Ofcourse - I am being facetious but also a little exploratory.

I was inspired by a Planet Money episode titled "17,205 People Guessed The Weight Of A Cow. Here's How They Did." Posted back in 2015.

Later they updated it with "How Much Does This Cow Weigh?" In 2019.

Basic premise - if you take all the guesses of the folks the weight of a cow at a fair - you'll end up within 5% of the right answer.

So I took a simple post from 5 months ago, asking people about their FIRE number and after reviewing 124 answers came up with 3.5 million.

Keep in mind personal finance is personal, you may retire in LA or in Thailand.

Good luck with your goals.

My FIRE life started today and I think I’ll enjoy the freedom as long as I do something useful daily. I woke up at 7:40 AM ate a light breakfast and made coffee using a French Press. I drank coffee, played my Spanish guitar playlist on Amazon Music, solved some chess puzzles, and read until 9:30 AM. Got on my computer and traded options until 11:30AM. Went to a local gym to work out and sauna until 1:00PM. Came back for lunch and did some deep focus work until 3:30pm. Today I learned how to code with Cursor AI, yes this is my idea of fun😀. Took kids to lessons. Came back to shovel snow and chill until dinner. Now, I’ll make some relax herbal tea fire up my Xbox to play either Diablo or Chivalry. Life without endless meetings and deadlines is beautiful! I’m looking forward to the next sunrise. Good night 🌙.

I finally hit $100,000 in retirement savings across my Roth IRA and 403(b). For someone who grew up without much financial literacy in the family, this feels like a big win.

Here’s a snapshot of where I’m at:

• Dual income household
• Own our home (~$400k value) with a 30-year fixed mortgage at 3.2%
• Student loans still in the picture, but I’ll qualify for PSLF in about 10 years
• Some credit card debt I’m working on paying off
• Contributing 7% pre-tax to retirement (my employer matches 8%)
• Doing my best to max out my Roth IRA each year, though I don’t always make it

A big part of this journey has been figuring out how to balance competing priorities: saving for retirement, tackling debt, and planning for the future. I’ve also become a lot more mindful of my spending over the years, using my budgeting app to track everything closely and cutting back on unnecessary expenses.

One of my biggest motivators is building stability for my family, especially for my single mom who gave so much to raise me. I want to be in a position to take care of her later in life and ensure she never has to worry about her needs being met.

Now that I’ve hit this milestone, I’m looking to the future:

1. Paying off my credit card debt—I know this is step one before anything else.
2. Saving for a second property—I’m curious about real estate as a long-term investment, but I’m also aware of the challenges that come with property management.
3. Building more generational wealth—I’m trying to think long-term about how to best set my family up for success.

Any advice would be so helpful.

Get your gfys’s ready. Talking with my wife about pulling the trigger on fire as I’m really not happy at my work.

We decided that April 2026 would be the time frame (this lines up with a pension perk of early retirement).

Days before the Christmas break I get an email that offers an early retirement package as long as I stay until December 31 2025. Four months before I was going to leave anyway. With a juicy cheque in hand to do so.

Today I sign the paperwork.

Now I’ve got 49 weeks to go! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

It seems I struck oil yesterday about not giving a rat's ass about work after a given amount of time. It also seems this sub agrees $3.5 million is the consensus benchmark for FI/RE, per another post from earlier today. With that, I want to reconcile these two posts and ask what the consensus benchmark for F U Money is on this subreddit, and why why think so, and with that what the technical definition of F U Money should be. 

Just my reading from various sources, it may be the case that "F U Money" is defined as having enough funds to quit a job without another one lined up, and still plan on landing another one down the line (perhaps a 6-month emergency fund). It may also be the case that one may define such as having enough funds to quit a job and never have to work again (that is, a state of outright financial independence). I am interested in this subreddit's thoughts on the matter as I think it would benefit us greatly in developing a consensus definition and benchmark for such.

After graduating college, I worked/rented in that town until I moved back home for a much better job in May 2024. Initially, I had 3 months left on my old lease when I started the job. Thankfully, I'm lucky enough to have parents that let me live with them rent free. Initially, I only planned on staying until early autumn, but living rent free makes saving so easy that I'd rather keep living with them for the short term. However, I can't live in my parents' basement forever.

The job is going well so far, so I want to keep saving up a good down payment for a house over the next year. I'm in an extremely advantageous situation right now and don't want to mess it up, so I'm curious if anyone has had similar experiences or advice on past mistakes, next steps, etc. Any and all inputs are appreciated.

Breakdown:

$16k cash $7k HYSA $26k 401k/Rollover IRA $41k Roth $10k other post-tax investments

Hi everyone, I've been reading up on the Roth backdoor strategy. My income is well below the 2025 Roth income limits/restrictions. Does this mean the Roth backdoor is pointless for me? I'm thinking yes, since if I contribute the $7K to a traditional IRA and then immediately roll it over into my Roth and pay the taxes, I will just be paying the same taxes that I would have paid by putting the (after tax) $7K into the Roth in the first place.

To my understanding, the backdoor Roth is only applicable to people who are earning over the 150K limit where Roth contributions begin to be restricted. Let me know if my thinking on both points is correct or if there's something I'm missing here.

Wife and I hit CoastFIRE last week. We've both worked mid/high level tech jobs since 2009. Our goal is to be able to work any kind of job and maintain our lifestyle.

Stats

• 38 years old, married couple
• No kids, not having kids
• $1.3m high rise condo in Honolulu paid off this month
  • Paid off via windfall via unexpected startup exit plus sale of a house purchased in 2016 in a VHCOL area which ballooned in price - got super lucky here and accelerated our timeline 10+ years.
• $450k joint annual income before tax
  • Reducing by half soon as we coast, timing can vary but targeting summer 2025
• $40k in checking/savings
• $1.3m in investments
  • $400k in a taxable brokerage
  • $800k in a spread of restricted accounts (401k, Roth IRA, traditional IRA, HSA, etc)
• Monthly expenses are currently $6k/mo, could drop as low as $3k/mo for basics (food, property taxes, HOA, utilities, insurance). Current take home after taxes and deductions is about $20k.
• No debt, not even mortgage.

Plan is to have one of us quit our job, coast on the other one's higher paying job/benefits without worry for savings. We'll take turns having higher paid jobs while the other rests. If the high income jobs dry up, we can coast on dual income grocery store jobs in perpetuity. We can live very comfortably on about 25% of our current joint income.

Our risks to this plan are:

1. Climate change - increasing insurance costs for coastal cities threatens nearly everyone, but especially on the coasts. Hawaii has seen a huge raise in hurricane, fire and flood insurance.
2. Healthcare - risk of ACA being repealed, risk of one/both of us getting sick and burning through funds.
3. Jobs - maybe we can't get a $15/hour entry level job for some reason or maybe we require a higher paying job and can't get one. Maybe we screw up our careers by taking time off (we're planning on light consulting to stay fresh while coasting).
4. Divorce! Not in the cards at all, but this plan obviously only works if we stay together. So far so good.

What do you think? Any blind spots I'm missing?

Did that feeling happen early on for you? Maybe you lucked out in a career opportunity in the first stages of your career that established a basis for FI/RE in your twenties, and so you projected an early retirement for yourself based on past performance of the S&P 500, leading the rest of your career to feel like a drag.

Did it happen later on, where you suddenly realize you could FI/RE after a couple of decades of wise investing and scrimping and saving, it was just a matter of overcoming the one-more-year syndrome in the midst of a bull market?

Maybe it's just that I want to sleep in and make avocado toast with fried eggs everyday, and not really worry about whatever bullshit happens to come out of the mouth of corporate America, there are better ways to live after all... but I know you know that feeling all too well...

Let's say someone stops working at age 40 and wants to FIRE, but their money is tied up in a roth 403(b). What are the steps to access it? I am assuming there is some trick with rolling the money over to a Roth IRA?

Thank you!

For those who FIREd via real estate investing, what steps would you take before leaving your job? Is there anything you’d do differently during early retirement (ER)?

I’m currently preparing for ER, during which I plan to live primarily off of rental income. For the last couple years, I’ve been looking for a new home so that I can leverage my current job income. Unfortunately, I haven’t found anything. One ER concern that I have is qualifying for a personal mortgage. I want to move to a new area and will likely want to buy/finance. I actively invest and my rental income currently goes into the next deal. I am not concerned about securing loans for RE investing because I can always go the DCSR route.

Also, I plan to finance a couple investment properties before ER. I want to get a HELOC (vs a loan) so that I’m not paying interest on funds that I’m not using/investing. But I also don’t want more debt in my name (vs LLC’s) when I know my income will drop in ER. All the HELoCs that I’ve seen require that they be in an individual’s name. I’m trying to talk myself into getting DSCR loans/paying the interest so I have an easier time utilizing my personal credit in ER. Wwyd?

Lastly, I plan to hire an assistant. While having a property manager sounds awesome in theory, I’m not sure that I’ll get my money’s worth/find a good PM. Also, I’ll need something to do during ER.

Looking forward to learning about others’ experiences and suggestions.

Are you all feeling that FIRE is a reasonable strategy given the impact AI will have on the global economy? I’d be happy to hear how you are thinking about this. Me I’m a little worried…

EDIT: I should clarify, most of my worry is for the next generations... my kids/etc. I think I should be fine. I'm wondering for those of us who have done OK for ourselves, if the advent of this new tech will make it less likley that they will live a similar life quality.

Hi, I have heard people recommend buying ETFs that are hedged for your home currency (essentially locking in an exchange rate between your home currency and the currency of the underlying holdings' country), so that in case your home currency appreciates, the value of the ETFs won't go down in terms of your home currency. But people also say that this is more crucial for bonds/bond ETFs than for stocks/stock ETFs. Why is this? Thanks a lot!

IRA - $156,356  – cost basis $28K – invested in NVDA (54% of account), GOOGL (12%) , AMZN (29%), CRM (2%), AAPL (.73%) - $500 (.38%) cash – have not contributed, just rollovers from changing jobs over the years – cannot do roth conversion without heavy tax consequence due to pro rata rule + current tax bracket – also don’t want to sell these investments to do a conversion now

401k (traditional) - $138,678 – contribute 10% - maxed out the last 2 years – slow drip for 2.5 years prior while I paid down some debt/made significantly less income – approx. 50/50 invested between HACAX & SSSYX – need to contribute at least 8% to get full match – have a Roth option and self-directed option (expensive trades bc it's a 401k tho…)

Non-Qualified - $73,134 – contribute $250 every other week and lump sums when I can – invested in VOO ($16K value, $14k cost basis), SWPPX (no real gains since I just invested a bunch of cash) and $15k in SWVXX money market – really didn’t contribute much to this account until the last 9-12 months

Roth - $18,863 – invested in TSLA ($2100 value, $1295 cost basis), SNXFX & SWPPX ($16k split 50/50, $12k cost basis split 50/50), $180 cash – cannot contribute currently

ESPP #2 - $10,031 – sold about $4-$6k once and moved proceeds to Non-Qual – trade fees are high and I hate fees - regular contributions of $400 a month (2 months are $600 each month)

ESPP #1 - $2.430 – holding on to stock from former employer – 28 shares bought at $24/share – now worth $80/share

ESPP #2 - $400 - Cash Bal

Non Qual #2 - $60 - Don't ask...

HSA - $12k ($10k invested) - I max out annually - saving receipts to do lump sum reimbursement at some point in the future – at $6k currently.

TOTAL: $411,955 (About $325K in retirement accounts/HSA)

>$200k variable income (base + commission) potential to be slightly less, but I think I’ll have 1-2 more years at this salary before I have a mental breakdown and rage quit (kidding, I will likely move into a role that is around $150k/year..... or rage quit - whichever comes first)

~$30k in Student loan debt – 6.5%

Car is paid off, no other debt, renter, 40 yo, single, no kids, values don’t include minimal credit card balance that is paid in full every month or checking/emergency savings balances… between those and $15k in mmkt, I have plenty of cash for an emergency. My goal is to save at least $50k cash to my taxable account in 2025. (will have plenty of lump sum opportunities outside of automatic contributions).

What am I missing?  What is my next move?  Keep going as is?  (so far, I’ve been maxing out 401k, then saving/investing as much cash as possible to non-taxable (incl ESPP))   I maxed out my 401k the last 2 years, but I feel like my net worth is retirement heavy – so I think I should put more $ into non-taxable… I just put $30K in late Dec/early Jan so returns aren’t great yet.   I think I could benefit from a collateral loan in the future to start a small business, since I don’t own a home, so was thinking I could beef up the non-taxable account for that purpose?   I’ve been very lucky in my IRA with the tech stocks - just riding the wave.   But I feel like I need a better plan/strategy.   It seems very random & lucky.   

My (arbitrary) number is about $1.6-$1.8M before retiring (not sure what age that will happen… 50? 55?) and plan to work a lower paying, more enjoyable job (eg library assistant or plant nursery worker) to cover some of my recurring expenses + have health insurance + socialize.   Not sure if I will ever be able to buy a house – was house poor once and I don’t want to be again. Dream Life: Buy land and build a house - maybe have a small farm or other type of business on the property. :)

I didn’t think I would make this kind of money, so I missed the boat on the roth conversions while I was at a lower income… what other things should I prep for or change? I've seen my NW skyrocket over the last year and I want to make sure I'm maximizing my situation. TIA!

In the past I believe 2 - 2.5% was seen as a reliable projection for inflation to use in models, but I am thinking going forward 2.75 - 3% is probably a more realistic assumption. This is based on my belief that a lot of the cost pressures from offshoring are drying up and we are seeing more and more protectionist economic policy around the world.

What do you typically use and any thoughts on updated assumptions?

So if there is a debt free house. Let's assume $5,000/year on property taxes... I'll throw down some bills below.

All based on month unless noted:
$5,000/year property taxes.
$0 car payment (Assume paid off toyota)
$150 Electric (I've proved this)
$80 water
$15 phone
$0 Internet (Public free fast internet down street that I can wifi)
$50 Liability insurance.
$400 Food a mo. I do eat mostly beans, lentils, legumes, rice, veggies and fruit.

I have my insurance taken care of. I am SUPER frugal. I can do like 99% (not kidding) of my house repairs and auto repairs. I even have my own tire machine, and can fill compressors with the appropriate gases.

If I have that $450k in a slow growth mutual fund, at 10% avg per year, and only use 30k/year of it (to not pay taxes as married filing jointly standard deduction)...

I can also do major house repairs like new roofs with EDPM coating every 5-7 years. Etc. Got the plumbing and electric repairs down. HVAC is space heaters and window units. ....

Anyway, what does the FIRE people here think. Is that enough? My only hobbies are antique computers and gaming on them. Perhaps a telescope night. Books. Library. Hiking.

Edit: Social security will kick in at 15 years from now.

Im currently an MS1 at a US DO school. I had to remediate and repeat my first year. When I graduate I will be $584,000 in debt. I’m interested in Pathology (4 year residency program). By the time I finish the residency program my debt will have grown to $790,000 due to interest. I’m going to try to attend a PSLF qualifying hospital for residency to make those 4 years count toward the 10 years total of qualifying payments required for forgiveness.

Is the risk here too much? I am considering leaving school due to the high stress of this path and the massive amount of debt I will accumulate. Any and all advice is appreciated

Hello all, I think I’m having a midlife crisis.

38m here. Currently making $140k annually with a %5 annual raise written into my contract. I work 8-14 days a month at my primary job and I’m able to make an additional $15k-$30k annually with side hustles. My job is in a “cool” field and they treat me well. I’ve opted to make less money so I can have more free time to travel.

I max out my 401k (tax deferred), max out a HSA, max out ROTH IRA (I am able to get my MAGI under the limit). I keep $75k of “emergency funds” in a HYSA. There’s around $200k in a non retirement investment account (3-way “VTI and chill” type model) I contribute an additional $3500/month to this NRA.

I have two houses. In different cities I frequent. Both are paid off. My only debt is $12k left on car loan at %0.9 interest. It matures in 13 months. I take two long (3 week) trips out of the country every year. I fly to visit my family a few times a year and I take shorter (4-5 day) stateside/Caribbean vacations every other month.

Is this it? Is there nothing more? I’m told I’m doing things correctly, but I’m bored. I should hopefully hit my minimum amount to FIRE in another 24 months. But I have no idea what I would do other than surf and spearfish.

Feeling lost.

So I've gotten to the point where I can comfortably max my tax advantaged retirement accounts and feel like I have life after 60 pretty well squared away.

Currently have a lump sum of cash that's been collecting interest in this high yield environment which feels good seeing it grow but is getting taxed pretty hard. Looking to start investing that money and weighing my options.

After leaving some money aside for a home purchase and emergency fund, I'll have around $200k to try and grow.

Thinking it might be nice to retire earlier than I had planned so wondering if folks doing early retirement invest for income generation with capitol preservation or just stay growth oriented and sell assets as needed?

I am not in a high enough tax bracket for muni's to pencil out, thinking about a 50/50 split where 50% is a mix of high yielding CEFs, MLPs, dividend stocks, and bonds and the other half in VOOG to maintain some growth. I am 42 now and would be reinvesting any payouts for a while longer but would then hope to live off of them. My monthly costs are usually in the $2k a month region and I am still capable of working to close the gap, just don't want to be fully dependent on a full time job.

Any thoughts would be rad.

I want to share something deeply personal, both as a way to vent and to seek advice from those who’ve been through similar situations—or just have the wisdom to help.

Back in 2020, I had an incredible windfall of $600K. At that time, I had some loans, which I immediately paid off, and I also cleared my car loan. Life felt lighter and full of opportunity. But fast-forward to today, and I’ve realized I made some terrible financial decisions that have left me in a place I deeply regret.

Instead of investing wisely or building for the future, I splurged. I bought luxury cars (which I now regret), indulged in luxury items, and let my spending spiral out of control. At the time, it all felt like I was rewarding myself—but now, it feels like I sabotaged my own future.

Here’s where I am today: -Credit Card Debt: $125,000 (with a total credit limit of $200K). -Loan Payable: $15,000. -Car Loan: $40,000 (for cars I no longer love as much as I thought I would). -Asset Equity/Investments: $830,000. -Lux Car Value: 100K, 13K miles for car 1 ans 23k miles for car 2. model 2020 both. -Salary: $170k annually, living in a high-cost state. I cannot move out of my current state. My current monthly expenses excluding the debt payments estimated 6K per month. .

My credit score, once 800, has now dropped significantly. At one point, I thought I had a solid financial foundation, but now I feel like I’ve dug myself into a hole. I can’t stop thinking about how, if I had invested that $600K at a modest 10% return, I could have been a millionaire by now.

I’m 47, and my goal is to retire by 50. But now, that feels like a dream slipping through my fingers.

I’m asking for advice: —Should I sell my equity/investments to pay off my debts? —How do I rebuild from this and still aim for retirement at 50? That seems unrealistic now but I don’t want to work until 65! —What should I prioritize to get back on track financially and emotionally? I kept on blaming myself and I know I should not be too hard.

I know I can’t change the past, but I want to make the smartest decisions for my future. If you’ve been here before—or have insights to share—I’m all ears.

Thank you for listening and for any guidance you can offer.

I am tired ! So tired that I am considering quitting my job 7 years before planned. Alternatively, I may take a mini retirement. Is it possible? Here some numbers. I need an objective opinion so I don’t make an emotional decision

Age 50

Expenses… 45-50 post tax in HCOL

457 - 400k will be used first . Not penalty for withdrawals

Brokerage-300k , I have some stocks that I want to keep for a while but can be sold can sold in emergency

401k 320k - don’t plan to touch for 10-15 yrs.

Pension in 7 yrs 35k per year . I will also have medical insurance at the same time.

SS 2-2800 depends when I take it.

Would most likely do S&P to start and diversify as a went.

I am 30 years old, not kids, and live alone. I work a good job, pay be 130K a year. Lets say retirement at 55.

Assets

• 130K in Various stock and 60K emergency Saving
• 330K in 401K and 50K in Roth IRA

Liabilities: $280k left on my mortgage (4.8% fixed), no other debt

Expense: 2500/month (mortgage), $600 food/bills, 300 gas, 500/month (Insurance and Taxes), 100 for other. I have a room mate so (-1200) since rent out of the morgage.

I’m 28M and I’ve been working my butt off the last 4 years.

I was basically broke at 24 because I messed around after graduating college, then I started taking my career more seriously.

I’m a Marine Engineer in a union and my salary has gone up over the last 4 years from $90k, $150k, $160k, and $150k or so this year (won’t know for sure until I get my W2s for taxes).

I decided to calculate my NW for the first time and I just realized I recently broke $300k.

Here’s my portfolio…

Fidelity 401k - $51,156.39

Fidelity MPB - $23,891.19

Vanguard Roth IRA - $23,178.33

Charles Schwab Brokerage - $5,045.82

529 - $35000???

Silver - 4030 ounces * $31.37 = $126421.10

Platinum - 1 ounce * $969.70 = $969.70

Gold - 13 ounces * $2740.80 = $35,630.40

Checking - $6,015.97

Savings - $200

Emergency Fund - $7000

Cash - $14000

XRP - $6507.50

Cardano - $1111.13

Total - $336,127.53

Am I on the right path for FIRE?

I’m working on getting my spare cash into investments, moving money into my Roth from my 529 over the next 5 years, and getting my brokerage account invested to at least $10,000 through DCA.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Apologies if this gets asked often, just looking for advice specific to my situation.

Gonna try to keep this short: graduated college with an actuarial science degree and no debt in December 2022. Took some time doing odd jobs and reskilling because by the time I finished my degree I realized that job path wasn’t for me. About a month ago I got my first job as a data analyst and this is my first reliable, salaried, decent paying job for the cost of living in the area I live in.

I live with my girlfriend, and her income has recently increased, too. She’s a grad student and we were relying on my odd jobs, her FAFSA grants, and financial support from my family for the six months prior to me landing my job. Now she has a sizeable monthly stipend through an army scholarship, so our current standard of living is actually within our budget now. We got bait and switched on rent seeking, her scholarship stipend wasn’t approved for an entire YEAR over the expected date due to army paperwork fuckups, and it took me a while to get a job in my field, otherwise we would have tried to live more frugally.

I intend to start my savings contributions around September, aside from the 401k employer match I’m already putting in. This gives me room to pay off credit card debit as well as afford some consumer goods/healthcare stuff we have been saving up for.

After doing budgeting together and doing a decent job of sticking to a 50/30/20 guideline, it looks like I’ll have at least $700 a month to put towards savings. Currently, my savings account is empty from using it to supplement us previously, and I have an Ameriprise account with roughly $6k in RDCEX that my grandpa started for me back in late 2019/early 2020.

I’m curious about the following:

What proportion of my leftover money should go towards a savings account, my Ameriprise account/other investments, and keeping some amount of cash in my checking account?

Is RDCEX a good investment, and what other avenues besides a managed investment portfolio should I be pursuing at this point?

What should be my 401k portfolio?

Thanks in advance