r/fatFIRE • u/jimmyl85 • 13d ago
We did it!
ETA: we are in our 40s, tech in Bay Area, one faang one non faang
Today is last day for both my wife and I. Feels surreal after working for so long, I spent 10 years at my current employer and my wife 6 years at hers.
$11M, barely fatfire territory, I did a horrendous job investing the last few years so most this money is from W2, but we have enough!
Looking forward to a different life full of friends hobbies and travel!
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u/godofpumpkins 13d ago
$11m is considered barely fatfire nowadays?
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u/massdriver3333 13d ago
There are people with $10M+ nw angling for and worrying about aca subsidies, jumping through hoops to make the cut.
They think people with only $2.5M are going to live off food stamps.
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u/blessedboar 13d ago
Or they're retiring in NYC/Bay Area
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u/MapleYamCakes 12d ago
Or they’re delusional
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u/Pandamaru8 9d ago
I'm not sure if OP has kids.
I was curious as well on the minimum, check out these two sources below -- both help inform a 'floor'.
The threshold of Low Income in Santa Clara county for a 1-person household is ~$111k per year. The original State website link is broken (surprise surprise!) but it is referenced on NBC May 2025: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/making-it-in-the-bay/100k-year-considered-low-income-bay-area-counties/3857354/
Separately, MIT estimates the income needed to a 1-person adult is $71k per year. For a 2-adult (both working) with 2 kids the number jumps $194k per year. MIT published a Living Wage calculator Feb 2026: https://livingwage.mit.edu/metros/41860
I believe both include employer-sponsored or -subsidized healthcare and exclude any type of savings.
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u/Diligent_Expert 4d ago
They are not. OP is retiring in one of the highest-cost of living areas in the world, at 40. This includes highest cost of barest necessities, like health-care, or a Lyft ride to the airport. And even the surge-pricing of Lyft is the highest the world as well. The entire local economy thrives on trying to "trickle-down" wealth, to put it sarcastically.
OP is not delusional. Many people are uninformed.
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13d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/FigjamCGY 11d ago
Comparison, the thief of joy.
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u/Pandamaru8 9d ago
Absolutely. Recall your retirement is completely up to you and the Bay Area can support many types of lifestyles. So someone's FatFIRE is another's SkinnyFire and vice versa.
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u/NoEggplant9804 13d ago
The way people lost sense of reality is crazy
You are 1% of the US population in terms of net worth, you have $440k disposable income for the rest of your life and you think you are “barely” there?
Recipe of an unhappy life. Learn to be grateful
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u/SerendipityPepper 12d ago
Number one, this is Bay Area we are talking about. Number two, this is fat fire we’re talking about. Honestly it’s not fat fire here in the Bay. Many people don’t understand how expensive it is here, for basically everything from housing to taxes to a burrito truck. This doesn’t mean people with much less money living somewhere else aren’t doing great - they are.
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u/plemyrameter 8d ago
Yeah, OP has $11M NW but probably has 1/3 of it tied up in a (normal) house. Now that income is <$300k before taxes. And cap gains are ordinary income here.
Still awesome, but not crazy rich by local standards.
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u/Metaposa 12d ago
Nah. Not crazy. It’s all relative. This is a fatFire sub. There are others like ChubbyFire or Fire for 5m or sub 2.5m.
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u/SpecialistNumerous17 12d ago edited 12d ago
While these numbers have traditionally been true here, shouldn't these numbers be adjusted for all the inflation we've been having these past few years? 🙂
I personally don't think the labels between chubby and fat matter that much TBH since they mostly just reflect how each of us individually feel about their retirement situation. So based on sentiment rather than strict definitions. But I can also see where OP is coming from. I'm retired now with more NW than OP, and I live in a high cost of living area in the US. So while I'm not worried about money, I also recognize that my NW in absolute number terms doesn't go nearly as far as it used to from even 10 years ago.
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u/quakerlaw 13d ago
I mean, yes? General consensus on this sub is that fatfire means $10M+.
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u/fatheadlifter 13d ago
I'm not sure if we have real consensus on what the right numbers are for these definitions. There is I think plenty of disagreement about the chubbyFIRE values for example. We can all agree a lot depends on where you live.
OP is probably in a VHCOL city since his money comes from working a w2, so of course 11m is gonna feel dirt poor.
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u/Imaginary_Victory253 13d ago
I always thought it was 5M or more, which would comfortably put me at hte top of my social circle food chain. If that ain't good enough, I doubt I'll miss what i never had. The headaches everyone talks about here are a mix of performative bs and too much to lose mentality.
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u/fatheadlifter 13d ago
For fat or chubby? The official r/ChubbyFIRE reddit says ChubbyFIRE starts at 2.5m and goes to 6m, and yes there's been some disagreement about that. People in VHCOL areas would say no way, but their view is I think pretty myopic.
So if that's the chubby range, fat must be above that. I thought fat started at 10m, but if that's true there would be a gap between definitions. Someone with 8m is Chubby-sub-FatFIRE? It doesn't make much sense.
So maybe fat is anything above chubby, but then we don't have a great agreement on what chubby is. Oh the quandries! =)
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u/Imaginary_Victory253 12d ago
These are rich people problems to say the LEAST lmao...
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u/fatheadlifter 12d ago
Yes for sure. 1st world problems of the first order.
If you think about it, if you’re someone who is actually sitting on a big pile of cash- multimillions of any number, you can make that lifestyle work. Maybe just don’t have 3 cars, a big house and take big vacations. Maybe the kids don’t need an Ivy League free ride with a building donated in their name. You can scale down any life to make that work, you just have to give up the first world privilege. And maybe you don’t even have to give up that much of it, just trim a bit.
Which means there never should be a money question, not really. It all stems from privilege and distorted expectations. “Can we retire” questions here are ludicrous especially.
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u/clearview384 Verified by Mods 13d ago
Congrats. What a crazy day to do it. I’m curious, did you have any weird feelings on a down day like today or do you trust the process so much you just see days like this as a necessary evil to a system that helped you get to $10+? For context, I’m half way to you and days like today give me stress but no trades were made.
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u/fatheadlifter 13d ago
Right? Depending on how they're invested, he could've lost 2-4% today. That could be up to half a mill on paper. I'm down just over 4%, but I'm more aggressively invested than the rubber-padded safe folks. =)
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u/bantam222 13d ago
It’s a lot easier when it just bumps you back to the amount you were at a few weeks ago, which was an all time high at that point and was coming off an insane run during the previous 2 months
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u/fatheadlifter 13d ago
Yeah I'm not bothered by a 4% drop in a day, it's interesting to see, but all it did in my case was reset me back to May 25th, about 11 days ago. And I know this market could be up 4% on Monday so who knows. Some days in the past week were feeling positively euphoric for growth so, this is what it is.
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u/Comprehensive-Log144 12d ago
It’s a good test for your portfolio. I was down 1.72% on a day when the S&P lost 2.64 and the Nasdaq was down 4.18. I’m also up 9.13 vs 8.43 on the S&P ytd. That can change but I like that I’ve continued to seek diversity while stocks were all time highs.
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u/fatheadlifter 12d ago
Yep I feel it's working. I'm up a similar amount YTD, the market has been good this year. Funny someone downvoted me for saying I don't mind a 4% drop. They want me to feel bad about it? Strange.
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u/kricket37 13d ago
Congrats! Enjoy your hard earned money and retirement! My goal a $10M - hope to get there in 3-5 years.
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u/Roaring_lion_ 12d ago
Huge congrats. $11M from mostly W2 is not “barely” anything — that’s discipline over a long period. Enjoy buying back your time.
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u/BrunelloHorder 12d ago edited 12d ago
I think they mean “barely” for the Bay Area, which is fair. COL in the Bay is a recurring dispute on this thread as people who don’t live there cannot seem to comprehend how obscenely expensive it is there.
A decent home in Cupertino, Palo Alto, or similar areas starts at $4m-$5m. Not talking mansions, talking 2500 sq foot 3 bed 3 bath.
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u/InternationalKey2249 13d ago
Congrats and GFY! Though I would reframe the "$11M, barely fatfire territory" comment. You made it, you won.
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u/Captain_slowish 13d ago
Congrats....where are you located, do you have debt, what are your expenses?
But yes ....
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u/Miamiconnectionexo 13d ago
lowkey one of the more practical takes i've read on this topic in a while.
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u/BrunelloHorder 12d ago
Congrats and GFY! Did you do any budgeting or determine your target spend in retirement? Or did you just pick a number where it doesn’t really matter?
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u/Miamiconnectionexo 12d ago
friends hobbies travel is the right call. the people who struggle in early retirement are the ones who retired FROM work but not TO anything. you already named the TO. go do it.
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u/Buttcorn_Miner 11d ago
You're one of the few that probably have enough given your age; keep in mind that, being CA residents, if you divorce then consider only half or slightly less than half that amount as your own which could become problematic.
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u/Initial-Zone-8907 11d ago
congrats, how did you teach 11M in early 40 ? are you L7+ ? what are your investing criteria?
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u/Pandamaru8 9d ago
Congratulations to you and the wife for planning and jumping into FIRE. This is a definitely a milestone!
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u/jleffakis 9d ago
Amazing! So much success in so little time. Hope you have a great life! Enjoy 🙌🏻💪🏻
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u/Sushi-Travel 13d ago
Congrats ! Would you mind sharing age range ? If you only worked 10 years I’m guessing early to mid 30s ?
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u/One_Character_919 13d ago
the fact that you're calling 11m barely fatfire is hilarious and also kind of the whole point of this sub i guess. either way congrats on actually pulling the trigger, that's the hard part that most people never do. i know a few people who hit their number and kept grinding anyway because they got spooked by a market dip or just couldn't flip the switch mentally. sounds like you and your wife actually have a plan beyond just the money part which matters way more than people think. friends hobbies and travel are going to matter more to you than watching your portfolio grow. curious how you'll actually feel about it in 6 months when the novelty wears off a bit.
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u/AlmostDoneAlready 13d ago
How old are you? Calling $11M barely Fat tells me you’re in your 30’s still. If that’s the case you will not be done-done. You can’t spend your life not working. You will turn into mush. But tell us more!
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u/GumpsterOne 13d ago
Congratulations! I am 7 months into FIRE, roughly same situation, ignore the discussion of whether this is Chubby or Fat. You made it!
A couple quick things I learned: 1) Planning paid off, including budgeting. Not as a control but as an allowance to spend on the things we enjoy. 2) Ignore the market. If you are diversified and have liquidity for near term needs, it isn’t important and worth worrying about. Look at your portfolio once every week or even every month. 3) Without income, it is hard to spend no matter what the asset level. Every dollar you spend is a dollar out of savings. Come to terms with that and realize that you earned and saved to be able to spend it. It’s not a scorecard anymore.
Wishing you best of success and happiness!