40M, $2.5M NW, planning US → Southern Europe. CoastFIRE at $3.5M?
The situation
40M, married with two kids, 4 and 2.5, living in a VHCOL area in the US. Wife is Asian, I’m European, kids were born in the US. We’re dual US/EU citizens.
$2.5M NW, mostly in taxable brokerage accounts:
• $2M VTI
• $270k in tech companies I’ve worked for
• $150k VXUS
• $70k cash
I work in tech and make ~$400k/year. WLB is actually fine, but I hate the job. It’s high stakes, with constant layoffs and the ever present fear of PIP.
My wife works in finance, makes ~$150k/year, and has good WLB.
Financially, we’re obviously very fortunate. But day to day, life feels like a grind. Between work and two young kids, we’re always busy. Everyone around us is equally busy. We have a handful of friends but rarely see them, and we have no family nearby.
We make good money, but beyond the occasional vacation, there isn’t much we actually want to spend it on. At this point, more money mostly feels like numbers going up on a screen.
The plan
Get to ~$3.5M NW and move to Southern Europe, where I’m from, ideally before our oldest starts elementary school.
The idea would be to find two lower stress remote jobs and essentially CoastFIRE. Send the kids to international school, have more time for ourselves, relationships, family and hobbies, and generally build a life that feels less centered around work.
We’d leave the $3.5M invested for retirement and aim to cover our living expenses entirely from whatever we earn. No need to maximize income anymore.
Then see where life takes us. Maybe we keep working like that indefinitely. Maybe after a few years we realize we have enough and quit altogether. Maybe we start a small business or do something we actually enjoy.
Has anyone here made a similar US → Europe move with young kids after reaching FI-ish territory?
Anything you think we’re overlooking? And does $3.5M feel like a reasonable point to stop optimizing for income and make the jump?