u/lazybarbecue

I've been saving towards retirement for a few years now, and am really happy with my progress and plan. I've been itching to go on a week long vacation and finally today started to plan it out. The total trip will be around two thousand and it got me thinking that before I understood how to save and started planning for retirement, I'd never have been able to even take this trip, let alone do it and not feel guilty. It's such an incredible feeling to know that as long as I'm following my plan, I can use excess money to go out and have fun.

Just wanted to share since I was feeling sort of giddy thinking about it. I hope you all are enjoying your journeys towards fire. Cheers!

Last time I stayed at a cheap motel my first night off the plane, then went to the Flamingo for the other 5 nights. I played every day at the Aria which seemed great, although I guess 2 different rewards programs. I have a buddy who lives 30 minutes out of town that I met up with for lunch and dinner a couple of times, and we played Top Golf.

This time, I'm just wanting to go back because I miss playing poker at the tables. I recently moved up to Alaska, and I have no options near me to do that. My question is, if I want to make this a 2x annually thing, should I focus on one rewards program or does it not really matter? I haven't tried any of the other poker rooms since the Aria just worked out so well for me last year. I spent probably 50-60 hours there in 5 nights/6 days.

If I mostly only care about food/poker, what do you guys suggest for hotel/poker rooms and rewards? My budget is usually around 2k/trip, and airfare is covered by miles (I get miles from company flying me back and forth to work) I play 1/3 and left up $700 last trip.

Thanks for any suggestions!

I'm just getting to stage 20 dungeons and don't have a ton of rolled up gear to use for my faction war dudes. So I save my main 5-6 guys gear to global presets and just use them for faction war keys. I ALWAYS forget to swap the gear back before wasting energy or arena tokens and I keep being exasperated by it haha. Just wondering if anyone else has the same issue!

I bought a creami because I watched a lot of somebody named Liam on youtube shorts and it seems really fun and tasty. I'm also on a weight loss journey so I have some specific things I bought to eat that I could also try out and am looking for your suggestion! I have the deluxe if that matters.

Things I have:

• unsweetened greek yogurt
• 2% fairlife milk and 2% fairlife chocolate milk
• pb powder
• honey
• sun ripened dates
• frozen mixed berries

I can also buy something if necessary to make the first experience good, just let me know!

Thank you

I've been documenting my progress towards fire here on reddit for a few years now. The two previous posts can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/leanfire/comments/1dbakr6/34_single_60kyear_salary_current_strategy_looking/

https://www.reddit.com/r/leanfire/comments/1l35xet/35yo_7293k_income_1_year_followup/

I started documenting in the summer of 2024 because it was roughly a year after I reached a $0 net worth, and also a year after I became eligible to start investing in my new company's 401k. Going forward I'll likely continue journaling in January because it's much easier to use my w-2 and YTD paystubs to include yearly totals for progress, and it feeds some small sense of OCD inside.

Here is a brief overview of my job/goals. I work on the Alaskan North Slope (oil fields) doing IT Helpdesk. My company flies me from anchorage to prudhoe bay to work 84 hour work weeks, 4 weeks at a time. Then I go home for 2 weeks. My goal for posting these "yearly" updates is two-fold. I want to be able to look back and track my progress easily, and I want more relatable posts in the financial sphere I frequent. I probably will be caught somewhere in the middle of the leanfire and fire subreddits in my retirement, however, I am MUCH closer aligned to the leanfire subreddit so I post here.

I made a large shift in expenses as of April 1 this year - I moved to Alaska so I could stop flying back and forth from Washington for work. This had an added benefit of much cheaper rent since I moved into a place my high school friend owns and charges me cheap rent. The expected savings of this move is in the ballpark of $10,000 annually; I'm saving roughly $5,000 in flights and an equal amount in rent/utilities.

My 2025 gross earnings totaled $83.5k. I haven't received a raise since fall 2024, however I'm likely capped out in my current position. I can earn roughly up to 92k if I ever actually work a 4 week on 2 week off schedule for an entire calendar year.

I'm going to start charting my contributions and current totals in each post to make it easier to track.

Traditional 401k contributions (not current balance):

2023: $1,247 personal, $936 match

2024: $13,624 personal, $3,290 match

2025: $20,990 personal, $3,358 match

2026 so far: $7092 personal, $1,134 match (This looks low, but with my remaining schedule I should actually be closer to the personal cap of 23,500 than I was in 2025.)

Total contributions so far: $35,861 personal, $7,584 match = $43,445 total contributions

Current balance: $64,451 (Blackrock Equity Index 1)

Roth IRA contributions

2023: $0

2024: $7,000

2025: $7,000

2026: $7,500

Total contributions: $21,500

Current Balance: $26,659 (23.8k VTI, 2.8k VOO)

Vanguard Brokerage: $9,435 ( 9k Emergency Fund + $400 after tax brokerage (VTI))

Starting this month and going forward I'll be depositing $1,625 monthly into this account and allocating $625 to the following years' IRA, $400 to the after tax brokerage, and the rest to the money market sweep in fund until I reach $20,000 at which point all non IRA savings will go into the after tax brokerage.

Some quick mathers will notice that I have just barely breached the $100k amount. I'm stoked!

And for those interested, here are my current monthly expenses after savings has been accounted for.

Rent: $500

Internet: $30 (I just paid the additional cost to increase his current internet speeds)

Phone: $75

Car Insurance: $75

Subscriptions (prime, games, audible): $60

Food: $260 (remember, I'm fed for free on the slope while working)

Total: $1,003 which leaves roughly $1,188 to spend on whatever each month.

If you have any questions about my retirement plans, work, spending habits, or anything else, please ask! I post this once a year to interact and get feedback from others. Have a lovely upcoming weekend.