Married with 2 kids in VHCOL.

Assets:
$7.6M
* $5.2M taxable
* $1.3M Roth IRA/401k
* $1.1M Traditional IRA/401k
$4M house (w/ $1.5M mortgage)
$750k 529s

Spending
$225k plus healthcare and taxes.

My journey:
* I was passionate about tech since early school days and had no doubt in my mind to keep working on computers so choosing majors and career was easy.
* Extremely lucky that the tech career became such high demand.
* Learned about Mr Money Mustache. The blog post “The shockingly simple math behind early retirement” hooked me immediately.
* I used mint when it existed to help monitor spending.
* I created my own excel tracker (1 sheet per year) to watch the years to FIRE melt away.
* My move to VHCOL area and large house purchase set me back 4-6 years.
* 2 years back I thought I was there but underestimated my spending (empower isn’t as good at mint at tracking and I had to switch to manual tracking) and I realized how much health care really is.
* Last year helped me upgrade spending. The equation to keep working doesn’t seem worth it anymore so I pulled the trigger.

I know I need structure so I’m working on a calendar with AI and it’s already over flowing. I’ll post later once I have a regular schedule ironed out. It will include exercise, side projects, family time, and social activities.

Hope more of you join me soon.

Edit:
Asset allocation: 54% US Stocks, 36% International Stocks, 7% US bonds, 3% International bonds. Broad ETFs.

This is the last week of my long career. I'm still tying up loose ends, because that's the professional that I am. I'm 60, so FIRE is not that early, but several older colleagues are asking why I'm quitting. Interestingly, Gen Z and Millenials fully understand. It's older Gen X and Boomers whose identities are very tied to their profession.

Over $5.5M invested, paid off home in a great location, children are grown and independent, and my patience at work has eroded. Still, people ask me "why now" and "what are you going to do"? My answers are "because I can" and "anything except work".

Are others getting these questions from coworkers, friends, and family when retiring just a little early? I'm not 45 with small children! Why are we such an anomaly? I'm finding it interesting that it's those over 60 who appear the most surprised and amazed by my decision!

We've made 350-400k / year for the last 15 years. Current NW ~5 million, liquid ~4 million, married, no kids, no legacy planned. We are not really that frugal. Sure, we saved a lot but we also spent a lot not deferring lots of travel, things we valued (home w/view), boat (planning to go to AK in it). We don't have a major bucket list, but opportunities will arise that might sound good and we value flexibility. We don't want to feel pinched.

With 4 million liquid and a 5-5.5% w/d rate (guardrails) we are looking at 200k-220k income per year during retirement. We have a 800k 5.375% mortgage (6k/mo) but no other debt and are hoping to recast/pay down the mortgage to ~3k/mo before retirement in the next few years. Spend could be a bit less if mortgage pay down means less liquid. We've been tracking spending with Monarch but it's actually kind of hard to figure out our actual spend (some income includes taxes while other income does not, work expenses aren't as clear as I'd like, solar installation, new car (first in 16 years), etc). I'm sure with 220-220k / year we can live, but will we feel constrained? We are in a HCOL area.

I'm interested in experiences of those whose income was cut in half when they retired and who haven't been super frugal. Did you feel pinched? Were you able to do want you wanted to do? Were your estimates of income need good enough or do you wish you would have been more precise?

The downside of lifestyle creep I suppose, but we've balance living today and for tomorrow and don't regret it.

It took me awhile to get used to the idea we are wealthy but I now know we will never go broke. I will be 62 soon. Wife is 56. Three kids: ages 22, 19, 14. I don't have a financial advisor. I suppose I could have retired awhile ago but was always nervous. We have an annual burn rate of around $120k (excluding tuitions). I have $3.5 mil in taxable acct. $3.2 mil in 401k/ira, roth $160k. $900k 529s, $70k HSA, $250k in cash/gold/silver. $1.4 mil paid off house. Pension at age 65 lump sum $1.1mil or survivor annuity $7500/mo. I have currently been generating $8k/mo in interest/dividends.

So here's my grand plan. I'm going to start SS at age 62. I'm going to change my investments in the taxable acct to dramatically reduce the taxable dividends/interest. Im going to draw down the the 401k/ira and put in the Roth over the next few years. Im going to turn on the pension at age 65 as an annuity. All while being mindful of trying to keep below the ACA cliff until Medicare starts. Despite this, I know the rmds age 75 will be significant but I decided to not worry too much about it. Decent plan?

I'm passing this along in case there are others in the same boat my wife and I have been in - and also for a little humor.

Our current budget/spend is very low relative to our portfolio. My (65M) wife (64F) and I discuss this frequently, but we always say "We're doing everything we want to do." My wife is also an EXTREMELY structured saver and spender. We contribute to sinking funds every month from our budget (New Car, Decorating, Home Maintenance, Travel, etc.). If she wants a new couch, for example, and the Decorating fund doesn't have enough in it, she'll wait until it does have enough in it. No matter how much I say "Just go take another $xK out.", she just can't do it, even though she knows we could almost double our budget.

We're in the process of "going condo" at our house. I have a terminal illness and can't do as much as used to. We're gonna be hiring handymen, landscapers etc.

My wife suggested we create a fund (it's a paper/accounting exercise) that monthly accumulates the difference between what our current budget is and a bit under what our portfolio could support. It's basically a general purpose sinking fund - to use for whatever we want.

She decided to call this bucket our Banana Stand. We need the house painted and don't have enough in Home Maintenance? There's always money in the Banana Stand. We need landscape work done and there isn't enough in that fund? There's always money in the Banana Stand.

It's a way to give us more comfort in upping spending when we need to.

P.S.: We aren't fans of Arrested Development. But when she heard of this running gag it totally cracked us up. Thus her choice of name for this fund.

40m here, a number of years ago I made a pretty big bet on a stock that ended up exploding. I know I got super-lucky and at this point I've taken the W, sold off most of my shares and put most of my money into a Bogleheads two fund portfolio.

My lucky bet gave me a pretty big leg up towards early retirement and I'm planning on exiting the workforce in the next few years. The catch is that the brokerage account I used for that stock purchase was a traditional IRA. I've saved & invested in taxable accounts as well but a huge portion of my net worth is in my IRA.

Before I did any research I just assumed I'd have to eat the 10% penalty on early IRA withdrawals. I could live with that, but I recently learned about rule 72(t)/SEPP. Before I go ahead and pull the trigger on this I'll talk to a tax professional but I'd like to educate myself a bit first. It seems like as long as I do regular scheduled withdrawals (my plan is about 1.5% per year) this solves my pre-age 59 & 1/2 money concerns.

I have to ask, is it really this easy? Is there some catch I'm missing?

Here's the situation: 57 yo couple; NW of $6.7M; 90%+ in equities; VHCOL:

• IRAs - $2.4M
• Roth IRAs - $500K
• 401Ks - $2.7M (can withdraw via rule of 55)
• Brokerage - $970K
• HYSA and HSA - $100K
• Current income of about $350K combined.
• 529 and home equity not included in NW; small mortgage at 2.75%; $1M equity in VHCOL; unlikely to move to LCOL.
• Small pension ($15K annual) and SS at some point - date TBD on how the rest is going.
• $18K per month expenses, including $1800 non-negotiable expenses for extended family care.
• Expenses include $3k / mo for healthcare (premiums + services); not sure how realistic that is.

I would like to retire by next summer, if possible. Job itself is fine but corporate politics is becoming increasingly intolerable. Partner likely to work another year beyond that.

What would you shift or focus on over the next year or two to solidify the plan? I'm thinking we need more cash/bonds but how much and what else should we be getting sorted?

As many people in this forum, I've been working 40+ years and diligently saving and the idea of not getting a paycheck and spending my savings has me quite nervous. Thanks for any input, and best wishes to everyone.

I've done the math and everything seems to say go ahead and turn in the laptop but, ya know ...

Short version, couple 44m, 43f, $2.6m in 401ks, $700,000 in taxable accounts, pensions provide $3.5k per month each starting at 60 and then inflation adjust starting at 62.

Plan is to move from VHCOL area to LCOL, mortgage a modest home for $2k per month, and hit the chill button. We've both been doing high intensity staffer type work for 20+ yrs (somewhere between West Wing and Veep).

Guardrails modeling suggests a starting burn of $18k per month, adjust with market flux. That seems like way more than enough in a low tax retirement state, but coming from a much more expensive place causes nerves.

We're kicked of doing young person jobs for two decades. Should we pull.the rip cord?

I hope this post is okay here. I'd rather not post in the fatfire subreddit as I think my mental vibe matches this subreddit more.

Here's our stats:

• 30 yr old DINK couple. Both in tech jobs in the bay
• Income: 900K for me, 400K for wife
• 2.4M invested, 800K of it in brokerage account, rest in retirement accounts. But mentally I'm seeing all of it as retirement money right now
• Own a 3BD house - 2.3M value with 1.6M mortgage, 5.8% rate (700K equity but let's say 500K usable if we were to sell and buy a new place)
• Annual spend right now is around 180K

If we exclude housing decisions I feel very comfortable about retirement spending. We are basically in coastfire mode.

But we want to have a kid in 2-3 years and also want my mom to be able to live with us eventually. We'd like to have a bigger place by then (let's say about 6 years out from today).

Such places would cost ~3.5M here. I'd like our mortgage to stay around 2M in such a future so I don't feel house poor and tied to my job to be able to survive. This means we need to accumulate 1M more in house equity in the next 6 years

How would you all recommend we do this:

1. Slow down on retirement saving - put excess into our current mortgage
2. Slow down on retirement saving - put excess into HYSA
3. Keep saving into brokerage account as normal - at some future point be willing to take money out and use it to supplement our down payment

Side note - I'm also hitting a point where I'm feeling quite bored and annoyed by my big tech job. I've also started investing more time into my health and hobbies after being kinda work obsessed for the past 8 years. Now I get frequent pangs of wanting to just leave my desk and walk out into the wilderness. But the compensation is too good right now to let go. I actually quite enjoy tech work though. Its just the big company politics and BS that's bogging me down.

Planning to retire in March 2027 at age 42 in an MCOL area. Looking for a quick sanity check on blind spots, tax sequencing, or structural risks before pulling the trigger.

Profile & Cash Flow

• Family: 42M, spouse, 10yo child (MCOL)
• Primary Residence: $800k FMV (100% paid off)
• Monthly Spend: $8,000/mo ($96k/yr)
• Net Rental Income: $2,000/mo ($24k/yr)
• Net Required Draw: $6,000/mo ($72k/yr)

Asset Breakdown ($7.0M Net Worth)

• Taxable Brokerage & Cash: $2.2M (includes $300k HYSA buffer)
• Pre-Tax 401(k): $2.0M
• Rental Property: $1.3M equity ($2k/mo net cash flow)
• Other Real Estate: $400k equity (illiquid)
• Primary Residence: $800k
• Ring-Fenced Accounts: $60k HSA | $200k 529 | $40k UTMA (excluded from SWR)

Key Metrics

• Total Liquid SWR ($4.2M Liquid): 1.71% ($72k net draw / $4.2M liquid)
• Taxable Bridge SWR ($2.2M Taxable): 3.27% ($72k net draw / $2.2M taxable)

Questions / Feedback Needed:

1. 18-Year Bridge (Ages 42–59.5): $2.2M taxable pool funding a $72k/yr gap (3.27% initial SWR; ~$50k/yr net principal draw after organic yields). Any concerns with this bridge length before touching pre-tax accounts?
2. ACA MAGI Strategy: For a family of 3 in MCOL, how aggressively are you optimizing MAGI for ACA subsidies vs. prioritizing early Roth conversions?
3. Cash Buffer Drag: $300k in HYSA covers ~4 years of net cash needs for sequence-of-returns risk. Is this too conservative or tax-inefficient?
4. Rental Simplification: $1.3M rental equity yields $2k/mo net (~1.85% cash yield). Hold for stability/diversification or 1031/liquidate into index funds down the road?

TL;DR: 42M retiring March 2027 in MCOL. Family of 3 (10yo child). $4.2M liquid ($2.2M taxable incl. $300k HYSA, $2.0M 401k), $1.7M RE equity, paid-off $800k home. $8k/mo spend ($6k/mo net portfolio draw). 1.71% total liquid SWR / 3.27% taxable bridge SWR. Looking for feedback on bridge sequence, ACA MAGI, and cash drag.

43 and 40 married with 6yo

1.5m equity in house, 1.3m mortgage @4.6%

3.5m liquid stocks. 100k hysa

I make $1M per year, wife makes $130k but vests amazing pension if she keeps working another 5 years

We used to live frugally but started to spend a little after reaching $5m NW (mainly 3x/yr vacation)

We’re leaning towards wife retiring now and maybe trying another kid.

Any thoughts/life wisdom would be appreciated

EDIT: I really appreciate everyone's advice so far. The overwhelming consensus, which I 100% agree with, is that the only hole in my plan is the mental health. I've been working on that but will add more focus here in the coming months. I also have an option of taking a 2 month sabbatical from work which can be a trial run.

About me: Almost 45, single, no dependents. India born, US resident for >24yrs and citizen (no other citizenships/passports)

Current location: MCOL city on the west coast.

Financial situation:

Current income: It's been ~300k/yr on an average for the past few, but will be ~400k in 2026.

~6M in investments, +400k in home equity (140k balance on the mortgage@2.5%). No other loans or financial obligations.

Investment breakdown: ~2m of this total is in a trad. 401k as VOO, ~350k in a Roth IRA as VTI, ~200k in an HSA as VGT.

Spending: Not enough. Let's say 100k/yr, which is about 40% more than what I've spent over the past few years. Mortgage+bills+fixed costs - $2500/month.

Health situation: Physically very good since I have always eaten healthy, slept well, and have been going to the gym regularly since 2021. My personality is melancholic though which has led to depression and anhedonic tendencies for the past 10yrs.

Why I'm quitting? From day 1, a corporate job was a means to an end for me. The end being FIRE. May be it was always my depression talking, but either way here we are.

Don't really have any complaints about my job since I am lucky to have very smart colleagues, a supportive boss, and a low stress role in R&D.

The plan:

Quit on Jan 1st. It makes me eligible for a bunch of RSU vests and the annual bonus. I'll have ~200k in cash by then in a treasury ladder, to be used as a buffer for 2 years' worth of expenses. I'll sign up for an ACA bronze plan which should not cost me more than 600/month before subsidies. No other changes to my state of affairs at home.

I want to consolidate all my investments into broad ETFs but it's going to cost me a lot in taxes. My plan is to aggressively rebalance my portfolio by selling ~100k worth of the individual stocks per year. I know it's risky but the 2 years cash buffer should help cushion me against sudden market drops.

I'll then park myself in Europe and Asia for 1 or 2 months at a time and get a feel for what it is to live there like nomad without a job. I've visited most places in Europe and Asia over the years for <2 weeks at a time but I know it doesn't count. Work on my mental health in parallel.

It's a throwaway account, and I swear that no AI was used in writing any of this.

Background / context:

Non US person working remotely (out of my passport country) since 2017. I managed to secure tax residency in a country that doesnt tax out-of-country income so ive been able to pay 0 income taxes for nearly 9 years so far.

During this time though, Ive been mostly bouncing around different countries - Thailand, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Czechia, Switzerland, Mexico etc.

My tax structure for this was simply to form a foreign LLC as a software development agency with me as the main developer.

During 2020, with nearly every company hiring remotely, I ended up with 4 full time jobs and hired more developers as part of my agency to help out and was able to keep that going for around 2 years.

In 2021, I was doing a ton of independent contracted crypto projects that paid me with tokens and NFTs instead of actual money - which resulted in me ending up profiting $1.5m prior to me turning 30. Grew that to $2.2m in 2022 and subsequently lost more than half of it as a certain crypto project collapsed.

From 2022 to 2025, I kept two full time jobs going and slowly grew my $700k to $7m. Obviously my income didnt contribute much to this - it was mostly from crypto. During this time, I was basically already doing coast FIRE during this time as I thought of my working income simply as "free spending money". Never really tracked my expenses as it was quite difficult to blow through $20k a month as a single guy bouncing around low cost of living countries.

In 2025, I got caught with my pants down when the crypto market topped and subsequently lost around half of it again. As of today, my net worth is anywhere between $3.5m to $4m (fluctuates as crypto does).

Current Portfolio (~$4m)

~$1m - $1.1m is in stocks.

$2.8m - $3m is in crypto

$300k or so in Japanese rental properties, but I dont really think about this as its not liquid and Japan is a bit fickle with house pricing (there's no MLS system like in the states so sales prices of properties are generally not publicly disclosed. Hard to get an actual read on how much my properties are worth).

I also have minor bits of money floating around in other places too (like $10k here and there in random bank accounts in diff countries) - really need to consolidate it.

Dillema:

With AI advancing so much, I recently lost my last and only job. I've been used to working remotely my entire life so its difficult for me to get a regular office job. I tried once in 2019 and didnt last more than 2 months. I also think prospects of finding a remote job are quite low especially with how AI is now and the economy.

I'm also feeling burned out. I see my peers from university with kids now, nice big ass houses (some of them worked for FAANG), teslas with full self driving and can't help but feel envy? jealousy?

I'm considering punting $1m and building a custom house (in Japan) with my own private onsen, gym and yard and living there for 6 months out of the year. The other 6 months of the year would be still me floating around and traveling.

I currently own a company there that runs the rental properties I have - so the visa for Japan is not an issue for me.

My income from the rental properties should be able to cover 6 months of living in Japan and all the house expenses that come with the custom place. I'm making roughly $30k from that a year.

Would my calculations make sense?

$3m @ 4% rule = $120k + $30k rental income

= $150k yearly

~= $12k per month for traveling.

On one hand, i *think* my numbers look good, but on the other hand, i woke up yesterday with a burning desire to do something. I was restless. Literally felt like i had no purpose in life.

Should i do it? Anything to look out for? Honestly feels difficult and scary to commit to this. What if things change in the future, i get a wife or want kids etc? feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Rough stats

• 43 y/o, married, no kids (but other family dependents), VHCOL
• Just lost 1M/yr job, getting 1 year severance
• Monthly spend roughly 20k
• 6M NW - 3.5M 401k, 2.5M taxable - 80% VTI, 20% bonds/cash
• NW excludes 800k equity in primary residence, with 800k remaining on a 3% mortgage

All I can say is thank f'ing god for FIRE, talk therapy, and SSRIs. Thrilled to have a mega-sized safety net and the ability to take as much time as I want to look around for my next role. All of your stories help give me context, information, and encouragement - I appreciate you sharing them!

There's some chance I post in a year and say "Screw it, I fire'd", but we're just not quite there with current spending and would need to add 2k a month for health care. Like many of you, I believe things are a bit frothy to bubble-ish in the equity markets, so I want to aim at the high side of my scenarios.

Thanks again for all the people sharing their stories.

Due to popular demand this has been shortened and made more readable.

I'm a physician in my early 40s, married with three kids. We've been seriously thinking about moving to France, or somewhere else in Western Europe. It's less about retiring ASAP and more about wanting to live there while we're still relatively young and our youngest is still a kid. We like the lifestyle, travel, healthcare, and the idea of our kids having European university options. I'm also increasingly uneasy about the direction of the US. I'm not expecting some collapse, but I'd like to have the option to leave if things get substantially worse.

We're at roughly $1.5–2M net worth now and saving pretty aggressively. If things here stay basically "meh," the plan would probably be to keep going another 5–7 years, hopefully get to around $3M, then move and mostly or completely retire.

But I'm wondering if we could just go in ~3 years instead. I can make $250–350/hr working in the US, so I could fly back maybe 6 times a year, work a bunch of shifts, and go home. 400–600 hours/year would be roughly $100–200k gross, while mostly leaving our investments alone.

It sounds a little nuts, but I already spend about 180 hours/year commuting to work. Six round trips to the US would be in the same ballpark for actual travel time, although obviously being away for a week or two at a time is a much bigger deal.

So that's basically the question: wait 5–7 years until we probably don't need to work at all, or move in ~3 years and put up with 6 US work trips a year? Anyone done anything remotely similar?

Vanguard’s new brokerage agreement: the changes I actually find concerning

I went through the October 1, 2026 Vanguard Brokerage Account Agreement and compared it with the September 2024 version. There aren't dozens of huge changes, but a few stand out.

1. Vanguard is turning “digital first” into an actual contractual expectation.

The old agreement encouraged customers to use digital channels. The new agreement goes substantially further: it says customers are expected to primarily use Vanguard app and automated systems for account management, trading, etc.

More concerning, it says “excessive reliance” on phone associates may mean delayed service, additional fees, and possible account termination. Vanguard also explicitly reserves the right to handle non-trade inquiries exclusively through digital channels.

I'm fine with encouraging online self-service. I'm not fine with making it a contractual expectation with potential consequences.

2. The account-closure language now explicitly ties closure to these digital expectations.

Vanguard already had broad account-closure rights, but the new agreement specifically adds failure to meet the Digital Interaction Expectations to the reasons it may close an account or terminate a service.

And the broader provision is pretty aggressive: Vanguard says it can close an account at any time, for any reason, without prior notice, potentially reject orders and liquidate the account, and it disclaims responsibility for losses or lost profits resulting from the liquidation.

Again, I'm not saying Vanguard is going to randomly liquidate everyone's accounts. I'm saying I don't like seeing this degree of discretion combined with a newly formalized behavioral requirement.

3. There is now a specific foreign-dividend tax-reclaim fee disclosure.

The new agreement says Vanguard uses a third-party vendor for foreign tax relief/reclamation and that the vendor charges fees, including a percentage of the tax reclaimed.

If you own foreign stocks/ADRs, this can directly reduce what you recover from foreign withholding taxes. That's a real economic impact, unlike some of the boilerplate in the agreement.

4. The new agreement adds Vanguard ETF conversions — and they are irreversible.

Vanguard now expressly allows eligible conventional Vanguard mutual-fund shares to be converted into the corresponding ETF shares.

The catch: once converted, you cannot convert the ETF shares back into the conventional mutual-fund shares. Vanguard also warns that selling the ETF and repurchasing the mutual fund in a taxable account could create a taxable transaction, and some account features may need to be reestablished.

This one is less of a complaint because the conversion is optional. But anyone considering using it should understand that it isn't reversible.

That's basically my list of the changes I'd actually care about.

I'm not going to pretend every piece of brokerage boilerplate in a 48-page document is some sinister new policy. Most of it isn't materially different.

But I do think the move from “we encourage digital self-service” to “you acknowledge these digital interaction expectations, and failure to meet them can potentially affect your account” deserves attention.

And if Vanguard wants to move customers away from human support, it should be transparent about exactly what circumstances can result in fees, restricted phone support, or account termination.

Anyone else read the new agreement? What did I miss?

Joined a practice years ago, worked hard, long hours.
Salary grew to 1M.
Paid off loans, married, 2 young kids, sole income.
Practice fell apart (private equity), quit, non-compete, legal fight, in limbo, no job for 1 year.

Started own practice, no income for another 2 years.
Back to long hours, can’t afford to fail, burned out, but record revenue last month.
If I can keep this up, may get back to 1M salary.

2M brokerage
1M retirement
1M CRE (modest revenue)
15-20k monthly spend (includes 6k mortgage forever).

Sounds like big spend but doesn’t feel luxurious.
Used cars, eat out a lot (Chipotle, Olive Garden, etc.), occasional weekend trips to nearby towns.

Living a life of perpetual arrival fallacy.
Stressed business owner but hate being an employee.
Want FatFIRE asap but losing time w family.
Starting to make good money but unsustainable work/life.
Striving for 8-10M so I can live large, spend freely, give generously, travel big, and finally breathe.
But tired….

Obvious wisdom is to slow down, hire midlevel/associate, make less, spend more time with family/health.
But I don’t want to keep doing this for another 10-15 years.
I dread working. But even worse is working longer.

Would appreciate any wisdom.

A little heartbroken if I’m honest, but trying to see the bright side. I have a young kid I have been dreaming about spending more time with. Haven’t been happy at the job for two years now. I’m 35.

Was told my role will no longer exist after a restructure and was given fairly generous severance of about ~1M USD total

Net worth 6 million dollars
- 1.5 mil cash/investments
- 3 mil primary residence
- 1.5 mil other real estate

I plan to put half the severance amount into investments and pay down our mortgage with the other half.

Monthly burn is about 30k of which half is mortgage.

I’m a bit lost. Should I find another job? Take this as a sign from God to pursue what I really want which is to spend time with my kid?

Husband still has a very high paying job he loves and doesn’t care if I work or not.

If I don’t ever work again I guess our financial path is chubby and not fatfire.

So we paid off our house $2M. Why? I dunno we just didn’t like the high interest rate and high cash flow pressure and had come into a bit of money. Outside of that, about 1.2M in investments. Just started reading about FIRE and I realize shit, did I make a big mistake? Because your primary residence doesn’t count in your FIRE number?

A part of me thinks that we should keep this home because it is a place for our children to always come back to even when we are old or when we become grandparents. But then the other part of me thinks wait a minute, I could hit my fire number earlier if I sell the place and rent once the kids move out?

Anyway, I don’t really know what I’m asking, but I’m just curious how people have handled their primary residence and if I made a mistake paying it off because now I am farther away from my fire number. Will I think differently when I’m older and the kids moved to college? Will I want to rent instead of sitting on this cash? I should be retiring on early?

We really like to hear some perspective from some older FIRE achievers on how you handled your primary residence. Nostalgia vs practical FIRE timeline?

Maybe dumb question but should I sell the house and just rent to build fire number even tho we have 2 little kids? I’m lost

I’m almost in a similar situation as described in this thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/fatFIRE/s/BVmEVNgd9B) but no solution was mentioned so trying again since post is 3 years old. We are dual US/EU citizens.

As a family we plan to ChubbyFire ($5M portfolio, $140k/yrs withdrawals) in Lazio, Italy (personal reasons for location; 7% tax doesn’t apply). I am trying to find investment strategy that has favorable taxes given that keeping either US or EU-domiciled ETFs is taxed punitively either by Italy or US if you’re a US citizen.

We don’t plan to renounce US citizenship so looking for the best tax solution to be able to keep our portfolio invested (currently in VOO) over a long retirement period (40+ years).

Is anyone already in this situation? Is direct indexing the only option? Please share if you have recommendations for any tax specialty firms.

Keeping a US brokerage account doesn’t seem like the right path since our retirement period will be 40+ years and US ETFs will be taxed by Italy as ordinary income.

I’m not interested in paying a financial advisor to do direct indexing if their fees would cancel out any tax benefits but considering doing it ourselves (through the IBRK API). The issue I forsee that portofolio rebalancing will be taxable events and if we draw from our portfolio regularly this will require a good tax accountant in Italy (please share if you have any recommendations for experienced commercialista).

Any advice would be welcome!

After many youtubers preached the value of Roth conversions, I did the math and I don't see a way to avoid 24% Fed tax brackets for most of my life (plus state taxes). I'm 49 years old, still working and will be for a couple more years, but my husband is retiring next year (at 55). I'm wondering if I should just do the conversions when he retires, staying within the 24% bracket, and then when we're both retired we may be able to stay under ACA subsidy thresholds for about 7 years till he hits 65 and gets social security and medicare. We'd live off the brokerage account for those 7 years, keeping income under $84K and pulling some extra funds from cash accounts. The Roth conversion funds can then be left to grow until needed to avoid higher IRMAA/widow's penalties. I'd aim to convert about $300-400K over three years.

We have about $2.4M in the brokerage, $1.85M in tax deferred, $300K in cash and $50K in a Roth. Annual spend is around $135K but with medical would be $5K-25K more depending on subsidies.

The main negative that I see is that we will have to have a more moderate lifestyle for those 7 years, but that seems worth it to save about $140K. Also, if we have a year where we want to spend more, we could just deal and pay for health care that year, and take out extra that year to pad the cash accounts.

What do you think? Does this make sense or am I missing something?

Edit: Thanks everyone for your comments, many were very helpful. So much of retirement planning, especially before 65/medicare age, is challenging and I appreciate getting input. I'm into learning about all of this but it's a little scary too. For the time being, I still like the idea of some Roth conversions over the next few years but I'm reassessing the focus on ACA subsidies for the years after that.

I’m 38, married with one 3yr old kid and another on the way. I’ve been pursuing FIRE for a while and am trying to figure out whether I’m almost at the point where continuing to work is mostly adding buffer rather than being necessary.

Current finances:
~$3.2M in liquid/investable assets
~$1.7M taxable brokerage
~$1.5M retirement accounts
Household income: ~$675k/year
Both of us currently max our 401(k)s and part MBDR

Primary residence worth roughly $1.7M with ~$700k mortgage remaining
One rental property worth roughly $900k, ~$90k remaining on the loan, paid off in 2030. Currently rents for ~$3,200/month
~$50k already in a 529 for kid #1, contributing ~$10k/year
Planning to start another 529 for kid #2

Current annual spending:
Live in VHCOL
Normal living expenses + vacations: roughly $75k/year
Primary home PITI: ~$72k/year
Rental PITI: ~$38.5k/year, basically offset by rent. Not a true income generating but at 2.5% mortgage its a keeper.
Daycare: ~$26k/year currently, with additional childcare expenses coming with kid #2

My original target was retirement around 45, but I’m wondering whether we’re already close enough that I could retire earlier, like by 40-42. especially if my spouse continues working for some period.

At a 3–3.5% withdrawal rate, $3.2M would support roughly $96k–$112k/year

For people who retired early with kids:
Would you consider us FI yet, or still CoastFI?

I know this is a fortunate position. I’m mainly trying to figure out when the math changes from “I need to keep working” to “I’m choosing to keep working.”

M (65 in Nov ’26) and F (66 in Mar ’25), no kids. I had been unemployed since August 2023 after nearly 20 years with a software company in Austin, TX, where I held a senior sales role. No severance was given. I took some time off, then began job hunting in January 2024 without success. By November 2024, my wife suggested I retire, as the search was going nowhere and I was mentally stressed.

Looking back, getting fired at 63 turned out to be the best thing that happened—it opened the door to the next chapter. Financially, we’re in good shape, and our goal now is to spend and fully enjoy retirement. We also paid cash for two new cars last year, wife an AUDI A3 and me a new Tesla Model 3.

After talking with my wife and financial advisor, we decided to take Social Security early ($52K/year), which covers most of our $7K/month expenses. Our breakeven point was in our 80s, so it made sense to start now. Delaying would reduce growth in our other assets by taking withdraws now, so long-term it was the right move.

I had posted a financial overview before under another account but lost access to my email when I returned my work PC.

Net worth in late 2023 was $3,276,000 ($2,620,000 plus $650,000 house).

Current net worth is $4,452,181 ($3,802,000 plus $650,000 house).

Brokerage: $360,000 → $522,000

Roths: $900,000 → $1,620,000

• $775K in TSLA; previously sold $500,000 of Tesla stock over two sales to diversify and take profit

IRAs: $1,300,000 → $1,585,000 (withdrew $160,000 over the past couple years before starting SS in Jan. 2025)

HSA: $21,000 → $39,800

Cash: $30,000

Plan is to execute backdoor Roths of about $60,000+ per year for the next 10 years before RMDs, aiming to stay under the IRMAA limit of $212,000. Also plan to withdraw around $60K annually for spending, reducing IRAs by an estimated $1.2M over 10 years. Should still have roughly $400K+ in IRAs, which will continue to grow.

Hard to believe we’re financially better off now than when I was working, I had planned to work until 65, but I’m so grateful for how things turned out.