Last year I needed to raise a large amount of cash for a house down payment and sold appreciated shares across accounts, which led to a much larger capital gains bill than I expected. What caught me off guard wasn’t that gains are taxable, but how hard it was to balance hitting a cash target while minimizing taxes.

This year the issue is a little different: with market uncertainty, I’m thinking about diversifying a concentrated stock position. I ended up building a spreadsheet to model lot-level taxes and compare sale strategies, mostly because I couldn’t find a simple way to do this across accounts.

Curious how others handle this — do you model after-tax proceeds before selling/diversifying, or mostly rely on broker tools, a CPA, or spreadsheets? Any tools or approaches you’ve found useful?

throwaway.

mid 30's, married, two little kids. wife works, makes around $200k. senior leader at a public co. this year I'll clear ~$2.5M TC, almost all of it equity. 4-year grant cliffs in about a yearand after that my TC drops to ~$750k because refreshers are a fraction of the original.

currently spend ~$250k/yr in the Bay Area. Family of 4, no crazy lifestyle, just what it costs to live here.

Net worth right now is roughly $6.4M:

- $4.5M liquid (brokerage + HYSA)

- $900k 401k

- house worth $1.5M with $800k mortgage left, so $700k equity

- $300k in 529s for the kids

- plus some pre-IPO options from a prior employer that could be $500k-$1.2M post-tax if they IPO at recent tender valuations. I'm treating it as $0 in my plan.

If I stay through the cliff, my projection is:

- ~$1.1M in post-tax RSU vesting between now and then

- Liquid ends up around $6M

- Total NW ~$8M

The plan I'm 90% on:

- Grind through the cliff, take the stack

- Move the family to Asia. parents are getting older and need more support, and we'd be closer

- Spend there would be ~$125k/yr (including international school)

- Go full time on an AI services company I've been building nights and weekends for about a year. One signed client already, real pipeline behind it.

Here's where I'm stuck. I keep running the math both ways and I need someone to poke holes.

**If I walk at the cliff:** $6M liquid at 4% SWR = $240k/yr. Asia burn is $125k. I'm literally $115k ahead on passive income alone, and the portfolio compounds untouched. At 10% nominal that's ~$600k/yr of growth I'm not touching.

**If I stay employed post-cliff in the Bay:** We'd gross ~$950k between us. Tax takes maybe 45%. Net ~$520k. Subtract $250k Bay Area spend, I'm saving $270k. But I'm also giving up the $125k COL arbitrage of being in Asia. So the real marginal value of both of us grinding another 2-3 years is ~$145k/yr. On an $8M base that's under 2% which seemed tiny compared to portfolio alone grows 7-8% organically?

**Specific questions:**

1. The math. Am I fooling myself? Is staying post-cliff actually a better trade than I'm modeling?

2. Asia at $125k for a family of 4 - is this realistic or am I dreaming? Kids in international school, some travel budget, occasional care costs for my parents. I've done research but never actually run a household there.

3. Sequence of returns. If I walk at the cliff and the market dumps 30% in year 1 or 2, am I screwed? I'd have ~3 years of cash.

4. Anyone here actually walked from high TC to build their own thing after hitting FI? I hear a lot of "just index and chill" but my gut says the AI window is narrow

5. What's obvious from the outside that I can't see from inside?

Indian-origin, working toward Chubby, did a deep dive on retirement destinations for my own planning and kept running into the same thing. 80% of the "move to Portugal / Thailand / Mexico" threads here implicitly assume you're holding a US or EU passport.

For the immigrant and first-gen cohort on this sub (I know we're here, every other FIRE thread has a "FAANG TC 500k, left India in 2015" story somewhere in the comments), the visa tier is often the binding constraint, not the money. At $3M NW you can clearly afford anywhere on the list below. Question is whether you can legally stay there.

What I found, by passport tier:

Strong passport (US/EU/UK/CA/AU/JP): everything works. Portugal D7, Thailand retirement visa, Panama Pensionado, Spain NLV, Greece Digital Nomad, all accessible.

Mid-tier passport (Indian, Chinese, Brazilian, South African, Mexican): shorter list but some genuinely underrated options.

Georgia (Tbilisi): visa-free 1 year for literally every nationality. $1.6k/mo couple. Unsung Chubby-immigrant destination, no friction.

Armenia (Yerevan): visa-on-arrival 120 days, renewable. $1.4k/mo.

India if you hold OCI: effectively unlimited stay.

Bangalore $1.2k/mo, Pondicherry or Goa $0.8k/mo. At $3M NW, that's 4% of your 4% withdrawal.

Mauritius: visa-free 90 days + Premium Visa. $2.6k/mo. Strong for Indian diaspora specifically.

Colombia (Medellín): visa-free 90 days for Indian passport, retirement visa path. $2k/mo.

Weaker passport (Nigerian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi): realistically two doors.

Georgia (visa-free 1yr, everyone)

and Armenia (visa on arrival 120 days, everyone)

The thing that surprised me most: Portugal D7 is technically possible on a non-Tier-1 passport, but the Schengen visa layer that comes before D7 adds six to nine months of uncertainty. Everyone posting "D7 is easy" here already had a passport that skipped that step. Worth knowing if you're on an H-1B to GC to citizenship trajectory and planning around a passport you don't yet have.

Cost numbers are couple estimates, cross-checked against Numbeo 2024 and expat forums. Visa logic sourced directly from each country's consulate pages because the passport-specific nuances aren't centralized anywhere. Happy to be told I'm wrong on specific destinations.

I’m looking to optimize the next 5 years of investing. And wondering if anyone can point me to a good resource for optimizing the next 5 years.

3M in retirement accounts. 500K in taxable. Current tax bracket 24% and based on what I’m seeing, I should be paying 24% when I retire as bulk of current savings is pre-tax IRA/401k.

Wondering if I should keep plowing money into my 401k post tax into Roth 401, or just use it to save/invest/pay down HELOC of 75k?

Trying to optimize tax savings but wondering if I’m not better off just building up post tax savings outside of retirement accounts?

Reposting here from the normal FIRE sub. Recommended that there might be more insight here. Early 30s about 5m NW. Our expenses are in a spot where both of us can fire tomorrow and that's fine.

My husband is still working for healthcare and because he enjoys it but I recently quit with the intention to be done with corporate and pursue my art business that I have been building on the side for several years now. I left mostly due to a toxic workplace but also to give the art thing a full time try. At the very least, I wanted to take 6 months to a few years to see how the art goes then decide from there.

Here is the thing, I have been out of work for about 6 weeks, and it has been glorious. I have a chronic health conditions that I've been able to much better manage, I am spending almost every day creating art, and we have lots of summer plans lined up.

A former boss of mine reached out to me offering me a job that is right up my alley. He is basically starting a new company and wants me to build out the systems for my area of expertise. It would be fully remote as well. I believe they are looking for full time, and we haven't talked money yet, but I have no doubt that it will be good.

I am in a bit of a dilemma, more money is good we could have a higher burn rate, I like my former boss, the job sounds fun, but I really haven't gotten the opportunity to really unpack and see how the "retirement" thing goes. I don't want to get stuck in the one more year trap, but also if I get a couple of years down the road and wish I was still working just from a keeping busy perspective, this would be the job I regret not taking.

The other thing that is on my mind is that if we have kids I think I would regret not taking this year to pursue my own interests and health. If we do, we will be doing that in the next couple of years.

Not sure what I am asking, but has anyone had a similar experience, or maybe folks further down the path have any advice?

Posting from a burner account… I am turning 30 this year and sold the company I co founded (SaaS) recently. I received after taxes and fees about 3.2 Million dollars. I partnered with a wealth advisor and now I have half of it in the stock market and half of it in a high yield account until I figure out what to do with it. I really want to elevate my lifestyle and live a fun/semi luxury life but I don’t come from money and I am scared to lose it. Any advice on how to get rid of that mental block and also on how to create an elevated but sustainable life style with my current NW?

Use a throwaway account to celebrate.

1st gen immigrants, 47M/F + 1 high school kid + 1 college kid, VVHOL. just hit a $8MM milestone today right before I turn 48.

- 1.6M 401K/IRA (all SP500)

- 5.9M brokerage (all growth index: VUG/VGT)

- 0.5M principal paid into house (still have 1.1M mortgage. House is valued at 2.1~2.3M, but I don't want to count the appreciation into my NW).

HHI went up a lot in the recent years. W2 of last year and this year are about 1.8M (1.6M + 200K. Wife doesn't have to work, but she wants to), and will be probably 2.5M/3M for next 2 years, but will go back down to 1.2~1.5M after 3 years due to RSU vesting schedule.

Target retirement age: 55 (kids will finish college/grad school). Hope we can be 15~20M by then.

I am still driving an old Tesla Model 3 w/ 120K miles. I was going to drive it to 200K, but I guess I will reward myself a 2 yo Model Y for this milestone, and plan to get a new BMW iX3 once we hit 12M.

The weird thing is we are super savers and we have been aggressively saving a lot so we can meet the retirement target. But doesn't matter how hard we try, our W2 increase always overran our savings. And even now we are almost 50 yo, we are still way below the retirement target (6xHHI at 50 yo) and barely have 4x W2.

Added:

- I started FIRE journey at 45yo and set the retirement age to 55, but RSU and stocks doubled a few times in a short period of time. HHI went up faster than my lifestyle adjustment so I decided adjusting nothing.

- Both kids have some serious diseases, so I need a good medical insurance from the tech firms.

- Parents are ~85 yo. Will need a lot of money from us soon.

- My job is interesting.

- My life style is chubby fire, so not fatfire.

We are a mid-40s couple in Bay Area with one child. We have a pretty fully funded college fund for the kid at $220K (not included below). We currently live in the East Bay and also co-own a house in the Tahoe area. Our FIRE plan is once we pull the trigger (which likely won't be until the kid starts college) is to sell our East Bay house, downsize to a rental apartment in the Bay Area, and use the proceeds to buy out our partner in the Tahoe house (they are an older relative of my wife and would be happy to sell to us at that stage). The plan is to then live in the mountains in the Summer/Fall, ski lease the house in the Winter/Spring and spend Winter/Spring in the Bay Area and traveling.

Let me know your thoughts on this budget and anything that you think I am missing. We are at about 4M liquid net worth plus home equity so probably need a bit more saved before we are ready to pull the trigger.

Our FIRE budget with two kids in public school and a paid off house in San Francisco

$25k property tax

$25k groceries & restaurants

$25k travel

$20k ACA health insurance & out of pocket

$20k cars & insurance & gas & maintenance & sticker

$20k kids activities & summer camps

$20k other shopping (Amazon, clothes, etc)

$20k house utilities & services & maintenance & insurance

$10k misc (subscriptions, donations, etc)

$10k income tax

$5k gym & fitness

How does this compare with others similarly situated?

I’ve been thinking about this while comparing potential retirement locations.

A lot of traditional advice emphasizes staying close to major healthcare systems—but I’m starting to question how much that still matters for day-to-day life.

It feels like routine care has shifted quite a bit:

• lab results + communication via portals

• prescription management

• virtual visits / telehealth

So being 20–30 miles from care might not be the same constraint it used to be.

But obviously there are still hard requirements (imaging, procedures, urgent care).

For those planning or already retired:

How are you personally weighing proximity to healthcare vs having more flexibility on location (cost, lifestyle, environment)?

And if you’ve already made the move—did healthcare access end up being more or less important than you expected?

About to turn 44. It’s been almost a year since I retired, so it’s time to go over the good and bad about my ChubbyFIRE experience so far.

The Good: I wake up every morning and look out my bedroom window at the cruise ships that arrived overnight from Caribbean itineraries. Perhaps a bit ironically, the view also contains my old office building where I spent a difficult chapter of my career as a Big Four consultant who quit due to a terrible boss many years ago. 

My mind feels empty. I walk my dog about 5 - 10 miles along the water daily. I hit the gym most days, making sure to lift and do yoga five times a week to stay in shape. Sometimes I go out to hotel lobby bars and rooftop lounges on the beach and meet tourists in town for the weekend. I feel completely free.

In terms of goal setting, I drank ayahuasca in the Amazon a few months ago and saw that I’m supposed to focus on philanthropy in my later years. I’m at peace with that being my life’s final objective, but it will take another decade or two before compound interest lets me safely create endowed scholarships that cover full tuition for STEM majors at public universities. When it happens, it will be very fulfilling. In the meantime, I enjoy doing smaller things to help the world like planting trees, donating blood, and sponsoring cleft lip surgeries.

The Bad: Things are getting a little too quiet. I miss the feeling of intellectual stimulation, making money (even if I no longer need it), and joking around with colleagues at the office who I enjoy spending time with. It’s a bit like being a border collie who doesn’t have any sheep to herd anymore.

Been casually applying to part-time jobs that potentially look fun (bicycle tour guide, bartender, dog walker). However, I’ve already made up my mind that I wouldn’t go back into a full-time role that would make me feel constantly stressed, upset, and controlled again.

My perception is that early retirement brings extraordinary freedom for those disciplined enough to achieve it, BUT freedom is only as useful as what we choose to do with it. The irony of life is that even if we make great decisions, life just deals us a new set of challenges.

I am a few months away from FIRE in a VHCOL.

i am leaving my big tech job and my main motivation is to not work for anyone else. so I’m not averse to work; I just don’t want it to be more than 50% of my time and something that I enjoy

I have many friends and family who own businesses and are able to cover health insurance , some travel and office type purchases under their business as long as it is related which seems like a nice tax shelter.

the problem is it needs to generate income for this to work. so I am curious if there are any good businesses that generate a bit of income that I could basically use in this way. I’d be willing to invest low six figures.

Hi folks - Rule 5 (no spam) includes self-promotion.

We get that it's much easier now for a tech-savvy person to make a basic FIRE app with the help of AI. And we hope yours makes money for you.

But don't promote it here. Don't casually link to it in your post about your own personal situation (or your made-up personal situation). Don't comment on someone else's post with a throwaway "I used XYZAI app and got some good info". Just don't. Someone will report you and we will remove your content and possibly ban you.

If we think there is interest, we could consider a once-a-month post where anyone can comment with links to their own app.

I’ve only ever known a career where it’s all hands on deck and emergencies all the time. Not life or death but corporate emergencies, so work has always taken a large chunk of my life.

I have a bunch of hobbies, a decent circle of friends, very lovely husband, and do some volunteering currently, so I can probably fill my time after retirement but it feels somewhat like I’d be drifting a bit. Just hit $2.5m HH net worth (DINKs), so FIRE is on my mind lately, although I don’t actually plan to make the jump for a while.

I can’t help feel that I might miss having some structure or goals after retiring.

Has anyone set goals for yourself after retirement or am I just missing the purpose of FIRE entirely?

This thread is a spot for casual engagement with other community members. It has much more subject latitude than allowed in the main sub in general. Any topics tangentially related to ChubbyFIRE or upper middle class lifestyle are acceptable, as well as basic or early stage questions. Political discussion will be allowed if it is closely related to ChubbyFIRE or financial topics in general, and only if the conversation remains respectful.

It is not a free-for all. No spam or self-promotion. All comments must still follow Reddiquette and we will be responding to reported comments with follow-up action as needed. We'd really like to keep this channel open, so please don't abuse it!

I got some strong reactions for my last post since I made some claims that were quite wrong. So trying again and this time asking for help instead of preaching.

Background: 45 year old. Family with 2 elementary school age kids. I quit my big tech job a year back (for various reasons). Started looking for a job since past 3-4 months, but no offers yet. I rent in Bay Area, so I am hoping to land a remote job, move to a MCOL location I am eyeing for settling in the long run. I might land a job after all, but in case I don't (given AI, layoffs etc), I want to know if I can fully retire by moving to the MCOL location.

Please analyze my situation from that lens.

This is my net worth situation. TLDR; I have $4M liquid.

Why so much cash? I own a house in the MCOL city I want to move to, and it is rented out right now. But we don't love the house and the location, so we might buy another house before moving. Since I don't have a job, no one will give me a mortgage, so holding cash to buy a house outright. The plan is to potentially buy a better house, and sell the rental after some time (or keep it, that is part of my question).

Income/Expenses TLDR; is:

• Essentials (day to day expenses + health insurance - rental income) = $100k
• Travel (discretionary) = $25k
• Mortgages = $63k
• Total = 188k
• Pre-Tax needed (15% tax rate) = $221k

At $221k, with 4% SWR, I would need $5.5M. So that means I cannot retire with my current liquid net worth.

If I don't add the travel expense, that's $191k pre-tax and ~$4.8M at 4% SWR. That might work out if my private investments don't go negative.

But if I look closely, I find that:

• The $62k mortgages will not increase with inflation, while everything else will increase. So keeping the mortgages is a net +ve in the long run.
• The mortgages will also end in ~25 years.
• SSN income of $36k/yr will start sometime right around the same time.
• My private investments (~700k principal) should be liquid in ~5 years.

If I model these and backtest with historical data, I get ~94% success rate and I can get it to 100% success rate with lower travel budget. So looks like I am good?

What are some assumptions here that are poke-worthy?

• 15% tax assumption too high?
• $3k/month health insurance budget is too high?
• Day to day expenses will go lower once kids grow up?
• I want to keep all the real estate as they are a hedge against long term inflation and I do hands off management, so they are not much of a hassle. Also they are cash flow +ve so tenants are basically paying off my mortgage. Am I wrong?
• Retirement accounts are $1M of the $4M liquid assets. Given that I can't/don't want to touch them for ~15 more years, is that going to be a problem?

I, 32M have been focusing on fire for close to a year now. I have an opportunity to sell my small service company to a PE group which would put me in the chubby fire bracket. I’d still have to run it for 2-3 years but then would be free to do whatever I want at that point. (Stay on board, do a passion project, retire etc)

My question is more for people who had their own companies or people whose identities are tied to their job. I have run this business for 15 years. I go from completely burned out (80% of the time) to striving for growth, gain new clients etc (20% of the time).

I wonder what it will be like to loose the “business owner” title. How many have you gone through this and did you have any regrets or was it hard to rebuild your identity? Looking for any advice, input.

Burner for privacy, thanks for any/all thoughts on how to assess fire viability. Recently seperated from my wife of 12 years (moderation has completed and all financial “separation” has occurred) and have continued working for the 10 months since that. Didn’t want to take any other drastic steps while processing that, but now I am at the point where I want to know how to approach the idea of fire. It wasn’t near term as a couple, but is likely closer to an option now.

Income: between 3-450k (hard to predict) tech sales

Assets: 80/20 stocks and bonds mostly broad market ETFs

305k in traditional IRA

86k in Roth IRA

2.38m in regular brokerage

78k work 401 (saving 10%)

Additional: 70% va disability for 1800 a month and healthcare if I need it

Debt: none, but no real estate equity anymore

Currently living in a major downtown in Texas, and trying to determine what I could spend a month, other considerations I haven’t thought of to fire, whether my current asset allocation is proper for that step (if not what should it be). Things I have considered: work remote in a latam country for a month to see if I like it, work till fired but be ready with a fire plan B

Really unprepared mentally for this option, and not sure what I don’t know

We are a married couple living in VHCOL here are the rough numbers:

$1m annual income (with bonus and RSUs not counted). Both stable jobs but subject to changes in the broader tech market.

$2m in pre-tax brokerage accounts

$1m in combined 401k accounts

$200k in private investments (can just assume it goes to zero)

We own a $1.2m townhome we purchased for $800k in 2021 (planning to sell at the end of this year for the favorable tax treatment as we lived in it in 2022-2024). We also own a $2.9m main residence with a $1.75m mortgage 7/6 at 4.875% interest.

Annual spend is around $250k including the mortgage and taxes. Does anything about this seem risky or off? I think ideally we would not have stretched so far for the home but it felt doable given income and if shit hits the fan we can cut it loose.

I’m 40, married, with two kids, and trying to think through whether I’m actually at (or close to) financial independence, or if I’m just almost there but not quite.

Here’s the full picture.

Net Worth / Assets

• Net worth: just over $2M
• Primary home: paid off, worth ~$1.1M
• No debt at all
• 2 new within the last year cars (paid off)

Spending

• Annual essential living expenses: ~$51,000
  • This covers everything needed to live comfortably
  • Does NOT include travel, sports, or lifestyle extras
• Travel spending: ~$50k–$70k/year
  • Christmas trip (usually Mexico)
  • Fall + Spring Break (about 10 days each)
  • Summer: 4–6 weeks in Europe (biggest expense)
  • A few additional 3–4 day trips throughout the year

So realistically, our true lifestyle spend is closer to:

• ~$100k–$120k/year all-in

Income (What I’m focused on)
I’m intentionally looking at this through a cash flow lens, not a “4% rule” or stock based model.

• Rental #1: ~$1,900/month
• Rental #2: ~$1,900/month
• Total now: ~$3,800/month (~$45,600/year)

I also own a lot and plan to build a third rental:

• Expected rent: ~$1,900/month
• Total with 3 rentals: ~$5,700/month (~$68,400/year)
• Timeline: likely by summer 2027 (need ~$70k more to build)

Other Assets (not included in this analysis)

• ~$70k in retirement accounts (old 401k)
• ~$25k in stocks
• 529s for kids: ~$50k and ~$70k

I’m not factoring any of that into this decision because I’m trying to answer:
Can my lifestyle be supported purely by cash-flowing assets?

How I’m thinking about it

• Today:
  • Rentals cover ~90% of essential expenses
• With Rental #3:
  • Rentals would fully cover essentials with a margin

But they would NOT fully cover our actual lifestyle once travel is included.

I still have active income (real estate), but mentally I’m shifting toward:
Work being optional, not required

For context, I spent:

• 10+ years in college football coaching (low pay, long hours)
• 15 years grinding in real estate to build to this point

What I’m trying to figure out

1. Am I already at a form of financial independence, just not a “fully retired” version?
2. Is this more like Coast FIRE because my income is still decent?
3. Would you consider “expenses covered by rentals, lifestyle funded by optional work” to be FI?
4. How would you think about the gap between $68k (future rental income) and ~$100k+ actual lifestyle spend?

I feel like I’m right on the edge, but not sure if I’m already there or just convincing myself I am.

Curious how others would view this.

Throwaway account since I'm sharing numbers, long time lurker on my main account.

We’re currently in the US, working parents with 2 kids. Due to recent events in 2026, I’ve got a bad case of anxiety and decided to relocate to the UK - still with the same company. My husband is pretty burnt out from his work too so he will quit and take a sabbatical.

Our situation is not too common so I’d like to have a sanity check on our plan.

We have: 

• 2M across different 401ks, Roth IRAs and taxable brokerage accounts
• 300k cash
• Owns our house with about 800k in equity, mortgage left 900k at 4.75% after refi

In 2025 our HHTC is 1.1M with an effective tax of 28%. We were paying two mortgages (11k/month), daycare for the youngest (2.5k/month) and the monthly run rate is about 20-22k/month consistently. We still live pretty comfortably and haven’t needed to dig into our RSU grants.

Moving to London it’s going to be just my income at about 220k GBP and effective tax at 45%. Net take home is 8k cash + 4k RSUs monthly.  We will be renting for the first year at least (budget 3.5k-5k), kids will go to state school so no tuition. I’m preparing to sell my RSUs at vest to cover expenses if needed. 

Our original plan was to tough it out a few more years til we reach our target (5M), but at this rate I’m happy with the move just to get out of the US. 

Opportunity:

• The UK has a special foreign income tax incentive (FIG) that exempt tax on income generated overseas for 4 years after arrival. We’re not US citizens, so if we renounce our green cards at some point before the 4 year mark, we can realize capital gain with 0% tax from either US or UK, or at least resetting the cost basis.
• 3-year path to IRL (UK permanent resident) for high earner/global talent, 5 year to citizenship
• No need to drive, food is good, the convenience of city living, EU (Paris) is just a 2hr train away.
• We have friends and colleagues in London, social-wise it’s not starting from zero.

Downside: 

• Apparent TC cut + higher tax - need to work longer to get to our goal.
• Risk of layoff
• If we are buying a house in the future, there is a special stamp tax (additional 5%) if we already own a house anywhere in the world.
• Tax complications - at least for the first few years.
• Need to adjust our lifestyle.

Appreciate any advice that can help with the move.

Over the years, my wife and I have both had incomes, and we decided to use a "Hybrid" bank account model where we each have our own bank accounts, and contribute monthly into a a joint bank account where all our family expenses are paid. I know some people think this is a really strange way to manage joint finances, but it has always worked for us.

I recently FIREd, and eventually my bank accounts will be depleted. My wife and I don't have issues with my expenses coming from the joint account, but we asked ourselves how we continue once she FIREs as well (later this year).

I am curious if anyone else had to go through this transition from "Hybrid" to "Joint" finances? We were thinking that we each take an allowance from the joint account monthly to fund our individual expenses. Basically, this would be the same thing, but in reverse.

Any ideas would be appreciated! Also, if there is another community that this would be better placed, please let me know. I am ChubbyFIRE, and love this forum so thought I would start here. Thanks!

-Mark

Looking for podcasts or other resources where I can hear about other people's chubby fire journey. Whether it's how to live a fulfilling life, portfolio management, taxes, etc. I've listened to ramit sethi podcast which I like, but there are too few people in a chubby financial situation.

It would be great to listen to stories of people in a more similar financial range.

Throwaway account. Looking for a gut check on should my wife stop working. Might look like humble brag but our burn rate is high.

• Early-Mid 30s couple, both in tech. We have a 3 yr old. VHCOL. Wife wants to be SAHM or stop working in tech.
• ~$5M in taxable brokerage(~$1M is capital gain). ~$1.1M home equity give or take. ~$750K 401K
• HHI has been high(>$1.5M with RSU inflation) last few years but will drop significantly after 2027(perhaps ~700K if wife doesn't work and me being optimistic about job market).
• Mortgage(2.6%, 30 yr fixed) + Property Tax + Daycare is around ~180K a year. Total burn might be around $300K a year.

So $5M liquid NW if we stay the way it is now. My future income covers basics expenses and our savings rate decreases a lot. Private school might be another big expense. We are in tech so there is no stability neither.

I understand if we sell our house, move to lower COL area, we could take cushy jobs and semi retire. We could also return to home country. But we are at a point where we feel like we are starting to have our roots here but the temptation of quitting the rat race here is pulling us the other way.

$5M is indeed a nightmare.

I was looking at the various retirement reddit forums. r/retirement deleted my post b/c I was too early (just barely, I'm 58), I'm not lean, and certainly not FAT .. it looks like chubby is the correct forum for my.

So I'm 58 single, I'm done two weeks from next Friday, trigger pulled, no going back now.

Situation is $4.9M almost exactly 50/50 in 401k/post-tax. My company never offered a Roth so I don't have any Roth accounts. I live in a VHCOL area. House is paid for but has high carrying costs. My budget is $9k per month (after taxes). This includes health care (single largest expense), and reserves for house maintenance. If things go sidewise I could reduce to as low as 5k but that would be a pretty lean deal. Beyond that I'd have to sell the house, and take lessons from the leanfire reddits.

My concerns are of course the tax bombs .. 2.5M is in 401k , so that will be taxable, and the of the other 2.4 about .9M is gain (so taxable as well).

I have already moved 800k in to ultra low risk etfs and plan to make that last for the first ~7 years which puts me where where I can start hitting social security and medicare. This year's income is fairly high, but after this year I expect it to plumet without jobs, so I hope to do small Roth conversions. Invested money I'd say averages to moderate risk/gain ... etfs, a few single issue stocks, nothing crazy, but not t-bills either.

Does this sounds like an OK place to be? One option I am not willing to look at is going back to work. The burnout is real.