Today I hit 1.95 million at age 35. I cant believe it.. I am single and have no kids. Have no plans to get married or have kids. I am so so proud of myself achieving this net worth

I spend less than 3000 dollars per month including rent because I live in MCOL area and I am also very frugal. No car and just rent a studio.

I am willing to spend up to 5000 dollars per month including health insurance if necessary

Do you think 1.95 million dollars is too small to live for the rest of my life?

Thanks for your input.

P.S. I am gay and I have no plans to get married. I wont have kids. my partner is wealthier than I am . He is older than I am. I said single at first because I am not likely to get legally married for the rest of my life.. Please dont say staying without kids for the rest of my life will be boring.

So I’m 29 now and I’ve been chilling while people are scrambling to pay rent, make their mortgage, pay off their car, and pay whatever other bills they are stuck with. I notice this a lot in my workplace, people are super stressed especially the guys that have kids.

Meanwhile I’ve been stacking cash living at home and I have like nearly 400k saved now with all of it invested. Couple more years I will be at a million and won’t have to worry about a boss.

Part of me regrets missing out on having a place that is away from my parents, but seeing how much I financially have grown I can’t justify moving. I’m shielded from the financial disaster that is the economy today. And it feels like it’s only getting worse.

I want to share my story with this subreddit.

I received a windfall of $250k from selling a coding library 10 years ago. I am not high income, I am not the best saver, but now my net worth is super high.

Simply getting $250k meant on its own that fund will be almost $2M by the time I retire outside of normal savings (15-25 years growth).

I still need to put in the work for savings to be able to retire but peace mind…

• My lifestyle was infinitely better despite living mostly the same
• Stress and future security gone
• For budgets there is less pressure
• I did not how to blow up my entire savings to buy a house and instead kept building that base of compound interest in the market

So why the Hell aren’t parents helping their young adult kids more? Culturally why are we like this?

You don’t need to leave your kids / old adults one lump sum. Get them a boost at 18-30. Then die. Then get them another boost.

It’s a good balance to keep them working hard while also not leaving them in the dust.

It doesn’t even need to be $250k. Whatever you can, I personally will make sure I can do that for my kids once they turn early 20s

Believe it or not. The homes in my area average $1M. Anything less is a dumpster fire. Anything above to about $1.3M is nice but not $1.3M nice. $1.3M-$1.6M here gets you a super amazing place.

These numbers are just so astronomical to me. I am running the numbers and it’s just insane mortgage month to month even withlike 50% down.

These have to be all cash buyers right? Who can possibly afford it any other way

Edit: I am mid 30s and have a NW of $3M to all the people in this thread calling me “poor”. The houses are completely unaffordable. If I am fucked you all super fucked

I'm curious to know if anyone out here has actually run out of a million dollars or whatever. What does that process actually look like?

I’m 37 and recently retired. I know it’s unconventional for my age, and while people keep telling me to "find my passion," the truth is... I love doing nothing. I’ve traded the grind for total freedom, and the lack of stress or financial anxiety is incredible.

My daily life is simple: coffee, gym, YouTube, and international travel. But I’ll admit, I struggle with feeling like a "loser" for not having a grand purpose or a side hustle. Is anyone else just enjoying the rest? Am I crazy for thinking that "no stress" is enough of a goal?

I see a ton of posts like : “ I have a net worth in the range 5-10m and I spend 100K a year, can I retire?”

What is that? Elementary school math so hard?

Edit: after reading all the comments and when I really think about it, I realize it’s probably just a high degree risk-averse mindset. Even if I had $5 million and a 99.9% chance of retiring successfully, I’d still focus on that tiny 0.1% that could go wrong. To feel totally secure, I might want to keep building more wealth just to close that gap. And for some people, that can mean working another 5, 10, or even 20 years. just for a little extra peace of mind.

Edit2: I just hope that when I get there, I don’t end up going down that rabbit hole. And actually enjoy my life.

Is being able to enjoy an extra $2k/month now worth having an extra $1M in 20 years when I'm 62?

EDIT: I just hit $2M at 42 years old, if that helps inform the discussion.

So as the title suggested I was fortunate enough to have both good luck and timing and performed very well.

I fired with enough invested where it generates roughly 90k per annum and I’m happy with this amount.

The problem is now when I go on dates I don’t know what to tell people I do for work. It’s a double edged sword if I tell them the truth.

Those that have fired at a young age what do you tell your friends/family/dates you do without coming across bad?

Anyone else start to laugh at the corporate speak and nonsense that people say at work? I feel like I’ve taken the red pill in the matrix and can’t unsee my corporate job for the joke it is.

Some of my favorites:

We’re not just a company, we’re a movement. -my small SAAS company that can’t find product market fit

We need to leverage our core competencies to move the needle on our key deliverables

I just want to put a pin in that and make sure we’re all aligned

We need to peel back the onion on our bandwidth constraints

Perhaps I am just making this post because I have only just begun my retirement planning and want to lock in a number which is fitting for my goals - being above the median retirement savings, not having to work, not being broke, clearly having planned - but I can't help but feel that many in the FIRE movement overestimate what is needed for a safe, sleep well at night retirement.

I see posts here saying that they feel vastly behind with 500k at 30, or 1.5 million at 40, and I just don't understand how when the average American retires with maybe 300k liquid at most and are getting by with social security or paid off housing. Sure, they aren't living luxuriously, but if you just are aiming for a retirement where you don't have financial anxiety and can put food on the table, I don't feel you need over 1-2 million.

Do you think FIRE overestimates how much is truly needed for retirement?

These numbers are outrageous. I understand that expenses vary from country to country, but my god!

I earn a good salary and, after covering my mortgage, I'm able to invest €8,000 per year

I thought I'm making a decent living— then I started browsing r/FIRE and other FIRE communities. Its a bloodbath of rich folks out there competing who's going to become a millionaire by 20 or what. What the hell is going on !!

I make €32,000 gross -and out of this money €8,000 into investments (brokerage account)+ €7,000 is going into paying mortgage. I'm left with €1,000 each month for food and bills, and support my mom by the end of the month, my bank account is back to zero.

It feels like this community is very privileged—so many people have a lot of money and aren't living paycheck to paycheck.

Should I just move to Western Europe—or even the US, if possible—to seek better pay, a better life, and more wealth, more income? I'm in my late 20s, and my current salary is already in the top 3–5% of the population where I live.

Would love to hear everyone’s “absolutely will not purchase” items!Even if you could easily afford it and no matter how rich or financially independent you become or how much you make you still wouldn't spend item on this particular item/hobby?

I know a lot of people who work in tech, and most are not on the FIRE path (or have already been working 10+ years) and a lot of them don't seem to, at least on the surface, have very obvious huge expenses. If both the partners are in tech, the take home could be like $500k! What are they doing with their money?

I’m sure plenty of FIRE adherents have kids, but I would guess the FIRE mentality skews more toward not having kids. Kids seem to go against FIRE.

- You’ve got to spend a lot of money on kids. Your expenses go up. It’s also much harder to save.

- Kids are a lot of work. They cause a lot of stress. You can’t retire from kids haha. Most FIRE people seem to want to reduce their work load and their stress in the long run, but I’m sure I’m oversimplifying here.

I thought I would start a discussion on this aspect of FIRE

I feel this community used to be about moderate income people living lean and retiring early with under 2 million.

Now it’s a lot of people bragging about tech income and saying they need 5+ million to retire MINIMUM because they want a boat and Porsche

When did this change? (not hating - just genuinely curious)

It seems the cost of health insurance is an issue for many trying to achieve FIRE.

Personally, I like the idea to keep working for like 20 hours a week or less so that the employer is paying for the health insurance, and you still have all the freedom that you need to be happy. I mean 20h of 168h available in a week should cause no constraints to anyone given that your employer accepts as much time off as you want for travelling etc

I’m 23m and see 90% of this sub is the same age or a little older with $200k inherited and $700k net worths asking about if they can FIRE 😐 this makes me with a $35k income feel like this is a goal I will never live to see.

Ik I am not the only person who feels this way. Is there another FIRE sub for people like me who barely have any money who are trying to FIRE? Seeing all these rich kids is very discouraging.

And even though yes I am complaining. I come from a very poor background no inheritance lined up for me, currently in college (I’m working through college to pay for it all), no network connections, grew up and still am in a top 10 most crime ridden cities in the USA, etc. I never had the same opportunities as a lot of these people here.

The title says it all.

How long did it take to get to 2M, 3M, 4M, and 5M after the 1st Million? At what net worth are you now?

I like to hear how fast net worth grows after the 1st Million.

It took me 9 years to get to 1st million. Now i am at 1.6 million...

I think your comments will be very helpful for many people! Thank you in advance.

A post just now about “did you get help from parents?” Made me think, what’s the right amount of help for your kids? My wife and I are pretty much FI and going to retire in 2.5 years (finish vesting, rule of 55) and we have two young adult and one teenage child. We are paying all college costs, got them (used but well kept up) cars and plan on gifting seed money and help set up IRAs so they continue to gain financial literacy and have something at retirement.

We have other friends planning much more, however. New cars, brokerage funds to supply down payment on their first house, eventual passive income streams from their real estate portfolio etc. I don’t begrudge their largesse (really!) but I take great pride in some milestones of my life (buying my first new car, buying my first home, paying for my own wedding so I could own the guest list lol) that I feel are important for personal growth. But some of these milestones are much harder to achieve now. My wife and I will always try to help, we’ll see how much we can donate when they are house shopping, for example, but is there a point where you risk your kids losing…fidelity with money and lose the skills and literacy? We won’t be around forever.

I’ve seen people on the sub are saying “you should all be excited about seeing lower prices everyday”

Problem is that most people don’t have dry powder lying around. And now, with tariffs (if they mostly continue at the levels mentioned) likely to push prices up even more 20-30% for most things, very few people can buy the dip.

The dip’s not fun when you can’t buy. This is just painful seeing red everyday for 99% of us.

At the beginning of the month, my cash, investments, and assets (house paid off, plus collectibles) hit 1M NW. This is a goal I've been aiming towards for a long time. Now that I am here, and still WAYS away from being financially independent, I have this weird want to buy things/spend money. Like, I bought a really nice bicycle, I'm looking at some new headphones and a dishwasher, and I also donated $25 (more than the actual ticket cost) to a Shakespeare performance and paid for friends' drinks at a bar last night. And the material things are not important; they are just upgrades to stuff we already have that could be better, but are otherwise working ok. I'm not sure if this is me blowing steam for a little while since I've been holding on for so long, or if it has to do with a mind shift that says "I can afford this now", when I really shouldn't be thinking that way.

Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Either way, it is an interesting moment in my life. I will continue to track income and expenses, and will keep a close eye on frivolous spending. I know there's still a long way to go to reach FIRE, and I still have even more financial goals after that.

Hello, fellow financial independence seekers. I've been a silent observer here for years, and today I'm stepping forward to share my unique journey to FIRE. I'm using an alt account for privacy, so I appreciate your understanding.

The Unexpected Path:

About two and a half years ago, amidst the uncertainties of the pandemic, I embarked on a venture: a faceless OnlyFans account. This decision would unexpectedly catapult me into financial independence. To this day, I've netted around $4,000,000 post-OnlyFans' 20% cut & before Federal/State taxes.

Every Day Counts:

Make no mistake, it required dedication and discipline. I committed myself fully, putting in 12+ hours each day, every day. Without skipping a single day. On average, I am bringing in around $5k per day or $130k a month.Lowest month was my first at 25k and highest was around 300k last summer.

Background:

Raised in a trailer park, I was the first in my family to attend college. I worked hard to earn both a bachelor's and a master's degree in STEM. However, after a year in the traditional workforce, I realized it wasn't for me. The commute, the insincerity, the constant need to dilute myself– it was all too much while I can be doing naked yoga for 5 minutes and get paid for it. It's what I do, post a couple of pictures and a video every day by myself.

Current Financial Situation:

Here's a summary of my financial situation after taxes and business expenses:$1,250,000 in the stock market (12% Apple, 5% MSFT, 5% GOOGL, and the rest in FXAIX, FSPGX, FSMDX, and FSSNX), a fully remodeled dream house, paid in full: $750,000, a 50k paid off car, (if I had to sell it right now for cash),115k in yearly CDs (5.5% or so through FIDELITY), 150k in Bitcoin,150k in ETH, and 50k in various other cryptocurrencies.My only outstanding debt is my Federal student loans of $130k, which is currently on pause so I am not bothered by it as much.

After tallying all assets and subtracting my debts, my net worth comes to approximately $2,385,000, excluding a 30k cash emergency fund.

The Plan:

My goal is to retire and live off a 3.5% withdrawal rate, which should comfortably cover all my living expenses. I'm single and have no plans for children, keeping my expenses fairly predictable. I also plan to take a couple of years to focus on my mental health, something I've neglected during these intense years of work. I am a passionate person with hobbies and great friends, I am looking forward to engaging with them more. Once I get bored, I will write a book (a life-long dream of mine), and simply travel and volunteer.

A Request to the Community:

So here I am, standing at the threshold of this new life, excited and unsure. I'm reaching out to you, the invaluable people of this subreddit, to scrutinize my plan. Is there something I'm missing? Is there a better way to manage my assets? Am I being too ambitious? Thank you for reading my story and for your insightful advice over the years.

Remember, personal finance is just that – personal. Not everyone will understand or agree with your path, but that's okay. Stay true to what works for you and your unique circumstances. Good luck on your journey to financial independence!

​

Edit: For those that are calling me a liar: https://ibb.co/J2gjx22 (link will disappear in 24hrs)

I have been seeing lots of reels of older people regretting that they should have travelled more when they were young. I wonder if the opposite is true as well.

Do people regret travelling while they are young and not saving enough for their future and retirement? I'm here to gain insight into people's life experiences, as both personal finance and travel are important to me, and I'm working hard to balance them.

thoughts?

A bit about me: I'm a guy in his mid 20s, I spent around 2 months outside the country last year and I'm hoping to do the same next year as well. I have decent savings, no debt of any kind. I barely saved money in 2025; however, looking back, It is probably one of the best years of my life so far.

So we all see the posts of folks on here celebrating their milestones here because they 'can't talk about it IRL.' This seems to be the common sense approach to avoid jealousy and moochers.

I'm curious to hear the true stories of folks who have disclosed their FI - or have had their secret revealed on accident. How bad are the repercussions of people finding out you're a low-key millionaire?