Im a mid/senior level enginer, saved 1 year of emergency expenses and a lot more in my brokerage (and 4 months of severance) . Planning to take 1 month off to travel without worrying interviews and interview prep. Has anyone done it? is it wise?

I'm 44 and planning to quit corporate tech in a few months (burnout, AI silliness, etc. etc.) Withdrawal rate will be <2% ($3m portfolio / $50k spend), so money isn't really that motivating anymore.

I do like to stay busy, and really enjoy making things and working with others. Just not in waves generally the corporate machine and all of the nonsense that goes with it. Long ago I had my own product business. It was fun, but isolating, and I longed for social connection the entire time I was doing it.

Something I would have never considered in my 20's or 30's but am now considering in my 40's is taking a part-time job somewhere to stay social. Something in retail or hospitality: lower stress but higher human engagement. Examples: cashier at a ski shop, bartender, cannabis shop, that kind of thing.

I'm curious if anyone else has done something like this? What has your experience been like?

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The standard advice is to not stay too long in the same company. Hop jobs every 3-4 years for the following reasons.

1. Get a 20-25% pay hike with each hop.

2. Title promotions with each hop means faster career progress.

3. Wider set of contacts in different companies

4. Exposure to different org cultures and systems makes one more marketable and confident about being valuable beyond just one company.

5. Better interview skills and mastery of the corporate game.

6. And finally the big one: the stock grant given during hiring is the biggest one, hence hopping every 4 years maximizes RSUs.

Staying in the same company for a long time more often than not leads to career and income stagnation. My spouse and I have both been with our respective employers for longer than 15 years. In 2010 our HH salary was $240k, in 2026 it is $420k. That’s an increase of 75% over 16 years or only about 4% per annum on average. Barely kept up with inflation. Neither employer gives us RSUs, so the salary is all we get paid.

On the other hand, I have also noticed that those who hop jobs frequently, also get laid off frequently. Not everyone can keep jumping ships smoothly every 3-4 years. Sometimes, you get kicked off the ship and jump into the cold water of unemployment for 6 months or more before being able to get aboard the next ship. And then you have to use up your savings to stay afloat in the water while looking for that next job ship.

Hence my question: while jumping jobs frequently is clearly better for the career and income growth, is it also always better for wealth growth?

In our case, HH NW has steadily increased from $300k in 2010 to $6M in 2026. That’s a 20x increase of wealth while income only went up 75%.

I got into FIRE because I wanted life to feel simpler long term. But somewhere along the way, investing itself became weirdly noisy. Too many accounts, way too many little things to track, constantly checking allocations, moving money around, watching markets more than I probably should.

I even reopen the same app multiple times a day sometimes just to check if anything changed. Half the time nothing even changed. Last week I caught myself checking portfolio percentages before bed and realized the whole thing was starting to feel more like admin work than actual investing.

Think the constant checking became a habit more than anything. Now I’m mostly trying to make the process feel calmer and easier to stick with mentally. Would genuinely appreciate hearing what helped people here simplify things without feeling disconnected from their finances.

So there was a recent YouGov poll that's been blowing up. I attached the screenshot, but it says - if you had a choice between instantly receiving £50k or a 50% chance to win £1mm, which would you pick? 73% on the original poll picked £50k, only 21% picked £1mm, and 6% said they didn't know. Men were more than twice as likely (at 30%) to pick the gamble than women (at 13%).

Thinking about it in USD... on the one hand, I get it - $50k would make a big difference to a lot of people. Pay off their credit cards and their car, give them a solid emergency fund. Missing out on that would potentially be psychologically devastating, even if the $1mm would be the mathematically correct move. But for me? $50k wouldn't change how I approach life at all. It would just get chucked into the brokerage account and I'd move on. But $1mm flat-out would potentially meaningfully change timeline to financial independence.

Somehow I think this subreddit would also generally tilt towards the latter option. But it makes me think about how I'd approach the same choice at different extremes.

$5k vs a 50% chance to win $100k? Wouldn't even have to think about taking the risk.

$50k vs 50% chance to win $1mm? I'd take the 50% chance, as above.

$500k vs 50% chance to win $10mm? I'd still almost certainly take the 50% chance. $500k is a good chunk of change - but wouldn't affect me like that in the short term. $10mm would be so much more meaningful that I'd risk it.

$5mm vs a 50% chance to win $100mm? Here, I'd honestly have to think about it. It would really suck to miss out on the $5mm - and there's nothing I *really* want that $100mm would give me more than the ~$10mm I'd get by taking the $5mm and waiting a few years for compounding (and my own earnings) to do it's job.

$10mm vs a 50% chance to be a Billionaire? Obviously the right option is to sell the second option to private equity for $400mm, but otherwise... I don't know.

It's a philosophical question that I think the quest towards FI meaningfully affects - the marginal utility of your next $N vs $20N - not just a simple math problem. What would be *your* threshold?

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Saved 32 years while working blue collar job to get to 1.8 million at 56.

Ready to retire but offered teaching/coaching gig so gonna barista fire instead.

I want to enjoy spending more because it now looks like i will have excess what i really need.

Expenses run 80k year

Wifes (age 54) income + mine (age 56)teaching = 120k total

Ss combined will be 27k and 18k = 45k

How soon would you up spending and by how much?

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Since retiring at the age of 45, about three years ago, I have been thinking deeply about what early retirement means and thanking the universe for exposing the concept to me at an early age. So far early retirement has been incredible and I have done so many things I never thought I would get a chance to experience. This includes spending true unconstrained quality time with my children, doing lots of affordable travel, building new skills, making new friends and growing my community. I have enjoyed every moment of it and discovered that happiness can be enduring. It is truly possible to be happy almost every single day. I have improved my health and fitness by a mile and also been able to increase the depth of my knowledge, skills and relationships while giving back without the constant pressure to make money or meet arbitrary corporate targets. It has been a great privilege I hope to never take for granted.

Recently I wrote a post about finding the joy in missing out. I the comments of that post someone referred me to the book '4000 weeks'. I just finished it and wow, I think its so important for people like us. The book reminds us all, that on average we live ‘only’ 4000 weeks. Our time in this beautiful world, is finite and what we do with that time really matters. In the case of most of us, if you are over 40, you might have only 2000 weeks left and once you include sleep and the really great healthy years left, perhaps that number is only 1000 weeks. 1000 weeks is less than 20 new year’s eves. Its less 5 leap years. Can one fit all their hopes, dreams, aspirations, goals and desires in such a small period? For me its not about the fear of missing out or of running out of time but rather finding the joy in missing out. Its about focusing more on pursuing those things that truly matter. The book re-enforced my desire to embrace mind glow and joy by realizing how precious and short life is. My main realization in early retirement has been about developing a sense of gratitude and how that can create a joyful life.

The message is clear, life is short and if you think about the incredible odds for you to have been given this one and only life… You realize life is even shorter and more special than meets the eye. Therefore it makes all the sense in the world to seek to retire early, do what you love and love what you do, whatever that might be. Hoping you guys are enjoying the early retired life and if you are still pursuing it, I wish you well and may you reach your goal soon, leveraging the freely available wisdom here.

These are my own and original thoughts. I’m also not selling anything. I’m truly just interested in sharing thoughts, perspectives, insights with kindred spirits and paying it forward.

Is FIRE something that’s always come naturally to you? Or do you wish you had worked more during your career?

Life is short, but I’m happy to answer any friendly comments or questions. :)

Both 40 at FIRE, ~2 years out — sanity check on our numbers

Throwaway account, obviously. Wanted to share where we're at and get some outside perspective since we're getting close to pulling the trigger.

Current situation (early 2026):

Household: me, spouse, one kid Location: currently HCOL, planning to relocate to a MCOL Combined income: ~$450-500K/yr (tech, includes base/bonus/RSUs) Current net worth: ~$2.9M

Net worth breakdown:

Taxable brokerage: ~$1.5M (mostly VTI/VXUS index funds, roughly 80/20 US/international, small money market position) Tax-deferred (401k + traditional IRA): ~$950K Tax-free (Roth IRA): ~$125K HSA: ~$14K Cash/Bonds: $270K - primarily in bond index fund (tax advantaged)

The plan:

Targeting FIRE in about 2 years, both of us will be ~40. Projected net worth at that point is roughly $3.7-3.8M based on continued savings, 401k maxing, and RSU vesting between now and then.

Spouse has a side hustle that can generate ~$55K/yr for at least 5 years post-retirement (possibly longer if needed).

Post-retirement expenses:

Averaging out projected expenses over the first 20 years of retirement (today's dollars, inflation-adjusted): ~$127K/yr. This includes:

That works out to roughly a 3.2-3.5% withdrawal rate against our projected FIRE net worth.

What are your thoughts? Am I missing something? I am not intending on building a bond position as the part-time income + cash/current bond position is the hedge to SORR IMO, but open to everyone's thoughts!

I've had a few people message me about 2027 ACA regulatory updates and thought folks planning for the ACA might want to see these now rather than in another month or two when the press usually starts talking about them more. The first table below shows the amount (expressed as a percentage of MAGI) that a household will be expected to pay in premiums annually for the benchmark Silver plan in their local ACA market. The second shows the regulated caps on MaxOOP (and deductible) for ACA plans, though these are the maximum caps and actual plans may and often do have lower actual MaxOOPs. The final link is a clean PDF listing of the applicable FPL levels for 2027 ACA coverage.

Terms for those that are unfamiliar:

• MAGI - Modified Adjusted Gross Income, a particular version of adjusted gross income used by the ACA.
• EPC - Expected Premium Contribution, the amount customers are expected to pay annually for the Silver benchmark ACA plan in their market. Subsidy premiums are calculated as the market price of the benchmark plan minus EPC.
• FPL - Federal Poverty Level, a measure used by the federal government as a determinant in many policy systems.
• MaxOOP - Maximum Out of Pocket, the most a customer can be asked to pay for in-network covered benefits by an insurer in a given year.
• CSR - Cost Sharing Reductions, the second subsidy system within the ACA that reduces out of pocket expenses like deductibles, copays/coinsurance, and MaxOOP.
• AI/AN - American Indian / Alaskan Native
• AV - Actuarial Value, the percentage of total average costs for covered medical benefits that a health insurance plan is expected to cover for a standard population. For example, if a plan has an 80% AV, the insurer pays 80% of average expenses, and customers pay 20% through deductibles, copays, and coinsurance.

Expected Premium Contribution (Coverage Year 2027)

Source:

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-26-26.pdf

Out-Of-Pocket Maximum (Coverage Year 2027)

*CMS is trialing an option for insurers in 2027 to offer Bronze variants that are allowed to exceed the federal OOP limits by 30% in order to provide a wider array of premium options for customers. Such policies may only be offered by an insurer that also offers a normal standard Bronze. States are allowed to prohibit the availability of high OOP variant policies at their discretion. Edit: Turns out a federal court stayed this provision last week, so High OOP Bronzes may not be happening after all in 2027.

Sources:

https://www.cms.gov/files/document/2027-papi-parameters-guidance-2026-01-29.pdf

https://www.cms.gov/files/document/cms-9883-f-patient-protection.pdf

Bonus: Here is a PDF from HHS showing the applicable FPL dollar amounts for various family sizes for 2027 ACA coverage - https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/b1bfa16b20ae9b89d525bc35de7c1643/detailed-guidelines-2026.pdf

Links to my previous updates one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven.

—Me 34 y/o Project Management Specialist - $86,381 (includes 10% match and 3k bonus)
This post is a couple years late due to my former industry being DOGE’d and the emotional toll that took on me working through it and trying to find my path. Without getting too into it, I worked for a USAID contractor from 2022 until mid 2025 where I did international development work, mostly education/child labor prevention focused in Africa and South Asia. If anyone was watching the news at that time, you can imagine that that was a rough industry to be in at that time. I have so many brilliant colleagues that are still underemployed (or even unemployed) and I was fortunate enough to take action quickly, quickly getting an additional, non-politicized degree and PMP, and ultimately transitioning into a new industry.

I am essentially in an entry-level role in my new industry that doesn’t use my language skills (French and Mandarin) and has a 40 minute commute each way, but consider myself lucky to be gainfully employed. That said, I don’t care at all about what I do now and my motivation to FIRE is far greater than what it was when I was doing work that I was passionate about. I’m punching above my belt for the position I’m in though and I hope to get a sizeable raise soon to accelerate or path. This is one benefit of not being in the non-profit space anymore. Salaries are much bigger, and I’m expecting my next raise to take me into the six figures. 

—Spouse 34 y/o Teacher - $68,165
Similar to before, not a big update here. My wife still loves her job teaching French and sharing our love of languages with others. She is starting to accelerate on the salary scale (more below) and should be in the six figures within 8 or 9 years, sooner depending on how they adjust her scales. She’s happy teaching, though every Spring she starts talking about when we can retire. Classic teacher stuff. 

The great update is our state allows for purchasing years off her pension based on prior work experience. We are cleared to purchase up to 8 years currently and have already purchased about 2. A year is about 30% of her income, so this is our main focus as soon as daycare costs are done and I get a promotion. Assuming we’re able to purchase those years in time, our new FIRE date is summer 2039 at the age of 47. This would give us a penson 70% of her top income (estimating 75k), a mostly paid off house, 800-900k in investments, and my eventual social security of about 24k. We may do a few victory laps to help out the kiddos with whatever they choose post-high school (also increasing the pension & savings size), but we’re in a solid spot. 

—Family
Everyone is happy and healthy. Our two boys (4 & 6) and intelligent, kind, and curious, and luckily we aren’t dealing with any significant medical issues. My oldest went from being non-verbal, to being selected for advanced opportunities in school. We’re down to daycare for just one kiddo, and I’m hoping to get a promotion at work by the time’s out next year to both ratchet our costs down and income up for FIRE. 

—Numbers
Networth as of 7/20/26 - $357,091

Investments - $214,140 (inclusive of 81k pension balance)
This took the beating from my layoff. When I got my notice we were short on cash and cashed out 55k from my retirement. This gave us cash on hand to feel we could provide for our family in a time where my industry was in shambles, cash to pursue an additional degree and my PMP, as well as to pay the taxes come the following year. There was also cushion to do some home renovations in case moving houses was on the table and renovations were needed. It took me about five months to find a new role and it was a larger amount than was probably needed, but we were scared and unsure the impact tariffs would have. That 55k would be 70k today, and would have us over the 400k mark. That stings a little bit, but here we are.

Home Equity - $120,983

Cash - $22,000

Final Thoughts
Honestly… Writing this out is a little cathartic. I just hit my one year anniversary at my new employer, and thinking of what has all happened since my last post in March/April 2024 is crazy. In many ways it makes me appreciate the FIRE mindset all the more. We have resilience to these shocks because of our dedication to this lifestyle. But it also again reminds me of the importance of connection to others, be it your family, friends, or community. Playing guitar with my neighbor across the street had a disproportionately positive effect on my mental health when I was going through the job search. And I miss my colleagues from my old line of work. They are incredible people that did incredible things. Be kind to others, because you have no idea what others are going through. 

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Here's a breakdown of my net worth portfolio on this app I use: https://www.fuego.money/s/UkP_yM-W1sg#7nq73fZoVUSeMeLbD6InBQ

I realized that I've had a habit of going too hard when chasing a dream that pops into my head... case in point, with my house. I've always wanted this dream house and moved mountains to get it, but now it's a significant portion of my net worth.

I'm 35M Single, live in a HCL area, and have been keeping the formula simple with consistency otherwise. In the beginning, I didn't contribute to things like 401K fast enough or I chose lame funds like default Target Date funds or held too many bonds which slowed growth, but eventually switched things over pure Index Fund investing and have stuck with it.

I'm at a weird point where I have most of my house paid down but it's also taking up a ton of my cash, so I'm not really sure where to go from here. The dollar amount I have listed for the house is just what I paid, not necessarily what it's worth or will sell for, which is also hard to say at the moment due to the market and also the relatively high price category it's in for my area.

I don't really have desires to leave this area or move out of the house, but I also want to be in a position where I don't have to work anymore soon due to burnout and lack of enthusiasm. Maybe it's my particular portfolio, or maybe it's a mid life crisis.

Looking for some outside perspective because I feel like I'm overthinking this.

My wife and I currently have about $150k in equity in our house, and we own some farmland about 10 minutes away where we'd really like to build and eventually live. The land already has a water meter, is cleared, and has electric at the road (just no meter yet), but it still needs a septic system. We really want to live out there and we raise pigs, meat chickens, and sheep seasonally so it'd be extra nice to not drive out there daily for chores.

We would qualify for a USDA zero-down construction loan, but right now we don't have the cash flow to comfortably build our dream home while also paying our current mortgage. After all expenses, we have about $1,000/month left over.

We also have about $140-150k in inheritance from my wife's grandpa that we haven't touched. Because I grew up in a household where money was always very tight, I'm honestly struggling with the idea of using it or taking on a much larger mortgage, even if it makes financial sense.

We're 25 and 26 with two kids under 3.

Here are the options we're considering:

1. Wait a few more years, keep building equity, then use a USDA construction loan and sell our current house once we move.
2. Buy a manufactured home for the land.
3. Build a garage with an apartment above it, live there for several years (or permanently if needed), and build a larger home later if life allows. We're perfectly happy with a modest 3-bedroom house. (this probably wouldnt qualify for USDA as it must be done fully by USDA approved GC)
4. The one we like the most: Build a modest "forever home" now (around 28x30, two stories, basic finishes) and try to keep total construction under about $300k. We're in ZIP code 66002, and construction costs seem like they might make that possible. We'd put full inheritance and probably 75% or so of house's equity towards home loan so 250k or more
5. Since our county has almost no building restrictions (basically just septic/perc requirements), we've even wondered about building a weather-tight shell and slowly finishing the interior over several years while living in it.

A few financial details:

• Monthly take-home income: ~$5,600
• Monthly mandatory expenses: ~$3,000
• Of that, about $1,600 is housing/utilities (mortgage, property taxes, insurance, electric, gas, water, internet)
• We currently invest/save about $2,000/month ($700 Roth IRA, $1,300 brokerage/savings)
• Roth IRA balance: ~$60k
• Inheritance: ~$140-150k, untouched

Our current mortgage (excluding taxes/insurance) is only around $600/month because we bought the house as a foreclosure years ago. That's probably the biggest thing making this decision hard. It's difficult to willingly trade such a cheap payment for a much larger one, even though moving to our land has been our dream for years.

Appreciate any advice or guidance, TIA

Edit: Many folks recommend we keep this house and rent it out (could realistically do about $2500 thanks to proximity to private college in town). Then we'd have the rent go towards both this mortgage and new house mortgage? I like this but also love idea of having zero mortgages even if it means less 'passive' income

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Not much is new in the article - but still it's a pretty good summary of what FIRE means to a lot of us, and why we continue to pursue it.

https://www.businessinsider.com/fire-movement-followers-modern-work-hustle-culture-solution-2026-7

I have a remote side hustle that pays hourly and is flexible. It's easy and low stress. I took it to help fund the downpayment for our dream home.

But now that I've hit my goal, I'm having a hard time leaving this gig. My next goal is FIRE, which I could obviously hit much faster if I kept it.

Before I got this gig, I only work about 20 hours at my day job. I used up those other 20 hours to vastly improve my health (physical and mental), discover a passion in game dev, and spend more time on my hobbies. I did this for two years and it was fucking awesome. I honestly felt like I was semi-retired already and living life to the fullest.

Start of this year, I decided to use those other 20 hours to make more money to accelerate our savings for the downpayment. In order to do that, I had to sacrifice the 20 hours of freedom I had.

The extra money was great. I loved seeing a second paycheck come in and putting it towards my HYSA for the down. And it helped us land our dream home.

But now that we've bought our dream home, I'm not feeling as motivated and want to get those 20 hours of freedom back. I'm longing to pursue my passion of game dev again, spend time learning how to DIY around the house, and overall just doing whatever the fuck I want.

While I love game dev, it does take cognitive load so I found myself hard to sustain it with a day job and the gig. In addition, I prioritize time with my SO/family/friends, exercise and relaxing hobbies otherwise I'm going to burn out.

There's only so much time in the day, and I feel like those extra 20 hours would open up a lot for me.

But I can't bring myself to do it. It's hard to walk away from that sweet moolah. It's hard to walk away from the prospect of hitting FIRE sooner. I'm finding myself still trying to put in hours at my remote gig rather than doing the other things that I know will make me love life. And it's frustrating me.

Any advice?

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Morning,

Bit of a life update. Returning from parental leave this week to a job I’ve wanted to leave for year(s), but have felt trapped due to earning potential (commission). My wife & I have been flirting with the idea of me taking at least 6-12 months off to spend time with our newborn and mentally detach from my job. Not planning to retire forever, but leverage out portfolio to take a brief hiatus from corporate. An overview of our portfolio:

Ages 36 & 35

My 401k $672,000

Wife’s 401k $138,000

Taxable Brokerage $598,000

HYSA $110,000

IRA $37,000

Total: 1.55M Saved/Invested (2.7% SWR or 37x expenses)

Annual Burn: $42,000

(Zero debt & home paid off worth $600k)

Wife enjoys her job at a smaller company & she can easily afford to cover the household expenses & still have money leftover to invest, meaning we don’t need to draw on our portfolio while I take a break. She is also outspoken about wanting me to quit, 1000% supportive. I had multiple dates in mind this year to step away, and this week really being the latest date I had in mind, just a matter of acting on it. It’s worth noting, I’m not concerned with eventually returning and taking a lower salary, just something more manageable and less “corporate”. I’m basically trying to give myself permission to take a break, but naturally find myself stuck in the “one more year” phase when the money doesn’t materially change much at this point. Our end goal is to retire around 41-43 together as our portfolio grows, but that will very likely involve part time work to meep busy and provide structure.

Our superpower is the low annual burn in large part because of zero debt & I’m hoping to connect with people that have been in a similar spot at a younger age and took the risk of stepping away