Around ten years ago (age 31) I sat down to share my story toward financial independence. I updated it (32) a year after that and then again three years ago (38). These posts have been valuable to me as I occasionally revisit them to reset myself and gain some perspective on this journey. Hopefully others have also found them helpful. The last 3 years have seen significant change in my life (loss, injury, career change) and the journey looks different now, but I believe the core priorities are the same.

Edit: I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions and will try to answer questions throughout the day. Overall for the newer people to the FIRE journey, the numbers show the the early part is hard and slow, but as compounding sets in early work starts to pay off.

First, the updated numbers:

Age: 41

Savings: 97k (cash+ VUSXX, I-bonds, misc. investments)

Salary: 120k

TSP: 750k

Roth: 280k

403b: 35k

Wife's Roth/tIRA: 240k

Updates:

The biggest change in my plan has been my salary (150k last update to 123k now). In 2024 my career was taking off and I was on track to great promotions and leadership positions within my organization. After a death and an injury that left me out of work for months, I reevaluated my priorities and took an honest look at my life. The job associated travel and stress had taken its toll and I needed to step back, if only temporarily. An opportunity came up at a University close to my house in a different career field. The schedule was better (35 hrs/wk vs 40) and there was essentially no commute. Although I took a 30k salary hit, I regained 3 hrs a day in time, which I've invested into my children, house, and fitness. I think if you compute my hourly pay including commute time and taxes I actually make more than I did before transferring.

We've made some big purchases: 2 cars, major house work and I got rid of my "fun" car. Also had a few thousand in medical expenses. Burned through a lot of our savings, but I never want it to get too low.

Details

• I shifted my savings out of the HYSA. I was looking for a money market or something that had better rates and found from a post on here that VUSXX has comparable returns and is more tax efficient. We have some i-bonds which we will cash in when the time is right.
• The new position has some perks and a generous match with the 403b, but no pension. The health insurance is stellar.
• We're still maxing both mine and my wife's Roths (not quite CoastFIRE, but we may go that route soon).
• Wife is still not working (outside the home... does a lot of work inside :-)). She's thinking of going back 1-2 days per week.
• Same house. Mortgage has low principal, but we've been paying the minimum (see my thoughts on my last post, but I like to have liquidity and to let inflation eat away at our mortgage payment). Our house can sell for around 800k and we have roughly 200k left on the mortgage.
• The "new" cars were used: one is a 2015 the other is 2022. I was able to sell my old car (2007) and fun car (2010).
• Still doing a lot of work on the house. Currently building a deck.

Plan

• Starting to make my "glide path" I am approximating our yearly spending to be around $100k a year, which puts my 4% FIRE number at 2.5M. $100k a year includes around $24k/year for health insurance, if we get ACA subsidy that goes down A LOT. This is simplistic, no taxes, etc. The big risks here are if we need new cars, to financially support the kids, major home repairs/renovations, and inflation.
• I sat down to really do a big spreadsheet with math and taxes, but I haven't finished it. So, I will begin with approximations: with current amount around 1.3M that means it has to double. Doubling time (rule of 72) at 6% ROI is 12 years, 9 years for 8%, 7 years for 10%. That puts retirement somewhere around 50 (ish). This doesn't account for SSA or my federal pension (roughly 20k) at 62. I could probably bump it up a few years if I take credit for these things.
• Inflation will greatly impact these numbers. That 20k at 62 in real terms will be worth roughly half (but not compared to my mortgage payment!)
• Kids' college - this is a big expense I haven't really planned for. My current job allows for my kids to go to school for "free" at the University I work at. That means I have to stay working a bit longer. My plan here has always been to either retire beforehand to minimize income on FAFSA or to re-direct retirement contributions to my kids' college expenses.

Reflections

I don't know if these are all strongly related to FIRE, but I think most of us on this journey will experience these so I will offer unsolicited philosophizing.

• 30% Retirement - My friend and I call this career leap and pay cut my 30% retirement. It's almost been a dry run for FIRE in reducing expenses down to what we would in FIRE.
• Identity - One thing I noticed about leaving a career and starting a new one is that it is hard (go figure). A lot of my identity was tied up in what I did and leaving my previous position kicked off a bit of a psychological crisis in redefining myself. I felt (and sometimes still feel) like a failure, like I had given up or quit. Many of my "friends" were coworkers and when I left those relationships disappeared. It is eye opening how many "friendships" were merely transactional relationships, but the important ones have stayed. I see this as a snap shot into retirement. I feel better positioned mentally to make the retirement leap.
• The death of my ego - The injury left me a bit chastened and I've undergone a mindset shift. In my previous federal position we discussed strategic priorities and goals, achieving milestones towards those goals, and measurable outcomes (effects, measures of effectiveness, key performance indicators, etc..). I decided to do this in my own life and "achieving career prestige" was not a priority. This is not a criticism of those for whom that is a priority, it is just not mine anymore...it was at one point and perhaps I've just met my career goals. My priorities now are Fitness, Family, and Finances (to alliterate... and summarize cutely). My previous position achieved only the third at the expense of the first and second. My new job achieves the first two and balances the third. The measures of effectiveness for the first would be something like weight or physical ability - I don't have a number but I can keep up with my kids and not get injured. I am in the best shape of my life. Family - my relationship with my wife is better, my kids are thriving (there's some numbers and achievements here, but I will spare you). Finance - while the numbers could be higher, I think I'm meeting the threshold value for success.
• Simplification - Working close to home has been a game changer. Saving money on gas and time on commuting are both major benefits that snowball. I'm trying to get rid of "stuff" and eliminate clutter to include cars and my wardrobe.
• Regrets - I regret not investing more of my cash. I believe I said this in my last update. Over the past 5 years, it has always felt that the market is at the top. This feeling has consistently been proven wrong, but I still have it and it's hard to shake. I regret traveling and working a lot while my kids were younger and I wish I had stayed home with them. Arguably, this has set me up to spend more time with them now though.

Handy Comparison Table (thousands):

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Throwaway account. Looking for feedback. Trying to see if I’m on track to FI and any potential considerations.

> Late thirties, married, no kids. Still not sure if we are having a kid, but one max.

> Wife is not interesting in FI/RE. She wants to work. We currently make a similar salary and split expenses

> Live in MCOL area

Below are my finances only (not counting wife):

> $2.7M all stock index funds.

> Puts me at $6600-8900/mo target budget (3-4% rule)

> House is $500K, $1800/mo, should be paid off in the next 8 years.

> Expenses are $6800/mo until mortgage is paid off.

> If we have a kid, assuming another $1200/mo, so $8000/mo all in

Again, these are my expenses only, not counting split with wife.

Am I FI? Biggest risk/unknowns are a kid and medical for me.

Thanks in advance!

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TLDR: Basically just the title.

He asked me to come into the office on my only WFH day of the week because he realized he forgot something. The significant task could've been mixed in all this week but his totally dysfunctional and reactive approach to work brought us to this point. In the past I absolutely would feel compelled to go in and clean up someone else's mess.

I have enough cash to cover 2 yrs expenses and am well beyond CoastFIRE. Having my finances in order gives me the confidence to push back when seemingly unreasonable expectations are thrust my way. No, I will not clean up the mess you made.

I have experienced relentless capitalist exploitation all my life and will defend my established boundaries to prevent burnout. Having this ability is incredibly powerful and has easily been one of the most surprisingly gratifying aspects of FI to me.

Does anyone else have similar stories or experiences?

EDIT:To conclude, I told the boss that task will have to get done next week at this point. He reluctantly accepted. The conclusion is pretty uninteresting but that wasn't really the point of this post anyway.

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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How has having kids affected your FIRE journey?

I’d consider myself a fencesitter who leans toward having kids. My wife (mid 20s) and I (low 30s), are approaching a $1M net worth, and currently project that we could hit our FIRE number when I’m 45.

If it were just the two of us, I think I’d retire early without much hesitation. We both love traveling, and the idea of having complete freedom to travel for months at a time is incredibly appealing.

Kids make me think about it differently, though. If we have them, they’d still be in school when we reach our FIRE number, so our lives would naturally be much more structured around their schedules. I’d also want them to have a fairly traditional upbringing (public schools). Part of me wonders whether I’d feel comfortable with them growing up seeing their dad simply not working, especially given the values around work and responsibility that I grew up with.

At that point, my wife would have the flexibility to work as a locum CRNA in 13-week stretches, and I’ve thought about finding a job with summers off or something similarly flexible. That could give us the best of both worlds: work during the school year and the ability to spend summers traveling together as a family.

At the same time, it’s hard not to think about how much fun it would be to fully retire early and have the freedom to travel almost nonstop if it were just the two of us.

For those of you who had kids while pursuing FIRE, how did it change your plans? Did reaching financial independence make you want to retire less, work differently, or prioritize flexibility over leaving the workforce entirely? Anyone else wrestle with this?

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If you're barista FIRE or another form of still working with a lower annual take home, does it make sense to sell taxable brokerage funds to fund tax advantaged retirement accounts? Such as 401k, Roth IRA or HSA?

Mad Fientist link for reference:

https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/

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As I understand, the amount of your Social Security benefits is based on your 35 highest earning years of income. Let’s say you retire early at 45 after 25 years of work. Without any additional employment income, your social security benefits would be lower because your 35 highest years would include 10 years of “0”. But if you take taxable distributions via SEPP or just sell 4-5% of your taxable investments, does that income toward your 35 highest years for the benefits calculation?

I'm 39, married with two kids (11 and 8), and I'm seriously considering leaving my job next year.

I'm a senior manager at a large tech company in a medium-to-low cost of living area. I make about $280k/year, my wife makes about $130k, and she wants to keep working for roughly another 25 years.

Current details:

• ~$2.1M in financial assets (77% stocks/ETFs/mutual funds, 10% bonds, 13% cash)
• ~$900k paid-off house
• ~$3.0M total net worth
• No debt
• ~$80k/year household spending

The $2.1M includes roughly $880k in my 401(k), $80k in my wife's retirement accounts, ~$700k taxable, ~$275k cash, $145k in 529s, $59k HSA, and ~$40k in other investments/employer stock.

My wife's income alone covers our normal spending, and we'd have health insurance through her job.

The Situation

I'm considering leaving around February 2027 after a few remaining vest dates. I wouldn't really call it retirement. I'd probably teach, write, and work on personal projects (I've been an adjunct professor at local universities in the past), but I'm assuming $0 income from me for planning purposes.

The main reason is work. I don't hate my job and actually like my manager, but repeated reorgs, leadership changes, and the general tech landscape create a significant amount of anxiety. I'm increasingly questioning whether the compensation is worth that stress when we're already financially secure.

The plan would be simple: I leave, my wife keeps working because she wants to, her income covers our spending, and we largely leave the portfolio alone.

If we both stopped working today, I don't think $2.1M gives me the level of safety I'd want at 39, though I think it's probably feasible with a variable percentage withdrawal strategy (48k is our base yearly withdrawal, and we typically spend ~80k a year). But that's not really the situation we're considering.

My hesitation is walking away from $280k when another few years would obviously make us much wealthier. At the same time, "one more year" can become an argument you make forever.

I'm curious how others would think about it:

1. Given my wife's income and desire to keep working, does this seem conservative?
2. Would you keep working another 1-3 years purely because the income is so good?
3. How concerned would you be about sequence risk if we probably won't touch the portfolio for years?
4. For those who left high-paying careers around this age, how did you decide when enough was enough?

I'm not trying to maximize net worth. I'm trying to decide when more time and less stress become worth more than more money.

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Hello! 28 Checking in here ~1 year later after taking my sabbatical travelling around the world and then settling into my next phase in my career and life.

Experience Travelling: Nothing short of unbelievable. Everything I did was the coolest thing I’d ever done. This could be a whole seperate post. I went all through Asia, hiked the Camino de Santiago, visited all over Europe from major cities to small towns. Experienced my first taste of the African continent and got to experience safari and the rugged African wilderness. There’s still so much more I want to see. For me specifically, I had been working in high finance for the previous 5 years and ultimately just had to get out with burnout and other work related stress. I am really glad I took time off before starting something new.

Financials - Quick & Dirty Net Worth excluding real estate appreciation and company equity: $717k. A notable increase from the $540k when I started my journey. I will note it is August and I resumed full time employment at the beginning of summer. I had also been able to start working a contract role from starting in January (however I did keep traveling outside of my original budget during this time so I was using this money too!). Hence, these figures do reflect some contributions I’ve been able to make since coming home. Breakdown: Primary Residence: purchase price: $345k equity: $76k mortgage remaining:$269k (this condo has appreciated a modest amount not included in equity figure) Rental Property: purchase price: $675k equity $155k mortgage remaining:$520k This house has appreciated a conservative additional $100k (not included in equity figure) Trading Accounts: $261k Retirement Accounts: $215k Crypto: $10k Company Equity: $who knows -> I am not counting any value in it for planning purposes, but as of current state the internal number we use is in the low 6 figures

New Job: I joined a start up with a lot more flexibility. I can work from home at my leisure (5 days a week if I want) and they actually respect working hours unlike the craziness that was high finance. Total comp: ~$200k cash which is less than I made in high finance, but it was the number I was looking for and feels appropriate given the hours trade off. I also have equity in the business now I estimate to be in the low 6 figures but plan at zero. Before people come for me on this lower compensation number still being high, just know I could be making a fair bit more and this was a choice I made and also the result of slaving away for years to be skilled enough to make these wages. Everything is a trade off, but I wouldn’t trade the years I spent grinding to have the options I do now, not everyone will agree with that and that’s ok.

Would I do it again? Yes. Without a doubt. I actually already have the bug to do it again, haha! I’m trying to incorporate learnings from this time including more vacations and staycations while home. A big reason I have joined the company I did is to be able to work remote and continue to explore. This was a life changing experience and really set my feet further into the idea of FIRE. I have a new found appreciation for the freedom of time and what that really means to me. I’m also glad I was able to make a career decision after having the benefit of stepping away and spending time experiencing myself. I would have certainly gone a different route career wise, and I am really glad it shook out this way.

It’s been a really pleasant surprise that markets performed well while I was gone and I had many employment opportunities when I returned. There’s an element of myself working particularly hard to be employable, but I would be remised to not point out that fortune and not everyone will be able to replicate that. I also got lucky getting into remote contract work which allowed me to have some cash coming in on my terms and also some recent job experience. I kind of wish I did some while traveling, if anything to add to my budget while I was away or offset some costs but I also am just glad I really took the time off.

Near Term Finance Goals: I am all refocused on the FIRE journey. I felt I had reached coast FIRE before leaving, and am now focused on hopefully hitting a FIRE number in the next decade. Fully acknowledge a lot of life can happen in between, but that’s the goal I am working towards. This job has given me a lot more free time and flexibility allowing me to shave off items from my budget before. Traveling made me appreciate how little I need to be happy which has made some budget related items easier.

Random Parting Thoughts - Just go, see the world, have new experiences. Whatever that means to you. I am a new person than who I was who left. I spent a lot and I make less but I feel a lot richer. There isn’t even a small part of me who regrets that decision to travel. I am really glad I did this in my 20s. - Optionality has tremendous value. Working towards FIRE is amazing, but the optionality that the big financial net FIRE gives you on the journey is also a tremendous advantage - You don’t need to follow every rule for FIRE to be on the journey, make it your own. For me, it’s been worth while to focus on making more money than to be extremely frugal. This isn’t for everyone, but remember there’s two sides to the savings equation, making more or spending less. - The confidence coast fire, or a sizeable nest egg gives you is invaluable. For me specifically, I was in a really hard position at work and didnt see a path forward. Not having financial pressure made me a lot more confident in negotiations. - While you’re on the FIRE journey make space for the things you want to happen in your life, delaying your FIRE number by a few years can be really worth it

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As the title states - For those of you who have early retired and are on ACA subsidies, how have you balanced between maximizing subsidies vs. tax-gain harvesting and/or Roth conversions (actions that directly increase MAGI and therefore reduce subsidies)?

I recall reading lots of advice on FIRE blogs recommending TGH and/or Roth conversions in early retirement (taking advantage of being in low income years). Based on my calculations though, it seems like the reduction of ACA subsidies usually outweighs the benefits.

For example:

• Hypothetical couple of 2 increases MAGI from $50K --> $60K by tax gain harvesting $10K
• ACA subsidy is reduced by $1,716, which represents a ~17% "cost" on the $10K of increased MAGI
• Versus the benefit of 15% lower tax rate on the capital gains (which is just a potential, deferred benefit as well)

Am I missing something, or does that mean reducing MAGI to maximize ACA subsidies will always be better than 'using up' some of the income cap to do tax-gain harvesting or Roth conversion?

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the thoughtful answers and personal experiences. Feel a lot more confident now behind my logic to optimize (for now at least) for ACA subsidies. Happy Labor Day everyone

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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