r/Fire

I have been thinking about the notion of just how little time we have in this world. In this sub we talk a lot about numbers and the mechanics of FIRE. I believe there are other critical dimensions we do not usually touch such the non financial strategies, tactics, principles or even its philosophical aspects.

Given enough time, everyone is eventually dead. Research suggests, the average lifespan is about 4000 weeks. If you are 40 years old, you many think you have plenty of time but that's only just over 2000 weeks left. Can you fit all your dreams, desires, aspirations, goals, hopes and achievements in this time? Are just 40 more birthdays, enough to see all the places you had hoped and to do all the things that you truly wanted to do? Nonetheless, that's the time we have and how we choose to spend it is of paramount importance.

FI/RE is a philosophy that encourages us to seek that true essence in brain glow and to try and reach it in as short a period as feasibly possible without getting too distracted. And... Yes it can be done while remaining true to your values and having fun! One question I see a lot around here is people who ask about how one might overcome the one more year syndrome. Others ask how you might be able to live without social media and consumerism.

I think once you truly think about how precious your one and only life is, and just how finite your time on this beautiful planet may be... You may come to the conclusion you have no choice but to pull the trigger as soon as you get to your FIRE goal and no later than that. It also becomes natural to embrace the joy of missing out rather than the fear thereof and seeking only those things that authentically matter to you. FIREd or not, perhaps realizing how unique and lucky every single one of us is to be alive may bring us closer to a sense of gratitude and peace, even if one might be having a bad day or dreading yet another up coming Monday...

I've used no AI in this post. These are just my thoughts and I'd love to hear your perspective.

I am curious to understand what others do for healthcare when they retire before 65. My husband and I are 57 and 62 and plan to retire within the next year. But the health insurance worries us the most. We have a good amount saved balanced between 401k and brokerage account and money to pay off the house but the healthcare payment will be more than the mortgage payment was. It is daunting to leave a job and lose the healthcare. We will do COBRA for 18 months and then likely move to ACA but the cost is very high. Thoughts?

Im curious if anyone here started there investment journey around or just before the year 2000 where the market stayed flat for a decade. Did you do anything other than dollar cost averaging?

Just wondering if anyone who really hated their job (most people on this sub) decided 'fuck this, I can't do this anymore' and went and got a more enjoyable job with a much worse pay, essentially dropping the FIRE path?

And I'm not talking about coast or barista fire, but someone who still has a long way to go and just wants more out of their life now, rather than in 10-20 years.

Assuming you are spending your dividends instead of reinvesting, since you're retired and now need income, during normal times you're actually only withdrawing ~2% of your portfolio (sometimes more, sometimes less).

During these down periods, it seems like these divdend payout's stayed relatively the same? BND type funds during 2000 crash actually went up. VTI type funds slightly down.

1. For those keeping a year's 'cash on hand' (in a MM) to supplement these times, wouldn't that actually be able to last you 2 years because half your income is still being provided by dividends?

- Not touching your principle is the key.

2. I know this is psychological, but even in normal times, I feel like it gives me confidence in the 4% rule knowing i'm only selling such a small amount of my base principle each year.

Recently moved to LCOL after FI/RE'ing last year. I don't have kids.

I don't bring it up, but other people will. When they ask, I tell people I'm not working, and sometimes tell people what I used to do for 7 years. And, pretty often, they'll ask me if I'm looking for a job here, or suggest ways I might find one given my field.

What do you say? How do you go about answering these people? I'm really not into lying, and I don't do any form of work or plan to.

Everyone's tax situation is different. I'll just share that I'm NOT in the US so please ignore tax. I will have capital gains to pay on this and have no way to defer/eliminate/shield. I'll also pre-declare that I am a Boglehead, 100% invested in FWRA.

I have (cash) funds that I need to invest for ~13 years. On an annual basis, I need to convert 1/13th of this, and can add it to a non-taxable account. Normally, I'd invest purely in the FWRA, but the timed withdrawal, in addition to the fact that this capital is for others and cannot stomach negative returns (unlike me personally) is making me rethink this.

What do people think of the various (high TER) Calamos protectable ETFs, or Autocallable Income ETFS? It appears that these would help me attain a higher rate of return then standard cash/bond/like ETFs (so ~3-4%). It would do so at the expense of upside trapping (which I'm fine with). I'm also open to alternatives if someone has an idea.

Just to reiterate again. I personally, would dump the $ into FWRA, in full as time in the market beats timing the market. But, I can't do that here.

Everywhere I have read/heard that one is supposed to use taxable brokerage accounts first and then use tax deferred accounts like 401k next, and Roth last (if you have it).

I certainly understand why Roth should be used last, but have a question about the other 2.

In our case (early 50s), we have been maxing out our 401ks for past 15+ years, and consequently have $2.8M in tax deferred accounts.

About 9 years ago, I decided to systematically start building up a brokerage account and an emergency fund. As of now, we have $1.3M in these - of that $950k is in brokerage and $350k in cash/CD (I know this is a rather large emergency fund, but it gives peace of mind and earns 3.5% interest).

The brokerage account is great to use as a bridge if we lose our jobs at any time before getting to age 62 (social security retirement age), but if we can hang on to our jobs till then and keep saving, my estimate is that we will reach about $5-6M in tax deferred and $2-2.5M in brokerage plus cash.

Now everyone says having $5-6M in tax deferred around 62 will result in a big RMD problem at 75. Hence, what if we exclusively draw from the tax deferred accounts (like 4-5% per year) in the first decade of retirement and leave the taxable brokerage accounts alone to keep growing and compounding?

This is counter to the standard advice, but will solve the RMD issue for us at least without having to implement fancy Roth conversions.

What do y’all think??

Hey everyone!

I am currently maxing out all of my retirement accounts (HSA, Roth IRA, Trad 401k) and am wondering when it makes sense to start focusing solely on a taxable brokerage.

I am in my mid 30’s with around a $600k NW ($80k of that is in a HYSA). My partner is 8 years older than me so they have a shorter time horizon, but I did the math and found we would have about $5 million ($3 million adjusted for inflation) by their traditional retirement age without contributing a single additional dollar to our retirement accounts. This amount will easily allow us to retire and live a comfortable lifestyle. We also don’t plan to have children.

I receive a 50% match for all 401k contributions from my employer (around 12k) and I don’t like passing up free money. My one worry is that the 401k will become too bloated if I continue to max it out and cause an RMD headache once 75 hits. I also currently only have around $130k in post tax investments (Brokerage, RSU’s, Roth), so early retirement may be difficult if I don’t have a large enough buffer.

Would you forego the match and start funding a brokerage account? Or keep maxing the 401k until I’m in my 40’s?

Been seeing alot of people in their 20's and early 30's planning FIRE, and assuming they can coast fire at 30, or plan out everything that's going to happen for the next 30 years.

Lifes going throw at least a few big curveballs. some good some bad. I wouldn't worry about something more then 20 years in the future. I would advise leading your life well, saving your money as much as possible in a smart way, and check in, every 5-10 years. And enjoy your youth!

(34f) between my tax advantage retirement accounts, I have reached CoastFI. But I can't really touch those funds until a normal retirement age. It's nice to know those later years are funded. But how would I go about funding a retirement earlier, say 50?

LCOL; $140k salary. Married no kids (yet, but hopefully soon). Husband's salary is around $100k, but he has no desire to fire, so I just need to take care of my income for the early retirement portion

ACA question for you FIRE experts.

I have recently retired in 2026, and our family is on ACA with substantial tax credits. We are family of 4 and plan to manage our income to around $90k.

My son is a full time college student and is taking a job making $25/hr for the summer and this job will offer health insurance. He will plan to continue working there likely during the fall/winter term if it is not too busy for him.

Are we good to keep him on our ACA health insurance without incurring any penalties or losing subsidies?

He will make under the $16,100 federal filing threshold for 2026. But, I’m concerned that since he will qualify for insurance through his job it will screw something up. I want to keep him in ACA for 2026 so that he is not flip flopping back and forth. There is a chance when school starts back up in September he won’t work the 30 hours a week to maintain benefits with the employer.

I understand that people aren’t always in the position to do so for many reasons but for me personally, when I think about working to be eligible to retire at 67 when the life expectancy is around 78 is quite motivating. I absolutely cannot imagine working until I am 67! That was scary enough for me start my FIRE journey.

26M, have at least 15 years until FIRE if I work all the time without vacationing, or 11 years to LeanFIRE.

Is it maybe worth it to delay gratification so much until FIRE? I bought a ps5 pro so I won't buy an expensive gaming pc and to save money, but I work 60+ hours a week and I would love a vacation in SEA'S cheap countries once every year... im thinking 1-2 month(s) long, comfortable - not luxurious.

But it will extend my duration until FIRE.

Reducing expenses so much that I save 80% of every paycheck is tiring af.

What would you do/think?

i would love your personal perspectives and experience with how having children — or not — has increased or decreased your net worth and affected your fire goals and timeline. i am considering foregoing them for a lot of reasons, but $$ is high up there. or is my assumption a fallacy that kids cost you a lot of money?

First post here and I think others experience on here could help me clear up some options I have for the future.
So first the basics, for the last 5 years I’ve been working in the same local business, started at the bottom and quickly climbed up and now I’m number 2, my salary keeps increasing year to year and I feel very compensated based on how the business is growing, the owner appreciates me a lot and knows the sacrifices I made to help the business and how I’m fully focused on it.
Right now my take home pay after taxes is 200-240k yearly, basically my salary is directly tied to our profitability, so as long as the business keeps growing my salary should increase.
I’m not from the US (though I lived there my whole childhood) and I don’t a university degree. I spent only 2-3k a month so I save about 90% of my salary.

The problem is that I’m sure this is not the business or the industry I want to be in in the future, even looking 5 years ahead I don’t want to stay here. I’m really interested in business and finance and I think those areas are what I’m good at, I’m good with numbers, good at sales and good with people. And I believe that if I’m motivated and interested I can do big things in that area. I feel like the way to enter that profession would be a university degree and then to start working and advance. My parents are pushing me to start studying, I just have some trouble “giving up” what I worked up to at my work, I probably wont be able to save money when I’m studying, and also the years after the salaries are very low so it will set me back in terms of FIRE by quite a bit.
My salary right now is pretty much unmatched apart from high level FAANG in my country, it’s just that I don’t want to stay in the same business in the future and right now I barely have time for friends and hobbies, I work insane hours almost every day, no vacations and no flying abroad or anything.

What would you do in my situation and what advice do you have have? Appreciate it a lot

I'm mid-forties with enough money to retire. But when I speak to newly retired people, they're doing stuff I have no interest in (e.g. Substitute teaching; Starbucks barista), to relieve boredom. I'd rather work! What are you doing/planning to do after early retirement?

One thing I've never really understood is when people say things like, "I'm 25, I've got another 40 years of work ahead of me, so I'm 100% in tech," or "I'm young, I can afford to take huge risks."

How do you know you'll actually have 40 years of stable employment?

You could burn out. Your industry could change dramatically. AI could replace parts of your job. Your income might fall. Or you might simply realize that corporate life isn't for you anymore and decide to pursue FIRE much earlier than expected.

I'm 36 and have followed the FIRE movement for years. My goal is to reach FIRE in the next 4–5 years. Even in my mid-20s, I never assumed I'd happily work until my 60s, so I've always invested with the goal of buying freedom rather than maximizing returns at any cost.

Working for one of the world's largest consulting firms, I'm already seeing AI eliminate roles and reduce hiring. Friends in tech, pharma, and other industries are seeing similar trends. That makes me question the common assumption that young investors automatically have decades of reliable employment ahead of them.

So I'm curious: how do you actually determine your appropriate level of investment risk?

Do you base it mainly on age? On your ability to earn? On your financial goals? On the possibility that your career may be much shorter or less predictable than you expect?

I'd be interested to hear how others think about this, especially those who balance long-term investing with the possibility that work itself may become less certain over the next couple of decades.

I am contemplating relocating to SoCal for the weather and food culture. For those who are retired in California, what does your monthly spend look like? Pros/Cons of retirement there? TIA.

My currently monthly spend is around $10,500 USD in another VHCOL. I plan to sell my current house (around $900k-$1M) if I do relocate. I’m not worried about healthcare since I have national coverage.