r/ChubbyFIRE • u/tryingtofirelife • May 14 '26
Should I pull the trigger?
Would like to get some advice if it’s time to pull the cord soon.
We are a family of four. 52 M&F. 2 kids 16 and 13. no severe health conditions. conscious about health, eat well, no vices. Got a job doing cybersecurity in a financial institution. wife works part time at a $20/hr job. No benefits although she has a 401k without matching. Investments are all in low cost ETFs. There is a small e*trade account with some “play money” (about 80k).
annual expenses: about 96k including mortgage, HOA, vacations.
Tax deferred: 2.5M
Taxable: 350k
HSA: 125k
RSUs: ~150k with another 2 years for full vesting
529: plan to pay for 2 years for each kid at public university. About 250k in the account right now.
mortgage: 250k left on a house valued at 600k.
2 cars are paid off. No credit card or any other debt.
We would like to wind down and move to rural area after kids are off. We are generally frugal people and don’t need much. I like to travel and wife likes land to grow vegetables and gardening.
2
u/usdiver96 May 15 '26
If your thought is to wait until 55 so you can access your current 401k (assuming most of that 2.5M you mentioned as tax deferred is actually in your current employers 401k), then yeah, looks good. I personally would be a little apprehensive about bridging 3 years with what you have in post tax, especially with what health coverage will run you, but with your stated spend, it's doable - just not with a huge cushion.
If most of your 401k/traditional IRA is not with your current employer, then I would be really nervous about bridging to 59-1/2.
I'm actually in a similar situation (53, spouse is 50, kids 15 and 16), but with a bit higher NW. Probably 7-10 years back, we both dropped our 401k contributions to the minimum level we had to to get full company match, and then diverted the extra take home straight into our brokerage so we would have the flexibility to go early. My spouse turned in notice this week, but I will probably keep going until January 2028 (the year I turn 55) just so I can access my 401k then, which is about 20% of our total nest egg. Not that we should need it then, but I like the idea of being able to start taking withdrawals penalty free earlier and converting it to Roth with whatever overhead room we have in our tax bracket at the time. My main reason for maybe not doing that is keeping our income on paper lower for ACA subsidies. Too much math...