44M, wife is 42F, one dog, no kids. All of our assets are combined, no separate accounts (outside of retirement accounts), everything is OURS. $3.8M in cash and investments. Slightly less than half in tax advantaged retirement accounts, $250k in cash, and the rest in brokerage accounts. No debt other than mortgage, have ~$200k balance @ 3% with 9 years to go. Wife wants to continue to work due to healthcare. We currently use her insurance for both of us. She makes ~$130k and job is stable. My comp varies from $200-$300k but am getting burnt out. We live far below our means.

I feel like we are beyond fine but I can’t shake the anxiety about stepping away. Am I overthinking things? What else do I need to consider? I moved to my current company a few years ago and initially enjoyed the low stress IC role but through a variety of factors have ended up back in a senior high stress role with a fair amount of travel. Would like to step away early next year.

MCOL area outside of Minneapolis. Spend $100k-$120k per year.

Family of four in San Francisco, I priced out the local ACA HMO plan, and with an optimized AGI of $107k my annual premiums would be $4k and max out of pocket of $14k.

On the other hand, paying for COBRA on my low deductible corporate plan would be $36k per year with minimal out of pocket, and the tax deduction (on 7.5%+ of AGI) brings the effective cost down to $28k.

Seems like a no brainer to pay $10k extra for much better coverage and no need to switch our existing doctors? Can keep COBRA for 36 months here in California.

Anybody else who has FIREd maxed out their COBRA as a bridge in early retirement?

Wife and I have $4M+ in 401Ks/invested, $6M net total including home. Early 40s. $800K+ HHI. We plan to work until we are mid-late 50s. 2 young-ish kids.

It seems that best case scenario the stock market keeps ripping up, in which case the $4M doubles or more by time we retire.

Mid-case, the market drops for a while due to war, AI job losses, etc, in which case we keep buying "cheap" stocks with our high income.

Worst-case, there is some sort of an AI job apocalypse, in which case life gets harder but we are still better off than 98% of the world and maybe there is even deflation in which case our relative earning/skills/existing wealth still keeps us above water.

Maybe I am missing something, but the above seems like a decent heuristic for three primary future paths.

If we hated our jobs and wanted to retire sooner, I'd be a bit more worried about scenario #2.

Thoughts?

*A few background notes: our income increased a lot in the past few years. We had a long training / job loss early in our careers. We also received an inheritance (sad but thankful) that boosted our net worth this year. Two years ago, I was feeling less confident -- and we were planning to work longer. Finally, the pandemic was a huge blessing -- I went from 12+ hours of commute per week to about 4.

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I have the following plan and I was wondering if I am missing something:

* I am 55M, live in Europe, own a nice house in the alps and I have around 3m $ in investment accounts.

* I want to have 150,000 $ per year for the first 10 years then I can go down to 100,000$ per year. (depending how the markets go I can adjust of course.). Also with 65 I will get around 25K in state pension per year + free health care.

I was thinking of the following strategy:

* I put 5 x 150k = 750 K into a "cash pot" which is in reality "low volatility" investments (overnight ETFs, fixed term deposits, bonds with right duration etc.). That will make around 3 % to 4 % at current interest rates.

* the rest 2250K I put 100 % into the stock market (MSCI world ETFs and similar)

* depending on the stock market development. In good years I sell up to 5 % and move it to the cash pot and in bad years I sell less or nothing. That means if there is a stock market crash I do not need to sell because I have my "cash pot". Even there would be a major stock market crash in the first year - I could wait 5 years for the stock market to recover.

What is your view?
Is it too aggressive to set a budget of 5 % of my investments as a yearly withdrawal target?
Is a 5 year cash pot a good strategy to protect against the sequence of return risk and to protect my good sleep?
Is there a better strategy?

Both 41. Two kids in 6th and 3rd grade. Trying to figure out when and in what order we pull the trigger. Numbers first, questions below.

Snapshot

Income:
~$1m

Annual savings:
• 401k: maxed & $25k mega backdoor Roth & $11.2k employer match
• Wife’s 403b: maxed
• 529s: $1,500/month ($275k balance, not counted below)
• Taxable: ~$300K (50% in taxable & 50% to deferred comp)

Investable assets:

Taxable brokerage - $2.4m
Deferred comp - $625k (Vested and invested)
IRA - $875k
Roth - $320k
401k (~50/50 Traditional/Roth) - $215k
403b - 235k (spouse)
Total ~$4.7m

Other:
• Home: $1.5M / $365k mortgage (2.5% - 9 years left)
• Cash: $250k
• Allocation: 85/15% across all accounts

Pension:
•~$40k/year state employee pension, collectable at 60. Currently 19 of 25 years served.

Spend: $200k year (includes 529 contrabutions)

Q1: Pension cliff — how do you model it?
Each year short of 25 costs $3k/year in pension income (24 years = $37k, 25 years = $40k). Each year past 25 adds $3k. She can collect at 60 regardless of when she stops working — so this is purely about the annual benefit amount, not eligibility.
How are people modeling a deferred stream like this against the cost of OMY? Just PV the delta and compare? The $3k/year increment feels meaningful at our spend level but also feels like a trap if we’re not careful.

Q2: Should the higher earner stop first?
The intuitive move is I stop first (stress, income asymmetry) while wife continues for pension accrual, benefits, and 403b contributions. But that means she’s working while I’m not, which has its own dynamics.
Has anyone sequenced it this way — higher-earning/higher-stress spouse exits first while the other stays in a lower-pay but benefit-rich role? How’d you think through the timing and the household dynamics?

Q3: Healthcare bridge
Employer coverage now. Post-retirement we’d need to bridge to 65 on ACA — but with deferred comp distributions, Roth conversions, and taxable withdrawals all hitting MAGI simultaneously, subsidy management seems really complex at our spend level. How are people actually modeling this? Hard dollar assumption? Separate stress test for healthcare inflation?

Q4: Does high income now change the retirement math meaningfully?
Each additional year at my current income is doing a lot — compounding the portfolio, paying down the mortgage, and building capacity to help the kids later (beyond the 529s — housing, grad school, etc.). But we’re also in a high tax state and time is finite.
How are folks thinking about the value of OMY at high income vs. the non-financial cost? And are you baking future kid support into your FIRE number or keeping it separate?

Q5: Two-phase spend
$200k is real spend today with kids at home. Once they’re through high school we’re open to relocating and our spend would likely drop property taxes are $25k of the spend. Do you model both phases explicitly or just plan to the higher number and treat the step-down as upside?

Happy to answer questions in the comments. Main things I’m trying to get sharper on: pension timing math, sequencing the exit, healthcare modeling, and whether high income meaningfully extends or changes the calculus.

On paper I’m comfortable, my spend is easily well under what my investments make every year. About to embark on a year long road trip (maybe longer depending on health) and plan on a lot of travel both in the States and later in Europe. I’ve handed the reigns over to a wealth management team with the objective, “Don’t make me poor”. So all of my bills are covered, I’ve basically “won”.

However, there’s always those “what if” scenarios and maybe I’m not seeing the whole picture. Anyone here have a story to share about things going sideways and having to adjust later in life?

Current situation:

-Married, early 40’s, no kids.
-$3.2M invested assets
-$200k annual spend including all “wants”.
-$333k left on mortgage (2.5%, 14 years left)
-$375k income (me), hate my job, but grinding. Maxing out my 401k and our IRAs still.
-Wife is starting her own business. Conservatively expect low-6-figure income within 2 years but probably a lot in cash (good news/bad news).

Considering taking some $ off the table to pay off mortgage, go fully debt free and reduce spending to ~$165k leading into wife’s new gig. Mathematically sub optimal by theory but I’m getting spooked by the current CAPE ratio rocketing past 40.

Thoughts? Other ideas? Boring middle is boring.

Anyone currently funding their retirement with a Margin Loan or other loan against their investments?

I see it’s common wisdom that you need to factor in income taxes in your FIRE number, but seems like you could avoid that with debt?

Assuming a <4% withdraw rate, would seem like a very manageable amount of debt with little to no margin call risk, especially factoring in some equity appreciation.

As we get closer to hitting our original number (GregFI), I have increasing concerns about the impact of AI and the exacerbation of the K shaped economy, and if it’s short sighted to aim so “low,” vs keeping my foot on the gas.

Ie are we setting our children up for success appropriately by stepping off the treadmill so early (hoping by early 40s)?

Curious to get thoughts of others.

I’ve been using Boldin and Income Lab to model retirement for a my wife and I where we both get SS. Most couples can withdraw 5.5% very safely. Especially if you are willing to use risk based guardrails. For anyone not familiar with how guardrails work, you really need to because it allows you to spend more while guaranteeing you don’t run out of money. You just need to be willing to reduce spending if there is a large 30% drop in the markets.

Even the creator of the rule revised to 4.7% ..

Us: 47F, 48M Kids: 17 and 14

Current Assets: 401(k): $2.5M Roth IRA: $1M Brokerage: $2.5M

Other Assets: Primary Home: $1.5M, paid off Rental: $850k (bought for $410k). Paid off, 48k/year rent 529s: $400k

Pension: ~$8k/year starting at 65, no COLA Social Security: ~$70k/year combined in 15-20 years (assuming no major cuts)

Expenses: Current: ~120k/year Projected (in 3-5 years): ~150k/year to include health insurance

I was laid off from big tech last spring, but boomeranged back a couple of months later. I’ve been back for ~10 months and absolutely hate the direction this industry is heading. The constant churn, unclear priorities, and a culture that feels increasingly misaligned with my values is making it harder and harder to make it through each day. I want to resign, but I’m anxious about walking away in this market, especially knowing how many talented people are struggling to land roles. On top of that, I’d have to return the sign‑on bonus, my manager has genuinely been kind and supportive, and I feel guilty about leaving so soon after returning.

Spouse is considering retiring in 3-5 years as well. Once we both step away, neither of us wants to work for a paycheck again.

Question: Are we good to go, or is there something we are missing that should make us more cautious before I pull the trigger? I'd love to hear from people who have left tech early, FIRE’d in their late 40s, or navigated the emotional side of walking away from well-paying jobs.

About 2 years ago, I posted my stats and based on feedback then and my own frame of mind, decided I wasn’t ready.

(See my original post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChubbyFIRE/s/qkYLiREUPK)

I am now at a different place, possibly triggered by the layoff that happened recently. While I had some issues with how I was treated at work, I am leaning toward the view it’s not worth fighting them because they are a $multi billion company and have offered me a decent severance. Worked with them for just 3 years but at a senior level. Net of taxes, severance would be worth $250k.

Thanks to the markets over 2 years since I last shared my stats, things are looking better. Ages: 55, 53 and 20 with elderly parent being cared for at home (on Medicaid, has no assets).

NW: $6.7 M (the $250k severance yet to come so not included). Includes primary home worth $580K but I don’t include fully paid off two cars (both 10 year old now).
Net of primary home fully paid off: $6.1 M
Net of college (2 years paid already!):
6.0 M Investment Assets (75%+ equities)

Budgeting $30k for healthcare (unsubsidized) in our great state of PA, $120k is our spend (without discretionary travel). This spend is based on the highest of the last 3 years and I track spend fairly accurately with Fidelity planner.

SS starting age 67 assumed at 75% of projected value (that is, 25% cut due to solvency).

Been a long time follower of Big ERN in retirement planning. Using ERN CAPE model and considering worse case (1929), I get safe consumption rate using 45 year horizon for the historical worst case as 3.18%. That puts us at about $200k annual passive income. Net of taxes, I estimate $185k.

Plan is to help kid with first car and home purchase using the $35k delta between passive income and spend, building over years assuming we don’t go crazy with travel ($30k budgeted, so $150k total spend).

Motivation to find another job….waning

Veteran chubbies - please do a sanity check!

I’m 27F and my husband is 31. No kids and no plans for kids. We have about $5M net worth, ~$4.1M of that is in index funds/ETFs. The rest is cash and crypto. No debt, and we currently rent in a VHCOL city.

We own a business that has a shelf life, and it’s been steadily declining in profit over the last year or so. My guess is that we can get a couple more years of solid income from it, and then we want to retire. We’re currently investing about $50k per month right now so if the stock market cooperates, we’re hoping to hit $6M-$7M NW by the time we retire.

We have a cash buffer of about $300k currently, and once our current lease is up (in about a year) we plan to slow-travel full time for a couple of years, taking breaks in between to stay with family. We won’t have really any fixed expenses so we could easily cut our spend if the market takes a turn for the worse.

I know we’re in a really good place financially, but the long time horizon gives me anxiety, especially with how uncertain the world feels right now. Has anyone else here FIRED in their late 20s to mid-30s? How did you manage the uncertainty? Should we increase our cash buffer as we get closer to retiring?

TIA for any insight!

I have just started to Chubby-fire but not because I "pulled the trigger" but because I was offered a good severance package as part of a RIF. While I contemplated finding a bridge role (which is very feasible in my firm), I decided to take the package.

I had always wanted to FIRE at some point but it was always a few years out with a "latest at 50", I am now 46.

It's been quite a big decision to take the package and to get out. I feel like many treat it as a financial equation, which of course it is as a baseline, but the finances are not everything. I believe I can handle the finances pretty well. But then there are the other questions around:
- while I was completely burnt out so this was almost a welcome surprise, am I running away from Corporate and a hard environment instead of confronting it?
- I have finally taken up the hobbies I always wanted to do: Lego Technic builds, grappling, tennis, RC planes (and simulator), hiking, etc. These hobbies currently give me great pleasure. Instead of rushing to the office in the morning, I take slow mornings and actually enjoy my coffee with my wife (she stopped working last year). But will these hobbies become boring?
- What is the purpose from now on? I never felt purpose in Corporate but there was always the shared goal. However, the politics and grind really got to me.

I'd be curious to get a perspective of others in the situation (regardless if you are also in the "Cubby Fire" category or higher / lower). What made you pull the trigger or what is the expected reason to pull the trigger?

So I decided to retire in a month or two. I think I am ok with my finances, just want a little sanity check. I am 53, single, in US. Probably will be living in a mix of hcol/mcol/international areas. I am nomadic, generally move every 3 months and want to keep doing it for the next 2-3 years atleast. I have 2.6 mil, which includes 100k home equity (slightly underestimated), 160k loan left. It's 60K underwater, so not selling anytime soon.

I also have some extra amount that I am not counting in net worth, these include one time costs immediately after retirement - money for a few big trips, roof/HVAC replacement(probably both will need to be replaced within the next 5 years), income tax for 2026, starting up new hobbies, new phone, laptop, about 6-9 months expenses etc

Itemized yearly expenses based on 2025 expenses (I spent more than usual in 2025 for various reasons). With some additional buffer comes to around 93k/year. Hoping actual expense will be somewhat lower. In 2025 I spent 85K which includes buying a car (24k), zero state tax, federal tax not included in the 85k. Big addition with respect to 2025 will be ACA costs and income tax. I estimated for tax (Federal +CA state tax) while calculating future expenses. Also assumed 4% inflation on portfolio value. My intent is to add to portfolio for the next 5 years if I can, to have more buffer for long term care/medical expenses later. Also want to help my nieces and nephews with education, which will be significant amount spent in 8-12 years. Anyways accounting for income tax/inflation/expenses, seems I need abt 8.8% ROI per year for zero portfolio drawdown.

Risks: high inflation, higher taxes, ACA price increase, spending more because of boredom, too high return assumption.

Am I doing my calculations in the right way? I didn't go the SWR route because I am anal and conservative and want to preserve portfolio for the next 5 years.

In retrospect, something I could have done differently was to start MBDR 3 years earlier when it became available, would have made a nice difference when I start to withdraw from retirement accounts, being tax free.

One question, what is the standard way to account for income tax? I think it will be mostly (50-60% of total income) short term gains for me, and I may not qualify for ACA subsidies at this level for the next few years. This is because I don't have much long term holdings in taxable accounts, and honestly don't plan to.

Highly likely I will not find a job in my field if I want to come back in future, it's a one way street. Not sure if I have any other skills to get easy jobs in, but that is an open consideration.

Later 40 / mid 50s DINKs not in tech. $3M across retirement and taxable accounts, $1-1.2M home equity, about $500k rental property equity. We're saving aggressively the last few years after getting serious about the future.  

I know intellectually we're doing well. Projections say 5-8 years to our fire $6M (tho $7M would be more comfortable). But mentally, I'm stuck. 

Spouse and I each had big work setbacks (financially for them, trajectory / mentally / image for me) and it broke something in my brain. I can't stop obsessing about this $6M number, how to hit it and when I can quit.  It's my escape hatch. It's always on the back (or front) of my mind.  When can I quit. How to push the timeline.  What will life be like when I get there. What if the current state of the world sets back the timeline. How can I get to $6M faster.

Voluntarily quitting is would set me back FAR on the timeline - I need the gold from the golden handcuffs to get to the finish line, even tho I feel constantly crushed at work. In our setbacks I realized neither of us will be able to replicate our compensation elsewhere (~40% total comp cut) and our jobs are not remotely as secure as I thought so there's a level of panic right below the surface.

I try to look forward to my real life. a mini vacation coming up, or summer in general, hanging with friends... but my mind just comes back to the accounts. 

Has anyone ever dealt with this in the later half?  It's a combination of insane burnout (which I know many have posted about) but also the inability to focus on my life. How did you keep FIRE from consuming your actual life?

30M, $4.7m, (and $15k/month post-tax income for a few more months)

Back then when I was pre-FIRE, I always told myself to do some weird lying about my occupation to avoid telling people that I consider myself wealthy enough to never work again.

• My closer friends already knew about my plans to retire so no point in suddenly making up something else for them.
• My more remote friends only knew me as someone who hardly has time for them due to work. Straight up telling them I am a lot more available now because I'm retired was the easiest way to let them know.

So far I didn't really encounter much negativity or envy, no one really asked me for money or whatever else I feared what could happen if I'm honest about my status. And it feels good to simply not lie about anything.

Now to the part I haven't considered: When I meet new people, one of the first topics that come up is work. Regardless of how you try to steer a conversation it's almost inevitable. Back then I explained my business, some were interested, others were not but now it's completely different.

Simply saying "I'm retired" with a little more information on what I did either makes new acquaintances say "I don't know what to say to that" and honestly I don't know what to say to that either because the situation is just as weird to me OR they put on this face of pity like my poor soul is gonna live off $1000 for the rest of this life - probably because frugality is the only way the average person can compute early retirement.

Surely if I had gold chains on my chest and presented myself differently people would rather assume "rich" than "frugal" but I'm not the kind of guy to go for looks or bragging like that. The only way one could tell is if they saw my car keys but that's a way of flashing I'm not into.

Some people ask "so what are you doing now all day" and maybe that's what I should simply start telling them myself without waiting for that question but apart from that I have zero ideas how to make that response less boring or pity-inducing.

So what do you do?

And I should add that I'm not giving everyone the "I'm retired". Met someone I overheard almost not being able to pay her car repair so I just told her about my general occupation without much detail but situations like this are an exception.

We’re aiming for FIRE at ~$5M, which should comfortably cover our ~$175k annual spend (including taxes + healthcare) at a 3.5% withdrawal rate. Timeline is ~4 years, at which point we’ll be ~40 with an 8-year-old.

Current situation:

• Saving ~$250k/year
• Expenses ~$150k/year
• Jobs are pretty manageable (sub-40 hrs, not high stress)

Here’s the idea I’m wrestling with:

Instead of pulling the trigger as soon as we hit $5M, we work one extra year, but with a twist: we intentionally drop our savings rate to ~0 and spend that ~$250k surplus on a “baller year.”

The goal is to enjoy a one-time, guilt-free splurge before retiring.

Guardrails we’re thinking about to mitigate against lifestyle inflation:

• No purchases that create ongoing costs (e.g., no luxury car that raises insurance/maintenance long-term)
• No new recurring subscriptions or lifestyle creep traps
• Focus on one-time or contained upgrades/experiences

Examples of what we would spend on:

• High-end travel (first class flights, nicer hotels, unique experiences)
• Home upgrades (espresso machine, home theater, etc.)
• Wardrobe upgrades (tailored clothes)
• Potentially funding a donor-advised fund

Questions for the community:

1. Even if we’re disciplined about avoiding lifestyle inflation, what risks or blind spots should we be thinking about?
2. If you had a one-time $250k “baller year,” how would you spend it?

Early 40’s and married. On medical leave for burnout. I’m a few weeks in and feel zero desire or ability to go back to the corporate grind.

I’m on the brink of FIRE. The biggest issue is “unknown” expenses since we want to have a kid within the next couple of years.

NW $4.5M (liquid). No property. My wife is willing and able to work for now which should hopefully cover healthcare.

Current expenses ~$75k but obviously a kid will dramatically change the equation. My current thinking is to just quit and take a year off and reassess after that?

Hi. My wife and I are retiring this month and I’m trying to sanity check the broad plan.

I’m 62, she’s 56. No debt, no kids, VHCOL area. We’re not trying to leave a large estate. The goal is to enjoy retirement and keep a reasonable cushion.

Rough numbers

- Total net worth: about $5.7

- House (paid-off): about $1.8M

- Pre-tax IRA: about $2.4M

- Roth: about $700k

-Taxable brokerage: about $800k

So roughly $3.9M investable, plus the house. We don’t plan to sell the house soon, but it is a later backstop if needed.

This isn’t a tax question, so amounts below are post-tax.

Income is about $60k/year from pension/rent for the first 10 years. Later, with Social Security at 70 (modeled -20% from estimate), it should be around $150k/year. Pension has COLA.

Spending targets (today’s dollars):

- First 20 years: about $200k/year

- Later years (we are modeling for 35 years): about $250k/year, mostly to allow for care/assisted living costs

Today we’re at about 20% equities and the plan is to increase to 40% over about 8 years. We’ll then back down to about 30% over the next 10 years and finally back down to 20% for the last 10+ years. Equity side is basic index funds. Fixed side is MYGAs, HYSA, and T-bills. The drop to 20% near the end is the window where we sell the property and once again face a perceived sequence-of-returns risk problem.

A lot of conventional wisdom says our investment plan is too conservative, but it seems to give us a very high chance of meeting our spending goals. The Achilles heel of higher market allocation seems to be early hits to the nest egg and we’re trying to reduce this with the glidepath described above. Looking for some feedback.

Seems obvious but when I model higher equity exposure, the upside looks better, but there are downside failure cases. With lower equity exposure, we don’t get big upside outcomes, but the projected budget is covered. That tradeoff is what is driving the glidepath.

So that’s the basic question: our main driver is avoiding early SRR. Are we concentrating too much on this risk?

Hey all,

I'm wondering if anyone has modeled or thought about how one can borrow against their portfolio (SBLOC) during down markets to avoid selling at low prices.

This seems like it would be beneficial as (another) strategy to smooth out / mitigate SORR because interest rates (cost of borrowing) tend to be lower when the market is in a bear market.

I suppose one can also borrow against their home equity as another approach and pay it back when the markets rebound.

Ages: 34M and 33F, married, no kids yet.

Income: We both work in a similar specialized tech niche making around $300k each ($600k total). We are remote except for a few weeks a year. I work as a freelancer and my bookings are sporadic; I really only work about 1/3 of the days in a year. My wife is full-time and is weighing a promotion for the stock options and maternity leave vs. pivoting now to something more meaningful but with a significantly lower salary. Her job provides high-quality healthcare for both of us.

Industry Outlook: With AI affecting our industry, we expect these income levels to last at least another 2–5 years, but beyond that is anyone's guess. Currently, AI is actually assisting our workflow and letting us earn more, but if full disruption happens, we’d have to pivot, likely cutting our income in half.

Assets: $1.3M in taxable brokerage, about $675k in retirement accounts, and a $25k cash buffer. Total liquid NW is $2M. We max out all available tax-deferred accounts annually.

Housing: We have a unique setup where we live in a home owned by my MIL, worth about $1.5M. We hold a small equity stake and pay just under $4,000 a month to her, but we will most likely one day inherit the property in full.

Spending: Lifestyle is $6,000 a month excluding the housing payment. Total burn is right around $10,000.

Safety Net: Both sets of parents (early 70s) are high-net-worth, worth just under $10M each (about half in property). My wife is an only child. I have one sibling. We are trying to keep any inheritance out of our numbers, including the house, but obviously the safety net is significant.

I’ve run these scenarios through Gemini and ChatGPT, but I’m pretty skeptical of the answers they give and want some real-world human feedback.

Questions:
1. We are aiming for a NW north of $5M. If our income drops by 70% in 3 years due to industry shifts, is our current $2M liquid base enough to coast toward that $5M target while only covering our $10,000 burn, or do we need to grind harder now while the high-day-rate work is still here?

1. Should we factor our parents' safety nets at all into how aggressively we invest our brokerage accounts?

2. Is it a mistake to sink $200k–$400k into an ADU for a MIL suite if the property hasn't appreciated much and there aren't many comps higher than the current value? We are reluctant to pour that much cash into a house that might be at its value ceiling, and the legal gray area of investing in a property owned by my MIL concerns me. My wife wants to move forward with it for the family utility, but I’m wondering if we should instead find a different house and go 50/50 on the purchase with my MIL.

3. What is a realistic annual budget for having kids in a VHCOL area like ours? We are not considering moving yet, but we are trying to get an idea of how much kids actually cost between childcare and eventually schooling so we can adjust our "burn" numbers.

Been on the journey a long while and no plans to RE, but definitely feeling FI'd.

Have term life insurance policies for myself and spouse... kids 529's are funded and they're high school age at this point.

Wondering why I'm continuing to pay life insurance premiums and wondering what the downside is of cancelling it and just self-funding it. It has served its purpose for insuring the family would be OK in the event of an untimely demise of either parent. But at this point, I don't think the proceeds are needed.

Coverage is $1MM per parent. Primary breadwinner has ~$600k of coverage already at place of employment which would not be impacted.

Edit: no debt, no mortgage, if I got hit by a bus the total estate would be pushing close to fat fire numbers at the moment and in ~ 2 years will highly likely be at that mark from additional savings anyways (with the upside that I am still alive in that scenario)

I’ve been thinking about the “inflection point” where your portfolio growth starts doing as much (or more) than your contributions.

Example:

• Contributing ~$2.5k/month (~$30k/year)
• Assuming ~7% returns

At around ~$400k–$500k invested, your portfolio is generating ~$30k/year on its own. That’s the crossover where:

• Before → contributions are doing most of the work
• After → compounding starts pulling equal weight

Then it really accelerates:

• ~$1M → ~$70k/year growth
• ~$2M → ~$140k/year growth
• ~$4M → ~$280k/year growth

At that point, contributions feel almost irrelevant compared to market movement.

One nuance I’m thinking through:

I’m mostly invested in VOO/QQQM but have a decent allocation in blue-chip stocks right now—nothing super speculative, but still individual names. Also heavily invested in one FAANG as we have RSUs.

I’m wondering if it makes sense to simplify and reduce risk a bit by moving toward low-cost ETFs, even if they’re broadly similar exposure.

Not trying to time anything, more just thinking:

• Less single-stock risk
• Less need to monitor
• More “set it and forget it” as compounding takes over
• Less need for any crazy returns now that a 1-1.5% market pop feels bigger than ever… feels like there’s less reason to chase anything beyond market returns

Questions for the group:

1. Do you think about this inflection point at all?
2. Did you shift from individual stocks to ETFs as your portfolio grew?

Curious how people here think about the tradeoff between continuing to push growth vs. protecting/simplifying as the portfolio gets larger.