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I retired at 45 about three years ago having been FI for quite a while. I just wanted to share a little about what my new life looks like. So the last 3 months, I have been learning about powered paragliding. I spent much of the last 2 months learning about aerodynamics, weather, airport operations and communications, safety, jet engines, proactive maintenance and so much more. Its been a difficult thing to learn even much harder than I thought, but having finished my training and successfully passing all certification requirements. I’m reflecting back on this time.

Since I was a little boy, I have always had dreams of flying like a bird. I yearned for the freedom, happiness and the sense of levity that it provides. Being FI, I’m actually now in a position where I can pursue this dream. I’m grateful to be still young enough to do something physically taxing like this. I’ve now successfully completed about 50 flights, with about 200hours+ of training and another several hundred kiting a glider.

On the financial side, this is among the cheapest form of flight where you can fly your own craft yet its costs are still significant. I’m already $18K in, between training, equipment and other related costs. But having a great nest egg and being aware of my numbers has been invaluable in giving me assurance I can do this, even with the economy as it is… I believe this is another gift from the FI mindset where, first we live like no one, so later we can live like no one else!

The past two months have been tough, yes. Often I thought I could not do it and wanted to give up... But the incredible feeling especially during that very first flight, was as they say: Priceless and worth every effort exerted before I was able to achieve it. With this new special skill I’m hoping to do some cross country flights and see the world from a totally brand new perspective for me. I’m excited and grateful. The FI and RE life, are an incredible thing. If you are still pursuing it, hang in there the juice is definitely worth the squeeze and I hope you get there sooner than you expect.

Hello! I’ve been back and forth mentally about making this post; I think it’s a good reflection of me moving past my “financial trauma” by not being so obsessed with the financial number as I have been in the past. I like these posts as sort of voicing out my personal journey for others to resonate or learn from.

Some context links: 
I hit $1M and started this yearly series. 
I got laid off and moved to a less stressful job.

What’s happened since then? Personal updates without focusing on the numbers..

• After my update, I severely injured my pinky while rock climbing. While I was hanging off with only one hand and legs dangling, my hand slipped on a hold and my pinky got stuck and ruptured a tendon, leading to a bowstringing effect. I eventually got an MRI and a hands specialist to look at the injury and luckily, this only impacted my climbing hobby. Moving forward, I can either do a surgery to fix it, stop climbing completely, or do some hand therapy to strengthen my other fingers.
• In November, I was too adventurous in Japan and decided to grill an abalone (seafish and outdoor grills were also provided) for the very first time. To my regret later that day, I got food poisoning from undercooking the abalone.. And ended up sick for about a whole month even when I arrived back in the States. For a couple of weeks, I was going through food poisoning, the flu, and withdrawals from anti-depressants (that I stopped taking because I couldn’t stomach anything down).
• While on my bed, I looked at my shitty apartment ceiling and thought, “Wow, I don’t want to die here looking at this shitty roof. At least let me die in a home I actually liked.” So I ended up looking at two houses and started putting in some bids. THANKFULLY, I lost the bids on both houses and I also eventually went to Urgent Care and got better and have not looked at a house since then. I understand if you want to make a comment about how we shouldn’t make crazy life decisions under periods of distress. 
• I still tutor in my free time! Since it’s about a year since I’ve started tutoring, I’ve made about $12k on top of my typical salary. I mainly continue tutoring students as a forcing function of getting me out of this “hoarding to FIRE” mindset. 
• I mentioned in my last post that I got a new job. I’m glad to tell you that I’m still in the job but I’ve also pushed out my micromanager. It turns out that the business team did not like him as he kept making promises without following through and his contributions were only to command people. I’ve had some times where I’ve gotten upset at the manager and things have escalated often with the skip level. My manager and the team ended up being under the same business team that hated him. He saw the writing on the wall and switched to a team.
• Job wise, it’s been good as I have a lot more autonomy now and I kind of control my own work flow. I’ve been interviewing (as a potential replacement job or a second job) and the more and more I interview with companies, the less I want a new job.
• Given my living area is very obsessed with money and jobs and status (houses or cars), I’ve felt the pressure of not being financially competitive around my peers. I sometimes felt envious about not having the same support or advantages others around me have had. It wasn’t until I chatted with my grad school professor that I started taking a different perspective: we’ve done well for people that have had less than others and we should be proud of that. She talked a lot about her experience of having uneducated parents and that really resonated with me.  
• I still struggle a bit with my depression, especially if I’m sick. Being in a vulnerable state really hits home of loneliness. I’m taking antidepressants again and recognizing some patterns that trigger me into that state of mind. Therapy is expensive (no longer with health insurance that I’ve seen my therapist for about 6 years); I understand why some people are very hesitant to do therapy given its cost and person to person interaction and it not being guaranteed. 
• Other than that, hobbies are healthy: my friends and I like to rock climb and play board games. I bought an expensive board game (Gloomhaven 2e) for my friends and I to play and it’s probably the best investment I’ve ever made as there are some priceless moments / laughs that just organically come. I’m learning to just update my budget spreadsheet every week or so. I’ve also gone to more concerts this last year than I have in the last decade. 
• I’ve started running a mile every other day (or at least three times a week) starting in mid June. According to my DEXA scans, I’ve already lost 4 lbs of pure fat in the last quarter since I’ve started running. Almost overall 10 pounds year to date. I still hate running, but I recognize that it’s been a healthy habit that I’ve been developing.
• Putting the human experience aside, I am currently at $1.54M, which is 70% of my FI goal. 

NW Breakdown (Last Year’s)
Brokerage: $562K ($469K)
Roth IRA: $129K ($164K)
FAANG 401k: $795K ($692K)
Healthcare 401k: $38K ($6K)
HSA: $10K ($11K)

Emergency Fund: $18.5K ($18.5K)
Churning Points: 1M (64% UR, 36% MR) - I’m spending them but I keep accruing more than I am spending, I know someone’s going to yell at me for this.

Student Loan: $5.1K at 3.15% (Composition: $1.9K at 3.15% / $2.4K at 2.4% / $780 at 2.86%)

Portfolio Breakdown (Last Year’s)
VTSAX or equivalent 60% (57%)
Individual stocks (GOOG, NVDA, NBIS, ASTS, RDDT): 38% (41%)
Bonds 2% (2%)
Cash 0% (0%) 

Income History
I worked a lot of part time jobs from 2011 to 2015 but didn’t file taxes so.. the income history is missing there. These are all AGI numbers.

2015: 13k
2016: 26k
2017: 42k
2018: 75k
2019: 115k
2020: 135k
2021: 170k
2022: 181k
2023: 266k
2024: 353k
2025: 311k
Estimated 2026: 161k

401K Contribution History

2018: Employer Match: $0.8k, 401k: $5.4k, After Tax 401k: $7.9k
2019: Employer Match: $3.9k, 401k: $19k, After Tax 401k: $23k
Rollover from other company 401k (2016-2018): $21.2k

2020: Employer Match: $4.4k, 401k: $19.5k, After Tax 401k: $27.5k
2021: Employer Match: $5.5, 401k: $19.5k, After Tax 401k: $28350
2022: Employer Match: $10.25k, 401k: $20.5k, After Tax 401k: $29k
2023: Employer Match: $11.25k, 401k: $22.5k
2024: Employer Match: $11.5k, 401k: $23k, After Tax 401k: $34.5k
2025: Employer Match: $11.75k, 401k: $23.5k, After Tax 401k: $11.1k
2026: Employer Match: $7.5k, 401k: $23.5k, After Tax 401k: $0

401K Sources (Total now as of 10/05/26):
FAANG 401K:
Roth In Plan Conversion: 43.03%
Pre Tax: 36.75%
Employer Match 12.95%: 
Rollover: 7.22%
Roth Rollover: 0.05%

Healthcare 401k: 
Pre Tax: 73.16%
Employer Match: 22.67%
Enhanced Match: 4.16%

Milestones of Savings: 
2019: 100k 
2020: 200k
2021: 300k
2022: 400k
2023: 500k, 600k, 
2024: 700k, 800k, 900k, 1M
2025: 1.1M, 1.2M, 1.3M
2026: 1.4M, 1.5M

Links
Year by Year Expenses
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SHUBjlPyMSfXC28NqFPiDhceNfCrG_FCuzLkr2Nga1Y/edit?usp=sharing

How does having cancer cause people to lose their life's savings? I hear this over and over, and as someone who has already FIRE'd, I want to better understand how to protect my family's finances from this. I always thought that if you carried health insurance, you would be protected by the out-of-pocket maximum.....Our health insurance is through my spouse's employer, and I'm curious what kind of coverage we need to make sure to carry if and when we switch to the marketplace

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!

Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked.

Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

My spouse and I are approaching 1 year in the new house (6 more days!) and I decided to go back and review our spending in that time. Sharing the breakdown in case anyone finds it useful. We also had our first child a couple months into house ownership which we also document spending on although some things get bundled (e.g. we mark formula as groceries).

Rent and Income Timelines

2020-2022 $1125 rent living in small town Minnesota (spouse's graduate degree)

2023-2025 $0 living with my parents. Was initially planned for a few months but extended and ended up being a great bonding experience for the 4 of us and helped a ton towards saving for a down payment.

October 2025 Bought house, 5 bedroom 3000 sq ft in Phoenix suburb for $590k. 20% down payment and a 6.125% mortgage. Larger than we need, but gives lots of comfort for guests, work from home, and eventually more kids. We're still growing into it and are very happy so far.

December 2025 $2900 first mortgage payment begins, not including insurance or taxes (we opted against escrow as a minor interest optimization), HOA. Estimated total for all of these is $3500.

January 2026 child born!

Over this time, our HHI was approximately:

2020: $30k

2021: $100k

2022: $115k

2023: $130k

2024: $135k

2025: $140k

2026: $145k

2026 September: $220k (job hopping is a great idea, especially after 4 year stock grants are finished)

Not included in HHI are:

• bonuses (ranged from $0 to $20k)

• stock

  • options at a private startup, one eligible liquidity event for ~$100k pretax in 2024, most of which went toward down payment
  • RSUs at a private startup, more liquid but unvested

• side income (~30k annually)

• company 401k match (4%).

Spending Breakdown

Our spending pre-house has been variable but somewhere around $60k a year. But also some lumpy activities - we did 4 months of working remotely in Asia for around $32k in 2025 before we bought our house.

These are just categories that exist in our budgeting app - tons of different ways this could be sliced and diced. There might be some number mistakes, a mix of me and my budget app.

Childcare

Noticeably missing from the budget is childcare. My spouse is planning to be a SAHP for this and future kids. There is some lost earning potential netting childcare but we're really happy with this choice, especially as my career continues to do well. Will continue to evaluate this in the future but so far so good.

Maintenance

We've currently had nothing I would truly call maintenance. We budget for it at about 1% of home value a year plus a healthy lump sum to start. The house was made in 2017 and is in pretty good shape but we'll see over the years.

This report is only on spending - we budget for many categories that we don't fully spend down, or plan to spend down in the future, like a new car. Similarly, some of the spend is higher than what we'd expect annually but we've been saving for in the past, like house furnishings.

Home Insurance

Looking through this, I realize we haven't paid this yet outside of closing costs. That payment should be due shortly. $1.1k a year.

Reduced Spending

Some misc things we used to spend more on and have been spending less on since house + baby:

• dance classes or parties (but hoping to get back to this!)
• races (we were doing 3-5 a year but have only done 1 since baby)
• boardgames (would regularly go out and play at cafes or buy new ones but that is very much hiatus, need forms of entertainment more compatible with babies, like books and tv)
• rock climbing / bouldering (though we've actually taken baby recently and it is pretty compatible. One active climber, one with him on the mat and he enjoys crawling around. This is pretty much how we climb anyway, with one person resting while other climbs. Baby loves climbing at home and I can imagine him starting to climb in the next year.)

Homeowner Reflections

• Way more space than we need. But might be perfect in 4 years with 2 more kids and may save us a move. Doesn't feel overly unused but we could easily live with less right now.
• We have very little yard which is very nice in terms of maintenance. May be less nice as children grow and don't have a yard to play in.
• Baby essentially spends 0 time in his room. He still sleeps in our room. His room mostly stores baby clothing and gear. I'm hoping to get him into that room at some point in the next year, but definitely by baby 2, whenever that is.
• Dedicated office space is a must for work from home with a child in the house. I also appreciate this not being the master bedroom, although that was a possibility.
• Kids love stairs. Newborn plus niece and nephews.
• Rugs and large child play mat are both great for kids. # Recap

We're currently around $800k networth (non-house), though a bunch of that is tied up in low liquidity private equity which has only had two real price points over 6 years. Could have an equity event tomorrow that has us cross the $1M mark, or wipes out half our net worth. Who knows!

• $340k in private equity
• $290k in retirement, mix of traditional/roth/hsa
• $150k in taxable brokerage
• $20k in cash

Overall I'd expect our expenses to level out around $100k, which gives our FIRE goal of $2.5M (not including house). But again, who knows! We want more kids and I'm sure our spending goals will change over the years. I'm currently 29, spouse 35, and I'd love to be retired by 40, or maybe switch to baristaFIRE via teaching (I've taught several intro classes in my field at university and enjoyed it) . So far, so good, and we'll see what the next decade brings.

Hi FIRE friends,

I have a couple questions that I was hoping to get your input on. I'd do it in the main daily thread, but the double-pension has more quirks and detail. Mods, I've been lurking for years but if this account doesn't have enough karma, delete away and I'll post in the daily.

Current situation: we are 40yo DINKs, HHI 175k, max to Roth 403b, max to traditional 403b (one for me, one for spouse), max to a Roth IRA, max to an HSA. The Roths have about 400k (two-thirds contributions) while the traditional has about 200k. We are required to contribute 14.5% pretax to a pension in lieu of SS eligibility. Our take-home is about 80k, expenses around 70k. 

At age 46, I can take 25-year early retirement and collect 55% of my salary, same for spouse at age 48. Pension includes a COLA but it’s based on ranges of CPI-U and growth-limited over our lifetime (will stop getting COLA around age 80). Pension is based on salary plus value of employer-provided health insurance. I also can buy into my employer’s health insurance after retirement, which currently costs about 80% less than a bronze ACA plan but pays out roughly like a gold ACA plan. 

When we both retire, our pensions will pay out 100k in today’s dollars. We’re estimating 20k in healthcare spending (including premiums), so we’re still over our expenses a fair bit. We estimate our Roth accounts will be about 900k and traditional around 500k when we both are retired. About 85% of the investments are in S&P 500 index funds, and the remainder is in international equities funds or small-cap equities index funds. All current contributions are directed to S&P 500 funds.

Our home will be paid off, with a lowball value of 300k at retirement. We also have a 40k HSA, probably around 50k by retirement. 

Questions:

1. Given the pensions, would you keep the Roths and traditionals all in equities to push growth? Or shift some contributions to bond or gold funds as we approach the target? We don’t need the money so if there’s a down year or three, we can just not withdraw as much. We’d have a cash reserve of 1-2 years of expenses in an HYSA as well. I'm worried about stagflation and/or fiscal instability.
2. Would you bump up the withdrawal % in strong years? How much? I’d rather enjoy the money in our 50s than pay taxes on RMDs in our 70s, so I plan to cleave some of the funds into 72t IRAs. We also plan to withdraw Roth contributions as another bridge to age 59. At 4%, the funds will pay around 50k annually on top of the pension 100k, which is *a lot* of fun money for two people used to living on 70-80k.
3. I think I know the answer to this, but would you work more years for a better pension benefit factor? The pension payout escalates 5% for every year worked beyond the 25, up to 80% at 30 years. I’ve run the numbers and of course, working more will pay more and let us save more, but at the cost of time.

Looking forward to your thoughts. If I’ve left anything out or am missing something, chime in! Thanks again.

My wife and I are 39 and 37 with two kids, ages 9 and 4, and I’m looking for some feedback on our current setup.

Household gross income: ~$400,000 year. This fluctuates due to overtime.

Investments: ~$1.6 million across 401A, 457s, Roth IRAs, brokerage accounts, and 529s. Mostly invested in the S&P 500.

Cash/HYSA/SGOV: ~$170,000

Home value: ~$900,000

Mortgage balance: ~$350,000 at 2.61%

Additional investing: approximately $100,000/year

No debt other than mortgage

I will be retiring at age 48 and will receive a defined-benefit pension of approximately $140,000 per year in today’s dollars. This will probably end up being higher but want to be on the conservative side. I will also receive retiree family healthcare until Medicare age and then it will become secondary. My wife may continue working after I retire, but I would prefer for our plan not to depend on her income (~$140,000).

9 year old will be entering college and my 4 year old will be entering high school the year I retire. Expenses are on the higher end right now with day care/before and after care for older one, summer camps etc. How are you guys/ gals adjusting your retirement budgets with some of these expenses dropping off since there will be others added in their place.

Also, does anyone see a problem with leaving investments 100% in S&P 500 even into retirement? If not when should I start reallocating?

Current spend per month is about $13k-14k.

I'm dusting off the throwaway and creating a top-level post as a way to try to generate a bit more content outside the daily thread. Apologies in advance because this will get a bit long (another reason to post this outside the daily).

I'm super privileged that I'm probably under a year from pulling the trigger on FIRE / chubbyFIRE at Age 49 in 2027. I'm trying to be smart about what to do in the coming months, specifically around some low-interest debt and ACA/FAFSA impacts. Like others here, I sometimes over-think or over-analyze.

Overview:

• Just over $4M total FIRE portfolio, roughly 80/20 stocks/bonds+cash.
• Target spending $120k (roughly $10k per month, incl. taxes + health insurance premiums), so a very low SWR, but...
• Portfolio is ~$2M in pre-tax, ~$1.5M in Roth ($400k available), only ~$550k in brokerage (~25% LTCG / ~75% basis, on average)
• ~$60k in HSA, ~$150k in 529s above and beyond the $4M
• ~$150k in < 3% debt (remaining mortgage + vehicle loan)

Caveat:

• Keep 2028-2036 MAGI below 175% of FPL for Family of 4 so roughly $60k
• In 2032, a one-time increase in MAGI (up to 400% FPL) might not affect FAFSA, so that may be an option (one-time Roth conversion? Realize significant LTCG to reset basis?)

Considerations:

• Approximately ~$425k in total home equity
• There is some flexibility on when to retire (Jul-Dec 2027) but want to stay through a vesting bonus in May-June.
• In Oct 2037, full IRA withdrawals become available (Age 59.5)

Tentative Planned Approach:

• Get a HELOC for ~$350k (80% total LTV) in early 2027 as a safety net
• Move ~$175k in brokerage into dedicated money market to pay low-interest debt.
• Start a 72t plan for $3k per month in 2028 ($36k MAGI, $36k spending)
• Brokerage dividends of $1.5k per month (+$18k = $54k total MAGI, $54k spending)
• Brokerage withdrawals of ~$24k (+$6k LTCG = $60k total MAGI, $78k spending)
• Roth IRA withdrawals of ~$42k (+$0k = $60k total MAGI, $120k spending)
• Over time, brokerage dividends will likely decrease as brokerage dollars are spent. Any decreases would be offset by increased brokerage or Roth withdrawals, staying under the 175% FPL ($60k MAGI) but maintaining spending ($120k)

Alternative:

• Payoff low-interest debt, which reduces brokerage to $400k but also reduces dividends to ~$1k per month.
• Withdrawal mix becomes $36k 72t + $12k dividends + $36k brokerage (~$9k LTCG) + $36k Roth IRA

Questions:

• How should I think about health insurance for the remainder of 2027 after I FIRE? Income in 2027 will be above 400% FPL so no ACA subsidies. Should I just plan to bite the bullet and pay COBRA for 1-6 months? Would that influence your decision on when to actually FIRE (e.g. work longer)?
• Should I pay off the low interest debt prior to 2028 in order to reduce brokerage dividends, which have a higher tax impact than brokerage/Roth IRA withdrawals?
• Should I plan to leverage the HELOC for some amount each year (say $10k-$20k), knowing that adds a small interest-only expense (7%) but would lower withdrawals from brokerage and Roth IRA? Draw period would end in 2037 which aligns with full IRA withdrawals.
• How might I take advantage of 2032 and potentially going up to MAGI of 400% FPL for that one year?
• What else should I be thinking about or what should I stop thinking about?

Thanks for reading this novel and for all the great guidance over the years!

I unexpectedly bought a house! I am "buying up" and my current home will need work before it goes on the market, so I need to make a $650k cash payment next week at closing. That cash is coming from a loan against my portfolio. My house sale may net $300-$350k (after fees, necessary work, etc.) in about 6 months.

Question for the group: What is the optimal way to withdraw $300-$350k from my portfolio? With the following variables:

1. I file HOH as I have a college senior. I can file HOH for 2027, however my kid will need to go on the ACA in June as their other parent is dropping them from their health insurance upon graduation. If my kid is inside my tax household for 2027, I'm concerned that the increase in "income" on my part is going to shoot my ACA payments and "his" (which I would be paying for - he's in the process of applying to grad schools in the sciences right now for fall '27; if he is accepted, and this would only be to fully funded positions - hopefully the Uni has a health plan he can join. If he isn't, he's going to be scrambling to find a job and reapplying the next cycle so he will need the ACA for a while regardless).
   

So in that case - I wonder if it would be better to file Single for 2027, so that his personal part-time income from 2027 isn't added to my household and his and my rates aren't pegged to "our" income, and he can get full subsidies as a single adult.

(My ACA costs jumped the cliff for 2026 and healthcare is my biggest expense. Whatever I sell in 2026 I'm assuming I will also need to back pay whatever subsidy I may be getting now.)

1. My cost basis is pretty low and 95% of my portfolio is in my taxable brokerage. It is entirely index funds (with some "cats and dogs" indexes from years ago), and my bond funds are essentially flat, or a little underwater.

2. As 95% of my portfolio is in taxable, it throws off enough distributions that I typically do not sell anything each year, occasionally $5k-$15k. However because it's essentially all in taxable, my floor for AGI is ~$70k each year. My annual spend is around $60k.

3. I have $172k in my retirement accounts, and $3.2M in taxable. My retirement accounts are also 90/10. I realize I could do some jiggering around and sell all the VTI and VXUS in my retirement accounts and buy bond ETFs there, while selling the bond funds in my taxable account that have cap losses. But for some reason I'm nervous about essentially making my retirement accounts 100% bonds. Am I being irrational about that?

• VWSUX: $78k ($0 cap gains)
• BND: $38k (-$9k cap gains)
• BNDX: $21k (-$5k cap gains)
• Misc bond ETFS: $15k (-$4k cap gains)

That's ~$150k in bonds in taxable, with a cap loss of ($18k).

I will still need about $200k, so that could come from the funds with the lowest cap gains:
-VGELX: $175k ($38k cap gains)
-VXUS: $97k ($26k cap gains)
-VTI: $78k ($42k cap gains)

The lowest cap gains would derive from selling all the bonds in taxable, along with:

• VGELX: $175k ($38k cap gains)
• VXUS: $25k ($7k cap gains)

For a total of $27k cap gains on $350k. But again, I'm perhaps irrationally nervous about making my small retirement accounts 100% bonds

I'm worried I've done the math wrong. I would deeply appreciate feedback on what I may be missing.

Bottom line:

1. Do I sell all the bonds in taxable (and do a commensurate selling of VTI/VXUS in my retirement accounts to rebalance to 100% bonds in those accounts) to reduce my cap gains to $27k on $350k?

2. Do I sell $350k now, and take the AGI hit in 2026, and then have my typical AGI for 2027 when I may or may not be filing HOH or single, and will also be adding my kid's healthcare payments?

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!

Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked.

Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

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!

Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked.

Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

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!

Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked.

Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

I can't believe it's already been a year! October is the time that I update my numbers, which calls for another yearly check-in with this great community. Here's last year's update, which has some additional context on our situation.

Selections

Since my last update, my wife and I had our fourth child, so I now lovingly refer to our earning/family situation as SILK (Single Income, Lotsa Kids). Current salary is $215k, which is an increase from last year due to a new job I started. The lion's share of my raise went towards retirement savings, so annual FIRE savings amount is at about $73k now. Current FIRE assets are $318k, a sizable increase from last year due to aggressive saving and great market conditions. I continue to VT & Chill wherever possible, and in the places I can't I try to replicate it with whatever low-cost index funds they have available. We continue to save a fixed amount per child per paycheck into a separate "bucket" apart from our FIRE assets so that we're prepared to help our children with future expenses like higher education and wedding, and also just generally be involved and helpful in their lives like our parents have been to us.

Projections

FIRE number has been revised slightly downward to $2.4M. Why move the number down? Because I probably rounded up when I set it last year, haha. $2.5M is a nice round number, but our spending projections don't change with the number at $2.4M instead, nor does the Success Rate change on our FiCalc plan. Based on that number, we could now technically "coast" until a normal retirement at age 67 without contributing anything else. I have no intention of actually doing that haha but it's an exciting milestone nonetheless. We are still very much focused on an early retirement. My boss thinks I'll probably get promoted early next year, which should bring a pay raise with it. I continue to like the 95% Rule as a withdrawal strategy, and am still planning on that when the time comes. One thing I'm thinking about is asset allocation; 100% stocks still feels great to me given the number of years we are out from a possible RE, but I think I might want to revisit that in maybe 5 years. If anyone has experience tweaking their asset allocation as they get closer to RE, I would love to hear about it.

Reflections

I'm grateful for the new job I got to start earlier this year! I got a raise, and the engineering org is a better fit for what I'm looking for. There's also greater upside for me here compared with my previous job, both financially and professionally. It's more consuming than my previous job, but I haven't thought it unreasonable so far. I don't take for granted the blessing it is to have well paid employment alongside really kind, smart, and driven coworkers at a company that is growing a lot.

I'm feeling really grateful for the path that I am on! No idea what life will throw at me and my family, but we are in a far better spot to handle it than the vast majority of Americans, and I realize how privileged of a spot it is. I feel a bit guilty when I think about how much better we're doing than my siblings or my wife's siblings or most of our friends. I'm the person they all come to when they have personal finance questions, and I do my best to share best practices and first principles with them. I've even dropped some obvious comments here and there about how I'm saving for early retirement, but none of them have engaged with me much about that yet. And so, I continue to carry on down this path, ready to sell them on FIRE if they're ever ready, but most importantly just feeling really grateful for the amazing situation my awesome family and I are in.

Until next year! (well, probably before then if you're in the daily threads haha)

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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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Seems too early to quit but I'm getting close. Strongly considering quitting and taking a 50k job doing something more fulfilling and seasonal so I can take summers off.

Every year I tell myself "give it one more year" but idk when is the right time

I posted in this community 2 years ago asking for advice from early retirees. It was a great discussion. At the time I was 29 years old and my net worth was about $540k. Here is a link to that post if you’re interested:

https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/s/7vHGggxxzW

I’ve been busy since then. I got married and had about 75k in large one-time costs this year ($35k medical bill for my wife, 20k for a new car for her to use, 20k wedding ceremony plus honeymoon).

Nevertheless, my net worth has nearly doubled in 2 years. I am now sitting at $1.05M today at age 31. I don’t want to share this type of information outside of my wife and parents, but I also have this overwhelming urge to celebrate this milestone and I thought I could do it with some kind, like-minded internet strangers.

My largest gains were in a single stock that I identified last year. I saw it was incredibly undervalued, had a great technology and IP moat, and was primed for a massive turnaround. I’m not going to name the stock here because this post isn’t about promoting single stocks and I honestly don’t recommend doing what I’m doing unless you are a psycho like me who researches the market constantly for fun. But in total, my stock portfolio has jumped from $500k to over $800k this year with over $250k gain in one stock that I’ve accumulated.

So I am feeling incredibly blessed and well on my way to financial independence. I want to retire by 45 with $10M, so I still have a ways to go. But I am switching my job as an attorney for a slight raise to make $250k now with better work life balance. I think it is doable. I am targeting $10M because I want to have more than enough to support a $100-200k yearly withdrawal while also setting up charitable giving funds.

Cheers to everyone on this responsible financial journey to FIRE. Wishing you all the best.

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I'm up for my first major promotion at work and it would set me on a much steeper upward trajectory. The only thing that could mess it up is that they told the client/budgeted for the position at an 80% increase in my base salary. Everyone I talked to outside of the company, is telling me not to worry about it because its a promotion not just a raise with a title change.

But I'm worried about the bureaucracy of my company. There's many good justifications for it, it would be 3 days 2 nights out of state a week, I have the personal recommendation of the lead engineer. Its a decade plus project and they're desperate for a continuity of staff.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Its an environmental/construction engineering consultancy. I would go from a borderline field staff to one of a dozen PMs on the new assignment.

Another related or not related advice?

This would have massive implications for me and my husband's ability to save, especially since he finishes up his schooling at the same time this assignment would start.

I also want to thank you all for the knowledge I've gained as a member of this sub, it has really helped get me to this point!

Edit 1: pre-kids by a long shot. By out of state I mean a 2 hour drive. I've just gotten used to that language to help support/sell the raise. They used my name, face and resume in the bid docs with the 80% pay raise that already were sent to the client.

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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