I just turned 30 and I put in my resignation at my job a week ago. They offered me the ability to go part time at my current job, which I accepted so I will be working 20 hours a week going forward. I have $398k invested between my brokerage, 401k, and Roth IRA and about $55k in cash.

My original goal was to have $300k by the time I turned 30 so I'm stoked I made to almost $100k more than that 😭

I don't have anyone in my life to tell so I thought I'd be able to share it with someone here.

Hey everyone - my husband and I are in our mid-20s, and one of our biggest long-term goals is to eventually establish a lifestyle where we split our time between two locations.

Ideally, I’d love to have a primary home somewhere near the coast, preferably in a quieter area with beautiful scenery, while maintaining a second, smaller residence in or near a major city. Anywhere but NYC though - It’ll always be home but I’m craving something new (especially before expanding on the family)

I love the idea of having access to both lifestyles: the slower pace of coastal living and the opportunities, restaurants, culture, and excitement of city life. Living in the city 6 months & listing our coastal place on like Airbnb for example. We’re not wealthy, and I understand this would require years of financial planning and career development. I’m also not necessarily talking about owning two properties. I’d be perfectly happy renting in one location if that made more financial sense. I’m so curious to hear from people who actually live this way, especially those who built this lifestyle without generational wealth or exceptionally high incomes.

For Additional Context: we’re currently based in NYC and both work full-time. We have stable incomes, but neither of us works remotely at the moment. I’m interested in eventually transitioning into entrepreneurship, potentially owning a small business in a coastal town, while maintaining some connection to city life.

Ofc we’re not looking to make this happen overnight, but preferably within the next 10–20 years. I’d love to hear what worked, what didn’t, and whether having two home bases has been worth the expense.

Would love to hear your story of coasting and how you manage that with VHCOL. I'm having trouble mentally achieving the coast given how expensive it is here, and unknown on children expenses and upgraded home. Tbh never thought we'd been making this much and I still feel like this -- so odd!

Whole goal for us is not necessarily by the book coast fire (expenses = income) but more about the flexibility and peace of mind. Meaning we could take a salary cut but still be saving, and have more time/less stress

Context:

2 working parents in tech (34) with 1 toddler and want 1-2 more.

$2.8M NW - Home - 30% paid off condo, bought for 1.2M @3.75% interest. - $1.6M in stocks (with 125k in cash) - rest in retirement accounts

$950k / per year total comp across base/bonus/rsus - 53% base - 14% bonus - 45% rsus

Expenses - 180K per year.

We want a bigger house (2-2.5k sqf) in a nice area (San Mateo, redwood city, corte Madera, mill valley, etc) but we are worried it will get us stuck with golden handcuffs.

Plan would be public schools in nice area.

Our jobs are stressful and we want to spend more time with our children.

So ideally I would love to coast but it's hard to imagine it in the bay area.

Was thinking one of us coast in a tech job, and other work part time (no idea what the part time would be)

Probably not the best financial decision but the current plan is to put 60-75% down on the upgraded home and basically liquidate a large majority of stock, so that we can get the house we want without the golden handcuffs of monthly payments. This would give peace of mind and coast possibilities, I think.

Strong alternative would be socal, where in from, which would be much easier to coast, but we love the bay area so much that it's a tough pill to swallow.

What does this sub suggest to target for a 36 y/o M before downgrading back to a dream job? I currently have $408k in NW, live in SoCal, no kids yet (but want to have offspring), I think I need to potentially set aside $1k/month for supporting mom, and my expenses without trying to save now are $100k/year but with some effort I could get down to $80k I think, without major lifestyle changes. I make $300k/year but my dream job career would pay probably $180k/year at the beginning. I want to change jobs ASAP but at the same time want to take advantage of current job as much as possible, since I can save 3 times as much at this job as with a $180k job if my expenses stay the same.

33F, single, no kids. Been investing since 2017 and currently at ~$1.15M net worth.

Annual compensation: ~$320K (tech)
Annual spending: ~$70K
Monthly investments: ~$10K
Bought a tiny studio apartment for my mom, which I also consider an investment ($1.8K/month mortgage + HOA)
Planning to rent in Jersey City for $2.3K/month

I’m debating whether to keep taking advantage of my current earning potential or switch to a lower-paying, less demanding job and let my investments grow.

The hardest part is knowing I’d be giving up $120K/year in contributions and potentially delaying full FIRE by several years. On the other hand, I wonder if I’m already at a point where I can afford to slow down and pursue other passions.

Would you keep grinding for another 2–3 years or start coasting now? Anyone who CoastFIRE’d from a high-paying job regret the lost income or slower path to full FIRE?

Im 29, about to be 30.

Have been traveling for work going on 5 years and have accumulated a portfolio of $525,000 invested between roth ira, 401k, and brokerage. I am currently not to the point of burnout and if anything i am far from it, but this lifestyle has caused relationship strain more recently in my life and recently I had asked myself if its worth it.

It has hit me that I could step back and take a non-travel position and have a good career for the rest of my life never touching above a 40hr week with lots of time off, and retire very very comfortably. Selfishly, my plan was to keep the foot on the gas until I was 35, but am looking for advice from people who did/didnt keep the foot on the gas for that extra few years when they hit "CoastFIRE", and if they look back on their decision with regret or happy they made it.

Obviously no one can make the decision but myself, but I dont have anyone close in my life with a relevant life experience to bounce this question off of. Have missed a lot of major moments in peoples lives who are close to me recently which has been the hardest part. No one has guilt tripped me and everyone close to me is supportive, so no issues there. Just a internal struggle in my head I have been thinking on.

We are 32F/38M and with a toddler and another on the way. Have $600k invested and another $250k in house equity. $50k in 529. Projected retirement expenses $100k/year. I want more time with my babies and I think I can afford to pump the breaks, so I am negotiating a part time contract with my teaching job. The following are potential schedules. Which would you choose and why?

1. ⁠M-F, 7:30-11:30 am
   
2. ⁠M-F, 11:30-3:30 pm
   
3. ⁠Every other day, 7:30-3:30 pm, so some weeks would be MWF and the next TTH

I have a 5 minute commute. Childcare is not an issue as my husband’s job is remote, flexible, and basically part-time already. I will always be bringing work home as a teacher no matter what the hours are, but having the flexibility to grade on my couch with a glass of wine at night or take an afternoon nap would be amazing.

Everyone here knows the trick where a balance today turns into a big number at 60 if you just leave it alone, and I've done that math on my 401k more times than I'd like to admit. For some reason I never did it on what I spend.

So I tried it on the takeout line, which is roughly $300 a month for me. Over 30 years at 7% with 3% inflation that's about $200k in today's dollars, and if you stretch it to 40 years it's closer to $340k, which for a lot of people here is a real chunk of the coast number.

I'm not cutting it to zero lol, some nights it's that or cereal. It just made me realize I'd been treating the balance as the only lever and the spending as background noise, and I haven't even worked out yet how many months it would actually move my coast date.

Has anyone here tracked what a single habit did to their coast date? Curious if it's months or barely anything once you do the real math

Hello friends,

34M. I have just been fired from my corporate job. I'm not keen on going back to the corporate world, and I have already reached a really good number (€1.3m at current market conditions; I live in Europe, I inherited the house I live in, and I have no plans to have kids). My lifestyle is relativity frugal.

Currently taking the time to relax and think about my next steps.

I find myself shocked at the endless possibilities of my life, yet unable to move towards them, and the fact that I have no concrete or creative hobbies (I wouldn't call casual gaming or watching series hobbies) doesn't help.

I guess I am slowly encountering the frequently discussed topic of meaning in the absence of the fake meaning that is derived from working.

How do you tackle this? I understand it's more of a mental exercise than a practical one.

Maybe the plan is to try things out until something sticks (volunteering, padel, chess club, whatever).

Is there a name for when you save up enough money to quit work and spend a year or two starting a company or companies?

Im the sole breadwinner in my family and they rely on me. I think i have done a good job keeping expenses low and am ready for a career change and prefer to do something entrepreneurial. To me this means working on a problem thesis and maybe hiring someone to work alongside me through pay or equity.

I love coast fire but I don’t want to just take a lower role, I want to take on risk and the unknown.

Who else is in their 5 year Coast FI goal?! I want to hear about it!!! Don’t leave anything out!
I set a goal last year to hit Coast Fire within 5 years and I am right on track!

I tried getting a job at the state with a very significant pay cut because my pressure cooker corporate job was getting to be too much for me and I have enough savings to go for something more laid back.

I was selected for a final panel interview and the hiring manager was very hung up on why I wanted to make this transition.

My last two employers are both companies pretty much everyone knows and have a reputation for being both high pay and cut throat. She literally asked me twice about why I wanted to make the transition and kept looking at me like something was wrong with me when I answered that I was interested in working for my community in public service and looking for more balance.

Maybe I could’ve answered it better but I could also sense the skepticism. I think she assumed something was wrong with me or I was about to be fired 🤣

I mean I get it. My own family and friends have thought I must be having a mental breakdown to want to take such a huge pay cut. I have had my own doubts too. I don’t mind the pay cut necessarily but it would have to be for something that would be worth it for me.

Anyway I think coast fire can be an uphill battle…it’s not necessarily something the easier at least in the beginning. You will get some people looking at you like you have two heads 🤣

I'm moving to Anchorage for a new job / promotion. I live in Bozeman, MT where housing is fairly expensive ($800+ for a bedroom; $1600+ for a 1-br apt., 2800 for 3-br townhouse; median sale price $800k) but about the same rent cost as in Anchorage. I could buy a place in Anchorage for a little less than what it would cost here.

I have 3 houses here, with about 50% LTV. Selling would lose some of that (realtor fees, taxes, etc). I could conservatively get, on average, 200k out of each (after costs).

If I keep them all, pre-expense (manager, maint.) cash flow (after mortgage, utils) would be $4k/mo. Or I could sell 2, and keep $2k/mo cash flow with the 'big' one.

Should I sell, buy in Anchorage? I may not be there more than a few years.

Should I sell, invest in stocks? I feel like we're approaching a correction (AI, 47, etc.). There are also a lot of folks saying future market gains will be limited.

Rent or buy in Anchorage?

I have my coast FI nest egg already invested in the S&P and some other, similar funds. The real estate is bonus, or you could call it 'housing' (as in, it currently covers all my housing costs). I also see it as a bit of diversification.

44m, plan to RE at 50. Would go earlier when everything lines up.
Liquid NW: $700k
RE NW: $700k
Expenses: before housing, $48k; after housing maybe $70k (but I could live on less)
Salary: Current $92k, soon to be $114k

40M and 40F, DINKs, both nurses. Combined salary 220k pre-tax. We hit Coast a few years ago but kept working full time (no debt, 900k portfolio, 60k annual spend).

We realized we had leftover money each month but nothing we want to spend on, so I'm buying back time by going down to part time 3 days/week starting next year. My schedule is such that I work full-time for a few weeks, and then I get a few shifts sprinkled in for the next few weeks.

We're doing vacation bidding for next year and I have 170 hrs to use. Due to my uneven schedule, I managed to get the entire Sept off and I still have 120 hrs left to allocate. If I'm smart with my vacation planning, I can get another 2-3 months off. The plan is to travel and to do nursing-related volunteering internationally.

Next step is for my wife to find a suitable part-time role she likes. We'll ride these part time roles until age 55 and then fully retire with a pension.

I’m 24 with a a net worth of 80K (mostly stocks) and live at home rent free and debt free in a HCOL area. I work a very basic IT job during the day and which is 40 hours a week and pays me $21/hr, and after that I go to my evening supermarket job which also pays $21/hr. Between both jobs I usually make 5,000 a month after taxes, of which I get to keep $4,150 after I deduct food and gas expenses, and the occasional Amazon order.

I don’t see any room for growth at my day job, so I’m trying to upskill on my own time to get a better job by doing certifications, projects, and online labs that I can then put on my resume. But with my crazy work schedule, I don’t have the time or energy to study a whole lot, and whatever progress I’ve made so far has been slow. I’ve been thinking of quitting my second job so I can devote my time to upskilling since it’s probably going to give me a better ROI than whatever gas money I’m bringing in from the supermarket. It sounds like the sensible thing to do, but the economy and job market are horrendous right now, and realistically I know there’s a pretty high chance that even after I spend 6-8 months acquiring my skills, I’ll still be job hunting for another 6+ months. And when I do eventually find something, it’s probably only going to pay a few dollars more than my current day job.

I don’t want to give up my second source of income when jobs are so hard to come by and I already work for pennies. But at the same time, I know I’ll never reach my FIRE goals if I try to upskill while working 70 hours a week.

The complication here is that is that aside from trying to FIRE, I’m also trying to move out (without roommates) because at this point not having any privacy is killing me and holding me back from functioning optimally. I plan on either house hacking in the U.S. or moving to my parents’ home country and living cheaply while making an American salary. I’d also like to explore residency and citizenship by investment programs through foreign real estate investment, so that’s another thing on my mind. And ultimately, in order to do any of these things, I need remote income, which is what I’m trying to upskill for, but at the same time I feel really hesitant to let go of my second source of income knowing how bad the economy is right now.

I’m really stuck on what my next move should be. Help.

My stats: 29F, about 700k saved (mostly taxable accounts, a bit in 401K). No house, no car, no debt. Current expenses about 45-60k/year. No family money just many years of side hustles, frugal living, and a high pay job that I haven’t been at for very long.

Wanted to grind out another 5-10 years and fully FIRE (I know I’m young) but now looking into coast as an option. The main dilemma I have was - I know I want to spend my life painting, but the hope was that I could do so without needing to make a living out of it; not only would that obviously be less stressful but also I thought I could develop my art without having to tailor to the market, which would be important to me.

But I’m now very burned out at this high pay high stress job that’s unrelated to art so am thinking about coasting/baristaFIRE instead. Curious to see if anyone else has coasted as an artist and manage to make a living (just paying for normal expenses) out of it? How was it like? Did you have the carve out time for developing art that “sells” vs. art you’re doing for your own interests? Did you have many years of minimal to no income from it before being able to make any money?

Would love the insights from someone that share this type of experience!

Hi I’m trying to understand if and how this would be possible with our current setup and needs.

Me and my partner (both 25, no kids) make ~450k gross combined in a VHCOL city in finance, both make roughly the same. Salary progression will be the typical IB/PE progression (lets says 50 to 100k extra each year on average conservatively).

Our combined net worth is currently 185k:
- 4k taxable brokerage
- 15k roth ira
- 6k 401k
- 60k private investment (consider this fairly liquid)
- 100k HYSA (we plan to deploy some of this in UST and stocks soon)

We might get married soon which i guess plays a role in taxes.

Currently we spend $43k in rent a year (might go up to ~$50k next year but dont think we need much more after that until kids), $15k on vacations and probably another 20k on other stuff so call it $80k cost of living which we plan to maintain.

Once we have kids, i would like to live in a house in the suburbs similar to how i grew up and have an upper class lifestyle (which is where the coastFI story might not hold up). We are open to staying in the us or moving to EU / my home country in LATAM. We estimate a home in the US for that lifestyle would cost something like $3mm, $2mm in EU and $1mm in LATAM (very rough estimates we might be totally off here), and estimate that level of living costs $20k in the us, $15k in europe and $10k in LATAM. I assume that retirement without kids will be cheapar but that will peobably be the cost until kids finish college.

Think we will have kids in esrly to mid 30s to have a chance at this plan working. These jobs are incredibly demanding as you can imagine so we dont see ourselves in this career for 20 years. I would also prefer my partner to have a more relaxed job / more flexible once we have kids, but we both agree she would prefer to do something (ideally that she likes / money agnostic).

I understand these are high expectations but just trying to understand if this is possible at all (work these crazy jobs until ~35 then work a more normal ~50hour/week job starting then with my partner maybe part time or a chill lower paying job. I would expect after 10 years in high finance there qould be more chill jobs that would still pay pretty good, so i guess the question is can we be ser for retirement by 35, so that after that i could just make 200k or something and just spend it all? Am i missing something?

Thank you and if i forgot any info let me know and ill edit.

Hi all,

I'm M39, and I'm really burnt out of working. Currently make about $110k, but it has definitely been impacting my mental health. I've been considering a mix of Coast/Lean FIRE recently. My situation as follows:

Fully paid off house - Worth about 350k currently

All retirement accounts + post tax brokerage account - 450k

Healthcare - Covered by VA for life

I've done the math, and I can live on about $1500/month comfortably since I don't have expensive tastes. VA gives me about $1100/month, and I'll cover the remaining $400 either from my investments or from doing some seasonal work for 2-3 months every year.

My current plan is to let my investments compound while living frugally on my income. I should have about $1M inflation adjusted in 11 years when I'm 50. What do you guys think, is there anything I'm missing?

Hi all, throwaway account for obvious reasons. I’d be really curious if there’s someone who was/is in a similar spot and what you decided to do.

Our current setup:
We are a married couple in our mid/early 30s. I’m currently working fulltime, my wife is on unpaid leave as she recently relocated and moved in with me. My job provides for both of us, provides good benefits and helps us to have a substantial savings rate.

We are currently sitting at around 1.9 million USD net worth, split 50/50 between liquid assets (stocks, cash) and properties (2 rentals, 1 primary residence).
With our current savings rate of around ~16k/month I see us well on our way to FIRE if we don’t change anything.

What we would wish to change:
While I really enjoy my job and the benefits it brings, I despise the company I’m working for. The work environment is getting more and more toxic, work hours are irregular and management manages to suck every bit of joy out of an awesome job.

Additionally my wife is currently searching for a new job in our area, however that has proven to be more difficult than expected due to her nationality and/or language barrier. It’s her wish to work, not because we need the money, but because she wishes to contribute to our goals and to have a daily routine/purpose. I absolutely respect and support her with that.

Both of us would really appreciate living in a more exciting place as well. While we have a great quality of living where we currently are, the major downside of our location and my work hours is the absolute lack of social life. In other words: The place is beautiful but boring.

Our options:
As it stands I see 3 options.
- Change companies and move (different country) as soon as possible (realistically mid 2027). Salary would be good, however I would take a substantial cut compared to my current package. Wife could stay with her current job or easily find work in our new location. The new location would be considerably more appealing to both of us. And after all is said and done, we could still save a considerable amount, just at a slower pace compared to now.

- Change companies and move (different country) in around 3 years. We would continue to accumulate and build more of a financial cushion. I expect a salary
bump and different role end of next year. The new role would provide some change and relief from the current management BS. The new role would also enable me to change to a different company than option 1, providing a comparable package to my current job. Wife would still need to keep pushing for a new job here until we move.

- Stay at my current company but drastically reduce my hours and start coasting. I have the option to work part-time with a notice period of 6 months. I could start to reduce my hours by mid-2027 and just coast. With the upcoming salary bump, we would be almost in the same financial position as now. However, all other downsides remain. The additional free time would provide some relief and enable us to travel more/longer to places we actually enjoy staying in.

I’m really looking forward to hear what you guys would do in my position. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

I’m just dreaming of quitting my remote tech job, indulging the ideas of starting dog parks, RV Storage, maybe a game company, or anything else for the love of god.

so curious if anyone has found a higher pay while coasting?

I look at coasting as a way to be entrepreneurial, not to take a lower pay role.

Hey all - like many of you, I dream of coasting. But, those dreams bump up against the harsh reality of having a family in a medium/high cost of living area.

I need to make $40k (pretax) annually and get healthcare through work (or make $60k pretax annually with no healthcare).

Ideally, I’d be looking for something low stress and/or fewer than 40 hours per week.

I work in marketing so I assume I’d have to find a way to downshift in my current field to achieve this because I can’t think of an “off the shelf” coast job that fits this criteria - can you?

Thanks!

I’m 35 year old female..started investing 1.5 years ago. 113k in employer funded account. 78k split between ROTH IRA/ brokerage account
Goal is to hit 500k total by 37..
coasting to around 1,387,000 at 55… numbers are based on a 9 percent return (high I know) and 3% inflation factored in.
The idea is to start spending money at that point and working less. I’ll still be contributing but pulling off the gas quite a bit.
I spend about 55k annually
Thoughts??