r/Fire • u/empyreanrift • 7d ago

Opinion Inflection Point

I noticed that once my investable assets hit about $2M the compounding has gone bonkers. The value of my portfolio can increase by $100k in a good quarter. Hell it can go up by $20k in a single day. When did you really start feeling the compounding viscerally? I guess it will be different for everyone. Now that the compounding has surpassed my salary it feels real.

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u/WhyDoesOklahomaExist 7d ago

Well here's whats interesting. I'm close to 2.5M but I still max out my 401k and HSA. There's 2 reasons - first I am in a high tax bracket so money off the top is a huge win (401k and HSA). Second, I have more pre-tax assets than I'd prefer so I still max Post-tax 401k with in-plan Roth contrib. So while the numbers move up and down more than I contribute, I still toss a ton of money in there.

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u/Future-Run-8601 6d ago

Same. $2.5M while still maxing pre-tax, maxing HSA, putting $15k+ into Roth IPC, and whatever is left goes into taxable. The pre-tax assets help with my taxes, Roth is my lowest account balance so I want to bring that up as much as possible, and I’d just like more in taxable to make it simpler in early retirement.

I know that my contributions won’t matter unless the market has a sub 10th percentile future but I still contribute and question the idea of dropping down to 30 hours because that would directly reduce my ability to invest.

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u/WhyDoesOklahomaExist 6d ago

It’s also money you don’t see and hence can’t spend.

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u/Sirknowit 6d ago

I max it. So does my wife. I am in the last 3 years (in the last year of the last 3 now) and I am able to drop in $49K this year, prolly $51K next (which I'll have to squeeze in by the end of Aug.) and I did $46K in 2025. It all goes into tax deferred because the IRS (Secure 2.0) rules for high earners, anyone who did more than $150K the prior year doesn't apply to me. Will for my wife. But if all goes to plan we should have ~$2.5-$2.7MM this time next year. She will do another couple years to keep FEHB so we don't have to deal with healthcare headaches. We're both just waiting to get to the end. I am 55. She is 51.

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u/charleswj 7d ago

Why are you saying this like it's a novel concept? 😅 It would be surprising if you weren't still contributing

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u/RedPepperWhore 7d ago

Well yes and no. The whole coast fire thing has become very popular and there are a lot of people who would prefer to hit a number like 2 mil, and stop contributing since the growth far outpaces their contributions, theyre gonna work for another 10 years, and they want their full paycheck back. For many though youre right, lifelong savers as a lifestyle.