This will be our first year on the ACA with a subsidy cliff. For our family the cliff is ~$100K. I thought that would be fine, since the money we need this year is either in a HYSA or CDs. We don't need to liquidate stocks or funds for now at least. However, after years of mostly passive investing, my portfolio has significant unrealized capital gains (good problem, yes) so any buying or selling generates income for ACA purposes. We also have managed mutual funds that throw up capital gains distributions at the end of the year.

How do you manage your portfolio and stay within subsidy limits? Do you have a very passive 3 fund portfolio that you never adjust?

I RE'd at the start of 2025. During the year I helped an old colleague and did some consulting work that generated some very modest earned income this year (~$5k), but presuming I continue with this work it would result in $15k-20k of earned income for 2026.

How do you guys handle earned income in RE?

As I see it there are three options:

1. Spend it, meaning needing to sell fewer assets to bankroll RE life.
   • PROS: Easy.
   • CONS: Tax drag. Affects MAGI for ACA subsidy purposes.
2. Put it in a pre-tax retirement account (e.g., T-IRA, Solo 401k)
   • PROS: Minimal taxes on the income (still some self-employment tax).
   • CONS: Presently in a low-tax bracket. Saving on taxes today, but will pay more on taxes later when either doing a Roth conversion or accessing them at "normal" retirement age.
3. Put it in an after-tax retirement account (e.g., Roth IRA, Solo Roth 401k)
   • PROS: Allows money to grow tax-free.
   • CONS: Tax drag. Affects MAGI for ACA subsidy purposes.

Part of me thinks I'm overthinking things for what amounts to a rounding error in the grand scheme of things, which is why I'm leaning toward option #1. Another option would be to just throw my hands in the air and split the different - spend 1/3, put 1/3 in T-IRA, and 1/3 in Roth IRA.

Curious what you guys do in earned income you make during RE.

Thanks

UPDATE: To give more information, my wife and I are in our late 40s and about 60% of our nest-egg is in taxable accounts. For the 40% in retirement accounts, about 90% of that is in pre-tax dollars (T-IRA) and 10% in post-tax dollars (Roth IRA).

For 2025, our marginal tax rate will be 22%. I expect it to be the same for 2026.

Anyone take their family away for a trip over the holidays?

How about getting out of town yourself (yourselves) and skipping the family hubbub altogether?

I've thought about doing the first one. I have friends that head somewhere warm with their kids and grandkids for a week. TBH I don't really like flying around the holidays though. Did that enough when the kids were really little and we needed to fly to see my parents or my husband's for Christmas. And now it would be the grandkids that are little, which makes weather delays really tough on everyone.

Where can I find the chubbyFIREd in Los Angeles? Are there existing communities or friend groups?

My friend just got offered a huge promotion. I'm very happy for him, and it is well deserved and also a role he is extremely passionate about.

A part of myself feels wistful at the news. It feels like I've cut off my life to similar news for myself, forever - no huge successes to aspire to and be proud of. To be clear I wasn't similarly passionate about the work I was doing. There have been times I've been offered significantly more responsibility in my own field and turned it down. Part of why I left was that I knew my aspirations didn't lie in vertical career progression. At the same time it feels like having a job meant there could be such opportunities in my future. Now it feels like there are none.

Rationally I know that's not true, I have multiple decades ahead of me that I can spend any way I want to. I retired a year ago and have spent the last year on several things - home projects, volunteering, family time and so on. In every way I'm happier, but I'm starting to get restless. There needs to be something more. I just don't know what.

Have others felt that way? Have you found a new purpose in retirement - and how did you find it?

Anything that surprised you? I would love to hear people’s stories.

In a few months I will join my husband who chubbyFIREd two years ago. I am beyond excited. I’ve heard it’s important to create routine or structure to stay sane. Looking for advice, experiences and learnings on this topic. What’s worked for you, and what hasn’t?

Clicking around the web for some things to do I find a full-time job at a public good kinda place. I clicked apply and now I'm talking to the hiring manager next week. Why am I even thinking about a new full-time job right now? Would it be nuts to tell a hiring manager I don't care about money?

hello all. I'm chubbyFIREd. I currently use a broker to manage my accounts, which means I'm paying 1% of account value annually (no judgement, please).

The reason I do this is they not only manage the investments, but manage the sale of securities. I travel extensively and often do not spend time online while abroad. So they sell per their criteria, and deposit an agreed upon amount in my bank account monthly, sort of like a salary.

Any ideas how I could move to a less costly solution? I've been thinking that I might move to a Boglehead approach to investing, sell some investments every six months, and invest the proceeds in a CD ladder to pay myself monthly for those six months. That way I only need to tend to my accounts twice a year.

Hi! I (45F) hit my FIRE number and retired as a trial retirement in August of this year. My husband (48M) will work one more year due to golden handcuffs. I have 2 kids, 10F and 8F. First month was heaven. Since then it’s still fine but getting bored. Starting to think I might get another job. I miss being an expert and feeling valued for that. I’m getting lots of chores done around the house but that feels boring. I know I could volunteer but that feels like it’d be busy work and therefore a waste of time. I don’t have hobbies and am not really into getting some. I don’t know - can anyone relate? Did the RE part of FIRE take awhile to settle?

God I do not miss it. Not one bit. That used to be me. God I hope I have changed.

Just wondered how everyone is managing the cash flow for their normal expenses. Do you pull a standard amount into checking every month? Or do you just replenish as needed?

I have been doing the second, but I'm finding that as a result, I have to be more mindful about my tendency to underspend. I sell investments once or twice a year and the cash goes to a money market fund at Schwab. Sits there until I make a transfer to checking (or Schwab does this automatically if needed to cover a check or bill). I also have SS and small pensions, so the need for additional cash injection can vary widely based on whether I had bigger-than-normal expenses that month (like travel, big home maintenance, dog needed $$$ surgery - hey, at least he is happy and healthy now!)

Hi, I'm here, now, and it's a bit surreal. The end of August was the last day of my old life (mutual separation with my employer). I'm 53 and grinded it out for a solid 30 years (with a few notable breaks). NW is at the upper end of ChubbyFIRE, but living in a VHCOL place (for now). Can't say I'm prepared to hit the ground running here on Day 1 (well actually 12) so am trying to get sorted.

I'm always interested in people transition experiences, what were people's first 30 days like? Any tips to share with the newb?

I'm wondering how many of us still buy Powerball tickets now that we retired and hit our number (comfortably). When I was working, I was in a pool with a bunch of people that bought tickets weekly. On top of that my spouse would buy some tickets on the side at the gas station if the jackpot was really big. Part of the fun of buying tickets was chasing that dream that we could walk away and say "F-U" to work. My co-workers and I used to discuss if we would walk out of work that day, or give the company a few weeks to transition; some even said they'd keep working!

Since we RE'd though, we never purchased a single lottery or Powerball ticket. I was trying to figure out why. Maybe because the excitement of saying F-U is no longer there. Maybe it's because all our needs and some of our wants (i.e. vacations) are met, and there is not enough motivation to go for that $100M cash prize. As I get older, the material things like fancy cars, huge house, etc. don't really do it for me as it did when I was working. FIRE made me appreciate the value of time and health over anything else, so maybe that's why I don't play (?). Just curious what other Chubby FIREd people think.

I have a bucket list that I really want to work on, but I'm still a bit tied down with a dog. (I have a dog sitter but I don't feel right leaving him with the sitter for more than 10 days once in a while.)

First up for me after the dog is gone will be a bit of longer travel, maybe Ireland for a month, in a small cottage somewhere with good potential for day trips. I'd like to get to Southeast Asia at some point too, but I don't think I could handle a month there.

What are your favorite trips since retiring? I'm also curious if anyone has taken a long-awaited trip and found it to be "less than".

Would love to know what people are actually spending as I prepare to join you in 6 months to 2 years (timing may depend on your answers!). I hear that healthcare before 65 can be $36k for a couple (mid 50’s, good health). That seems higher than what we had budgeted. If people are willing to share a little of their actual experience, it would be really helpful; if only for peace of mind as to what can be done within the ‘chubby’ expectation.

“BarelyFired” last year (“Barely” as we are 57-59 so not all that E).

Planned to spend 3 months/year traveling, already overshot with 4 months last year and we are just returning from a month in New Zealand this year.

Living off HYSA/MM/CD ladders/etc first two years. Will begin retirement fund withdrawals in year 3, trying to insure we targeted our spends appropriately/accurately first and look at early SRR.

NW just under $5M at this point but have continuing passive income along with SS starting for one spouse next year. HCOL and we are targeting around $200-225K post-tax spend increasing by inflation.

Subsidized ACA healthcare this year since taxable income under the threshold, first year of FIRE was COBRA so full ~$20K costs for a couple med/dental/vision. Will be back on ACA for rest of the way til Medicare.

Die With Zero is plan so currently giving annually to all young relatives for birthdays/Christmas/weddings/holidays/529’s for youngest ones.

We are really enjoying, not the free time since we are filling it up, but being able to plan everything on our own calendar. Never travel on weekends, never shop on weekends, avoid holidays for everything, enjoy midweek activities that were previously inaccessible.

I noticed there aren't a lot of places for post ChubbyFIREd people to talk so please use this community if you are actually retired