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

Terms for those that are unfamiliar:

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

Expected Premium Contribution (Coverage Year 2027)

Source:

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

Out-Of-Pocket Maximum (Coverage Year 2027)

*CMS is trialing an option for insurers in 2027 to offer Bronze variants that are allowed to exceed the federal OOP limits by 30% in order to provide a wider array of premium options for customers. Such policies may only be offered by an insurer that also offers a normal standard Bronze. States are allowed to prohibit the availability of high OOP variant policies at their discretion.

Sources:

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

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

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

I'm not talking about,

• I should have started investing earlier
• I should have avoided lifestyle creep

I'm talking about a single, concrete mistake that has cost your FIRE, or delayed FIRE signficiantly.

For me, it was selling my RSUs. I forgot the exact amount, but I had between $5k-$10k in big tech RSUs decades ago. I immediately sold the RSUs for general spending. If held, it would be worth probably $1m today.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TLDR: FIRE has taught me less about money than I expected, and much more about identity, work, consumption and mental energy.

Btw, if some of the English here sounds a bit funny it is because this is a r/spainfire post written manually by me and quickly translated with AI. I am interested in hearing opinions and experiences from people in other countries. Also keep in mind my monthly costs in Spain are roughly 18-32k€/year all included, which may be a big contrast compared to USA. I think FIRE takeaways still apply.

Hi everyone. It has been a long time since I posted a proper status update, mainly because I wanted to distance myself a bit from constantly measuring money.

I have now spent three years in a kind of semi-FIRE situation. It originally started as a one-year sabbatical to test what a mini-retirement would feel like.

In the end, it became three years of travelling for periods of time, doing consulting work, renovating an apartment, testing business ideas and living many days without a fixed routine.

Sorry for the very long post. There is not much Excel here and much more personal reflection.

Hopefully it helps someone who is getting close to their FIRE number but does not know whether to stop, keep going, start a business or simply take a break.

Where I came from

• My first FIRE moment happened when I was a teenager.
• My parents bought a new car, but then we could not really use it because “it consumed too much fuel”. That was the moment something short-circuited in my brain.
• I have followed the FIRE movement since I was 18.
• I studied engineering, although I had always been more interested in business and marketing.
• I used to say that I would start my own company and retire by 25.
• Well, the story went differently.
• I found a job and everything felt quite comfortable, so I spent around ten years, from my early twenties to my early thirties, working in a very specific industry.
• I then changed my story to: at 30, even if I cannot retire, I will take a one-year sabbatical and then start my own business.
• At 30, I did not feel I could leave my previous boss and team in a bad position.
• At 31, I finally left after organising things so three people from my team could take over everything I was managing.
• I made the decision at 31 with a net worth of around €450,000–€500,000. Around €100,000 was in cash and the rest was invested.
• At that point, I had no mortgage, no partner, no children and no loans.
• Six of my final working years were in Spain. I originally started my career in the Netherlands, earning €1,300 net per month and paying €500 for a room.

What I expected, or was afraid would happen

• Travel.
• Spend more money than ever and become stressed about it.
• My investment growth not covering my expenses.
• Return from travelling with an identity crisis and no idea what to do next: start a company, decide where to live or look for another job.
• Have to rent at very high prices, or not be accepted by landlords because I could not prove a stable salary.
• Feel that I would never be able to return to a “normal” job.

What actually happened

• My assets had a very strong bull market during the first year.
• I spent almost the same amount while travelling as I did living in Spain.
• I found love on the other side of the world.
• I bought an apartment without a mortgage and renovated it myself.
• I created a consulting company without doing any marketing, only through word of mouth.
• I tested many business ideas and pilots, but none of them has felt ideal. If you have a high paid job that's sort of comfortable, that's difficult to replace.
• I normally work for three to six months and then take another three to six months “off”. I have been doing this for almost three years.
• Going back to a stable and well-paid job has become increasingly attractive as a Plan B.
• Now that I am back home, I spend much less than when I had a full-time job. I am more selective and much more conscious about what I buy. My previous type of work also created a strong need to disconnect, socialise and sometimes maintain appearances.

Financial observations

• For around 18 to 24 months before leaving my job, my net worth was already moving up and down each month by much more than I could influence by saving more or earning more.
• I therefore had some experience seeing that the compounding snowball, both positively and negatively, had more power than I did in the short term.
• While I was travelling around the world, my portfolio experienced the largest growth I had ever seen.
• I did absolutely nothing. It was simply luck and remaining invested.
• I did not stop investing while travelling. I had accumulated around €100,000 in cash, so I continued making monthly contributions to my investment account at roughly the same level as before.
• Once you reach a certain invested net worth relative to your annual spending, monthly contributions start having much less impact.
• In my case, I think this happened somewhere around €300,000–€500,000 invested and €24,000–€32,000 in annual spending.
• Your contributions are not irrelevant, but you can take a break, reduce the pressure and live more in the present without feeling so guilty.
• Psychologically, your monthly contribution starts becoming less important than normal market volatility.
• When I run the numbers now, I realise that maximising my contributions does not accelerate the result nearly as much as it did during my first ten years.
• However, doing so can significantly reduce my quality of life today.
• Looking back, these last three years have somehow been the years in which I earned the least from employment and spent the most relative to my active income.
• Despite this, after three years, I now have almost the same amount invested as I had before buying my apartment, plus a fully paid apartment.
• I suppose this is the magic of compound interest, although I experienced it because I happened to be invested during a very good period.
• They have also been the three most revolutionary and enjoyable years of my life.
• I do not feel the need to calculate the “opportunity cost” or “ROI” of these three years.
• I am a different person and I also have more wealth.
• I do not care if working continuously would have generated 40% more capital. I would not exchange these years for anything.
• It is also true that I would not have made the jump before 31.
• The timing was important, not only because of the €400,000–€500,000 financial cushion, but also because my final two or three working years significantly increased my value in the job market.

Housing observations

• At the end of year one, I stopped travelling after nine months because my ideal apartment appeared on the market.
• I had been looking for more than five years. My mother visited it for me and I basically reserved it through a video call.
• I bought it in cash and renovated it mostly by myself.
• Doing the renovation saved money, but I also loved the process and I feel extremely proud of it.
• Without leaving my job, I probably would never have done this.
• The apartment has an excellent location and a lot of natural light, but it is very small.
• And I love it.
• When I had a full-time job, I was only looking at apartments or houses costing at least €450,000, already renovated.
• This was a major change in perspective.
• Now I was thinking about what I actually needed.
• Before, my thoughts were more like: “What if I need this?” or “Since I am already getting a mortgage, I might as well buy something bigger.”
• In year three, I travelled again and rented my apartment temporarily for three months, partly to test the experience of “living from rental income”.
• It made basically no difference.
• My investments continued fluctuating by much more than the €900 monthly rent.
• Considering the contracts, finding the tenant, moving my things, filing the income, taxes and general hassle, I probably would not do it again.

Consumption and daily life observations

• Retiring at 30–35 can be boring if you are reasonably social and do not have a partner or children.
• You can feel slightly outside of society.
• I understand this probably changes significantly when you have a partner at home or children, because you can use your free time to improve the family’s quality of life.
• Without them, life can sometimes feel slightly selfish.
• It can also feel like some of your additional time is wasted because most of your friends and family are still only available after 5pm.
• If you are materialistic and your priorities are not properly aligned, retirement gives you much more time to spend much more money.
• For me, this has been an intense therapeutic process.
• Most working people have limited free time, and they fill that limited time with experiences or objects they purchase.
• It is extremely difficult to disconnect free time from consumption.
• This can quickly create a completely new monthly spending level, far above the one you originally planned for FIRE.
• When you finally reach the point where you can buy that house or car, and you also have enough time to think calmly about it, you may decide not to buy it.
• You may have only been in love with the idea of being able to afford it.
• That was true for me with both the house and the car.
• I now feel very calm about it.
• I know the time may come, but I no longer feel that urgent need.
• I have also met several retired people, and they have all told me something similar.
• Eventually you may hate the big house because it consumes your life.
• A smaller house in a much better location is often a better choice.

Work and employability observations

• During year two, while I was installing the first furniture after the renovation, a former colleague called me.
• I assumed it was an informal conversation, but it turned out to be a disguised job interview.
• I ended up earning more than ever for six months while working three days per week from home.
• I do not work in IT.
• Because I did not need the job and already had my own life and projects, I was not afraid of “losing” anything.
• The negotiation therefore felt extremely natural.
• Through word of mouth, I signed another two or three consulting clients.
• The work was relatively easy, but I strongly disliked losing mental space again after experiencing nine months of complete disconnection.
• In year three, I am still consulting, normally with one client at a time.
• Between clients, I take time off or test new business ideas in the market.
• Spoiler: not everything that looks attractive is actually attractive.
• I now know that I can return to work if I need to.
• This may be the most revealing lesson.
• I was in love with the idea of “stopping work”, but in reality I am in love with being able to decide when I take a break.
• If you are reasonably good at what you do, you can probably continue doing this even without reaching full FIRE.
• You can leave one job, take a break and eventually find another one.
• You are not married to any company, and no company owes you anything.
• Employability is a very undervalued asset in post-FIRE planning.
• It is not all black or white.
• You can feel much more comfortable retiring if you know you remain highly employable.
• This is especially relevant because the worst-case scenario is a major market decline during the first years of retirement.
• If the market falls after ten years of a strong retirement portfolio, you may still remain well ahead.

Future work and entrepreneurship observations

• There is no perfect job. Every job has advantages and disadvantages.
• I genuinely had a lot of time to test different things.
• I tried renovation work, farming, ecommerce businesses, in-person consulting, online consulting, B2B and B2C.
• The thing I surprisingly miss the most is going to an office and having colleagues.
• It sounds ridiculous.
• I also know that if I return to an office, this will probably become the part I hate the most again.
• Humans are difficult to satisfy.
• The opportunity cost of starting a company is enormous when your normal job already pays well.
• It is not only the initial financial investment.
• It is also the months without a salary and the uncertainty, especially when your employment income could be €60,000–€100,000 per year.
• By the time the business works, you recover the initial investment and reach the income level you previously had, five years may have passed.
• Those are five years in which you could have continued earning a corporate salary and investing.
• You need to genuinely want to build a company and be financially and mentally comfortable enough not to obsess over the “ROI”.

Travelling without a return ticket

• I do not have a travel Instagram account. I do not travel to make it public.
• I had travelled extensively for work before, but this was a completely different experience.
• I am not talking about destinations or hotels.
• I am talking about knowing that you do not have to report to anyone.
• Travelling without a return ticket is difficult to describe.
• You may enjoy travelling more or less, but the feeling is similar to being a child at the beginning of the summer holidays.
• It is probably the best feeling I have experienced in my adult life.
• Remembering that feeling regularly has cured me of many modern Western problems.
• I now know that I have designed a working and financial life in which I can recreate a similar situation whenever I really need it.
• Knowing that I can return to work, and that returning would not mean I have “failed”, has also helped me manage my previous mindset.
• I have made peace with the fact that there is nothing wrong with working.

Limitations and particularities of my experience

• My first sabbatical year happened during a bull market.
• I do not know how these three years would have felt if the first year had produced a 30% market decline while I had no salary.
• I do not have children.
• My relationship situation is particular.
• I am lucky to be highly employable in a niche industry.
• I have a relatively high tolerance for uncertainty and now have little need for external validation.

My personal FIRE conclusions after three years

• The hardest part of FIRE has not been financial. It has been about identity.
• Many of my desires were about being able to afford something, not actually owning it.
• Living from investments or rental income is slightly less idyllic than I imagined.
• I do not know whether I would feel the same after a first sabbatical year in a bear market.
• Employability may be the most important asset for feeling comfortable during semi-FIRE or early retirement.
• My new definition of wealth is not money or time. It is energy.

After three years, I do not know whether I want to retire at 40, 50 or 60.

What I do know is that I do not want to work on autopilot again.

I hope this post is especially useful for people who feel they have worked hard, whose numbers already make sense, but who do not know whether to continue through inertia or take a break.

I am not saying everyone should do it.

But for me, this organised pause taught me more about my real priorities than a decade of spreadsheets.

I don't really have anyone to tell this to. I do a lot of overtime at my job with American Airlines as an aircraft mechanic. I don't want to tell my friends because I know they would get jealous. They know I make a very high income but they have made fun of my old home & think I'm cheap. I'm just excited. I plan to hit the 72k max for this year.

Edit correction: I have a mega back door 401k

For those in FIRE or soon thinking about to (first off, congrats) - what is your strategy? Do you strictly withdraw from things such as brokerage, 401K, IRA, CD? If so, what % do you feel comfortable withdrawing the standard 4% (or less depending on anticipated retirement age) or do you determine withdrawal rate based on market performance?

What about cash fund (for market down years)- how many years of expenses do you keep in liquid assests (where do you recommend parking it?). How do you think about refilling this bucket?

Thanks.

Context: I am 26. I have been working as an SDE at Amazon for 4 years since graduating. Promoted to SDE II after 2 years. Current TC is 250k. Have saved $750,000, expect to hit $1,000,000 within 2 years.

Current WLB is honestly decent. I put in 35 hour weeks, but 2 hours commuting every day means that figure is actually closer to 45 hours. I also really dislike the location where I currently live - it is 3-5 hours from my hobby destinations, so I am commuting 10 hours for work and 6-10 hours for hobbies on the weekend. In an effort to improve my living situation, I have been applying to remote roles.

I have received an offer from Temu. Comp would be $290k (all cash), and the position is full remote. However, I have some concerns about WLB. The engineers I have spoken to haven't outright said it is terrible, but I do get the sense that it will be similar or worse than Amazon. Since the parent company is Chinese, I worry that 996 culture will be the expectation. I also worry that despite English being the designated language for the role, my inability to speak/read Mandarin will be a huge barrier. I have no kids and a huge amount of savings, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if I quit 6 months after joining, but I worry about the impact to my career progression.

Pros of making the move:

• Get to move to a location I love, with lower COL, that will significantly improve my ability to enjoy life outside of work.
• 40k pay bump, 250k->290k
• Eliminating 10 hours of commuting per week, and 6-10 hours of hobby commute.

Cons of making the move:

• Worse WLB
• Unable to speak Mandarin, and company is clearly majority Chinese.
• Feel that after 4 years + a promotion at Amazon, I am a desirable candidate. May lose some of that desirability if I join Temu for 6 months and then quit.

What would you do? Let me know if I am missing any key details.

I got lucky with some good freelancing gigs over the past years and worked up to 80-hour weeks. I have accumulated around 650 000 euros of invested capital in my own company, as well as around 150 000 euros of invested net capital for me personally.

I am now M30, and I am starting to think if I should just do some kind of combination of coast/poverty fire mixed with vanlife. I have already lived mostly in the van for the last 3 years, which has helped with savings. My well-paying freelance gigs have mostly ended, and the last remaining one is due to be completed by the end of this year. While my work in programming has paid well, I am fed up with this field of work and would like to either find something more interesting or just focus on my hobbies and retire at least for the foreseeable future.

For the past three years, my expenses have been around 1000-1500 euros per month (+ van payment, but it is now fully paid off), so around 2000 euros a month or 24 000 euros a year should be easily enough for me. For context, the average salary in my country is around 30 000 euros, though I spend most of my time in cheaper countries with my van.

I now have 800 000 euros invested, from which a 3% withdrawal rate would put me at 24 000 euros. Due to the way taxes work in my country, I would be paying around 26% taxes in total from the capital that I raise from my company, so it would cost my company savings around 32 000 euros, so right at 4% withdrawal rate.

I would be interested in finding smaller gigs where I could also find some extra money, but these are of course not given.,

Right now around 60% of my investments are in SP500 and Nasdaq100, and rest is in direct stocks. Some of these stocks have done well (AMD, Nvidia, Google etc) and have explained the relatively fast accumulation of capital. But if the tide turns in the stock market, this may just as well be erased as fast as it has come, so I am thinking if I should rebalance my portfolio and sell some of the direct stocks. But then I would be facing a big tax bill.

Any advice or comments? Anything I am forgetting?

Sorry for the humblebrag post and poor formatting, but not sure where else would even be remotely interested. Maybe this can be an AMA of sorts?

Long story short, grew up in poverty. Enlisted in the air force at 18 as an airborne farsi linguist (got to fly on the gunship, mc12, all variants of RC 135, and Osprey for the aviation nerds) invested in stocks and real estate with as much money as I could while still enjoying life (crazy people say you cant do both). I did just shy of 12 years and got out as an E-6 because I felt ready to retire with my real estate (16 doors) and I think about 300k in stocks. Also because I became a military justice paralegal and hated it, the justice system is broken. Saw a cool job opportunity as an analyst for our predator drones so I did that for a year and then flew on the MC-12 in Iraq for 3 years, well only in country for a total of almost 2 of those 3 years. Got laid off and really retired. During this time I also ran a fleet of about 6 cars as turo rentals, surprisingly profitable a few years back. I also owned about 3 failed businesses, restaurant, hvac, and flooring. I gave people chances and they blew it.

That was 3 years ago, my current NW is about 4 million, about 75% investments and 25% real estate. Here are some of things Ive done since retiring;

- sold most of my properties. Just kept 4 doors and my primary home. Have one property that is seller financed with 5 years remaining and a balloon payment

-invested heavily into stocks with the proceeds from the property sales.

- invested in africa. Building up a 30 ish acre coffee plantation, a commercial lot, and a second home. Should all be done within a year or so

- continued travelling the world. I travelled in the air force and my deployment job, but now im doing cruises and flying to other countries for fun. Ive been to all the continents besides antarctica, but ill go if there are trips available.

- current hobbies are running my neocaridina shrimp aquarium and flipping gold bars for credit card points and sign up bonuses.

- plans for later this year are payoff brothers mortgage for his birthday

- start investment accounts for all nieces and nephews.

- volunteer more. At the very least to not feel lke a hermit while im not traveling. I have always loved it in the past, just hard to commit to anything being gone all the time.

30M, married, no kids, ~180k income. No debt outside of mortgage. This is currently where I stand:

HYSA: $5,204.33
Brokerage: $7,155.40
IRA (625 monthly): $14,258.54
HSA (300 monthly): $6,566.38
401k (600 monthly, plus 600 match): $154,163.48
Mortgage balance: -$236,509.00 (5.99%, ~387k home value, extra 10k yearly)

Liquid net worth: $187,348
Home equity: ~$151,090.73
Total net worth: $338,438.73

The HYSA and brokerage are a little lower than I would like. Prefer to keep the total combined in the 15-25k range, but had some emergencies recently (homeownership life). My goal in the next 10 years is to continue to pay off my mortgage so that I will have no debt by 40. Everything is Roth at the moment, but may switch some of the 401k to traditional.

2036 projections:
HSA: 65k
IRA: 135k
401k: 500k
Mortgage: $0
Liquid NW:$700,000
Total NW: $1.1M

Would love to hear people’s thoughts/advice. The huge curveball will be kids which basically throws out all my calculations lol.

Hello! 33F here. Honestly, I’m feeling slightly less confident about my finances as of late. My partner and I moved to the south for his job when I finished grad school. He is making a little over 90k. We knew my career path would be a little trickier with our new location, so I was unemployed for about 6months. I am making less than I would be in our home state, but I suppose cost of living is slightly less. My current role is only making 64k in a government role so the benefits are nice. But I’m in the mental health field and our new location seems to pay extremely low in my field.

Has anyone had any luck rocketing their income faster than they expected? Realistically, I’d like to invest in real estate and I currently have a little under 100k in retirement accounts. But I can’t help but feel my trajectory towards financial independence has come to a screeching halt. Thanks for the input.

Late 30s, kids, live in western EU country.

-Will soon be buying a house that is paid off in full or very low home equity loan for renovations (~700/month).
- total net worth is around 2.8 million (~1 mil from sale of a previous house to a new house which we expect to downsize after kids leave school, 1.8 mil in ETFs, Roths/Trad IRAs, misc stocks)
-annual spend is likely the highest it will ever be since we have young children, around 45-50k/year.
-cost of living in my country is lower than the US due to free university and healthcare.
-pretty basic lifestyle and low spending (one car, no luxury cars/clothes, no expensive gym memberships or eating out often)
-no debt
-expect a multi-million inheritance (1-2 million on low end, most likely closer to 7-10mil in today’s value) from spouse’s parents sometime in the future which is in a trust.

A few years ago I encouraged my spouse to leave their stressful 9-5 and I would be the only earner while they figured out what they wanted to do with their career. I expected this to last about a year at most. Fast forward 2.5 years they are actively pursuing building a company and have shown a passion for work for the first time ever, which I’m thrilled about, but if it’s successful it won’t bring in any income for years. I’ve also started a side project of my own and pursue it while maintaining an income.

The problem is I’m beyond burnt out with work. To let my spouse have a break, I’ve often worked 6 days a week. My work is a flexible yet stressful career where I only work if I get paid. Late hours have left me completely depleted and made me take a closer look at our finances.

Running all the numbers, I have a hard time finding any scenario where we wouldn’t be okay living off our investments and savings, at least for a few years. Spouse doesn’t feel comfortable with us not bringing in any income but I’m the only one working for said income at the moment. Even if something happened down the road and expenses increase, spouse also expects to inherit a several million inheritance (talking 7mil+)from his parents 20-30 years down the line but he refuses to take this into account at all when modeling numbers. I agree we should not rely on it to build our plan but I also think it’s foolish and unrealistic to discount it entirely.

My solution: I want to step back from work while maintaining our current expenses, at least for a little while so I can take a break and I can put more time and energy into my own passion project and just enjoy life for a change. He’s not comfortable with this. If I do, he wants us to buy a different home in a new town farther from my kids school which I don’t feel like is a fair trade off given his ability to make income himself if he wanted to.

I believe that if he’s worried about finances he can go back to work himself, which he has offered in the past, but I sense his offer is laced with resentment that he’d have to pull back from his business idea.

I ask him often what is the retirement number that would allow him to feel secure and he refuses to put a number on it claiming he doesn’t know. I increasingly feel that his decisions are emotional rather than based on facts or figures.

He’s well intentioned but this is a recurring argument we have. I can’t count how many times I can show him the various numbers and projections. I genuinely don’t know how to move past it in a way where everyone feels secure and also fulfilled.

Edit for clarity: we used to live in the US. Im a dual citizen and he’s a US citizen which is why we have Roths/IRAs

I could do with some help - there isn’t anyone IRL that I can speak to about this:

My wife and I are in our early 40s with three young kidos. I’ve been at the same company for 20 years, and we’ve always saved a good amount of our pay.

We paid off the house in 2018, and that’s around when we learned about MMM and got serious about investing and FI/RE.

Around the same time I got some big pay rises, and between that and a strong market, our investments have grown to about 30x expenses.

I thought I enjoy a lot of the job, but it’s been stressful and really hard to switch off from. Did I really enjoy it, I’m not so sure. I liked the responsibility, the title, and the fact that the paycheck was getting us to our number so fast. Now that we’ve hit our number, the motivation is gone, and people are starting to see it.

I heard this question..if my life were a movie, what would the audience be yelling at the screen - and the answer is JUST QUIT.

I should be thrilled, I know that. But I still can’t quite bring myself to do it. Not entirely sure why.

Part of it is that once I walk away from this role, that’s it — there is no going back. I could get another job in my field, but not this one, and not at this level.

I also don’t really know what “not working” even feels like. I’ve been doing this for 20 straight years.
The loss of income and identity — feels real right now. The upside of not working still feels abstract.

I would really appreciate some outside perspective on this. Have you been in my shoes? How do you find the courage to actually go through with it? Any blog posts or podcast episodes that helped you through this stage would be great too.

Thanks!

I keep saying things like once I retire I'll do XYZ. But I could be doing XYZ now, just less of it. So what's the odds of doing XYZ in retirement if I am not doing it now?

Will still feel like I don't have time for XYZ because I'll be doing more of the current activities I already do in my free time?

And I am not talking about things that can't be done while working like driving cross country for a month. But things like going to the movies or playing golf or going to the gym. If you aren't already doing those things while working in your spare time.. what makes you think you will do them when you have more spare time?

I live on Kaua'i and would love to connect with other people here pursuing FI/FIRE, especially leanFIRE but I'm open to meeting anyone with any style. It's a pretty specific lifestyle to be doing on an island like this, and I haven't met anyone else in the FIRE community yet.

If you're on Kaua'i (or anywhere else in Hawaii) and up for talking story, I'd love to hear from you. Mahalo!

So my brother is my FA. I do pay 1% AUM fee, as do all of his clients. But is there ever a justification for it?

Less than a year out for retirement at 60. Maried 38F Child 3

My 401k is currently in a target date fund.

My small brokerage is 70% VT and 30% SGOV.

My IRA with him is almost all in single stocks. The thing is he has been killing the S&P for eight years now.

That is the only justification for keeping it. I know, everyone is a genius in a bull market but he's been doubling the S&P for five years now. Plus, I'm a bit concerned that it could harm our relationship if I told him "thanks for getting me here but I'm transferring it to Fidelity and dropping it into VT/SGOV."

I know he fully expects me to roll over my 401k when I retire. I have about $900k with him now and another $1.4k in 401k.

I want to see what the group thinks. Would you leave the IRA with him and let him do all of the Roth conversions since those will be invested long term and live off of the 401k? The converted Roth is where the growth equities should reside anyway. Then just roll over the 401k to Fidelity, VT and SGOV that and live off of that. Or yank it and DIY, damn paying the 1%?

Our requirements are less than $100k / yr. In two years there will be $66k/yr in SS so the technical SWR after SS, dividends and interest are probably sub-1%. Take the difference from 401K then let him do roth conversions up to the 22% bracket. Then he can continue to actively manage that money for growth. Plus, I'm going to have to pay for Roth conversions out of pretax after a year or two anyway so technically the AUM will drop in total dollars somewhat.

Once everything there is converted to Roth IRA I can then do more with mine to continue to burn down the 401k to avoid RMDs and/or leaving a widow trap.

Really interested in your thoughts. Historical returns below. For whatever reason when I paste the chart it shifts the top line. First is my returns. Second column is S&P.

I have been reviewing my monthly expenses for 2026 so far. I have been spending more on average this year, primarily due to increased spending on restaurants as well as unexpected home repairs. I really enjoy eating out, but the price of restaurants is so high now that I really should keep a lid on that spend. I try to limit my restaurant spend to roughly $500 monthly, but it's so easy to exceed that in MA. I rarely get alcohol in a restaurant, but even a soda is $3 - $4. In my projected retirement budget, I have allocated $500 for this based on my prior spending, but my recent actual spending has me thinking that I may need to increase it to be realistic.

I do periodically adjust my projected retirement budget, but I am now only 4 months away from FIREing, so it's about to turn real! I don't expect to suddenly find a love for cooking at home, by the way. I have never enjoyed cooking.

I keep working because that's what you do.... I'm 45 and financially could afford to never work again, but how did you decide it was time??? It's terrifying (the boredom, not the finances).

Married Couple almost 30 no kids

Husband Job - $6,300

Wife Job - $6,020 ($1678 in bonuses)

Dog/Cat/Housesitting - $1,700

Gambling - $550 (thank you sign up bonuses and friend winning UFC debut)

Babysitting - $200

Selling Random stuff from APT trash on marketplace - $150

CC sign up bonuses - $100

TOTAL = $15,070

Spending for the month was $2,550 (we rent and share paid off Honda)

NW 450k all in VOO - working on loosening up and spending more - growing up with overspenders/2008 crisis made me extreme cheapskate to be blunt

We usually net right around 10k a month - what is reasonable amount to spend? I know we are too cheap right now

Any general advice?

(Side note - I never gamble and think it’s #1 growing addiction … but my friend was making UFC debut and was confident he would win - so did sign up bonuses and bet)

Genuine question. I'm not trying to argue or prove anyone wrong. I'm trying to understand the math.

I hear Caleb Hammer often say that, in many cases, renting and investing the difference can build more wealth than buying a house. I understand the argument that the stock market has historically outperformed real estate over the long term.

But how does that math account for opportunity cost later in life?

For example, once someone pays off a 30-year mortgage, they're essentially living without a mortgage payment (aside from property taxes, insurance, and maintenance). A lifelong renter, on the other hand, is still paying rent, and rent generally continues to increase over time.

Using my area as an example, a 2-bedroom apartment that rented for around $900/month about 20 years ago is now over $2,500/month. If that trend continues, rent could be significantly higher by the time today's renters retire.

So how does that factor into the comparison? Doesn't having a paid-off home dramatically reduce your retirement expenses and lower the amount you need to withdraw from your investment portfolio each year?

I'm genuinely curious how the numbers work when you account for rising rent, inflation, and the benefit of eventually owning your home outright. Is there something I'm missing?

I feel like places that have a good quality of life and are desirable would be the biggest draw. Cost of living could be variably important depending on how much people are retiring with. I know that in my city, for example, the cost of living and local wages don’t seem to align; I wonder if beyond remote workers, there is a silent FIRE community.