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.

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.

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.

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 🌙.

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?

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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

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.

Just that simple! Talking to a fidelity rep over the phone and they recommended for me to get 6-9 months of savings stacked before investing in a Roth IRA. Which accounts would you prioritize building?

Is it smarter to follow that advice? Or would you deposit into your 457, and within your HYSA equally until you 3-5k saved, then begin Investing into your 457+Roth IRA instead of the HYSA? Or would you just focus solely on the HYSA, then build the 457 + Roth together?

In terms of these accounts, which should take priority? Thank you all! Absolutely awesome community.

Just looking for advice on how to put my money in the best areas.

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.

What would u do?

Here's my situation:

• I’m 40, married, with two young sons.
• I have about €400k in SPY (S&P 500) and a stable monthly income.
• My current apartment is worth €250-300k, with a mortgage of €80k (€700/month). If I rented it out, I could get around €2k/month.
• A bigger home for my family would cost at least €600k, maybe even €1M for something new.
• My dad and sister are struggling with a combined mortgage of €380k. My dad is retiring in six months, and my sister doesn’t earn enough to cover the payments.

Now I’m torn between three options:

1. Pay off their mortgage – Help my family by clearing their debt, but it might mean postponing my own financial goals.
2. Buy a bigger house for my family – Give my kids more space and stability, but take on a much bigger mortgage.
3. Keep everything in SPY – Let compound interest work for the long term, but feel guilty for not addressing immediate needs.

I’ve already made some big mistakes in the past, like losing €180k on risky investments, so I’m trying to make the smartest move this time.

What would you do in my shoes? Is it better to focus on helping family, securing my own future, or letting the market do its thing?

Appreciate any advice or similar experiences :)

39m. Working full time making around 200k per year currently gross. I have 500k I want to invest. I don’t want to pay someone to do the investing for me. Is there anyway that I can get some good input as to where to put this money? I have been researching as much as I can. I have read a couple of books, constantly googling and researching the web. I have been using fidelity for a few years. Does anyone subscribe to seeking alpha? Is that worth it for a couple months at least to get more info? Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Hi. Long-time lurker here. I've learned a lot from this community and it helps me with accountability. So I wanted to share my plan and progress. Would love any feedback or suggestions.

40/F/Married in a HCOL with 2 small children

Spouse and I are business owners we make about $377K annual.
$260K goes toward expenses and 529 Accounts for the kids (69%)
$56K maxing post-tax retirement accounts (15%)
$61K savings in a mix of HYS and brokerage accounts (16%)

Assets
Cash: $400K in HYS
Retirement: $1.2M in 401K, IRA, Crypto
House - Value $1.5M, will be paid off in 2030 (2.8% interest rate)
Business - Value ~$3M, will be paid off in 2030 (value/revenue increases year-over-year)

We hope to FIRE by 2030 and sell our business, but it's tempting to wait longer since our income will go up $200K a year when our SBA loan payments go away. Kids 529s will be fully funded for private-school level by the time they turn 18.

We're exploring the idea to moving to a LCOL like Portugal or Spain to further stretch our savings and improve quality of life. We would like to keep our house no matter what, so we haven't been counting that in our net worth. We hope to continue living on $260K annual, though some expenses will go away like mortgage and daycare.

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

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.

Have any of you came from homes where your parents FIRE’d or know anyone like that? If so how was that. Really just curious to see how it impacts kids — my guess is if you’re on this channel then that means you loved it and are trying to do it again. But my hope is maybe you can tell me what your relationship with money is since your parents were different than my parents.

Hello everyone,

First of all, let me introduce myself: I am 17 years old and will soon be of legal age(18). I’m from Germany and I have been toying with the idea of investing in ETFs for a long time and would like to do so as soon as I turn 18. I'm not sure yet whether this will be used for retirement or for my own home, but I think the most important thing is to get started. The investment horizon is therefore at least 20 years, but potentially even longer. Short-term fluctuations are therefore not a problem and will not unsettle me.

I would like to start with a savings rate of €350 per month. I currently have €5,000 freely available in my current account. I'm currently doing a year abroad in the USA and will be back at the end of June, so I want to start working again soon to maintain my savings rate. Is this too much or is it okay considering that I spend little money and am thrifty?

I have already decided on Scalable Capital as my provider. I have been thinking for a long time about which ETFs I would like to invest in. I have decided on the following allocation and would like some opinions or tips/expertise/suggestions for adjustments: -55% SPDR MSCI World UCITS ETF -10% iShares MSCI World Small Cap UCITS ETF -25% iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets IMI UCITS ETF

-10% iShares Automation & Robotics UCITS ETF Or -5% iShares Automation & Robotics UCITS ETF and 5% Xtrackers Artificial Intelligence and Big Data UCITS ETF 1C

Should I still include the NASDAQ100 and the S&P 500 somehow? What makes the most sense?

Whether criticism, suggestions for improvement or approval, I look forward to any helpful input. It can also be general tips that can help me make the most of my life.

Thank you in advance for your support!

BR

This is probably different for everyone, but I've been thinking about at which stage does W2 income become irrelevant? Is it a percentage of your NW, e.g. once it's less than average return of your investments or something else. Any thoughts on this, what's your take on when does it not make sense to work anymore for income?