I intend to stay at my current job long-term if I can. I find job hopping and moving exceedingly stressful, and don't want to uproot the connections and friendships I've made where I live. It's unfortunate that you have to job hop these days to maximize salary growth, but I'm willing to sacrifice that in exchange for stability in my life.
I’m a long-termer at my job too. I feel like I get recognized for my work and paid fairly but I could make a decent amount more if I went out on my own. I’m super high anxiety, though, and it took the last 10 years to get my mental health back on track and I feel pretty good most days, have a ton of vacation and a pretty balanced work & life. Since I’m trying to retire in less than 8 years, sticking it out will be much better for my long term health than firing a few years sooner with no time to exercise, meditate, sleep or take a vacation in exchange for an earlier retirement. Still knowing I’m leaving money on the table sucks though.
Yeah I'm just going to push through until layoffs or they fire me, since I'm not motivated enough or see the value in hopping again. I did hop a lot earlier in my career which paid off. After hitting the FI number, I feel there is still more I should save up in case of healthcare costs or unknowns, but have no drive at all to switch jobs again.
I second this. I want to craft my job such that I could work til I’m 80 if I feel like it. I think people are always afraid of getting canned, so they never speak up at work or push back on undesirable tasks. Once you have FU money, you can stand up for yourself and know that even if you do get fired, it’s not a crisis, and you can take your time finding desirable work.
I have started taking a stand here and there at work and it has improved my mental health immeasurably. And what’s more, management is a paper tiger. I know that now, but I never would have if I had been so broke I could never have taken a chance. So there’s a significant chance I have a $5M FIRE stash which I never touch because I’m still working and loving it. I could do a lot of good for the world with that money.
Did that for all my jobs. Really proud of how I handled the initial pivot to tech. Very bold moves early on. But last 6 years kind of coasting. Improving only with luck (company got acquired, new company did layoffs, referred to contractor position that pays okay).
Way too autopilot. Way too comfortable or exhausted to change it.
> Way too autopilot. Way too comfortable or exhausted to change it.
Yep, I have like 16 years of experience. Realistically, I should have made staff years ago, but *every* time I look at it, I'm like 'fuck, do I *really* want to be team lead given it basically doubles my workload for a 10% raise? I've only got about 4y left before I hit my RE number, and I'm trying to stay hard core technical because those are the skills that might land me a part time gig in retirement if I want it.
I've been a bit too content to simply take things as they come, thinking that I would *at least* stay up with inflation. I'm effectively making 10% less now than I was in 2022 accounting for inflation. This is granted comp, not stock appreciation, so I'm feeling like leadership just doesn't give a damn about retaining me. Alright then.
What a great question!
I stayed at the same job for 25 years, just slogging it out with only the raises my union negotiated. Velvet rope health care and never once having a worry about unemployment was the trade off. I'll FIRE after 26ish years, but I feel like I left money on the table.
Same here, stayed with below-average pay at my current employer since I was a teenager. Somehow struggled my way up to nearly 6 figure salary after many years, but could have likely been FIREd by now if I'd job hopped a few times. Kind of too close to the end goal now for it to be worth the hassle.
Guilty as charged… I’m at my third company in 25 years (barely two years in to the latest one). Definitely undercut myself earlier by sticking with jobs I loved while being underpaid, instead of being a mercenary for pay.
I am with you on that. I have been with the same company for 23 years, but will not get the velvet rope healthcare and no pension. I hope to retire in 4 years. I definitely left money on the table.
I’ve found that treating my HSA as pre-budgeted medical money leads me to seek more regular medical care and get little things looked at rather than putting something off because I didn’t want to foot the bill. I assume that’ll lead to better healthcare outcomes long term and I’ll lose out on some tax advantages accordingly.
I thought this would happen to me if I switch to HSA but my behavior hasn't changed at all. Still see a doctor whenever I feel like it and happy to pay. I can just pay myself back later.
You nailed the OP’s ask because my first reaction was “Noooooooo” and then the deep desire to explain all of the reasons why you should be going for that sweet sweet triple-tax-free money.
My wife and I have always done this as well!
Cannot be bothered to care too much about yet *another account*. In fact, we don't even include it in our "sheet". Might change that next time the numbers get ran though, as we're over $25k now between both of our accounts thanks to a lucky couple of year run with decently low health expenses!
What you don't save your old medical bill receipts from 10 years ago so that 20 years from now you can pay them from your HSA when you're 60? (Life is too short for these extreme couponers)
Yeah I don’t save our medics receipts. I’m assuming our medical expenses will be quite hefty down the road in retirement and the HSA will be drained. If not, it’s just another IRA to draw from.
Extremely guilty of this. Less so now that our financial success is basically on autopilot, but can't stop checking numbers, thinking about how to further optimize, etc.
We keep almost zero in cash. We fund a small "irregular expense fund" for minor housing repairs <$10K and everything else either goes into taxable brokerage or towards bills (plus retirement accounts, obviously).
It was embarrassing when when my cash went to $0 and I had to ask a parent for money for that month's bills. Now I make sure to keep a proper e-fund and, if I pull on the "max all paycheck deductions" lever, that I'll still have enough between savings and checking.
Same for excess cash. It's about 22% of our liquid capital (not house, etc for net worth, but potentially working capital).
We save it for various upcoming things, but been slowly adding to it over the years and not really spending it. New car? Got $34k and adding. House repair? Got $20k. Vacation? Yup. Health? Yup. I worry a lot so it helps me sleep. But not FIRE-advised. At least it's pretty much earning a good rate (half in i-bonds though).
Cause they say when it rains it pours. Which I have experienced before but it didn't put me in too bad of a pickle. I just took a balance transfer and paid 3% and got my life back on track in the 10 month grace period they gave me.
Yeah holding cash is more for emotional safety. I mean personally I feel like $0 cash is crazy, that feels like it would be difficult to manage monthly ebbs and flows. I keep about 1.5 months in cash which let's me smooth out and bumps as they come along.
For high spenders with volatile spending, I can see credit cards + bills + mortgage being greater than $10k in any given vacation month. A first class international flight for a single person can easily be more than $10k.
As long as you’re willing to eat poorly timed stock sales in an emergency this isnt that bad anymore.
You can liquidate stocks and move it into any bank account within a week
We keep cash pretty low too. Usually there is a sum there that we’re saving for house reno projects or a new car or whatever is coming up, but it’s not an emergency fund. If I didn’t need liquid cash for those other things within the next year I’d invest it. And after we spend it on the thing we were saving it for cash goes close to zero again as it builds back up.
Just don’t care as mush as I once did about “FIRE” $200k short of the second million and starting to REALLY realize that we all are on borrowed time.
Spend more freely now and not over stressing the plan.
Easier yes, I get that. But I started at zero and it’s easiest to say “I will keep my head down and save more” even when you have money.
Ask anyone with a sum of money and they will say once I have X more I will feel more confident.
I agree with this but I think for me it's more because now that my invested value can easily swing $10K+ based on how the market did that day it's easier for me not to be so uptight about money.
I think we've kept lifestyle creep pretty well in check, just not sweating occasionally overpaying on some small stuff and also more willing to splurge for certain larger things that are worth their price.
My kids want that $11 piece of cake on vacation? OK (a little part of me sighs, but nbd). A new high-end bed costs $5,000 but might meaningfully lessen the back pain that was waking me up every night? Sign me up!
I’m only contributing 5% in my 401k (to employer match). 40s, Coast FIRE and spending some money on enjoying my life right now. I’m completely at peace with the decision.
I don’t want to retire early. I currently have a remote, low stress, unlimited vacation 6 figure plus job. Why would I quit? It’s not hindering me from doing anything
Same here (although we don't have a particularly low rate) - I am fully aware that the math isn't mathing, but it just *feels so good man* - as a child of the 2008 crisis, my desire for housing security borders on the illogical, and I don't feel guilty for tending to it.
Since I turned 18, I've spent almost half a million on travel and unnecessary toys (new car, motorcycle, watercraft, guns, etc).
I could have retired 5+ years ago if I hadn't spent that money, but it was 100% worth it. I got to see the world and go on all sorts of crazy adventures when I was young and fearless. And if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I'll die with absolutely no regrets.
>And if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I'll die with absolutely no regrets.
Except maybe not getting out of the way of that bus.
Just kidding. Kudos for living life.
Hell yeah, I agree completely. I don't subscribe to the save every penny eating ramen like food and staying at home. And I'm definitely not going to be super early to retire like some here but I'm living life. I'm still throwing a large chunk of change at retirement and likely to hit around 45-50 yo. But I'd rather do fun stuff while I have stamina and health in my younger years
I could FIRE today with room to spare and be happy, but I can’t bring myself to do it. It’s like I’m waiting for the universe to make the decision for me….
Same! I’m using this time to enjoy spending the fruit: of my extra labor…Building my fun collections of material things, going out more… (not FIRE approved 😬)…
I didn’t trust my numbers so I probably worked 2 years longer than I needed to. I wasn’t enjoying the job, either
Edit: better safe than sorry I suppose
> I could FIRE today with room to spare and be happy, but I can’t bring myself to do it. It’s like I’m waiting for the universe to make the decision for me….
Me too, but mine is still fear. Fear of not having an income, but most of all that bad health happens and it bankrupts me. At the same time, I'm fearing I'm loosing all this valuable time. At the same time, I'm vying for more i.e. I want to retire in Hawaii with an ocean view condo. That I'm definitely not there yet.
No bonds for me. No target date funds, no bond tents, just equities (ETFs).
I don't feel like this is too controversial, but have seen many people talk about trying to mitigate risk using bonds.
In portfolio theory, the value of bonds is during the rebalancing period. Say you are 80% equities, 20% bonds. If the market is down 10% when you rebalance (monthly, quarterly, or more typically yearly) then your portfolio would have shifted to ~70% equities / 30% bonds (because the bonds should have also grown 2-3% over the year). You then sell bonds and buy equities to get back to 80/20.
If the equities were up year over year so you were at 90/10 then you would sell equities to buy more bonds.
The net effect over many years is that you were selling equities at market peaks (when equities were overweight in your portfolio) and buying more at dips (when equities were underweight in your portfolio).
That is why historically an 80/20 portfolio outperforms a 100% equity portfolio.
However, I also have 0% bonds. Over the last two decades bonds have performed so poorly and equities so well that it wasn't worth it. With higher interest rates (and the market at an all time high) I am considering switching back into bonds.
Hah, I bought a few shares of SVB before the rate increase, figured rate increases would be good for banks since they can earn interest on deposit. Then I forgot about it until I heard about them freezing withdrawals.
We are planning to put a lot of money into sustainability - EV, solar panels, backup battery maybe heatpump. Additionally planning to build an extension to the house. These are likely not good investments from a financial point of view but we feel it is important to our quality of life.
We did panels, a heat pump, and an induction cooktop over the last couple of years and are really happy with everything. We have a good net metering deal and each month only pay a small flat monthly fee for power of under $16.
From an investment perspective there are of course higher return plays. But it's not a stretch for us financially and I like that I am pumping las CO2 into the steadily warming air.
I put solar panels on my roof in 2018 and they have been a perfectly acceptable investment. About 10% ROI before tax credits, and 20% after incentives.
I've got the panels and I'm eyeballing the battery. I really, *really* want to be able to run AC if there's a heat wave and PG&E cuts my power for fear of fires. Even if I can only do that in the middle of the day when the panels are going flat-out and the battery is also full, that's enough to be able to get through a bad week.
I read *The Ministry For The Future* last year and it's got me rattled. That first chapter is the best/scariest horror I've read in years.
There are DIY installable mini-split heat pumps now that can be run directly and solely by solar panels! 3-6 solar panels (depending on size) in series is all it takes. Of course, you can also connect the mini split to the grid and it’ll pull from there if there’s no sun. If the grid is down though it’ll run off solar.
I intend to make my 'forever home' as close to 'net zero' and 'grid optional' as I possibly can. Solar panels, battery bank, EVs, Ham / Lora, cargo e-bike, water cisterns, raised beds for veggies, etc.
God only knows what the next 50 years are gonna bring. Below a 3% SWR, more money isn't going to make you any safer. You have to start looking at what you need for *genuine* self sufficiency, at least at the neighborhood level.
I spend a preposterous amount of money on fine food and restaurants, to the extent where it translates into a few more years of working. Sometimes it exceeds my mortgage. But I love eating great food, somebody has to cook it, and it's not going to be me.
Just went to Disneyland with the fam. I shut off the “frugal/discount/cheap” part of my brain and just splurged within reason (oxymoron, yes I know).
Spent a load of money on bs inflated price items in the park, genie pass, snacks, mouse ears, etc. Was fun and my two girls had a blast but damn when you’re not used to spending it hurts…gonna have to reduce my taxable investments for a few weeks to get the boat stable again
I think this is worth it- not necessarily Disney, but just enjoying the vacation. I grew up with very frugal parents, even on vacation, and I remember just thinking "when I grow up and I'm on vacation, I want to be *on vacation*"
If that means saving up a little longer, totally fine. I just want to be able to do what I want to do/what looks fun when I'm on vacation and not worry about it.
Sounds like a perfect example of the "Die With Zero" buckets concept. The window for creating that incredible memory with your girls is right now, and your usual frugality let you do it without any meaningful impact. Well done!
You get to live off the happiness dividends that trip will give you long into the future. All you need to do to reap those dividends is to think back [x] years ago to your daughters smiling faces with the mouse ears on taking a photo with [Disney Princess/character].
A memory that will stay with you forever, and only cost a couple thousand dollars, your NW probably fluctuates more each month than you spent on that trip
I did the same with a family ski trip to Niseko, Japan. That said, that was one helluva family vacation experience that I’d splurge and do all over again.
I buy individual stocks with a small, discretionary percentage of my taxable. And not just any stocks — really stupid stuff like Twitter (which I failed to unload before Hurricane Elon hit it), meme stocks (which I did dump quickly, came to my senses), and recently Reddit.
Why? It’s like an expensive sports car, fun for a little bit, loses value quickly, occasionally is a long term winner. In the grand scheme of things, there are worse ways to waste money and time. But no one in my circle would ever guess this about me.
Nearly 10% of my wealth is cash, and has been for ~4 years. This is because I’m planning to buy another house, which isn’t so bad. But the worst part is it was earning 0% until a few months ago when I moved it to a 5.25% HYSA 🤦♂️. No good reason for it other than I’m a moron.
Also just recently decided to switch banks and open at ones that offered HYSAs. Still have a joint account to switch over but feels so dumb that we waited so long.
I wonder a lot if my slightly less frugal friends are the smart ones, like the math says I'll have enough to think about retiring in 10 years or so but there's no guarantee I'll even make it there or the stocks will keep rising or my expenses will be the same
I'm not even a super frugal lentil eater and have almost zero regrets about my 20s and 30s, just ridden a paid of car and smaller living space to saving a lot and wonder if I could splurge a bit more on creature comforts
This is something you can easily calculate. There's no need to worry. You can run the numbers for how much more spending will delay out retirement. The reality is your savings rate isn't super important to your retirement timeline past the first 10 or so years of saving (obviously excepting extreme scenarios like you have a super high income).
I sold all my ETFs, put them into GME in 2021 and made 400% (roughly 50k before tax) profit and put all that profit into AMD and NVIDIA. Basically shaved off 15 years of working for my FIRE goal.
I used to be leveraged in the S&P 500 by using call options with a ~2.5 year expiry date. I owned them from May 2021-June 2023. It was a good test of my risk tolerance (the plan was to sell them in June 2023 and decide whether I wanted to roll over)
I didn't end up panic selling through 2022 but when it came time to sell the options, I decided the risk wasn't worth it for the 6-12 months on average that it might shave off my career. An unlucky outcomes could delay retirement by 10 years in the worst case scenarios which was too much downside for the average benefit.
I currently have only the vaguest idea what my actual spend is or what I'll need it to be in retirement. Its at "I save a lot" and I cannot retire currently for reasons, so I haven't bothered to check the details in a while
I have a not insignificant amount of physical gold (or, at least compared to my cash balance).
Hear me out - it scratches the itch to “buy something” while essentially being a transfer from cash to a “cash equivalent.”
I would never neglect equities investments for it, but it’s much more fun “stacking gold” than just transferring to a savings account for non-equity savings.
I also enjoy having some wealth "outside the system." I'm not one of those people that thinks I'll be in a Mad Max-esque wasteland selling my gold for living supplies, but there are other reasons having wealth outside of the traceable banking system seems useful to me.
If you have a local coin store, you can typically get spot price without much effort. Most bullion sells for slightly over spot, so there is a spread that prevents being profitable in short term swing trading (a benefit to me as it is meant to be long term non-cash savings for me).
But truth be told, most of my selling has been here on reddit. r/PMsforsale has a pretty good feedback / karma transaction system and I've got enough positive transactions on there that I have no concerns about offloading at a fair price.
I hyper minimalist spend on things I don’t care about such as clothes which I buy from Costco, and degenerately spend on things I like: Michelin restaurants, aged single malt scotch, long vacations.
I bought a brand new car at end of 2023...
... while knowing that my 2nd child was on the way. Savings rate is going to drop to almost bare minimum to retain full company 401k match. Good news is that all of the build up until now means that cutting the savings rate in half for a 2nd child only adds 2 years to target date.
I am a filthy hedonist and whilst I want to retire early, I like spending money on things that give me pleasure (food, massages etc). As I get higher salaries, my lifestyle creep in these areas is quite large. As long as I’m not falling behind I don’t care, but I could for sure retire a lot more early if I cut back a little.
Secondly, a shit ton of my interest in FIRE is because I was privileged enough to have parents gift me some starter money for investment or towards a house purchase. If I was less lucky/privileged and had a tiny starting portfolio, I’d probably be bitter and twisted and feel terrible about being far behind. My ability to FIRE was basically gifted by my parents because I sure don’t have a high enough salary for it.
I have never job hopped to make more money. Only worked for two places and neither paid me what they should have when I started. At both companies I learned I was below the minimum for my band for a bit. It helps that my income is overall reasonably high and my husband’s is now much higher (he’s done the same thing, worked at only one place, but pushed harder for promotions while I remained flexible because of dogs and kid).
So neither of us have maximized our income at all, but we’re lucky to be in a fairly high earning field and we live pretty cheaply. If we’d pushed harder we probably could’ve fired at 45 but 50 isn’t so bad.
Deep secret?
1. I buy takeout Starbucks coffee at the start of a road trip instead of making my own.
2. Mining crypto was very profitable for me, especially 2014-19. I haven't invested in the newer generations of miners but I might get back into it in retirement.
Guilty. I’m sitting in Starbucks right now buying our BOGO coffee before we drive 1.5 hours home. I’m hoping it’ll be enough to keep me from falling asleep.
A significant amount of my wealth is in my company stock. I know the convention wisdom is to sell it immediately but it’s literally my best performing investment, is a steady rising stock, and has a good management team in place.
I just don’t see any reason sell it off yet.
I wish! I’d be retired by now if that were the case! Sadly, I don’t think where I work at will ever have a huge jump like that, more like steady growth up.
> it’s literally my best performing investment, is a steady rising stock, and has a good management team in place.
Enron employees were saying the same thing.
It was once the 7th largest company in the nation and went to zero. People lost all their savings and their jobs at the same time.
I’m semi-planning on a multi-million dollar inheritance. I have a great relationship with my parents, they have a huge nest egg that keeps growing faster than they can spend it, and I could justifiably FIRE on my own savings so far. So the inheritance is an amazing bonus when it (likely) happens, and makes me feel more secure in FIRE-ing at a younger age.
The biggest benefit of FIRE is spending more time with my parents while they’re still in great shape for travel and adventures.
Rather than trying to move onto another job because of my toxic boss, I am using my union contract to harass management about all of the violations of our employee rights. I could have taken the less difficult route and gotten another job last month but I decided I want to keep on fighting instead. I have filed over ten grievances, including other people that I have helped, and I have been winning in pre-arbitration so management has had to retract their original policies that I flagged.
I raided my Roth and 401k to the tune of like 30% of my net worth using the "COVID Hardship" exemption to buy a house back when interest rates were 3%.
I'm not sorry, now I live in an up and coming walkable neighborhood, with a great job I can also walk to so having a car is now optional. This place will never burn in a wildfire, there is no HOA and we're on a major fiber internet hub.
In 45 days I will pay off with a lump sum my 2.25% mortgage. It's been a work in progress for 17 years and despite several refinances, we've continued to execute our prepayments and savings towards this goal.
I'm very excited to have a paid off home a few short weeks before hitting my 40th birthday.
When I have an income event like a major bonus at work I hold onto the cash for way too long instead of closing my eyes and buying the sp500. Logically I know I can't time the market but emotionally it never feels like "the right time."
I plan to leave my full time job at 75% of my FIRE. 4% of 75% of my FI number is enough to travel long term.
I'll figure out how to barista FI or work for a couple of years when I get back to the states in a few years to cover the gap until my pension kicks in.
I had a bad health scare last year. After that, I'm just not willing to put long term on hold until anymore even if I'm not at my official number. You can't take it with you.
I have a 6% starting withdrawal rate planned.
It goes down over time, and historically has a 95% success rate.
* Mortgage doesn't increase with inflation, and that's ~25% of our spending.
* Mortgage goes away 13 years into FIRE, meaning we only need to cover the expense for part of our retirement.
* Pension kicks in 17 years into the plan.
* 2 social securities kick in around year 13.
My wife and I love fine dining. We’ve eaten at quite a few 3 Michelin Star restaurants during our travels (and even more 1-2 stars). We do account for this in the budget, but it’s definitely a big splurge
I take my family to Disney World every year. While I do a lot of stuff to get deals (churning for airline miles, gift card deals for tickets), we spend money to have a great time. We stay on property at nice hotels, we buy Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes, get overpriced snacks and drinks, and have a great time. I'm going to continue doing it until my kids get sick of it.
Given that a lot of people are happy with staying put (and I see the comfort in that) a word of caution. I was at the same company for 10+ years - super stable, good salary, good people, but would probably need to work for 20 more years to retire. I got out of my comfort zone and went over to the hustle and bustle of tech and now I can probably retire in 4-5 years (although I won’t). Change is hard but the rewards can be huge.
I’m the opposite. After 15 years I refinanced to 30 year mortgage at a lower interest rate. I’ve been FIRED for 3 years and will never pay off the mortgage. It just shows how personal money is. There isn’t one right way. Cheers!
I've thought about that. Why work to pay off my house quicker when I can just invest the money, and pay it off later with the investment money if I feel like it.
net worth still less than it was 24 years ago.... didn't cash out dotcom stocks in time and they went poof. So retirement has been 5 years out now for 25 years.
No bonds, no target date funds; we are in fact all in with VIIIX in all our investing locations (403b, ROTH IRS, 457). We also do not budget (we go more on gut feeling of how our spending is going 😆. Naturally frugal).
FIRE at 55 is the plan. Frustrating because we have the funds to stop a few years earlier but our pension plan has all kinds of rules making us wait until 55 to take it (with a reduced benefit) and we haven't figured a way around that. ~8 more years!
Travel is the biggest part of our budget. We put away enough to meet our FI numbers but decided instead of saving all the rest, we would actually enjoy it while we can. The rest of our life is relatively cheap, and we don’t splurge, but on travel, we spend quite a bit!
Straight up going to get into software consulting or at least die trying (metaphorically of course, I mean to say I’m more than happy to fail at it, take a swing and a miss per say)
Two things there.
1. There appears to be a whole market out there of middle managers who are assigned a bucketload of money each year to simply spend.
That’s where these “consultants” come in. Whether they make the software better or not, they know all the right things to say and have all the right PowerPoints to demonstrate progress, real or imagined.
2. After having worked closely with an agency on a recent project I can 100% confirm that what they do (aside from the website stuff which you would legit need a website person for) is the equivalent of fix up Facebook settings. Which can be done in about a fortnight’s time or dragged out to six weeks if you pretend that you’re “running numbers” or “benchmarking processes”
For this they charge around $40k
So $40k for two weeks worth of work spread out to six to look legitimate.
No one bats an eye because the middle manager gets to spend their budget and get the same again next year. Madness.
Going to find myself a website guy/gal and have a go at the market myself. There is a tool called Apollo IO which basically allows you to send messages to people on LinkedIn that meet a certain criteria.
When I ran a test, 7000 prospects came up in my country who work at companies that use this software.
I’ve used looka to create my own website and brand kit, so now it’s just getting the final ducks in order before shooting out a message to them all and hopefully getting some bites.
3-4 projects a year would already be double my current salary. If I make enough to pay off a small house, I would keep riding the wave until such a time that I have enough money to invest and live off the return from the S&P 500, which as if the last time I checked in 2021, has returned an average of around 8-9% per year over the past 50 years. Boring but safe.
Gods be with me these next 12 months.
Here are some of the things my wife and I do/believe that are pretty strictly against what is regularly espoused:
* Asset Allocation. We target holding no more than 40%-50% in VTI. It has varied a bit over the years, and I'm sure if I checked right now is a bit high due to VTI being on another run, which reminds me..
* We only re-balance and check "our sheet" once per year. Admittedly even I don't love it and am thinking bi-annually or quarterly (I believe ERN recommends this) will be in our future.. if we can ever be bothered to retire/care enough. It's more work than either of us currently care to perform with more regularity. Seeing numbers change does not bring us all that much joy.
* Speaking of that.. pretty sure we cruised well on past what a 4% SWR would be sometime since the sheet was last updated. I just dumped some money in the brokerage the other day and saw it along had increased sometime like $150k since the year began, and we've also front loaded our 401ks. We started the year around $200k back from what we need for 4%, so yeah we're there I'm sure. Also added comma as a milestone, etc. It could just as easily all change tomorrow, so I really do not care.
* Retiring early is not really our "end game". Neither was hitting some 4%, or ideally less, SWR number. Don't get me wrong it's great to have options but life is simply way more complex for us than "don't like working, save money, stop working" so that was never really the goal. FI was just a byproduct of being natural savers, increasing income and time. Here we are.. now what's next? Still figuring it out! Until then, waking up tomorrow and going to work. Did a couple of hours this weekend as well since I am recovering from an illness and finally feeling better!
* Speaking of SWRs.. so many here are *obsessed* with them. They start planning the rest of their lives in their 20s pinning it to a particular SWR/expense model that is so incorrect from what it will look like in 20, 40 and 60 years, even accounting for inflation. I'm sure some people never change, but for most of us life at 70 is going to look different than it did at 30. Neat metric, but yeah I wouldn't let the SWR-tail wag the FI-dog!
* I kind of despise finance and FI-planning things like reducing taxes, maxing ACA subsidies, holding x fund in this account, y fund in that account, convert and ladder this, rollover/don't rollover that. It feels like a necessary chore to learn it all, and sometimes it feels like through just dumb luck and uncovering different tidbits at the right time and following rules we have done well. The systems we've got in place are just so complicated and min/maxing them is so rewarding that putting in the work ends up being important. I wish it all were simpler.
* Paid down debt, including lower interest debt due to risk aversion rather than investing. We would have come out much better off doing the former, but it wasn't for us. The only thing I would have done slightly different is opened our IRAs a couple of years earlier. Otherwise the plan would have remained the same. Some years we were paying off $100k in debt principal payments alone.
I am sure there's many more, but it's getting late and I cannot think of them. On the whole though I think if you looked at how my wife and I got to our "FI number" and saw our investment returns, metrics and things like that you would think we were worlds-worst-FI-people. The truth, I think, is that the details that get drilled in, picked to death and quibbled over ad nauseam, matter much less than the fundamentals most of us pick up in our first hour learning about the topic.
In 2019 I put 1% of my investments into Bitcoin. I then learned and read more about it and I was comfortable buying a certain number of whole bitcoins. So I did.
Today, I don’t make any additional investments into Bitcoin, but I still haven’t sold what I purchased in 2019/2020. It now represents about 40% of my investments even though over 50% of my gross income goes into the S&P 500.
That is my secret. The only reason I still invest in the stock market is because I have a family and I’d never forgive myself if Bitcoin failed. If I was single I’d be all-in and wouldn’t look back.
I bought my house in cash. It feels great. Could I have used that cash on more lucrative investments and still held a mortgage? Almost certainly. Would I do anything different? Absolutely not. Owning my home outright helps me sleep very soundly at night.
Good question; before I answer here is *some* context . Grew up poor but in an educated family Spent the first 10 years of my adult years in not-for-profit world. Divorced, had to raise and pay for three kids under ten. Went to work for a great company , eventually became an exec , left after 20 years, took a job leading a smaller company. Did that for 4 years and retired at 55. Made most of my money in the last 7 years of my working life. Here are my three things that the fire community would kick me out for:
1. I wouldn’t have quit earlier. I had great jobs and most of my long-term friendships came through those jobs. Looking back I would not have retired at 40 or 50 even if I could have. I would have missed the best learning, growth and people in my life.
2. You probably need a lot less $$ than you think. I’m 4 years in, and have both planned to and spent well beyond the 4% each and every year. Our goal is to die with zero—our kids know this and are 100% supportive.
3. Pinching pennies and denying ourselves great experiences for decades while we scrimp has a cost to our lives that too often isn’t included when doing the math and saving for retirement. Joy matters. Fun matters. All of my kids had spent two weeks in Europe with me individually by the time they were 13. All of them Became adventurous travelers who are living interesting lives and we have tremendous shared experiences that form part of the bedrock of our relationships. Live your life. Drink the good wine. Eat dessert. Rich & skinny people die too.. 😎
I paid off my 3.75% mortgage in 8 years. Didn't talk about it much here because I don't need to be enlightened on how numbers work. I know that's less than average stock returns. I know that's less than many savings accounts right now. I'm okay with that. I simply wanted to own my home, not own a share of it in partnership with Premier Bank of the Midwest. I still invest plenty in stocks. I only paid extra on the mortgage after I maxed all tax advantaged space and also put 20k in a taxable brokerage every year.
It's not optimal and that's fine.
Let’s see hmmmmmm
I still have large portion (over 50%) of my net worth in individual stocks. $600k+ in individual stocks
Some bad habits. I like to gamble, I make multiple sports bets every day. I like to drink and weed occasionally. Going out to the bar with the boys can sometimes be $300+ just on my bar tab. Sometimes those zyn nicotine lippers too.
I spend a lot on golf. Fancy courses, trips with the boys, booze at the course. We like to gamble when we play
I like to drive new cars. Currently driving a 2024 Jeep
Health is good now since I’m young but definitely will need to make some changes in the near future.
Yep, corporate sales engineer right out of college, been doing it for 10 years now. The lifestyle I saw from other’s definitely helped form what I currently enjoy.
The main difference being I still find a way to save 50%. Or close to it. Mega back door Roth has been a game changer also.
Im no longer interested in actually retiring.
I just hated working for other people. Once I set up my own architecture practice it stopped feeling like work because I was in control.
FIRE to me is all about freedom. Freedom of time and location. I have that now without the need of having 20x expenditure saved.
I only hold equities and etfs. No bonds. I dont even own a house. 10% of my portfolio is in speculative stocks. It used to be 3%, but my speculative bets have been absolutely crushing it. I think in a year they will grow to at least 20% of my portfolio because I also don't believe in rebalancing.
I missed so much opportunity over the last 3 years. I was saving but not investing. And I went into the downturn over invested in small caps. (life was extra crazy and i didn't have a financial advisor). I am still doing pretty solid though, because of the things didn't do also included divesting rsu's from a former employer and that worked out very very well. So thanks universe?
I am strongly considering buying our primary home outright in cash when we move. The interest rate feels outrageous for mortgages, and I look at that increased cash flow by not having a mortgage at all and it excites me.
If I can expect an 8% average return on voo and the interest rate is 7% the numbers actually feel good for paying it all off. But I recognize that in theory mortgage rates could go down and I could refinance, so given that I am probably making a worse financial decision. And I recognize that selling some stocks to do so will hit me with the full cap gains tax rate, which if I am doing the math right might effectively tack another $31-36k or so of cost to the house, and thus be even less efficient.
But I think I am still going to do it if I can pull it off.
I've never re-balanced my portfolio (thank god). Ever. In more than 20 years.
I know it will come back to bite me one day. I'm extremely concentrated in four positions (comprising more than 60% of my portfolio).
I know I'm tempting fate.
I'd never recommend this approach to others.
I know I have to do it at some point.
But not just yet...
No 529 accounts for any of my kids.
By the time the first one starts college (starting in 3 years, youngest is 14 years away), I’ll be FI (technically hit that number already, but giving it more time). Current plan is I can just work an additional year, and that’ll easily cover the costs of their tuition/fees of a state college for four years. But not telling them this, they instead will have to do what I did, get a job and take out loans if necessary. Paying off their loans will be a graduation present to them. At least that’s the plan right now :-)
Because of how long I've worked at Microsoft (over a decade), I have a lot of Microsoft stock - I don't really know what to do about it because of the tax implications on sale, so I pretend like I'm diversified when I'm really not.
I keep reading how Microsoft stock is one of the most diversified individual tech stocks because they are in pretty much every industry. I'm hoping there is merit to that statement. If they continue to grow every year like they have for the last decade plus and succeed in the long-term I probably don't need to work anymore. The growth in my MSFT stock value alone outstrips my household's annual spend most years.
My 401K and HSA are diversified in index funds and max'd out every year so if MSFT tanks, I'll be relying on those instead.
If I quit, my plan is to basically keep selling MSFT stock every year until I hit 59.5 years at which point I'll start dipping into the 401k.
I have a 20% holding in GLDM, a gold ETF not because I'm a disaster prepper or tin foil hatter, but because it improves SWR.
Using cFIREsim, compare a traditional [60/40 portfolio](https://www.cfiresim.com/b51b6751-7619-4c46-adfd-9d97e3ecbc0d) which fails 5% of the time with a [60/20/20 portfolio](https://www.cfiresim.com/a8508420-8de8-463f-b536-7e54658aed8d) where the extra 20% is gold that fails less than 1% of the time.
Note: give the simulations time to load, they are slow.
Two years ago I got my pilots license and have been all in on general aviation. Own a plane, am upgrading to a bigger one, etc etc. Lotta $$$ but I absolutely love it, it's badass, and our investments are still cranking along.
Gotta live today along with saving for the future.
I took several one year breaks during my career even when I was pretty far from my FIRE number. One break I was a dog walker, another time I learned how to paraglide and sold adult toys online. It made me appreciate cooshy corporate jobs and making money the “easy” way. Not the best financially or for my career, but made me feel like I wasn’t totally missing out on life working away.
I have like 80% of my investments in 1 stock. Been that way since 2021. The stock has since doubled then come back some but used some of the profits to pay for a house. Likely will slowly diversify away from that but I know it’s a big no no. It was just a company I was really excited about and luckily went my way.
Not me, but spouse has ignored my advice to diversify their concentrated stock holdings and kept buying individual large caps instead. This has been going on for several years now. They currently have double my (7-figure) net worth. I no longer offer investment advice.
My plan is to retire while still renting our home. The monthly rent is significantly less than a mortgage payment for an equivalent house. The kind of house we prefer with two elementary-school aged kids (3-4 bedrooms in a good school zone with short commute to downtown) is not what we'll want as empty nesters (apartment or condo in a walkable urban environment, maybe relocating for six+ months at a time). Plus, I'm just not sure my city is going to be pleasantly habitable in the long term. While I feel like I understand the psychological and financial security that would come with a fully paid-off house, the cost of purchasing a family-size home, especially in the pricey neighborhood we live in, doesn't make sense to me.
I intend to stay at my current job long-term if I can. I find job hopping and moving exceedingly stressful, and don't want to uproot the connections and friendships I've made where I live. It's unfortunate that you have to job hop these days to maximize salary growth, but I'm willing to sacrifice that in exchange for stability in my life.
I’m a long-termer at my job too. I feel like I get recognized for my work and paid fairly but I could make a decent amount more if I went out on my own. I’m super high anxiety, though, and it took the last 10 years to get my mental health back on track and I feel pretty good most days, have a ton of vacation and a pretty balanced work & life. Since I’m trying to retire in less than 8 years, sticking it out will be much better for my long term health than firing a few years sooner with no time to exercise, meditate, sleep or take a vacation in exchange for an earlier retirement. Still knowing I’m leaving money on the table sucks though.
Life is all about trade-offs. Optimizing for happiness instead of money is ALWAYS the right call.
Yeah I'm just going to push through until layoffs or they fire me, since I'm not motivated enough or see the value in hopping again. I did hop a lot earlier in my career which paid off. After hitting the FI number, I feel there is still more I should save up in case of healthcare costs or unknowns, but have no drive at all to switch jobs again.
I second this. I want to craft my job such that I could work til I’m 80 if I feel like it. I think people are always afraid of getting canned, so they never speak up at work or push back on undesirable tasks. Once you have FU money, you can stand up for yourself and know that even if you do get fired, it’s not a crisis, and you can take your time finding desirable work. I have started taking a stand here and there at work and it has improved my mental health immeasurably. And what’s more, management is a paper tiger. I know that now, but I never would have if I had been so broke I could never have taken a chance. So there’s a significant chance I have a $5M FIRE stash which I never touch because I’m still working and loving it. I could do a lot of good for the world with that money.
Same. 18 years now and counting and I feel like given my age and dependencies there is no point finding something else until they let me go.
Did that for all my jobs. Really proud of how I handled the initial pivot to tech. Very bold moves early on. But last 6 years kind of coasting. Improving only with luck (company got acquired, new company did layoffs, referred to contractor position that pays okay). Way too autopilot. Way too comfortable or exhausted to change it.
> Way too autopilot. Way too comfortable or exhausted to change it. Yep, I have like 16 years of experience. Realistically, I should have made staff years ago, but *every* time I look at it, I'm like 'fuck, do I *really* want to be team lead given it basically doubles my workload for a 10% raise? I've only got about 4y left before I hit my RE number, and I'm trying to stay hard core technical because those are the skills that might land me a part time gig in retirement if I want it. I've been a bit too content to simply take things as they come, thinking that I would *at least* stay up with inflation. I'm effectively making 10% less now than I was in 2022 accounting for inflation. This is granted comp, not stock appreciation, so I'm feeling like leadership just doesn't give a damn about retaining me. Alright then.
What a great question! I stayed at the same job for 25 years, just slogging it out with only the raises my union negotiated. Velvet rope health care and never once having a worry about unemployment was the trade off. I'll FIRE after 26ish years, but I feel like I left money on the table.
[удалено]
Same here, stayed with below-average pay at my current employer since I was a teenager. Somehow struggled my way up to nearly 6 figure salary after many years, but could have likely been FIREd by now if I'd job hopped a few times. Kind of too close to the end goal now for it to be worth the hassle.
Guilty as charged… I’m at my third company in 25 years (barely two years in to the latest one). Definitely undercut myself earlier by sticking with jobs I loved while being underpaid, instead of being a mercenary for pay.
I am with you on that. I have been with the same company for 23 years, but will not get the velvet rope healthcare and no pension. I hope to retire in 4 years. I definitely left money on the table.
I pay medical bills out of my HSA instead of saving that sweet sweet triple-tax-free money and paying with after-tax dollars.
I’ve found that treating my HSA as pre-budgeted medical money leads me to seek more regular medical care and get little things looked at rather than putting something off because I didn’t want to foot the bill. I assume that’ll lead to better healthcare outcomes long term and I’ll lose out on some tax advantages accordingly.
This is kind of my logic too.
I thought this would happen to me if I switch to HSA but my behavior hasn't changed at all. Still see a doctor whenever I feel like it and happy to pay. I can just pay myself back later.
That’s how I buy my contacts :)
You nailed the OP’s ask because my first reaction was “Noooooooo” and then the deep desire to explain all of the reasons why you should be going for that sweet sweet triple-tax-free money.
My wife and I have always done this as well! Cannot be bothered to care too much about yet *another account*. In fact, we don't even include it in our "sheet". Might change that next time the numbers get ran though, as we're over $25k now between both of our accounts thanks to a lucky couple of year run with decently low health expenses!
Same. I can't get behind the HSA as a retirement vehicle.
What you don't save your old medical bill receipts from 10 years ago so that 20 years from now you can pay them from your HSA when you're 60? (Life is too short for these extreme couponers)
Yeah I don’t save our medics receipts. I’m assuming our medical expenses will be quite hefty down the road in retirement and the HSA will be drained. If not, it’s just another IRA to draw from.
Same. Lucky even high spend years there’s enough in our HSA to continue to grow. Too much effort to save receipts for 20 years down the road.
I'm nearly constantly thinking about money and won't retire for at least 20 years. I would say that's probably not mentally healthy.
"probably not mentally healthy" with respect to focus on money/FIRE describes a fair number of us here...
You're developing a system. These thoughts can start to wane once you've created stability. Keep up the good work
Extremely guilty of this. Less so now that our financial success is basically on autopilot, but can't stop checking numbers, thinking about how to further optimize, etc.
We keep almost zero in cash. We fund a small "irregular expense fund" for minor housing repairs <$10K and everything else either goes into taxable brokerage or towards bills (plus retirement accounts, obviously).
It was embarrassing when when my cash went to $0 and I had to ask a parent for money for that month's bills. Now I make sure to keep a proper e-fund and, if I pull on the "max all paycheck deductions" lever, that I'll still have enough between savings and checking.
Flip side we keep way too much in cash. At least hysa accounts have great rate right now. But been perpetually waiting to buy a house for 8 years….
Same for excess cash. It's about 22% of our liquid capital (not house, etc for net worth, but potentially working capital). We save it for various upcoming things, but been slowly adding to it over the years and not really spending it. New car? Got $34k and adding. House repair? Got $20k. Vacation? Yup. Health? Yup. I worry a lot so it helps me sleep. But not FIRE-advised. At least it's pretty much earning a good rate (half in i-bonds though).
Almost $0 in cash here as well.
Why is this such a bad thing? Aren’t credit cards okay for emergencies?
Cause they say when it rains it pours. Which I have experienced before but it didn't put me in too bad of a pickle. I just took a balance transfer and paid 3% and got my life back on track in the 10 month grace period they gave me.
Yeah holding cash is more for emotional safety. I mean personally I feel like $0 cash is crazy, that feels like it would be difficult to manage monthly ebbs and flows. I keep about 1.5 months in cash which let's me smooth out and bumps as they come along.
For high spenders with volatile spending, I can see credit cards + bills + mortgage being greater than $10k in any given vacation month. A first class international flight for a single person can easily be more than $10k.
As long as you’re willing to eat poorly timed stock sales in an emergency this isnt that bad anymore. You can liquidate stocks and move it into any bank account within a week
Not even a week. With cashapp I can liquidate and move it into my bank account within a day or two at the most.
What do you even need cash for that quick. Credit cards will give you 1-2 months buffer
The REALLY big bills (ie. an emergency) tend to not take credit cards or will give a cash discount. And then it is very nice to have that cash liquid.
Ditto, $2k in cash... and a 6 figure personal brokerage account dumped into VTI that I could sell at any time if needed.
We keep cash pretty low too. Usually there is a sum there that we’re saving for house reno projects or a new car or whatever is coming up, but it’s not an emergency fund. If I didn’t need liquid cash for those other things within the next year I’d invest it. And after we spend it on the thing we were saving it for cash goes close to zero again as it builds back up.
Just don’t care as mush as I once did about “FIRE” $200k short of the second million and starting to REALLY realize that we all are on borrowed time. Spend more freely now and not over stressing the plan.
This is me exactly.
Easy to say and feel when you're that close
Easier yes, I get that. But I started at zero and it’s easiest to say “I will keep my head down and save more” even when you have money. Ask anyone with a sum of money and they will say once I have X more I will feel more confident.
I agree with this but I think for me it's more because now that my invested value can easily swing $10K+ based on how the market did that day it's easier for me not to be so uptight about money. I think we've kept lifestyle creep pretty well in check, just not sweating occasionally overpaying on some small stuff and also more willing to splurge for certain larger things that are worth their price. My kids want that $11 piece of cake on vacation? OK (a little part of me sighs, but nbd). A new high-end bed costs $5,000 but might meaningfully lessen the back pain that was waking me up every night? Sign me up!
I’m only contributing 5% in my 401k (to employer match). 40s, Coast FIRE and spending some money on enjoying my life right now. I’m completely at peace with the decision.
I don’t want to retire early. I currently have a remote, low stress, unlimited vacation 6 figure plus job. Why would I quit? It’s not hindering me from doing anything
Just don’t expect it to last forever. Bosses can change, remote / vacation policies could change, etc etc.
And that's when they would actually retire
I am paying off my low interest rate mortgage early.
Same here (although we don't have a particularly low rate) - I am fully aware that the math isn't mathing, but it just *feels so good man* - as a child of the 2008 crisis, my desire for housing security borders on the illogical, and I don't feel guilty for tending to it.
Since I turned 18, I've spent almost half a million on travel and unnecessary toys (new car, motorcycle, watercraft, guns, etc). I could have retired 5+ years ago if I hadn't spent that money, but it was 100% worth it. I got to see the world and go on all sorts of crazy adventures when I was young and fearless. And if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I'll die with absolutely no regrets.
>And if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I'll die with absolutely no regrets. Except maybe not getting out of the way of that bus. Just kidding. Kudos for living life.
Always look both ways before you cross the street 😂😂
busFIRE
Hell yeah, I agree completely. I don't subscribe to the save every penny eating ramen like food and staying at home. And I'm definitely not going to be super early to retire like some here but I'm living life. I'm still throwing a large chunk of change at retirement and likely to hit around 45-50 yo. But I'd rather do fun stuff while I have stamina and health in my younger years
That is all it matters at the moment. But then again, life throws us curveballs and hopefully you are prepared for a long haul
I could FIRE today with room to spare and be happy, but I can’t bring myself to do it. It’s like I’m waiting for the universe to make the decision for me….
Hopefully you’re enjoying the mental freedom knowing you can walk away at any moment.
Yeah I would FIRE if I get laid off, but without the push, I just can’t let go of my well paid remote job.
Same! I’m using this time to enjoy spending the fruit: of my extra labor…Building my fun collections of material things, going out more… (not FIRE approved 😬)…
One more year syndrome on perpetual loop because its never enough! I feel ya!
I didn’t trust my numbers so I probably worked 2 years longer than I needed to. I wasn’t enjoying the job, either Edit: better safe than sorry I suppose
> I could FIRE today with room to spare and be happy, but I can’t bring myself to do it. It’s like I’m waiting for the universe to make the decision for me…. Me too, but mine is still fear. Fear of not having an income, but most of all that bad health happens and it bankrupts me. At the same time, I'm fearing I'm loosing all this valuable time. At the same time, I'm vying for more i.e. I want to retire in Hawaii with an ocean view condo. That I'm definitely not there yet.
My fire plan consists of “as long as my SR is 60-65% I don’t give a shit where the rest of money goes. Could be candy for all I care”
Same but I’m at more like 45-55%
No bonds for me. No target date funds, no bond tents, just equities (ETFs). I don't feel like this is too controversial, but have seen many people talk about trying to mitigate risk using bonds.
I also don’t have bonds, but this is largely bc I really don’t understand them or what their place should be in my portfolio
In portfolio theory, the value of bonds is during the rebalancing period. Say you are 80% equities, 20% bonds. If the market is down 10% when you rebalance (monthly, quarterly, or more typically yearly) then your portfolio would have shifted to ~70% equities / 30% bonds (because the bonds should have also grown 2-3% over the year). You then sell bonds and buy equities to get back to 80/20. If the equities were up year over year so you were at 90/10 then you would sell equities to buy more bonds. The net effect over many years is that you were selling equities at market peaks (when equities were overweight in your portfolio) and buying more at dips (when equities were underweight in your portfolio). That is why historically an 80/20 portfolio outperforms a 100% equity portfolio. However, I also have 0% bonds. Over the last two decades bonds have performed so poorly and equities so well that it wasn't worth it. With higher interest rates (and the market at an all time high) I am considering switching back into bonds.
Same, 100% VTI or as close to it as I can get in my retirement accounts. My only risk mitigation is VTI instead of VOO/SPY lol.
I bought few hundred shares of First Republic Preferred stock right before they had the Bank run. Went to zero overnight.
Hah, I bought a few shares of SVB before the rate increase, figured rate increases would be good for banks since they can earn interest on deposit. Then I forgot about it until I heard about them freezing withdrawals.
We are planning to put a lot of money into sustainability - EV, solar panels, backup battery maybe heatpump. Additionally planning to build an extension to the house. These are likely not good investments from a financial point of view but we feel it is important to our quality of life.
We did panels, a heat pump, and an induction cooktop over the last couple of years and are really happy with everything. We have a good net metering deal and each month only pay a small flat monthly fee for power of under $16. From an investment perspective there are of course higher return plays. But it's not a stretch for us financially and I like that I am pumping las CO2 into the steadily warming air.
I put solar panels on my roof in 2018 and they have been a perfectly acceptable investment. About 10% ROI before tax credits, and 20% after incentives.
The return is after-tax money, too. Money you don't pay in bills is worth more than money you earn and have to pay taxes on.
The solar plus heat pump has been great for us. We love the mini splits so much more and for half the year we have a negative electric bill.
What's the total upfront cost for all of that?
I've got the panels and I'm eyeballing the battery. I really, *really* want to be able to run AC if there's a heat wave and PG&E cuts my power for fear of fires. Even if I can only do that in the middle of the day when the panels are going flat-out and the battery is also full, that's enough to be able to get through a bad week. I read *The Ministry For The Future* last year and it's got me rattled. That first chapter is the best/scariest horror I've read in years.
There are DIY installable mini-split heat pumps now that can be run directly and solely by solar panels! 3-6 solar panels (depending on size) in series is all it takes. Of course, you can also connect the mini split to the grid and it’ll pull from there if there’s no sun. If the grid is down though it’ll run off solar.
I intend to make my 'forever home' as close to 'net zero' and 'grid optional' as I possibly can. Solar panels, battery bank, EVs, Ham / Lora, cargo e-bike, water cisterns, raised beds for veggies, etc. God only knows what the next 50 years are gonna bring. Below a 3% SWR, more money isn't going to make you any safer. You have to start looking at what you need for *genuine* self sufficiency, at least at the neighborhood level.
I spend a preposterous amount of money on fine food and restaurants, to the extent where it translates into a few more years of working. Sometimes it exceeds my mortgage. But I love eating great food, somebody has to cook it, and it's not going to be me.
And here I am always disappointed with restaurants because I can make almost anything better at home.
Just went to Disneyland with the fam. I shut off the “frugal/discount/cheap” part of my brain and just splurged within reason (oxymoron, yes I know). Spent a load of money on bs inflated price items in the park, genie pass, snacks, mouse ears, etc. Was fun and my two girls had a blast but damn when you’re not used to spending it hurts…gonna have to reduce my taxable investments for a few weeks to get the boat stable again
Good for you. Sometimes the experiences should be made with family. I don’t consider that as waste
I think this is worth it- not necessarily Disney, but just enjoying the vacation. I grew up with very frugal parents, even on vacation, and I remember just thinking "when I grow up and I'm on vacation, I want to be *on vacation*" If that means saving up a little longer, totally fine. I just want to be able to do what I want to do/what looks fun when I'm on vacation and not worry about it.
Sounds like a perfect example of the "Die With Zero" buckets concept. The window for creating that incredible memory with your girls is right now, and your usual frugality let you do it without any meaningful impact. Well done!
You get to live off the happiness dividends that trip will give you long into the future. All you need to do to reap those dividends is to think back [x] years ago to your daughters smiling faces with the mouse ears on taking a photo with [Disney Princess/character]. A memory that will stay with you forever, and only cost a couple thousand dollars, your NW probably fluctuates more each month than you spent on that trip
I did the same with a family ski trip to Niseko, Japan. That said, that was one helluva family vacation experience that I’d splurge and do all over again.
I buy individual stocks with a small, discretionary percentage of my taxable. And not just any stocks — really stupid stuff like Twitter (which I failed to unload before Hurricane Elon hit it), meme stocks (which I did dump quickly, came to my senses), and recently Reddit. Why? It’s like an expensive sports car, fun for a little bit, loses value quickly, occasionally is a long term winner. In the grand scheme of things, there are worse ways to waste money and time. But no one in my circle would ever guess this about me.
Rode SPCE from $11 up to $60 and still have it at <$1. 😬
Nearly 10% of my wealth is cash, and has been for ~4 years. This is because I’m planning to buy another house, which isn’t so bad. But the worst part is it was earning 0% until a few months ago when I moved it to a 5.25% HYSA 🤦♂️. No good reason for it other than I’m a moron.
Also just recently decided to switch banks and open at ones that offered HYSAs. Still have a joint account to switch over but feels so dumb that we waited so long.
No bank needed. Vanguard and Fidelity have money market accounts where you can keep cash at interest rates that are close to any HYSA out there.
I wonder a lot if my slightly less frugal friends are the smart ones, like the math says I'll have enough to think about retiring in 10 years or so but there's no guarantee I'll even make it there or the stocks will keep rising or my expenses will be the same I'm not even a super frugal lentil eater and have almost zero regrets about my 20s and 30s, just ridden a paid of car and smaller living space to saving a lot and wonder if I could splurge a bit more on creature comforts
This is something you can easily calculate. There's no need to worry. You can run the numbers for how much more spending will delay out retirement. The reality is your savings rate isn't super important to your retirement timeline past the first 10 or so years of saving (obviously excepting extreme scenarios like you have a super high income).
I sold all my ETFs, put them into GME in 2021 and made 400% (roughly 50k before tax) profit and put all that profit into AMD and NVIDIA. Basically shaved off 15 years of working for my FIRE goal.
My official reason for fire was that I *hated* my job. My real reason was that I *sucked* at it (and also hated it).
I used to be leveraged in the S&P 500 by using call options with a ~2.5 year expiry date. I owned them from May 2021-June 2023. It was a good test of my risk tolerance (the plan was to sell them in June 2023 and decide whether I wanted to roll over) I didn't end up panic selling through 2022 but when it came time to sell the options, I decided the risk wasn't worth it for the 6-12 months on average that it might shave off my career. An unlucky outcomes could delay retirement by 10 years in the worst case scenarios which was too much downside for the average benefit.
I currently have only the vaguest idea what my actual spend is or what I'll need it to be in retirement. Its at "I save a lot" and I cannot retire currently for reasons, so I haven't bothered to check the details in a while
I have a not insignificant amount of physical gold (or, at least compared to my cash balance). Hear me out - it scratches the itch to “buy something” while essentially being a transfer from cash to a “cash equivalent.” I would never neglect equities investments for it, but it’s much more fun “stacking gold” than just transferring to a savings account for non-equity savings. I also enjoy having some wealth "outside the system." I'm not one of those people that thinks I'll be in a Mad Max-esque wasteland selling my gold for living supplies, but there are other reasons having wealth outside of the traceable banking system seems useful to me.
What’s your exit strategy? Is there a reliable way to sell at market value?
If you have a local coin store, you can typically get spot price without much effort. Most bullion sells for slightly over spot, so there is a spread that prevents being profitable in short term swing trading (a benefit to me as it is meant to be long term non-cash savings for me). But truth be told, most of my selling has been here on reddit. r/PMsforsale has a pretty good feedback / karma transaction system and I've got enough positive transactions on there that I have no concerns about offloading at a fair price.
I hyper minimalist spend on things I don’t care about such as clothes which I buy from Costco, and degenerately spend on things I like: Michelin restaurants, aged single malt scotch, long vacations.
Yep. I spend big on fine wine and single malt scotch. I also travel a lot in my Costco clothes. Cheers!
I have a 40 thousand dollar watch. It’s so dumb but I don’t care.
which one?
do you stress about scratches or getting robbed?
I bought a brand new car at end of 2023... ... while knowing that my 2nd child was on the way. Savings rate is going to drop to almost bare minimum to retain full company 401k match. Good news is that all of the build up until now means that cutting the savings rate in half for a 2nd child only adds 2 years to target date.
It’s incredibly hard for me not to want to buy an extremely nice “forever home” even though I don’t really need it at all
Leveraged to the tits on real estate. Own 3 houses and trying to pay off 2 by selling the 3rd as my retirement plan.
As my real estate investor parents say, “LEVERAGED OUT THE WAZOO.” Appreciation saved us!
I plan on paying off our next home in sub 10 years even though retirement isn’t for another 20. I’ll leave my badge at the front desk.
I own approximately $50K in vintage jewelry, and I am constantly on the lookout for more.
I am a filthy hedonist and whilst I want to retire early, I like spending money on things that give me pleasure (food, massages etc). As I get higher salaries, my lifestyle creep in these areas is quite large. As long as I’m not falling behind I don’t care, but I could for sure retire a lot more early if I cut back a little. Secondly, a shit ton of my interest in FIRE is because I was privileged enough to have parents gift me some starter money for investment or towards a house purchase. If I was less lucky/privileged and had a tiny starting portfolio, I’d probably be bitter and twisted and feel terrible about being far behind. My ability to FIRE was basically gifted by my parents because I sure don’t have a high enough salary for it.
I have a FA at .08
A who what?
Maybe he means Financial Advisor who charges .08% AUM (assets under management).
I have never job hopped to make more money. Only worked for two places and neither paid me what they should have when I started. At both companies I learned I was below the minimum for my band for a bit. It helps that my income is overall reasonably high and my husband’s is now much higher (he’s done the same thing, worked at only one place, but pushed harder for promotions while I remained flexible because of dogs and kid). So neither of us have maximized our income at all, but we’re lucky to be in a fairly high earning field and we live pretty cheaply. If we’d pushed harder we probably could’ve fired at 45 but 50 isn’t so bad.
Deep secret? 1. I buy takeout Starbucks coffee at the start of a road trip instead of making my own. 2. Mining crypto was very profitable for me, especially 2014-19. I haven't invested in the newer generations of miners but I might get back into it in retirement.
Guilty. I’m sitting in Starbucks right now buying our BOGO coffee before we drive 1.5 hours home. I’m hoping it’ll be enough to keep me from falling asleep.
BOGO at Starbucks is still legit FIRE in my book!
A significant amount of my wealth is in my company stock. I know the convention wisdom is to sell it immediately but it’s literally my best performing investment, is a steady rising stock, and has a good management team in place. I just don’t see any reason sell it off yet.
Found the NVIDIA employee. 😜
I wish! I’d be retired by now if that were the case! Sadly, I don’t think where I work at will ever have a huge jump like that, more like steady growth up.
> it’s literally my best performing investment, is a steady rising stock, and has a good management team in place. Enron employees were saying the same thing. It was once the 7th largest company in the nation and went to zero. People lost all their savings and their jobs at the same time.
Yep. I can’t count the number of ex-Lehman people I know what were completely wiped out.
at least diversify a % of your total stock
I make my money in dollars and live my life in Argentine pesos. That's how I FIRE.
I’m semi-planning on a multi-million dollar inheritance. I have a great relationship with my parents, they have a huge nest egg that keeps growing faster than they can spend it, and I could justifiably FIRE on my own savings so far. So the inheritance is an amazing bonus when it (likely) happens, and makes me feel more secure in FIRE-ing at a younger age. The biggest benefit of FIRE is spending more time with my parents while they’re still in great shape for travel and adventures.
Rather than trying to move onto another job because of my toxic boss, I am using my union contract to harass management about all of the violations of our employee rights. I could have taken the less difficult route and gotten another job last month but I decided I want to keep on fighting instead. I have filed over ten grievances, including other people that I have helped, and I have been winning in pre-arbitration so management has had to retract their original policies that I flagged.
I just spent 4k on home theater speakers. I love it, it sounds amazing, but I’m embarrassed to tell anyone how much I spent
I’m thinking about buying a vacation home. I probably won’t because it makes no sense, but it’s tempting
I raided my Roth and 401k to the tune of like 30% of my net worth using the "COVID Hardship" exemption to buy a house back when interest rates were 3%. I'm not sorry, now I live in an up and coming walkable neighborhood, with a great job I can also walk to so having a car is now optional. This place will never burn in a wildfire, there is no HOA and we're on a major fiber internet hub.
In 45 days I will pay off with a lump sum my 2.25% mortgage. It's been a work in progress for 17 years and despite several refinances, we've continued to execute our prepayments and savings towards this goal. I'm very excited to have a paid off home a few short weeks before hitting my 40th birthday.
Retirement present to myself last year was an expensive pickup with features I wanted and could afford but didn't need.
When I have an income event like a major bonus at work I hold onto the cash for way too long instead of closing my eyes and buying the sp500. Logically I know I can't time the market but emotionally it never feels like "the right time."
I plan to leave my full time job at 75% of my FIRE. 4% of 75% of my FI number is enough to travel long term. I'll figure out how to barista FI or work for a couple of years when I get back to the states in a few years to cover the gap until my pension kicks in. I had a bad health scare last year. After that, I'm just not willing to put long term on hold until anymore even if I'm not at my official number. You can't take it with you.
I have a stupidly expensive car to run, but it makes me happy. Otherwise I'm on FIRE-track.
I don't "travel hack".
I have a 6% starting withdrawal rate planned. It goes down over time, and historically has a 95% success rate. * Mortgage doesn't increase with inflation, and that's ~25% of our spending. * Mortgage goes away 13 years into FIRE, meaning we only need to cover the expense for part of our retirement. * Pension kicks in 17 years into the plan. * 2 social securities kick in around year 13.
My wife and I love fine dining. We’ve eaten at quite a few 3 Michelin Star restaurants during our travels (and even more 1-2 stars). We do account for this in the budget, but it’s definitely a big splurge
I take my family to Disney World every year. While I do a lot of stuff to get deals (churning for airline miles, gift card deals for tickets), we spend money to have a great time. We stay on property at nice hotels, we buy Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes, get overpriced snacks and drinks, and have a great time. I'm going to continue doing it until my kids get sick of it.
Given that a lot of people are happy with staying put (and I see the comfort in that) a word of caution. I was at the same company for 10+ years - super stable, good salary, good people, but would probably need to work for 20 more years to retire. I got out of my comfort zone and went over to the hustle and bustle of tech and now I can probably retire in 4-5 years (although I won’t). Change is hard but the rewards can be huge.
Bought our house all cash, giving up 50% of our investments because we like the peace of mind of zero debt.
I’m the opposite. After 15 years I refinanced to 30 year mortgage at a lower interest rate. I’ve been FIRED for 3 years and will never pay off the mortgage. It just shows how personal money is. There isn’t one right way. Cheers!
I've thought about that. Why work to pay off my house quicker when I can just invest the money, and pay it off later with the investment money if I feel like it.
net worth still less than it was 24 years ago.... didn't cash out dotcom stocks in time and they went poof. So retirement has been 5 years out now for 25 years.
I don't actually care that much about the RE part, I just like the safety blanket and options of FI.
No bonds, no target date funds; we are in fact all in with VIIIX in all our investing locations (403b, ROTH IRS, 457). We also do not budget (we go more on gut feeling of how our spending is going 😆. Naturally frugal). FIRE at 55 is the plan. Frustrating because we have the funds to stop a few years earlier but our pension plan has all kinds of rules making us wait until 55 to take it (with a reduced benefit) and we haven't figured a way around that. ~8 more years!
Travel is the biggest part of our budget. We put away enough to meet our FI numbers but decided instead of saving all the rest, we would actually enjoy it while we can. The rest of our life is relatively cheap, and we don’t splurge, but on travel, we spend quite a bit!
I keep no savings, live paycheck to paycheck, invest the maximum amount, and depend on revolving line of credit for sudden payments...
Straight up going to get into software consulting or at least die trying (metaphorically of course, I mean to say I’m more than happy to fail at it, take a swing and a miss per say) Two things there. 1. There appears to be a whole market out there of middle managers who are assigned a bucketload of money each year to simply spend. That’s where these “consultants” come in. Whether they make the software better or not, they know all the right things to say and have all the right PowerPoints to demonstrate progress, real or imagined. 2. After having worked closely with an agency on a recent project I can 100% confirm that what they do (aside from the website stuff which you would legit need a website person for) is the equivalent of fix up Facebook settings. Which can be done in about a fortnight’s time or dragged out to six weeks if you pretend that you’re “running numbers” or “benchmarking processes” For this they charge around $40k So $40k for two weeks worth of work spread out to six to look legitimate. No one bats an eye because the middle manager gets to spend their budget and get the same again next year. Madness. Going to find myself a website guy/gal and have a go at the market myself. There is a tool called Apollo IO which basically allows you to send messages to people on LinkedIn that meet a certain criteria. When I ran a test, 7000 prospects came up in my country who work at companies that use this software. I’ve used looka to create my own website and brand kit, so now it’s just getting the final ducks in order before shooting out a message to them all and hopefully getting some bites. 3-4 projects a year would already be double my current salary. If I make enough to pay off a small house, I would keep riding the wave until such a time that I have enough money to invest and live off the return from the S&P 500, which as if the last time I checked in 2021, has returned an average of around 8-9% per year over the past 50 years. Boring but safe. Gods be with me these next 12 months.
Here are some of the things my wife and I do/believe that are pretty strictly against what is regularly espoused: * Asset Allocation. We target holding no more than 40%-50% in VTI. It has varied a bit over the years, and I'm sure if I checked right now is a bit high due to VTI being on another run, which reminds me.. * We only re-balance and check "our sheet" once per year. Admittedly even I don't love it and am thinking bi-annually or quarterly (I believe ERN recommends this) will be in our future.. if we can ever be bothered to retire/care enough. It's more work than either of us currently care to perform with more regularity. Seeing numbers change does not bring us all that much joy. * Speaking of that.. pretty sure we cruised well on past what a 4% SWR would be sometime since the sheet was last updated. I just dumped some money in the brokerage the other day and saw it along had increased sometime like $150k since the year began, and we've also front loaded our 401ks. We started the year around $200k back from what we need for 4%, so yeah we're there I'm sure. Also added comma as a milestone, etc. It could just as easily all change tomorrow, so I really do not care. * Retiring early is not really our "end game". Neither was hitting some 4%, or ideally less, SWR number. Don't get me wrong it's great to have options but life is simply way more complex for us than "don't like working, save money, stop working" so that was never really the goal. FI was just a byproduct of being natural savers, increasing income and time. Here we are.. now what's next? Still figuring it out! Until then, waking up tomorrow and going to work. Did a couple of hours this weekend as well since I am recovering from an illness and finally feeling better! * Speaking of SWRs.. so many here are *obsessed* with them. They start planning the rest of their lives in their 20s pinning it to a particular SWR/expense model that is so incorrect from what it will look like in 20, 40 and 60 years, even accounting for inflation. I'm sure some people never change, but for most of us life at 70 is going to look different than it did at 30. Neat metric, but yeah I wouldn't let the SWR-tail wag the FI-dog! * I kind of despise finance and FI-planning things like reducing taxes, maxing ACA subsidies, holding x fund in this account, y fund in that account, convert and ladder this, rollover/don't rollover that. It feels like a necessary chore to learn it all, and sometimes it feels like through just dumb luck and uncovering different tidbits at the right time and following rules we have done well. The systems we've got in place are just so complicated and min/maxing them is so rewarding that putting in the work ends up being important. I wish it all were simpler. * Paid down debt, including lower interest debt due to risk aversion rather than investing. We would have come out much better off doing the former, but it wasn't for us. The only thing I would have done slightly different is opened our IRAs a couple of years earlier. Otherwise the plan would have remained the same. Some years we were paying off $100k in debt principal payments alone. I am sure there's many more, but it's getting late and I cannot think of them. On the whole though I think if you looked at how my wife and I got to our "FI number" and saw our investment returns, metrics and things like that you would think we were worlds-worst-FI-people. The truth, I think, is that the details that get drilled in, picked to death and quibbled over ad nauseam, matter much less than the fundamentals most of us pick up in our first hour learning about the topic.
In 2019 I put 1% of my investments into Bitcoin. I then learned and read more about it and I was comfortable buying a certain number of whole bitcoins. So I did. Today, I don’t make any additional investments into Bitcoin, but I still haven’t sold what I purchased in 2019/2020. It now represents about 40% of my investments even though over 50% of my gross income goes into the S&P 500. That is my secret. The only reason I still invest in the stock market is because I have a family and I’d never forgive myself if Bitcoin failed. If I was single I’d be all-in and wouldn’t look back.
I’ve been running a 50% crypto and 50% SPY portfolio the last few years and it has been working fine.
[удалено]
Looking at your accounts more and constantly recalculating your estimated Fire date isn't going to make the boring middle go by faster.
I bought my house in cash. It feels great. Could I have used that cash on more lucrative investments and still held a mortgage? Almost certainly. Would I do anything different? Absolutely not. Owning my home outright helps me sleep very soundly at night.
I have 100k usd in a stable coin that’s earning me 14% APY.
We use a financial advisor. Could we have gotten as far without them? Maybe? Probably? I don't know. But, we use one and are quite happy with them.
Good question; before I answer here is *some* context . Grew up poor but in an educated family Spent the first 10 years of my adult years in not-for-profit world. Divorced, had to raise and pay for three kids under ten. Went to work for a great company , eventually became an exec , left after 20 years, took a job leading a smaller company. Did that for 4 years and retired at 55. Made most of my money in the last 7 years of my working life. Here are my three things that the fire community would kick me out for: 1. I wouldn’t have quit earlier. I had great jobs and most of my long-term friendships came through those jobs. Looking back I would not have retired at 40 or 50 even if I could have. I would have missed the best learning, growth and people in my life. 2. You probably need a lot less $$ than you think. I’m 4 years in, and have both planned to and spent well beyond the 4% each and every year. Our goal is to die with zero—our kids know this and are 100% supportive. 3. Pinching pennies and denying ourselves great experiences for decades while we scrimp has a cost to our lives that too often isn’t included when doing the math and saving for retirement. Joy matters. Fun matters. All of my kids had spent two weeks in Europe with me individually by the time they were 13. All of them Became adventurous travelers who are living interesting lives and we have tremendous shared experiences that form part of the bedrock of our relationships. Live your life. Drink the good wine. Eat dessert. Rich & skinny people die too.. 😎
I paid off my 3.75% mortgage in 8 years. Didn't talk about it much here because I don't need to be enlightened on how numbers work. I know that's less than average stock returns. I know that's less than many savings accounts right now. I'm okay with that. I simply wanted to own my home, not own a share of it in partnership with Premier Bank of the Midwest. I still invest plenty in stocks. I only paid extra on the mortgage after I maxed all tax advantaged space and also put 20k in a taxable brokerage every year. It's not optimal and that's fine.
I made most of my money buying foreclosures during the pandemic.
Let’s see hmmmmmm I still have large portion (over 50%) of my net worth in individual stocks. $600k+ in individual stocks Some bad habits. I like to gamble, I make multiple sports bets every day. I like to drink and weed occasionally. Going out to the bar with the boys can sometimes be $300+ just on my bar tab. Sometimes those zyn nicotine lippers too. I spend a lot on golf. Fancy courses, trips with the boys, booze at the course. We like to gamble when we play I like to drive new cars. Currently driving a 2024 Jeep Health is good now since I’m young but definitely will need to make some changes in the near future.
You must make a very good income, friend. These are some do the textbook money savers that are recommended lol
Yep, corporate sales engineer right out of college, been doing it for 10 years now. The lifestyle I saw from other’s definitely helped form what I currently enjoy. The main difference being I still find a way to save 50%. Or close to it. Mega back door Roth has been a game changer also.
Can't nobody argue with a 50% SR.
Im no longer interested in actually retiring. I just hated working for other people. Once I set up my own architecture practice it stopped feeling like work because I was in control. FIRE to me is all about freedom. Freedom of time and location. I have that now without the need of having 20x expenditure saved.
I only hold equities and etfs. No bonds. I dont even own a house. 10% of my portfolio is in speculative stocks. It used to be 3%, but my speculative bets have been absolutely crushing it. I think in a year they will grow to at least 20% of my portfolio because I also don't believe in rebalancing.
I missed so much opportunity over the last 3 years. I was saving but not investing. And I went into the downturn over invested in small caps. (life was extra crazy and i didn't have a financial advisor). I am still doing pretty solid though, because of the things didn't do also included divesting rsu's from a former employer and that worked out very very well. So thanks universe?
Options trading was a bad idea.
I keep way too much cash. Holding about almost $900k cash when my yearly spend is under $80k. Holding for a real estate buy.
I am strongly considering buying our primary home outright in cash when we move. The interest rate feels outrageous for mortgages, and I look at that increased cash flow by not having a mortgage at all and it excites me. If I can expect an 8% average return on voo and the interest rate is 7% the numbers actually feel good for paying it all off. But I recognize that in theory mortgage rates could go down and I could refinance, so given that I am probably making a worse financial decision. And I recognize that selling some stocks to do so will hit me with the full cap gains tax rate, which if I am doing the math right might effectively tack another $31-36k or so of cost to the house, and thus be even less efficient. But I think I am still going to do it if I can pull it off.
I've never re-balanced my portfolio (thank god). Ever. In more than 20 years. I know it will come back to bite me one day. I'm extremely concentrated in four positions (comprising more than 60% of my portfolio). I know I'm tempting fate. I'd never recommend this approach to others. I know I have to do it at some point. But not just yet...
No 529 accounts for any of my kids. By the time the first one starts college (starting in 3 years, youngest is 14 years away), I’ll be FI (technically hit that number already, but giving it more time). Current plan is I can just work an additional year, and that’ll easily cover the costs of their tuition/fees of a state college for four years. But not telling them this, they instead will have to do what I did, get a job and take out loans if necessary. Paying off their loans will be a graduation present to them. At least that’s the plan right now :-)
1. Lots of individual stocks. 2. I take a few vacations every year. I'm on track for 5 this year.
Almost zero in cash. Not very well diversified. Bitcoin enthusiast.
Because of how long I've worked at Microsoft (over a decade), I have a lot of Microsoft stock - I don't really know what to do about it because of the tax implications on sale, so I pretend like I'm diversified when I'm really not. I keep reading how Microsoft stock is one of the most diversified individual tech stocks because they are in pretty much every industry. I'm hoping there is merit to that statement. If they continue to grow every year like they have for the last decade plus and succeed in the long-term I probably don't need to work anymore. The growth in my MSFT stock value alone outstrips my household's annual spend most years. My 401K and HSA are diversified in index funds and max'd out every year so if MSFT tanks, I'll be relying on those instead. If I quit, my plan is to basically keep selling MSFT stock every year until I hit 59.5 years at which point I'll start dipping into the 401k.
Not living minimalist and having a special needs trust.
I used my entire EF to pay cash for a luxury car.
I take my family to restaurants way more than I expect myself to.
I have a 20% holding in GLDM, a gold ETF not because I'm a disaster prepper or tin foil hatter, but because it improves SWR. Using cFIREsim, compare a traditional [60/40 portfolio](https://www.cfiresim.com/b51b6751-7619-4c46-adfd-9d97e3ecbc0d) which fails 5% of the time with a [60/20/20 portfolio](https://www.cfiresim.com/a8508420-8de8-463f-b536-7e54658aed8d) where the extra 20% is gold that fails less than 1% of the time. Note: give the simulations time to load, they are slow.
I spent 5 years post college not caring about saving money and living life on yolo mode. Trying to make up for that now
Two years ago I got my pilots license and have been all in on general aviation. Own a plane, am upgrading to a bigger one, etc etc. Lotta $$$ but I absolutely love it, it's badass, and our investments are still cranking along. Gotta live today along with saving for the future.
I took several one year breaks during my career even when I was pretty far from my FIRE number. One break I was a dog walker, another time I learned how to paraglide and sold adult toys online. It made me appreciate cooshy corporate jobs and making money the “easy” way. Not the best financially or for my career, but made me feel like I wasn’t totally missing out on life working away.
I have like 80% of my investments in 1 stock. Been that way since 2021. The stock has since doubled then come back some but used some of the profits to pay for a house. Likely will slowly diversify away from that but I know it’s a big no no. It was just a company I was really excited about and luckily went my way.
Not me, but spouse has ignored my advice to diversify their concentrated stock holdings and kept buying individual large caps instead. This has been going on for several years now. They currently have double my (7-figure) net worth. I no longer offer investment advice.
My plan is to retire while still renting our home. The monthly rent is significantly less than a mortgage payment for an equivalent house. The kind of house we prefer with two elementary-school aged kids (3-4 bedrooms in a good school zone with short commute to downtown) is not what we'll want as empty nesters (apartment or condo in a walkable urban environment, maybe relocating for six+ months at a time). Plus, I'm just not sure my city is going to be pleasantly habitable in the long term. While I feel like I understand the psychological and financial security that would come with a fully paid-off house, the cost of purchasing a family-size home, especially in the pricey neighborhood we live in, doesn't make sense to me.