I am wrapping up a two year project at my work next year and want to consider retiring, if I can. I have a ton of financial anxiety and would love to hear what others think of my situation.

I am 52, single, no kids, VHCOL city in CA. I own a $1.2M house ($330K remaining at 3.3%). $1.2M -401K, $2.8M in stocks, $125K cash/CDs. I will also have a small pension when I retire ($3K/mth). I would like to travel more and want to enjoy myself so I would probably estimate $120k/yr spend.

I would giving up a pretty good gig......WFH, 4 day work week, amazing team, low stress, $225K per year. It is almost too good to be true really but I am just burned out. I would probably get some sort of a "fun" job at some point but wouldn't want to rely on that for income. Appreciate your input!

Posted a few weeks ago about broader FI plan but wanted to go deeper on mortgage payoff to get advice from this sub. I’m struggling with both the math and just pros and cons of an early mortgage payoff.

I’m 45 and want to RE in the next 3-5 years possibly sooner pending market returns.

My house is worth 1.4, with $460k remaining balance. We are 4 years into a 7-year ARM at 4.5% (in 3 years the rate is no longer fixed)

Total liquid assets are 3.5mm. Taxable is 1.2mm. My thinking is to sell 500k of taxable (with 40k to cover tax) and pay off the mortgage.

Expense are prob 120k a year without the mortgage so we’d be around 4% draw if we paid it off. I’d prob keep working another 2-3 years to build up cash and bond cushion as we are about 90% equities.

My thinking is 1) mental benefit - I have talked to others who have done this and they all felt a large weight off their shoulders…I am aware math is math but this seems like a real benefit to consider, 2) with a 3-5 year time frame, equity returns are certainly no guarantee and don’t see harm locking in the “return” of not paying interest. (Would love help with the math on the return). I have a 200k tranch of vtsax I bought in 2022 that has doubled in 4 years, is it really that bad to lock in that gain? 3) wife is not currently working so income is relatively low (250-300k with just my income), this would dramatically lower monthly expenses and allow us to build up some bonds/cash to get closer to desired allocation (70/30).

Biggest cons I feel are obviously equities likely to outperform 4.5% (but my rate only locked for 3 years) and this will leave my taxable pretty low, although we have deferred comp paying out as part of pre-tax plus open to doing 72T if needed to access more pre-tax. We have two kids out of daycare now with 529s basically funded as we want them. (Many prior comments around how kids get more expensive, another reason I will likely work a few more years to add some cushion)

Based on other posts my case feels marginal but am guessing most would say not to pay it off yet (and maybe wait til the end of the 7 year ARM period) my concern obviously is a major market pullback. At the same time I’m not big into market timing, the next 2-3 years in particular who knows with AI build out. Appreciate thoughts and sorry for yet another mortgage payoff topic, but it does feel like each of these cases is unique based on the mortgage, time frame til RE, etc.

Based on 4% withdraw rate, can I back track and assume that I have asset of SS/Pension yearly income *25? I feel kind of inflated already. Assume that both my partner and I collecting SS/Pension at 62, we may have close to 10k monthly income and 120k yearly come. If I times 120k with 25, I already have 3million asset to myself and can count me as a chubbFIRER already.

One of the things that bugs me with the Monte Carlo simulations is that the "one number" chance of success completely depends on reaching the longevity ages entered for both you and spouse.  The common advice I see is to use 92 for men and 94 for women.  But the probability of both parties living until their early 90s is small.  Do I really care if I only have 70% chance of success at age 90 if there's only a 20% chance of success both parties will live that long?

To try to answer that, I pulled specific longevity probabilities (www.longevityillustrator.org).  The below longevity numbers (Col A) are based on my specific situation (starting age, non-smokers, average health) and the chance of success (Col B) from the Monte Carlo simulations in the retirement planning software I'm using (Boldin).  

Column C is my own calculation, the chance of "failure" (i.e., having to adjust expenditures) times the chance we'll actually be alive to experience that outcome.

 I’m concentrating on our Chance of Success with both parties alive bc if only one of us is alive the “like to spend” numbers go way down, and that’s in a different model.

Has anyone seen a similar approach elsewhere?  None of the software I’ve found includes anything around longevity probability – it just assumes the longevity age you enter is rock solid (and that includes things like Roth Conversion recommendations, and SS start ages).  This seems like a huge gap, and an overly conservative approach.  Curious on everyone’s thoughts.

Husband - 32
Wife - 34
Two kids - ages 2.5 and 9 months

We’ve been married 8 years. I’m the breadwinner. My wife now works part-time for me through our employer and doesn’t have 401k benefits. The rest of the time she’s home with the kiddos. I started my business (would like to keep industry anonymous - and I’m not a cardiologist as the username might suggest) with my employer right out of college. I worked hard, pounded the pavement and built it little by little going around neighborhoods introducing myself. We are very thankful.

TOTAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME (I’m a K1. Most of our income is now from me…she stopped her full-time employment June 2025 and she was making about $70k)

2025: $884,180
2024: $788,265
2023: $691,816
2022: $482,222

ASSETS = ~$3.5 million

-My 401(k): $839k ($567k Roth, $272k Pre-Tax)
Maxing out Roth bucket annually (front loading early each year), plus my plan allows for an additional $10k after-tax contribution which I immediately convert to the Roth bucket. Employer has annual profit sharing of about 4.5% of my income; they contribute to my 401(k) up to allowable amount and pays the rest to me in cash as excess profit sharing. All equity mix.

-Her 401(k) from previous employer (not rolling over so we can do back-door Roth IRA contributions: $228k ($153k Roth, $75k Pre-Tax). All equity mix.

-HSA: $116k
Maxing out annually Jan 1. We pay any healthcare expenses out of pocket and will use this bucket later to reimburse ourselves and/or for Medicare premiums or LTC. Not sure how much longer I should contribute to this since it’ll continue to grow until we use it and it’ll not pass to the next generation tax free. All equity mix.

-My Roth IRA: $149k
Maxing out annually Jan 1 via backdoor Roth contribution. All equity mix.

-Her Roth IRA: $110k
Maxing out annually Jan 1 via backdoor Roth contribution. All equity mix.

-Joint Brokerage Account: $721k
100% invested and adding $5k per month (plus adding additional cash during market pullbacks). All equity mix.

-Joint Brokerage “Checking” Account: $408k
Most of this is in PCOXX.

-529 Accounts: older child has $16k and younger has $4k
Adding $350 monthly to each. Target date fund.

-Home Value: $968k

-Vehicles: 2018 Toyota Avalon (his) and 2024 Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy (hers).

>>> LIABILITIES = $444k

-Mortgage: $444k at 3.375%
-Credit Card: $0, pay off weekly

>>> INSURANCE

-Term Life: $2m on me and $500k on wife. Plus additional $2m+ through my employer.

-Disability: I have $15k/mo through Long-Term Disability my employer offers that I opt into. Outside of that I have a policy through Unum that has $17k/mo Basic Monthly Benefit and $10k/mo Catastrophic Disability Monthly Benefit.

>>> MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

Update: Annual spend in 2025 was about $315k. This included tithing and business expenses.

-In 2025 we tithed / gave away about $65k

-In September I’m paying cash for the office I currently occupy. The purchase price is $180k. This will take out cash to about $200k. I decided to pay cash as the cash we have has built up and is just sitting there and we have no plans for it. My employer will (continue to) lease the space from me at about $2,100 gross monthly plus 3% annual increase with option to renew after the 5 year term. This rent amount hits my P&L through my employer.

-I’m considering paying the children for helping clean the office, send birthday cards to customers, etc. so we can contribute to a Roth IRA for them.

-We’ve considered a second home but my parents are divorced and my mother lives in the mountains and my father lives at the beach. We can visit anytime and me and my sister will likely inherit these homes at some point.

-Currently we are thinking of getting a lot at the lake about an hour from our house and having a boat dock so we can spend time at the lake (boat, jet ski, etc.) with the intent to possibly build a home there in the future.

-My income will very likely continue to increase nicely, but possibly not at the same pace. I have Limited Partnership at my firm that returns on average 20%. I’ve not included that amount and future offerings in the above.

>>> YOUR THOUGHTS???

-I’m open to feedback, thoughts, ideas. What are our blind spots?

In bridging years, FIRE usually involves reducing taxable income as much as possible to take advantage of ACA, or to do Roth conversions - while maintaining a level of safety on a certain percentage of your portfolio.

Indexing is fine for part of the portfolio. Where does the rest go, for which downside protection and tax efficiency are the key requirements?

HYSA/ CD/ MM will not be tax deferred, adding to income.

SGOV will offer some relief from state taxes but still adding to income. Munis, treasuries are the same bucket.

SCHD still pay you out qualified dividends. Tax efficient but still adding to income.

Looking to hear what you all are doing. Are there any ideas on relatively safe ETFs, ok for lower returns, as long as they don’t add to income and defer taxes?

Incredibly lucky to be looking at potential retirement options at 36M with my wife at 35F. I have followed the FI/RE community for a while and only recently discovered r/ChubbyFIRE and even more recently realized that we might find ourselves in this situation. Hoping you can provide some guidance based on where we are financially and some potential options of where life will take us next

Spending ($10k monthly / $120k annually):

• $3k/mo mortgage on ~$600k house, 3.3% interest
• $2k/mo insurance
• $1k/mo utilities
• The remainder is split between some essentials (food, basic commuting) and the rest is pretty loosely divided up between eating out, entertainment, 2-3 domestic weekend trips and 1 international 1-2 week trip per year

Assets:

• $30k in checking account
• $150k in cash reserves VMRXX
• $3.5MM invested
  • $1.8MM in brokerage (1.4 VTSAX, 0.3 VMGRX, remainder in individual stocks)
  • $1.2MM in IRAs / 401(k)
  • $300k in Betterment (90% stocks)
  • $200k in cryptocurrency

Life details:

1. My self-employment income for the past few years has been ~$500k. Big change #1 we're thinking about is shutting down my company entirely or transitioning a large amount of my responsibilities to promoted workers or new hires. I have a business partner who I'm discussing this with and he has similar goals in reducing his involvement but I think will want to stay more invested than I do.
2. My wife and I planning to welcome our first (and likely only) child early 2027. This is the biggest part of my motivation for scaling back my involvement at work.
3. We're considering a move for a few reasons: closer to wife's family, better school systems, better job opportunities for my wife who wants to continue working for the foreseeable future (mission driven work, though I try monthly to convince that we don't "need" the income). Ideally she will find something that offers better healthcare than what we have now (marketplace). Her income is around $65k at a non-profit now but we anticipate it could be between this and $150k in a new job.

Advice:

• I think I stopped working tomorrow, we're "good" at least with at our current spending. I think at a minimum I'm going to continue working until the baby is here which would likely get us to $4-4.5MM. I can't tell if this is trigger fear or not but I'd love to be better than "good" and hold on to as much income from my company as possible while scaling back time commitment. Am I just scared to pull the trigger? Too greedy? Even if we double our spending with a kid and more travel, where does the lost time matter more than the comfort of a larger nest egg? $5MM? $10MM?
• When we reduce our income to the point where our spending is greater, I plan to sell riskier (cryptocurrency, roboinvesting, individual stock) investments first. I'm waiting now since I'm avoiding the tax bill. While we have additional income, almost all is going into VTSAX brokerage after tax-deferred accounts. After RE, I'd plan to set up transfers from cash reserves to our checking account for income and re-balance quarterly/annually to refill reserves. Dumb to hold on to these investments that I ultimately want to consolidate? Anything else you'd recommend doing with portfolio in the lead up?

Currently in a VHCOL family of 4 making a HHI of 1.5-1.8 million a year. Total invested assets right around 6.5 mil. My annual spend is around 250k a year, is it irresponsible to retire now? I want to spend more time with my kids, but not at the cost of being broke later in life.

Hey ChubbyFIRE, I'm looking for some advice on if I should take some time off of work.

Basic Stats

Me: 36M
Wife: 37M
+ a 3 year old

NW: $5.8m liquid ($500k in cash set aside as a down payment for a house)
Equity: $200k in a rental property
Debt: $0

Income: $600k/yr (me) + $120k/yr (wife)

Current expenses: $170k/yr pre-tax, includes $30k for childcare.

We don't own but live in a VHCOL area. We're looking at homes between $1-$1.4m.

If I took some time off, my wife would keep working. Long-term our goal is to FIRE together. Healthcare currently comes through my work but we would switch that to my wife's.

Why I'd like to take time off
I'm super burnt out. Since 2019 I've had periods of high burn out, and I'm in one now. I've continued to hold off, switched teams a couple of times, but ultimately, I always end up stressed out. I'm principal level at FAANG company, and it seems like no matter what team I move to I end up being placed on the high stress initiatives. Several nights the past few weeks I've been unable to sleep because of work stress. When I do sleep I have work nightmares, etc.

How I would spend my time
I would prioritize decompressing first and foremost, then maybe after a few months I'd try to earn money through starting a business (software). Because I'd want to try out entrepreneurship, we are considering leaving our child in daycare as we won a very competitive lottery for this daycare, and in all likelihood would permanently lose our spot if we took her out.

What's the plan?
In 2027 I'd re-evaluate applying for work, depending on how I'm feeling and how the business is going (or not going).

Reasons not to leave

• My comp is very high, and I'm not sure that I'll ever reach this comp again.
• I get money for IVF at work and would like a second kid, and may need to use IVF for that.
• We rent and would like to buy a house. It may hard to get financing for a $1m+ home on my wife's salary alone.

My biggest fear is that I would be closing doors we might want to have open if I leave.

---

So what do you think? Would I be crazy to walk away from this comp or does a 6 month break seem reasonable?

Hi everyone,

I’m a 39-year-old married father of two (family of 4) living in a high cost of living area. We make decent income with moderate expenses (housing, kids, etc.) currently.

My investable assets total around **$1.9 million** across the following (this does **not** include my wife’s separate retirement/savings accounts (\~300k), 529 and 530A for kids):

457 Deferred Compensation: \~$543k

TDA: \~$420k

Taxable brokerage: \~$720k

Roth IRA: \~$158k

IRA: \~$56k

I also have a **defined-benefit pension** that can start at age 55 for approximately **$72k/year**.

My rough target is to generate around **$250k annual income** (in today’s dollars) starting at age 55 to cover our lifestyle through retirement. This would mean needing to bridge the gap with withdrawals, Social Security (unknown yet), but medical should be covered if I retire at 55 until Medicare eligible.

Given that we’re already at a pretty high number for my age, I’m wondering if it makes sense to **pause or reduce new contributions** to retirement accounts and instead focus on:

Home ownership instead of renting (currently paying way below market rate)

Enjoying more of our current income (travel, experiences, etc.) while we’re still relatively young

Or should I keep maxing everything out for the tax advantages and compounding?

Appreciate any thoughts from the Bogleheads community, especially those who FIRE’d or coasted in HCOL areas with pensions. Thanks!

EDIT: I do not have access to an HSA or an employer match.

I am a tech worker and am in the sort of situation that many tech workers experience where I have long-owned stock that has appreciated to a crazy amount (over 63000%) even though in my case that stock is not from my current employer. I have not yet stopped working but will likely do so in 2-3 years once I come up with a plan to handle my tax situation. But what I am struggling with is diversifying vs staying all-in when my cost basis is basically zero and the returns have been continuing to grow quickly. First world problems certainly but so far my "do nothing" strategy has paid off handsomely.

Edit for clarity: The stock involved is AAPL.

Looking for some advice on how to deal with the "boring middle" of working towards ChubbyFIRE.

Currently 36M, 35F, total liquid net worth around $2M due to very aggressive saving early in our careers and some lucrative years of variable compensation. Another ~$400k of real estate equity not considered as we still have the mortgage (townhouse valued ~$800k, $380k mortgage). HHI around $240k, so not super high earners - had a few $300-400k years but those are very unlikely to repeat.

I'm the higher income ($170k) and currently a feeling a lethal combination of burned out, bored, and cynical about the corporate world. Hard to make a change in my industry currently without a pretty significant (30-40%) pay cut.

When I run the projections to see when we can get to a 4-5M portfolio that we are targeting for FIRE, it doesn't really seem like there are any ways to move the needle - we've done a great job of saving early and compounding is now doing most of the work. Additional contributions barely do anything.

I know this is an incredibly privileged place to be, but I can't help but feel stuck for the next 10-15 years. We have a small family with a toddler now and I'd love to spend more time with him but my job is such a drag on my energy and mood.

I'd love to take a step back in my career, but lower salary jobs in my field don't necessarily equate to lower stress. I get the sense that I would need to retrain to a different field/occupation completely. Meanwhile we do have some nearer term spending goals, like upgrading to a single family home from our townhouse that we are outgrowing.

Would appreciate any advice and perspectives from anyone that's been in a similar situation. I 100% recognize that we are incredibly fortunate to be in our position, so would love some help reconciling the cognitive dissonance here.

I've been tracking toward FI for a while using a combination of spreadsheet and Empower. Lately I've been wondering if I'm even tracking the right things or missing stuff other people find useful.

When I have a heavy spending month, I can see the savings rate dipped, but that's about as far as it goes. So genuinely curious, anything you update or look at beyond the obvious net-worth / savings-rate stuff? What numbers do you actually track each month?

6 month update : https://www.reddit.com/r/ChubbyFIRE/comments/1hsafnp/reflections_on_6_months_of_fire/

and 1 year here : https://www.reddit.com/r/ChubbyFIRE/comments/1mmpf8o/13_months_post_fire_reflections/

We're a family of 3 : 49F (me), 59M and 12M. Husband left his job in Feb 2024 and I left mine in July 2024. I was working in engineering at a FAANG, and DH's last job was also in tech.

Financials : Our FIRE number was set to ~$4.5M, and we also had a wishlist of ~$100K of remodeling (mostly unspent, fingers crossed for later this year).

Jul 2024 (At full retirement) - FIRE Assets : $5.4M (This is the one we use to measure FIRE, includes all brokerage & retirement savings), Net Worth: $6.9M (Includes home equity, 529, accounts for debt).

Jul 2026 (Currently) - FIRE Assets : $6.5M, Net Worth: $8.4M (Note that we put aside some additional funds for college / kid's launch fund, which we're no longer counting in the FIRE assets).

Expenses in 2025 (first full year of no income) : ~$220K. This was just shy of 4% of start of year assets, which was a little higher than originally planned. Other than ~$15K of one time remodeling, the extra was driven primarily by two factors. Given the good stock market, we decided to make a decent donation to charity, and also had a biggish tax bill from realizing significant gains to shore up income ladder. Starting this year we will definitely be above the ACA subsidy limit so healthcare will continue to be the biggest and most uncertain part of the pie. This year we'll pay ~$24K for a bronze HDHP plan.

We are ~70/30 equities/cash-ish, though we will slowly move some of the cash back into equities with a target of 80/20. We have set up MYGAs and CDs that mature over the next ~3 years and will cover baseline spending.

I don't know when the crash is coming, but I think I've made my peace with it. I panicked last year when the markets crashed in Apr 2025 due to tariffs. Then last November I panicked again, and sold most of our IRAs - this is the cash we're DCA'ing back into the market. At this point I know there will be a correction but I also know I can't predict when. We have a small mortgage left (~$400K), and our fixed expenses are relatively low. After two years of market growth post-retirement I feel I can breathe a little easier. (I know, I know, I've jinxed it).

Our Path : This is partly covered in the previous two updates. We're fortunate to be here mostly due to tech jobs and the amazing bull run the stock market's had this last decade.

I will say that in retrospect we kinda entered coast FIRE mode for the last ten years, though this wasn't a deliberate decision. My husband took a break from tech to try out a career as a high school teacher. We both worked part time for some years, we both took complete breaks in between. I mention this because there are a lot of posts on here about very high earning professionals in their 30s and 40s feeling burned out, and I want to gently nudge folks to remember that you have more options than retiring or burning out. It is okay to slow down, explore opportunities or leverage your money to take career risks.

Current Situation : We've settled into a rhythm, though not a schedule, over the course of two years. We aren't doing a whole lot of travel because we're still restricted by school schedules, but the travel we do feels genuinely relaxing in a way it didn't before. I haven't done as many home projects as I had hoped, but I shoveled several yards of stone cover for my front yard - definitely a first for me. Somehow I don't watch more TV than before, although the social media habit has gotten worse. OTOH I have joined three different book clubs and it's nice to reawaken my inner obsessive reader.

I lost ten pounds, gained fifteen back, developed a regular gym habit, but also a regular baking habit. Alas. I've taken AI classes, and writing classes, and learned to garden. I'm on our school education board, I volunteer my tech expertise for an education non-profit, and my baking ability for foster kids. I've even picked up pickleball, the ultimate retired person cliche. I spend more time with my parents, and I've become the social coordinator for all my friend circles.

Most of my social circle are still deep in the grind which can induce both loneliness and insecurity. I am slowly learning who I am now that I have no job title. When I look out over the next week - I see lots of boring errands. Over the next year - I see a ton of relaxing activities and exciting travel. But looking out over the rest of my life feels intensely scary - I still crave goals and direction. But I'm determined the direction will be set by me and not a company nor social expectations.

For those that have retired, how many are into track days and/or racing?

I'm still working at the moment with plans to retire in the chubby range in about five-ish years when I'm in my mid fifties.

I don't live close to a track, though I have access to five tracks between two and five hours away.

Does anybody here have experience with that? If so, what's your annual spend? I know it can be all over the place, so I've been digging around on everything from owning a track/race car (less appealing), to renting one for the weekend (more appealing, short of the "supercar experience" stuff). I live in the US, so it's already more costly than a lot of options overseas.

Where is the upper and lower limit of chubbyfire? The line between fire and chubby fire, and the line between chubby fur and fat fire?

Where does that fall for expenses? And where does that fall for investment account values and allocations?

What is the best insurance strategy / provider for Chubby?

I currently have 2 mill umbrella. I feel like that is necessary in today's world.

Everything else up to debate. To be honest, I have not paid much attention to my insurance the last 20 years. I do have a good agent who has come through when I've needed. Never switched but the rates keep going up so I'm quoting multiple providers now out of spite. I have excellent credit, no car accidents etc. etc. I do own my home. No loan. I've got 2 kids that will be driving soon.

Any advice here. Ultimately, the umbrella feels like the most important thing. I want them to fight for me if I really ever need it. I am about quality over savings for sure but I don't want to be taken advantage of.

Anyone have any good advice?

I'm trying to see if my understanding of the Trump Savings Account (TSA) is sound. I have 3 young kids (7,5,4) and I just opened up a TSA for each of them, and funded each with $5k.

I believe my wife and I are on our way to ChubbyFire in the next 4-5 years. We have already superfunded our 3 kids 529's, whereby they should each hopefully have around $400k in their 529's by the time they hit 18 years old.

My plan with the TSA is to continue to contribute the max amount each year while we are still working towards FIRE, so probably another 4 or 5 years. When the kids turn 18, each of their TSA will convert to a traditional IRA. I will work with my kids to have them do a roth conversion of their traditional IRA's while their income is still low. Ideally, we would begin these roth conversions when each kid is in their junior year of college, so any conversions would not impact their FAFSA during a traditional 4 year college period.

The reason why I like the TSA is that I can fund my kids accounts without them having any earned income. Essentially, I am kickstarting their retirement savings while I am still working towards ChubbyFire. Is my understanding correct? Am I missing anything that I should be considering?

7M liquid, 9M total NW, annual spend with taxes and healthcare ~180k.
Investments are 85% equity (60% ETFs and 40% individual stocks) and 15% cash and short term bonds.
My partner and I quit our jobs and didn’t go back for a year now (both late 40s).
* Edit: I’m worried about the upcoming market downturn and SORR with all the volatility going on (not necessarily a market crash, as originally stated)
Weighing whether we can survive any scenarios (and still thrive financially) or if one of us should go back, even though we both are mentally done with politics and high stress.
No appetite for part time jobs either.

This thread is a spot for casual engagement with other community members. It has much more subject latitude than allowed in the main sub in general. Any topics tangentially related to ChubbyFIRE or upper middle class lifestyle are acceptable, as well as basic or early stage questions. Political discussion will be allowed if it is closely related to ChubbyFIRE or financial topics in general, and only if the conversation remains respectful.

It is not a free-for all. No spam or self-promotion. All comments must still follow Reddiquette and we will be responding to reported comments with follow-up action as needed. We'd really like to keep this channel open, so please don't abuse it!

I am almost 40. I think I am FI but I plan to keep working for at least 5+ more years anyway. I am however worried that I may lose this job in the next year and finding something of similar pay will be very hard. I'm a single earner with 3 kids.

My current portfolio is 70% US / 30% intl across stocks and bonds. The portfolio is also 86% / 14% stocks/bonds+cash. I have enough bonds and cash to cover my expenses for 5+ years.

I am trying to decide what to do with my next dollar ($100k coming in due to vest).

On the one hand:

• I have enough in bonds and cash to keep me going for 5+ years if the market collapses and I lose my job.
• Bonds and cash are a drag on portfolio performance so I should just go all in on stocks and get richer.

On the other hand:

• I care more about a crash not screwing up my currently good financial situation than I do about getting even richer (The phrase "once you've won the game, stop playing" keeps coming up in my mind.)
• If the market does well/doesn't crash, I'll still do just fine. If it crashes I'll be happy I has an even bigger cushion.
• 14% bonds feels low relative to usual guidance but I don't know if the percentage matters in my situation.

I guess another option is to drop the money into my mortgage (still owe 375k @ 4.85%). This will have a marginally better ROI but at the cost of significant flexibility.

To complicate things even more: I'm an expat living abroad and exposed to be exchange rate risk that I mitigate by investing 1-2 years of bonds+cash in local bonds & currency.

I realize I'm a lucky SOB. Appreciate thoughts/guidance/questions.

A while back, when our taxable brokerage was creeping up to around $4M, our fiduciary advisor recommended we bump our umbrella policy from the basic $1M up to $5M. We did it, though our standard auto/home insurer made us jump through a ton of hoops just to approve a $5M limit.

Fast forward to now, we finally crossed into Chubby territory and our net worth is sitting around $6.5M, mostly liquid outside of retirement accounts. With growth, $10M doesn’t look as far off as it used to. The big question is: do we need to keep upping the umbrella coverage to explicitly match our total non-retirement assets? My understanding is that 401k and primary homes have some lawsuit protections depending on the state, but our taxable accounts are totally exposed.

The issue is our current regular insurance company maxes out their umbrella at $5M anyway.

For context, neither of us are in high-risk professions (corporate tech/salaried), no side businesses, no rental properties. Just plain vanilla index fund investors. Our current breakdown: $1.8M in 401k/IRA, about $4.5M in taxable, and a paid-off $800k house.

Do yall shift to a specialized high net worth insurance once you outgrow standard carrier limits, or do you just ride it out at $5M? Would love to hear what others in the $5M-$10M range are doing to protect the nest egg.

I have all my assets in Fidelity. I've used them primarily as brokerage & banking since I had $1. Now I have ~5m -- self managed, mostly index, some individual stocks..

Am I missing any valuable services by being in Fidelity, where I don't get any special treatment now compared to when I had a small account?

Would it make sense to move to to a broker such as Morgan Stanley that has various perks and access to alternative investments?