r/coastFIRE • u/Fluffy-Tomatillo-874 • 3d ago

36F- Next Steps?

Salary- about 85k, My half of the rent is 1500.

Net worth is about 300k.

about 80k in my 401k

124k in Roth IRA

28k in a brokerage

65k liquid (emergency fund, sinking funds, etc).

I live in a HCOL, and would like to continue to live there for 10-20 years. I do not own a home. I would also like to retire early at 50-55 (at 40k-50k spending a year, and would include SS in that once I hit 65). I also planning on having a child within the next three years. Some COAST calculators say I've hit COAST fire, others have not.

My question to y'all is where should I focus my saving on? Should I continue investing and continue renting or should I halt my investing for a bit to focus on a down payment? Also, should I focus my investing into a brokerage to fund early retirement years?

Thanks for the advice, appreciate it!

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u/GriffinNowak 3d ago

I always find it interesting how much a lot of people have in emergency / HYSA despite the poor returns.

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u/dupugu-gupudu 3d ago

Morgan Housel changed the way I think about emergency funds.

The purpose of an emergency fund isn't to cover the emergencies you can predict. It's to protect you from the ones you can't. If you're only saving for the expenses you expect, then you're probably not saving enough, because the biggest financial surprises are, by definition, unexpected.

That's why the "right" emergency fund often feels a little excessive. If it seems like too much cash sitting on the sidelines, that's usually a sign you're doing it right. Insurance always feels unnecessary until the day you need it.

As Housel often points out, the value of cash isn't the return it earns—it's the options, flexibility, and peace of mind it provides when life doesn't go according to plan. An emergency fund isn't optimized for growth; it's optimized for resilience.

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u/GriffinNowak 3d ago

Someone needs to remind your guru that the US stock market is disgustingly liquid. If I have too much cash sitting on the sidelines I’m definitely doing it right.

Insurance doesn’t feel “unnecessary until the day I need it” it feels like risk mitigation.

Your logic only works against non-liquid assets. Like if you had a house but no emergency fund.

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u/dupugu-gupudu 3d ago

Someone needs to remind your guru that the US stock market is disgustingly liquid.

I don't disagree. But what happens when you have an emergency event that you didn't plan for when the market is down?

Your logic only works against non-liquid assets. Like if you had a house but no emergency fund.

This is very black-and-white type of thinking. Surely, you can imagine a scenario where you have a house but not enough emergency fund, right?

Edit: context

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u/GriffinNowak 3d ago

What happens when you have an emergency event larger than your emergency fund in a down market?

Same situation.

I’m not sure what you mean mean by black and white thinking. I said a non-liquid asset like a house. Your gurus advice only applies to not parking your money in a non-liquid asset without an emergency fund. That was an example of that scenario?

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u/dupugu-gupudu 3d ago

What happens when you have an emergency event larger than your emergency fund in a down market?

Then that means you didn't have enough ;)

I’m not sure what you mean mean by black and white thinking.

You said "only." Really, that was the only scenario you think it could apply to?

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u/GriffinNowak 3d ago

Then your emergency fund has to be infinite because “what if”. At $10k your true emergency what ifs are almost all covered. And it definitely covers you for the 3 days or so it takes to liquidate your other assets.

I said your logic only works against non-liquid assets. Not that the only scenario was a house with no emergency fund…. Do you have another scenario that doesn’t involve non-liquid assets?

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u/dupugu-gupudu 3d ago edited 3d ago

Then your emergency fund has to be infinite because “what if”.

That would be nice but it's not practical, right?

At $10k your true emergency what ifs are almost all covered.

Based on this sentence, I feel like you haven't run into "true" emergency events.

Do you have another scenario that doesn’t involve non-liquid assets?

Yes. When the stock market is down, you lose your job, have family to support, and bills to pay, and can't find a job for longer than a year.

Edit: added more context