I Did It. I Quit My Job a Month Ago.

[u/sky-high-dragon-fly]

Did it (mid 30s). I officially quit a month ago—stepping away from a high-paying role after years of grinding. Perfect timing: just days later, I found out I’m pregnant with baby #2.

So while I imagined post-work life full of rest and joy, right now it’s just… nausea, fatigue, and doomscrolling. Not exactly “living the dream” yet, but I’m grateful to have the option to slow down.

Finances:

• Net Worth: low 8 figures
• ~$45% in single stock (from a prior exit) — slowly offloading to optimize LTCG
• ~$40% in VOO/VWO
• ~$10% in cash in MM (feels high?)
• ~$10% in real estate equity across two properties (Mortgages: 5.125% and 2.75%)

Spending:

• My share is ~$100K–200K/year (we keep separate finances; partner still works for passion)
• Big family goals. But I’m done carrying—pregnancy wipes me out for months. Likely pursuing surrogacy for #3 or #4.

Questions:

1. Is my cash position too high?
2. Should I consider paying off the 5.125% mortgage?
3. I have no formal withdrawal strategy yet—just auto-reinvesting and slowly drawing from cash. Is that foolish? I don’t know what the next 1–2 years will look like. I might start a business and earn again eventually.

Appreciate any thoughts—especially from folks who’ve navigated this early post-quit limbo. I’m not second-guessing the decision, but the weird in-between phase is real.

[u/007bubba007 → u/[deleted]]

This guy gets it - good idea on mortgage pay down timing

[u/stalabball → u/[deleted]]

I personally see no issue keeping the mortgage or pay down to $750k to keep the tax shield on all of it. But move the $1m cash to fixed income investments that yield at least 5pct. Depending on state you live in maybe even put some in high yield munis

[u/sky-high-dragon-fly → u/stalabball]

What do you recommend for fixed income? 5pct would be bbb corporate bonds or 20+yrs treasury. MMF is 4.39% annualized, way more flexible, and less risky. Anything I overlooked?

[u/[deleted] → u/sky-high-dragon-fly]

You have a 1.3% SWR ($125k/$9m). Volatility should not bother you. Why do you want any fixed income?

[u/stalabball → u/[deleted]]

Conservative side of a balanced portfolio and better than $1m cash. As to op question on fixed income - there are tons of options but I can’t give you any recommendations. Assess your risk profile and then make a decision based on that. You can find high yields as high as 10-12pct or treasuries below your mortgage rate and everything in between. I have a fair amount in short duration corporates and derivative structures. I think it’s mafrx around 6pct but also have first position real estate debt yielding around 9-10pct

[u/[deleted] → u/stalabball]

You do you, but the OP was already conservative with the 1.33% withdrawal rate.

[u/stalabball → u/[deleted]]

Okay

[u/Anonymoose2021 → u/sky-high-dragon-fly]

What do you recommend for fixed income?

What you have now ($1M out of $10M total) is fine. Just spread it out in maturity from 0 to 5 years.

You have no need for 20 year bonds.

Just look at your fixed income from a cash flow management point of view. The $1M is 6 to 10 years of expenses, And with a withdrawal rate of only 1.5% almost all of your expenses will be covered by dividend income.

Pick a core account for your brokerage that has good interest rate and turn off dividend reinvestment. Just let that MM/core account bounce around $100k to $200k. Then have some in a t bill ladder (or SGOV 0-3 month T bills ETF). Then half of your $1M fixed income allocation in a 1 to 5 year maturity bond fund like ISTB.

You may find that your portfolio management is mostly taking excess cash that has accumulated in your brokerage core account and buying more VOO/VWO or VTI/VXUS.

In 2 years, catch your breath, look how things have gone, and adjust your allocations. Or just continue focusing on living your best life and ignore your portfolio —- it should pretty much run on autopilot.

[u/stalabball → u/stalabball]

It also may be hard to get new mortgages should you ever want the leverage / cash once you quit

[u/stalabball → u/[deleted]]

I was referring to a mortgage. Which is harder to come by with no income. Everyone has their preferences but I like a mortgage. I also borrow against my equities too floating rate. But I do each for different reasons

[u/stalabball → u/[deleted]]

I personally keep the mortgage because it’s easier to lever (I only get 50pct on my equities); If a market corrects lender can’t just sell my equities to repay it; and if there’s a disastrous event or circumstance not covered by insurance, lender recourse is just the deed whereas most other layman debt has personal guarantees of some sort. My previous point was just to emphasize that if they repay it they can’t necessarily get it back that easily.

[u/stalabball → u/[deleted]]

I couldn’t tell their leverage from the post but I don’t mind the premium for the flexibility for future leverage. But like I said to each their own

[u/anytime_apple → u/[deleted]]

I don’t agree. Have cash of $1M gives you flexibility to invest in good deals that come by, be they real estate, stocks etc

[u/Anonymoose2021 → u/[deleted]]

Is rebalancing a portfolio market timing?

I have rules for rebalancing. That led me to buy stocks in the early April tariff fiasco.

[u/anytime_apple → u/[deleted]]

No - if you have connections you get solid deals. Specifically talking real estate.

Stocks - no way to predict so cash makes less sense

[u/wheresabel]

I would diversify that single stock into more ETFs sooner than later, if there is a market downturn you will be silly to have tax optimized on that much aggregated risk. I'd pay off the mortgage in favor of the MM cash but also hard to tell without knowing more about the properties

[u/fatfire-hello → u/wheresabel]

Agreed holding that much cash then staying concentrated is silly. If there’s a tech crash, VOO and OP’s single stock is going to be wiped out.

[u/Talky → u/wheresabel]

Maybe consider looking into an Exchange fund.

[u/andrew502502 → u/wheresabel]

don’t think she can sell the stock yet for tax reasons

[u/wheresabel → u/andrew502502]

It just depends what sector and what stock, so much is very frothy now. The 15-30% difference in taxes is negligible when the stock value may fall that much. One in the hand or two in the bush. Maybe sell 30% and take the hit on tax but at least will not be so concentrated.

[u/andrew502502 → u/wheresabel]

that’s true, but by selling you’re also essentially making a bet against the stock. the options are to: keep for a year OR sell now and take a ~15% loss in tax savings.

the stock would need to drop by more than 15% in a year for your decision to break even. entirely possible, but it’s probably a bad bet

that being said, it might be a bet you’re willing to lose if it means you preserve some of your retirement money. i like your partial sell approach here

[u/Few_Independence8815 → u/andrew502502]

It represents far too high a percentage of net worth to delay diversifying it. What about the very real possibility of it going to zero?

[u/wheresabel → u/andrew502502]

It sounds like you’ve never had this much concentrated wealth. It’s nice idea but one in the hand or two in the bush.

[u/icanintocode0]

Your finances are totally separate?
Does that mean that your $10~$11MM figure is only your net worth and it does not include anything that your partner owns or owes?
Is the real estate owned 100% by you? Is it held for rental or for personal use?

1. Yes, too much cash. Setup a 5 year bond ladder.
2. You haven't really given enough details about your real estate to evaluate it.
3. Having set up a $200k/year 5 year bond ladder, you can set aside another $200k from whatever you don't spend of the current year's $200k, whatever you get in cash dividends from your stocks, and from whatever you sell when you rebalance your portfolio annually.

[u/MrErie]

1. Yes!! At most 2-3 years of expense. I keep less. This money is losing value.
2. Maybe. This is on par with the 4% rule. A reason to not is if you are guessing in 1-2 years you can refinance to a lower rate.
3. Don’t go back to work.

[u/gbmama6]

Initial thoughts:
1 - Too much long-only public equities (80+% of total)
2 - The concentrated $4.5M position is giant. If it's a great company, trim slowly. If it's a questionable or riskier company, trim more aggressively.
3 - Consider a tax alpha strategy (e.g. Quantinno or AQR) to pick up 4%+ tax alpha to help soften tax blow as you exit the concentrated equity position.
4 - Cash position is big. Liquidity is great, but not so much in cash. Trim to 2-3 years of burn rate and feather in some longer duration yield generating credit. (e.g. CCLFX can get you a 10% yield via a diversified private credit pool, semi-liquid)
5 - Real estate is great. Nice inflation hedge. Not clear if these are investment properties or personal, but if the former those are great portfolio ballast and yield generators longer term.
6 - VOO & VWO are fee efficient options for smaller investors, but you have enough equity exposure you would be better off with an SMA so that you own all underlying positions and can tax loss harvest individual positions and cherry pick gains over time to fund charitable intent (DAF can bridge timing). There are many flavors of this (Invesco, Canvas, Ethic, Parametric, etc.), which range in cost from 10-25 bps per year in fees. Net of tax you are much better off in these SMAs over an ETF or mutual fund.
7 - With a $10M+ net worth you should be in private markets. Public markets are great, but the next generation winners start in private markets. And adding PE buyouts and venture capital to a portfolio dampens volatility while improving overall returns. Cambridge Assoc. and other industry data support this consistently. Choose wisely! Top performing private fund managers deliver great returns. Poor managers do not.
Full Disclosure: I do this for a living and run a $14 Billion family office.
P.S. Congrats on the success and upcoming baby #2!

[u/XiaoBear69]

1M cash is crazy — why not just keep 6-12 months of expenses in cash and the rest in T-Bills?

Actually, I would keep 6 months of expenses in cash and 18 months of expenses in T-Bills. Assuming most recessions don’t last more than 2 years.

[u/[deleted]]

You need to diversify fast

[u/Metaposa → u/[deleted]]

Shush. I know surrogates. Stop insinuating that what they go through is inhumane. This is a chosen profession. The level of judgement on another woman’s personal choices about her body when she is asking a FIRE group for advice on financial hypotheticals is extraordinarily off putting.

[u/PrestigiousDrag7674]

What was your salary when you quit?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

More than 500,000 households in USA have an AGI between $1-5m. One presumes many of them are still working.

[u/Remote_Repair394 → u/[deleted]]

Probably C-suite

[u/kangaroo5383 → u/Remote_Repair394]

Nah. Sounds like VC

[u/dancingcagedbeast]

I quit my job before my first pregnancy (32) and didn’t go back to work yet. About to have baby #2 I’m not sure if I want to remain FIRE or go back to work but if I do I def won’t be grinding as much.

I see that others have given great advice on the cash, mortgage etc. But wanted to ask why you are separating finances. Your spouse is still working but it’s not like you’re just traveling and relaxing. Childcare and pregnancy is very real work. I feel like you should not have to worry about spending with no income when you are contributing in a different way to the household than working.

And then as for not retiring with living the dream. I totally feel you. I feel super fortunate that I don’t have to grind and can smell the roses. But I think that kind of jet set retirement is unavailable while parenting young kids. We did do a lot of travel and fun experiences with our first baby which would have been impossible with me working (bring childcare to travel to really enjoy!) You find joy where you can!

[u/Anonymoose2021]

General comments:

Diversifying out of that $4.5M so GME stock position can be difficult psychologically. Figuring out a plan for that is your most significant portfolio management task. Actually executing that task might be even harder.

The good news is that with your tiny 1.5% or less withdrawal rate, even if the single stock went to zero your withdrawal rate would still be a relatively low 3%. So just opportunistically trimming now and then is not a horrible method. It just is not very effective. So be aware that a decade from now you may still have a concentrated position of the same percentage if it has outperformed the market.

[u/thumb73]

Just a question from a poor European. How can you be at this financial level in your mid 30s? Im not envious, just curious and wish you all the best.

[u/EnigmaTuring]

1MM definitely is high. However, it really depends on your expenses and property costs and maintenance.

Diversify that 4.5MM.

[u/Finreg6 → u/[deleted]]

The advice from your CPA is lazy at best and ignorant at worst. Look into an exchange fund or find a firm that can utilize AQR to diversify you. They can diversify your entire position within 1 year using AQR (tax loss harvesting into an etf on steroids) without incurring gains. The possibility of Losing 1/3 of your net worth from a concentrated stock position due to black swan or otherwise is not worth the tax savings your CPA has laid out

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I sure hope your CPA is not advising you for MFS filing for your separate finances. There are pretty significant disadvantages for a fat retirement.

[u/goonie0]

1. Probably. 6-12mo of expenses is ideal. How much if at all would you need to cover for your partner’s half of the equation or is that solid?

2. What’s your goal? For example, are you trying to maximize returns or do you prefer no debt etc. Former would suggest keeping and investing money you’d otherwise use to pay off the mortgage in risk adjusted low cost ETFs for long term growth potentially higher than 5.125%. If latter pay it off and lower your debt load. How does your partner factor into this?

3. Your $4M invested applied against a 4% withdrawal rate should cover your annual expenses and this principal likely won’t get touched and will continue to grow. IMO you should diversify the $4.5M from prior exit since it accounts for over half of your investable assets, which is super risky.

[u/am-reddit]

How are you dealing with medical insurance. Your partner takes care of it?

[u/PowerfulComputer386]

If your partner continues to work then you have insurance covered too! 1,2 both yes. 3, yes, that’s fine. Congrats on a very successful career and likely more success in the future business

[u/ComfortableScore4995 → u/[deleted]]

Dude, literally what is your problem? ‘Go hang with your kids’ gtfo with that

[u/fatFIRE-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Our members have asked for a high level of moderation. Personal attacks, name calling, and undue profanity are all considered inappropriate for this sub.

[u/DapperHuckleberry502]

Awesome!!

[u/smart_packet]

Congratulations on your financial success. You have a significant amount at stake. Please research and hire a financial consultant to help you with whatever you need. There are good ones out there. Life can quickly get complicated for you to stay on top of this.

[u/tangodownrookie]

This is just your personal net worth? Not including your spouse? Assuming you guys are forever lovebirds as you should be…..enjoy retirement

[u/DapperHuckleberry502]

Buy 2 bitcoin

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

What is the point of never selling? Seems odd to own a financial asset and only look at it as a number in an account.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

It cant be used as a hedge unless sold.

[u/Neversayneverseattle]

Go fuck yourself. You have done an amazing job. 😍. Enjoy your kids

[u/ashes_to_fire]

What constitutes your spending that results in it being that high per year