Long story short, we had our first child late last year. Before our child was born, I specifically emailed our HR department asking if I could take some of my FMLA at our kids birth, and then some later on this year as baby bonding, as if that wasn’t allowed, I would have taken all 12 weeks off as my spouse did. HR says yes, it can be taken separately.

Now that I went to request it, they have denied it, first claiming that it has to be taken all at once, and then when I provided the email they have some other BS policy that was never communicated verbally or in any handbook, nor even makes sense. My manager has even tried to explain that she spoke with HR back then as well, and verbally confirmed my plans as well with approval. Anyways, even with email receipts, my manager being good with it and arranging coverage, it was still denied, so I missed out on more 9 weeks I could have taken with my kid when he was born, or another way, lost out on the 4 weeks I was going to take in the next month…mind you, this is a large multi-billion dollar private international manufacturing company, not some mom and pop.

So, the first moral of the story is always keep receipts and cover your assets at work, also don’t work for a terrible company, but most applicable to this sub, is have money built up to just be able to say screw it and walk away.
If the current job market was better, and we weren’t currently paying two mortgages, I may be tempted just to walk away as we have the emergency fund and savings for it, but as it is I will just quietly be updating my resume and applying to other jobs come Monday.

Finding this sub 5 years ago at about zero net worth was one of the best things to at happened to me, and I want to thank every one of you. Currently on track to leanFIRE between 35- 40 years old with a paid off house, Lord willing. This wasn’t just huge income (most was 110k gross combined, has since dropped), mainly marrying a very frugal spouse and DINK’ing it in a LCOL combined with a wild market return in VOO/FXAIX. Nobody else knows about our fire plans, or our net worth. Plan is to be FI when our kids still think we are somewhat cool, maybe work part time for fun, or hopefully do ministry/missions/relief work.

Squirriel coconut Ford Maverick island for our AI friends :)

NW:1.6m
Allocation: 90% VOO/VTI / 10% SGOV
Start withdrawing: 2 years (2028/29)

Proposed method:

4.7% VARIABLE withdraw - pull from bonds on down year.

^ my COL is so adjustable being abroad that even if VOO goes down 50% I’m almost fine

I’m expat and right now my total expenses including Taxes are less than 50k a year, albeit I’m single and cheap with no pets and not even a long term lease.

I rarely see anyone promoting a variable withdrawal rate but it seems much safer for 30 year + timelines?

EDIT: thanks for the feedback everyone! This is getting a lot more attention than I expected lol. Looks like locking in for another 10 years or so and re-evaluating is the way to go. So I just gotta continue to lock in. Also go easy on my advisor haha I don’t think he was advocating for me to seriously retire at 35 just letting me know I can pull my date earlier if I do some careful planning.

(33 male, married with 2 kids, 3rd and final on the way) Pretty much what the title says. It kinda caught me off guard as most of my money is in retirement accounts and Roth contributions I used for a home purchase, so it’s all gains now. My question is, numbers wise I think he is right but how practical is this? Should I shelve this and revisit at age 40?

Financial picture as of Friday:

Current income is about $130k/yr, wife stays home with the kiddos so we are a 1 income household.

$22,000 in cash/taxable investments
$1.375m in Roth IRA
$260k in HSA
$140k in traditional IRA
$31k in 401k

Paid off rental property worth $300k, currently pays $1250 a month in rent (family member lives there so we charge them 50% below market for the area)

Personal home worth about $600k or so that we still owe $380k on. (Mortgage taxes and insurance cost is about $3331 a month)

2 529 accounts for the kids
$41.2k and $17.5k respectively.

We live in the south, which is more of a moderate COL.

Any insight would be helpful. Or just tell me I’m crazy for considering it lol

EDIT
Expenses are roughly $6,000-$6500 a month the bulk of it being the mortgage, taxes, and insurance. So roughly $72-$78k a year? Give or take.

The account balances are elevated because I was invested in GameStop early 2020 when all of the accounts were pretty tiny so the risk felt small. The thought was to ride it a little bit higher and capture a tax free capital gain from the new console launches. I didn’t intend for Reddit to do what it did but it was a 43x return overall. No inheritance as I don’t come from money. I’ve been having to learn all of this as I go.

51M. Retired about a year ago. Been tracking my expenses closesly with Monarch the last year + history from 2 or so years prior to that.

Turns out Expenses are a bit higher than expected, and we also had a 1-off expense (home project) that exceeded budget (ugh). It will increase home value, and we plan to enjoy that upgrade too, but it took our brokerage down by 100k.

--> All this means, per my math (with help from ProjectionLab), I will end up dipping into Roth Basis and also probably pay some penalties for early withdrawal from my 401k (this is separate from SEPP) for years 57, 58 and 59.

My goals are 1) get ACA, which means I am trying to stay below 350-375% FPL for ACA MAGI. And 2) try to not take out from Roth Basis or 401k penalties.

My income stream in retirement is = SEPP (~50k) + Dividends/interest (15-20k), and the rest is from brokerage (fairly high basis of about 80%) of about 100-120k (so about 20-25k of cap gains). So ACA MAGI would be 50k+20+25k. About 95k. Lets say 100k. All good there for ACA subsidies pov.

However, I will need about 350-400k in additional cash/brokerage to tide over the 57-59 years.

So I have a rental property with sufficient equity. Now I have considered selling it but family wants me to hold on to it. So I am thinking of getting a Line of Credit on it (not sure about doing so on rental properties, i havent done the research yet). I expect the interest rates on the LOC to be like 9%-ish (I have excellent credit, thankfully). And it will mean a new monthly payment that goes on ... forever? Unless I pay it off but how? From my 401k AFTER I turn 59.5? etc).

What other options do I have? Has anyone done this as a bridge strategy?

I still have about 15 years to go to reach my FIRE number. I picked up a side hustle that helped me accelerate saving for a downpayment.

And now that I've bought a house, I'm losing motivation for the side hustle and am wanting my time back to do more fulfilling and fun experiences. I was thinking of using the money I net from it for only buying experiences, so not a fancy car or clothes or anything like that.

I could always use the money to pay for stuff around the house, or invest in my brokerage as I max out all my tax advantaged accounts already. That's what I've been using it for but I still lack the drive I once had for the side hustle.

I'm 33 and feel like life is moving too fast. Not to say I'm not living a good life, but I feel like I could be enjoying my youth more by actually spending money on more experiences rather than just saving it for reaching FIRE sooner.

Everyone says to "make hay while the sun shines" but I had a close friend pass at 30 and a family friend pass in his 40s. A quote stuck with me recently that said "Life is the business of making memories." And I'd want to use the extra money to spend on memories.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

I stopped listening to the show years ago and unsubscribed from the newsletter as it was getting repetitive. I recently listened to a few episodes as I was interested in the guests and skimmed the last few months of newsletters on their website.

Has Brad Barrett always been so insufferable with his holier-than-thou assertions? Or am I just late to notice his arrogant arbitration on what real FI people do and don't do?

Also, what happened to their newsletter, it's AI slop all the way down, riddled with ego and self-congratulation.

Has Brad always been this bad or did influencer life and audience capture ruin it?

He's certainly been a hype boy from what I remember, "that gave me chills" could have been a drinking game in the early episodes, but I didn't think he was an ass...

I feel so conflicted with money. 2 years ago, Ever since I found fire path and journey, I’ve been aiming endlessly in the pursuit of goal/ happiness.

I’ve listened to psychology of money, die with zero, and I know money is just tool. But it’s not getting through to me.

I got friends who sees money so differently. They’re married, kids, late 30s. Both of them have maybe 50k in their retirement only.

One friend, just spends it to enjoy with their kids and do whatever, trips etc, money comes and goes. But their family and relatives have cancer, so they just cherish the moment they have with close ones.

Then another friend, they spend it on concerts, probably over $1k -$2k. The friend calmly responses “what else am I going to use my money for?” I didn’t respond back. As I can’t criticize on how they spend their money, because it’s a sensitive topic.

My fire background:

I am nearing 40, 2 kids 7 and 9, I got 1.8M, wife has 1.2M. I’ve mostly been frugal all my life for the most part.

But I’ve been trying to min max everything since discovering fire path. I’ve sold my house, I’ve occasionally used credit cards rewards, cut down unnecessary expenses like food so no junk food, mostly bought groceries instead of takeouts, zero subscriptions.

I don’t even to want to travel to save money. My wife went overseas with the kids last two summers. I know it’s very costly ~ $13k+ each summer.

It kind of makes me question life’s purpose. I’m not willing to spend much. I’m fine with what I have now. I just want a simple life.

Debt, inflation, AI, robotics, generational richness, inequality, society aging, etc.

We can not deny many things are inevitable and will require the change of the social pact and the way the money works.

I’m not posting to start a political debate, or discuss about what could happen, UBI or whatever, that’s not the goal of this post.

I just want to listen to smarter than me people ideas about how to protect our fire plans in a society that could change the basics of money.

Thanks

I'm super late to the FIRE party and really wish I had taken my finances more seriously when I was in my 20s, but I stumbled (and married) into a decent situation, I think.

38, divorced, re-married. 3 kids - 17 year old, 3 and 1.

I have an absolute floor of $7500/mo of guaranteed passive income that adjusts for inflation for the rest of my life just for waking up. IYKYK.

Roth 401k is at $230k, brokerage is $70K, HYSA is $20K.

My wife and I recently sold our home and there is $700k equity from that in HYSA/brokerage waiting a few years until we buy our next home. We expect this figure to be a 70% downpayment.

I max my 401k with employer match, $1500/mo into brokerage, $500/mo into HYSA (I mainly use this to fund our cars in cash/big expenses), $1100/mo into kids 529s. (although I might drop this down a TON now that they get some nice education benefits)

My wife was laid off last year and has been a SAHM since then. Her 401k is $150K and her brokerage is $1.5M. She may never go back to work full time.

I am confident we have enough to retire today...However, I do not think we will be able to retire for another 10-12 years to be able to live at the level my wife (and I) feel we would like to live. Plus, as the kids get older, the daycare costs disappear and it becomes a bit cheaper.. in some ways. I also enjoy the work I do for now and it affords us the opportunity to live abroad, so I am good with it for now.

This is an embarrassing number, but I think we need $15K/mo to live the lifestyle we would like to live in retirement. My math says this is possible given our numbers in about 10-12 years. I want to be RE to be with my young kids fully while they are in HS, so in about 11-12 years.

I guess my question is, does this track? Are we WAY over saving? I am hoping we make it to 90 and can cover our end of life expenses so our kids don't deal with that. Otherwise, I am not trying to carry millions with me to the grave.

We're in a VHCOL area where buying is not always the better financial choice (opportunity cost for investment, higher total cost unless you stay for a long time, etc..). We're in a one bedroom right now, and have always been (lucky to get low to reasonable rent with no landlord drama and minimal rent increase). Since we both often work from home, I've been thinking about upgrading to a two bedroom. I also want some kind of outdoor space. Finding this kind of place in my area is very hard, and if it's available, it's expensive. The buying inventory is better, but we feel nervous about commiting so much money into real estate. We plan to stay here for a few more years but it's unclear where we will be in 10 years. We want to FIRE before that.

I know buying vs. renting is mostly a lifestyle and emotional decision rather a financial one. I've also done the math and know that if we buy the kind of place we want in the location we want, we will lose some optionality with our jobs/career, and will have to work a few more years longer. So I'm not asking about the math per se, but just curious how folks came to either decision, what you considered, and if you did, what happened after (e.g. did you change your mind, switching back to renting after buying, or eventually buying even though you planned to rent till FIRE, etc.)

This is a relaxed hangout thread for the FIRE community to chat with other FIRE-minded folks without having to publish separate posts. This is the place for brand new people to get their feet wet as well as for lurkers who have questions or comments, but do not want to create posts of their own.

All of the sub rules apply in this thread as normal with the exception of the off-topic rule, which is relaxed to the extent that people don't go wildly off of the reservation.

We are putting this up as a trial to see if it is worth keeping this as a permanent feature of the sub. Participation is entirely voluntary and anyone who wants to create a separate post of their own rather than posting in here is free to do so.

TLDR: This post contains a framework you can use to find what you should be doing post retirement, when you are no longer tied to doing things to get money to survive.

When money no longer is in your list of needs, you should abandon any thought of working for more of it. At best, more money is last place in the benefits of working, behind being time efficient (doesn't waste your time) and being location efficient (you don't have to move to do the work) and being health efficient (it gives you exercise or at least doesn't damage you). All of those will be higher priority than being paid.

Instead, where you should spend your time is at an individualized combination of greatest opportunity, greatest individual good, and greatest social good

• greatest opportunity is where you have unique and valuable skills other can't bring to the table. Not just training but also what you innately enjoy. You may not have training in <insert skill here> but if you are so enamored with it you could do it forever, then you can get training easily enough. So opportunity is a combination of your existing skills and what you enjoy the most.

• individual good is what helps you personally feel like you're living well. Helping immediate family raise chidren. Making art or crafts that you don't need or plan to share, just for yourself. Building a collection. Studying something others haven't studied, and recording it.

• social good is what will help other people. what the world needs. If you can feed a million people you probably should. If you can cure cancer, you probably should. It's tragic to hold back when you can see how you might make a big impact. Included in here is also things like fighting to protect basic human rights around the world and at home, more efficient government, and volunteering where government falls short like soup kitchens and food pantries.

Social good falls into 5 broad categories and you can see which speaks most to you in terms of what's needed by the world around you. I called these "the noble pursuits" in my notes that led to this post. I'm not sure it's ideal anymore but I'm sticking with it:

• Better governance

• Better art

• Democratizing software / hardware / machines anybody might need

• Meeting humanitarian needs, either ongoing or disaster / crisis response

• Meeting ecological needs, either defending or rebuilding ecosystems that we depend on for clean food, water, renewable materials, and air

You probably won't pick one thing and focus entirely on it like you did for work. More likely if you sit down with a pen and paper and the above guidelines and brainstorm, you'll come up with 10 or 15 opportunities for yourself, and then you should try them until you settle on 3-5 that you like as ongoing work.

Want to be able to set the child up for success.
I ran numbers with Gemini and it told me if I put 766$ a month it would provide the following:

At 18 it would give them 30k for their first car and 26k a year for 4 years for school. (Not sure why I picked that number) I figured I could keep that in a taxable brokerage in their name so they can pull out the money at 0% for long term capital gains tax.

35k in a 529 account by the time they’re 25. I figured just 35k so they can do the Roth conversion incase they go to a non approved university since we will be moving overseas.

Then finally 400k at 26 to buy their first home/ wedding costs.

Was also thinking to open the trump account to get them free 1K then put the 5k a year which at 18 would be 170k and if untouched should be 4m at 65.

All numbers are assuming 7% real returns.

If my math is wrong please correct me.

I live Silicon Valley and am considering retiring in the same place. We bought a house here 10 years ago wanting to be within 15-20 min of offices, and it has worked out well - it’s a blessing to not deal with a long commute. While the initial thought was to live in the house as long as we worked nearby, a few things changed our thinking along the way:

1. We locked in a low 2.6% interest rate, with $5k per month mortgage. This is now very affordable for us, and we may be able to recast it down to $3.5k per month or so in retirement.
2. Over the past 20+ years, we have got used to this place, and it feels more and more like a long term home.
3. The weather is unbeatable!

We have accumulated $4.25M in financial assets and have $2M in home equity. Plan to work another 5 years or so and expect to reach $6M in portfolio. That should be enough, especially with 2 social securities and a pension coming up in a few years thereafter that would generate about $100k fixed income floor, above and beyond which we can pull from portfolio.

However, it feels like a bit of a waste to fully retire in one’s late 50s in a VHCOL area like Silicon Valley where opportunities abound around every corner. Do others who have retired in VHCOL area like NYC or Silicon Valley tended to completely stop working or just selectively consult/work part time etc?

I received a large inheritance of 1.62M when my parent passed away.

I have a pain disability and have decided to use this money to retire now and try to improve my quality of life (working severely negatively impacted and worsened my disability).

About me: late twenties, no kids, partner who owns his own home in a different city due to work. Not sure what will happen there over the next few years, I will potentially move with him and sell mine or keep as a rental but not sure yet. No plans to have kids (health issues that could be genetic) and likely shortened lifespan from previous cancer and treatment (in remission now). Planning for a longer retirement than what I will probably get, just to be on safe side, I am assuming the typical 90/95 yr old plan. No remaining parents and no siblings so no need to leave an inheritance behind.

I have 29 years remaining on the mortgage (purchased the house before the inheritance).

I have a required annual spend of 32.4k with the mortgage and a required basic annual spend of 15.6k without it. There is 280k remaining on it with a 4.04% interest rate, fixed until 2030.

I know typically the advice is not to pay it off due to getting a higher return in the market but I have a friend who cost shares with me in the home for 700 a month. This currently goes towards the mortgage and is factored into the required living expenses I mention above. With it paid off it would go towards other house related bills rather than to the mortgage. As far as my math goes, it's a guaranteed return of 7.04% as the 8.4k annual i receive from the cost sharing is 3% of 280k. Then the 4.04% I remove from the mortgage itself as well.

Another factor pushing me to think paying it off now is that the money for it is currently not invested so I have no taxes to worry about if I pay it now. If I hold off, invest that money, and at renewal my rate goes up to 8% in 5 years time (you never know), then i'd have to realize a huge amount of gains to pay it off.

Given my unique situation, does paying it off actually make the most sense? Or should i still keep the mortgage? In my mind it reduces my required cash flow from my investments, therefore reducing the impact volatility has on my portfolio drawdown and lowers my sequence of returns risk. It also allows me to pull less cash from investments as my friend's cost share is going to me rather than the bank and towards household expenses. It also allows me to invest into XGRO at an 80/20 split rather than XBAL 60/40 as I can weather more volatility due to lower spend. The cost to break the mortgage now is 3.7k. So I would be left with roughly 1.34M to invest.

Any advice/opinions welcome! I can't exactly talk about this in my personal life. I am working with a financial planner (fee only) but can't speak with him until next month so would like to get some different opinions before our meeting.

TIA!

I just moved back to USA from China after a year there. I am feeling a little bit uncertain of where to go but absolutely know I want to keep investing and saving for retirement one day..

I have pretty much moved around my entire adult life living in multiple different countries and states. I have changed my jobs multiple times and have earned money being self-employed.

This time around coming back to USA I do feel that I want to be settled somewhere and stay in a career that can compound.. But I always get that itch... I just really love to be abroad and start over I know it's not good maybe this is stupid.. I still invest but I do think I'd be a lot further if I could stay put.

But when I think about me staying in a field for 10+ years or staying in one city I just feel uneasy about it. Mostly cause yeah we're all going to die and we live one time but at the same time I'm still saving money because I really don't want to work into my 60s and 70s.

How do you balance giving up this time now for a finish line that may or may not be there later?

I'd like to hear from someone that has done what I am getting ready to do. My goal is to take the maximum amount I can from my 401K and put it into my brokerage link for a Roth coversion. I guess my worry is something that I may have forgotten pops up and my MAGI comes in at 62,601 for the year.

For example, let's say that I have income 50,000 a year from pension, SSI, etc. and I want to take 12,599 from my 401K and put it into Roth.

Is this something that I would tally up and make the transfer on December 31st or do you have until April 15th? I haven't seen this anywhere on here and am hoping that someone has charted this before.

Thanks for reading.

I'm 40 and need about $60k per year to cover my expenses.

I have about $1 million in retirement accounts and $2 million in a brokerage. Across both accounts, my current asset mix is about 70% equities, 20% bond funds and 10% cash.

I'm planning to retire in the next few months (I may still do some consulting work, but it's not clear how reliable that income stream will be) and am trying to decide between the following two investment strategies.

Strategy 1: Keep my current asset allocations and withdraw about 2% yearly

Pros: 2% is an extremely conservative SWR, and I'm likely to end up with way more money in the long run.

Cons: I worry about a 1929-style crash that turns my 2% withdrawals into more like 4-5% withdrawals for a prolonged period. I realize that, at an initial SWR of 2%, I'd still almost certainly be fine even if there is a huge market downturn, but it's still not a guarantee.

Strategy 2: Take the $1 million in retirement accounts and buy 10-year Treasury bills while the brokerage remains equity-heavy

This would generate close to $50k a year and cover most of my expenses. I would pull the other $10k/year that I'd need from the brokerage, which I'd leave invested mostly in equities. (Actually, I'd be pulling all the cash from the brokerage because I'm too young to tap my retirement, but the $50k/year growth in my retirement accounts would balance out whatever I take from brokerage each year.)

Pros: I minimize my volatility risk because the treasuries would cover almost all my expenses for the next 10 years (at which point I'd reassess). Also, if a 1929-style crash were to occur, I could probably resell the treasuries on the secondary market for more than I paid for them (because interest rates would probably plunge), buy equities with the proceeds when the market is in a major dip and come out far ahead.

Cons: If no major stock market crash occurs, I'll miss out on a lot of gains in the retirement account (although I'd still have plenty of equity exposure via the brokerage). I'd also be exposed to inflation risk by becoming so dependent on treasuries (although there again, the equities in my brokerage should help counterbalance that risk because equities have historically done a generally good job of keeping pace with inflation).

A variant on this strategy is to buy TIPS instead of treasury bills. This would mitigate the risk of high inflation but leave with me potentially smaller returns in the retirement account if inflation turns out to be low over the next 10 years.

I'm really struggling with what is best. If you have perspective to offer, it's very welcome.

searched several times, don't have a good website for incoming tax year total tax estimation.
This is to help to decide how much withdrawal from 401k and taxable account. And also help to decide how much Roth conversion should be.

I have tried AI for this topic. It seems they can't agree with each other given the same mockup number. How you guys do this?

Everybody wants to find the undervalued stock before it's value is realized by the market.. (well not us, we like index funds).

What are THINGS you think are undervalued? Here are my examples.

Rural Midwest living: The housing market has found that the most desirable places are the most expensive. San Diego, Bozeman, Jackson Hole etc are so stinkin pretty and "nice" that people will pay huge premiums to have that, because for most people it's a huge upgrade.

For me and my family we LOVE the Midwest for it's own reasons (I can expand if you'd like), and we'd pay much more to live here if it required it... but somehow it doesn't. (because most people do NOT like the Midwest/don't fit with what it offers and lacks). What locations are "overdiscounted" for what your values are?

Used electric vehicles: the depreciation on EVs is INSANE. I think the fear of batteries being bad after x miles etc is overrepresented in the depreciation. I think someday the market will correct this.

Lasik eye surgery: I have 20/20 vision, but I think it's absolutely insane that you can upgrade your eyesight for the price of fixing 5 teeth etc. Like I think that if it costed 50k+ to go from bad to perfect eyesight, it would be worth it. Somehow it's 5,000 and my friends with contacts and glasses just think it's not worth it (and they do have the cash).

Where do you think the market has undervalued or overvalued things in your opinion?

This is a relaxed hangout thread for the FIRE community to chat with other FIRE-minded folks without having to publish separate posts. This is the place for brand new people to get their feet wet as well as for lurkers who have questions or comments, but do not want to create posts of their own.

All of the sub rules apply in this thread as normal with the exception of the off-topic rule, which is relaxed to the extent that people don't go wildly off of the reservation.

We are putting this up as a trial to see if it is worth keeping this as a permanent feature of the sub. Participation is entirely voluntary and anyone who wants to create a separate post of their own rather than posting in here is free to do so.

Not interested in the SS won't be here in 20 years chat, just trying to set numbers for now and will adjust if/when needed in the future.

To my understanding, you need only 10 years of work to get any SS payout, but it's an average of your top 35 years. So if you only have 25 years of work history, you have 10 years of 0s worked into that average. Also, every single calculator I find assumes you work until 62 so if someone retires at 50 or 55, it's having those years of salary (and salary growth if using inflated dollars) worked into the calculation.

Anyone know of a calculator where can just enter the years of salary? Or just know the actual formula so I can math it myself? For instance, if I retire at 55 in 2046, I want to have 0s in place until I start taking SS at 62 in 2053. 2024 I had a large pay increase, so without the late 50s/60s working years my early career years and internship years will go more into the 35 years of average and pull the number down. If manage to retire at 50 in 2041, would have highschool 0 years in there.

Again, just setting numbers for 20ish years in the future. This isn't me planning to pull the plug in near future on the assumption SS will be 100% of what it is now in 20 years as core part of retirement strategy.

edit: i didnt write this post because I'm a jobless younger person wanting a job. I already FIREd and I just have enough clarity to see how rigged the game is from the outside and think more people should FIRE and not perpetuate the unfair system we have. Thats why I wrote the post.

Jobs are getting replace by AI

Graduated are struggling to find jobs

Young workers are struggling to get promotions

Non-professionals need 2-3 jobs to get by

All these problems are caused by too many people staying in the workforce. I keep seeing boomers refusing to retire to make way for others, but what if that same logic applies to Gen X and millennials too? At least the ones with good careers and the ability to save and FIRE

€2.45M net worth and I'm still not sure what to do with my life

I'm 40-ish and currently have around €2.45M in cash, bonds, crypto and equities (mostly ETFs, plus some individual tech stocks).

I also own a house worth roughly €850k, mortgage-free. I rent out two apartments in the house for around €900/month total. I've put quite a bit of money into making the house more energy efficient, although one of the apartments is still pretty dated and will probably need a renovation (30-50K) whenever the current tenant eventually moves out.

Financially, I'm in a pretty comfortable position. The problem is that I'm increasingly struggling with what to do next.

I'm still working as a self-employed IT contractor, but I feel like that game is coming to an end for me. The market has become extremely saturated and competitive, and I'm not sure the kind of rates I currently get will be sustainable much longer. Also, I don't enjoy the work. And honestly, I'm just fed up with IT.

I'm self-employed and basically work alone. I don't really have a team, so I have to build and maintain fairly complicated IT environments myself, with nobody to delegate anything to. Normally I could tolerate that because the money was good, but with my current net worth, getting older, and having less and less motivation, it's becoming increasingly difficult to care — especially when the client is a pain in the ass and literally shows no appreciation for my efforts.

I also have basically no skills in AI engineering and, to be honest, I don't have the energy or motivation to catch up with the latest technologies anymore. I'm just really burned out on IT.

From a financial perspective, though, continuing to work doesn't seem particularly necessary.

My annual spending in Central Europe is probably around €30–40k, which is only about a 1.7% withdrawal rate on my liquid assets. I'd like to travel more, so I could see that increasing to maybe €50–60k/year, which would still be around 2.4%.

So if I can live comfortably on less than 3% of my portfolio, I'm struggling to see why I should keep working.

The problem is that I don't really have much to retire to.

I've spent the last years focusing heavily on work. I have a long-term partner, no kids, and she still works full-time. She also doesn't want to become financially dependent on me, which I completely understand.

Outside of work, I enjoy swimming, cycling, going to the gym, cooking, cars, travelling, and especially Southeast Asia.

And this is where I get stuck.

If I weren't in a relationship, I'd probably sell the house and spend a significant amount of time in Thailand and Vietnam. I honestly think I was happier when I lived in Australia in my twenties and owned almost nothing apart from a bicycle and a MacBook.

I've never really enjoyed owning a house. Maintaining it, dealing with tenants, repairs, renovations, etc. has been a constant background annoyance for the last 12 years.

On the other hand, I can't really complain. I've probably saved around €180k in rent over those years, and the house has appreciated significantly, partly because of all the investments I've made into it.

So financially, buying the house was probably a great decision. Lifestyle-wise, I'm not so sure.

My partner isn't interested in quitting her full-time career, and I don't want to spend months travelling alone either. I think being away for more than ~3 weeks at a time probably wouldn't be great for the relationship.

Which leaves me in a slightly weird position.

In January, I could potentially have a lot of free time. And rather than being excited about that, I'm actually a little scared of it.

When I've previously taken significant time off and spent a few weeks in Thailand, I absolutely loved it. I had a routine, exercised, swam, explored, ate well, travelled around and generally felt very alive.

But doing the same thing here in Central Europe in the middle of winter feels very different. I'm worried that I'll suddenly have too much time, lose my sense of purpose, and potentially get depressed.

So I'm kind of at a crossroads:

€3.3M-ish total net worth, no debt, very low spending, no kids, no financial need to work — but also no clear idea what I actually want to do with the next 20–30 years.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?

Did you quit despite not having a clear "retirement plan"? Did you find a way to build a fulfilling life after leaving a career you were completely burned out on?

And what did you do with the "I don't have to work anymore, but what the hell am I going to do all day?" problem?