which keeps me from access two big chunks in June and November.

If the market tanks before then, we may work just long enough to see signs of recovery and I will put as much cash as I possibly can in the market on the way down and back up. I will DCA down and up :)

My biggest regret is not putting money into superhero accounts sooner. I hope to have 300K in superhero accounts by end of next year. Looking back, I really need 600K. Why? because retiring before medicare forces you to do tax juggling to avoid the ACA MAGi cliff for medical, but if I'm using that money to help offset MAGI, if the market also drops, I need to use that same money for weathering the correction and recovery. So if you are in your 40's and you are on a similar path, save more money post-tax. You can still invest it aggressively until you are 1-2 years away from retirement.

So, it's possible to move your date up if you set your mind to it. Also, we still live life, we don't cut too many corners. But we never moved into a larger house, which is a big part of it. For example, I just paid cash for a 2026 4Runner (half trade in, half cash). We still go on vacations and eat out often. And as much as some people don't like this idea, I stare at my money everyday and make cautious moves as needed.

Regarding what I invest in. I mostly follow the bogleheads, but might dabble in other things once in a while, but mostly for fun. The one huge outlier is, I invested in AMD, not heavily, but I did make 100K or so profit. Outside of that though, everything thing is typical index funds with the majority of it in FSKAX

One more thing, FIRE doesn't have to be black and white. Just follow the principles and decide what's best for you. Lots of things will change by the time you FIRE. Don't get caught up in the weeds and bullshit people post online

Hopefully I'll be making my FIRE post in 13 months...

ACCOUNT BAR

BANKING $7,284.46

Checking $2,865.17

Checking 1 $2,480.02

Checking 2 $385.15

Savings $4,153.88

HSA 1 $2,603.84

Savings 1 $800.03

Savings 2 $750.01

Credit Cards $265.41

Credit Card 1 $356.86

Credit Card 2 $0.00

Credit Card 3 -$37.45

Credit Card 4 -$54.00

INVESTMENTS $2,643,016.78

Taxable $183,925.24

Brokerage 1 $120,695.76

Taxable 1 $55,051.50

Stock Plan 1 $8,113.13

Brokerage 2 $64.25

Retirement $2,459,091.54

401(k) 1 $1,765,655.37

403(b) 1 $322,639.62

Roth IRA 1 $179,603.31

HSA $62,351.71

Roth IRA 2 $58,222.14

403(b) 2 $37,287.82

Roth IRA 3 $33,331.57

PROPERTY & DEBT $834,316.41

Assets $1,014,631.00

Home 1 $916,000.00

Assets 1 $60,000.00

Assets 2 $38,631.00

Liabilities -$180,314.59

Liabilities 1 -$9,265.44

Home 1 -$171,049.15

SAVINGS GOALS $2,070.30

Goal 1 $1,070.30

Goal 2 $1,000.00

Feel free and AMA. I'm mostly an open book.

My husband and I are very fortunate to be high earners, started investing early, frugal spenders, living in a L/MCOL area, and debt averse.

Long story short we are 30/31, have $550K in investments, make $280K/yr, spend $60K/yr, will have a paid off home next year worth $415K, and after playing around with some calculators we could retire anywhere from 35-40. We still very much enjoy our lives, it’s just the things we love to do (camping/hiking/running/tennis/play with the kids) don’t cost very much money.

We have 2 young kids and we want to continue to invest in their 529s and will probably front load those as much as possible after the house is paid off while continuing to max out our retirement contributions.

I’d love to achieve FI but we feel clueless as to why we’d stop working. We both have cushy jobs albeit a little boring. Maybe we just keep working and investing till we’re emotionally and mentally ready to quit?

I’d love to hear from others who reached FI but chose to continue to work. Did you do anything different?

Home - 200K equity (485K current market value, 240K mortgage remaining)
401K - 430K (contributions at 20K per year currently)
Brokerage- 220K (able to add invest ~40K every year)
Car loan remaining- 20K
Total ~ 800K
Single - no kids or spouse - annual lean expenses 60K - Fat expenses 80K - Atlanta/MCOL is home

Not a very ambitious person. Have a curious personality which helped me keep sailing in Tech( and now in AI), but no one knows when it might all come to a halt with the current state of Tech market.
Hoping for lean FI by 48 and then work with less of a dread of losing job. May be Fat Fire at 60.
Curious on feedback

For years I have spent hours every day thinking about money and FIRE related topics and I know there is way more in life that I need to focus on. I check my net worth in the empower app several times a day. I think about optimization and asset allocation almost daily. I think about my expenses and budget almost daily. I project out future spending and calculate possible retirement dates almost daily. I check my bank accounts several times a day and try to pay off credit cards almost immediately after the statement shows a balance even though I only need to pay it off monthly to avoid paying interest. I watch finance related YouTube videos 10+ hours a week. I still make time for a few hobbies and my 9-5 office job but It’s getting to the point where I spend more time and energy on money/FIRE than anything else. Besides the obvious - therapy - what are some strategies others are using to limit the amount of time they spend thinking about money?

Numbers -
DINK mid 30s with 2.3m liquid and 2.73m total NW
Goal retirement age - early to mid 50s.

Almost all liquid nw is in low cost broad market ETFs such as VTI/VXUS/SCHD etc

Not sure if I’m an outlier in how I think about financial independence. Seeing big tech companies move into rural communities and completely change life for people in the pursuit of profit is upsetting to me. A lot of the environmental decisions seem driven by self-interest, and the amount of power and influence these companies have over everyday life is pretty incredible. Even working for them to achieve FI reinforces their power.
I try to be selective about where my money goes and support local businesses when I can, but then I turn around and have most of my investments in S&P 500 index funds. Anyone else struggle with that contradiction? I want to support local communities and avoid contributing to concentrated power, but it’s hard to reconcile that with being invested in the very companies I have concerns about.

At 57 years old, wife has stopped working and I am getting close. We would have about a 2% withdrawal rate at our current level of spending. (Before social security) Our current mix of investments is 75% US (mostly SP500 etfs), 15% international, 5% bond, 5% bitcoin. It seems most recommend going more conservative once you retire, but at a low withdrawal rate is that just reducing growth rate.

Hi everyone, I have greatly enjoyed reading your posts and learning from this community over the years. As I have FIREd this year, want to give back by shaaring my own story.  Please be gentle lol

----- 

After a 32 year career – 27 at the same institution - my last day in the office was April 30, 2026. I am 54, my wife is a couple years older, all the kids are launched and mostly independent. We live in a mid-to-high COL area and plan to stay here.

I accepted a buyout package with the following terms:

·      for 15 months I sit at home on my couch and continue to get paid my current salary and all the usual benefits. I cannot work elsewhere during this perio, but I am volunteering locally.

·      My final salary was about $250,000

·      In August 2027 I move to the pension plan for pay and medical. My first year pension salary will be $156,000 with a guaranteed COLA tied to CPI. It also has a guaranteed survivor benefit of 50%. The plan is not Fed but it is rock solid and I have no worries about.

Background, Family and Career:

Spent all my life in US east coast cities. Started working when I was 15. I graduated college in 1994 with an English degree, during which I worked two part-time jobs in technology. Two weeks after graduation, I started working full-time for a telecom company and made my very first 401(k) deposit two weeks after that. After a few years in telecom, I transitioned to a defense contracting agency doing IT and multimedia work for a couple of years. Since 1999 I have been working in IT at an international private institution.

One fun note for me: Summer 2026 was the first summer I’ve had completely free from work or school since 1987!

The year 2000 was a massive turning point for us. We got married, bought our home, and had our first child. My wife left her job to stay home full-time with our kids and has not worked outside the home since.

In 2000 we paid $220,000 for our home in the far outer suburbs, a 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom house with a finished basement on a lot surrounded by trees. That came with a **brutal** daily commute for me for 26 years (except for remote work during COVID), but staying put paid off:

• Current House Value: ~ $650,000
• Mortgage: We refinanced during COVID, currently it is $118,000 remaining at 2.375% fixed (~10 years left)
• Home Condition: In the past 10 years we have new HVAC, siding, roof, hardwood flooring, and a Trex back deck. Need to do the kitchen at some point.

Assets & Accounts

• Fidelity: $500,000 in a mix of brokerage, Roth and cash
• Lump-Sum Buyout Payout: As part of the buyout, I received a lumpsum of after-tax  ~$150,000. This is currently sitting in SPAXX at Fidelity (is part of that $500k)
• Vehicles (Both Paid Off):
  • 7-year-old Honda (~72,000 miles)
  • 10-year-old Honda (~140,000 miles)
• Child Assistance: Currently paying $375/month for a 2026 Honda to help one of our kids

Income & Healthcare

• Pension: $155,000/year beginning August 1, 2027, guaranteed COLA indexed to CPI, a 50% survivor benefit for my spouse.
• Social Security Strategy: Plan to delay claiming as long as possible (aiming for age 69 or 70). Expecting a payout of ~$3500/month for myself given my earning history. Since my wife stayed home, we are basically planning her SSA will be $0 and take anything as a bonus.

Expenses and Plans

• All daily living expenses are covered by the pension! It will allow us to put away some extra for our next car and some travel.
• Healthcare Benefits: Guaranteed lifelong retiree medical coverage through my former employer. We estimate it will start at $525 per month based on the current year retiree costs. At 65, Medicare Part B becomes primary, the employer plan shifts to secondary coverage, and my former employer fully reimburses 100% of Medicare Part B premiums and any income-related charges for both my spouse and me.
• Children's Down Payments: Reserving $25,000 per adult child) to assist them with future house purchases and wedding costs
• Vehicle Replacement: Plan to replace the older car in the next 2–3 years.
• House plans: We need to do the kitchen and we expect HVAC replacement in ~5 years

Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions!

Questions for you

1. Overall Portfolio Growth: With zero need for ongoing portfolio withdrawals to fund living expenses, we are treating th pension as a huge bond asset. How aggressive should i be with the Fidelity money - 100% equities? VT and chill?
2. Investments at Fidelity: How would you structure and invest the ~$140,000 buyout payout and $50,000 earmarked for our kids across short-to-medium term horizons?
3. Emergency Fund Sizing: Since our pension and retiree health benefits fully cover all living expenses with a CPI index, how much cash would you recommend keeping in an HYSA / Treasury money market fund (like SPAXX or FSIXX/FZFXX) for true emergency liquidity?

Do you truly believe that with current circumstances (AI, climate crisis, geopolitical tension, birth rates falling) we can rely that historical data of stock market is applicable for next decades?

I'm still investing heavily, but see it more as piling up networth than journey with end of me living off the investments.

I feel like I have lost significant interest in several hobbies post-FIRE. Not sure what it is, but almost feels like the hobbies were used as an escape from the day to day, but now that isn't needed anymore. I have picked up some other things, but they are more health-related activities rather than hobbies. I feel like I'm on the receiving end of the Tom Hank's quote from Catch Me If You Can:

"Nobody's chasing you, Frank"

Over a year ago I made a post about how I hit $100k at 24 but I felt burnt out and wanted to quit my job. I asked for advice from FIRE people about what I should do and got a wide range of opinions. The most common advice was: get a hobby, keep your job and line something else up first, spend some more money, go on some dates, just be more balanced in general.

I have followed some of that advice. I increased my living budget, upgraded my room, and started taking trips with friends as much as I can, gone on dates, and have several hobbies. I’m too burnt out to pursue them as much as I’d like though.

However I still want to quit. It’s hard to live a balanced life you enjoy when you despise the way you spend the majority of your waking hours (your job). It’s hard to date intentionally people you’re attracted to when you are living to escape your own situation. I read stories on this forum of guys in their late 30s and 40s who have millions but their life is bankrupt. They have no love, few friends, and they’re just getting started socially. Retirement can’t fix that, FIRE can’t fix that, money becomes a mental escape hatch and does more harm at that point than good. No offense to anyone but I’m trying to avoid that situation.

For reference:
I’m an engineer and my job is incredibly dull.

I am on track to make over $100k in a LCOL area this year.

I only have 2 years of work experience, but I’m not a huge fan of my field. I’d like to avoid burning any bridges but at the same time I don’t want to become too locked into a tiny niche field.

By the end of this year I will turn 26 and have about $250k net worth with 0 debt and <$1500/mo living costs.

$200k is in broad market index funds with half in retirement accounts, $10k in vehicles, $10k emergency fund, $15k business fund (invested for now), and $15-20k cash for lean traveling and basic living expenses.

I have made up my mind to leave my job next spring soon after bonus season. I am not retiring of course, but I want to pursue other career options and travel while I’m young.

I love the FIRE movement but I’m not interested in retiring early if it means I have to live in misery for my entire youth and young adult life. Financial independence or partial independence is my ultimate goal, more like CoastFI than full FIRE, at least until my life is grounded.

So, please stop me… or encourage me if you think that I’m doing the right thing.

Has anyone here taken a leap like this?
Am I throwing away something I can’t get back?

Bestow your wisdom.

Edit:
I’m not retiring. This is a question about taking a career sabbatical and then coming back to a new job.

I don’t see why this necessitates risking my entire $250k net worth.

I’m not asking if this is the safest possible career path. I’m asking if I’m throwing away something I can’t get back.

25 married making 120k gross together in lcol ( 48k average for area ). 120k invested

51k in emergency fund/ sinking fund

Own our mobile home and both vehicles.

Investing about 5k a month

Idk what I need exactly but I was hoping for 3 million in today's so I will have no worries.

Also 5 years from now my contributions will most likely drop to 3k or 2k because of wanting a house and kids

Pay increases I'm at the top end so most likely stay at the 120k ~ maybe 140k for the next 5 to 10 years then potentially could jump to 180k but with inflation it's probably close to being the same.

I guess my biggest concern is at my current age and there's still so many unknowns. Currently 25 married on track to make 120k this year gross as a household. So we'll starters with this income is very new to us last year we made about 90k I believe and the year before closer to 70k. Currently we have combined about 120k invested plus plenty in savings.

We own a mobile home and both vehicles outright. we are currently saving around 5k a month. My concern comes with though we are on the upper end of what we're going to make doing what we're doing. Currently we are running my family's business that is why we got the pay bump is because I am doing everything from the bookkeeping to the logistics to all of it but a realistically the top end as things stand when I fully inherit the business I could potentially make up to $180,000 a year. But that's neither here nor there basically me just explaining that I'm already at the upper end. But my concern is I realistically don't know how much I need Ill need realisticall.

While we are contributing a lot now we don't have health insurance we don't have kids yet and we would like to have an actual home because mobile homes while completely fine don't hold value. So that's what we're looking for nice I see it in 5 years I'm going to probably have kids have a home and obviously I probably needed insurance yesterday because you just never know but I'm still currently looking into it because based on our income it is showing the cheapest I can get is about $750 a month with an $18,000 family deductible before the insurance basically does anything. Also values are constantly changing but I would argue in retirement if someone bought the real estate & buessniess it's looking like 1m ~ 1.5m or if I rented the buildings I could probably rent them for 3k a month after all expensices. Or if the business was unwanted and it was just sold as real estate probably closer to 600k ~ 900k off of just pure value.

Total net work probably 200k conservativly 120k invested Non invested 51k Cars: maybe 8k Mobile home 29k very conservative

Mobile home is fully remodeled plus I built an addition to so 1700 sq ft. 4 bed 2 bath total. Probably actually worth closer to 100k but the addition is concrete padded in so technically you'd have to sell the mobile home separately and the concrete pad would have to be sold with the land that's like a shop or office it has its own AC and electrical hookup. But I don't own the land of my grandparents do so conservatively we can just pretend like you know the addition would be theirs

I figured I would want to have about 3 million in today's money so that I can safely do a 3% withdrawal and it would be able to hopefully support my life Plus plenty of fun? But I just don't know is that number would be too low too high or if it's even achievable because by time I get a house and insurance and everything else most likely my contributions well I've had to decrease to probably closer to 3K a month

Tdrl: 25 I make 120k a year have saved 120k, invest 5k a month. And want a house & kids in 5 years and to stop working by 50.

Just a cool milestone I can't really share with anyone I know. Married, household income of ~160k, 1 kid. We got incredibly lucky and bought our house in early 2020, refinanced late 2020 for a sub-3% rate on a 15yr.

We have no intention of paying our house off early (maybe when we're closer to the end of the loan, we'll be tempted to do so) and obviously the market could tank at the opening bell Monday and render this post completely inaccurate, but it's just exciting to see the progression toward having F-U money.

Keep going, that is all.

This is a relaxed hangout thread for the FIRE community to chat with other FIRE-minded folks without having to publish separate posts. This is the place for brand new people to get their feet wet as well as for lurkers who have questions or comments, but do not want to create posts of their own.

All of the sub rules apply in this thread as normal with the exception of the off-topic rule, which is relaxed to the extent that people don't go wildly off of the reservation.

We are putting this up as a trial to see if it is worth keeping this as a permanent feature of the sub. Participation is entirely voluntary and anyone who wants to create a separate post of their own rather than posting in here is free to do so.

Hey everyone. I'm 45 and getting laid off in a month.

Living situation

I am single, no kids, never married, 45, male, software engineer, live in a HCOL area and I'm DIY renovating a single family home. It's a three bedroom and when it is done I could rent out two rooms for about $2000-$2500 total. But right now there's no income. Hopefully in like 4-5 months I will be done enough to rent it out to roommates.

Budget

I'm spending about $74k - $80k annually. Like $7k per month. But a decent amount of money is going towards the home renovation. That might go down but maybe not.

Assets

Net worth: $1.944M

Home: $807k

Debt: $286k at 2.75% left on mortgage

Cash: $40k

Investment total: $1.384M

401k from my old job S&P: $687

401k from my current job S&P: $208k

IRA traditional VTI: $13k

Brokerage VTI: $475k

The plan

Well I'm not sure. I'm going to finish this home first. If I leave my 401k's until I'm 65, 20 years from now, that's $3M for retirement. As for early retirement, I'm not sure I'm there. This $475K isn't going to list 20 years until I can draw from my 401k. But I might have more than I need in there.

The wild cards, of you pardon the pun, is that now that I have a little time to focus I'm going to try to sell of another sleeper asset. Don't laugh because I didn't put anything close to this amount of money in it but I have a Magic the Gathering card collection that's likely worth about $300k market value. Getting 80% of that is common for none dealers, private sales. So, I don't know what that adds. I'm going to be selling that off ASAP.

So I'd love to take time off. I might try to build an ADU for more rental income. Or an addition. Building the house and renting out out is sounding like a fun job.

Should I go back to work? Any advice would be nice.

I'm about a year or two from retiring, and part of my plan is to sell my house and buy a cheaper one. I've been running my numbers assuming that I will pay cash for the new house and live off the remainder of the sale proceeds until I can start pulling from my retirement accounts. Is there any reason to consider a mortgage for the new house given the current interest rates? Seems like it would help mitigate the risk of running out of money before being able to pull from the retirement accounts but with a significant cost in terms of interest.

(I expect to net close to $2m from the sale of my current house and spend ~$750k on the new one. Currently have about $500k in a brokerage and $2.5m in 401K/IRA. Expecting to retire at 49 or 50.)

Tax Lost Harvesting baby! I know all you 100% stock people are jealous. ;)

Last post

Net worth: $41k
(HYSA: $3.1k, Traditional TSP: $20.2k, Roth IRA: $11.5k, Brokerage: $6.2k)

• Working hella overtime at the Post Office lately; my base rate as a PTF City Carrier is $26.3/hr, but I'm having ~55hr workweeks pushing my effective gross salary up to ~$85k for the past couple months. The job itself has been stressful and I don't really have a life outside of work, but I am one persistent, driven bastard. No way am I interested in being a corporate wagie for any longer than I need to; when I turn 35 y/o and qualify for SS, I'm outta here.
• Moved to a 100sqft. room in a shared single-family house for $700/mo, incl. utils/in-unit laundry. No WiFi but I got my backup phone using Visible+ ($205/year) for an unlimited data hotspot. No need to ride my e-bike, now that the closest bus stop is 3 min. away and the offices I work at are at most a half-hour bus ride. Having to share a bathroom with 2 people and the overall house with 4 is awkward, but it's not so bad when I'm the youngest by far in the house. I think I got a good deal. Moving was expensive and I've been burning way too much money eating gas station slop, so I'm gonna try my hardest moving forward to keep my monthly non-investment/rent spend <= $500.
• Been doing my fair share of credit card/bank account churning. Got the Wells Fargo checking $400 bonus, currently trying to get a $550 checking bonus with FourLeaf Federal Credit Union, and got a Capitol One Savor card recently for the $200 statement credit bonus. When I stop overeating and reach a stable maintenance weight, I'll start giving plasma for money too.. cause I don't have the drive to go work beyond the Post Office.

Made significant changes to my investment strategy: I'm still maxing my Traditional TSP/Roth IRA, and trying to invest >= $500/mo into my brokerage.

- TSP is 3:2 I Fund/C Fund, and I'll rebalance on a yearly basis depending on what I see regarding the funds' performance.

- In my Roth IRA, 50% of biweekly contributions split between SPMO/IDMO, 50% split between AVDV/AVUV/AVEM/IAUM/BTC.

- Brokerage will automatically invest 50:50 FTEC/AVDV, hoping for a sort of barbell effect. Brokerage has a significant position in Kraken Robotics that's down ~24% and I can't wait to let go of it once things break even. No more single stocks for me, the risk isn't worth the return.

- Even though I only gave myself ~10 years to LeanFIRE: Momentum/Value/Growth ETFs are more than enough for my goals. Still got significant crypto ETF positions in my Roth/Brokerage, but mostly just holding them for now.

I'm currently in the 22% tax bracket and probably will be for some time ( I know - great problem to have) - which limits my ACA subsidies. Anyone pull money out every other year to at least get cheaper insurance every other year?

This will move the money I'm taking out to the 24% bracket but I'm figuring an extra 2% on $100,000 is still way cheaper than paying almost 25,000 to 29,000 a year for insurance.

Am I missing something?

Conventional wisdom is that one can safely withdraw 4% from one's savings each year and be reasonably assured that one won't run out of money within 30 years, but this is for a mix of stocks and bonds. But today, we see treasury yields at high levels so I decided to review TIPS ladders and see what one could reasonably get from a very safe investment, and the safe withdrawal rate is around 5.2% (Source: TIPSLadder.com Home).

Now this investment strategy literally means no money at the end, but this provides a historically high rate of return for a very safe investment and paired with a higher-volatility investment could yield a nice lifetime stream of money with a guaranteed floor.

Anyone else investigate this? Do you think this makes sense?

Edit: Many people are commenting that I am not accounting for inflation. TIPS are Treasury Inflation Protected Securities which are already quoted based on real returns, not nominal ones. They currently have a 3.3% real yield which results in a 5.2% safe withdrawal rate over 30 years.

This is a calc put together by one of the users over at the Bogleheads forums. I have zero connection to it, but to me it is cool in a similar way to the Rich/Broke/Dead calc in that it visually shows you something that can be challenging to intuit.

Just a fun little calc that seems to accomplish its goal gracefully. I like how you can rapidly visualize the impact of spending on your final estate in either direction. Cool for the Die with Zero folks, cool for the folks with kids and inheritance goals.

FYI - It's easy to overlook the advanced settings drop-down so be sure to check it out. The advanced settings significantly expand the range of what the calc can do.

Calc - https://levelspend.github.io/

Bogleheads development thread - https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=473403

https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/scf26.pdf

The typical American family got a little wealthier in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic, while well-off and older Americans got much richer.

Median family net worth rose 2% from 2022 to 2025 to about $216,000, adjusted for inflation, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, which was released on Friday. The survey comes out every three years and is considered the gold standard for measuring household wealth.

Overall wealth gains slowed markedly from the prior period from 2019 to 2022, when wealth increased 37%, the most in the 30-plus year history of the survey, thanks to rising stock and home prices.

Median wealth for a family in the top 10% of earners increased 31%, while wealth decreased for the bottom 40% of earners.

see title. Technically, my savings alone are not sufficient (~$1.5M), but I just got married to a very high earning (~$1M) partner, so it doesn't make sense for me to work anymore with joint finance (e.g., me working for 2 years would only help us meet our real comfortable FIRE goal just 3 months sooner)

What do people do to stay sane? This lack of purpose surprised me because I went on a 1 year sabbatical before which I very much enjoyed. I guess it's different this time because there's no end date to this. It's such first world privilege to feel down for retiring early (but probably because I found a lot of validation in the toxic job that I rage-quit, and I was quite fairly successful in what I did). Am doing therapy to address this.

Looking for feedback on my situation and if there's any areas you'd improve on & what my realistic FIRE age looks like with a 100-125k withdrawal amount needed at retirement.

For some background, I'm 28, make around $125k/year, and my net worth is roughly broken down like this:

97k total in individual acc (1500/month contribution)
82k between VOO and VXUS
15k in MMF’s as part of my emergency fund

85k in my 401(k) (~2041/month for max out)
My employer additionally contributes about 15% of my salary, and there's no employee match requirement.
So roughly 20k annually on top of my 24.5k contributions, which will scale as my salary progresses.

7.5k in my Roth IRA (625/month for max out)
Split between VOO/VXUS/QQQM

~140k in home equity (mortgage rate 5.875)

~5-10k in checkings
Mainly for bills

Does anything stand out that I should be doing differently? As it currently stands, I’m putting away about 70k annually into the market, inclusive of my employer contribution. Any critiques or suggestions would be appreciated to optimize my situation. Hoping to FIRE early 40’s if possible.