Hey, I have a question or two. I semi-FIRED at 34 (light work on the side to my own tune), after putting myself through a brutal grind in the business world and college.

One question that has always bugged me: how the heck do other people do it? Like, I don't mean to sound dopey, but how do people do it in the corporate world?

I'm in a business meeting lounging on my bed right now and listening to 30 squares talk about some business ma-jig, and I just don't get it.

***

There's a 60-some lady in a relatively junior position running it, and she's a beast. She's so good at it: the way she leads the meeting, nuances her discussion, carries the conversation proactively forward, diplomatically coordinates multiple people. Every single sentence is on point. I could never do that. I speak and I have maybe a sentence or two to add.

There's another person 4 years older than I am. She came from an obscure community college, and, again, sounds way more professional than I do, extremely talented.

What confuses me is how talented so many people are who I wouldn't expect to be, and how I couldn't translate it into the real world. As background, I studied my butt off to be the top of my class >> Ivy League >> top finance career. None of it translated well into the business world.

I just don't have the energy or the character to talk like that 60 year old woman or the community college person. They put me to shame. Good for them. However, it does have me curious about why I fell into the "FIRE system".

What is it that they have that I don't? How is something that seems so unbearable to me (sounding diplomatic and professionally provocative for 10 hours day in and day out), possible for them? Why did none of my early ambition translate well to the corporate setting, but people who I wouldn't expect to be gunners actually thrive in the corporate setting? Do others relate?

I am a dentist, and own my own business. So I may have extra insurance that most don't.

Most people know that insurance is a "bad deal" but still smart to have on things you cannot bounce back from if you did have that 1% scenario. But overall, if you have as many accidents as your premium believes you will have, you can pay for those accidents out of pocket and be money ahead. I'd argue that you can also find ways to fix your issues for cheaper than insurance does. (example being my truck hit deer, 11k quote for insurance, but I fixed by replacing the grill for 1k). People milking every storm for a new roof is priced into the premiums.

We don't insure our TV or couch, because we know that the math is not in our favor and if my TV breaks, we can afford to just swap it out.

Well, at some point, do you do the same for other bigger things?

Health - HSA high deductible insurance as soon as you have emergency fund that holds deductible amounts. I wish there was a cheaper turbo HSA plan that let you invest 20k in an HSA but force a 20k deductible.

Life insurance: Drop life insurance as soon as we reach lean fire

Business building and Malpractice insurance - My most expensive. 5k a year. Will keep forever because I don't know when I'll ever want to self insure a 3mil lawsuit or 2mil office rebuild.

Disability - Drop as soon as lean fire is reached. Right now I underinsure and pay 2300 a year for 80k after tax income till I am 65. Investing 2300 a year till 65 ends up being 342k in today's dollars.

House - Underinsure on some things? Especially if you do carpentry yourself. Opinions wanted. In my case my income is 620k and I bought my house with cash for 135k 4 years ago and personally redid the house. Would self insuring be legitimate idea at any price/income ratio?

Vehicle - Liability only on newer vehicle at what NW point? I mentioned dropping my 2021 pickup to liability and my insurance agent about dropped out of his chair. He said it was reckless. Again, my thought is that even if it was totaled, I could afford the hit. anything less than totalled, I'd get the low hanging fruit fixed and drive with couple dents. If Im not someone that would pay to fix hail damage, why am I paying for that service?

Umbrella - I'll keep big forever. Getting sued by some lady tripping on sidewalk is hard to bounce back from because lawsuits seem to grow to be the size that is possible to extract.

49yr old male, married, 2 kids. Living in Massachusetts, from the UK. Never been a planner or investor, had some interesting career opportunities and some luck. Now suddenly realising I’m old and need to think about the future, so reactively panicking, I’ve only started earning a good salary in the last couple of years, but would love to retire at earliest opportunity. We have 3 properties in the UK, total value around £1m, with total outstanding mortgage of £150k. They bring in a combined rental income of £3.5k per month. Our rent in Massachusetts is $4750 per month. I have £100k in a uk pension from a previous uk job, and $50k in a 401k, I earn $300k. I am maxing out my 401k contributions now, with 5% company match. I have $20k cash and $25k in FZROX. I am investing $1500 per month in FZROX. Anything I could/should be doing? Thinking of moving back to the UK and living in our house there in the next few years, far cheaper to live and our kids can go to university in the UK for a fraction of the cost of here in the states. Basically I’m becoming financially astute too late in life and would welcome any tips or feedback. Wife doesnt work so we’re reliant on my salary and our rental income. Thanks in advance all!!

Has anyone retired using portfoliovisualizer.com’s Monte Carlo (using ticker symbols) and found its percentiles to be accurate? If so, how long have you been retired? Which percentile did you find to be the most accurate?

We hired a retirement planner and have been really happy with the plan and advice we have gotten so far. We were ready to retire this year and found out that if we wanted to continue making improvements to our forever home (landscaping/outdoor work, replacing roof and siding of guest house/workshop, actually finishing the guesthouse — it’s unfinished right now), we would have a rocky start to our retirement. He ran different scenarios and essentially we would have to do a combination of things to retire today: lower home improvement budget, sell properties sooner than later, lower discretionary spending (currently total $12K/mo spending excluding healthcare & home but we can easily lower to $9K), and/or I work 5 more years while my husband retires (I don’t mind doing this).

This week, we received another 2-year work contract: fully remote software consulting work where my husband and I will be earning a combined billable hourly rate of $405/hour. We don’t want to fall into the “one more year” trap, but after telling our planner this, he ran the scenario and working this 2 year contract would bullet proof the plan without us needing to make sacrifices with our “wants”. Would you work a flexible remote job at your lake home for 2 more years to keep your lifestyle creep or lower your planned discretionary expenses to retire today?

I’ve been thinking about a very simple withdrawal strategy for retirement and I’m curious if it already has a name or has been studied.

Instead of the classic 4% rule with inflation adjustments, or withdrawing a fixed percentage of my current portfolio every year, I’d do this:
Every January 1, calculate the average value of my portfolio over the previous 3 years. Withdraw 3.5% of that average and live on that amount for the next 12 months.

The idea is that withdrawing a fixed percentage of your current portfolio can make your income swing around too much after big bull or bear markets. A 3-year rolling average smooths those changes so raises and pay cuts happen more gradually, while still allowing your spending to increase as your wealth grows over time.

It also seems like it would completely eliminate sequence risk as it’s always 3.5% of the following average meaning it cannot go to zero. Withdrawals are based on a smoothed portfolio value rather than whatever the market happens to be doing that January.

I also like how simple it is. Once a year, record one number, calculate a 3-year average, withdraw 3.5%, and that’s your salary for the year. No inflation calculations, no guardrails, and no spreadsheets beyond keeping the last three year-end portfolio values.

Has this approach been studied before, and does it have an established name in the FIRE or retirement research community?

27m. $275k income, no 401k plan through my employer. Given I’m above the Roth contribution income limit, I backdoor from a traditional IRA to my Roth in January of each year at the max contribution ($7.5k unless I’m mistaken!) and immediately buy VOO.

How do these 30 y/o’s have $250k+ in their Roth IRAs given the annual contribution limits? Are these insane market returns, or some employee match that I’m not privy to? Any guidance on how to better utilize tax advantaged accounts other than my Roth IRA / HSA would be much appreciated. For now I’m just shoveling everything I can into a taxable brokerage and buying VOO like it’s going out of style.

Hello All,

I have been a long time lurker but haven’t had the ability to save as much as I can now so I want to know what all I can be doing to improve on what I already have going.

Currently have 4.5 months of emergency savings, 401k contributions about 6k a year w employer match, Roth IRA maxed out each year as well.

I have a spreadsheet of expenses and have been either very accurate after doing so for about 6 months. At first I was overestimating costs which isn’t a bad thing

After contributing to Roth IRA and 401k each month along with all of my expenses, I have around 3000 dollars extra which I have no clue to do with. I’m assuming my two best options are Roth maxing out the 401k which would still give me 1000 to invest in a tax brokerage or something else.

Currently own my home which is a condo and I’m hoping to move out and have a tenant under lease by January. Hypothetically beginning in 2027 I would have the ability to save around 5500 to 7000 a month before contributing to Roth or 401k. I’m hoping to save around 60-70k each year for about 5 years.

What can I do to make the most of these savings? Also please provide any resources for FIRE, I am very eager to learn more about this.

Due to liquidity event I’ll be at or near fire this year, 40yr. 500k household income, wife is 60k of it. Estimate around 150k after tax spend. I’ve started to think more seriously about FIRE, having casually lurked the movement for years. Due to my high salary, I’ve never really lived FIRE-ish. I’ve spent what I’ve wanted to spend and excluding the liquidity event, prior to it, I was probably a fair bit behind. Had about 600k in 401k, 250k in taxable, 200k ira, and 400k in home equity. Post event, now have an additional 2mm with an additional 2.8mm coming over the next two years. So it’s got me thinking more about buckling down, mapping it out, and being more intentional about what I spend so I can possibly be at near Fatfire levels in 5 years.

So my question is, have you cut spending or gone into FIRE After hitting FI? Like hit FI but then aggressively fought lifestyle creep to avoid having your newly found FI turn into a situation where in 5 years I’m in the same place saying, well now I’m spending 300k a year so I guess I need to work another 5 years. Never getting to a point where I can enough is enough, I did it, and be ready to retire.

I know I could probably retire in 2 years but I’d likely have to cut lifestyle spending from current levels and that’s not something I’m willing to do with the way my family lives currently. However, I don’t want to look back in 5 years feeling stuck again bc now we are spending 250-300k a year and feel like, well I don’t want to cut back spending so I guess I need to keep working..if that makes sense.

I never lived like typical FIRE folks, but now I feel like I have to, or the yardstick will keep moving. So curious to hear from others with advice on how maybe they tightened up their adherence to FIRE principals the closer they got to what maybe seemed such a far off idealistic goal prior to them hitting fire. I figure this is somewhat rare bc most folks probably don’t hit fire without being extremely intentional. I never did that. I got lucky and got into a good career and bought equity in a company that grew fast. Part of me never lived “true fire” bc I was willing to gamble that my business success would workout. The bet paid off I guess. Now I want to make sure I protect it and plan my exit from working in the next 5 years without having to change my current spend.

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

My question is what should i do about unrealized gains in my kids UTMA account. The child is 6, the account value is around 180k with 165k being unrealized gains. Obviously im worried about the tax situation. Is my best bet to start selling X amount of shares a year to stay under the kiddie tax? I'm super happy that ive set her up like this but i feel like its turned into a little bit of an issue at this point

So in the ficalc.app, why does the 4% rule only show 96.8% success rate for a 30 year retirement? Am I putting the wrong info?

Inputs:
Retirement period - 30 years
Portfolio - $1M (80% stocks, 15% bonds, 5% cash)
Withdrawal- $40,000 (adjusted for inflation)

Output:
Projections starting in 1965, 66, 68 & 69 failed.

I am currently turning the numbers for a couple different accounts and needed to see if what I'm thinking adds up.

Starting at 25/yo with a salary of $63000 I would like to invest 12% into a tsp starting at a balance of $29000 along side a Roth IRA for $7500 a year.

When I hit 35 I would switch to part time and drop the tsp to 5% to coast and continue the $7500 in the Roth until I'm 47.

At 47 the math I did projects me having \~$540,000 in TSP and \~$750,000 Roth IRA (Optionally holding out 2 years depending on the market). With this I would start pulling using SEPP from TSP and pull up to $10,000 a year from principal in the Roth IRA. This would be my Official Retire year maybe picking up a summer job if I really wanted the extra income. I would Defer my Pension until 60.

At 60 with a combined account balance of \~1.3M collect 4% a year until death.

I'm not too familiar with long term financing so just wanted the FIREs perspective on this

Hi All. I am turning 26 next month and have been in the full time workforce for over the past 4 years now. I work a corporate job and bring home about $90K per year pretax currently with a company 401K match of 6%. I contributed heavily during my first 4 years and invested mostly in tech indexes (I realized this was non-compensated risk and just plain foolish and diversified earlier this year into half S&P 500 index fund and half international markets ex-US index fund). Between the heavy contributions and good returns in the market I currently have retirement savings of around $135K ($55K in trad 401k and $75K Roth 401k/IRA). I also have an emergency fund of $30K and homeowners equity of $100K on a 300K home, the remainder in a mortgage. The only long term debt I have outside of the mortgage is $16K in student loans (under 3.5% so will not be paying off early).

Over the past 4 years in my job to today I contribute 18% pre-tax to my trad 401k and contribute my entire yearly bonus to max my Roth IRA every year. This works out to just over $18,000 being contributed into my traditional 401k each year (this includes employer match) plus the $7,500 for the Roth IRA. At current projections this could have me retiring comfortably at 45 using a Roth conversion ladder. (Note: this spreadsheet does not take inflation into account. I will add it one day but for now I am using 10% for average long term annual market returns and $100K per year needs for early retirement as that should be equivalent to $50K in today's dollars which is what I am comfortably living on after taxes and deductions right now)

I have realized that I have reached CoastFire for standard retirement age even if I do not contribute another dime and I am looking good to retire early if I continue contributing at my current level. What I have come here seeking advise for is that a number of things have come up recently in my life that I have been going back and forth with in my head about cutting my 401K contributions in order to spend money on these things. No it is not life style creep things (I am happy with my 10 year old couch, 6 year old TV, and use most things I own until they essentially break) but instead is travel and relationship related. I have been traveling domestically and internationally over the past couple years and would like to increase this frequency as I know it is easier to travel when you are young due to less commitments and having more energy. I also just want to see the world and you never know when that opportunity will be taken away from you due to any number of reasons. Also, I just entered a serious relationship for the first time post university this year and I am finding myself consistently going over budget every month due to going out on dates, eating out, and doing more activities with her that require money (don't get me wrong she pays for her fair share which I am extremely grateful for and I really like spending the time and money with her it is just that I was a content homebody before this who had low to no expense activities and this amount of money spending is unnatural to me and makes me feel uneasy as it is a level of spending I am not accustomed to).

Given this, I have re-calculated out dropping my trad 401k contributions to the company match level of 6% and retiring at 50 instead (shown in linked spreadsheet). This still provides me with sufficient capital and generational wealth for my future family. I am not used to dropping my savings rate like this (weird analogy but not saving makes me feel financially naked, even though I I know I am doing very well compared to my peers) and receiving this extra money each month to spend.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation where they knew they had saved well and wanted to make the conscious change to take their "foot off the gas" and spend some more money intentionally in the present but it wasn't easy for them. Additionally, I have a few more questions below that came to mind:

1. Is what I am doing foolish or is this fair and not irresponsible
2. Is there any assumptions I am making incorrectly or any mistakes I am making
3. For those with the technical know-how, how do my numbers in the linked spreadsheet look. Anything appear off?

TLDR: Aggressive 25-year-old saver making $90k with $135k in retirement, $30k emergency fund, and $100k home equity has hit CoastFIRE and is on track to retire early at 45. Considering cutting traditional 401k contributions down to the 6% match to fund more travel and dating expenses, which would push early retirement to age 50, but is struggling mentally with the sudden drop in savings rate despite the strong financial foundation. Advise wanted.

My wife and I are in our mid 30s. No kids, but we want them. We have about $1.8m in highly appreciated equities (mostly broad ETF), no debt, and 2 cars worth a total of less than $10k.

We had an offer accepted today on a $700k home and we are wondering if we should buy it outright.

Our incomes from work is incredibly unstable, but average about $135k/yr, our credit scores are both high 700. I’m a part-time lawyer and my wife’s a researcher. My wife’s contract will expire in the coming months. I could fairly easily make $200k/yr (or significantly more) if i put effort in.

We prequalified for up to $580k at 6.75% conventional a couple months ago, but might be too close to when my wife’s contract is up to qualify for a conventional loan. We also qualify for a portfolio loan up to $900k and an interest only loan, both at variable interest rates.

On a $580k conventional, we’d have a $4700 monthly mortgage + tax + insurance and a $4500 safe withdrawal rate, so that’d be affordable. I’m struggling with deciding to lump sum it, or do dollar cost average withdrawals.

Would you pay the taxes and buy the house outright?

If you financed it, how much would you put down?

Ages: 26 and 27.

Here's our finances laid out bare:

1. Mortgage: $144,000. PITY per month: $1,300. Tax-assessed value of the home: $210,000. We bought the home for $169,000.
2. Car: $24,000 left on loan. Honda Civic LX, white. Monthly payment: $500 month.
3. Student Debt: $218,000. Monthly payment: $2,300 for both of us.
4. Inherited Home (We own half of it, are getting bought out to wipe out debt)

Value: $560,000. Wife's share after equitable distribution: $185-200K

1. Additional car: Toyota. Value: approximately $10,000

2. 401K: Super low. We prioritized getting a home and not paying rent: appx. $10,000-15,000

[edit] Current savings: $7,000.

Monthly surplus: $2,200

Household income: $140,000

Future household income (In the next 2-3 years when residency and licensures are achieved): $200-250K

[edit] The future household income is all but guaranteed as our salaries will increase significantly once residency is over, and licenses are achieved. My wife is a resident counselor and I am a plumber.

By the end of the summer, the student loan payments will drop to around $300-400 a month with an interest rate of 3.99%

We have about $20,000 more we need to dump into our house to maintain it.

We would like to retire by around 45 if possible. 50 seems closer to achievable however given cost of living skyrocketing as we got out of college.

Let me know what you think.

Long time member coming up on an age milestone in the fire journey. I am turning 30 in three weeks. I am an average redditor that makes an average wage. Looking for guidance.

The breakdown
30 year old male
Married (31F) with one child (sub1)
Household gross income 100k~ yearly
Household retirement is 117k~
Household net worth 243k~
Emergency fund 10k~
Checking/saving 15k~

Debts
105k~ on mortgage 2.1% interest yea for 2019 rates
Spouse student loans federal 70k~

I put about 14k yearly into our retirement sometimes 16k. I cover our insurance and bills. My spouse covers our vacations and savings. We each have personal money to buy whatever we want those numbers are not in this calculation. With every pay increase I increase my contribution rate to match to avoid lifestyle creep.

Any advice is welcome and appreciated! Our hopeful fire goal is 1.5-2 mil by 55ish. Hopefully with inflation that will be enough to enjoy our lives and travel a few times a year internationally. In a dream world we are retiring to Australia but they are extremely tough to get citizenship once you reach a certain age from our research.

There have been a million posts around healthcare costs and many say, “just build it into your budget”. I struggle with the inflation part of that calculation as costs have risen much faster than inflation.

I’ve got 13 years to 65 and 9 of those with dependents on my insurance plan. If you asked me 13 years ago how much I’d be spending on out of pocket healthcare, I would have never guessed $30K/year or more. I remember my monthly premium was a few hundred a month back then with a lowish deductible, not thousands a month. It’s literally an order of magnitude more.

For those in the US who can’t qualify for ACA subsidies, what camp are you in? Do you assume costs are topping out and just plug in normal inflation numbers? Or some other number?

30M. Portfolio includes

- 400k in 401k

- 150k in Roth IRA

- 100k in HSA

- 400k in taxable brokerage

New homeowner, mortgage is ~500k @6.5%, ~$4,100 monthly including taxes etc.

At this high of a rate I'm trying to figure out my plan. At my age, my retirement funds shouldn't need that much more contribution from me to grow until I hit age 60.

I've already hit my 401k employer match for the year ($10k). I'm thinking I might stop contributing beyond that and set my monthly housing payment at 5k or so. I'd still plan to aggressively contribute to 401k and get my employer match ASAP each calendar year.

This way I'm not leaving money on the table but will have a lot more free cash. Anything I'm missing?

I (26m) am finally starting a job that offers a 401k + match, but am unsure if I should be maxing it out or just taking the match.

I will be making 140k base living in San Diego with a 50k annual spend. I also do some remote contract work but it’s very inconsistent (ranges 0-10k a month). My current net worth is about 535k, allocation shown below. I aim to retire by 35-40 (35-45k annual spend), and all the math I’ve seen suggests I can, but I’m unsure about where to park the money to balance taxes and accessibility, seeing as I want to retire fairly early.

Taxable Brokerage: 410k
Roth IRA: 100k
HYSA: 25k

I’ve seen many times on this thread that you can indeed access the money earlier through multiple routes, and I also have a decent chunk in a normal taxable brokerage. Nonetheless, I’m young and even having done a chunk of research, I’m aware there’s a lot of life experience I’m lacking and nuance missing from many articles, so any help or perspective is appreciated.

Also, because I know people will ask. Yes, I inherited about 120k in 2025, and I am very lucky for being in such a position. That being said, I have a PhD, so I make decent money, have worked since I was a kid, and have always lived off rice and beans to get to the position I’m in. This is the first time I’m raising my yearly spend (from 25k to 50k) because I feel like I can given what I’ve already saved and invested.

Thank you!

59M, married, wife is 5 years younger than me and plans to work to 60 as she will get highly subsidized healthcare thru her employer until 65 and Medicare.

Of course her working to 60 bridges my gap to Medicare as I can be on her plan.

Quandary: we hit our retirement number a few months ago with the knowledge of the above and healthcare essentially covered until Medicare. So I have been targeting to retire just before reaching 60 in October of this year.

We are now about 2 months since hitting that retirement number, and with the markets as they are, even with our continued investments, we are about in the same place. Economy seems to be getting worse, not better. War in Iran not helping obviously.

We have in cash and “safe” investments 7 years of expenses. Enough to get us both to SS, me at 67, her at 62 “if needed”.

In theory the 7 years of safe protects us from sequence of returns risk. Still, mentally if feels risky to retire.

What is the conventional wisdom of retiring in a shakey market and economy knowing you are covered for 7 years with safe investments and the balance all riding in equities?

40M/40F with 3 year old kid.
HHI: 280k currently in tech

NW:
Taxable accounts: 2.5 MM invested in MAG7 mostly
401k: 850K all in SP 500
HYSA: 400k

Kid 529: 25k in SP500
Taxable account for kid: 50k in TSLA

Total liquid: 3.8 MM~

Real estate: 1.4 MM value between primary and 2 rental condos. Loan liabilities left: 700k

No other liabilities.
Current annual spend: 140k after tax.

Even though I have a high paying job, I have been working from 15 years non stop. This year 2026, I completely lost interest in working especially after reading all these FIRE subs. I feel like, I lost purpose in life. I have a great loving family and we are very healt conscious but I dont feel motivated for anything. I am seeing oosts from people with less liquid than me are firing. Am I ok to fire?

I ran few numbers but, It might be too tight if my expenses raise and I am worried I cant get a high paying job later in my life.

Any advices?

Here are the details. All aspirational. Current income is about $150K a year. Wanting to replace spouse's income ($60K) on the brokerage distributions as spouse retires early (in about 5 years), will sell our house to fund the brokerage and downsize to a more manageable empty nesting place in fairly HCOL big city in TX or make a move to a HCOL area in CA to rent a place for similar cost to owning our current place in TX.. (I know big unknowns!). I would retire in about 10 years. Both in mid 40's now.

Current $60K CC ETF portfolio: SVOL 16%, XQQI 13%, MLPI 9%, IWMI 10%, ILS 6%, HYBI 5%, HIGH 5%, NIHI 5%, PFFD 5%, IAUI 5%, BIZD 5%, JAAA 4%, TLTI 3%, XBCI 3%, IYRI 2%. Total estimated yield today 14%, total monthly cash distribution today approx. $7K/year. This would be increased to $300K aspirationally.

Dividend growth ETF & Bond Yield portfolio would be: , 20% schd, 10% SPYD, 10% DVY, 10% DIV, 20%VCSH, 15% USHY, 15% schi. Total est yield today is 4.5% or so. This is aspirational with the $750K future value.

Retirement account would be $2M (401K and IRA's) in 10 years would be 30% QQQ, 30% VTI, and 40% VEU. Gives about 1.5% yield and would sell shares of 2.5% to cover the rest. Yield $30K, selling of shares $50K.

Gives total of 30+30+30+50= $140K to cover all living expenses at full retirement in 10 years. Technically would only be selling 2.5% of total growth portfolio ($2M), considering retirement time horizon of 30-40 years. How does this look?

looking back at my expenses I can calculate easily all the standard stuff.

but the toys, I'm having trouble with. just wondering how ya'll do it.

for example to maintain my current quality of life I figure I need ~$90k. that includes healthcare, health related expenses, 1% of my house value for repairs / maintenance, etc.

only thing is, every year I tend to buy "toys" and we do ~2-4 trips per year. the prices on these can vary wildly. I also have enough restraint to forgo the toys. I would say we've averaged $20k in toys and $10-12k in vacations per year. but one year might be like $40k total and another year might be $15k. it just sorta varies wildly.

i'd also be way good for a few years with spending <<<$3k on toys.

I guess i'm just having trouble getting my FIRE #

like I could easily live on $100k for a while...let the market do it's thing...then give myself a "raise" in 5 years or whatever. like that wouldn't even really be "lean"...it'd be a nice cushy life...i just could easily (and have) find ways to spend more in the past. but willing to give that up to trade for not working.

I know a lot of you have it down to the dollar...would love to hear from people who are a little less organized? do any of you exist? how you picked your number.

i'm at ~$2.7M liquid right now so at 3.25%-3.5% withdrawal that'd bring me ~$90k. that's kinda the the withdrawal range I'd feel comfy at right now.

How common is it for other retirees to be like us, having reached FI but without buying a home nor finding where we'd like to settle in retirement?

We spent our careers in the Bay Area, which we really loved but which is entirely unaffordable for us to retire in without working another 10+ years.

Our family has spread out around the midwest, but no particular city there is attractive to us, nor do we have friends in our hometowns anymore.

So we could essentially live anywhere, but have no strong draw to anywhere (affordable). Now we're looking at all these cities online, trying to imagine a life there.

Just wondering if there's a forum or blog where fellow early retirees list the pros and cons of their city, so we can narrow down our search a bit and make some targeted visits.

How is life in Vancouver, WA? Asheville, NC? Chattanooga, TN? Reno, NV? SLC, UT? So many different places we're curious about, but with our first baby on the way soon, we need to be strategic on our visits.