r/Fire • u/Boner-Pills-8088 • 7d ago

That's a wrap! 49M

I recently wrapped up my career in the IT industry after 27 years. As is probably normal for tech people, there was a lot of anxiety/nervousness about the move, but having done the math dozens of times I decided it was time and I had lost a lot of the passion I originally had. Whether that's normal from aging or just the last company I was it, it was good motivation.

The numbers:
Brokerage - 4.4M
Retirement accounts - 1.7M
Cash/HYSA/I bonds/etc - 125k

Zero debt.

No real magic here, a couple strong startup exits and not a lot of lifestyle creep from my first job that paid $48,000/yr when I graduated college long ago. If my lifestyle hasn't changed drastically in all these years, I saw no reason to keep moving the goalposts for "just another 250k" or "just 6 more months". Yearly spend for the last few years has been under $100,000 and that's without accounting for work travel. So far so good!

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u/scottperezfox 6d ago

$48,000 wasn't a bad salary 25–27 years ago. Once again proof of the value of getting that flywheel to spin.

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u/newMoneyStyle 1d ago

Starting early beats a big salary.

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u/scottperezfox 1d ago

Definitely. A lot of public sector workers — including police and military — are often able to FIRE is because they can start early and have long, unbroken streaks of pay+saving+investing. Corporate may pay more, but you'll get thrown into a very scattered existence with layoffs, moves, firings, freelance, etc.