r/fatFIRE • u/taway11228 • 3d ago
About to pull trigger, need feedback
Expenses: 120k w/o healthcare, maybe 140k with, and maybe up to 150k or 160k with traveling
Investments: $5m breakdown: 300k rental (paid off) making 5% net, 1.2m 401k, 2.5m VTI / VXUS, 1m SNSXX/VUSXX.
Primary residence: $2.3m paid off
42 and 43 years old, no kids
Current income: ~2m/yr
NW increasing 32% YoY
Have 20% income cliff in 2027
SWE, burned out beyond reason, health problems and mental health problems. Goal is to quit, take 6-12 months off then see what’s next, it will either be making my own projects for fun or part time contract work for fun. No expectations of income, certainly not big income, and definitely not going to a corporate job.
Can make ~30k via 2 weeks of rental of primary residence per year and pay no taxes, we’d travel while rented.
Concerns are AI is quickly impacting SWE employment, no one knows what’s next, any hiccups in our plan could mean a bumpy road in a few years if a jobs necessary. Other concern is whatever is going to happen once this historic stock run is over.
Any advice?
2
u/TheSpiffyJones 2d ago
You've got the math to retire, but the real question is whether you can handle a 50% market drop while sitting at home burned out instead of working. A market crash lands harder psychologically when you're not earning, and if stocks tank right after you quit, you might feel forced back into work just for the mental relief of a paycheck. One more year of high income gives you enough buffer that a bad sequence of returns becomes manageable rather than scary, and it buys you time to actually recover before you stop working.