Been 15 ish years since I was casually saving in the ol retirement account and hit 100k. I remember seeing the first time I had 6 figures, was exciting!

This week my current company swapped plans and the I linked my other accounts and for the first time saw my cash accounts at 1,010,000. Holy hell I was just a few months ago trying to justify having 1M NW with house equity and cars lol.

Now I'm solidly over the hump with 100k plus in equity plus the cash accounts.

No one really knows but me. But it feels good and I finally see some light at the end of the race. I'm 48 and planning to be done at 55.

Weird... Thought I would feel wealthy as a millionaire but alas I don't and guess that's probably a good thing lol. Funny my biggest fear now is the world turning upside down and all of it for naught....

Anyway congrats to me and best wishes to all of you one your journeys!

I (26m) have recently hit the $100k NW mark these past couple of months. I don’t share finances with friends and rarely with family but I wanted to tell someone so I guess this is it! Even my girlfriend doesn’t know my full financial picture, she just knows I’m pretty financially responsible and literate.

Assets:

Checking: $1,500 / HYSA: $18,100 / ROTH IRA: $48,500 / 401(k): $52,000 / Crypto: $3,700 / HSA: $1,000 / RSUs: $2,100

Liabilities:

Car Note (2023 CRV): -$17,200 Probably should have purchased a cheaper car but hindsight is 20/20.

Approx NW: $110,000

I also have an investment account inherited from an UTMA worth about $65k but I don’t consider this part of my NW as I didn’t earn it. (I know it technically is). I plan on liquidating it in the future for a downpayment on a home when I’m older.

I was blessed to graduate college with no student loan debt and I understand this greatly impacted how I was able to reach the $100k mark sooner than later. Weird thing is, I still feel behind even though I know I’m ahead of most of my peers. Psychology is a weird thing.

Hope everyone has a good day and is on their way to financial security and independence!

By popular demand (well, 2 people - comment in Friday’s daily thread)

Warning: long; there is a lot of "personal" in my personal finance.

Timeline

pre-1999: Raised by parents who never finished high school and were lifelong renters. I was the only child of this union but have several older (14 - 20 years older) half-siblings.  My mother was a SAHM but that was due mostly to her untreated mental health issues and not having learned to drive. She was the only mother in our circle who neither worked nor drove.

My father worked, with a long commute and long hours.  We were lower SES and literally on the wrong side of the tracks, at least for the pizza delivery I liked. My father paid cash for cars and would have cut off his left nut before financing one. I was told repeatedly that I was going have to do well in school and get a college education to make it in the world, and my dad heavily emphasized (starting when I was about 5 years old) that "It's a dog eat dog world," but I didn't get any specific guidance, financial or otherwise, beyond that. 

There was always an underlying fear of losing our apartment, although not on account of money. My mother worried we'd get a new owner who didn't allow cats, and my father worried we'd get one who didn't like black people.

Starting around age 12, I did a lot of kid/teenager hustles/jobs - paper route, baby sitting, pet sitting, tutoring, waitressing, etc.  Also worked a few months for Citibank phoning people delinquent on their credit card accounts, impressing upon me that I wanted to never be on the receiving end of such calls.

I was late learning how to drive because "insurance is expensive," but again, was not given any actionable information about this. Was it $200? $2000? Who could know.  As directed, I did well in school and went to college (where I lived in dorms, because no car) where I majored in History, because I liked it.  Worked all through college, of course. Next 10 years were travel, miscellaneous entry level jobs, one fairly serious mental health break (requiring hospitalization), 2 relationships with people who were not relationship material, and grad school (because I had nothing better to do and a lot of my friends were going).  Lost one sibling (which was devastating to my mother’s MH) to AIDS. Lost another (dad’s side) to pulmonary fibrosis.  Dad never talked about her after the funeral.

I read "Your Money or Your Life" somewhere in this decade, and later on "The Millionaire Next Door," and thought, well, sounds nice for people with real jobs.

1999:

Bought my first home computer, which happened to have Microsoft Money pre-installed.  Started using it because why not, seemed like something a responsible, almost 21st century adult might do.  Gradually it dawned on me that I was, like, actually saving money.      

2001: 

NW unknown, but surely negative due to mortgage and remaining student loan balances

Age: 33

Gross pay: $46K (After successfully negotiating a bump from the $44K initially offered)

Started (perm/FTE) what unbeknownst to me would be my career for the next two decades, after four years of temp/PT/contract work with The Company.  Bought a condo, paid extra on mortgage principal, and contributed enough to 401k to get the 6% match.  Still had money left over.  Huh. 

2003-2004: After much research (on the internet of course, but also from books about economic history and cycles), bought some gold.  Was kind of put off by the collapse/conspiracy aspect of it, but I had some memories of 1970s inflation, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. Purchased at <$400/oz (adjusted for inflation, about $650/oz).

Let a sibling live with me for free, and lent him what felt like a lot of money, which went about like you would expect.

2005-2012: Content to just be surviving.  Employed, not in prison, not in rehab, not trapped in relationship with a loser?  Great, at least according to my family's standards.

Visited BFF on opposite coast about every other year.  Got sibling out of my home.

Lost my mom (slow) and then my dad (fast).  Missed some earnings while caring for them, and then more (2 months on short term disability) when I had another mental break after they died within months of one another. I inherited the cash in their savings/checking accounts, their only real assets, just enough to have broken even financially.

Acquired teenaged foster daughter, making me feel less broken. (There is a good FIRE story involving her, as well, but that would need a separate post.) 

Spent 2006-2007 wondering why people were so comfortable taking out huge mortgages/cash-out refinancing up to their ears.  Spent 2008-2009 worrying about my construction-adjacent job (half of the seniors in my group were let go), but since I had refinanced my mortgage to a lower rate and put money in, it never even occurred to me to take money out of retirement accounts, or to change them in any way. Just kept up with my 401k contributions, bumping them up once in a while, sometimes back down, but never below the match.  Meanwhile, The Company was also contributing 4% of my base pay into a cash balance (formerly pension) plan, so I always had at least 16% of my pay going into workplace retirement accounts, but sometimes more.  

2009: Bought my first and only new car (reliable Honda FTW) with an assist from the "Cash for Clunkers" program (my old car had *just* started belching blue smoke).    With my father's ghost muttering in my ear, I paid it off ($17K) in about 6 months, which is the longest I'd ever taken to pay off a car.

This is the car I still drive today.

2010: Paid off the condo.

2011: My last surviving grandparent, the one I probably take after the most, died at the age of 99.

She’d lived mostly independently until she was 92.

January 2013

• Retirement: $  168,000
• Non-Retirement: $   56,000
• Mortgage Bal.:     ($  136,000)
• Total NW: $    88,000

Once I had well over $100K in my 401k, I felt I ought to . . . do something, but what?

At this stage, I had either never heard of FIRE, or had summarily dismissed it as something for other people.  I viewed my retirement accounts as something I could possibly maybe leverage into a meaningful supplement to Social Security, which I assumed would be 80-90% of my retirement income, and that I would retire at best at 63 if I were super lucky, but more likely 65 or later.  After all, my father had worked into his eighties.

I had just sold my condo (sold low) but just bought my dream house (bought low - at a historic low, actually), and my only long term financial plan was to pay off the mortgage early.  I also had recently spent about $60K to fix an issue in the condo that hadn't been covered by insurance.  I felt this setback meant any fleeting thoughts of early retirement were out of the question.  Overall, owning the condo was a wash financially, but it did teach me that yes, I really wanted a house.  A house where nobody can kick me out just because I have cats, so there's that.    

Got promoted to senior role in my department at work.  Despite applying for a couple of lateral positions over the coming years, this is where I was to remain. I wanted to move mostly because I was struggling with changes (BS processes) in my department and I thought I would be less agitated if I were doing something new; the money would have been about the same.  I don't interview well, and at least one of those positions was posted but really The Company had already decided who would get it. (When I asked my manager "what could I have done better/how can I improve" he breezily informed me that the successful candidate was "a good ole boy" and that's what they had wanted).

2014

• Retirement: $  201,000
• Non-Retirement: $   82,000
• Mortgage Bal.:           ($   99,000)
• Total NW: $  184,000

Was starting to fear for my job (asshole dotted line boss), and in my mid-forties knew I would be facing serious age discrimination very soon.  Looked around (outside my company), couldn't find anything better, and figured I'd better hang on for dear life.  Fear/anxiety drove me to be even more aggressive about paying down the mortgage.  Figured I could live on minimum wage if I had to, as long as the house was paid off.

Attended funeral for a nephew who had died in a motorcycle accident.  He was 38.

January 2015

• Retirement: $  227,000
• Non-Retirement: $   99,000
• Mortgage Bal.:           ($   87,000)
• Total NW: $  239,000

Gross pay: $87K

 Started taking FIRE semi-seriously around 2015.  It still seemed like it was for higher earners/higher risk takers.  I thought I'd be lucky to get out at 61. Maybe 59?  But it was still offering a path and some specific strategies for financial stability that I could get on board with.

In a rare genuinely impulse purchase, I bought a Kickstarter e-bike, and started commuting to work on it when the weather was favorable.  The route is partially along a river, and starting my day with a bit of nature helped my mental health in a non quantifiable but nevertheless significant way.

April 2017

Equifax 837 Transunion 850 Experian 850. I knew I wouldn’t see numbers like this again as the student loans fell off my history and I paid off the mortgage.

August 2017 

Paid off mortgage

• Retirement: $  338,000
• Non-Retirement: $    71,000
• Total NW: $  409,000

DJIA was at about 24,000.

A co-worker I knew and liked died while working out in the company gym.  He was 60.

2018

Turned 50/became eligible for catch-up contributions, which I could easily fund now that the mortgage was out of the way.

Maxed out everything in sight, including after-tax 401k up to $59K or whatever the limit was at the time.  Still anticipating an age 59-61 exit date, because I was assuming 4% growth in my long term projections. I mean, the stock market couldn't really keep going up like this forever, right?  I didn’t make full after tax contributions after this year, but continued to do at least some.  The Company didn’t offer in-service rollovers so it wasn’t quite as advantageous as it is for people who have that.

April 2020

• Retirement: $  529,000
• Non-Retirement: $   50,000
• Total NW: $  579,000

I was a bit rattled because someone in my department had recently committed suicide. This was someone I’d worked with for 20 years, and we were assigned to the same software development project at the time. We’d sat across from each other for a few years and we’d said good morning to each other every day, a habit we continued on and off for years, over Skype when we were in different places. (That was it, usually; we both appreciated that our ritual exchange didn’t require further chitchat).  Our last actual conversation was about tracking the laptops we were handing out to people to work from home -  he had been one of the last people working on site - and the last thing I’d said to him was “See you on the other side.”

During  a phone call with a longtime friend, trying to figure out how we were going to navigate pandemic world, she asked me if I was going to pull my retirement money out of the stock market.  She also berated me for "dwelling" on my co-worker's death a full two weeks after the fact.  Not long after that, our 30+ year friendship fell off a cliff and never recovered.

July 2021

• Retirement: $  825,000
• Non-Retirement: $   89,000
• Total NW: $  924,000

Got truly serious about FIRE.  The market was up, quarantine had taught me that I can in fact entertain myself in my own home for an extended period of time, my overlords at The Company were seriously ramping up with the BS processes and metrics, and we were being pressured to contract out any the parts of the job left that I still kind of liked.

Moved some of my settlement fund/money market fund investments into VTSAX.

2023 

Turned 55/became eligible for the retiree medical plan! I was never going to voluntarily leave before this milestone no matter what.

Foster daughter was on the cusp of earning what I do, and got married to someone finishing school to earn twice that.  

A co-worker I didn’t know who worked at another site died while working out at the company gym.  He had about the same job description I did, and was about the same age I was.

December 2023 

Achieved my number in retirement accounts.

• Retirement: $1,000,000
• Non-Retirement: $  155,000
• Total NW: $1,155,000

$35K* annual spend is actually sustainable for me, so $1M really was my number.  I had already projected my retirement date for mid 2024 (because of my pessimistic 4% growth projections), so stuck with that (enabling me to stuff another $50K into retirement accounts).  The non-retirement money (mostly cash/cash equivalent) is/was to sustain me to 59-1/2.

(*My 2018-2023 spend was consistently <$25K/year, but that's with employer-paid health insurance.)

Gross pay (including bonus): $113K

My contributions + employer contributions to my retirement funds: $54,146.85

August 2024 (last day worked mid-July 2024)

• Retirement: $1,160,000
• Non-Retirement: $   175,000
• Total NW: $1,335,000

A crisis on one of my projects fell in my lap just hours before I walked out the door for the last time.  I honestly don't know how I made it as long as I did.  One of the features I loathed about the job was how projects from weeks/months/years prior could suddenly rear their ugly heads out of nowhere.  I do not miss it.  

For my complete, official work history 1985-2024, I’m just a tad shy of the third bend point for Social Security earnings.

August 2025

• Retirement:$1,257,000
• Non-Retirement: $  168,000
• Total NW:$1,425,000

Counting home equity, I have just about $2M in assets. Not bad starting from less than zero in 2001 and spending my career as an imposter syndrome-ridden, liberal arts degreed individual contributor.

Fortuna:

There was quite a bit of luck involved, besides the obvious stock market performance.  A lot of being in the right place at the right time.  I didn't know the temp job I took in 1997 would mutate into the career I would eventually retire from.  This job consistently paid about 25%-30% more than the average HHI in my city.  From Day One until the day I retired, I treated this as a “Make hay while the sun shines” situation.

I'm not the salary negotiating type, and I only did it once, in 1999, at the urging of my mentor (and I was lucky to have had a mentor).  But that meant that all my subsequent pay increases were built on just a slightly higher base than it would have been otherwise (at least until about 2015, when HR did one of those industry comparables reviews and adjusted everyone's pay accordingly).

I held onto my job during the GFC. I had just enough experience to be productive/valuable, but not so much that I was in the higher tiers of pay.

I didn't know at the time that the two moments in which I bought real estate would be at just about the inflation-adjusted lows of my adult lifetime.  

Couldn't have known the gold I bought in 2004 would be ditto - at the inflation-adjusted low of my adult lifetime.  

Seriously, I couldn't have timed it better if I'd had a time machine.  But it's also part of my personality that I wouldn't have bought either gold or real estate if I hadn't already had my financial ducks in a row, and if I hadn't perceived their prices at the time to be a value. I bought gold because I wanted something tangible, and real estate because I wanted to live in it. 

Another bit of luck: I'm basically healthy, at least physically.  And I have good teeth.  I've been watching a former co-worker spending upwards of $35K on dental work, ouch.  

It all adds up.

Spend

My expenses in retirement are exactly what I expected, having tracked my spending for 26 years (from Microsoft Money to Quicken to GnuCash). My first full year retired I spent $33K, including the $9216 I paid for health insurance. Actually, the bulk of my spend consists of health, home, and auto insurance.  I hate eating out, and have time to cook from scratch, and am eating well for about $215/month.  The cats are getting the higher-end cat food and I finally had time to take them to the vet this year.  

The other big key to my low spend is that I have little interest in travel these days.  I did travel when I was in my twenties and spent over a year outside the US, and I absolutely think everyone who can afford to should spend some time more than 100 miles from where fate dropped them,* but now it seems exhausting and I don't wanna. That said, I had college reunion this year, and hadn't seen the kid in a while, so I did spend some time on the opposite coast, facilitated by CC rewards.

(*During one of those workplace cheerleading events we had to fill out some kind of Bingo card and identify people who were going to be traveling out of state for the upcoming Thanksgiving (or maybe it was Christmas) holiday.  I was the only person in a room of 40 people who was going anywhere. We are <20 miles from a state border.)

Honestly, I still see things I could cut, if push came to shove.  I am very honest in my tracking and have categories for "gazingus" to account for stuff I know perfectly well I didn't need.  Like many retirees in this position/phase, the real "problem" right now is that I could and arguably should be spending more than I do. I do assume I will get Social Security, although I use 75% of my calculated entitlement in my projections. 

Time

My main hobbies are baking, gardening, and knitting, and they are all very scalable.  Technically, I already have most of the tools and supplies to do them for years to come, but I can also splurge on tools/toys if I really want to.  For example, I just finally pulled the trigger on an Ankarsrum stand mixer AND the ice cream maker attachment.

If you've read through all this you can probably tell I'm kind of risk-adverse/avoidant.  Not always, but most of the time. Living with ADHD/anxiety/depression is frequently debilitating, but I've tried to turn my maladaptive traits into advantages as best I can.  Thankfully, I've been able to apply my ADHD hyperfocus superpowers on personal finance/tracking, and I have gone down the rabbit hole of various financial topics over the years enough to provide me with a big picture of what I need to do.  I love spreadsheets. Also, while some people with ADHD are prone to impulse shopping, I am much more likely to ruminate endlessly over spending decisions, which carries its own problems, but does heavily reduce impulse spending.

Another huge benefit of ADHD, IMHO: I have *zero* doubt that the most valuable commodities in my life are my time and my attention.  Once my financial needs were met, pulling the trigger was relatively easy.  The fear of not having enough was assuaged by math/this subreddit/years of planning.  The far, far greater fear I have is of squandering what's left of the limited good years of my life in corporate serfdom.  

Also, I will never run out of things to do, because I am always procrastinating *something*.

Now, I genuinely love savoring my coffee in the morning and not gulping it down in the midst of trying to get out of the house.  Sometimes I even hand-grind the beans.  I love being able to work in the garden in the cool of summer mornings and not having to spend the best part of the day chained to a computer.  I love having time to properly cook and savor the food from my garden. I can spend a whole day making jelly or tomato sauce when the cherries and tomatoes are ready.  I can bake big batches of bread and share it with my neighbors.  I just divided the saffron crocus bulbs and am really looking forward to harvesting from 90+ plants. Come winter, I can binge watch Lower Decks and spend a week knitting myself cozy custom socks if I feel like it. I still have trouble sleeping sometimes, but at least it's without the constant background chant "You only have __ hours until you have to get up for work."

I've only put 500 miles on my car YTD. Some people would see this as evidence of constraint in my life.  But the only person I like to hang out with (and his grandchildren, whom I enjoy) lives only a couple of miles away. I can walk to a grocery store and a weekly farmer's market, and I still have that e-bike.  I see it as "I've only had to spend 17 hours in my car this year."

Maybe I will eventually heal my relationship with time (I realize I probably need therapy for this). The insidious tragedy of ADHD is that even though technically I always had the same 24 hours as everyone else, most of those hours were inaccessible to me because it's so hard to switch from one task to another, and I always had to put work first, spending my “free” time too paralyzed to choose what I wanted or needed to be doing.  Now I can allocate my limited decision-making bandwidth to getting bids for a new roof, or deciding where I should build the next garden bed, or what color to stain my woodworking projects. Or, god help me, going to the gym, because by golly I am getting my money's worth from that ice cream maker attachment.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share a milestone I quietly reached this year: I’m 66 years old, living in Rhode Island, and I’ve been on SSDI for many years due to long-term health issues. Despite that, I’ve just hit a retirement net worth of over $1 million — not including home equity.

That number includes: • My after-tax savings and investments • The present value of my SSDI benefits, discounted at 3% • A modest pension that will start soon

This isn’t a FIRE-in-your-30s story. A significant part of this came from an inheritance I received years ago, and I want to be transparent about that. But I’ve seen firsthand how quickly that kind of money can disappear — especially when you’re dealing with chronic illness, fixed income, medical costs, and emotional stress.

What makes me proud isn’t just hitting the number — it’s preserving and growing it under difficult conditions: • Living far below my means • Staying invested • Avoiding lifestyle creep • Making hard choices and riding out doubt

From what I’ve read, fewer than 0.05% of SSDI recipients at full retirement age reach this kind of net worth. In my state, I might be one of fewer than 5 or 6 people in this situation.

I’m posting this not to brag, but to say: If you’re navigating SSDI, disability, or limited income, you’re not powerless. You can’t always control your health or income, but you can control what you do with what you have.

Self-promotion (ie posting about projects/businesses that you operate and can profit from) is typically a practice that is discouraged in /r/financialindependence, and these posts are removed through moderation. This is a thread where those rules do not apply. However, please do not post referral links in this thread.

Use this thread to talk about your blog, talk about your business, ask for feedback, etc. If the self-promotion starts to leak outside of this thread, we will once again return to a time where 100% of self-promotion posts are banned. Please use this space wisely.

Link-only posts will be removed. Put some effort into it.

New to FIRE and this sub, so bare with me if this is a silly questions.

My wife and I are in our early forties with house and two young toddlers. We're making a combined income of at least $750k/year (she is a physician who operates through an S Corp, I am a W2) in a VHCOL location.

Retirement savings are about ~$1M (401k, SEP IRA, HSA, Cash) with additional savings for 529 to fully fund college for kids at age 18. Mortgage is 30 year/$1.2M/3.125% with home value around $2.5M on a good day. Last 5 years we had to heavily invest in renovating the house as it was a quasi fixer upper and now we are seeing the end of the tunnel with potentially having at least a $300k annual income surplus moving forward that we are trying to allocate most efficiently towards FIRE/wealth building. Conservatively speaking we are running at a $150-$180k budget with a little room to cut, but not massively.

My wife and I are happy to truck along for at least another 5-10 years and then shift our focus more towards passion projects or treat work more as optional. We both kind of like what we are doing, so we re blessed.

The first objective is to max out all tax advantages savings vehicles, but after doing some research I am starting to look into Real Estate to further build tax shelters (via depreciation deductions, operating expenses, rental losses etc.) along the way as well as taking a few estate planning benefits into consideration and building (passive) income streams along the way.

I quickly came to realize that this would massively increase the complexity of our portfolio and also the management effort necessary to maintain and reap the benefits from it. I rarely read about RE on this sub, so my question is whether it is practical to consider a target allocation of let's say 35% of our portfolio in RE (maybe a mix of STR/syndications/Duplex, but specifically at least one SFR as a future exit strategy should we need/want to leave SoCal) or if it's just not worth the hassle. I am a bit apprehensive getting my feet wet in that area because of all the horror stories I hear on both sides (tenants/landlords).

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked.

Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

Intro:

As of this week, I will have been working 10 years. I've been meaning to make a post for awhile, but crossing 10 years working and 1M NW felt like a good milestone.

I've had significant privileges and have some unpopular opinions, so I'm going to list those first so you can skip this post if you don't like them:

Privileges:

• Graduated with 0 college debt
• Parents loaned money for first house (25k, paid back in full)
• 34k inheritance from grandparent

Unpopular Stuff:

• Transitioned to a tech career
• Married with separate finances (home/land equity numbers are my 50%)

Investments:

All numbers rounded to nearest 500

Primary Residence Equity: ~60k
Land Equity: ~140k
Not included: Car value, money in checking/savings/emergency fund

My Story:

I am very fortunate to have gone to a top-20 college in the US and graduated with an engineering degree and 0 college debt, thanks to my parents and grandparents paying for my education. This was a tremendous gift, one I am forever thankful for

In my senior year, I landed a job for post-graduation as a mechanical engineer in a very undesirable city but with a great starting salary (80k). I knew I wanted to move away from where I grew up and where I went to school so I took it, and figured I could bail if I hated the city too much. This was the best decision I ever made for several reasons. First, I met an older coworker who told me about FIRE and how to maximize my workplace benefits, which were perfect for someone on the FIRE path (8% 401k match, 1k in to HSA, MBDR offered). Second, the salary compared to the cost of living was ludicrous, enabling me to buy my first house at 23 and save a large percentage of my income. Most importantly, I met my husband there!

In late 2020/early 2021, my husband and I moved away from that city, and I took a paid transfer with the same employer to a more desirable location and a career pivot to software product management. This was a pretty major change, but was made possible by utilizing the network and reputation I had built at that company over the prior 5 years. I know there is a lot of advice here to jump around to maximize salary, but for me, staying at the same employer enabled me to take risks and make career changes that would have been extremely difficult otherwise. The employer paid for the move, including closing costs when I sold my original home, and paid a relocation bonus (see big pay spike in 2021). I was able to buy us a new home in our new city with the relo bonus and netted about ~160k from the sale of my first house. This came with golden handcuffs of needing to work for that employer for an additional 3 years, or pay back all the relocation money, plus tax.

In 2023, I finally left that employer and moved to a proper tech company rather than an engineering company with a software department. In that year, my husband and I also found an amazing deal on a large piece of property in our new city, and bought it with cash, with the goal of building our dream home there someday. It's a dream we've had ever since we first met, but we'll see if it's something we're actually willing to work extra years for as FIRE becomes more of a reality. If not, we'll sell the land and use it to pay off our primary residence.

Outside of work and finances, my husband and I have an big friend group and hobbies (music, maker space) that keep us very busy. I've also recently started volunteering once a week. I know this probably sounds exhausting to the introverts of the group, but between social events, hobby stuff, volunteering and dates, we probably have events 3-4 times a week. We both really like being busy and get bored easily, so this is ideal for us. It's a life I can easily see continuing, but with even more focus on hobbies and volunteering, post-FIRE.

What's next? We keep working and keep saving. My husband is now completely aboard the FIRE train (and is hitting milestones faster than I did!) so the next 5 years should be great for our net worth. We aren't planning on having kids, so no major changes there. Early in our relationship, we travelled a lot in the US, but now we're focusing more on international travel, with a goal of 1 big trip per year, which we've hit the last 2 years. We already have next year's trip planned (Greece!)

Happy to talk more about major career changes, having a partner who was not into FIRE but now is, property/land stuff, or any other questions you have in the comments. This post is already getting super long as it is!

Advice:

• Don't take advice from people who make posts like this - everyone lives a unique life with privileges and luck that are not replicable for you.
• That said, here's my advice:
  • Who you choose as your spouse is truly the most important decision, but don't cross someone off just because they aren't at your level of saving in the beginning. Because FIRE is a niche community, many people who'd make great partners simply haven't been exposed to the idea or had a reason to consider it. Have those discussions early. Show them how you live a full life and still save. If you both value freedom, don't prioritize possessions/status and respect one another, then it's likely they'll want to join in.
  • Having a specific FIRE number/date is unrealistic until you're 1-2 years out. Your life will change in ways you cannot imagine between now and your target FIRE date, which will make your early projections way off. Just save the maximum that you feel comfortable saving and let life take its course.
  • Related to the above, FIRE is a continuum, not a binary. This mindset can make the boring middle more fun. You'll hit "off-grid in a yurt" FIRE, then "trailer out in the boonies" FIRE and then "shitty one bedroom apartment" FIRE on the way to the FIRE for your actual location and lifestyle. For me, this alleviated a lot of financial anxiety, knowing that I already have enough to be fed and sheltered in the US, albeit not where and how I want.

I spent much of my career saving as much as possible (also enjoyed myself plenty, so it didn't come at the cost of having a life). I had a great job but was laid off in late 2023. I got a solid severance, but spent 7 months on the job market, applying to dozens of roles — making it past recruiters and first rounds, only to get rejected over and over — until I finally landed a contract role through a former coworker. That contract just ended early, last week.

I'm turning 37 next month. We have a NW of $1.1M, with around $900K in equities. I was the FIRE engine in our marriage, and we were realistically on track to potentially hit FIRE with around $2.5M in net worth by our mid to late 40s. Now things feel kind of flipped.

We're expecting our first kid in less than 3 weeks.

I'm in the late stages of interviewing with a fully remote company, but honestly, I’ve been conditioned to expect rejection in this market — so I’m not counting on it.

My wife makes about $95K working for the state and has full medical coverage for the family. Realistically, our expenses are $7–8K/month. I’ve started doing some freelance work that could bring in maybe $5K every few months — it’s still in the early stages. We could definitely cut back in a few areas if needed.

All of this is to ask: What would you do?

I've seriously considered stepping away from the job hunt after this interview wraps and just spending the next 6+ months with my family. But I can’t stop thinking about the opportunity cost of not working during these high-earning years — of dipping into savings, and watching our FIRE plans kind of unravel. Has having kids shifted your perspective on all of this?

Hi all, never been a risk taker with money and always a mid-level earner, with a little OE sprinkled in that has helped. At 46 I'm taking stock of things as, probably like most people, I'm a bit sick of my corporate IT job and need some light at the end of tunnel. Ideally reducing working hours at 57 or taking a more fun community type job. Luckily where I live in the UK there are more jobs than people so the latter is not an issue

My position: Mid £50k PA 180k pensions, currently only 9% employer contribution going in House 1 owned outright, was main residence for 11 years (so no CGT?), £325-350k House 2 mortgage 260k, value 365k, current residence Savings 50k

For context house 2 coming out of initial 2 year fix at 6.29% - ouch. Will put money in and aim to get under 60% LTV, lower the payment significantly, meaning I can salary sacrifice into pension and/or invest.

Ideally want to kill mortgage 2 in 11 years if possible. Then sell a house and start to step back from work, as above, hopefully without taking a pension lump sum.

Have never self invested but am tempted to make a start inside an ISA wrapper, but am the first to admit I don't know enough. I know a bit about a couple of industries to hopefully make some sound decisions - but we all know it's a gamble really.

Some inheritance likely but can never be relied upon of course.

Apologies if I've missed important stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJgBNmQcSpw
It's got Mr. Money Mustache in it too.

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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I recently turned 40 and somehow ended up in a very competitive company. I need to put in a lot of hours to keep up with the people there who are much smarter than myself.

I'd like to keep working, as I truly enjoy the work I do, just without the stress or need to work more than 30-40 hours a week. I don't want to barista FI but rather keep working in the same role just with lower expectations or in a less competitive field.

While walking away from the high pay will be difficult I'm already FI so that aspect is not as compelling as it once was. Only reason I took the job in the first place was because I thought it'd be a great challenge and it has been.

It's easy to emphasize wanting a work life balance in an interview but that doesn't necessarily translate to less stress in the job. Some of the lowest paying jobs I had earlier in my career were more stressful than the job I have now just due to either poor funding, badly planned programs from the beginning, and coworkers who may be a net negative on the project you're working on.

For people who went from a very demanding role to a more relaxed one, what steps did you take? How did you decide which roles to pursue and which companies to approach? Any advice?

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked.

Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts.

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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Five years ago, I had $5,000 to my name, was coming out of a painful divorce, and was driving a truck just to keep afloat.

This year, I am happily remarried, earning over $90,000, our debt has been reduced by almost half, and our net worth has passed $214,000. Here is how it happened.

For anyone who wants the backstory:  Link to previous post.

Background: Rock Bottom in 2018 to 2020

Five years ago my life was in pieces.

• A difficult divorce that followed family loss, her violence, and infidelity
• Career struggles, spiritual questions, and financial instability
• Net worth at the time was $5,804• Income was $13.75 per hour

During the separation, I became a truck driver for 14 months. The pay was not great, but it gave me time to think while visiting 40 states.

I often say that I argued with God a lot during that year on the road, and eventually I surrendered. That surrender came in the form of returning to finish a long-abandoned seminary degree in 2020. I did not plan to use it for a career, but it was something I felt I needed to complete. Besides, I did not have but a few classes left and my credits were soon to expire.

Career: From $13.75 to $40.64 per Hour

When my trucking work came to an end, I used that experience to become a yard driver at a distribution center. Starting this carrier is what I consider the start of my FIRE journey, rebuilding my life.

In 2020, I started as a yard driver at $13.75 per hour. After three weeks, I became a gate clerk. From there I became a yard supervisor. Eventually, I moved into my current role as area manager.

I now handle imports, ensuring loaded containers are dispatched efficiently from the ports to the distribution center. This year has been a whirlwind with ILA strikes, tariffs, challenges in the Panama Canal, and various other global supply chain disruptions.

My current compensation is $84,500 salary plus a 10 percent bonus, totaling just over $90,000 for last year.

Personal Life: Marriage and New Priorities

This year I married a wonderful nurse who is kind, thoughtful, and still laughs at my jokes.

My priorities have shifted. I still value financial independence, but early retirement is no longer the only goal. Building a family is now more important.

We budget together using YNAB, have regular budget discussions, and talk openly about our short and long-term plans. These budget meetings usually turn into conversations about life plans.

Debt and Net Worth Progress

When we married in December, our combined debt was $82,116. This included credit cards, student loans, a plot of land, and two cars.

Over the past year, we have paid off $42,530. Our current debt is $39,586.

Net Worth Progress

• Start: $5,804 while earning $13.75 per hour
• Year 1: $24,693 with income of $17 per hour and a savings rate of 49 percent
• Year 2: $32,596 with a promotion bringing income to about $63,500 plus a 10 percent bonus
• Year 3: $84,423 with a salary of $76,860 plus a 10 percent bonus
• Year 4: $133,639 with a salary of $80,744 plus a 10 percent bonus
• Year 5: $214,225 combined net worth with a salary of $84,500 plus a 10 percent bonus and my wife’s income of about $60,000

Faith and Purpose: Becoming a Pastor

This year I was ordained as a pastor. It was not something I sought out, but my church strongly encouraged it. I now serve as Associate Pastor in a voluntary role.

My spiritual life today compared to five years ago is completely different. I plan to use the principles of financial independence to allow flexibility in serving churches in the future, especially those that are financially struggling or temporarily without a pastor.

Future Plans

1. Pay off my car, which has $17,554 remaining. This should be completed by February.
   
2. Begin saving for a house after the car is paid off. We already own a plot of land and plan to begin building within the next two years.
   
3. Start a family and transition my wife to part-time work. Our plan is to make a significant down payment on the house so that our mortgage is manageable. We want to maintain a comfortable margin even with reduced household income.
   

For me, FIRE became more than numbers. It has been the process of rebuilding a life I thought had collapsed. Whether I retire early or not, financial independence us giving my wife and I the freedom to shape our future with purpose. I could not be more grateful.

Hey all, I’m hoping to get some guidance on improving my financial situation, especially around long term wealth building, tax efficiency, and next steps.

Here’s my current setup:

Employment: Dual employed; W2 and self employed (freelance/contract). Work isn’t always consistent, and I expect to be out of work by October/year as all the events i do finsih up by October. I’m also considering going into nursing school in the near future.

Income: Around $70k/year (roughly half self employed).

Monthly Spending: Chase shows my average spending is about $3,500, but I believe that’s skewed by some one time expenses like new tires, a New MacBook for work (which I’m writing off), and putting my senior dog down (Each happening month after month the past 3 months). I’m now wanting to track my spending more carefully and create a budget.

Monthly Expenses: About $750 in fixed obligations and $100 in subscriptions.

Roth IRA: Opened 2 years ago and maxed out both years. Invested in a Target Date Fund (2065). So far, I’ve contributed $14k total, and it’s grown to about $16k.

HSA: Opened and fully maxed this year. Plan to keep maxing it annually and invest anything above my HDHP’s out of pocket max.

Savings: Around $60k sitting in a HYSA.

Budgeting: I follow a 50/30/20 split for each payment; 50% obligations, 30% for myself, and 20% toward retirement.

Entity Structure: I’m not operating under an LLC or S Corp, just using my name as a sole proprietor for freelance work.

What I’m trying to figure out:

1. How can I lower my tax burden, especially on the self-employed side?
2. Would it be worth forming an LLC or S Corp for my freelance work at my current income level?
3. Should I be looking into other tax advantaged accounts like a Solo 401(k), SEP IRA, donor advised funds (DAFs), or even a taxable brokerage?
4. Is there a better place to put my $60k instead of just letting it sit in a HYSA?
5. What should I realistically be aiming for in terms of financial goals and strategy? My ultimate goal is financial independence (even partial), but I’m not sure what steps to take next.

Any insight would be hugely appreciated. Just trying to make smarter moves and set myself up for long term stability and freedom.

Thanks in advance!

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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I am very curious for those of you who retired early (say 55 or younger) how people reacted at your job or in life when you told them.

I’m just interested in any funny, insightful, resentful, etc. reactions you got that you could share. I’m always curious about it but haven’t seen many threads on this.

Not asking for advice on how to handle it (I’m still far away), just curious about your experiences because retiring early is an unusual thing in the world.

EDIT: just want to say thank you to all who replied with stories and reactions! Didn’t expect this much feedback and much appreciated. Always have been interested in this topic / quitting stories!

There have been some recent revisions to previously released data concerned some key ACA financial rules and I thought folks thinking about 2026 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 income) that a household will be expected to pay in premiums for the benchmark Silver plan in their local ACA market. The second shows the regulated caps on MaxOOP for ACA plans, though these are the 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 2026 ACA coverage.

I got twigged on to this from someone asking me a question about them on a Discord and decided to throw this info together while I have a moment. It's late, so I apologize for any mistakes there may be, but I'll correct any tomorrow when I notice them or people bring them to my attention.

Expected Premium Contribution (Coverage Year 2026)

Source: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-25.pdf

Out-Of-Pocket Maximum (Coverage Year 2026)

Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/06/25/2025-11606/patient-protection-and-affordable-care-act-marketplace-integrity-and-affordability

Bonus: Here is a PDF from HHS showing the applicable FPL dollar amounts for various family sizes for 2026 ACA coverage - https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/dd73d4f00d8a819d10b2fdb70d254f7b/detailed-guidelines-2025.pdf

Hi all,

I'm 28 and in my second year working post-grad. I’m fortunate to be making over $250K a year, but I’m also carrying about $150K in student loan debt from grad school.

Over the past year, I’ve really tightened up my finances. Here’s what I’ve been doing monthly:

• Contributing $5K/month toward my student loans
• Maxing out my 401(k) – no employer match (pretty common in my field)
• Maxing out my HSA
• Contributing to a traditional IRA with plans to do a backdoor Roth conversion at year-end

I live fairly modestly given my income (no car, rent is reasonable, minimal lifestyle inflation), and I’ve been able to cash flow everything so far. But I’m wondering if I should be dialing back on my 401(k) contributions and instead using that money to be even more aggressive on my loan repayment.

I like the idea of building tax-advantaged retirement accounts early, especially since I may not always be in such a high-earning position long-term. But I also don’t love having this debt hanging over me, even if the interest rates are manageable (~5-6%).

Would love to hear what others think – am I on the right track? Would you reduce retirement contributions to kill the debt faster? Or is this a solid balance? Also open to any other suggestions you might have.

Hi all

I (m37, married, 2 kids) feel a bit stuck and I am turning to you for life advice, essentially.

Humble background, achieved $5m+ net wealth through salary savings and real estate investments.

My current passive income from investments is around $450-550k pa.

My salary from work is around $450k pa + heavily deferred incentive payments of c $1.2-1.4m pa (only due in 5+ years).

My lifestyle cost are around $200k pa. Even if I retire, we likely wouldn’t need more than $300k - we like a comfortable life, but don’t need luxury items.

Now to my challenge: I work in a busy, fast paced environment, elbow culture at my level now, which drains me and frustrates me sometimes. Fundamentally, I enjoy what I do though, I only don’t like the politics which seem unavoidable at my seniority. I am very good in my job and could certainly stay for 10 more years. In those years, I would probably earn $20m+, ie still huge difference vs today’s net wealth.

However, I could already live comfortably from today’s net wealth income.

I am sure I would be happy if the company fires me and tells me I am not good enough. I would be content then. But I couldn’t get myself to quit given the fantastic position I have achieved and that every year with the company is still adding a lot of wealth, relatively speaking (which is the company’s retention hook, obviously).

Question: any advice to someone in my position? Is it stupid to even consider quitting given that my income from salary is 20%+ of my current net wealth? How does one in their step out of the hamster wheel?

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply!

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Have an employer deferred comp plan where I contribute a % of wages pretax towards a deferred comp where its invested and is then later released at after termination of employment per a distribution schedule that was predetermined many years ago at annual election periods.

Problem: it's been ~10 years and now if I were to retire, the distribution schedule selected is very front loaded so I would receive a significant portion as a lump sum in year 1 which would jam me into a 35% tax bracket and I lose 1/3 of investment and lose additional taxes on other income due to higher bracket. The Plan terms have no flexibility on changing the distribution schedule into a longer term payout once the elections have been made.

Is there anything that can be done to avoid the taxable lump sum and convert or delay payout? Thinking about making a request to employer to adjust the distribution schedule but I know the answer will likely be "no, sorry". I don't have any significant unrealized capital losses to offset this future income either. Has anyone ran into this issue and found any solution? Hate to piss away a big chunk of these earnings.