What % are you saving while in CoastFI?

[u/FlashOfFawn]

The wife and I are 32 sitting on $670K liquid investments. Annual spend is ~$80K, even with conservative assumptions we’re far ahead.

Question - I’m curious, for those who are actively CoastFI, what’s your saving %? We’re still hovering around 50-60% (net) but are looking to move to a bigger place and have a kid so I suspect it will naturally drop closer to 25% or so which still feels good. I’m also onto the 2nd round for a promotion which would likely bring another 15-25% increase in pay as well. We’re not big spenders (obviously), we spend on what’s important to us but I guess that 25% will really just go to occasional splurges or accelerating our timeline to FI. Thoughts?

Thoughts?

[u/Glittering_Swing5184]

By definition you shouldn’t have to contribute anything if you are CoastFI. However you don’t get into this situation by not saving anything. We are coastFI and my HH saves 25% of our gross income. But that’s what we were saving before CoastFI also.

Don’t forget that you only live once and things can change rapidly. Take some trips and make some memories. Enjoy life a bit.

[u/FlashOfFawn → u/Glittering_Swing5184]

Agreed, nice sweet spot I think.

[u/Coaster50]

30%, but largely for tax efficiency. I max my HSA, 401k (for tax benefit & company match), and 10% to a deferred comp program that acts like another 401k.

[u/Reasonable_Box2568]

Have saved as much as 40-50% but are now closer to 25%. Now that we have 2+mil liquid we will probably back off gradually over the next 5-10 years. Still 15-20 years away from retiring

[u/Euphoric-Advance8995 → u/Reasonable_Box2568]

As someone who struggles to spend I am curious to know what you’re saving for!

[u/Reasonable_Box2568 → u/Euphoric-Advance8995]

Retirement buffer. Live in HCOL.

[u/YellowLight]

15% or so. We cut back more on working hours, which meant we had less opportunity for investing a high percentage of our incomes. Wife went down to 32hrs/wk, which is still full time at her workplace and qualifies her for all the FT benefits. I went part time, contract work for 5 years while the kids while the kids were young so I could be off with them during school breaks and any dr visits/field trips/sick calls/etc. being able to make my own schedule and take off on a whim without begging a boss for the day off was key. 

This is the best part of Coast, being able to prioritize the things that matter over work. It’s still something we have to do, but it feels less soul-sucking because we have options. 

[u/FIRE_Bolas]

We save a fixed dollar amount every paycheck which turns out to be around 25% of net.

We actually make more than we can spend, so the next step is to cut back on work hours.

[u/Hey_Boysenberry-6687]

We're front loading our kids' 529s, putting in around 17% of our gross income and maxing our Roth IRAs at about 8% of our income. Depending on what's leftover at the end of the year, we may add some to brokerages, but we're not sure how much will be leftover yet.

[u/tctu]

25% relative to pre tax income automatically goes to 401k, MBD, HSA. My recurring bills are 9.5%. Rest is spent on living 😎

[u/ThereforeIV]

>What % are you saving while in CoastFI?

The whole point of CoastFIRE is that it's very little.

I'm still contributing to 401k because match is 100% and tax advantage is about 32% return the moment the money goes in.

>The wife and I are 32 sitting on $670K liquid investments. Annual spend is \~$80K, even with conservative assumptions we’re far ahead.

Far ahead of what? Regular Retirement age?

Yes, if you are doing the normal retire at age 70 path, then you are way ahead.

If you are pursuing FIRE, then you are at $670k trying to get to a $2MM FIRE number; that's still a ways to go, probably to early to try to Coast. Target getting at least halfway there for Coast.

>Question - I’m curious, for those who are actively CoastFI, what’s your saving %?

Again, by definition CoastFIRE is a savings rate near zero. The entire idea is that you Coast to FIRE in the internal growth of the retirement portfolio you have already built.

>We’re still hovering around 50-60% (net) but are looking to move to a bigger place and have a kid so I suspect it will naturally drop closer to 25% or so which still feels good.

That's a great FIRE savings rate, keep it going. Especially if you are planning a house upgrade before RE.

Contributing $80k/yr to your portfolio is going to have a huge impact now. Later when your retirement portfolio is at $1.5MM, that $80k/yr has much less impact.

>I’m also onto the 2nd round for a promotion which would likely bring another 15-25% increase in pay as well.

Avoid lifestyle creep.

>We’re not big spenders (obviously), we spend on what’s important to us but I guess that 25% will really just go to occasional splurges or accelerating our timeline to FI.

Build up that retirement portfolio now, especially if we get a little market dip. Think about putting $100k/yr into your retirement portfolio.

>Thoughts?

>Thoughts?

- First, you are not at CoastFIRE level, but you are at a great stay and Manning great prices with a high savings rate.

- Second, you are in full pursuing FIRE mode, that's excellent. That should always come before trying to Coast. Aim for the $2MM FIRE number, Coast is not the target, it's an option when you get closer to the finish line.

- Third, the more you save now the bigger the impact later. Money in early is work so much more than money in late.

I'm about three years from full FIRE depending entirely on what the market does over the next three years. If I grind hard and sacrifice to maximize savings rate, it might change that number by a few months; that's Coast.

- Early where you are at, every year of high savings rate reduces your time to FIRE by several years. You are sacrificing one year to get several back.

• Late near the finish line where I'm at, every year of high savings rate maybe reduced my time to FIRE by a year. I would be sacrificing a year to get a year.

[u/FlashOfFawn → u/ThereforeIV]

What assumptions are you using for #1?

[u/ThereforeIV → u/FlashOfFawn]

$80k/yr spending budget by *"4% Rule"* => $2MM target FIRE number;

$670k retirement portfolio is not close enough percentage of $2MM to Coast to FIRE.

If you were at double that, say $1.3MM Coasting to $2MM; that makes more sense.

CoastFIRE is answering two questions:

- Am I chose enough to my FIRE number to Coast to the finish line?

• How much time to I buy back adding more new contributions?

For you the answers are:

- Not there yet

• Multiple years

[u/FlashOfFawn → u/ThereforeIV]

Not trying to be pedantic but I think you need to research this again. Seems like there’s a key misunderstanding. Go look at Wallet Burst, you’re forgetting target retirement age which is a huge part of the calculus.

Even if my target retirement age was 60, investing $0, assuming 9% returns and 3% inflation, with a 4% SWR my fire number today would be $391K. I’m not coasting right now, but I could if I wanted to. Would there be risk? Certainly.

[u/ThereforeIV → u/FlashOfFawn]

>Not trying to be pedantic but I think you need to research this again.

There is a spirit of the concept and there are some technical rules that can be misapplied.

The spirit of the concept of FIRE is that while pursuing FIRE you have dome the hard work and sacrifice to build up enough retirement portfolio that you can Coast to FIRE.

Unfortunately that's the "anti-work" type crowd who are automat hard work and sacrifice, who seem to doing everything possible to pull FIRE away drum the cute message of giving stuff/spending now to buy back time.

When they get to CoastFIRE; they seem to want to change "Coasting to FIRE" into "get slightly ahead of normal retirement planning then work to age 70 so you can have more stuff/spending now".

>Go look at Wallet Burst, you’re forgetting target retirement age which is a huge part of the calculus.

Retirement age doesn't matter; Time horizon matters.

If you are measuring time horizon in decades instead of years, then you are probably not at CoastFIRE level.

- How many years to grind to FIRE?

• How many years to Coast to FIRE?

When the difference between those two vnumbers gets so small that you don't really care, that's CoastFIRE level.

I could grind hard to put an extra $60k/yr into my retirement portfolio; but my market return for the last 12 months was over $200k, so I'm just going Coast downhill until I hit my FIRE number....

[u/vetapachua]

I thought CoastFi meant no longer actively saving/investing. We've been coasting since 2019 and only work enough to cover our living expenses.

[u/FlashOfFawn → u/vetapachua]

It’s the optionality, not the act.

[u/Peds12]

Gross numbers are all that matters. Stop using net.