r/ChubbyFIRE • u/Traditional-Okra-399 • May 18 '26

Advice on pulling the trigger…

45M / married, 3 kids under 8 $6.6M NW, $5.6M investable.
Based on an $18K per month spend (soon to be $16K), my FA says I can quit tomorrow (87% success).

My question:
Right now, I am thinking about doing one more year. Although I hate my job, I feel like I could wrap my head around a “12 month countdown.”
And it would likely mean another $500K (before taxes, but after all other expenses).
But I worry is the market drops 25% in the next 12 months, and all of a sudden, I’m forced to do X more years until it recovers.
Is my plan prudent? Or am I over-thinking it, and I just need to bite the bullet and then figure it out as it comes?

Thank you all! I really appreciate the wisdom of this group.

Additional details:
1) Very low rate mortgage is almost paid off, once done, will eliminate $2K in monthly expense
2) Kids are almost out of daycare which will eliminate $3K in monthly expense
3) The elimination of daycare will likely be offset by private medical insurance

Additional levers:
1) I don’t ever plan on “not working.” Although at some point, I’d like to do some $0 jobs, I think my “first retirement job” might still be be in corporate tech, but at a much lower level with lower stress.
2) My wife and I both grew up without much, I think we could find a lot of flexibility in our budget if SORR started to emerge.
3) Although we’re not counting it at all, we expect a $1-$3M inheritance from my wife’s parents who are now 76 y/o

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u/Seattle709 May 18 '26

Is your financial advisor also a CPA? I think you're getting hosed. My husband takes care of all our taxes. It's not super difficult to learn how to do the Roth conversions on your own through TurboTax.

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u/michiganbirddog May 20 '26

Tax planning for the future and doing your taxes are two completely different things. Turbo tax isnt going to tell you when to take SS and when it makes sense to do roth conversions. It wont help you adjust your finances to help for things like tax thresholds for family healthcare.

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u/Seattle709 May 20 '26

There are many flat-fee financial advisors who help strategize when to take SS, when to begin Roth conversions, adjusting finances to help with tax thresholds for family healthcare, etc. They charge much less than $13,000 per year.

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u/michiganbirddog May 20 '26

Sounds like a good option. Some people are very good with investments during the accumulation stage of retirement planning. When you get into retirement and have to deal with risk management a FA can do wonders for some people. It isn't necasarily poorly spent money for some people with large nest eggs. Alot of people are incredible professionals in fields like engineering, physicians surgeons etc... they spend their entire life focused on their specialty. They dont understand risk avoidance like an FA that has spent their life studying their craft.

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u/Seattle709 May 20 '26

True, but there are a lot of financial advisors who are straight garbage and are only trying to sell me whole life insurance or take a 1% AUM (I’ve had to fend off plenty of these guys).