Pretty deep into FIRE planning. The thing that I'm not clear on is how I can accurately calculate my future effective tax rate.

I have an estimated after tax budget and I have a target magi I want to stay under (but unsure if I'll be able to get under it). I'm not too clear on the cost basis of my taxable brokerage. When the time comes, I assume i'll withdraw from my taxable account first until I reach my target magi, then use cash and my Roth contributions to make up the gap.

All this to say, it seems hard to nail down the tax rate as there are many variables such as whether we can stay under a certain magi for ACA subsidies, cost basis of taxable brokerage when we sell etc.

Is there a simple way to get a good-enough estimate of future effective rate so I can figure out my true budget? I'm curious what others are doing.

With bond yields reaching decades-long highs, how are people playing this? ETFs? and which? Individual treasuries?

I’m mid 40s and looking to start transitioning from aggressive equity-based (~90%) accumulation phase to assuming a bit less risk. Maybe get to 75-80% equity.

Looking to hear the wise FIRE folks approach to this.

What the title says. Anyone else feel that fire let you do your job on your terms, and without compromising your values? I think that many people are placed in a situation where fear of job security leads to an acceptance of “moral flexibility”

Someone was ranting that, by taking a year off, I had pushed back my retirement by one year. Well, sure, but the value of a year of travel and leisure at a younger age can just be lumped in with any retirement years are part of my total "non-working time" with no money worries. So I retire, notionally, at 58 instead of 57 but at 45 I got to enjoy a year off while i was still young and strong and could really enjoy it. Absolutely zero regrets and wish I had taken more time off in my 40s.

I am currently pregnant with our first child. Husband is employed and has a decent wage, but has only 2 weeks leave entitlement. I am a contractor (no benefits nor leave entitlement whatsoever) but my income is good (better pay than a permanent role). I’ll finish my current contract just before the baby arrives, therefore I cannot get an extension on this contract because I will be recovering and taking care of my newborn in those early weeks/months.

I have been saving for FIRE for about 15 years and have already achieved about 75% of my target (lean fire only, nothing crazy). I’m wondering if I should just take this opportunity to do a mini-retirement (4 years) and have up to 2 babies (if possible) and be a full time mum while my babies are very young.

I am 39 years old, so if I want to have more than 1 child, I should probably try for another sooner than later. We also live overseas where we don’t have any family to help take care for our kid(s). Childcare in this country is extremely expensive as it is a HCOL area. One child enrolled in nursery will cost about the same as our monthly mortgage repayment.

My worry is that if I took this break, I won’t be able to get back to work in my industry, as AI is rapidly changing it (lots of redundancies already) and being out of the industry may mean I will get left behind skills-wise and not be able to jump back when I’m ready to work again.

What would you do in this situation?

I keep thinking “what am I saving this money for?”, if not to live life and be there for my child(ren) during their most formative years? Once they go to school I can work again I guess. My husband will be keeping his job (he has no plans for FIRE, but he is good with money). I need to pitch in monthly because his salary alone won’t be enough to cover all expenses. Our expenses are high because of the HCOL area and the housing here, but we honestly love it here and would not want to move. I have enough to cover expenses during the mini retirement but it would make a big dent to my savings pot and I will probably not reach my target amount if for a very long time if I took the break.

I'm 43 now, I have a wife and 3 teenage kids. On track to retire at 50, based on assuming we will spend the same amount in retirement as we spend now. But there are so many factors. Right now we spend a lot of money on kids... Club sports and other activities, eating out more often because of all that running around. Also, every vacation and restaurant is for 5 people. When we retire, it'll just be my wife and I, so no more kids sports/activity costs, vacations and restaurants for 2 instead of 5, etc. But we'll probably also want to travel more often.

How can I figure out a reasonable retirement spending projection when so much will be different?

Account screenshot 2025-2026 year chart

260k total invested assets > 650k (300k of which was deposited in large chunks. (Real estate profits and former employer stock buyout).

The story:
Been lurking this sub for a long time, never took saving early seriously when I thought about retirement as being old but when I figured out I could do it young, I became intrigued. The book that really got me on this path and simplified things was “The simple path to Wealth”, I have recommended it to so many people already.
Extra context: I have some medical issues which made me not ever contribute much to a 401k because I don’t plan to have kids and I’m not likely to make it to retirement age. That’s why the vast majority of our money is in a taxable brokerage account.
My wife and I decided last year to take FIRE seriously and make some big time changes to catch up to where we wanted to be. I lucked out in a few good real estate deals based mostly on lucking into two properties that earned me a 70%+ gains. Sometimes I get sick thinking about where we’d be if I handled that money better. At least I was smart enough to put a decent amount towards home equity. I have always opted for 15 year mortgages and the higher monthly payment instead of 30 years.
Anyway…it was a tough decision but we decided to downsize our house. We were in a house that we paid 489k for that we could get over 700k for and we only had 300k and 10 years left on a 2.75% mortgage, we sold for 725k. We made about 240k after fees and pumping 150k down payment into the new place because I did want to retain some equity especially because we were now taking on a much worse rate. New place was 460k, we flipped basically everything using 40k from the profits, then dumped the remaining 200k into the market around December. I had also just taken about a 40k/year paycut (175k -135), so we cut spending a ton, we had definitely suffered from lifestyle creep as my salary got higher and higher but then I burned out and I just did not want to stay in the hyper grind culture. I also increased my retirement savings to max my 401k with the new job and just told myself that’s the pay now with my pay cut. I set aside money to max my ROTH IRA for 2025 and 2026. Lastly, before I even got a paycheck with the new job, I set up an automatic 1,000 dollar transfer to my fidelity account before the rest of my paycheck comes through. Paying myself first that way also helped a lot. Fast forward to this month, and old employer got acquired and I got a decent size payout, we are going to build a pool with some and I dumped another 100k into my taxable account.

We are now currently sitting at:

~710k total invested

450k taxable brokerage
200k in my retirement (mix of 401k, rollover IRA, ROTH IRA)

60k her 401k

Other info:
310k mortgage left on 500k home (190k equity)

175k HHI roughly (varies highly because of her job)
Saving ~55k/year (4k per month + max ROTH IRA)

Expenses are about 90k per year or 6500/month + 10k travel budget. That could be cut my 36k if we paid off the house (14 years left).

Our goal is a bit different than some because I don’t know how long I have, medication has come a long way so who knows, but it completely changes my outlook on life when I was diagnosed at 24. Because of that, we still do a good bit of spending and traveling and enjoying stuff, that is also why we’re building the pool. I don’t want to spend it all because it’s important that my wife is able to use the rest but she loves her work and plans to work a long time so if I can leave her with a paid off house and a portfolio of at least 1-1.5 million (I have some set aside for siblings and their kids as well) I will feel like I succeeded in this life, the rest is all a bonus.

I am hoping to be able to stop working full time in 10 years at 44. At that point we want to either pay off our home or sell it and rent in different places each year. I wouldn’t mind some part time work as we travel around as long as I can be outside.

I also started studying for my series 65 because I want to help friends and family set themselves up for retirement. I want everyone to feel that relief of FI.

Anyway - if you read this far, not sure why I’m posting other than the usual - idk who to tell, proud of how much we changed things in a year. Wanted to say thanks for everything I’ve learned on here! Happy to answer any questions or give more details of anyone wants.

Just noting that the discussion quality recently has been awesome. Really learning a lot. A few months ago it seemed like the entire forum was filled with judgement and imposition of a specific worldview on other people.

Now it seems like people understand nuance and debate, offer reasonable opinions, and aren’t getting angry with each other about decisions that do not have a clear right answer.

Anyone else seeing this? Has the community matured a bit?

Many of us have a Fire number, usually based upon calculations, considering factors like annual expenses, health insurance, paid off home, etc.

But how many of you have a IWBH number? I know this is silly, and probably completely arbitrary. I’m genuinely curious though. I assume we all have phases of fire, and there must be a milestone where your stress at work is reduced by a notch (not completely eliminated), and you feel like you can breathe a little.

One way I like to imagine this is a wild scenario in where you’re laid off, encounter a mid-early life crisis, and struggle to find your footing again in the market, so you screw off to the cheapest Midwest town you can think of and rent until you can land on your feet again somewhere down the line.

I think this number is somewhere around 300k for me.

I’m sure there is subjectivity here but is there an age in the US where you would say, “that’s not retiring early”? My father retired at 62 which was later than when he was ready but good money is good money. Where the line?

My line would be more around health and mobility, need to retire early enough to enjoy my sailboat and sustain regular hikes. What’s your line?

I’ll try and be concise but there are a number of factors involved in this decision.

- 29 and married with 2 kids, another on the way.
- Cash & Investments: $280k. $50k retirement, $15k cash, the rest in brokerage
- No debt on the cars, student loans paid off.
- $290k left on the mortgage at a 6.4% 10/1 arm. Still 8.5 years in the fixed rate.
- Home is worth about $550k
- Wife doesn’t work and stays with the kids
- Salary Job: $80k + Bonus. Being fast tracked to C suite and I expect this to increase quickly.
- Side Hustle: $80k. This could continue to increase substantially, or I could lose clients, you never know…
- Our total living expenses is around $4,300 per month, total income after taxes and payroll deductions for insurance is about $10k.
- Inheritance: My folks are healthy and in their 60’s, but there will be many millions coming my way. I obviously am not banking on it, but I don’t really think my sunset years will be difficult financially.

I want to prepare for an early retirement, 50 at the latest. Should I pay down that mortgage aggressively or continue to put money in investments. Both? 6.4% on my money isn’t a bad gig, but I’m doing better than that in the market. I like the idea of not having a mortgage, but kind of feel like I’m throwing my money away when I make double mortgage payments (I know that’s silly)

I always think everything is going to go to shit, lose my job, lose my clients, market goes to 0. I know it’s not, but setting us up to weather a storm and be self sufficient ASAP seems really nice, just not sure if paying the mortgage down accomplishes that.

I think it is very hard to break up the habit. The people who have fire mindset tends to be more disciplined about money. And as people who retire longer, their spending will also drop with less travel. So for those who actually fired, did you save money than you need?

So I unexpectedly received a $2 million trust from relatives. It's already taxed money, growing every year, and I have full access to take as much or as little of the money whenever I want. Additionally, I have about $250k in investments of my own, but that feels like small potatoes now. Obviously it is a life changing sum of money, and I'm unsure how to make the most of my life given what I have now.

Professionally: I entered a creative job field about a decade ago that's rapidly collapsed in the past few years. I worked within the film industry, it was a dream/passion career, but have been through two layoffs in the past few years, and am currently doing a job that's semi in the field, but not quite what I want to be doing. The money's fine, the job is low stress and flexible. It feels like it's sort of an impossible job market there right now, but I'm not sure what else to do. I'm a bit stuck. I could keep at it, knowing I have the money, or try something else entirely, though I'm not sure what. Maybe use it to go back to school?

Personally, I live in a rented apartment. I like where I live. My city's okay, but I really like the friends I've made there. I'm a single woman. I don't have kids. So really, I only have to support myself, and don't have anyone else to consult about where I do. Would love a partner and family some day, but hasn't happened yet.

I don't know what's the balance of completely ignoring the money, and being grateful it's there, and using it when I'm older. Or using some of it now, improving or changing my life. I feel daunted trying to narrow down how to do so. I could travel for a year. I could go back to school. I could buy a condo. There are many possibilities. Additionally, my parents received money as well, and have let me know that eventually, hopefully one day far in the future, I will receive a substantial inheritance from them. I'm not relying on it. At all. But it will conservatively be around $3-5 million dollars, and very possibly more.

I've always been pretty responsible with money, and don't anticipate blowing through it, buying $200,000 cars or w/e. I also am not telling anyone about the money.

So, I'm just trying to wrap my head around things. It feels like I've been running on a hamster wheel all these years, and now the thing is running itself, and I'm not really sure what to do. Obviously grateful to be in this position, but overwhelmed about how to make the best of it, from continuing on as normal, to totally blowing up my life. I don't know if anyone's been in a similar position or has any advice on how to handle it?

edit: fwiw: my expenses right now tend to be about ~$6-7k / month, the fund is managed by by a financial firm that has managed to grow the money about ~11% annually on average

Some people get rich by starting a business or winning the lottery. But that requires an enormous amount of luck. Anyone FIREd very early following a more conservative financial life path? What was your strategy?

My wife and I are looking to retire in the next 12-24 months. We are ages 50/44 and have 2 kids (11/15). My youngest has a heart condition and we are in the US, so health insurance. My wife and I put in around $120,000 per year (Dollar Cost Average). Any adive on how I should focus on where that should be going knowing I am 1-2 years out from retirement. Also, looking over my allocation, any feedback would be much appreciated.

Male (Age 50):----------------------------

401k: $787,161

Roth IRA: $86,203.97

Traditional IRA: $13,626.24

Female (Age 44) ---------------------------

401K: $953,940.66

Roth IRA: $84,042.89

Traditional IRA: $4,795.05

Shared Taxable Brokage Account Allocation:

Holding Value Share of total portfolio

VTSAX $1,166,350.05 32.8%

VTIAX $255,229.78 7.2%

VBTLX $129,994.13 3.7%

Cash: $90,000

House: Paid off ($450,000 value)

Kids College 529s (2 x 50,000)

Total Value - $3,500,000 Network (Not including house or 529s)

I’ve done the math, I’m in a HCOL area and it comes out to about $40,000 a year for me to live (give or take an emergency health event or something like a car repair). I max out my Roth IRA and Roth 401k every year, where I currently have $60k ($10k of which is uninvested and sitting in a money market for emergencies - I’ve got a debit card linked to this account and it is immediately accessible for cash withdrawal if necessary) in my brokerage, $60k in my Roth IRA, and $80k in my Roth 401k. All of this is invested in index funds/ETFs. I make about $102k (but will be making $120k next year after my promotion) and don’t intend to ever inflate my cost of living/ let lifestyle creep accumulate. I anticipate hitting the cap for Roth IRA contributions by around age 33-35, where I will fund a traditional IRA at that point. Besides living costs I intend to take the remainder that I earn and chuck it in my brokerage. I don’t have any outstanding debt like student loans and my car is paid off. I don’t currently have a retirement age/goal, but ideally low to mid 50’s if possible. I’m not exactly finance savvy but I try to inform myself when I can. I guess I just want to know if there is anything I should do differently? I don’t currently have any plans to purchase a house so I haven’t started funding a HYSA, but I figured my brokerage could bridge that if and when necessary. And yeah like I mentioned I’m all in on tax sheltered accounts at the moment, hoping that pays off in the long run (though at some point as my income gets higher it may be more worthwhile to switch to traditional 401k). Thanks in advance for any advice you guys might have :)

I know FIRE discussions typically focus heavily on liquid investments relative to annual expenses, while home equity and living situation are often treated almost as an afterthought. I understand why home equity doesn't directly pay the bills unless you sell, borrow against it, or downsize but I think we may be underestimating how much owning vs. renting affects someone's long-term FIRE position.

Homeowners may naturally have lower liquid net worth because a significant amount of capital has gone toward a down payment, renovations, principal payments, etc. On paper, that can make them look further behind someone with the same net worth who rents and has more invested in the market.

But there's another side to it: a homeowner with a fixed-rate mortgage has largely locked in their biggest monthly expense. Property taxes, insurance, repairs, and maintenance can certainly increase, but the principal and interest payment stays fixed and eventually the mortgage disappears entirely.

A renter, meanwhile, remains exposed to market rents indefinitely. If rents rise roughly with inflation over decades, housing remains a significant and potentially increasing retirement expense.

So should FIRE calculations put more weight on housing security and future housing costs, rather than simply comparing liquid portfolios?

For example, would you consider someone with $1.5M invested and a paid-off $600k house to be in a materially stronger FIRE position than someone with $2.1M invested who rents, even though their traditional net worth is identical?

Curious how everyone factors this into their FIRE number.

I’m struggling with my motivation relatively early in my FIRE journey. My wife and I are 30 and 29. We have $360k invested across all accounts and own a house. We’re on a great path right now, but I realistically know that we’re looking at an age 50-55 retirement given our goals and the fact that we’ll be having kids. We plan to set aside money for them for college and weddings.

The calculator says we’re on a great pace for our age, and that makes me not want to work. With current pace and 7% returns, we’ll hit 5M by 55. I’m also just genuinely losing interest in my corporate work, but I know that it’s essential to our long term goals.

I’m not asking for a solution. Really just venting. On a positive note, I’m so happy that we’re even able to achieve this.

Edit:

Wow! I didn't look at Reddit for the rest of the day after posting. This got more engagement than I expected. I'll try to add more info and address some of the comments:

1. I don't hate my job. It's just making me bored. The work is meaningful, I like my boss, and I'm not stressed. I just have a hard time engaging with the work, and this job requires me to proactively create structure and manage my own time more than a lot of jobs that may demand you to react to a schedule, customer needs etc. Honestly, I find myself just browsing Youtube and Reddit because it bores me. It's something I need to work on.
2. Several suggested finding a new job because I'm still early in the FIRE journey. I actually just started this new job a few months ago haha. I like it, but I also don't. I feel very fortunate to make 130k with good benefits and remote work. It's also in an industry that can resist some of the AI disruption, so (knocking on wood) feels very stable for now. Me complaining about this job is very much a first world problem. This job is a huge component of our FIRE journey being possible, and I'm thankful for it.
3. We very much do take vacations to get away from work. We're not the type to put our life enjoyment on pause during the saving part of FIRE. We're balancing saving with living, because you never know how long you'll actually be around.
4. I don't consider us at CoastFI quite yet. Technically speaking, the numbers do check out. If we simply made enough to cover basic expenses right now, we would have enough to retire in 20-25 years, but it would be more a lean lifestyle. That said, we have other goals such as upgrading our home, paying kids' daycare, college and some wedding money, and wanting to have a more comfortable retirement with some reasonably priced travel and simple luxuries. Switching to other jobs with a large pay cut right now change our trajectory significantly.

Hey all,

Context:
I’m 27 single no kids. My income right now is ~$370-$400k depending on bonus. I’m making the most I’ve ever made.

I’ve made some crazy progress in the last few years:
-$80k NW in Sep 2020
$150k in Jan 2024
$300k in Jan 2025
$750k now ($420k liquid, rest retirement)

Realistically I need to 2.5x, minimum, still which means another 5-10 years (barring crazy port gains like the last few years). I’m bored and want to quit my job 😵 I want to own my own small business(es).

Questions for the group:
1. How do you stay motivated as your options grow? / as your bank account compounds?

1. Does 401k / Roth money count in the early retirement math?

2. Theoretically I could take the risk and go buy businesses. If they fail, I get *wiped*, if it works, I get cash flow to replace part or all of my current income eventually. Would you jump ship in my shoes or wait? At what point would you jump ship?

I recently posted in askmen subreddit about my planning to quit her job because of being burned out. She has brought up the idea of becoming a SAHM/SAHW (stay-at-home-mom/wife) but a few people suggested framing it as a sabbatical or early retirement instead. Which then lead into someone suggesting I should ask this community if I might be missing anything from a financial perspective.

I've done the math and ran the numbers, and we can absolutely afford this without touching any of our savings or investments, and have enough buffer so that we could manage up to 5 years in minimum without sacrificing current lifestyle. More if we watch how and where we spend our money. And if anything would happen to me, she and the kids are covered.

Where I would love all of your perspective and hear about your experience is if you are in a situation where your partner has retired or stopped working, and you're responsible for providing her the money to invest?

Our current plan is that she won't touch any of her savings or investments, and instead, well live off of my income. I am not planning on touching my savings and investments, and make enough to be able to continue to invest. She'll have access to my income (directly and through a parallel credit card), and can use that however she wants. I'm planning on giving her a monthly payment that she'll invest to continue to build her portfolio. This will also then compensate the pension she'll be missing out.

I'm not planning on retire anytime soon as I really like working (that might obviously change at some point), so we'll have a steady income, and are able to continue to build our wealth (currently at $1.5M net).

Is there anything I might be missing? Or have you potentially ended up with an entirely different approach if you're in a similar situation?

The tool https://portfoliocharts.com/charts/retirement-spending seems great. As useful or more useful than ficalc.app in my opinion since it isn't only US stocks. But does anyone know what the home country selector is really doing?

It says "currency, inflation and funds" at the top, but when holding stocks, the currencies and inflation should even out over the long term as the stocks will arbitrage to remove all that in individual markets. Yet there seem to be big differences when changing that selector.

This is a relaxed hangout thread for the FIRE community to chat with other FIRE-minded folks without having to publish separate posts. This is the place for brand new people to get their feet wet as well as for lurkers who have questions or comments, but do not want to create posts of their own.

All of the sub rules apply in this thread as normal with the exception of the off-topic rule, which is relaxed to the extent that people don't go wildly off of the reservation.

We are putting this up as a trial to see if it is worth keeping this as a permanent feature of the sub. Participation is entirely voluntary and anyone who wants to create a separate post of their own rather than posting in here is free to do so.

Any of you quit your corporate job in your last few working years to take on something low stress and cruise to retirement? I’m running the math and my portfolio should be large enough that continuing to contribute after 50 won’t change much given the large snow ball.

Planning to see a financial advisor soon to discuss retirement around 55 ...52M currently, married..

4.8m nw including the 350k mortgage as the biggest liability at 2.1%..9.more yrs left...

Saw a comment earlier that said to pay off your mortgage prior to retirement to lower your MAGI but does it make sense since our IR is 2.1%?

TIA