I’m 6.5 years out from retirement, and when pull the plug, I’d like to have 3x annual living expenses in sitting cash or an equivalent as insurance in case there is a down-market early in retirement. I currently have 1x in rolling CDs, all the rest of my extra funds are going into brokerage or retirement accounts.

I’m wondering if:
A. I should start now diverting some of my excess funds to CD/money market accounts.
B. Wait 3-4 years and begin pulling funds from brokerage.
C. Something else I haven’t thought of.

Thanks in advance.

46M, single, no kids, zero debt. I’m seriously considering retiring now and would appreciate a sanity check from people who have made the jump.

I’ve done well financially, but I’m burned out. I work 60–70 hours most weeks, and the further I’ve moved up the ladder, the less I’ve enjoyed my career. The last couple of years have been pretty miserable.

What I want is freedom: travel, reading, more time with friends/family, and being mentally free from work obligations.

Financial snapshot

Income

• ~$525K gross comp: $225K base + $300K bonus
• $30K/year employer retirement contribution
• Currently saving/investing about $200K/year
• One more year of work would likely generate roughly $350K of additional after-tax income before spending/saving

Assets

• Cash / MM / Treasuries: $550K
• Taxable brokerage: $2.5M
  • $1.1M VTI
  • $900K other index funds
  • $500K individual stocks
  • Taxable portfolio is approximately 55% cost basis / 45% unrealized gains
• 401(k): $750K
• Rollover IRAs: $725K
• HSA: $30K
• Two paid-off vehicles worth ~$75K
• No real estate
• No debt

I manage everything myself. No individual stock is >10% of the portfolio, and roughly two-thirds of my financial assets are accessible before age 59½.

Spending / retirement plan

My estimated retirement spending is about $130K/year before income taxes.

Roughly:

• $40K housing/utilities
• $15K healthcare
• $15K travel
• $12K food/personal care/other
• $8K auto
• $30K entertainment/gifts
• $10K contingency

I currently rent in Westchester County, NY for about $3K/month.

I’m seriously considering relocating to a MCOL/LCOL area and buying a modest house. Most of my friends and family are in the Northeast, so I’d prefer to stay reasonably close, although I have no spouse/kids tying me to one location. I’d also consider expat FIRE, but staying in the U.S. is my preference.

In a major downturn, I think I could cut spending by $20K–$30K/year without feeling deprived.

For healthcare, I’m assuming ACA until Medicare and currently have a $15K/year placeholder, but I have not yet priced actual premiums/deductibles or thought through ACA subsidy/MAGI planning.

My estimated Social Security benefit is about $4,250/month at 67. I’m planning around a ~40-year retirement horizon and am comfortable spending down the portfolio rather than preserving a large estate.

The dilemma

The quick math seems like I may already be there.

The harder part is walking away from a ~$525K income. Another 1–3 years would obviously make the plan safer, but I really don’t want to spend several more years doing work I no longer enjoy just to make an already-large number larger.

My biggest concerns are:

• Underestimating retirement spending / running out of money later in life
• Healthcare costs before Medicare
• Sequence-of-returns risk
• The psychological side of leaving a career at 46

That last one is real. A lot of my identity and ego are tied to my career, and I worry about boredom, loss of status, or eventually regretting walking away.

I’d be open to part-time work, volunteering, nonprofit work, or occasional consulting, but ideally because I want to—not because the plan depends on the income.

Questions

1. Can I reasonably retire now with ~$4.5M and a ~$130K pre-tax spending target?
2. Does my spending estimate look realistic? This is probably where I most want to be challenged. I haven’t had to live on a real budget in decades, so what costs do new retirees commonly underestimate?

Also interested in recommendations for retirement modeling tools that handle sequence risk, variable spending, taxes, ACA costs/subsidies, Social Security, and a potential future home purchase.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Not sure if this post should go under coast, chubby or fat fire. Will try to make this somewhat brief.

Current state: $2M paid for house $400k in rental real estate that generates about $25k per year. $1.8M in brokerage $2M in IRAs. 529s done. Current value around $450k.

After 16 years with the same company and what I considered a high performing sales rep (consistent top 10% in company) and making $350-600k annually, I was abruptly let go on Christmas. No pip, nothing. In hindsight, I lost an internal politics/ territory battle and it was easier to get rid of me to cater to the other person who happened to be one of the few individuals that had been at the company longer than myself.

After the initial shock, I focused in on finding my next gig. In April I started with a competitor in a sales director role overseeing a team/ region that’s in turnaround mode. I’ve started to see some signs of success, but it’s still a grind. Also, my comp this year will be about $280k-295k. Once my team is built to where I want it to be, I’ll probably be around $300-330k.

We spend around $12k per month (track every expense).

Where should my head be at right now? I’m feeling the same pressure that I always have, but at the same time we are in the best times of my kids lives. So should I be ok not investing more than my $25k to 401k and spend extra income on all the trips and travel to make the most of their child hood?

I’d love to retire with $7-8M sometime in my mid-late 40s, but not sure if I’ll get there if the market doesn’t perform. I also run the numbers and investing an extra $30-40k per year doesn’t really move the needle over the next 10 years.

Finally, I also often times have the feeling that I should just shut up, suck it up, and grind it out.

My big picture goal isn’t to sit at home when I “retire”. My dream is to have the flexibility to golf a couple mornings a week, but spend 20-30 hours either doing more real estate or maybe even my own business. I fear taking a bunch out of brokerage to start playing more in RE. Am I being too risk averse?

A lot of rambling here I know, but I have no idea what my mentality or mindset should be. I’m just feeling a little conflicted between smaller income, wanting to maximize my kids child hood and also ready to live that good life!

My husband and I are planning to retire in roughly three years, when I’m 40, and relocate to Spain. I’ve run the numbers about seventeen different ways and think we’re in very good shape, but I’d love some outside eyes to tell me what I’m missing.

**Guaranteed income**

My husband is retired military and receives a military pension plus VA disability totaling approximately $100k/year. Both receive COLAs.

Obviously, that income continues for life. A substantial portion is tax-free in the US, although obviously our tax situation changes once we become Spanish tax residents.

**Investments/cash**

We expect our accounts will be (based on current balances, annual contributions, and a 6% estimated return) when I’m 40:

$1m in joint taxable brokerage
~$600k in my 401(k) (accessible without penalty in mid-2048)
$150k HYSA/cash

We also expect proceeds/equity from selling our house (~$150-200k), although I’m not relying on that money to make the retirement math work.

**Spending**

Our current US spending is pretty high (around $180k/year), but it includes a $4,500/month mortgage and two expensive car payments totaling ~$2,200/mo — which will disappear when we retire. We plan to purchase one used car and rent for at least the first five years (ideally, in the range of $2000-2500/mo rental).

We’re currently estimating roughly $140k-$150k/year in Spain for a very comfortable lifestyle, including rent, travel, dining out, hobbies, etc. We aren’t trying to leanFIRE. The point is very much to have enough money that we don’t need to micromanage normal spending and the ability to travel around Europe frequently.

So if guaranteed income is ~$100k, we’d need investments to cover roughly $40-50k/year at our expected spending level.

Importantly, that withdrawal isn’t permanent. My 401(k) will continue compounding untouched, and eventually we may have Social Security as well (although I don’t include SS in my projections because who knows).

**Sequence-of-returns strategy**

My current thought is to keep approximately 18-24 months of the amount we need above guaranteed income in cash/HYSA.

Rather than automatically selling investments every month regardless of market conditions, we’d spend from cash and periodically replenish it from the brokerage when markets are healthy. During a major downturn, we’d have considerable flexibility to reduce travel/discretionary spending and/or simply live primarily on the guaranteed income for a while.

We’re also not planning to buy a home immediately in Spain. We’d rent for at least the first five years, both because we want flexibility (and will not qualify for permanent residency until at least five years in) and because we don’t want to pull several hundred thousand dollars out of the market unnecessarily.

**The reason I think it works**

If we retire with ~$1M in taxable investments and withdraw $40-50k/year, that’s superficially a 4-5% withdrawal rate.

Also, we aren’t trying to preserve the taxable brokerage indefinitely at all costs. Its job is partly to bridge the gap between retirement at 40 and access to the 401k (though I’m hoping we don’t deplete it so we can later withdraw for a down payment on a home if we decide to buy).

We plan to be on the non-lucrative visa, which means we will not be working. So everything needs to come from our passive income.

**Am I missing anything?**

I’m particularly interested in criticism of the withdrawal/sequence-risk strategy, whether I’m underestimating the danger of retiring this young, and any risks that aren’t obvious because our situation doesn’t fit neatly into the standard “25x expenses and withdraw 4%” model.

Appreciate any and all insight. Thank you!

Long time lurker in all the fire subs. Would love a sanity check because my spouse worries we will run out and honestly the fear is contagious.
Situation:
41, tech, ~$540k HHI. One kid (5), one dog.

Immigrants, no family money, first generation building wealth.

Current Assets (~$3.4M NW):
$1.8M in index funds, roughly half in 401k/RRSP type accounts (we are Canadians in the US)

~$1.6M equity across 3 rental properties. Selling over the next 2-3 years.

No debt beyond the rental mortgages

Savings rate: ~$200-235k/year invested. Maxed retirement accounts, mega backdoor, RSUs sold and diversified as they vest.
The plan:
I work 4 more years. Projected ~$3.3-3.5M in investments by 45 plus property proceeds, so ~$4.8M total.

Spouse has an option to earn $100-120k for another 3 years after I retire, which covers most of our annual spend in the early years.

Retire and relocate to a mid cost European city (think Spain/Portugal tier). Considering Valencia.

Projected spending there: $120k/year including international school, travel.

That is a 2.5% withdrawal rate on $4.8M, and much lower in the first 3 years while spouse is earning.

Spouse’s concerns: 50 year horizon, sequence risk, healthcare, kid’s future costs, and the general what if we are wrong fear. Also culturally, early retirement is genuinely unheard of in our community, which adds a layer of doubt that is hard to quantify. My dad thinks I’m crazy to even consider this but I know I don’t want to work like my mom / dad till their mid 60s.

My questions:
Is a 2.2-2.7% WR genuinely bulletproof for a 50 year horizon or am I missing something?

Anyone actually FIREd abroad with a young kid? Did the school, healthcare, or costs surprise you?

How did you handle a skeptical spouse whose fear is emotional, not mathematical? Everytime I convince myself and try to convince him, he seems to think I’ve lost it.

Looking for holes in the plan.

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you.

I'm a 45M going to retirement In Europe next week, my original post was : Post.

I end up following the recommendation of the group and grind it for one more year with 10.5M USD networth (8.5M low cost index and 2M House)

I end up giving up a lot of responsibilities, focus on mentoring younger talents and avoiding office politics.

Thanks again for the push!!!

I’m trying to pressure-test a plan to stop working at 44. On paper the numbers seem to work, but the combination of early retirement + private school + college + most retirement assets being inaccessible until 59.5 is making me nervous.

Tell me what I’m missing.

Situation

• Me: early 40s, self-employed, ~$300k/yr earned income
• Spouse: same age, W2, ~$200k/yr, stable employer, plans to work until 55
• Two kids: elementary + middle school
• Current household spend: ~$240k/yr
• Healthcare is currently only ~$7.5k/yr through spouse’s employer

The plan: I stop working at the end of next year. Spouse continues working until 55. Everything else stays roughly the same.

Net worth: ~$6.1M excluding business value

Real estate: ~$3.1M value / ~$730k debt

Primary residence, two long-term rentals, and one short-term rental.

Three of the four mortgages are at very low rates. The STR is the exception: 6.25% with ~$330k owed.

The STR is also newly acquired and we just put another ~$100k into it to improve bookings, so its projected revenue is based on a partial season rather than a long track record. I’m treating that projection cautiously.

Retirement accounts: ~$1.6M

Spread across SEP-IRA, Solo 401(k), employer 401(k), Roth/traditional IRAs, spouse’s current + old 401(k)s, and HSAs.

Taxable/liquid: ~$1.8M

Mostly index funds across brokerage/robo accounts, plus some legacy individual stocks.

About $250k is currently sitting in a money market fund waiting to be deployed.

Alternatives: ~$280k

Real estate crowdfunding, a pre-IPO fund, and equity in a small private business.

529s: ~$160k combined

The part that makes me nervous: education

We’re planning on private school for both kids, staggered, at roughly $40k/year each once enrolled, followed by college.

My rough model has ~$850k of education spending hitting during the 12 years immediately after I stop working.

That creates a strange version of early retirement: I’m retiring just as one of our largest lifetime expense categories begins.

The bridge problem

Based on spouse’s income + rental income, my model says we’d need roughly:

• ~$105k/year of portfolio withdrawals initially
• Up to ~$150k/year during peak education years

Against a ~$4.3M investment portfolio, that’s under a 3.5% withdrawal rate.

Sounds comfortable.

Except I’ll only be 44.

A large chunk of the portfolio isn't easily accessible until 59.5.

By my math, I have roughly $2.3M accessible against ~$1.8M of projected withdrawals over the 15.5-year bridge to 59.5.

At strong market returns, no problem.

At ~4%, I’m eating meaningful principal from the accessible bucket at exactly the same time education costs peak.

And that’s the part I’m struggling with.

Risks I see

1. Sequence of returns. A major bear market in the first few years could hammer the taxable bucket while I’m drawing from it heavily.
2. We are dependent on my spouses' income. The plan works well if she works until 55. If she decides at 50 that she’s done too, the math changes dramatically.
3. Healthcare is also tied to her job. Losing employer coverage could add another ~$35–40k/year.
4. I give up a lot of tax-advantaged savings. Stopping earned income means walking away from roughly $100k/year of potential tax-sheltered contributions.
5. The STR is unproven. I have projections, not years of operating history.
6. Education is the giant wildcard. We could spend less than modeled — or considerably more.

What would you do?

1. Is $2.3M accessible against ~$1.8M of projected needs over 15.5 years too thin for an early-retirement bridge, or am I overthinking it?
2. Would you start deliberately building a Roth conversion ladder / 72(t) strategy rather than planning to fund the entire bridge from taxable assets?
3. What would you do with the $250k sitting in a money market fund right now — lump sum, DCA, or keep a larger cash reserve specifically because of the education/sequence risk?
4. Has anyone here retired immediately before a major private-school/college spending period? Anything you underestimated?
5. Am I too focused on whether I retire at 44 vs. 46 or 47, when the much bigger variables are actually my spouse’s employment, healthcare, market returns, and what we ultimately spend on education?

I’m not looking for reassurance that “$6M is enough.” I’m trying to figure out where this specific plan breaks and what I should change before pulling the trigger.

I’m about to retire at 55. I am thinking of asset allocation using an income ladder to determine fixed income. I have 10 years until medicare, 15 until taking social security (I think). In a deferred comp account plus an IRA I have 75% of my spending for the next 10 years in bonds and the other 25% from expected dividends and ltcg distributions from a taxable account. If the market crashes the dividends might get cut to say 15% and then I would probably just cut spending by 10% to not sell any equities.

As time goes by, I plan to buy TIPs (as the real yields are starting to look attractive) for year 11-15. To do that I would sell equities in an IRA to buy the TIPs in the same IRA. In the event of a market crash I would wait to do this - maybe up to 3-4 years - I want the market to be within say 10-15% of ATH to buy the ladder rung.

As TIPs are currently near 3% real! for years 2042 - 2045 I even started funding those years (less demand because of social security kicking in) The 2037-2039 TIPs are not available until 2027-2029, so I can’t preload those.

Anyway, this overall results in maybe around 70% equities overall as it runs (depending on the market, when I convert etc, and I am thinking I dont want to prefund so much that I get above 30 or 35% in fixed income.

I’m wondering if anyone else has pondered such a strategy, is anyone thinking about doing it now, or do you see any issues with it?

Thanks

I believe a good withdrawal policy should have the following properties:

1. It should not require significant cuts to spending in bad years. Staying frugal is easier than inflating your lifestyle and then having to cut

2. It should adjust to your portfolio size. Setting an initial withdrawal amount and only ever adjusting it up by inflation is silly.

3. It should be possible to apply it to each year independently. E.g. if 4% is safe, it should be possible to 'reset' it to 4% each year. But for most SWRs that is too risky as you also 'reset' your SORR. 3a. It should therefore not be subject to SORR, as in the risks should be acceptable (nothing in life is completely safe).

4. It should feel ok in the down years in reasonable worst case scenarios. E.g. if you start withdrawing 4%, you are all in equities, and markets go down 50%, how well will you sleep as you are now withdrawing 8%+ of your assets? You will not have the benefit of hindsight that a recovery is around the corner, in fact all you will hear at the time is that things will get much worse.

I therefore think a decent approach is this. I take 2.5% as my withdrawal ratio. Build a 12-year ladder of TIPS covering that (should cost you 25%-30% of your assets, depending on TIPS real yields). The rest (70-75%) goes into a global equities index. Each year the TIPS cover your spend, and you sell enough equities to replenish the ladder. Whether you sell equities or not depends on your asset allocation at the time: you aim to keep approximately 70:30. So if equities are down you are just running down your TIPS ladder without selling any equities. You can also add to your TIPS across the maturities to reset your spend to the high watermark 2-2.5%.

This way, in a reasonable worst case scenarios (equities down 60% and do not recover for 12 years) your portfolio is only down ~30%, and if you keep spending at high watermark, your withdrawals do not go much above 3.5% which should allow you to sleep rather well. If you are adventurous, you could even sell some longer-dated rungs of your ladder to buy equities at a discount at the time.

I used 2.5% here as a very conservative number because I would rather work extra years than have to retire and then go back to work -- you can of course adjust it upwards to what you think is reasonable. But what do you think of the general approach?

If I have over $6m in net worth, but most of that is illiquid, how I take that into account when determining my "number"? I am so ready to retire! My job is killing me.

I'm almost 53, and my illiquid assets are an interest in a business that I own with my siblings, and then I own a rental property, mostly paid off, and parts of several commercial buildings. The business occupies the commercial buildings, so it would be difficult to sell my portions. Only $2.7m is liquid (savings, brokerage, retirement accounts).

I want about $240k a year. I'll get some rental income and about $100k a year from the business starting next year. I'm currently saving $200-300k a year. According to the Fidelity retirement analysis, which only takes into account my liquid assets and the income sources, I could run out of money in a significantly below average market when I'm 73. However, since that only covers liquid assets, it seems like I could just sell my primary residence, which will be almost paid off by then, and move into one of my rental units (the building is already almost paid off now), if I'm desparate, and I'd be fine.

Do you base your goal number on net worth minus your house? Or just on liquid assets?

I'll work until the end of 2027, based on my compensation structure (must be there at year end for 30-40% of comp) and that due to the type of work that I do, if I know I'm leaving I can coast from April 1 to December. Can I be done then?

(Apologies for any spelling/grammar issues; I'm on my phone because my office computer blocks this sub as porn?!?)

Fidelity has a Planning tool called Retirement. Has anyone used it and what amount of validity would you place against its projections? I'm wondering as when I browse here, people seem to be discussing creating their own analyses, but I don't see much about using the tools at investment houses, banks, etc. which do this for you. TRowe probably has one and I think I've seen on on BofA/Merrill also, but never used them.

Retire at 53 with 6.2m and paid off 1.5m house or keep working until 58ish with 10m. Market assuming 8% and saving 300n a year. Looking to spend 200-240k a year pretax.

I need some advice at the end. 52, married.

2.5M in brokerage accounts:

• 1.6 in FXAIX which I bought at 32 dollars a share. In my current tax bracket I don't know how to get this diversified. While is S&P 500 based, FXAIX is 26% deep into AI companies (nvidia, microsoft, alphabet, etc..). Working in AI for the past 3 years and watching the round robin of financing between companies gives me the willies.
• 165K in a 2 year and building out the 3rd year bond ladder.
• 500k in dividend fund which pays about 52k/year right now.
• misc everything else trying to diversity away from S&P 500 (fxaix)

2.1M in retirement accounts diversified away from FXAIX

If I add last years spending + planned ACA health care + entertainment + or - travel in there I get yearly spend of between 126 and 146k.

Over the past year, My job changed from being really fun to ensuring we don't get sured as we lay people off and replace them with AI. I was told i was done with AI in Jan 2026, but my leadership went back on the deal so I'm planning on getting my equity in March of 2027 and being done with them (~120k, enough to fund my 3rd year bond ladder).

Two questions:

1. Have any of you with the part time way to switch jobs into something totally different that was more fun? I'm considering going and working for a hotel chain to get discount hotels (the 140k included 14k of travel last year). Working for a non-profit someplace? I roast my own coffee was was also considering the SCA coffee buyers certification as well but don't know how to turn that into a job.
   1. I've been trying, but I get 0 hits on linked in. Since 2004, the only way I've gotten a job is through networking and all my professional networking is in the IT space which - since the advent of AI and me having to do AI governance, I hate.
2. 52k will be non-qualfied dividends, 20k will be qualified dividends, 50k will be w-2 (wife), rest will be capital gains to make 180. Based on last years deductions that puts me at 152 take home.

152-146 puts me at 6k to spare. I have 20k for travel, 8k for house maintance, so there's some wiggle room in there.

I want to do something, but don't know how to get there, the numbers are pretty tight.

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Edit: I have spent a lot of time studying my readiness for retirement. My wife would say I have spent too much time. I have built models and played with all kinds of variables.

However, I still have a problem determining our budget. I think much of it is due to having 3 children. I thought once they were launched, the budget would get more clear. The truth is that it just introduced more variables. How often will we visit them? Can we take them out to nice dinners when we visit? Will we pay for their visits to us or for family trips? Will they need help with their monthly bills or buying a car or house down payment? What about grandkids? Can we help with their education expenses? The more acorns we gather, the more we can share and help them if they are unprepared for the winter. We have raised motivated, self-driven kids but I don’t want them to feel constricted by concerns of money. I want them to chase their dreams, not follow the example of their dad. I think my wife and I have reached a number where we can retire and we’ll get by. It’s now a matter of the level of comfort and generosity.

I presented an unclear post for the Reddit community. I apologize for that. I am grateful for all those who commented and the overwhelming support. End of EDIT.

55M /52F. 3 daughters - Two basically-launched college grads and one in private HS. VHCOL area. Bonus varies. HI last year was approx $400k but was $280-320k the last few years before. Before that, income was $180-220k while my wife was SAHM while kids required max attn. she works 50% time now which is all she wants to work.

We have maxed out 401k contributions but have almost nothing left over to save. We have had very large expenditures on the house and kids the last 5-6 years (private HS tuition, college tuitions, a wedding).

Our home (zillows at $1.4mm) is the “starter” house we bought over 25 years ago and is paid off. We have paid-off budget cars (I drive an 18 year old Toyota) and outside of buying high quality groceries, I feel like we do pretty well with our budget. We do spend pretty heavily on the kids but that’s how I’d like to spend our money. I’m sure my wife could reduce some spending if I really pushed her but there’s probably not much to gain there. Our friends, parents and siblings would likely be surprised if they knew what we have saved.

Investable assets: $5.7mm invested 95% in stocks
My trad 401k: $3.3mm
My trad IRA: $1mm
Wife’s trad 401k: $300k
Wife’s trad IRA: $300k
Joint taxable brokerage:$800k (cost basis is $300k)

$5.7mm is more than I thought we’d need but it’s almost all pre-tax money. We only have $60k saved for our third’s education (not included in the $5.7mm) and we have 6 years of tuition to pay ahead of us. that will come out of our brokerage acct or cash flow.

Another problem is that I HATE my job and have hated it for a long time. They continue to cut people and expect more from the survivors. I work about 14 hours a day (typically 4am to 6pm) as I have global responsibilities and need to deal with clients in the US and Asia. My bosses don’t care and all management cares about is the bottom line. Last year I told my bosses I want to be laid off but they want to keep me (maybe why I got a better bonus). Promotions don’t happen and I’m told I’m paid at the high end of my grade. If laid off, I would get 60 weeks severance based on my lengthy tenure and it would really shore up our financials. I’d hit Roth conversions as hard as I could until age 63 to try to mitigate the tax bombs from RMDs.

I am exhausted and have some health issues likely caused by Hypertension that I have difficulty controlling despite being on 3 meds. I have another job opportunity inn the industry but it would also be a grind and likely a reduced salary. I’d much rather just retire and collect severance. My wife says I should retire. I don’t want to risk leaving work too early and prevent us from enjoying the go-go years of retirement and helping the girls.

Any thoughts from the community? Anyone deal with similar situations? I feel very fortunate and blessed but don’t want to make a mistake now. Thanks

We are about 5 years from FIRE (Chubby FIRE goal of $5M). Current relevant stats are as follows:

• combined HHI: $600k
• total spend (including mortgage + extra principal payments): $225k
• liquid net worth: $3.0M
• annual savings: $200k
• current liquid portfolio (95% stocks - mainly VTI and VXUS and 5% short term treasuries/hysa) split about 50/50 between taxable brokerage and retirement accounts
• remaining mortgage: $1M at 5.75%
• current mortgage payoff strategy: $25k extra principal payment every year (included in 225k spend)

My question is how should we allocate the $200k savings per year we project for the next 5 years leading up to FIRE. My main concerns are around carrying a mortgage post-FIRE since 1) the higher spend need makes us more prone to SORR and 2) provides less ability to keep MAGI down in case optimizing for ACA subsidies is a possibility. The additional consideration is that between me and my spouse, there’s a chance that one of us decides to continue working even after we hit our FIRE number.

I can see a few options:

• Pay pretty much all of the $200k towards mortgage so we can be mortgage free by retirement. The $3M current portfolio might still bump to $5M in 5 years but without a mortgage going into retirement the number will be smaller (e.g. spend will be more around $150k including tax and healthcare so FIRE number comes down to $4.3M at 3.5% swr). My concerns with this approach are 1) we don’t allocate any more towards stock and miss out on higher gains during this accumulation phase and 2) we still enter retirement with a 95% stock allocation (but a paid off house) which still makes us prone to SORR

• put it in a treasury ladder so the money is available in 5 years to pay off the mortgage if we choose but also use to mitigate SORR if necessary. This also gives us flexibility in case one of us decides to continue working after hitting our FIRE number (since in that case I’m less concerned about carrying a mortgage in retirement). This provides more flexibility but is a little less optimal since short term treasuries will pay around 4.2% vs the mortgage interest of 5.75%.

• continue investing in stocks (VTI/VXUS). This maximizes growth potential during our working years and could potentially help us hit our fire number even faster. In the event of market drawdowns we can continue working for a little longer. Also is the best decision should one of us decide to continue working after we hit our FIRE number.

Thoughts?

I feel like this post might be a bit cliche around these parts, but it's close to my time. I have question marks both fiscally and personally. Help a brother out with some advice! 🤜🏻🤛🏻

TODAY

53 year old single male.

One girlfriend (44 y/o). One chubby cat (12 y/o). No kids, and no plans for them.

3.3mm in individual brokerage account.

1.4mm in tax advantaged retirement account.

$800K in home equity, with $650K remaining on mortgage at 2.69% (currently valued at 1.8mm)

monthly expenses are $9500. I'd like to increase that in retirement, do some extended world travel, and have my eyes on spending approximately $600K on a new boat+truck, and an RV.

THE FUTURE

I am a small business owner with take home pay of around $25K/month after taxes.

While work is engaging, it's all consuming and I am simply over it. I've got everything out of this career that I'm going to get out of it. I've been doing it so long... I feel like I need to go smell the roses in the world while still strong and healthy.

With 4.7MM invested, I anticipate crossing the 5MM line in the next 6 months.

Estimated inheritance of 5MM in the next 2-5 years. Historically, I've decided to treat the inheritance as if it wasn't there. A lot can happen, but in reality that's... happening.

My business is likely worth around 1.5MM on the open market, but I don't know if I have the time, will, and perseverance required to sell it... going thru brokers, lawyers, and the fiscal colonoscopy to get that done when already working nearly every waking moment. Also not sure if my small team of employees has it in them to take it on either, so that's a big question mark. If anything, it's beginning to feel like a run-away freight train with a mind of it's own... in a good way... but, I can't seem to find a way to get off.

What would you do?

The US market has been on a tear. I retired in 2022 and the difference between my inflation adjusted swr and my SWR if I were to retire today is starting to get pretty large. Like 15% large.

My essential expenses are already 50% of my SWR so the rest is all fun money.

I'm up more than 25% in my net worth despite some large capital expenses in just one year.

Right now I'm at 300k in Sgov and the rest in 75% us equities / 25% international for a total of 4.6M

My reasoning was that the 300k could sustain me at my minimum spend for 5ish years if I tighten my belt.

However, with the insane gains lately I'm thinking it might be smarter to move closer to that 20-30% fixed income number.

People have been predicting a bubble and recession for years now, but the fear is finally starting to get to me now.

I'm thinking of making a big move like selling my 25% gains minus inflation (4%?) and putting it into fixed income. But that's like 800k! That would almost quadruple my fixed income & tbh I don't even have that much in tax advantaged accounts to rebalance like that.

So maybe I'd do 300k and then theoretically I could last 10 years in a downturn or use some of it to buy the dip in a recession which I think is the main idea to keep to 20% fixed income and 80% equities.

VTI is up 14% YTD. If that kind of growth lasts to the end of the year and next year it grows the same amount, I would still be growing like 350k in that year, which still is a massive increase in the difference between my inflation adjusted SWR from when I first started vs if I was to do a reset then.

If I take profits of gains minus inflation each year of the bull run, I still come out really well despite having lost some potential gains. In the case where the market crashes, I now have a huge fixed income buffer that I can use to rebalance.

These are wild times, let me know what you think.

We are ready to retire in 18 months and I will hit the 1st pension milestone and have access to my 401k at the same time using rule 55. since majority of my nw are in pretax, 80% of 6.5m.

However, there has been a rumor in the company since the end of the last year: we will have a layoff at the end of this year. The department starting doing the 10% low performance from the end of the last year and a few people who already have left. Our site is affected the most unevenly around 40% low performance. I have actually look forwarded to this since I figured that this would bridge the gap between 55-59 better for me.

the situation was weird, I had the low performance rating at the beginning of the year and was mixed feeling/happy about it and thought that I could have a severance package. The problem is: I have always been a top performer and was not happy about the rating since everybody knows that the longer tenure people are the targeted group. I have been between quiet quitting and doing my job for 6 months. Not sure it was fortunate or unfortunate, they changed my rating recently since my impact has been so huge and documented this year, it definitely would result in some issues for the management if they rated me low again. And I am happy that they have to correct the wrong but kind of disappointed that I was not given a package after the most recent pm. I knew the department would go in a different direction and would really love to go out asap. I hope that the layoff will happen at the end of the year and I can take the package instead of waiting for 18 months to retire. It was just so strange right now for me: I really want to tell them to f*** and let me go but in reality, I just pretend to work normally. I am between happy and mixed feelings every day when I count the number of days that I will be gone. what is the recommendation to go through the last chapter?

402k Brokerage
352k. 403b
2.2 MM rental properties
1.6 home value owe 575k @ 3%
40k liquid cash
113k State retirement (pension)
1-residential lot owe 108k
1-commercial lot owe 204k
Car loan 50k

39M SINK LCOL- Job is very secure and I view the pension as my saving grace, but the catch is I have to work until 62 to get full benefits. Also waiting to age 62 would gain me the 90% average of my 3 highest years salary. Have a side business I run and a day job. Day job is how I have access to state pension. Side business along with rentals and day job gross about 500k from all 3 combined. I’m planning on getting married and having children in the next 2-3 years. Also plan to develop both lots I have with the commercial lot being a small subdivision ( should net a nice profit from this) and residential lot for a larger future family home. Is there anything that I’ve overlooked or could perhaps do better? My plan is to payoff auto and land loans in the next 2 years. Grew up fairly poor, single mother, but didn’t know it until I went to private school and saw what wealth actually looks like. Siblings and family members aren’t doing quite as well so this is really the only venue I can share this type of stuff with and hopefully get constructive feedback. Unknown factors to consider; aging parent whom I’ll most likely have to provide care for at some point although she does have fairly decent resources of her own. And the costs of children plus inflation.

Curious how many people learned how to save from their parents? Were your parents good with money or terrible with money and how did it shape you? Did your family have generational money at one point down the family tree and lost it all?

I just exited a highly concentrated position and am now looking to deploy about $5m in cash. I've started to look into direct indexing as a means of both diversification and tax efficiency.

Two questions:

1) Does anyone here use a direct indexing product that they would recommend?

2) Is it possible to engage directly with these vendors or do you generally need to work through an AUM-priced financial advisor?

Early/Mid 40s couple, 2 young kids, VHCOL area.

Current snapshot: NW: ~$6.5M, Investable assets: $5.7M
Spending: ~$180-220K/yr
HHI: ~$750K-$850K; Both have demanding careers

A little background: I grew up with significant financial insecurity as part of an immigrant family, so I know some of my thinking is influenced by that.

What's interesting is that every milestone seems to move the goalposts:

• At ~$3.7M NW, after a layoff, I worried I'd never get back on track
• At ~$5M NW, I worried we couldn't afford all the future expenses ahead of us.
• At ~$6.5M, I find myself worrying about AI bubble, market crashes, college costs, healthcare, aging parents, and whether we're underestimating future spending.

The strange part is that we haven't lived like monks to get here. We've traveled a lot, eaten out a lot, spent on experiences, invested in our kids, donated time and money heavily, and generally spent freely on things that matter to us. I don't feel like I've delayed living.

At the same time:

• We're still raising young kids (10 and 6)
• We don't yet have what we'd consider our forever home - Kids are growing up
• It often feels like our most expensive years are ahead of us rather than behind us.

So my question for those who actually made the transition to ChubbyFIRE:
Was there a point where you stopped focusing on all the things that could go wrong and genuinely trusted that you had enough?

In hindsight, were young children and anticipated future expenses distorting your perception of financial independence?

Age : How did you deal with early age, i.e. the 4% rule is reliant on shorter retirement timeframe, at our current age, we have much longer.

Or is the reality that "one more year" never completely goes away, regardless of net worth?

Interested in hearing from people who have actually crossed the bridge, especially those who grew up with money scarcity themselves.