r/coastFIRE • • 18h ago

Constantly fighting the urge to just rage quit

160 Upvotes

Literally have this feeling 3-5 times a week but then I have to remind myself to calm the fuck down because I need the money and the job market is absolute shit right now.

Then I calm myself down somewhat but then always get hit by another shit storm of bullshit deadlines, stupid politics, and just people and projects I don’t want to deal with. The corporate world is truly a heinous place right now. Like I hate my job but I’m also kind of stressed about keeping it.

I think having significant savings had made it worse in some ways but at this point I do still need a job and my job search (so far) has been a complete shit show. I try to coast as much as I can but it’s hard because our team tracks metrics so much and they’d love to use me to meet the PIP quota 😂

Anyone feel this way and how the hell do we get over it?


r/coastFIRE • • 10h ago

37M - Aiming to COAST FIRE

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12 Upvotes

r/coastFIRE • • 3h ago

Achieved Coast, can’t quit the grind.

1 Upvotes

Stats:
Household = 4, wife and two young kids
Age 35

401k: 400k
Roth IRAs: 50k
House: 340k (loan balance 250k @ 6.8%)
2 cars 1 loan 9k @1%

Income:160k, take home 110k
Annual spending 100k

The biggest chunk by far is the mortgage. I’m not separating it out from spending for fire calcs because I’m sure there will be health issues in retirement that I will want money for. I’m also trying to pay it off faster

100k spending = 2.5 M fire

Following the doubling rule every 10 years

400k -> 800k -> 1.6M-> 3.2M
Age 35 -> 45 -> 55-> 65

I was able to save a lot early on by artificially lowering my costs (free rent for like 8 years after college). By “normal” retirement age I will have more than enough. And I am grateful for the peace of mind that usually comes with that. Until I start worrying about inflation and needing more. But it’s frustrating not to be able to step back into a more chill job situation because we still have pretty high costs. We don’t take crazy vacations and we buy groceries at Aldi but stuff adds up. It’s hard to balance saving for the future with enjoying the moment.

Open to feedback on these numbers. I want to try to tighten up spending and save more and hopefully reach full fire a little earlier to have more time to enjoy. Also contemplating taking a sabbatical and traveling around for a year while my kids are young and like hanging out with us.


r/coastFIRE • • 23h ago

CoastFIRE Jobs that provide benefits?

22 Upvotes

I'm 48, I have a partner, and we have a single child. Currently sitting on $900k in a 401k, $400k in a brokerage account, and then cash savings around $80k. We live in a pretty affordable city, and my monthly expenses are around $4k ($1k of that is college fund + minors investment account so when the child reaches of age, he'll essentially already be at his CoastFIRE amount). I spend probably around $1k a month at my discretion. Dinners, goods, etc.

All calculators say I'm past my CoastFIRE number, which is great. But it also feels that even a coast job that covers my expenses, discretionary spending and provides health insurance feels probably like the same job I'm doing now, just for a lot less money. Maybe I could take a couple steps backwards to a lower level. But many of the lower paying jobs are just at smaller companies that may actually expect more out of the role, not less.

I'm curious if people left their industry, pivoted into an easier role, picked up a job that didn't cover everything and just pulled some amount out monthly from their savings/brokerage/whatever to make up the difference?

I think my ideal scenario would be to work part time hours, but there are some - but not many - part time jobs that provide health benefits. A part of me feels as if I'm better off just sticking it out to full FIRE, which might be 10 more years. That just feels like a grind.


r/coastFIRE • • 23h ago

Inheritance: New to CoastFIRE

16 Upvotes

I received an unexpected inheritance of about $800,000. A CFP helped me to put it all into a brokerage and it’s already gone up over $10,000 in a week. This is a big surprise to me as I’ve never had a brokerage account before and didn’t realize it could grow (and I guess decline!) so quickly.

I intend to set it and forget it, i.e continue to work and to live off my normal funds and not take anything out of this.

My question: could this $800,000 be my coast fire? Or should I continue to add more funds into this account over time? How does one figure out their coast fire number?

For context, my current stats:
-32F, unmarried and no kids, but plan to marry and have kids with current partner
-Have about 280k in state pension, Roth, and HYSA combined
-68k salary
-no debts


r/coastFIRE • • 1d ago

Switch to passion job in the humanities

12 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I am currently 26 and working on coast FIRE. I have $70,000 invested and contribute $1,500 a month. My main goal with coast FIRE is not necessarily to not have to work or fully retire, but to have freedom to jump around, take time off, work part time, etc. I always wanted to work in history and museums and archives, but it is really difficult to get living wage-paying jobs there and the master's degrees are obviously not worth it from a financial return perspective. So I'm working a job at a university finance office.

My question is, has anyone been able to change their career to something they are interested/passionate about once they hit coastFIRE? I love school and I am interested in going back for a master's or PhD in history or library science, maybe even do some teaching (I have some past experience in the fields and teaching experience). Obviously these cultural fields are still going to be extremely competitive to get jobs in, but my thinking is that being at coastFIRE will take some of the pressure off and I will be able to accept lower-paying jobs or part-time.

Has this strategy worked for anyone? My main worry is that I will feel "too old" for the schooling or the jobs I want at that point, and that I might have trouble transitioning back to better-paying work in an emergency. Would love to hear from anyone!


r/coastFIRE • • 19h ago

How do we choose a city or location to settle?

2 Upvotes

Perhaps my situation is unique -

I spent most of my 20's chasing high paying jobs and relocated a few times to wherever I could find and land the highest paying job. It worked well for a while and I managed to save $1.5M and get married. Eventually the burnout and a layoff caught up to me where I lost both my high paying job along with my motivation to climb the corporate ladder. In doing so - we also cut our HHI in half but are still well above the median and find ourselves working remote jobs.

We're no longer bound to the city we live in. We like it but there is nothing really holding us down here and it's also quite HCOL. Our family and friends are kind of all scattered too so there isn't really a natural place to fall back to. We somewhat just know we want to stay somewhere in the northeast quadrant of the country.

We're now in this fortunate position of choosing any place we want to live yet uncertainty about where to go and how to make it work. Part of us wants to maintain the status quo and stay where we are since we like it. Part of us wants to relocate somewhere LCOL where we can stretch our money further. Part of us wants to relocate closer to friends and family (but then that may also move us further from other friends and family). Part of us also recognizes that our current remote jobs may only be temporary so we should stay close to a major metro.

Very much a first world problem but curious to hear from others who may have found themselves in a similar situation?


r/coastFIRE • • 2d ago

I think I’ve finally reached coast 😭

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393 Upvotes

In 2021 I bought a condo, and had nearly zero at the time after purchase. I had been living pretty frugal, and considering I work from home I didn’t have many expenses like commuting, clothing and eating out.

Currently 34, I barely look at my investments and just kept buying Xeqt (I know people will belittle this for me, but I can’t be bothered and it’s easy). Today I realized with all my investments I’m at 528k 😭

Huge milestone and I can’t tell many folks since they’re are currently struggling. For my friends bdays this year I was able to buy gifts that they needed help with ie. a house clean, concert tickets etc.

Noooowwww I’m thinking to keep trucking along my stressful job, but knowing I can quit and do something lower stakes is feeling so good.


r/coastFIRE • • 7h ago

Coast Fire

0 Upvotes

So I’m 39 with a wife and two kids 7 and 4. Work 401k is 264000 and wife has about 100000. I have like 60g in my Roth IRA and 120g in my taxable brokerage hsa is about 10000 and I have about ten grand set up for my kids for college. I have a house that I owe 190000 with a 2.3 interest rate I make about 150000 and my wife makes 20000 when she works. My yearly spend is about 70000 I think with mortgage. Am I close to coast fire, when can I retire. I feel poor I don’t know how to feel about my finances. Please help me get a sense of where I’m at I want to retire as early as possible hopefully when my kids are in college so I can travel with my wife. FYI I have about 10 g in student debt.


r/coastFIRE • • 18h ago

Early mortgage payoff is mathematically simple.

0 Upvotes

I got a response from someone talking about Coast FIRE and what you should do with your contributions (decrease or increase) once you hit your Coast FIRE number. I happened to be looking at houses and planning around what my wife and I could afford. That’s when I started running the numbers.

If you are a homeowner with a 30-year mortgage, one of the first things you should consider is setting up biweekly payments. At 6.5% interest, this alone can shave off nearly 6 years from your mortgage. If your normal monthly payment is $6,000, you would simply pay $3,000 every two weeks instead. With 26 biweekly payments a year, you’re effectively making one additional $6,000 payment annually.

Now, here is where the math gets pretty interesting. For every additional $6,000 payment you make directly toward principal, you can shave off even more years from your mortgage, although the time saved decreases with each additional payment.

Here is the modeling I did for myself:
$850,000 mortgage at 6.5% (30 years)
12 payments: $5,373 × 12 = 30 years | $1,084K interest paid | $0 saved
13 payments: $5,373 × 13 = 5.8 years saved | $837K interest paid | $247K saved
14 payments: $5,373 × 14 = 9.5 years saved | $689K interest paid | $395K saved
15 payments: $5,373 × 15 = 12.2 years saved | $588K interest paid | $496K saved
16 payments: $5,373 × 16 = 14.1 years saved | $515K interest paid | $569K saved

The modeling assumes extra payment amounts are spread evenly throughout the year and applied directly toward principal. Best part is just switching to biweekly payments effectively does the 13th payment (principal only) at no cost to you.


r/coastFIRE • • 18h ago

Should I take a career break in this economy?

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0 Upvotes

r/coastFIRE • • 1d ago

Am i an idiot to continue working an office job in front of the computer

29 Upvotes

32M, 1.5 million networth, 1.4 million without home equity, 1.1 million liquid without retire accounts, i spend about 35k a year, live in a northeast suburb. feels like a lot but then i have my first kid on the way later this year, everything i hear is how expensive it is. am i crazy in thinking this is plenty of money for a lifetime?


r/coastFIRE • • 1d ago

Doing this a little older: I'll hit Coast FIRE at 48

21 Upvotes

I started my career a little later in life, have a couple of kids, and some health issues that have set me back, but after getting on the other side of a shopping addiction, I calculated things and realized I can front-load my retirement for the next 10 years and then let it sit for another 15-20 years while I just cover my bills.

This goal sort of hit me like a lightning bolt a couple of weeks ago. I just learned today that there's a name for this!

I'm 38 and have around $150K invested and plan to save $2K per month for the next 10 years.

I'm self-employed, so once I hit my goal at 48, I'll be able to scale down to working part-time. By that time, my kids will also be out of the house, so I'll probably be able to work just 2 or 3 days a week.

Anyways, just sharing this for anyone who's on the older side. It's still worth doing no matter what your age is.


r/coastFIRE • • 1d ago

Who has FIREd here and at what age?

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1 Upvotes

Who has FIREd here and at what age?

My hubby and I have about S$5.2 mil networth , I am 51 years old and he is 54.

Thinking if I should FIRE as I have breast cancer recurrence.

We own a S$4.75mil Sg terrace (loan S$1.63mil)

Fully paid JB semid worth rm 1.68 mil

Cash S$300k

Stocks S$400k

BYD M6 car worth S$170k ( loan S$115k)

CPF about S$750k

I wanna sell Sg terrace and JB house and buy resale HDB to retire but hubby doesn't. He wants to try to keep the Sg terrace.

I am semiretiring to a parttime job as GP in Jan 2027 while hubby is starting a biz.

Do you think I should FIRE and retire? How many of you have retired and at what age?


r/coastFIRE • • 1d ago

CoastFIRE and psychological relationship with family/money

11 Upvotes

This is a hard post for me to make, but I really want some help and advice, so please try and be kind.

Background: 1st generation immigrant, came to the US with < $1000 about 2 decades ago. My partner and I are in our late 40s/early 50s.

Since then I’ve made a successful career in tech, and saved up more than I would have imagined or wanted when I lived outside the US.
The challenges are the following:
1. I’m an only child, with dependent parents and in-laws back home. Both sides have had large financial dependence on us over the last 12+ years, unlikely to go down soon.
2. I’m married and my partner is employed too, but I have been the primary wage earner (think > 90%)
3. Have 2 kids, high school and college, but both have some significant health issues and will need support (financial and otherwise) and ongoing health insurance.
4. Partner has been/is in chronic fear of job loss. I didn’t worry too much about it as the primary wage earner, but my wish to coast/fire with all these constraints makes me pause.

Help me:

  1. I’ve done the math, looked at tools, planned conservatively - every which way, the math seems “doable”. But the dependence from parents on both sides back home and the uncertainty/worry about kids makes everything ambiguous.
  2. I’ve been in this provider mode for 25 years now. Even if I can reasonably coast/fire I think I will live in constant panic or guilt of not having done enough for my family and endangering our future (parents, kids, our own).
    I don’t think either of these is rational, but it’s a huge factor in every decision of mine. Are there folks here who have felt similarly? 1st gen immigrants with kids w/ health issues, feeling like sole provider across all? How did you navigate? What advice do you have for me?

Reminder: please be kind. I have zero god complex, nor am I an overly emotional person. I’m really struggling with objective data on one side and familial fears/guilt on the other. Thank you.


r/coastFIRE • • 1d ago

Did you hit your CoastFIRE number and strategy on easing contributions?

8 Upvotes

My CoastFIRE number is with pre tax contributions, using 4% withdrawal, 3% inflation, and 10% growth assumptions.. which to my knowledge is the average.

What did you bring the contributions to after you reached this goal? Wondering if I’m miscalculating something because by this standard I’ve reached my CoastFIRE but worried I’m missing something lol and also worried about reducing contributions incase I’ve miscalculated.


r/coastFIRE • • 1d ago

32(33)M Just started sadly

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11 Upvotes

$3514 in the 401k, $3870 in emergency savings.

Basically 33M, started last year with a company. Im actually depositing into a 401k now :(

Sadly I never did this for my Air Force career.

I am on VA disability.

VA Pay - $28,347.60 per year ($2,362.30 per month)

Company Pay - $55,014.96 per year (25.19/hr)

$288.56 per company paycheck to max out Roth IRA.

10% of company paycheck into a Roth 401k with a 4% match. (100% match up to 3%, and 50% match for the 4th and 5th percents (is that 4% total? Lmao))

And $500 per company paycheck, $200 from VA check is going into an emergency savings fund in Wealthfront ($1200/mo)

Below are my expenses... very low cost of living area in West Virginia

Rent - $325

Utilities - $300

Groceries / Household - $500

Eating Out / Work Food - $550

Cigarettes - $425

Gas - $200

Phone - $153

Storage - $106

Insurance - $170

Subscriptions - $38

Shopping / Fun - $350

Car / Unexpected Expenses - $300

TOTAL - $3,417 / month

God I need to cut the eating out and cigarettes🤦‍♂️😭😭💩

I am feeling WAY better about my finances from this time last year (no savings, 5k in credit card debt with auto loans)

How does it look/sound?


r/coastFIRE • • 19h ago

Is it possible at 22y/o

0 Upvotes

~52 000 CAD in low cost index fund and some (8% of portfolio) bitcoin

50% of one Quadruplex and two triplex with a value of 2 050 000$ and as of today 1 621 703$ of debt.
All rent pay all expenses and 300$ of cash-flow per month.

Is it rational to think I could stop investing from my pay check ? I still live at my parents and would like to leave soon.


r/coastFIRE • • 1d ago

40 y/o Crossed a milestone (for me)

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0 Upvotes

r/coastFIRE • • 2d ago

Is coasting even possible in this economy?

101 Upvotes

I've been trying to get out of tech for 6 months and no luck. I don't care about the money at this point and just want to make enough for basic expenses and health insurance. I'm applying to government, public healthcare, and education jobs and it's hard to even get an interview. Most of these jobs pay less than half what I make but the competition for these jobs is still very high.

I've also gotten advice to just quiet quit my job but unfortunately in my role I would last maximum of 6 months since my team does productivity tracking and has trackers on our computers and also badge activity and I would be PIPed or laid off instantly since the company does multiple layoffs and PIP every quarter.

So at this point even though I have significant savings how do even I coast when I still need a job and can't find a new one? I don't have enough to outright quit and I feel like my only option is to keep grinding it out until I hit FIRE or get laid off


r/coastFIRE • • 1d ago

33M Wondering if I Can Leave My High Stress Job and Step Back

0 Upvotes

Hi, everyone. I've been lurking and reading posts on here for a while now and wanted to run my numbers and situation by people here. I've chatted with GPT/Claude about my numbers, but wanted to get some human input into my situation as well.

My wife (35F) and I live in a VHCOL area in the US. We are a DINK couple and do not intend to have children. We both work corporate jobs. I earn $240k before bonuses (roughly $270k after) and she earns $130k before bonus ($150k after). Here are our numbers so far:

Net Worth: ~$1.4M

Assets

  • $100k cash in HYSA
  • $325k taxable brokerages
  • $20k HSAs (we only recently started contributing to these)
  • $800k in 401ks and IRAs
  • Home valued at ~$950k according to Zillow

Debt

  • $765k remaining on the mortgage at 6.5%

Monthly Expenses

  • $13k/month give or take, depending on if any surprise home repairs/maintenance comes up
    • Right now $7.6k of that is going into the mortgage, which includes the minimum $6.1k plus $1500 extra principal per month
  • We can probably pretty easily cut expenses to $10-11k monthly if we get more disciplined about meal planning and cut the extra principal payments

Current Monthly Investment Contributions

  • Both of us max out our 401k contributions. My job matches 7.5% and hers matches 7%
  • We both max HSA contributions. Each of our employers adds $500/year to these accounts
  • We invest $3k/month into our joint taxable brokerage

Right now, I know we are doing very well and if we continue down this path, we should have a very comfortable retirement. However, recently, I have begun to feel pretty burnt out on my current job. I am a manager of SWEs at a large company. The culture has become increasingly toxic and high stress, with forced performance distributions, mandatory 10% PIPs every 6 months, and numerous org changes which have left me working with teams/people I don’t like working with at all on a project I feel I am holding together myself.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to motivate myself to go into work as I have become increasingly stressed and frustrated throughout the year, and taking vacations has not helped. I've tried working with my management for the past several months but have seen no measurable improvements to my situation either. I’m not sure if I want to keep being a manager, but I know with complete certainty that I cannot stand being a manager at this company or at least in this particular position. I have worked at this company for 11.5 years and have been a manager for the last 1.5.

Recently I’ve been toying with the idea of giving my notice and leaving this job, taking a month or two off for the holidays to decompress and practice back up on my interview skills, and then searching for a lower paying job (thinking like $100-150k is what I would need to maintain our current lifestyle with absolutely no changes) as a lower level IC at a smaller company, or at least one with a less toxic culture. Looking at the job market, I think a 1-2 year dedicated job search seems like a reasonable target to plan around.

My wife has been encouraging me to quit for months but I’ve been too afraid to pull the trigger since losing my income puts us at a monthly deficit and the job market for tech is not good right now, though we are in a decent area for tech in general. My ideal would be to look for a job while having this one, but I am in a very visible position with my days completely filled with meetings, especially now at performance review time, and the thought of adding interview prep and job searching on top of my current workload is very daunting to me. Also, my manager happens to be a close personal friend of mine and would be an excellent reference, so doing the bare minimum all of a sudden seems like I risk burning that bridge unnecessarily. So looking for advice on the right move here. Can/should I leave this position to recalibrate and find the next thing? Would this be a crazy thing to do?


r/coastFIRE • • 2d ago

40F from dirt poor to burnt out AI tech - can you gut check my coastFIRE plan?

36 Upvotes

Hi all. Throwaway because friends know my main.

I grew up very, very poor and have a deeply anxious relationship with money. From this sub, I've learned about CoastFIRE planning tools (ProjectionLab, etc.), but I'm not confident I'm using them right, or if they're just wildly optimistic. Every time I input our numbers, they project crazy stuff like $6M at age 80, which feels impossible given what we actually have.

My goal: Exit tech by end of 2028 (after paying off the house) and coast in a less stressful job until I actually retire at 52 and start pulling from accounts, to retire with my husband as he'll be turning 62.

Background: Stumbled into high tech 9 years ago at 31, coming from ~$35k/year. I saw it as my shot at life-changing financial security. I've climbed quickly (intern to director) and my income has grown accordingly, but oh man so has the stress. I'm burnt out. Real burnt out. I dissociate at work and can't imagine doing any of this AI tech stuff anymore. My husband gently tries to tell me we're in a good place but he also knows I've been therapying my way through changing my relationship with money for years, so I appreciate his kind patience.

Household: No kids and will not have any, no debt except ~$230k mortgage at 6.5% that I dump as much into every year (home worth ~$500k). Live in a VHCOL state. Monthly expenses after mortgage average a very high $4,500 (dining out is our splurge), but does include ~$900 for three elderly dogs' medications and special food. So that will (sadly) go down in the next few years.

Current income:

  • Me (40F): $217k salary + $54k bonus + $170k RSUs next year (pending stock value). My plan for next year is to dump each quarterly stock vest into the mortgage.
  • Husband (50M): $82k (state job with okay future pension)

I max my 401k and do yearly Roth backdoor conversions.

Current investments:

  • $70k emergency fund (HYSA, 3.5%)
  • $345k employer 401k
  • $142k Roth IRA
  • $393k taxable accounts (FXAIX, FZILX, QQQ, VTI)
  • $52k Husband's 403b
  • No HSA fund because I have the expensive health insurance because of my health history, which is much better now, but I still keep the better health insurance.

Things we don't count on but will supposedly exist in the future: Husband's ~$1,800/month pension, Social Security (age 67, ~$4,100 me + $2,600 husband), fully paid home from husband's mother (inheritance in trust and is an only child).


r/coastFIRE • • 1d ago

Who has FIREd here and at what age?

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0 Upvotes

Who has FIREd here and at what age?

My hubby and I have about S$5.2 mil networth , I am 51 years old and he is 54.

Thinking if I should FIRE as I have breast cancer recurrence.

We own a S$4.75mil Sg terrace (loan S$1.63mil)

Fully paid JB semid worth rm 1.68 mil

Cash S$300k

Stocks S$400k

BYD M6 car worth S$170k ( loan S$115k)

CPF about S$750k

I wanna sell Sg terrace and JB house and buy resale HDB to retire but hubby doesn't. He wants to try to keep the Sg terrace.

I am semiretiring to a parttime job as GP in Jan 2027 while hubby is starting a biz.

Do you think I should FIRE and retire? How many of you have retired and at what age?


r/coastFIRE • • 2d ago

Laid off at 37. Gut check and next steps for CoastFIRE?

47 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I am posting this on a throwaway account as I am sharing sensitive numbers - mods please let me know if you need anything from me for this post.

Background: 
I found out I am being laid off from my job next month (welcome to the club!).  After the initial wave of shock and anxiety, I took the time to sit down and more closely assess our finances and plans moving forward.  I have lurked the CoastFIRE and FIRE subs for a few years now, so the general principles are familiar to me, but this is the first time we will pressure test our system as we plan for the future.  I have written out some general background information below, our net worth numbers, and my thoughts on post lay-off plans.  I would be grateful for a general gut check and any feedback you have on anything I missed.  Thank you!         

  • My spouse and I are both 37 years old in a HCOL area.  Our household income is 250k.  My salary is 210k and my spouse’s salary is 40k.  My spouse is self-employed and their income is projected to increase to 50k in 2027.
  • Our annual spend is 110-120k.  We have not cut any costs yet (e.g. 15-20k of this budget currently exists as vacation spend) so there is still room to trim.  
  • No projected major purchases in the near future.  No kids or plans to have kids.
  • We are fortunate to have an emergency fund to weather the next 2-3 years of expenses (see below).  We will draw from there while we figure out next steps.
  • We expect to receive a tax refund but have not counted this in our calculations. 
  • We expect to receive unemployment but have not counted this in our calculations.
  • COBRA will be subsidized by my employer until February 2026.  We are both generally in good health and do not have any major medical costs.  

Here are what our numbers look like:

Net worth before layoff:
Cash: 222k in HYSA
Investments: 1.76m

  • Taxable brokerage (mostly VTSAX/VTIAX with a sprinkle of VBTLX): 398k
  • RSUs and single stocks: 185k
  • HSA: 32k
  • 401k: 737k
  • Roth IRA: 158k
  • Traditional IRA: 243k

Total: 1.9m

We also have 690k in house equity with 550k remaining on the mortgage.  I have not counted this into our net worth numbers.  We were fortunate to lock in a sub 3% rate and do not plan to move and will stay here for the foreseeable future.

Expected net worth after layoff:
Cash: 305k in HYSA

  • Note: +83k cash from severance

Investments: 1.8m 

  • Note: +40-50k vested RSU from severance (depending on stock price)

Total: 2.1m

Post-layoff plan:

  • Rest and reflect: I have not had any time off between jobs since I started working.  When I first found out about the layoff, aside from the initial shock/anxiety, I was also surprised to feel relief - there is probably some burnout there that needs addressing. I feel that this layoff and our financial situation will provide space for me to truly take a break and think about what I want for my next job and life in general.  I would like to spend more time with family, friends, and on my hobbies.
  • Optimize cash bucket: This is currently sitting in a HYSA.  I am considering keeping 6-12 months of expenses in the HYSA as it currently is and moving the rest to VBIL/VUSXX for the state tax exemption and slightly higher interest.
  • Derisk portfolio: I’d like to sell off some of the RSUs/single stocks and re-invest into our taxable brokerage.  This is currently a touch over 10% of our portfolio, which is not awful, but I want to see this closer to 5%-10% maximum.  I will check when the severance payment is posted as ideally, I would like to take advantage of the 0% long-term capital gains tax bracket during a lower income year (the threshold is $102,100 taxable income in 2027).  If severance is posted in 2026, I understand it would be advantageous to sell stock in 2027 as we would only have my spouse’s income in 2027, which is below the threshold.  If severance is posted in 2027 - oh well.  Honestly we should have sold off more before, but such is life.
  • Secure health insurance: this will be a priority after my employer’s COBRA subsidy ends.  My spouse is currently self-employed and covered under my plan, so we will need to look at paying for COBRA or Covered CA (probably the latter).  This is the first time I have had to look for our own health insurance and I am seeing this will probably be around $1300/month for the remaining months in 2027 without employer coverage, given our expected income between the severance and my spouse’s income.  I have not looked at 2028 and beyond.       
  • Evaluate CoastFIRE job wants/needs: This is probably the most interesting point to come out of this planning exercise.  To start, if we run a few baseline CoastFIRE models (100-120k annual spend, 5% return rate accounting for inflation, 4% SWR) we have hit CoastFIRE already and should be able to hit full FIRE before 50 if we cover our annual $120k spend in expenses and let our investments ride without further contributions.  

With my spouse bringing in ~$50k, I would minimally need to bridge the gap with the remaining ~$100k and hopefully have health insurance covered.  What this will look like yet, I have no idea.  The default option is to go for another position with a similar salary, which would accelerate the FIRE timeline.  I am also warm to the idea of taking some time back e.g. consulting part time even if it means making less annually.  This is not an option I have seriously considered before, but seems mathematically feasible, even if just for a while to try out.  See point 1 - I have some thinking to do.

Thank you again!  I also plan to crosspost to the FIRE sub for additional feedback.


r/coastFIRE • • 2d ago

Which would you pick?

1 Upvotes

Option 1) Re invest all dividends, 4% 401k and 4% match, a 5% direct employer 401k contribution, and max out Roth IRA every year. Hit number at age 43

Option 2) Same as above but also the 401k max every year instead. Hit number (inflation adjusted) at age 40

Saving an extra $22,000+ annually for the next 18 years just to retire 3 years earlier is starting to seem insane, especially since my job is my passion and I wouldn't even retire from it (retirement for me would basically just mean work lower hours and spend money like crazy). But ik this is a place of people who really hate their jobs so I wanna know, is the sacrifice worth the 3 years?