Who's the genius that came up with this magic number? I see people on this sub and many other financial subreddits. They always have something like 'oh we got 3m, are 48, but want to wait til 60+ to retire.

Really? You have millions. Go and jump in a lake and then call it a day. You've won at life. Why wait until you're old and decrepit to enjoy your money? I know a guy personally who has 1m in his mid 30's but wants to continue working until 59.5 to retire. It's never enough, for some reason.

What's the whole point of retirement if you're old, feeble, and can barely move? You'll just be spending most of your time in your mansion, barely able to enjoy life now that you can't walk half a mile without your knees buckling on ya. It feels like we're all just working towards this magic age number, which is not even guaranteed to come.

I work in pensions for an agency. I hear stories all the time where Marge is retiring and then...what do ya know. Poof. Illness hits. Or maybe they retire and then a few years later, they hit the gasket. Stories like this are more common than you think. What's the point of working your ENTIRE life only to enjoy a few years of "wealth" but you hoard so much you can't even spend it all if you wanted to?

It might just be me. But I think people should aim to retire much, much earlier than the socially accepted arbitrary number that's always been touted since the dawn of modern civilization.

My wife and I are 33 and 32 with a net worth of about $2 million: roughly $300K in cash and $1.7M invested. No kids yet, but we’re planning for one or two.

I currently make $185K plus a bonus that is usually around $100K, and my wife makes about $100K. We’re looking at an $800K house with approximately $170K down and a 6.5% mortgage. I estimate our annual spending after buying the house and having kids would be around $100K.

I’m also considering leaving my job for a federal role that would start around $100K and eventually reach roughly $175K.

Are we already at Coast FIRE based on the $1.7M invested, or do the future mortgage and kid expenses mean we are not really there yet? Should the house be treated separately, with Coast FIRE based only on invested assets and retirement spending?

I’m mainly trying to understand whether taking the lower-paying federal job would still be financially reasonable without derailing retirement.

Hello all,

I am 30F and I believe I have hit Coast with 310k invested and a 75000 retirement spend (assumptions: 8% growth with 3% inflation for 5% nominal Retirement at 67) I have the funds split between 401k, Roth and Brokerage. In addition, I have 100k cash and a house worth 200000 with 91k mortgage (total NW~520k)

My income is 73k with around 40k expenses

Instead of completely downshifting to a lower-paying job, I was planning on finally going back to college and finishing my degree. I figured that this would be a good time to make that push since I don't have to worry about falling behind in my retirement being pretty far ahead for my age. I was planning on putting my extra income towards the tuition not covered by scholarships here-and-there and into savings for if I need to go into an entry-level position. This feels risky to me, so I wanted people's opinions on my plan.

I’m looking for some outside perspective because I’m at one of those crossroads where the financial decision tied to a lifestyle decision.

Background
I’m 38 years old.
Married with a 3-year-old daughter.
My husband has a stable full-time job that he plans to keep.
We’ve accumulated about $900k in investments and own two homes in California.
I’ve spent the last 15 years as an engineering project manager. While I’ve had a successful career, I’ve experienced significant burnout over the last several years. I recently changed jobs (after a difficult layoff due to restructuring) but I’m questioning whether I want to stay in engineering for another 20+ years.

The opportunity
We’ve been looking at purchasing a seasonal general store in the mountains.
The business includes:
A general store.
A small café/snack operation.
Equipment and inventory.
Rental cabins/units that generate additional income.
An owner’s apartment where we could live during the operating season.
A long-term special-use permit on US Forest Service land.

The current owners primarily operate it during the busy summer season, with most revenue coming from camping, fishing, hiking, and tourism. Gross annual revenue is healthy but I would be earning ~1/4th what I made before from the information we’ve reviewed, and the business appears to be owner-operated with relatively low payroll.

One aspect that appeals to me is that it’s largely seasonal. In theory, we’d work very hard during the summer and have much lighter winters, giving us more time as a family and for outdoor activities.

My concerns
The purchase would likely require me to liquidate about $300k of our $900k investment portfolio for the down payment and transaction costs. I would also be taking on a loan for the remainder of the purchase price.

My biggest worries are:
Am I making a huge mistake by giving up one-third of our investments and losing decades of compounding?
By stepping away from engineering and moving away from SoCal, am I permanently reducing my career optionality if I ever decide I want to return?
Is this simply burnout talking, or is this exactly the kind of Coast FIRE lifestyle that many of us are trying to build toward?
How would you evaluate the trade-off between continuing a high-paying engineering career versus owning a lifestyle business that may provide a much happier day-to-day life but probably won’t maximize net worth?
Has anyone here left a professional career for a lifestyle business? Looking fback years later, do you regret it, or was it worth it?
I’d especially appreciate perspectives from people who have made Coast FIRE decisions that prioritized time and quality of life over maximizing wealth.

39yo, MFJ, 120k household income (100k is mine), no kids, MCOL

40k left in mortgage(done 2029), annual spending is about 50k. 401k is 60/40 trad/roth, but I’m converting it yearly (staying under 12% fed tax rate cap). I’m continuing IRS max contributions to my Roth 401k and spouse Roth IRA. Adding about 6k/yr in cash to taxable brokerage. Company match all goes to ESOP shares, about 12%.

Hi everyone 53 years, 22 years in finance, was thinking an interesting coast fire could be getting a masters in counselling and seeing clients part time as coast fire. Would love to hear of others who have done this or have had great experiences doing this type of work.

I’m a longtime marketing professional who’s thinking about Coast FIRE and looking for inspiration.

I’m not looking for another corporate career. I’m more interested in hearing about the things you’ve built, side businesses you’ve started, seasonal work you enjoy, consulting, hobbies that became income, or other flexible ways you’re spending your time while covering some expenses.

What are you doing? I’d love to hear ideas I may have never considered.

Hi everyone! I’ve been in tech for 16 years, and needless to say I’m deeply exhausted. I’m still working with our financial advisor on numbers, but currently my NW alone is ~ 1.7M which includes 401K, Cash, index funds, and stocks. I’m 42 yo. My spouse has a NW of about $500K currently (she’s 36 yo) and she’s also in tech.

I’m thinking about enrolling in massage therapy school to get my license (the program is 11 months and costs about $15K).

I don’t want to be a full time massage therapist as I know it’s very hard on the body. But wanted to get input from this community whether anyone has any experience following this path.

If not Massage Therapy, please share the type of work you engaged in for CoastFire. I understand many people choose to stay in their jobs, but dial back the hours or dedication, but I genuinely think I am done with tech (at least for a few years).

My current income is like 92k.
With roommates, public transit, eating at home i estimate that I can save about 5000 a month which gets me to about 850k at year 8. I also plan to move to a very low cost country like Mexico or maybe Albania. What else can be done? At this point I can’t find much else.

32m

MCOL

165k between Roth IRA and 401(k)

6k in HSA

15k in taxable brokerage account

9k emergency fund

I gross about 82k per year on avg and do the 3% 401(k) match

I take home $5,240/month

Per month expenses:

Groceries & Dining out: $350

Transportation: $300

Car payment (15k left on loan, interest is 5.25%) $338/month

Health & Personal Care: $225

Discretionary, Subscriptions & Misc: $600

Rent & Utilities: $1,125

Total: $2,938

All left over $, I contribute either to my emergency fund to get 6 months OR I'll do a split of 70/30% Roth IRA/taxable contributions

Am I in a decent spot? What can I change? 7 years ago, I had negative money and spent all my money on drugs and alcohol

Edit: added general context and context as to what I do with my leftover money after expenses

I’m 27F, currently employed but don’t see much growth at the moment in the company I’m in… potential to change but not sure. I’m also passively applying to jobs.

I’m kind of going through a quarter life crisis where I have no idea what I want to do in life and am struggling to be passionate about anything enough to pursue. I worry that I’ll get laid off and my retirement will be derailed.

My partner 27M is also employed and makes about 75k and is well on track to make 6 figures. No idea if I’ll have children in the future and played around with the idea of buying a home.

I was lucky enough to come into some money a couple of years ago. And have a brokerage account.

Will I be safe if I lose my job and get a lower salary elsewhere? My goals are to just feel safe and be FI, not necessarily retire super early, be able to travel, and afford to live without feeling financial strain. I expect to work until at least 50-60.

Edit: What account should I prioritize after funding my savings as an emergency fund?

Summary:

HCOL
My salary: 60k
Partner’s salary: 75k
Employer 401k: 100k
Brokerage: 350k
Roth IRA: 20k

Building a FI calculator to learn about coast FIRE and use to play around with projected values.

Right now it tests your numbers against 100 years of real market history instead of guessing one average return" (ex. 9% adj. for inflation ).

And instead of "FI at 52," you get "median 43, range 36–49." It also leads with your Coast FI number instead of the full FI age.

Quite honestly my main goal is to learn the concept and implement parts into my personal life, but also try to be of value in any way I can to the community.

Curious if the range actually feels more useful than a single number to you, or if it's just noise?

(will try to answer questions to the best of my ability as am still learning)

First of all this isn't meant to be one of those "am i doing ok?" posts where the person is clearly way ahead. I absolutely know I'm way ahead, thats the whole "problem" here. Sorry if it reads that way though, it's kind of hard to articulate this issue without it coming across as a brag, but I assure you my intentions here are genuine. Anyway...

22M, ~$1,170,000 in the S&P (mostly taxable account, like $40k Roth, and $1.5k in an HSA) And yes, obviously ~75% of this is inherited

Fire goal of $2.2m, Chubby $3.8m, Fat $7.5m. Even contributing nothing more I should hit these goals in my 30s, 40s, and 50s respectively.

I'm currently living at home with my mom. I dont really have a burning desire to leave since I'm rarely home between work and personal travel anyway, plus we get along very well. While I know it cant last forever, I'm genuinely fine staying here for a few years

The main benefit of this financial windfall is that I was able to leave my originally planned career and instead choose a career I genuinely love, which is what I've been doing for the past few months. The flexibility and benefits are also unmatched, I don't think I'll ever fully leave till my 70s, if that.

Right now since I have basically 0 expenses, Im maxing out my Roth IRA, Roth 401k, HSA, maybe a backdoor Roth if it gets to that point, all the logical things I always planned on doing before the windfall.

But now I'm kind of realizing the numbers say I don't need to be doing any of that, mathematically I'm kind of setting myself up to have more than I could ever spend. With no desire to ever marry, let alone have children, I don't really love the idea of leaving this world with money unspent.

So now I'm just completely lost, my very savings-oriented mindset tells me to continue maxing every retirement account before spending any money now, but am I just sacrificing a fun 20s for literally no reason?

The other logical play seems to be saving for a home, but I don't love the idea of committing to a city like that, plus with my job I could live literally anywhere in the world and commute to a handful US cities--an amazing perk but definitely doesn't make picking one any easier. Those FIRE goals include rent and associated housing costs anyway.

Maybe some of y'all who have already been through the quarter life crisis era could weigh in on what you'd do here. Thank & Love you all

[2024 post:](https://www.reddit.com/r/coastFIRE/s/KxmDu6KAbT) [https://www.reddit.com/r/coastFIRE/s/KxmDu6KAbT\](https://www.reddit.com/r/coastFIRE/s/KxmDu6KAbT)

It’s been 2 years since my original post. I wanted to share updates to my portfolio, new concerns and do a sanity check.

Changed my job in a month after my last post. New Job is pretty good including work life balance. I am 45 and spouse is 40. We are planning to work another 10 years before retiring.
Goal is to retire with 4 million in nominal dollars. Current spend of 110k per annum with employer provided insurance.

1. ⁠Paid of House worth 550K
   
2. ⁠529 plan with 132K
   
3. ⁠401K/Roth IRA/HSA - 1200K
   
4. ⁠Brokerage account/savings - 450K+150k

Invested money will be approx at 1.75 mil in 2 months with 50K in HYSA excluding house , Kids 529. We are able to contribute 120k -150k per year if both of us work. ALL investments in S&P 500 index and plan to do the same in future. I have a term life in place.

Concerns:
1. Job loss due to AI impact
2. Market performance over next 10-12 years. Will it generate 8-10 percent nominal growth in next 10 years.

let me know how I am doing and any thing else I am missing.

29M living in San Francisco.

I'm self-employed and own a small service business, so my income is variable from year to year. Some years are much better than others, and I don't really think of my current income as guaranteed, so I'm trying to make decisions assuming things could normalize.

I feel like I'm in a pretty good position financially, but I also know I have some concentration risk and an expensive primary residence. I'd genuinely appreciate people poking holes in my plan.

Current Snapshot

Income

I started in sales out of college and grew my income rapidly (100K, 300K, 350K, 400K, 350K) my first 5-6 years in the workforce. 2 years ago I started my own a small business with a partner (50-50 ownership), so my income varies quite a bit year to year.

This year's business revenue is on pace to be around $2.5-3M, with approximately $800k+ in gross profit before operating expenses. After expenses, retirement contributions, and taxes, I expect my personal income to be in the mid-six figures, although I don't count on that level being permanent and try to make decisions assuming it could normalize lower.

Retirement Accounts (~$349k)

• Solo 401(k): ~$313k
  • ~96% QQQM
  • ~4% VOO
• Roth IRA: ~$36k
  • 100% QQQM

Taxable Brokerage (~$440k)

• NVIDIA: ~$194k (44%)
• Amazon: ~$77k (17%)
• IVV: ~$100k (22%)
• VOO: ~$38k (9%)
• QQQM: ~$31k (7%)

Earlier this year I intentionally simplified my portfolio. I sold my international funds, emerging markets, small-cap, mid-cap, Bitcoin ETF, and several other positions to focus on fewer investments with higher conviction.

Retirement Strategy

My plan is to max out my Solo 401(k) every year, including both employee and employer contributions (currently around $70k/year), then invest excess cash into my taxable brokerage account.

Real Estate

I own my primary residence.

• Current value ~1.2M
• Current mortgage balance: ~$795k
• 6.49% fixed mortgage (3 years into 20 year)
• Mortgage payment: ~$7,700/month (Principal, interest, and property tax)
• HOA: $500/month

This is easily the part of my finances that concerns me the most. Housing is expensive, but I really like where I live and don't currently have plans to sell.

Monthly Spending

Housing:

• Mortgage: ~$7,700
• HOA: $500

Everything else:

• Roughly $5,000/month

Total monthly spending is around $13k, and I realize housing is a disproportionately large piece of that.

Long-Term Goals

• Continue growing my investments.
• Max retirement accounts every year.
• Reach Coast FIRE relatively early.
• Build enough invested assets that work becomes optional.
• Keep my condo if it makes financial sense long term (Goal is to keep and rent out if/when I leave the city).

Questions

1. What's the biggest weakness in my overall financial plan?
2. Is my portfolio too concentrated in tech?
3. Would you diversify more aggressively at this point?
4. Would you prioritize paying down a 6.49% mortgage or continue investing?
5. If you were in my position, what would you change over the next 10 years?
6. What blind spots do you think I have?

I'm not looking for people to tell me I'm doing well. I'd much rather hear what you'd do differently if this were your money.

Thanks!

My husband and I have different views on what we should do next, and I’d love to hear from people who’ve actually been in a similar position.

We’re in our late 30s/early 40s with three young kids (all under 10). Our net worth is around US$2.7M, invested primarily in index funds.

A few years ago we relocated to a lower-cost country in Asia. One of us works remotely, and our current income comfortably covers our expenses, so we’re not drawing from our investments. Our portfolio continues to grow.

Life here has been really good for our family:
Lower financial stress than before.
More time with our kids.
Excellent, affordable education.
Our kids are learning another language and growing up with exposure to a different culture.
Affordable childcare when we need it.
Our extended family also visits and helps, so we don’t feel isolated.

Before this, we both worked demanding jobs in a high-cost area. We earned more, but life felt like a constant cycle of work, commuting, and trying to squeeze in family time. At our peak we had HHI $700k.

My husband feels that your late 30s and 40s are your peak earning years, and that we’re leaving a lot of money on the table by not returning to higher-paying careers. His view is that we should maximize income while we still can and then enjoy an even more secure retirement later.

My perspective is that our finances are already in a position where we’re not spending down principal, our investments are still compounding, and these years with our kids are something we can never get back. I suspect I’d regret missing this stage of their lives far more than I’d appreciate having an even larger portfolio.

For those who’ve reached CoastFIRE or FI, how did you think about this tradeoff?

If you chose to prioritize time over maximizing earnings, do you have any regrets? If you chose to go all-in on your peak earning years, was it worth it looking back?

I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who have lived through this decision rather than what they think they would do.

I have postpartum depression after the birth of my fourth child and I’m trying to understand if/when I can reduce my income to part time. Our incomes have grown over past 11 years from 190,000 to over 500,000. Growth has mirrored each other.

37F 40M
Kids are 8,6,5,6 mo

Dual-Income household (Current: 520,000-550,000)

VHCOL

Expenses: 250,000 which includes:

6K/monthly rent
1 daycare, 3 private school tuitions (48,000 total for all/annual)
Vehicles are now both paid off

Investments: 1.7 million across TSP, 401K, backdoor roths.

Currently between company match and automatic contributions, backdoor Roth, and TSP constructions we put away 100,000 yearly on autopilot. We save another 20,000-40,000 from bonuses.

Primary home: worth 730,000. Mortgage 492,000. Rent covers mortgage and cash flows 1500 monthly.

GI Bill transferred and 529 with growing 40,000 yearly with 200,000 by end of 2028.

My husband’s salary is growing to 280,000. Mine is steady at 225,000.

Husband will continue to work and may get further promotions. When can I go down to part time?

Just turned 30 and apparently no amount of PTO, vacations, or "self-care" has fixed the burnout. At this point I'm pretty sure my problem is that I simply don't enjoy working. I have no dream job. I dream of not having one. Can work up to 60 hrs per week when it gets bad.

I work remotely making $115k/year. The pay is decent, but the stress doesn't always feel worth it. Being remote is honestly the only reason I'm still here. I don't really want to chase a higher salary if it just means more stress, more meetings, and more of my life disappearing into Slack.

My goal is to wake up and not be pissed that I made it through another night just to work again in the morning.

edit: already see a therapist

Age: 30
Salary: $115k
No kids/don't want kids.

Income
401(k): Contribute 6% with a 3% employer match
Max my Roth IRA every year
Can't contribute to an HSA anymore because of my insurance

Assets
Brokerage: ~$170k
Retirement accounts (401(k) + Roth + old HSA): ~$120k
Cash: ~$25k
House worth about ~$500k (have a mortgage)

Debt
Just the mortgage. No credit card, student loan, or car debt. Pay mortgage with partner.

Spending
Roughly $66k/year, although I know there's room to cut that if it meaningfully moves the needle.

My questions:
Is it realistic to be financially independent enough to walk away from work in about 5 years, even if it isn't "traditional retirement?"

Would you prioritize brokerage investing over putting every dollar into retirement accounts since I'd ideally want access early?

Are there any strategies I'm completely overlooking, I have no idea what I'm doing?

I'm not looking for "find a job you're passionate about" advice. I've accepted that my passion is...not working.

Mostly looking for people who've actually accelerated their path to FIRE. If you were in my shoes at 30, what would you do differently over the next five years?

I am looking for some feedback and advice on current financials.

Personal and professional info:
Single male 31 YO with no kids living a MCOL area. I’m an insurance broker(3rd year in) that changed brokerages at start of this year for a higher commission splits on renewals and I’m now 1099. Last year I made around 75k pretax. This year I can expect to finish around 60k pretax. Will likely need to use around 10k of investments to cover taxes. Next year I can expect to make 90k and the following around 115k and so on. In 10 years I will make around 200k with renewals but I’m biting the bullet this year.

Expenses: Around 5k/month total
mortgage-1350
Health insurance 375
Life and disability insurance- 350
Car insurance-150
Business expenses- ~500
Utilities - 275
Additional expense not included-2000

Assets:
Roth IRA- 50k in mix of index funds no bonds
Brokerage-95k; 38k is meta and the rest in mix of index funds with no bonds.
Rollover IRA- 6k in mix of index funds no bonds
Savings- roughly 5k (varies over the course of the month)
Home- 330k
WL policy- 4k cash value
Car- 3.5k

Liabilities:
Home- 188k

Coast goal: build an insurance book that lets me work 20hrs/week at age 40 making 200k /year

Final Retirement goal:
10k post tax per month for spending

This year is a weather the initial storm of making ends meet but will have a major up tick as my book grows. I am trying to figure out what I need to start planning for next year since I will be able to save again and invest. Initial plans was to max out my Roth contributions next year. And possibly open an HSA to max out as well. Other plans likely include rebalancing my meta stock so that I don’t have as much exposure however it will have a hefty tax implications as I bought them at 4200 cost basis back in 2014.

Any advice and critique is greatly appreciated