I am so proud of myself. I’m a 44F, child of a single parent, lower middle class upbringing. I paid for my undergrad by myself and worked 40 hours a week to do it, and then paid off my loans. I bought a house in a VHCOL city by myself with no family or partner help. I paid for my MBA by myself and worked full time doing it. I paid off my business school loans. I bought a business and paid it off.

Throughout this, and after a divorce from a cheating husband (where I was the higher earner and came in with much higher assets), i just hit $3m in net worth. About a third of that is the value of the business (I know this can change), and the rest is in cash and index funds.

Afaik, my friends all have a lower net worth (even the couples) and all come from wealthier families who paid for school or helped with a down payment or stand to inherit serious assets. I feel like I can’t celebrate with them, so I’m going to celebrate here.

I am SO proud of myself. I declined so many vacations. Drove the old normal cars. And always managed my finances very tightly when everyone around me was living it up. I feel like it’s paid off.

My FIRE number is $5M. I was on track to hit that at 50 before the divorce, but now I think I can hit it by 55. The last couple years post-divorce my spending has been a lot higher since I had to move back to a VHCOL city, and I’ve spend a small fortune on my physical and mental health. But, I’m glad my previous saving made that spending possible.

I'm getting to the point where I am ~5 years out from hitting my number. For some context, I was, and really still am, a relatively low earner, which is not great for FIRE of course, but it did allow me to learn to live and enjoy life on a more lean level of spending, and then does make a FIRE a bit easier in the end since my MAGI will be pretty low and the tax code is surprisingly fair to Early Retirerees at my future income level.

I'm writing to see if there is anything major I'm missing or misunderstanding as I approach the last 5 years of my career and prepare to start the actual drawdown phase.

Plan: (These are literally just notes I wrote to myself, NOT advice I'm trying to give. Please correct me if something is wrong).

Starting in year 1 of RE - do first Roth Conversion, and then do 1 each year, after five years, the converted amount from year 1 is available, and that withdraw is tax free.

Issue: Also need other income for those first five years. This can come from sale of taxable brokerage, previous Roth contributions, or cash/cash equivalents

If spouse is still working, for those first five years, it's honestly pretty easy because you don't have to worry about ACA yet, help them pay for their employer insurance until they RE as well.

If they are not working, (or no spouse), those first five years are a bit harder, because you need to pay for roth conversions and pay for the first five years of living expenses, and worry about MAGI for the ACA.

MAGI = Roth Conversions + Interest/Dividends (mainly from Taxable Brokerage) plus Capital Gains only from taxable, among a few other things

Controlling MAGI is crucial for the ACA. in 2026, a 30,000 MAGI for a 40 y/o couple was just low enough to get out of Medicaid territory and provide some solid options.

Will probably look something like 24,000 in Roth Conversions + Dividends (2k?) and sell maybe 10k of Brokerage (which if split 6k of basis, and 4k of gains), would result in in a 30k MAGI but 36k of money.

Of course, that is just an estimate, but you literally choose which stocks to sell, some of them have been in there longer, so have more gains. In general, delaying taxes is good. But you should also be careful, not to leave shares that are very little cost basis and all gains. There is probably lots of advice out there, but I imagine a happy medium is best, and combining conversions with the proper realized gains to maximize ACA subsidies is key.

Is there anything major I'm missing or getting wrong?

Thank you in advance for any feedback!

I (36F) grew up pretty poor in Detroit and had a traumatic childhood (ACE score of 8), which has contributed to my ongoing health issues (mental and physical). I dropped out of high school at 17 and have been supporting myself ever since. I've worked REALLY HARD. I recently got a new job with a ~60% raise (90k/yr to 150k/yr) and have been researching FIRE methods.

My biggest concern is that I take a monthly biologic (was on Cosentyx, now I'm on Taltz) for my autoimmune issues. This medicine costs like $7k/mo without insurance. I need biologics for the rest of my life.

I'd particularly love to hear from people pursuing FIRE (or successfully) who have chronic illnesses, expensive medications, biologics, or significant ongoing healthcare costs...

How did you calculate your FIRE number?

How much did you set aside specifically for healthcare?

Did healthcare costs change your FIRE timeline/strategy?

What do you do about the gap before Medicare?

I've done a ton of research, but want to hear from real people who've dealt with this scenario. My goal is to reach some combination of Coast/Barista/Nomad FIRE around age 50. But really as early as possible, I'm tired. I guess I don't necessarily need to completely stop working. I just want full-time work to become optional, but I'm not sure that's possible when living with chronic illness :(

Hi r/FIRE,

So I did it! Today is officially my 1 year anniversary of leaving my cushy tech job. Time flies when you're unemployed.

Unfortunately, I didn't celebrate the way that I thought I would. I was at the hospital the entire week, supporting my partner as her mother was admitted with a longstanding issue (she's fine now). My partner slept at the hospital the entire week, so I tried my best to be bedside every day, brought them food/coffee every morning, took her home when needed, and tried to provide emotional support as best as I could given it was also her birthday. And at the same time, I'm planning an unexpected, un-budgeted trip back to LA next month to support my mother as she deals with a recurrence of bladder cancer.

So as I write this anniversary reflection, I wonder how different life would be had I never quit my job, if I spent just One More Year^TM like I initially planned, and if I never uprooted my life to move back to SE Asia. Would I be richer? Certainly, yes. Would I be happier? I don't think so. Would I have the flexibility to do what I did this week and next month? Absolutely not. I am where I want and wanted to be.

In my 7-month reflection post, I wrote about my anxiety in FIRE-ing, some mistakes I made, and the adjustments I'm making for the future. I thought I would take a moment to revisit those themes with you, along with other lessons learned in this FIRE journey.

Quick Note: NW & budget are still the same ($1.4M, ~$3,600/mo spending, ~3% SWR). I won't focus so much on the financials for this post, but you can read about my spending & QoL in Manila here. Timeline-wise, I moved to Manila in June 2025 and left my job in Sep 2025.

My Biggest Regret

My biggest regret is that I let my post-FIRE anxiety consume me in ways that were ultimately detrimental to my goal. I wish I could go back to a year ago today and tell myself the following: "one year from now, you are not going to have the worries you have today. So just sell all your company RSUs, put it in the SP500, don't dabble with individual stocks, and enjoy your year off to the fullest before thinking about next steps."

Had I listened, here's where I'd be today:

1. $100k-150k higher net worth (sigh, I can go into it in the comments)
2. Wouldn't have spent 100s of hours "researching" stocks, checking my brokerage 10 times a day, etc.
3. Wouldn't have suffered intense "should I go back or get another job" anxiety for the first several months
4. That extra time & energy could have been allocated much better elsewhere instead of a constant stressed state

While this is obviously the benefit of hindsight, you can sense a theme here. Maybe I'm just an anxious person lol. When I had first started posting on Reddit, I mentioned that my plan is to expatcoastFIRE because I planned to work again in the future albeit in a different role fitting to the lifestyle. Somewhere along the way, I lost that mental framing and started to get really anxious about my NW, fell into the comparison trap, and tried to find shortcuts to boost it (AI stocks, namely) instead of sticking to the proven strategy that got me here (VOO & chill). I mentioned in my 7month update I was going to step away, but when the AI bull-run happened shortly after, I got suckered in and got burnt pretty bad. Alas, no crying in the casino.

The Main Lesson

My main lesson for FIRE, I learned, is to make finances NOT the center of my life. Finances should be like background music. This is counter-intuitive because so much of FIRE is hyper-analyzing the Financials: the investments, the SWR, the COL, yada yada yada. And so it's understandable that the habits we build in pursuit of FIRE are present once we FIRE. It's like a muscle memory that needs de-programming. Without income coming in or a job to keep you busy, you start to become fixated on the other parts of the equation and it can easily consume you.

But despite my regret, I'd argue this was my best year ever. I am so happy I made the decision to quit my job and move back to SE Asia. I developed a much deeper relationship with my partner, traveled to 12 countries in 12 months, and learned to enjoy the slowness of every day. I was never the type to live luxuriously nor someone keen to climb the corporate ladder. I started the FIRE path at 17, saved aggressively while still going on expat adventures, and got several lucky breaks along the way. I never felt, for one moment, that I sacrificed quality of life or my yearn for adventure because of FIRE, even when my savings rate reached 75%+.

Reflecting upon this week (and this year), I think that's what the I in FIRE meant for me. Independence not from corporate life itself, but also from finances consuming your energy away from meaningful time elsewhere. With that said, I am just as excited for what's next as I am proud of how I got here. I need to remind myself constantly that I accomplished something extraordinary, I should feel proud of it, and forgive myself for the mistakes I'll inevitably make. During this anniversary milestone, I'm more grateful than ever for this path and the lessons it continues to teach me.

So What's Next?

I'm excited for what's next! Here's how I want to spend the next year:

1. Write often: writing these FIRE posts have been one of the delightful surprises of this year - I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. And thankfully, the reception has been wonderful and encouraging. So for as long as there's positive response to my posts, I'll continue to share them here.
2. Start earning an income: my goal for Year 2 is to fund my ~$4k budget entirely from entrepreneurial income in the coastFIRE sense, while maintaining the lifestyle/flexibility I hold dear today. I don't exactly know how just yet (consulting, writing, whatever), but I'm not nearly as anxious as I once was. If anything, I have a lot of self-confidence that I'll figure it out!
3. Prioritize health: this was #1 in my last post and it's still true. I feel like I aged far more going from 34 to 35 than my previous 4 years of my 30s. Part of it is living in a high-UV, unhealthy country like the Philippines and the other part has been declining discipline/willpower. I've incorporated healthy habits like weekly pickleball/swimming, cooking everyday, and sleep hygiene, but there's still tons of work here to age gracefully (so I can enjoy my life!)
4. Move finances to the background: in my last update, I wrote "be active in your active income, be passive in your passive income." I plan to shift my portfolio by EoY to the point where I will only check once per month to withdraw funds. It was a mistake not abiding by it when I wrote it 5 months ago, so I don't want to continue making the same mistake now.
5. Continue with personal life milestones: get married, have kids, etc. Nothing's changed there. Yes, I know kids can be expensive, hence #2.

Thanks for reading this far! I know it's a bit longer than usual, so I appreciate any feedback or words of encouragement. If there's anything else you'd like me to write about, please let me know below.
~ u/MaroonJacket

I posted a few days ago about owning vs renting and thought I'd also look at having kids. Here's the chart.

Assumptions: * Homeowner, 600k mortgage, paying it off in 16 years * 930k investable assets * current combined income 240k gross * Couple, age 33/34 * Post-retirement, no mortgage, non-kid expenses are 79k/yr in today's dollars (includes 18k/yr marketplace health insurance, 15k/yr home repair/tax/insurance + 3800/mo in other expenses) * kid expenses include Montessori school until age 5 50k/yr, age 6-12 10k/yr, 13-17 12k/yr, 4 year private college (cost increases CPI + 2%)

New post on r/ChubbyFIRE. He has salary of $1M. Wire makes $130k. Savings $5M. Can wife retire? They locked it because they didn't include spend, which we all know is important. In their case her income after tax is a rounding error and I don't think it would matter but I like the mods just locked it and said not enough information without spend. We could do that here. Mod said they would open it if they updated the post and messaged a mod. Would save us from dragging necessary information out of the OP.

There was a time in my life when I didn't think much about money. I worked, I spent, I saved. I wasn't anxious about money, becoming FI, retirement, etc. I just lived life. Since discovering FIRE I've become much more anxious about money, job, etc. Yes, I have definitely grown my net worth compared to my carefree past, but I have become so much more anxious. Anyone else like this? What did you do to reduce the anxiety?

Me (35M) and wife have a 10 month old.
Her Salary: $180k

My Salary: $160k + Commissions which are insanely variable. I assume an average of $75k annually for modeling but I've made $400k in commissions before.

Real Estate: $800k house ($450k mortgage @ 5.75% rate). $3200 PITI

401k / Brokerage: $940k. We each max out 401k.

Investment Real Estate: $2.3M asset value ($930k mortgage) that yields $5k/mo net on average.

Monthly Spend: $8,500/mo - includes day care. We want one more kid.

Game Plan: I've told my wife let's get to $1.5M in 401k/brokerage and she can retire as that feels like a "critical mass" from a modeling perspective. She is constantly upset about having our kid in daycare and missing their life.

What's everyone's thoughts here?

I retired with enough money to take care of myself to age 101 including long-term care. Now I find that my mother might need some money to pay for her long-term care. Not just the care but the logistics involved in moving her across the country to be closer to me. That’s all.

Update: thank you for the symphony of good advice. Seriously. I talked to my financial advisor and he says I’m good. I can spend whatever I want within reason to get this done and I will sleep better. Sounds like a good investment.

Hi everyone.

I'm 52, married, and on terminal leave.

I've been contemplating various withdrawal strategies from 53 to 59.5 and I've decided on a combination of 72t and taxable brokerage account withdrawals along with Roth conversons to fill the 12% bracket. I'll essentially have a taxable brokerage account, "72t" IRA, "Roth conversion" IRA, and a Roth IRA.

First question:
Does the IRS require an annual withdrawal amount to the penny or is it to the nearest dollar?
Do I round up, down, or truncate to the penny?

Example: $500K starting "72t" IRA, 5%, life expectancy 33.4 calculation is $31094.8998441.

Is the annual draw $31095, $31094, $31094.90, $31094.89?

Second question:
I was planning to use a combination of SGOV and a rolling 7 year treasury ladder to guarantee the money is always available during the 72t period and a bear market without selling any depressed shares. The remaining amout of money in the "72t" IRA, "Roth conversion" IRA, and Roth IRA will be invested in VT. I'll end up with a 75% VT 25% short/medium term bond allocation.

Is this a good strategy or is 7 years of short term money too conservative? My overall withdrawal rate is 3.3%.

Thanks in advance!

First post here after reading a while.

Short version: I'm 29 and cofounded a company in Paraguay. The other directors are ruining it and I give it a year at best, so I sold my stake to them for USD 380,000. With an inheritance I already held, I'm at around USD 630,000.

I live here and I'm staying. Girlfriend of four years works here as an architect, we plan to marry, and at this point I'm basically Paraguayan. We bought a plot in a village next to the lake near the capital and are building a house — that's funded separately and doesn't touch the 630k.

I can't take the pressure of working anymore. I know this sounds exotic given that I am only 29, but the company sent me to get my heart checked three times in three years and I'm burned out. Thinking about working again gives me a panic attack right now. I am already seeing someone so let´s hope this gets better. So I wouldn't call this retiring — it's a sabbatical with no end planned until further notice. (The thought of that makes me cry tears of joy lol)

On the money: local instruments I consider trustworthy pay up to 10.7% over 12–18 months. I know that number raises eyebrows from the outside, but many friends and family members have considerable amounts invested for over 72 months already and it works. The alternative is a global ETF, MSCI World or similar, which makes sense either way to diversify. Our actual annual spend as a couple here in the capital also including rent is around 26.000$ (roughly 156mio PYG). Cost of live in this village would be less than half of that (her parents and uncles live there for a while already, we have "trustworthy" data).

Note: We live well above average.

I'm not walking through a one-way door. I'm good at remote work and my background would get me hired again without much trouble, my girlfriend keeps working either way, and if I get bored or anxious or we decide on kids, I go back.

So after talking to claude, grok, gemini, chatgpt and everyone else to find the error (because this sounds too good to be true) please tell me where I am wrong or what I may not have in mind. Because if there is not a thing wrong with this it may just be christmas and I may just be 11 again.

Country context/figures for the ones interested since this sub defaults to US assumptions. All figures September 2026, from the central bank (BCP), the tax authority (DNIT) and Law 6380/19.

Currency. The guaraní (PYG). USD/PYG is around 6,000, down from nearly 8,000 within the past year. I quote in USD for readability but hold none: the 380k is already in guaraníes, the inheritance is in euros. So my capital and my cost base are in the same currency, and the strong guaraní has worked in my favour rather than against me.

Macro. Inflation was 1.6% y/y in July. The BCP(Banco Central Paraguay) runs inflation targeting with a 3.5% target and a ±2pp band; policy rate held at 5.50%. The IMF's 2026 Article IV called out the credible framework, flexible exchange rate and high reserves. This is not a high-inflation LatAm economy — that's the part outsiders usually get wrong about Paraguay. Minimum wage is PYG 3,044,000/month (~USD 505) since 1 July.

The instrument. A CDA (Certificado de Depósito de Ahorro) is the local equivalent of a CD. Not exotic — CDAs are about 45% of all bank deposits here. BCP's own data for May 2026: average yield 9.85%; by tenor 8.53% (≤180d), 9.06% (180–365d), 10.21% (>365d). Banks averaged 10.09%, non-bank financieras 10.53%.

Tax. Paraguay is territorial: foreign-source income (a global ETF at a foreign broker) is outside personal income tax entirely. Domestic capital income is a flat 8%, but interest on deposits at local banks, financieras and savings-and-credit co-ops is explicitly exempt. So CDA interest is untaxed at the personal level. No wealth tax, no capital gains tax on foreign assets, VAT 10%.

Net: roughly 10% nominal, tax-free, against 1.6% inflation. About 8% real. That isn't an arbitrage I discovered, it's just what saving in guaraníes pays here.

We have heard this many times - person works hard their entire life, saves responsibly, lives responsibly, delayed gratification, etc. And then retires at 60 or so (not exactly early). And then drops dead 2 years later, leaving a ton of money behind never having truly enjoyed their savings. This does happen often enough, for some to be a motivator for the RE part for a lot of people. What if I have too few good years left after traditional retirement age?

Now - for most folks, the reality is that they dont just outright die, but their quality of life declines in a curve that can be deeply personal. In fact, by the time we hit 50, our genetics catches up with us, all the years of not taking care of ourselves (body and mind) catches up with us. So most of us end up with some chronic illness, like lower back pain, muscle issues, arthritis, or even fun things like autoimmune diseases. Or a sports injury that surprises you and reminds you that you are not 30 (or even 40) anymore. And for some (hopefully a few, but not 0) even experience their first heart attack / stroke in the 50s. Plus whatever fun things your personal genetic history has in store for you.

So my question - how does one take their medical history, genetic history and their overall sense of health and projection (for e.g. your colonoscopy found some polyps and now your next one is in 3 years, not 10), into the FIRE math?

For example, do you still plan for a 30+ yr retirement, which could mean you are going to work for a few more years (precious time)? Or reduce it to 25 or even 20 and plan "only" for that? Are you going to save up a shit ton (by working more of your 50s years) so you'll have enough funds for long term care at 80? Or decide you will live more NOW, say thru 65 or 70 (so 20 yr horizon) and then "figure it out if you even get there". Some might say I will travel more now ($$$) and reduce/stop that expense post 65, etc. Are you ok with a higher than 4.7% SWR? Does your personal spend rate curve look different? (spend more now thru 60/65, and then drastic drop - cut travel by 100%, etc.)

I know this is NOT how you are supposed to think in traditional FIRE calculations, and instead look at the actuarial chart and say "but but but the chart says I should expect to live till 87". And also "medical advancements happen". I get all that, but there's the deeply personal angle (that only you know) that is missed with these calculations.

Personally myself -

1) my life horizon ends at 75. So 25 yrs from now, not 30. Father died at 67 (biggest motivator for me to retire early at 50), his father died in his 50s. I already have chronic conditions (some that even my father did not have) that can only be managed not cured, take 3-4 pills a day for others like high cholesterol, BP, etc. High stress hitech job that messed me up, chronic sleep issues that i have to manage (but who knows how much damage was already done by my untreated apnea), etc. So I am not expecting a smooth sailing in my 50/60s, let alone between 75-80 (the last 5 years of the standard 30yr calculation).

2) My spend rate is ~5.5%. I have high basis for brokerage so I think I can manage ACA with subsidies, but spend rate is high due to the primary home mortgage.

3) My worst case scenario is to sell my rental which has substantial equity in it. Even at only 75% of that post-tax, market drop, etc. that will immediately drop my SWR to ~3.8-4%. But thats a backup plan.

Been lurking here a while. Would like some outside eyes before I make a decision I can’t easily reverse.

The numbers:

• Expat in the Gulf — no income tax, but also no pension, no social security, no state safety net, and residency is tied to my job

• Portfolio: $330k VWRA, all in a taxable brokerage (IBKR)

• No bonds, no cash buffer beyond 6 months of expenses, no property

• Contributing \~$7k/month, but lumpy — I let cash pile up locally and transfer every 2–3 months

• Income is salary plus freelance USD work on the side

If I stretch to 30 months I cross $625k by first quarter 2029, which has been my mental milestone.

Where I’d retire matters a lot here. The plan is not to retire in the Gulf. It’s Pakistan (home) or Southeast Asia, where $2,000–2,500/month is a genuinely comfortable middle-class life, not ramen. That’s what makes $625k look like a real number instead of a fantasy.

Am I over-solving this? Every calculator says I’m fine. My gut says keep grinding to full FIRE at 37–38. I can’t tell if that’s prudence or just fear wearing prudence as a costume.

If we retire now, both in our early 40's, our starting withdrawal rate would be 3%. This assumes no social security and no other additional income .

I know the traditional retirement portfolio is 60/40 and early retirees often lean toward 80/20 for the growth needed to sustain a longer retirement horizon.

My questions is, in what situation (low WR, long time horizon, potential for other income) does it make sense to be closer to a 100% stock allocation, with perhaps with 1 or 2 years of cash? Or do you just acknowledge that you've won the game and stick to the 80/20 portfolio and compromise some legacy value for piece of mind.

I guess there is a middle ground, if additional income shows up from consulting or part-time work, and we get past the danger zone (5 - 10 years), we could rebalance from 80/20 to 100% stocks.

I may have answered by own question typing this out. However, I find it immensely valuable getting perspectives from this sub.

Appreciate it.

It feels very hard to believe but tomorrow will be my last ever (fingers crossed) 9am status meeting.

My personal fire journey started around age 30 when I finally figured out I was going to have to actually work at being good at something if I ever wanted to retire. From a negative net worth at the time to now over 3MM at age 55, I spent the better part of 2.5 decades house hacking (almost by accident and before I even knew what that meant), building small businesses on the side, developing personal relationships that turned into business relationships, and being one of the lucky ones who invested in stocks and real estate at opportune times.

I learned about the fire movement around halfway through that process by reading about it on MMM's blog. While his level of frugality never appealed to me, the math of it all really appealed to me. I was already naturally a saver, so it felt pretty easy to keep ramping up the savings rate and investing as I went. The real estate side of things came a bit later in the process, but has increasingly become one of the two main driving factors that is letting me retire early.

For those who are interested in the physical numbers, I hit my first 100k around age 40. This is pretty loosely estimated, as I wasn't directly tracking my net worth until about 7 years ago. The second 100k took 2.5 years, and from there I averaged 100k every 18 months until I hit 800k at around age 49. From that point I was hitting another 100k in net worth every 4 months, eventually hitting just over 3MM earlier this year. It's tapered a bit since then, a function of some slow downs in the real estate market as well as some larger expenses we've incurred the last year or so.

I had what I would consider a pretty average career in technology, doing mostly analyst, developer, and/or project management and operations management type of work. I spent pretty much the entire time in a MCOL area, but the house hacking aspect really cut down on my living expenses.

Future goals include working harder to make the wife happy, more travel with the wife (see goal number 1), being more available to help out with the parents as they are getting a bit older, becoming more intentionally active, and possibly even learning to cook--it's never too late to become an adult!

As we transition into the next chapter of our lives, I fully expect to keep reading great stories and getting some amazing advice from others in this group.

I'm happy to answer any questions, will do my best to reply.

Edit: 800k at 49, not via time travel at age 39.

Hello,

This is a really silly question, but my wife (26) and I (27) are thinking about buying a $525K house with 10% down on a 5/5 ARM at around 5.6-5.7%. We weren't planning to buy. We'd been browsing Zillow for fun for about two years and had only been to three open houses. But when we walked through this one, we both thought it was perfect. We toured it again with our agent and had the same reaction.

Right now we're in a 1-bed apartment at $1,350 a month, call it $1,700 all in with utilities and internet. The house is in roughly the same area, which we really like. House would be around $4K all in utilities, hoa, taxes, maintenance estiamte. Townhouse with exterior covered by HOA for $150.

What makes us nervous is getting locked into a carrying cost of about $4K a month. What if one of us loses a job? What if it pushes back FI by a few years and we just feel more stressed day to day? What if the upkeep turns into a headache? We don't want kids, and we could see ourselves staying here 10 years.

I know this is a deeply personal question, but I'm curious what you all think about buying. Did you like owning after renting? Did the mortgage add to your stress? Did you worry more about losing your job than you would have otherwise? Financially it seems reasonable. It delays FI, but not dramatically, and there's a decent chance our incomes grow from here. Did anyone else experience this and have something to share.

Current Breakdown:

Income: $250K me $100K her probably a bit conservative could expect $25-$50K higher

Cash: $98K would need $52K for down payment then whatever closing cost are + $3K in rent to get out of my lease.

Debt: $11K student loan

Investments: $885K total. $496K in 401K with about $75K in Roth 401K. $96K in ROTH IRA. and $292K in Taxable.

Thank you so much for any advice or perspective!

Here's mine - $2.5m nw, 54, vhcol, $96k/year all in (renter)

What’s your story? 💣 💥

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.

36M, married to 31F in VHCOL city. Would not move now but maybe down the line when we have kids.

--------------------

-2.25m in a mix of treasuries, S&P500 index funds, HYSA

-450k in retirement, S&P500 index funds

-Small business owner: Volatile income pre-tax of $200k - $600k per year, I would put median at 350k. Could get a more stable employee job for $300k/year but no thoughts on doing that now.

-Renter. Spend of $180-200k/year, some of it is deductible as business expense (like health insurance and home office expense), can bring this down by reducing how much we order out and travel.

-Wife has had serious health problems recently but is doing ok now. She currently helps me with my business as needed, will likely go back to work soon, can make $80-100k full time and more over time. 
--------------------

Due to wife’s health issues, will need to budget for 1-2 surrogacies down the line, and also a wedding we never had.

Surrogacies: $200-300k each (cannot have kids due to her health issues), starting soon

Wedding: $100k (never had a proper one due to health issues), starting to plan

Health Emergency Fund: TBD

--------------------

No plans to buy a house anytime soon. Homes in our area are over $2m.

May have a solid inheritance down the line

I just turned 20 and I'm still in college. My goal is to start investing basically every penny I have left after necessities into ETFs and let it compound for as long as possible. One thing I don't quite understand about FIRE is how some people manage to reach the point where they can comfortably live off their portfolio before 40. For example, let's say you get a really good-paying job in your 20s and are able to consistently invest a large amount every month. Even with compound growth, it seems like you'd need an enormous portfolio for a 3–4% withdrawal rate to provide a comfortable income. So how are people actually getting there in 15–20 years? Is it mostly extremely high incomes and savings rates, starting with a large amount of capital, living very frugally, or am I missing something about how FIRE portfolios are supposed to work? I'm asking because I'm trying to understand what's realistically possible starting from basically zero at 20.

My wife and i (34/33) have owned a home for 3 years now, and I was curious how our fire journey would have been impacted if we had continued renting. We own a 4bed / 2 bath / 2200 sq ft in a HCOL that we bought for 830k in 2023 with 20% down. We are putting 1000/mo towards principal and planning to pay off our home by 50. Renting an equivalent home is a minimum of $4500/mo in our area, and rent has historically grown 5.5% per year over the last 20 years. I found that Firing while renting is highly sensitive to market performance, whereas owning my home basically ensures I can fire by 50, even if the markets have 0% real return. See model here.

As i continue on planning fire this year, one of the things that worries me is how much of my nw is in single stocks (not etfs / mutual funds).

I estimate 15% of my nw is in about 20 different single stock positions, with about 10% in cash, and then the rest are in various pretax accounts of target date funds, or etfs.

Is that 15% number scary? i don't think they'll kill me in a downturn, but wondering what is optimal?

It seems like everyone's advice is when you fire, you should move to a lcol area.

Unfortunately, all my family are in VHCOL areas, and I'm personally more of a city person so its really hard to imagine moving to a lcol area, especially being single and not knowing anyone there.

Has anyone actually moved to a lcol area, been single and actually succeeded, aka able to transition, built a solid social circle and transitioned well to it?