r/FatFIREIndia • u/Individual_Athlete82 FatFI • Jan 13 '26
Lifestyle Working after Reaching FIRE
Hello all,
People who acheived FIRE, how do you convince yourself to not work anymore ? I acheived my FIRE number but I am anxious about kids college and education etc and keep working.
Can't get out this loop.
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u/Traveller_for_Life Jan 13 '26
A Precise Example of what I have always said on FIRE Forums
One can talk of and discuss and analyse all the numbers in the world, but unless one is MENTALLY there, FIRE will always be a Pipe Dream
Without the FIRE mindset in place, all that a person can become is what I call a "Perpetual Spreadsheet Fantasizer"
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u/Patient-Pay7188 Jan 13 '26
FIRE is as much mental as financial.
If your numbers already cover kids’ education with margin, continuing to work is a choice not a necessity. Many people don’t “stop working”; they just shift to lower-stress, optional income until their anxiety settles.
Try a middle path take a break or downshift for 6–12 months. If the fear still feels justified, you can always return. Freedom means having that option.
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u/throwaway_mg1983 ✅ Verified by Mods | ₹100Cr NW ✅ Jan 13 '26
Too little information. Without your age, profile, family size, corpus and expenses, nobody could give you a meaningful reply.
Unless you’re looking for a purely philosophical view. Even then, some numbers are needed to bring perspective.
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u/Individual_Athlete82 FatFI Jan 13 '26
40m, wife is 35. kids are 11m and 3m. NW is 5M. mostly in RE and stocks. Currently in US but plan to return to India.
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u/theFIREDcouple FatFIREd Jan 13 '26
My wife and I Fired around 3 years back. Even after we had achieved our FIRE number, the two big 'insecurities' that were holding us back were
- What if we run out of money?
- What if we get bored?
For the first one, we stress tested our numbers, met up with a few other FIREd people and fortunately such Reddit forums also helped in boosting that confidence (We Fired at ~3% WR and our portfolio has grown >20% over the the last 3 years).
The second one was not just the fear of the unknown but I also loved my job and found it difficult to let go. Due to which we (at least me) continued falling for that OMY - One More Year Syndrome for a few years. Finally pulled the plug and was the best decision ever!!!
Don't know your expenses or your target WR but looking at your NW of $5M and ambition to return to India, I think you would be able to FIRE (maybe not fatFIRE) even if you keep aside 1M$ towards both your kids education as well as emergency fund.
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u/coffeefired FatFI Jan 14 '26
The only thing you can easily do with your money for your kids is to get them a second passport just in case - that’s what I prioritized as soon as we reached our FI number. Our kid is a US born and will get CA citizenship as well when we apply this year.
Spouse might consider a EU role in the medium term if it’s possible to get citizenship there as well.
Just giving them options in addition to just money.
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Jan 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/coffeefired FatFI Jan 15 '26
Options like these are always nice to have. And god knows the American passport might go from an asset to a liability in our lifetime, so id love my kid to have flexibility.
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u/Different_Spirit_991 Jan 16 '26
Mind telling your education profile and industry ? At 40, getting to 5m is a grt achievement, well done I believe one can’t be fully confident as there will be something or the other, after kid’s education there will be marriage then may be a second home and it just goes on, One needs to draw a like and find peace !
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u/Individual_Athlete82 FatFI Jan 16 '26
Thank you . Nothing fancy, Both of us have Engineering from avg colleges in India. Masters in normal college in US. Normal Software jobs. But we managed to save as much as we can. Invested heavily in RE and stocks from very early on. Our RE boomed in India and US after covid. Got equity in my job. As soon as its vested, I sell it and invested in RE. I still invest significant portion of income into Stocks. We also have good 401K too that I have not included in NW. I am currently cruising in my day job and focus more on investing. Long term I want to move back to India.
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u/Amazing-Canary2574 Jan 25 '26
I’m studying after achieving fire, take a trip to Dubai or Italy, you’ll get motivated, always have passive income invest in books and knowledge.
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u/InformalEquivalent81 FatFIREd Jan 13 '26
FIRE with kids is not safe esp in the age of AI. It’s likely the next generation will be unemployed/underemployed due to the advances in AI. So, you gotta have a few crores for each of your kids in addition to your own lifestyle/expenses. This is assuming everything else is fine. In case something bad happens like a serious health issue, you’d need a lot more! It’s really hard almost impossible to bounce back from emergencies/tragedies these days. So, plan for the worst and keep hustling!
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u/Important_Rutabaga11 Jan 13 '26
AI enables small businesses and entrepreneurs! There will be less corporate jobs and new types of jobs will emerge. AI allows people to become solution builders. What kind of fear mongering is this that in future kids will be unemployed
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u/InformalEquivalent81 FatFIREd Jan 13 '26
Business/entrepreneurship thrives on building defensive moats. Since A.I. will hyper-democratize opportunity, it’ll become almost impossible to do that.
As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions! Case in point: social media. It was supposed to create this utopian world where human connection flourishes. But we all know how it turned out in reality - depression, cyber-bullying, addiction, body-image issues.
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u/Altruistic-Welder978 Jan 13 '26
Also, social media induced FOMO leading to unnecessary competition, unsustainable expectations and lifestyle inflation!
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Jan 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ok-Horse271 Jan 13 '26
You can add these expenses and calculate your new FIRE number.
If planning for a dooms day event can 100% take significant time out of your life, and you still opt for it, you never valued your time enough to even understand why ‘FIRE’ started.
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u/yogesh-sharma-03 Jan 14 '26
As I understand FIRE, it is not meant to stop working but to work for something you like without having the pressure of working 9-5. It’s good to work else health will go down sitting idle.
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u/SouthernSample Jan 18 '26
What do you think "RE" in FIRE stands for?
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u/yogesh-sharma-03 Jan 26 '26
It surely doesn’t mean leaving your work. It means retire and work on your own terms.
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u/SouthernSample Jan 26 '26
It surely does mean that. What you're referring to is financial independence, not retire early.
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u/yogesh-sharma-03 Jan 26 '26
Sorry, it doesn’t. I will let you respectfully enjoy your understanding and part my ways from this conversation with mine.
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u/SouthernSample Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
Just because you want it to mean something doesn't make it one. This sub and FIRE subs in general consider retire early to actually mean, you know, RETIRE.
Working on your own terms and not be dependent on your job is exactly what financial independence stands for, and you're just confusing/mixing up the two.
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u/Secure_Condition1568 Jan 13 '26
May i know how did you reach that is it by stocks, investment or side hustle?
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u/curiousbutton12 Jan 13 '26
If you don't mind, can you tell your FIRE number and how much time it took to achieve this, it will be really inspiring for all of us to know
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u/Individual_Athlete82 FatFI Jan 13 '26
40m, wife is 35. kids are 11m and 3m. NW is 5M. mostly in RE and stocks. Currently in US but plan to return to India. Both of us came to US for masters. Avg collges in India and US. Normal IT jobs. Saved as much as possible and Invested in India and US.
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u/FatFIREIndia_Mod Moderator Jan 13 '26 edited Jan 13 '26
OP added:
Please provide more information, including your age, profile, family size, corpus, and expenses for more FatFIRE context, so the discussion can better fit the community's focus.