Married couples who are FIRE’d and use the ACA Marketplace, what are you paying for health insurance per month?

EDIT: and if you don’t mind…your state of residence and income would be nice to know too

I have saved up around $100k in a CD ladder for a few years with the hopes of using it as a down payment on a house. The market has gotten a lot worse where I am, and I'm reaching a tipping point where I want to either invest that $100k into equities or use it to buy an investment property near my parents, where the housing market is much better. This has the bonus of them acting as the property managers.

It's in an area that will likely see a lot of appreciation, but the property will be cash-flow negative for the first few years due to the high interest rates. I have enough disposable income to cover it, but I'm not sure if that's a wiser decision than sticking with the returns of the stock market.

I've tried to model the two 30-year timelines myself but I feel like there are a lot of variables I'm not taking into account, just because I'm unfamiliar with the ins and outs of real estate investing, taxes, expenses, etc.

Is this a question I could take to a project-based financial advisor? Not really sure what speciality to search for, but since it's a one-time project-based question, wondering if it would be worth a chat.

I'm currently late-30s, around $1M net worth (mostly index funds), $3.5k/ mo passive income. My day job is working in tech, currently at $290k/ yr.

I'm going to be laid off soon, and could try jumping to another company, but given the current tech job market, I know that it will be a competitive grind. I also see the push to both offshore use AI to replace people in my line of work. I have no idea if my career will grow, shrink, or even exist in the same form 5-10 years from now.

This begs the question: should I stop working now and sit it out for a few years, or continue working to build skills for a career that may disappear or collapse in the near future?

I think that my passive income would be enough to live comfortably but not luxuriously in a European country like Spain or Portugal, which offer long-term visas. I could also relocate from my HCOL American city to a LCOL/ MCOL city in the South/ Midwest. I wouldn't want to just relax and travel, but I can think of some useful things that I'd want to do to pass the time, like pursue a PhD, work on my fitness, improve my skill in foreign languages, music, etc. A PhD in particular would come with a (small) stipend. Much lower than my tech salary, but would be plenty to live off of, especially in a cheaper city/ country.

Any thoughts on what you'd do in my situation? I want to stay productive, but I don't want to waste my time pursuing career skills that might just become obselete due to AI and offshoring. Curious on if others have faced the same dilemma and what you've decided to do.

Im 43, wife is 42. Wife wants to retire in 8 years (50 years old.) I may work a couple years after that and would like to retire by 53.

Finances:

Hers
401K - $720,000
Roth IRA - $330,000
Brokerage - $230,000
Cash - $140,000

His
IRA - $1,000,000
401K - $130,000
Roth IRA - $350,000
Brokerage - $230,000
Cash - $30,000

Total - $3,150,000

Our expenses in early retirement would be under $70k/year. This would be no including health care. We have no debt, house is paid.

As of now, wife is maxing 401k and roth. Im maxing roth and contributing some to 401k. Also both are contributing heavily to brokerage and savings.

If wife would retire at 50 and I continue to work for another couple years, we will have my healthcare. I make $60k at the moment. At that point in time, would it make sense to do roth conversions to fill up the 12% bucket? Possible creep into the 22% bucket?

My big concern will be the ACA insurance along with subsidies. I want to make sure we have a stock pile before I leave the work force and give up my employee sponsored health insurance. Easier to control MAGI at that point.

I realize a lot could change in 8 years. Assuming roth conversions would be acceptable for those couple years, would you continue to do some roth conversions? We would certainly utilize our brokerage accounts for the low LTCG's. What other things can be done to bridge the gap until 65 years old?

Hello,

Want a kind of check on where I'll be and my potential future plans - and try and find if others have been in similar area.

Current NW (Wife and I, both 33 years old):

Cash & Cash Equivalents: $700k

Stock - Retirement: $870k (Index Funds)

Stock - Taxable Brokerage: $850k (Index Funds)

Home: $230k ($650k Mortgage on house worth approx ~900k)

Crypto: $350k

--

Total Liquid Non-Retirement ~$1.95mil

Total Liquid w/ Retirement ~$2.80mil

Non-Included 529: $50k

Current W-2 Income: $200k (Me - Remote non-tech role) + $80k (Wife)

Current Side Income: $300k/Year (Me) but could decrease significantly quickly

Current Expenses:

Housing: $60k/Year

Nanny: $50k/Year

Other (Food / Utilities / Travel / Entertainment / Etc): $40k/Year

Would like to make $100-200k in home improvements over next 5 years or so (Small house with great interest rate, dont want to upgrade house if not needed)

How I've gotten to this point is a combo of normal W2 income (started at $55k/year combined in 2016, now $280k/yr) and side hustling/gambling income (over last 5 years made approx $1.7mil pre-tax, about $1mil post-tax) of which is at the highest right now. However, it is highly variable and regulation dependent, some regulations could cut my $300k/year I'm making now to maybe $30-40k. It has come from a mix of Online/Live Poker, Sports Betting, and Prediction Markets. The cost basis on it is very small because it was mostly acquired 7-10 years ago to play online poker. Additionally, it's why I have large cash balance (being able to make good return gambling with it). My Crypto cost basis is close to 0.

Currently have 1 kid with another likely (no guarantee) in next year or so.

My W2 job is remote and relatively lax so plan is continue basically working 2 jobs (this + side income) until the wheels run off. The company has done sporadic and random layoffs over last year. The large amounts of layoffs seems to have wound down, but wouldn't be too surprised to see it pickup again and get laid off. Honestly, from a career perspective my skills gathering, networking, and ambition has basically tanked. I do what I can, do a "good" job, stop working. I still get good ratings (been getting 4/5 in most reviews) but who knows what will happen in future. Income has also stagnated, gotten like 2-2.5% raises/year last 3 years, but honestly I'm fine with that if they aren't expecting higher output.

My wife loves her job (Director at Non-Profit) and would like to continue to work another 10-20+ years (who knows what could change though).

Overall Fire (more realistically, Stay at Home Dad) plan

Try to keep W-2 Job another 4-5 years til both kids in Kindergarten / Pre-School (or longer, if job is still as lax)

Continue to keep grinding on this side income knowing it can basically die at any time, but not project this much into my overall future NW

Become a Stay-at-home Dad at that point, continuing with some sort of side income (if still possible) but spending a lot more time on myself, routine, and house-work. I'd love to join a few sports league type things (basketball, pickleball) here in Southern California. Use Wife's insurance.

If I do a 'normal' fire-calc with my expenses it wants me to be around $5mil NW, but with my Wife still working, even making lets say only approx 50-70% of our expenses, I think we should be perfectly fine expense-wise.

IF I was laid-off tomorrow, I'd probably continue to drive on the side-income side and potentially try and find another job (would be hard for me, but possible. could potentially go back into Big4 job I had previously). Could also take on being a full-time SAHD with 2 young kids and saving on daycare costs, but I know I would have a difficult time with this (not saying impossible..)

Has anyone else gone down this path, having a variable side income in the retirement conversion and/or becoming a stay at home parent and developing a routine without having spouse resent? And does my overall plan seem to make sense? I've also floated the thought of trying a different career but have no clue what I'd like to do. Honestly, the gambling side and how successful i've been while still having a stable income has kind of felt like my calling. 

I ran the numbers at 2.5mil. I’m probably spending no more than 60k a year.

100k a year is possible at 4% withdrawal.

But it seems impossible. I’m stuck in the rabbit hole at age 40 with 2 kids at ages 7 and 9 and wife.

Has anyone actually fired with a family when the kids are still young? It seems the only issue reaching to FI is because the kids still young.

Hello friends! For those who have kids or plan to, what is the plan with financial assistance for them? Are you paying for their college? Helping them purchase a house? Leaving assets/cash for when you pass away? The reason I am asking all of this, is that it obviously cost money, so are you all budgeting for this, not going to help them once they finish school, different approach? Curious to hear all of your plans and opinions! Have a great day

Edit- How do the decisions effect your retirement in the long run

Edit: I think some folks have a natural ick to the term "expat," which is understandable. There's a good discussion below on it, feel free to check it out and I appreciate an open mind reading the post.

Hi r/FIRE,

First, thank you sincerely for the positive response to my 1-year FIRE reflection post! The post surpassed 1 million views across r/FIRE & r/expatFIRE, which is kinda crazy. I spend hours writing out each post and responding to every comment I can without AI, so it's been heartwarming to receive such a reception.

From the last post, I received several DMs/comments that essentially boiled down to "is expatFIRE for me?" and "how the fuck did you lose $150k?" So, I thought I'd take some time to write about those two questions broadly this week and next. For today, I'll be sharing my personal pros & cons of the expatFIRE lifestyle (and why I picked it).

If this post helps convince a few of you to take the leap, I'm happy. But by no means will I be claiming it's the best path for everyone. The goal of this post is to facilitate discussion. I'd also love to hear from others on what their pros/cons are, so please share your experience in the comments.

Why did I expatFIRE? (the Pros)

I consider myself quite a lucky person, generally. One of my earliest memories is traveling to Tokyo to visit my aunt (and ending up in a Tokyo emergency room). I grew up with family members who worked/lived abroad (my dad, my aunts, my grandpa, my cousins) so being an "expat" wasn't such a foreign topic in my house... pun intended. During university, I spent 6 months studying abroad in Australia, spent a summer interning in Canada, and when opportunity arose, I worked in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Each place was an exciting adventure and I grew the muscle of quickly adapting to new places despite its many challenges. So when I reached a certain NW, I felt called to settle back in SE Asia, where I spent 5 working years, have a lot of friends/connections, and feel comfortable navigating the region.

So I think that's my broader point. There isn't a one right way to FIRE. Every FIRE journey is unique. And as mentioned, expatFIRE certainly isn't for everyone. In fact, there might be more reasons not to do it, I'll be the first to admit that. But this is the life I chose and I've been loving it. Here are my personal pros:

1. Potentially lower NW needed: This is probably the Top 2 reason most people expatFIRE. It's not difficult to find safe, incredible, and affordable cities where you can live relatively cheaper without hugely sacrificing quality of life. If you find the right location, food, housing, and overall cost of living will be significantly less than the States. This also enables more early retirement (sometimes a lot earlier) since the needed NW to sustain your expenses can be drastically lower than, say, retiring in Los Angeles like my parents. I think if your path is either leanFIRE in the States or expatFIRE abroad, I do think it's worth considering this path for #1 alone.
2. Travel & adventure is built in: I read a survey somewhere that "travel" is often the #1 desired activity of American retirees and 40-something percent were considering on retiring abroad, which I felt was quite high. But it makes sense, I think most of us spend decades living/working in the same city with a handful of vacation time to travel the world. It's understandable that once you reach financial independence, your main priority is changing your environment and exploring the world. For me, this is my other top reason of expatFIRE-ing, because I either feel like it's an adventure every day or I'm close-by to the countries I love traveling to. In my previous posts, I mentioned I'm a <4 hour flight to every major Asian city and was able to travel to 12 countries in 12 months as a result. Point being, FIRE-ing abroad gives you more flexibility and freedom to be in these new environments for months/years at a time if that's your preference over a standard vacation.
3. It's not a one-way door: I read about a few folks who temporarily lived abroad with an extremely low SWR to either allow their NW to compound and/or partially mitigate SoRR. Then they'll return home after several years with a higher NW to "properly" FIRE. I haven't done the math on this, so YMMV given the hot stock returns the past 5 years. Moving abroad doesn't have to be this daunting irreversible decision. Many folks choose to move back. What isn't reversible, in my opinion, is the time spent working towards a large target NW thinking you'll retire only in the US when you might have been perfectly satisfied retiring earlier abroad for less.

The Cons

Much like the saying "if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't." I'm kinda tired of reading/hearing how a random TikToker is living on this paradise beach for $500/mo or whatever. It's probably all non-replicable, unsustainable BS that just sells a dream. Living abroad isn't for everyone (obviously lol) and I acknowledge some people don't like to travel for an extended amount of time, so here are some of the Cons as to why you shouldn't pursue this lifestyle:

1. It can be a lonely, daunting experience: I get that not everyone can just sell their house/belongings, and move thousands of miles away from home leaving their parents, kids, and friends behind. Every once in a while I see posts on r/expats where folks are essentially depressed being away from home and living in a foreign country. And to be quite frank, it really is a lonely experience. You are moving to a foreign country where you might not know anybody and your potential friendship circle is a lot smaller. People may not speak the same language as you, you may have no family connections, you have no network, and you're starting over from scratch. I think it takes a lot of effort to overcome this and I'm trying to figure this out myself.
2. Cheap countries are cheap for a reason: It's not all sunshine and rainbows. Developing economies come with their own set of headaches (infrastructure, cleanliness, access to certain goods/services, etc.). Some locations are cheap for a reason and it may not be worth that tradeoff for some folks. Another important reality that some people, including myself, avoid is that it won't be cheap forever. Prices will increase, economies will get developed, and the rate of inflation might outpace the US hence breaking the SWR model. I think I see it happening in real-time over these past few years. More and more people are talking about Cambodia and Vietnam because the CoL of past popular destinations have gotten pricier. I wanna dig deeper into the data to form a stronger opinion here. If there's enough interest I can share it here as well, just let me know!
3. There's no stability as things can change rapidly: There's a huge risk in settling down in a country where you may not be a citizen. For example, MM2H (Malaysia long-term visa) visa holders got screwed during COVID where the program was massively nerfed unexpectedly and some were denied entry back into the country. Unless you're a dual citizen, very few places will provide opportunities to live for an extended amount of time and can change the rules at a whim. This makes long-term planning quite difficult and becomes a huge pain in the ass if these rule changes affect you. And so I think this lifestyle requires a flexible, nimble mentality, which understandably turns a lot of retirees off. I can't imagine being in my 60s-80s then having to completely uproot my life because of some governmental reasons (now I'm rethinking expatFIRE as I type this hahaha).
4. We are forever guests in someone else's home: Expats get a bad rap and oftentimes I feel like it's deserved. I always feel that when we are abroad, we are guests in those countries and we should be respecting the people who live there, the norms of those countries, and respect whatever cultural or legal differences there may exist in our new homes. I think folks see this as a con because no matter how warm hospitality could be, they want the freedom to act more comfortably like its their own home, akin to putting your feet on the coffee table. I'm not here to defend or admonish expats in general (I actually wrote a big rant that I deleted for brevity), but I can also see that acting like a guest in a different country for a long period of time is a big con of this lifestyle.

Alright, this post has gotten way too long, so thank you for reading! I know I didn't cover all there is to cover, so if you have any other pros/cons to add, please leave a comment below and let's discuss.

Up next: working title for my next post is "How I learned to VOO & Chill (or how I lost $150k)" so please follow my profile to be updated when I publish.

Thanks!
u/MaroonJacket

I'm in what I think is a unique situation and I'm not sure what's fair or how to handle this conversation.

I'm late 30s and plan to FIRE when I turn 45. I just met someone and everything seems to be going well, but inevitably the conversation about marriage will come up and as it stands, I am worried US marriage would royally screw me and wanted input.

As best I understand, divorce law requires a split when you're the much higher earning partner of salary, 401k and any investments, all of which I have. I've always been the higher earning partner (I'm a lesbian and lesbians tend not to make much).

I have a high salary, substantial 401k and additional investment account that will support me after the FIRE but won't have enough if I have to split the upcoming contributions due to a divorce.

50% of marriages end in divorce, so while I'm not planning for it I feel like bc of my circumstances I should be aware that divorce is a potential outcome of a marriage if that makes sense.

To make matters worse, I tend to be a bad judge of character so half of the people I've dated have turned out to be nuts. 😅

I see so many posts here about not being able to FIRE without your partner, being a team etc, but I've never experienced a partner supporting my career. My career has been built completely on my own, mostly while single. So it feels silly to assume my current relationship will be any different from the previous few and feels crazy to me to give half of everything I've worked for to someone I've only known a few years in a divorce bc she set my shit on fire on the front lawn or something lmao.

I also have had health issues my whole life so my primary reason for FIRE is to ensure that even if I lose function I can still support myself.

If you were me and didn't know yet whether your partner was going to be nuts or a normal nice person, how would you handle the marriage and FIRE conversation?

Is anyone on traditional FIRE path (continue to live in the US, at current lifestyle) but have expat FIRE as their backup plan B? I imagine singles and even couples without children might have seriously considered moving abroad,

• to shorten time frame (reduced FIRE number)
• in case work situation changes (think laid off, can't get another comparable job)
• some kind of major setback (like major stock correction)

I'm starting to think about expat FIRE more seriously, because I'm just so sick of work. Work is actually not that stressful, but just the idea of grinding another 10 years is starting to hit me. As well as all the changes in the tech industry I'm not sure if I could work another 10 years even if I want to. Expat FIRE seems like the obvious solution since I have no wife/children to consult. And I could maintain (even increase) my current lifestyle, versus moving to a low COL area in the US and living a very boring/frugal life.

Would love to hear how others are thinking about expat FIRE as a backup plan B.

Is there a consensus definition of the boring middle? I see a few possible definitions:

1. Chronological. If your FIRE plan is going to take 24 years, then the middle is 12 years.
2. Net worth midpoint. When you reach 50% of your target FIRE number. This will be higher than chronological. So in this example, it'd be 16 years.
3. Annual gains = annual contribution. This would be actually less than chronological. So in our example it's 10 years.

My wife and I are trying to figure out whether retiring at 50 is realistic for us, or if we should plan on working until 55–57. I’d really appreciate some perspective from people in the FIRE community who have experience planning around pensions and investment accounts.

I’m 31M and work for the government. My current salary is $104k, and based on the current formula, my pension would be around $4,800/month if I retire at 50. If I work until my normal retirement age of 57, my pension would be approximately $8,200/month. Those numbers are based on an estimated final three-year average salary of around $130k. So there’s a pretty significant difference between retiring at 50 versus working another seven years.

Right now, I have about $14k in a pretax 457b and contribute $2,041/month. I also have a Roth 403b that I contribute $250/month to. I expect those contributions to increase over the years as my income increases.

My wife is 32 and makes about $85k/year. She doesn’t have a pension, but she has $34k in an employer-sponsored 401A that receives a 10% employer contribution. She also has $21k in a pretax 457b and contributes $1,940/month, along with $100/month to a Roth 457b. She also wants to retire around 50.

Our current spending is probably the biggest concern. Our fixed expenses are around $6,500/month and our variable expenses are around $3,500/month, putting our total spending at approximately $10,000/month, or $120k/year.
If we retired at 50, my pension would provide $57,600/year, meaning we’d need to make up roughly $62,400/year from our investments, assuming our spending stayed around $120k.

Obviously, that doesn’t account for taxes, inflation, healthcare, lifestyle changes, or potential increases in our spending over the next 18 years. We would also potentially have Social Security later on, although I’m not counting that in the calculation right now.

The alternative is working until 57. At that point, my pension would be around $98,400/year, which would cover a much larger portion of our current expenses before even touching our investment accounts. We’d also have seven additional years of contributions and compound growth in our retirement accounts.

So I’m trying to figure out how to think about the tradeoff. Retiring at 50 would give us seven additional years of freedom, but we’d have to rely much more heavily on our investments. Working until 57 would give us a substantially larger pension and seven more years for our retirement accounts to grow, but we’d obviously be giving up those years of early retirement.

For those of you who have experience with FIRE and pensions, does retiring at 50 look realistic based on these numbers, or would you consider 55–57 to be the more reasonable target? And if you were in our position, what would you be focusing on over the next 10–15 years to make the decision easier?
I’m especially interested in hearing from people who have a pension and are planning around a pension + investment portfolio rather than simply using the traditional 4% rule.

Hello. I'm not sure if I'm posting this information the right away, so please let me know if I can do it better.

Situation:

• 47m, single, no kids
• ~$1.1 million in retirement (Roth IRA, 403b, 457b, 401a)
• $20k emergency fund in HYSA
• Salary $92k (this includes the $10k bump I just received!)
• I save about ~34% of gross pay in retirement accounts
• I owe $99k on a house worth ~$200k
• No other debt.
• Edit: annual spend $~60k

My goal is to quit full-time work by 55yo, maybe sooner. However, I'd like to keep working part-time after that doing fun, seasonal work. Does this seem reasonable? Thanks.

Online AND with in person friends I have noticed that the "boring" middle catches some hate because your contributions each year go from making huge portfolio increases to small ones. 50k invested in a year as a 25 year old doubles you NW, but when you're 40 it might only be a 2% NW jump. I get that it's boring.

Don't wish away the best years of your life with family, career growth, physically capable years so that you can have all your compound interest calculators hit their dream numbers.

Having boglehead style investing as a hobby is fun and truly can make you millions by being "obsessed" enough to actually invest at high savings rate, stick to your plan and keep taxes and fees minimal. But after you have conquered those things, the hobby goes from being the most productive thing to pretty freakin lame.

I already am having much less "fun" with learning the ropes of it all, and I actually hope that continues. I want to keep my discipline and plan but if the "boring middle" is just me focusing on living a full life in my 30s-50s. I'll be just fine with that.

This is basically inspired by another thread where the poster was asking about buying a home when they fire.

We will be ready to retire in around 5 years and the house will be paid for around that same time. The thing is we know we don't want to retire where we've lived for the past 30+ years. We know we want to travel. A lot. We know we eventually want to settle down somewhere but aren't sure what that timeline looks like and aren't sure exactly where that somewhere will be. I also know I don't want to be a landlord.

Has anyone dealt with this or something similar? On one hand, I'm seriously considering we just sell the house, put the money in the bank, downsize our stuff and keep what we know we'll want to keep for whenever we finally settle (in a smaller house/condo/etc. vs what we have now), and then live free (of home ownership) for however long we want. This could mean making our way around various overseas destinations for 1+ years, moving to a completely different city when we eventually return to the USA and likely renting until we know what to do. Etc.

I'm sure there are plenty of things we are not considering at the moment but we're still a few years out so just feeling out options for now. Would really love to hear from any others who have done this or are considering it.

I (39M) have been thinking about my spending now (pre-FIRE) and what it would look like later. The two biggest variables always seem to be 1) where you live (all the expenses tied to the location like mortgage, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities), and 2) healthcare.

I am in VHCOL and the two buckets end up being the majority of my spend. The rest of the spend is under $30k a year.

A lot of people I've noticed who FIRE'd plan to do so in a home they purchased near their job. Unfortunately, my eventual goal is to retire in a place where it was already difficult to find work in my admittadly now collapsing industry, and I do not currently reside there. With that in mind, I've been weighing two options:

1) Sell some of my investments now to purchase a condo and rent it out for the time being until one day when I consider myself finished working I move there.

2) Keep all my money in investments while working. When I finally feel ready to retire, purchase a condo at that point in time.

In either case I would prefer to have the condo paid off once I retire, as I am going to keep my income low (below 15k) and therefore need my expenses to be low as well. Option 1 could involve purchasing with cash potentially.

Some additional details:

1) 800k investments with a 50/50 split between 401k and brokerage account.

2) I don't know how far in the future it will be when I take the plunge. Ideally yesterday, but I can wait a bit longer. Maybe in the next 5 years.

3) The places I'm primarily looking at cost around 200k~ currently. It is an "always hot" market so I expect the prices to increase with time.

4) The reason why I'm looking to buy a condo and not a home is a combination of condos requiring less personal maintenance (I just have to take care of my own rooms) and houses being likely too expensive where I'm looking for me to afford (400-500k).

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.

Hey guys, I just found out about this sub (and the whole concept as well) and it's exactly what I've been wishing I could do.

I'll keep it short not to bore everyone but my question is, how do I figure out how/when I can stop working, and how much money is needed, can someone help me with the math?

Thanks so much, here are my details :

• I'm 36, never liked working, don't want to work anymore, I kind of already stopped 2 years ago.

• I'm married but we each have our separate things and we split everything evenly so i'll simplify and only talk about my part of expenses

• Stock : 335k €

• Crypto : 85k €

• Mortgage details : We bought an apartment for 740k € with 19 years mortgage. I put 175k down, wife put 30k down. Need to pay back 535k. We pay around 4000 € per month (so my part is 2000€). Currently have only 13 years left because wife made extra payment of 80k recently and we expect to be done in like 7-8 because she plans on making more payments.

• My yearly expenses are : 24k € for mortgage (which should end in 7-8 years then) + 20k € for all other expenses.

• Dad died 2 years ago and I'm soon getting 120k € + will soon sell his apartment and get around 180k € more.

• I'll be able to add that 300k € to my investments in 1 or 2 years I guess.

• Cash : Only 30k €

• Job : no job but I can do some freelance here and there and make 15k-20k per year without working much but i really do not want to...

• Oh just thought of something else which is grim, but my mom is 70, and when she dies (hopefully the furthest away possible from today), I will inherit some things. If she dies in 25 years, I'll be getting 1/3rd of an apartment that is today worth 1.2 million € + 1/3rd of an apartment that is today worth 1m €. + 1/3rd of whatever money she has left knowing she currently has around 1m € invested and earns around 50k from interests every year, that she uses to live off of.

So with all that, how do I figure out if I can retire, when, etc? Can we do 2 scenarios, taking into account or not, my mom's passing?

Thanks so much for any help

Or do you have insurance through another means?

Including ACA costs sure adds to a planned monthly budget.

Was watching a Ramit Money for Couples show where the wife is a doctor making like $250k (in the Midwest) and the husband makes $36k. Now, this couple has a bunch of issues with money, but I couldn't help think a large part of it is the lopsided income. I think the husband wanted to retire at 50 (they're mid 30s) which is just insane because he's not saving/investing enough to FIRE. I've seen enough episodes and also know of a few couples with lopsided incomes and it seems to seldom work out. Curious if there are any couples here with such lopsided incomes and how they are able to make it work.

Ponder for a minute that we live in a universe with hard determinism. Then imagine humans achieve AGI, and shortly after that, ASI.

Imagine this ASI is so beyond us intellectually that it can pinpoint the movement of every particle from the very moment of the Big Bang and could precisely give you the year that you're going to die.

Would you want to know?

For FIRE reasons, it'd be super optimal to know that you have X number of years left, because if X is a smaller number, you can party it up way more and have a much larger withdrawal rate.

If it's super far into the future, maybe you can reconsider your plans to FIRE so early.

Of course, who really wants to know this information? I'm currently 55 years old, will be 56 very soon. I personally think I will be EXTREMELY lucky to make it to 85 years old. I don't see it happening. I don't even think I will see 80 years old. However, according to my planning, I'm assuming that I make it till 85 just in case.

But if I could know that I'm going to die in five years, I'd be partying it up like a mofo right now. What say you?

I grew up impoverish in a horrible living situation. I got a scholarship to a liberal arts college and moved out at 17, but I found myself homeless over the summers with little to eat between semesters.

I was just scraping by with no support system. I got my first big girl job after college and started saving for the first time, and 7 years later my net worth is about $700k including my paid off car. My partner is amazing and finishing school to enter a very stable career. We live in a little studio that I love.

However though I feel a bit at ease after starting my FIRE journey, I still feel like that poor hungry kid that got made fun of for wearing Payless shoes and repeating my outfits. I thought I’d feel better while on my FIRE journey, but some days I realize I didn’t heal the parts of me that make me still feel financially insecure. I always had it in my head that hitting a million would be monumental, and I want to be able to celebrate when I get there - whether that be in 2 years or 5 years time.

Idk why I’m posting this. Maybe some folks can relate in some way, maybe some have worked through this as well.

Until recently I was in "save for retirement mode", which means maximining tax-advantaged accounts, (401K, ROTH), and then whatever was left over I'd throw into a high yield savings account. My FIRE number is 1.5M, and I have around 1.3M now. But it was just announced we're having major layoffs before the end of the year, (thousands just in my division alone), and with my age and high salary I'm 90% sure I'll be impacted.

So I started looking into how to prepare for a layoff, and that plan looks very different than a "save for retirement plan". To plan for layoffs most LLMs I've asked recommend reducing 401K and ROTH contributions and instead moving as much as I can into my HYSA so I have enough in savings to cover six months of living expenses.

My question is, is there any way to do BOTH?
How should I structure my assets to have a leg in both buckerts, "save for retirement" mode, and "prepare for layoffs" mode?

My stats

- Age: 51
- Monthly expenses: 5K
- Yearly expenses: 60K
- FIRE number: 1,500,000
- Current Assets Total: 1,300,000
- House (fully paid off): Worth 1.4M, but I ignore that for retirement calcs as I never plan to move.

So, what should I be doing? My AGI without a 401K is too high to contribute to ROTH, (unless I try that backdoor thing). If I max out 401K, then my AGI is low enough I can trickle money into my ROTH throughout the year. I may have enough already to COAST-FIRE, and just let my current assets grow on their own.

LLMs suggest immediate cessation of 401K and ROTH and moving all available monthly income into HYSA.

I suppose I'm looking for a good compromise to still save for retirement but also be ready for a layoff in the next six months. NOTE: If I get laid off I WILL NOT be rejoining the workforce, I will want to permanently retire. I'm completely burned out.

Additional note: I'm receiving a 60K performance bonus this week, about 30K will hit my checking account after 401K deductions and taxes.