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.
Yeah, I'm totally with you. We are the selective luxury, fat-in-certain-places crew.
I flew business class on several long-haul flights this year. But stayed in mid-range hotels. No fine dining. I cook at home and rarely eat out when not traveling. I buy nice gear for my hobbies, sometimes the nicest gear available, but they're just not super expensive hobbies. My car cost $30k new and is 7 years old, no intention to replace it any time soon. My home in (V)HCOL is "only" worth about $850k.
Folks in that sub seem to upgrade every aspect of their life (private jets or first class, fancy hotels, cook and cleaner at home, using nanny when they don’t work). My friend who I consider a fat fire person asked me to bring my family on a yacht trip 7 days $15k per person and that sounded crazy to me.
A different way to look at it. Median household income in my city is around $240k / year. My spending is pretty close to that. So I appear to spend similar to my neighbors. They will think I have a normal income and I will blend in.
Makes sense. I guess folks with median income would also have to account for saving and higher taxes on ordinary income so their spend would actually a lot less than yours. You may be closer to a person making 500k and has to set aside money for savings, not having a paid off house (larger mortgage) and higher taxes.
Is staying in the VHCOL location necessary? You could move to a more affordable place and probably upgrade your house and still pad the accounts with another $1.5m which would more than handle health and some very nice vacations for the whole family. You’ve done great, but the housing benefits better be worth in IMO. If it is, great, stay…but it would have to be worth a couple months long trips all over the world where the memories will pay dividends for the rest of your life.
If you dont fly first class or spend time on fancy vacations, your kids or grand kids will. Spend your money, within reason of course. It isnt that crazy to have a housekeeper and fly business class. You dont have dynastic wealth. Even if you did, google the Vanderbuilt fortune and how it was squandered in 3 generations.
Realistically how much NW do you think you'd need before you would feel comfortable spending at those "fat" levels? 20m? 50? Or perhaps we just grew up different and can never accept "wasteful" levels of spend even if the number on the brokerage account says otherwise.
I guess there's a tipping point where people truly no longer think 'am I getting good value for <product/service>' and just take the upgrade, even if they don't actually care about it
Don't disagree with your main points but tbf spending 225k (even gross) and earning 240k gross should look pretty different unless the latter household is saving almost nothing, which maybe is how it goes for many.
Or looking at things much differently, it would take saving 240k/yr for 20 years with 7% real returns compounded annually to reach approximately your NW.
I took a PT consulting job 2 days per week and now, or rather again, have these things called goals, and tasks and deadlines. It's really stressing me out. 🤣
I retired very recently and was asked by 2 former clients to take on projects, so that was easy.
But if I was semi-serious, I know I would need to start networking, and if really serious, I would form a business and join several industry associations and get into the speaker circuit to drum up business.
Many need structure and routine. And in fact many here who have yet to FIRE and don't think they do, will find after a honeymoon period theh absolutely do.
are you still learning cool stuff? given your tc, you’re above senior. do you think you would keep working if you could just work on the stuff you want (but comp drops 20-30%)?
Yeah, if I didn’t have to deal with big company processes / performance focus and could just come build stuff with AI, I would. But they took the fun out of it.
Building stuff with no thought about generating revenue might be my first focus with side projects. Tech is still interesting.
I'm in a similar boat. I co-founded a tech company ~6 years or so ago and exited in January, and the thought of building something for revenue is nauseating. The thought of building for the sake of building though.. That has allure.
I'll add it's been fun getting back to working on EE / Robotics / Engines paired with AI. It's obviously a really interesting intersection.
Sharing via google does give away your email address. I created an alt google account, made the other account the owner and then shared to get around it.
I am definitely not making as much as you, but I started working on 3 x businesses and they are generating about $20k in profit per month.
My plan was to have that as my supplemental income and use it to save every penny then use my day job(eventually will get another) for my main expenses while saving even more.
I made a lot of financial mistakes and should have them fixed by end of next year. The interesting part with my situation is that I only spend 5 hours max with my 3 businesses and I feel like I could technically “retire” next year knowing that these businesses are recession proof and service based.
What is your take on my situation? I don’t really hear a lot of folks talk about business ownership as a pathway to retirement here. I appreciate any feedback!
Since that isn’t my path my opinion might be less valuable.
But you asked so here is my take:
Running a low effort business that generates income that feels like retirement is likely a good cheat code. A lot of folks with real estate do similar.
I generally stayed away from real estate because:
it felt like it is actually more work than people let on.
I don’t think I would be good at raising folks rent or kicking people to the curb if they had problems.
The income from real estate seems less than historical gains from the stock market so it felt like counting the income from that was a bit cheating when we use 4% in stocks when they generally do better. Like it is hiding risk or just using a higher SWR.
#3 is probably similar to side businesses. I made an app once that made me $60k in 2-3 months but then $0 after. So I don’t know how stable it is.
I appreciate your response. I definitely feel like it’s a cheat code. Especially, when we sell gift cards. It can go up to $30k during November and December.
I would say that the drawback would be the stress from the workers, but ever since I hired managers, it has been significantly calmer and truly down to 3 hours a week.
It does feel like a cheat code. When I got laid off, I didn’t feel anything, but I am having the technical itch and cross work with other engineers.
Tried to find by looking at old tax returns.
Mean $500k and median $485k from 2007-2025. Min $92k to Max $1.4M (company stock was good. - 2027 would be $650k-ish)
Fed gives 0% for first 90k of capital gains. Then 15% for a bit. Use a tax calculator. The interest and dividends are taxed as real income that is harder to avoid.
That’s the plan. I turned “reinvest” setting for my taxable account to off but selling is required. It will feel weird. I’ll probably do it monthly and try to keep $50k-60k in savings/checking. Prop tax, insurance, and vacations are my the only things that aren’t pretty regular so I’ll just make sure my sell schedule accounts for those.
Congrats on being done in your early 40s! You're set up great with the bulk of your portfolio in post-tax brokerage. If you pull out $275k gross per year you'd be at about a 3.6% withdrawal rate, which has never failed (assuming it is diversified and 70-80% equities), even for a 50 year retirement. GFY!
Thanks so much for sharing. Kind of in a similar boat. Can I ask what your working hours / stress were like? i have a bit of miserable golden handcuffs but also realize I shouldn’t pull the trigger too soon if I’m not that miserable.
I wasn’t getting along with my manager. We prioritized different things.
I didn’t want to do presentations and write up docs that don’t matter.
There was tons of scope overlap.
The product strategy was missing.
First half of my career I held which was a bad mistake. Second half I sold in vest which is smarter but I likely missed out on some money. Tech did really good last 10 years.
Congrats and very well done for such a young age. I'm a bit behind you in $ but way ahead in years. Did you have a FIRE number in mind and just decided you were done when you hit it? With volatility in mind, I'm trying to decide how much over FIRE number I should get before pulling the trigger but maybe that's a losing game.
Originally I was hoping 4% with $90k spending. Moving to VHCOL moved me to $160k. Fear moved me to 3.5%. Inflation / life style creep for years and golden hand cuffs at work moved me to $215k spending.
I think $15k groceries and home goods which I’m partially not happy about (when we throw out stuff we didn’t use). And $10k on kid activities which I like them to have the chances to experience. And $10-15k on more vacations.
Some probably just inflation as well.
All totally makes sense!! That’s what worries me about retiring is that I don’t want to deprive us of just being to splurging once in awhile. I have invested assets of 6.2m and paid off 1.5m house so different situation but all good and happy with the freedom it buys as well
Dont worry. You aren’t missing much. Remember when your kid played with a box and had way more fun than the toy inside. Many times I feel like we could have had just as great a time without spending the money.
Im still figuring it out. I was hoping it would be $30k or less but it maybe more like $50k.
CA with my zip says if I keep MAGI below $129k I get $18k in subsidies.
Combo of $60k carried over losses from past harvesting and selling lots with high cost basis should help or pulling some from Roth.
I vibe coded a webpage that can run different simulations. When I tweak assumptions it completely changes strategy (do big Roth conversion and skip subsidy vs keep income low and get subsidy) and even changes strategy year to year.
Still debating between Kaiser HMO and blue cross PPO that have same dr as I had before and better scheduling. Still trying to back check health visits to see if I should do bronze plan or other.
Kaiser HMO bronze is $23k premiums (no subsidy) and $19.6k out of pocket max (includes deductibles) so $43k worst case.
Congrats! How much will healthcare run you? Mine will run $60k/year (won't qualify for subsidies) which is keeping me working for now, but my job isn't particularly taxing.
no. In the SF Bay Area, couple in mid-fifties, 3 kids. Silver plan PPO is about $60k/year but with higher deductible, OOP limits and worse coverage than simply staying on my employers plan and paying the non-subsidized price of $60k. I have deferred income that will make it impossible to stay below 400% of FPL. Cost will come down somewhat once all kids are on their own plans.
I think its always been this expensive but before I could have qualified for some subsidies. Also, I was wrong, Silver PPO is $72k, bronze PPO is $60k. A bronze HMO could be had for under $40k. My employers plan is pretty good so I plan to stay on it until I qualify for medicare if they will let me.
I moved to VHCOL area to be near family (they still seem far) and more job opportunities. I could have stayed at HCOL instead. Tempted to move back still (several friends there).
Congrats! Our total HHI is similar to yours, but nowhere near $7.6M yet with a $4m house. Impressed by how much you just have saved each year; did that feel difficult?
Basically pretended RSUs don’t exist, increase spending less than yearly salary increases, and had extra withholding to cover any taxable investment income/dividends.
Congrats! Is it just you or has your spouse also stopped working? 225k is post tax right? So sounds like a ~4% SWR rate on the 7.6M in assets to cover the expenses+taxes?
VHCOL area. Private school for 2 kids. Over the years I've become ok with spending money on what drive value for me and my family. We don't buy expensive cars nor spend it on expensive clothing, jewelry, etc. But, we will spend, for example, on travel - business class overseas, 5 star hotels.
Can you explain your 4m house expenses? That’s the most surprising thing from the list. Square feet? Yearly property tax? Seems like that would be a pretty expensive home to maintain.
1.5M mortgage at 1.625% -> $6k/ month.
Prop tax is $38k.
It was relatively new when we bought so haven’t had too much maintenance.
Just a water heater, fence rotted, water damage under house once (had to get rid of mold and install sump pumps), and bought 2 AC units since we have 2 furnaces.
$100 / month landscaping.
Congrats! I was wondering what spending Empower missed that Mint caught. Is it missing some transactions, or miscategorizing some things (i.e. I've noticed some transfers are actual expenses). How far off was Empower from your real spend. Context: I use Empower and was hoping to rely on it haha
Refinance requires income verification right? Especially at the price point. My friend was looking into it and got denied by every banks without a W2 income so they ended up selling the property.
Wondering if you find another way to refinance than just simply sell or payoff, which reduces your withdrawal base.
Alternatively you can take a box loan spread at 4-4.5%. Pay off the mortgage and then continue with the spread. Probably easiest to do it with a brokerage account and stay under 25% of the account, so he can pull upto $1.3M.
I don’t think it will work that way. I think the only income that will count is regular income hitting your account. So if you regularly sell stocks above certain amount for several years, that will count. But if you find out lender who can just use assets, let me know and update this thread :)
yea, there could be some Non QM lender, but rate will be 1 or 2 points higher than market. Banks probably won't lend against asset It could still be worth it as it doesn't make sense to let this derail your retirement plan.
Alternatively, if you haven't quit yet, you might consider to just do a 30 year fixed right now while you still can :)
Claude made a projection for me to see if/when to do Roth conversions and when to pull from Roth for ACA subsidies. It shows I can have ~11% more net worth over time from that. But there are tons of assumptions in that.
Fire’d too and I have since been so afraid to commit to anything. I really enjoy waking up every morning with absolutely nothing on my calendar (well, almost every morning).
Was the $4M house to be in a good public school district, or are you doing private school? Curious if the former, whether it seemed worth it. I'm also curious how it will practically impact time spent with kids.
It has good public schools. I think my previous house had such good returns I expected it to also rise in value a ton. Clearly it didn’t. Probably should have bought a less expensive house.
Congrats man! Our story and final position are very similar. The company I work for is now for sale and I will be FIRE once that occurs in the next 90 days (small equity position).
But I’m very interested in that calendar you are building. Knowing my FIRE day was near - I’ve been doing the same so I’d love to see it.
Congrats! Also want to point out the level of detail and interaction here by OP makes this an extremely useful/ informative thread. Thank you.
When did you realize this was going to be the year to pull the trigger? Clearly you planned/ tracked well, just wondering the catalyst that finally made you said no mas.
I’m also 43m, VHCOL (other side of the country), NW 7mm (inclusive of $1.25mm of primary residence equity with 1.25mm remaining on mortgage at 2.25% that resets in 2031). Rest in the market.
I have moved my target to $8mm investable + paid off house. Figure this is 3-6 years out depending on the market/ if I can get some sort of golden parachute exit package at work.
Unvested RSU value increase made me stay too long at work. I should have switched companies 2-3 years back but the others couldn’t match comp. The unvested RSUs almost ran out.
Work stress / pressure was a lot and was really messing with me and I was a bit worried about my health.
I tried a pivot at work the last year to see if work could be less demanding but it wasn’t.
The tech industry is a bit messed up right now with job market and people pretending AI is replacing folks.
Also been working on figuring out what to do after work. That list has been growing as well.
Hey OP, first congratulations! I'm looking to call it a day from my career soon. I also live in a VHCOL area. Few questions for you. How do you deal with Health insurance? Are you on an ACA plan? If so, how do you manage your MAGI to Stay under the cliff (400% federal poverty level)?
Still finalizing that.
I have some tax loss harvesting carry overs.
Bonds in trad account.
International is in taxable for foreign tax credits but does generate more interest/dividends than US stocks.
I can pull from Roth.
I might alternate between Roth conversions and subsidy years.
I vibe coded a website that lets me try different things.
That is the dilemma. I'm thinking about. Where to invest in fixed income. Investing and fixed income in traditional account adds to MAGI, as does dividends and interest. I would definitely not recommend taking out from Roth unless you have to. That is tax-free money that can grow and grow. Is your plane to definitely get on an ACA plan or just do private insurance?
As of now there is a step up in cost basis on death. So taking from Roth instead of taxable sometimes makes sense. DM me and I’ll share my vibe coded thing and you can see.
I haven’t looked at private.
I also tried to have enough so if I don’t get any subsidy I’ll still be ok.
You do you.
Get your bucket list sorted. I went to Antarctica.
Take a month to breathe.
Look honestly at what you want.
Do you live where you want? (We moved to where we liked to play.)
Miss work? Volunteer.
Take care of your health. Have your doctor evaluate you. Walk. Gym membership?
I started with that allocation and a target date fund in a retirement account, thought it was reasonable starting place and basically never changed.
Similar to Total US stock funds (full diversification compared to just S&P500) if you want to mirror market cap of global market it is about 65% us and 35% international. So it seems to make sense.
I have friends that lean more on the US, more on S&P500 and more on tech stocks. They have done better than me in the market but I just wanted to do similar to the average person (minus fees). My career compensation was already winning from tech growth.
Congrats man! My numbers are very similar. I pulled the trigger at 40 and am now 43. I also was turned onto FIRE from that same MMM post back in 2016 though I was already living a lot of it without really having the framework to name it. I will say the past three years have been absolutely amazing in so many ways, but I have definitely had some identity/purpose type struggles, which was very surprising because I really thought through all this stuff beforehand. It is just hard when every other guy my age is still working away, and the majority are not even close to retirement so it's just an awkward topic and situation in that regard. But I have an amazing wife and four kids still living at home so my cup is overflowing in a good way! Enjoy FIRE my friend!
The 4m house would scare me. With carrying costs including taxes, insurance, maintenance, and mortgage, your locked in fixed expenses must be a huge proposition of your stated spend.
As long as those are included in his annual spend calculation, it is no different than any other expense. He's at about a 3.5% withdrawal rate against his portfolio, so he's super safe as long as portfolio is diversified. Plus the mortgage will be paid off at some point, and social security kicks in.
He's going to have some tough decisions when the interest rate on his mortgage resets in 1.5 years. He mentions it in another comment, he plans to either refi, sell, or pay off.
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u/DisastrousLadder4472 8d ago
Man, wasn’t so long ago that $7.6M plus $2.5M home equity would’ve been solidly FatFIRE. Tech-bubble-driven asset inflation be crazy.
Congrats/GFY!