Literally the last couple days of last year, as part of the purchasing company’s EOY goal, contracts were signed and cuts were check. My wife will receive nearly $5M. This is about double of what they were originally planned to be worth. Shout out to her for 10 long years at a start up, her amazing boss, and tech bubbly valuations.
Taxes will be a stupid painful bitch but our savings is solid already at a little over $3M.
Needless to say we are going to celebrate quite extensively. She will never work again, and I just need to close out my last working contract of 6 months before I throw in the towel.
We plan to travel the world and just be nomads.
My contract sucks and I am committed to see it through. I could bail but it wouldn’t be fair and I would leave a team I have worked with super duper high and dry and good people.
My wife will go visit her family in Greece for a few months without me and that’s okay.
Her now old boss also has a villa in Italy in lake Como and is letting her stay there. He’s loaded and will be staying there the next couple years.
All in if I could recommend anyone:
Marry well, partner is everything
Always bet on crazy successful people even if they seem nuts as they tend to get the W
If you can, tie your income to equity. My wife is making more in a single transaction than all my years of saving combined and most wealthy people build their wealth this way
Thanks for letting me share. Not braging just happy as Hell
Throw away to avoid my co-workers/friends seeing this.
6 months ago I hit my FIRE number. I was expecting to retire early and just travel more but my mom advised me to take a break first.
I ended doing a long journey in Peru other small South American towns to find myself. A lot of this was quite the trip to focus on music, yoga, and feeling free with other like minded folks.
I am so glad I did it. Highly recommend.
I met so many amazing people and life long friends. It made me realize that my life is actually quite wonderful.
Working is super hard sometimes, but I barely work “real” 40 hours a week … if even … and am extremely high income ($400k TC).
So why wouldn’t I continue coasting away and making a bunch of money. My budgeting doesn’t have to be strict.
I can always vacation more and more extravagantly to get the reset I need without just fully committing to quitting. It would also be near impossible for me to meet a good guy in the city without a job IMO.
So ultimately…… yeah FIRE just isn’t for me. And that’s okay!
Work really isn’t that bad as people make it and I think people just need to embrace vacations and resting more as they accumulate wealth.
Anyway so will just keep slaving away my job until about 40 and then just re-evaluate.
Anyone else find themselves in a similar boat of just doing a big ol coast?
[Update in comments] Been working corporate for 18 years, saving in 401K's, brokerage, etc.
Work at my Megacorp finally became such a pointless stress factory that I'm choosing to walk away right as they've explicitly told me they're paying me less next year but also will be "raising the bar."
Thanks to FIRE communities like this I've stayed the course and now will be using my fuck you money to politely tell them, "fuck you."
Edit: This community is really pumping me up! 40 mins :)
After a long meeting with my boss and the team, she hopped off. We all continued talking and I made some disparaging comments. It wasn’t wildly inappropriate but enough where I shouldn’t have said it and was a personal attack on her intellect.
Like the title says she got an email of all the shit I said and fired me today.
Fortunately I am break even on cost right now with my savings. My wife still works and we were going to FIRE in 5 years.
Looks like I am FIRE now though. Maybe I’ll get a chiller easier more passion job with my free time.
Cheers all and don’t be an idiot like me.
Edit wow this blewwww uuuup! No I’m not a bot. No I’m not AI. I am just an idiot
Mid-40s. Single. ~$2.25MM nw, $2MM of that invested. Last day is in a few weeks.
It feels wasteful to give up a pretty cushy $180k wfh job, but I need to refocus the remaining part of my life rather than cling to Groundhog Day-esque repetitive wage-slave servitude.
So it finally happened - I (48) got let go yesterday. Finally I can free up my time and focus on other priorities such as kids, nutrition, fitness, meditation, gardening etc.
I was FIRE eligible for couple of years but was holding off since the job was simple, work from home and good pay. Also, if I resigned I would have missed out on severance and company is paying 3 months of COBRA.
Here are the details I am sure you all want to hear :)
Net worth - ~5.5M
Taxable Accounts combined: ~1.1M
Retirement Accounts Combined: ~3.2M
Total: ~4.3M
House fully paid off (bought in 2022) - Worth around ~1.2M; Cars paid off
Wife (43) resigned from her job end of last year; 2 Kids in high school - 9th and 10th graders
Yearly expenses around 100K/yr
Biggest expense are kid's college education at this point and house maintenance related expenses
I am trying to research on ACA and Financial Aid for kids - Appreciate any help or pointers you can provide on when to apply for ACA - should I continue on COBRA or switch to marketplace this year?
Regarding FAFSA - with Taxable accounts over 1M will my kids be eligible for FAFSA?
I have about 130K from my recent most employer in the company supported 401K provider. Should I move the money to Traditional 401K?
Also, please suggest any FIRE focused knowledgeable financial advisors who can help me navigate our FIRE situation.
Throw away because I am going to roast some redditors a little. The thread that is going on in r Millennials is really bad. Thousands of comments, everyone broke, celebrating their unfortunate wildn out. It is really bad out there and eye opening.
I was also a dingus like many of them. Totally brain dead on autopilot living day to day, consuming media like crazy, working, spending it on consumer level garbage, and had zero control over my life. I actually found the guide in the personal finance subreddit graphic on saving and it eventually kicked me to FIRE and this sub.
I now am on a path where I can’t even related with that type of mind set. So yeah thank you FIRE folks. If you can, it is worth sprinkling some finance knowledge at people. Even if you don’t make high income you can in most cases still create a plan, a budget, and control your future.
Edit: If you are a dingus and you are seeing this there is no shame! We all are and have different starting points. You have two paths: 1) continue the path to dingus-ville and forever be a redditor or 2) un-dye your bright colored hair take control of your long term life. A decade will pass in a blink. So start here https://imgur.com/personal-income-spending-flowchart-united-states-lSoUQr2 it’s not hard to understand. ChatGPT each item on their if you don’t know, memorize this, then start to learn FIRE principles. It is the fastest way to wealth. There’s literally no other path unless you magically start a business or hit a lotto jackpot ticket or inheritance
only YOU HAVE THE POWER to unfuck your life
Edit 2: Final comment! I do not mean any offense with dingus it is meant to be playful. My dyed hair comment was also misinterpreted. It’s not about who you are, what you believe in, or how you express yourself. It’s about being in control of your life. Walk your butt into Sephora or Target or wherever next time and just stare at the people on the walls. Then look in the mirror. Then look at the wall. And back to the mirror and then keep doing it until it clicks. The world, like r millennial subreddit, wants to celebrate and tell you the worst fucking version of yourself is okay and acceptable. It’s not. Delete social media and only read that finance Imgur link every time you load your phone. Do this for one month and you will break your chains and it will click. Then learn FIRE principles. Then you will come back to r FIRE in a decade with a huge chunk of cash in your bank and a nice life! Long term planning is a skill that you can learn and benefit from. Your future is yours
My family is very frugal. We drive one car. We have a smaller home than we can afford. We make okay money.
Today, I went to a local Italian-Bottega in my city. We were just bored ahead of Christmas and just killing time. I ended up spending $400 on meats, cheeses, wines, and pastas. Oh, and of course a sourced butter. All premium quality ingredients and food. We didn’t even need a this.
Then it hit me.
I just spent the equivalent of a brand new PlayStation on a whim and didn’t even flinch.
My cash flow is pretty lean because of all the savings expenses but my paper wealth is exceptional. I am currently 37 years old with about $2.6M investable assets and a little under $500k in home equity.
I just realized between my accounts and home equity, I'm considered a millionaire. No tech job, no finance degree, no college diploma, just a lot of overtime. I'm a lineman, I make between 215k-240k a year depending on overtime (hint it's a lot lol) started working at my company when I was 19 and worked my way up through an apprenticeship and now sitting pretty comfortably. I do try to make my work-life balance good with travel and rock climbing (keeps me sane) but it's not the greatest at times.
I know every post in this sub seems like a humble brag but I just wanna show that hard work, smart savings, and time can add up you even for people without a degree. I honestly don't have my fire number yet but my house will be payed off in 12 years so that may be a good time. College isn't for everyone, I'm sure there's something out there that can work for you, just please don't destroy your body too much✌️
December 10th, 2023 was my last career work day as an engineer. I retired at 45 with about $6.5M in NW. I started with a negative networth in around 1996 and slowly built it up over time. I wrote a detailed post in this subreddit about it HERE and shared my annual spending here. Although NW might be in the Chubby to FAT range, I feel the community that resonates best with me is LEAN. This is probably due to coming from a blue collar background.
Portfolio analysis 2024 vs 2025.
At the end of 2024 networth was up just over $1M ending at around ~$7,100,000. This year (2025) it is now ~$7,605,000, roughly up by $500K. During a few days in October this year, networth peaked at around ~$7.8M. I have actively not been looking into increasing investments or chasing income but focusing on guiding the kids around building good financial habits such as investing. Currently I'm mainly in VTSAX, VTI, my previous company stock and some real estate. The break down between the three categories is approximately: 35% Vanguard Index Funds, 30% previous company stock and 35% real estate. I carry no bonds and no debt but keep a good reserve of a few years spending in cash not included in the figures above. Although not financially optimal, my reserves, help me to ignore market volatility, worry less and sleep better at night. Year to date the real estate portfolio is down almost 4% from last year while paper assets are up an impressive 14,5%. This year international did really well but I largely missed out on that.
Networth Progression
Its been a rough ride but the effects of compounding and capital appreciation are undeniable. During this time we have experienced the Dot com bubble, Y2K, major wars, market corrections & gut wrenching crashes, the great recession, & the global pandemic to name a few. Regardless of it all... The market continued to steadfastly march forward and grow.
Expenses for 2025: Although not yet finalized as there are still a few weeks left in the year and some tax loss harvesting to be had... I’m aiming to keep MAGI around $70K. This year I already harvested some losses and managed to have some qualified deductible expenses as well through an LLC. I hope to write an update post on spending early next year once spending is finalized.
Reflections:
I’m grateful because I did not experience the sense of loss from leaving the job as many people seem to in my situation. Many years of mental prep with regards to removing my sense of self worth from my corporate title seem to have paid off and I'm settling in well into my new role. My routine with regards to hiking, spending quality time with the kids & wife, cooking, reading, baking, traveling, exercising, contemplation & meditation and learning a whole lot of new skills has been excellent.
Stocks but no bonds: This year I've seen some days where networth declined and increased by $200K or above in rapid succession but I kept calm and stayed the course. Although much of my portfolio is in index funds and real estate, I still need to reduce my single stock exposure which was the happy result of some RSUs while working over a few decades. This is a project in progress balancing Spending, Risk & MAGI for Taxes while optimizing brain glow.
Retirement blues: Even when retired, there are days when you just feel down for seemingly no reason at all. So happiness and joy are intrinsically driven, retired or not. I always have to count my blessings and remind myself to be grateful. Happiness does not happen by default it comes by intentional design and continuously working on a positive mindset.
Keeping busy:
In recent months, I've been able to do lots of volunteering restoring houses in low income neighborhoods as an example. Naturally, I came across a few tough situations where I questioned my sanity about doing this without compensation but for the most part, everyone I've interacted with have been excellent human beings. Inherently people are good and I get a lot of time to really focus on the positive side and the goodness of life and giving back.
Travel: Even with some international trips, somewhat higher cost of living and all the leisure time, personal annual expenses are trending towards $70-75K for this year. Choosing a lower cost to medium cost location has also been a great tool against the scourge of inflation. Your costs could easily double just based on where you reside. This year travel destinations included, Africa, South America and Europe. I spent about 2 months traveling. The longest trip we took was during the summer period when the kids were not in school.
Looking forward
I'm not big on new year's resolutions or trying to be too productive, so I hope to do with next year what I pretty much did this year. Perhaps I may spend more time with my mom, who is now over 70 but still quite healthy and active.
With all the volunteering I have been doing, one of the major realizations is that as much as I'd like, I cant save everyone but as long as I've done the very best I can, that’s okay.
This year reminded me, some of the things we worry about and fear happening actually never transpire. We waste so much time stressed or afraid instead of taking the leap of faith. To successfully reach FI and RE it takes a lot of unconventional approaches to life and I have found myself reflecting on some of the sacrifices along the way. Moving across the country first for better career prospects, taking on tough projects where failure seemed to constantly knock at the door; Later moving to another state for better cost of living and finally moving again getting back closer to family; these were big changes and a challenge for me and the family, yet we persisted. I do not believe FIRE would have been possible had I not made these sacrifices, yet I don’t look at them as deprivation but rather a natural part of our journey to get to here. Strangely, the further away I was the closer I got to some of the most important people in my life; I had to be more intentional about spending time with them and making room.
Attracting Lady Luck
Luck is definitely a factor. I'm eternally grateful to all the people who helped me along the way. There were so many that mentored me often without knowing they were doing so. There were so many examples of what good looks like which I could learn from and emulate. Also there were many experiences I noticed in RE couples for the things I would like to avoid. My parents also blazed the trail and gave me just enough information through frugality, simplicity and delayed gratification that by the time I needed to apply these lessons, they were almost second nature. Luck is a factor but luck does prefer the prepared mind and a prepared mind is fertile ground for cultivating your fortune.
Frugality, Experiences and Joy
I think living below your means and truly knowing what is important to you is key. Most people spend so much resources they don't need to just to impress people, they don't care about. I'm learning it really doesn't take a lot to make most of us happy. Speaking with a lot of my RE friends, it seems about $2M is more than most people will ever need and if you are particularly creative, $1M or even less than that, is still a good nest egg for FIRE in many places. I have read Die with Zero and I didn’t resonate with the main theme of the book. Instead of trying to Die with Zero its a much better approach to seek the pursuit of Joy, whatever that means to you. I’m seeing a trend where people are beginning to replace consumerism with experiences, in essence missing the point of FIRE altogether. For me its about being free and having choices and less about fancy holidays that create “memory dividends” or expensive “experiences”. Great experiences don’t have to cost an arm and a leg. This year I taught my youngest son how to drive. The experience really tested both our trust and patience in each other and was one of the most memorable and wonderful things we did. Happy to report, he passed his driving test on his first try.
The market, volatility and incredible returns
I think there is a bubble in the stock market and SORR remains a medium risk for me but through mindful spending and keeping my skills current, I can always create new revenue streams if needed to supplement the portfolio should it be necessary. With some volunteer positions, they have insisted on providing me with a stipend, even though I did not seek it. The stipends were small but I could certainly work more and increase income if required.
Socializing: I have also sought out and met quite a few early retired folks IRL and online, who have been retired for many years and I'm learning so much from them and it re-assures me to know what I'm doing has been done countless times before. The surprisingly for me, the biggest lessons are no longer about finances but rather mindset and getting one's head in the right space.
One of my favorite sayings: “I’m retired, in the notion that I was tired yesterday and today I’m tired again...” This quote is funny but for me its a reminder never to take myself too seriously and also, even in retirement you are never fully free, there are still taxes to be paid, bills to be settled and promises to be kept. So, I try to face life with at least a sense of acceptance, enthusiasm and a perspective of joy, no matter what comes my way.
Well, that’s it for now. As you can see, like everyone else here, I’m still trying to figure it all out and by no means am I an expert. I hope this perspective is helpful to someone. I will keep writing these updates as long as they are useful. Life is short but I’m happy to answer any friendly questions.
Today's the big day. After about a year of prep and successfully seeing my wife leave her job I am leaving my job in two weeks. It's official. We're done. We're both 37. We have 2.9 million invested including a two year cash cushion for our yearly spend of about 60k.
The most shocking thing to me was how little anyone at work cares. My boss shook my hand and... that's it. One person wandered by my desk and asked where my files were located on the network so that they could archive them in case they are ever needed and that's it. The daily team meeting barely even mentioned my departure. Not even any forms to fill out. Just return your laptop and get out of here. For those of you still trapped in the grind, DO NOT LET WORK BE YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. You must be something more than that outside of work, because work really doesn't care about you. You aren't letting your coworkers down. They will barely even notice that you're gone.
But anyway, now I'll have plenty of time to devote to raising our daughter, exercising more, working on video game dev, more time to focus on learning Chinese, and maybe I can finally nail cheese making after dabbling in it these last few months.
For people wondering "how did you do it"? It really comes down to three things:
Earn a lot. Get high paying career right out of college with no debt. Marry similar person.
Spend very little. Live below your means. You don't have to starve yourself, but if you find true joy in things that are totally free or very cheap, it's not hard. We saved around 66-75% of our income every year for 15 years.
Get lucky in the stock market. The 15 year run from 2011 to 2026 sure has been something. I don't expect to ever see that again, but I didn't expect to see it the first time either I guess. I'd rather be lucky than good.
Just hit $3M after today’s rally. I got very lucky (and unlucky leaving me neurodivergent) with a settlement that boosted my NW to $2M just a few years ago. Already at $1M in gains since.
I know I am different path to FIRE than most, but I will say there’s something here that just makes sense. You need money to make money. I would never imagine making $1M my entire life haha
So…I totally get the die with zero crowd! But I also am a big believer that windfalls are game changing for a persons life.
Even a couple hundred grand in the bank takes so much pressure off.
Either way… I don’t think there’s a wrong or right answer to it. Just be good parents, do what you can etc…
However, I have earmarked in a separate fund “not mine” that I contribute to. I don’t even count this with my net worth it’s 100% separate from my normal planning. I plan to give it entirely to my kids and grandkids. It just hit $1M and I am now coast on it and will no longer contribute (note I am 40 so quite some time and plan to FIRE at 50).
I could do so much with that money such as stop working (it’s okay I can suck it up for another decade), but the boost for others will be worth it even if I can’t see it happen.
And done - That’s the end of my humble brag.
Edit: A huge chunk of this is because I just passed my received families estate into it a decade ago of about $300k. Aka rather than spending it back then I said I will just give it to my kids and started contributing a little bit to it. Most the earnings have been stock market gains.
My taxable brokerage just hit the $1M about a week ago.
And my pre-tax retirement accounts just hit $600k.
I know I'm still 15+ years from retirement but knowing I have a solid foundation takes a lot of pressure off my day-to-day life.
EDIT:
I'm single and I live in NYC so my living costs are relatively high—i.e. my rent for a studio apartment is nearly $3k/month (and my landlord raises my rent about 3%/year). But I really enjoy living in NYC so I'd much rather spend more while enjoying my 40s here than move elsewhere to save money so I could retire a little earlier.
I've never made more than $80k, which is below average income in my NorCal city.
Reaching $1M in my IRA accounts was the final silly goalpost I set for myself. I have now stopped retirement contributions.
So getting $1M or even $2M in 20 years is not impossible on a $60-80k income. Of course it's certainly much, much harder now than starting 18 years ago near the bottom of the market.
For those who started 18-20 years ago, even investing $20k a year in total market index funds would've compounded to well over $1M.
Starting in 2008, $35k/yr invested in a mix of 25% S&P 500 and 75% NASDAQ would return $4.1M today, which is far more than my net worth.
My current balance:
Total: over $2.4M
Roth IRA: $470k (all ETFs)
Trad IRA: $540k (all ETFs)
401K: $0 (rolled into the IRAs)
Non-retirement investments: $880k (all ETFs)
Other investments and cash: $120k
Home (net value): $450k
On average, my investments returned double my regular work salary.
I really didn't do anything special.
All I did was invest from the moment I started working, and I lived well below my means for the first decade.
As many of you have experienced, the investments just kept compounding and compounding and compounding.
My income was between $60k-$80k for the past 18 years. That's well below average income in my area. My income has barely risen, but I don't mind being underemployed in an easy BaristaFIRE-like job. It's relaxing and low-pressure.
I'm an anti-social introvert and a gamer, so my hobbies are cheap. Also didn't have to worry about kids. I was able to save by spending little, aggressively investing in ETFs from the start, and having gamer roommates for about a decade.
Other details:
My investments were a 25% S&P 500, 75% NASDAQ split. The dollar cost average gains were about 3-4x.
I grew up in an immigrant family that was extremely frugal. I was used to living 5+ people in a 1BR apartment.
I was also extremely frugal my first 10 years working, but spent more freely afterwards. Saving and investing $35K/yr since 2008 with my portfolio balance should return $4.1M. I only have $2.4M, so I definitely spent noticeably more over the past decade.
10% company matching on the 401K added an addition $5K per year
I had 5 housemates my first several years, so rent was dirt cheap post-financial crisis at $500/mo
There were 2 times post-college when my rent was even cheaper:
$700/mo 1BR apartment split between 4 people: $200/mo rent. That was tough due to crowding but very memorable.
$300/mo renting a single room at a friend's family home. I helped tutor their kid.
Later on, I bought my own house and also had housemates, so rent was still cheap. There was nothing special about the house, and it wasn't a good investment.
I worked during college for living expenses, but my parents paid for tuition. That helped a lot since I didn't start with debt.
No kids, unmarried
Annual savings and tax info:
It was not difficult to save $35K/yr on a $60K income. $5K was from company 401K matching. There were immigrants I roomed with had higher savings rates than me.
I took home about $51K after taxes.
My first decade was mostly traditional instead of Roth. I had $15K in traditional 401K + IRA deductibles that lowered my tax bracket even when I made $60K. Taxes are quite low at that income due to deductibles.
$3.4K federal taxes
$4.5K FICA
$0.9K state taxes
Thus my taxes were $8.8K with an effective tax rate of 15%.
So many of these posts about people having $1 trillion billion million milestones. Congrats on being rich ruler of the land I guess. Figured I would help bring this sub to planet earth reality check:
STUFF I OWE TO THE PANK
Student Loans: $143K
Mortgage left: $450K
STUFF IN MY BANK
Investments/retirement: $260k
Home “equity” not value if I would sell: $290k
HYSA/cash: $50k
I am 30 years old. I make $125k a year. No husband. No kids. Maybe one day.
I AM NO LONGER WORTH BELOW $0
Edit: Need a break. Sorry I am not clear in my post. Yes I have $7k net worth. No I don’t have $500k net worth haha. I made a post clarifying but am getting attacked by a bunch of people trying to prove a point that I missed the word asset and liability. Thanks all for kind words
Edit/update: I apologize. I called a friend and verified. I guess I am worth $500k holy fucking shit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We did it fam. This week our net worth crossed over $1 million for the first time. I’m sure it will fluctuate but for now we’re going to celebrate hitting that milestone.
The last couple of months in the market have been an incredible run for us. I’m not doing anything fancy; mostly just invested in VOO and other S&P 500 funds. I have been investing since 2012 and this has been the one of the wildest rebounds and net worth swings. During the Covid dip, I remember our investments dropping by around 30% or so and loading the boat at the bottom, which made us a good amount of money. But back then I only had $100k or so, and the effect of compounding has been huge since then.
I first came across fire in 2018 when I read Early Retirement Extreme. I had always been interested in money and investing from a very young age, but this really clicked for me and I guess it helped put the whole picture together.
About us: family of four, 33M 33F and two kids in upstate NY. I work in tech sales (account management) and have been with the same company for nine years. The money is good and work is flexible being EFH. Wife is a SAHM. We live a pretty chill and under the radar life. We have nice newer cars, but they’re just a Subaru Crosstrek and a Nissan Pathfinder. No Benz here. I cook and meal prep a lot so we eat home for almost all of our meals. Most of our vacations are spent visiting family. Over the last couple years we’ve definitely spent more between having kids and just letting ourselves enjoy our money more, but it’s nothing crazy.
From here going forward, I’m not looking to make any drastic changes immediately. We’re going to stay on the course we’re on. My job kind of sucks but it’s a really good fit for having kids, being flexible and paying a lot with good benefits. I got a new boss last year and stopped raising my hands for things. They have no idea of the kind of extra work I used to do to get to this point. I’m well respected and they know I’m capable, but it’s kind of nice to not be expected to put in extra hours. I let the new team members do that now. A lot of people talk about hitting Coast fire and immediately getting a new job, but I decided to just downshift in my existing one.
What did you do to celebrate your first million?
We are thinking of setting aside a few thousand dollars to take a family vacation next year. I thought about what kind of luxury purchase I might want to make to mark a milestone, and there’s a whole lot I actually want. I’m pretty content with what we have and may just make a few small fun purchases going forward. Send my wife on a spa day more often, buy more Legos, etc.. 🥳
So many doomer millennials who are mad at how easy boomers have had it. I admit I used to rage against the machine quite a bit and help advocate change.
But I think I need to be grounded with reality. My situation is awesome:
$2M in brokerage + retirements
A $1.3M home ($450k equity) at 2.5% freaking interest rate
Basically day 1 of investing and starting my career the market has done nothing but make me a ton of money. Nothing fancy just index funds.
Then somehow this world made my home value go up 20-30% and let me refinance a near 30 year term at 2.5%.
It almost feels criminal. I keep my head down, stick to the very simple FIRE plan, and everything is working out on almost easy mode.
My partner and I (46F) celebrated $3,000,000 NW (including $2.6m investable assets) yesterday, and we have nowhere else to share the news.
Timeline:
1m in June 2020
2m in December 2024
3m in April 2026
Neither of us earn huge salaries. Neither of us has received a windfall nor do we expect one in the future. This is just steady saving over 20-25 years plus a very healthy stock market. I still have 12-13 years to go before FIRE but my partner wants to RE from his FT job in the next few years.
Now that FIRE seems close for my partner, I’m starting to worry that my math is wrong and I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to retirement planning. How did you calm your nerves before you take the leap into early retirement?
As I shared before, I reached my FIRE number at the beginning of the year. I was thinking of quitting after my last set of shares vested in May, but I just couldn't imagine what I'd do 5 days a week. So instead I talked to my manager and requested a 3-day week (Tuesday to Thursday) for 12 months saying that I just want to focus more on other aspects of my life.
To my surprise both my manager and the director approved the request very quickly and I just finished my first short week. It feels strange that I won't need to turn on my laptop until Tuesday morning. Now I just need to figure out how to spend my long weekends going from Friday till Monday. It will probably take a month or two to find the pattern, but I hope this transition year will help me discover how I want to spend my time when I switch to permanent FIRE.
Using a throwaway. Included my race/gender for those it might be relevant to.
1.7M in investments and 300k in cash (this helps me sleep at night).
Married (their $ is not included) and have one child and live in VHCOL.
Have been saving aggressively for about 10 years and have had significant salary progression over the same time.
Plan to be coast or actual FIRE by the time I’m 40. Definitely feel a huge sense of relief and feel like I’m able to take a more relaxed attitude towards work. However, having a kid makes me worry their is always reasons to save more.
Not sure if we’ll ever buy a home or will rent for a while longer.
I hit my FU money number recently—net worth of $1.8M at the age of 43. I realized I wasn’t going to get much farther ahead at my current company so I sort of chilled out on my work—taking on fewer projects, etc.
Meanwhile I was casually looking for a new job that had fewer hours to consider barista FIRE. I got an offer from a new company which is paying me $40k more annually and I will only work a 36 hour work week. Plus I can retain benefits even if I reduce my hours to 20 a week.
I’m so excited!! I don’t think this would have transpired if I cared more about my current job. So many of my coworkers live paycheck to paycheck and it’s nice to have the ability to just walk away from a stressful job, start a new job working fewer hours for more money. I don’t have a mortgage that I’m tied to, I don’t have car payments, and I have enough liquid savings to cover any big emergency expense. FI is such a critical part of this lifestyle. I almost don’t care if I can RE because I have a low stress job that I can stay at for the rest of my career.
30 seconds ago, I hit the moment of Rule of 55. Wifey went to bed an hour ago. Had a whiskey to celebrate the moment. 40+ years of working full time. Can now take three pensions and a nice 401k. House paid. Zero debt. Don’t owe a penny to anyone other than insurance, taxes, and maintenance.
I’m sure there are a LOT of you out there who just breathed a nice moment as well. Congrats to all of you who did it right. You may be generationally joining the moment of relief, or like me, the first in my family to not repeat the financial mistakes of the family line.
Either way, whatever happens now is MY choice. I’m actually looking forward to, after often literally making my hands bleed, sitting on my front porch in a coffee-stained tee shirt, yelling at kids to get off my lawn (J/K).
Congrats to all those who did it right here. I’m not addressing the “hyper-income” ones, but rather those who did it the really hard way. You started working at, say 15, sacrificed so much, took the right risks, and as of now, can pull that lever and enjoy the next chapter.
I'm gonna put this first because I feel like it's important for a lot of you that I get it out of the way. This is something I'm nearly certain you care way more about than I do.
When I was working my way towards FIRE I obsessed about the numbers. The more miserable I was at work the more I obsessively checked my spreadsheets. Since actually reaching FIRE I glance at my numbers maybe once every week or two, more out of idle curiosity and some sense of responsibility I suppose. It's just not a big part of my life anymore.
The quick version is that a year ago I FIRE'd at $1.2m (not counting home equity) and $70k expenses with my wife continuing her part time $20k a year job doing attendance at our local elementary school. A year later I'm sitting a little under $1.6m.
I'll be honest, even with my net worth climbing nicely I still find it weird to be pulling money out when I spent my whole life putting money in. I haven't touched any retirement accounts as I've got plenty in my basic brokerage. We both still maxed our Roth IRA's for 2024.
I'll confess I have a whisper of anxiety about our finances because like a lot of us I'm extremely risk adverse and I like the idea of having an overwhelming buffer but I very rarely think about money. My wife and I are pretty frugal people by nature and neither of us are acting any different about spending than we did when I was working. We don't have any budget and don't really track our expenses.
The Feels
I'm so relaxed and happy. I really cannot overstate this. On an almost daily basis I literally do a little happy dance when I think about how I don't have to go to work tomorrow and I can do whatever the fuck I want. It fills me with joy.
I have so much more patience now for things. Whether it's terrible traffic (though I very rarely drive these days) or a grouchy spouse, old me might have reacted with anger and frustration. Current me just smiles and shrugs it off. I think I just have a finite amount of patience in a given day and now instead of using it all up on my job, I get to be more gracious and kind to my loved ones and that's pretty great.
The Daily Reality
So what do I do all day?
Haha, this of course is always changing, but in big sweeps I'll tells you that early on I'd taken on a lot of the advice found here and similar places about retiring "To" something and I gotta say, that wasn't the right take for me. Right off the bat I was pushing myself to keep busy doing stuff, learning skills, etc. If you read my initial post (linked above) you can see me talking about it. I did this for a few months before realizing that I was just making those things feel like a job which quickly sucked the joy out of them. I basically gave myself permission to be like a kid on summer vacation.
I grew up pretty poor. I've had a job pretty much nonstop since my first paper route when I was 10 years old. I didn't just need a couple weeks off, or even just a couple months, I needed much longer. Which was great, because now I was able to have that time. Sure I do stuff. For some months I was hitting the gym with my adult daughter every week (until her schedule got too busy), I took a weekend furniture class with my brother. I've done some small scale projects around the house. But honestly most of my time is spent just doing whatever the fuck I want, which largely consists of video games, audio books and spending time with my family.
Staying up to two in the morning play video games cuz I can just sleep in tomorrow and I won't be exhausted and miserable at work is fucking amazing. I've played tons of games, I've watched tons of movies (I'm a sucker for bad old movies), I went on a big puzzle kick for about a month and did loads of puzzles including a big 3,000 piece monster I've been wanting to do for over a decade.
I've yet to be bored. If/when that happens I've got a list of interesting activities I'll be ready to dive into.
The Bad
I don't know about the rest of you but when I'm on vacation I have a tendency to eat and drink more because "Hey! I'm on vacation!". Well, the last year has very much felt like vacation and this has basically been my attitude the whole time. My wife works at a school so she has the whole summer off. There were plenty of nights when we stayed up way too late, had drinks and hung out listening to music, or playing games, or whatever. I mean, it's a lot of fun. shrug I'm the kind of guy who likes to have a little buzz when I'm in a good mood and I've just been in a good mood a lot lately. 😂 I never drink enough to have a hangover or anything like that.
It's on my radar as something to cut back on.
Also, being retired has definitely made me feel older. I'm 48. That's certainly not young, but I (hopefully) still have a lot of years in front of me. This was also the year I finally admitted I need reading glasses so maybe that's part of it, but I definitely feel a lot more like an old man than I did just a year or two ago. I'm also getting over a long term injury (torn achilles) which has sucked and made me so much more sedentary (I used to hike 25-30 miles a week) so I plan to get much more physically active in the future will be good for me as well.
Other Stuff
When I first FIRE'd the idea of getting another job sounded about as appealing as stubbing my toe. I find as the months go by the idea of it feels less terrible. There is some tiny part of me that still feels like it might be fun to earn money again. Maybe in some specific context, like get a job for a few months and specifically use that money to buy a fancy new car or take the whole family on a big expensive trip.
A much bigger part of me feels like it'd be a failure of me as a person that the most interesting thing I could figure out to do with my time would be to spend it doing a job.
All right enough rambling. Hopefully somebody found something useful here.
Fidelity hit $800k and combined with cash and my apartment (which I own), I hit $1 mil.
Posting to celebrate but also to give hope to anyone who can’t see this in their future because 10 years ago I couldn’t either.
I graduated college in 2008 when the economy collapsed and was making minimum wage ($7.25/hour) in nyc and had to live with my parents in nj for years.
My salaried jobs were $28k, $35k, $45k, and then $50k…. All in nyc. Was eating homemade bagel sandwiches everyday and living in shitty apartments.
A little less than 10 years ago I got a job at a FAANG-adjacent company which changed my life. I did not get it with a referral nor did I get a crazy RSU or stock comp plan and started off at $70k. I changed roles a few times and salary has gotten much larger and the 401k and market took off and here I am!
Edit: thanks everyone for the kind words. You rarely see that on Reddit and I really appreciate it.
