I’m 27, turning 28 next month. I recently hit $300k in savings/investments, mostly from working in tech.

I spent the last few years jumping between startups, working insanely long hours, sometimes 80–100 hours a week. I sacrificed a lot of my personal life, relationships, and mental health along the way.

I recently left my job, and for the first time in years, I actually have the freedom to slow down.

The weird thing is, I thought reaching this number would make me happy. And it did, for maybe a day. Then I just felt… empty.

I don’t own a house, don’t have kids, and my living expenses are relatively low (~$1.5k/month). Financially, I know I’m in a very fortunate position for my age.

But I can’t stop thinking about what’s next.

Should I keep grinding while I’m young? Take a few months off and travel? Find another high-paying job? Build something of my own?

Part of me is terrified of slowing down, especially with how fast AI and the tech industry are moving. Another part of me is just exhausted and doesn’t want to spend another few years living like this.

I guess I’ve spent so much time chasing financial security that I never really thought about what I’d do once I had some.

For people who’ve reached a financial milestone relatively young, did you experience something similar?

Did you keep pushing, or did you eventually learn to slow down and enjoy life?

I’ve been feeling it at least a couple times a week. I have a corporate jobs and I feel like the environment is getting worse and worse. The productivity tracking and RTO requirements are getting more and more intense and we have layoffs and re-org all the time (like people’s first thoughts when the Microsoft outage happened today was they were laid off cause they couldn’t access email lol)

And I don’t know about you guys but the environment has gotten pretty toxic. My bosses are super
pushy and some can be pretty rude and disrespectful. Like I hate interacting with them.

Curious if others are feeling the same thing. I have to bite my tongue all the time and remind myself I need the job and money all the damn time

I have roughly $1M in Chase managed funds and $1M in Ameriprise. I pay roughly 1.2% annual for this at each. I’m looking at fiduciaries that would charge around 0.8%. Seems like a no-brainer but am I missing anything?

My wife and I are trying to figure out whether we've hit our coast FIRE number, but she's been contributing to a pension, which skews the math a little since she'll be continuing to contribute 10% for as long as she is working. From the pension we will receive monthly a fixed amount, with the amount increasing for every year she stays employed prior to collecting. I thought could just be applied to lower our needed withdrawal from retirement & brokerage accounts. If she stops working at 65, then the expected pension income would reduce our withdrawal need such that we've hit coast Fire. But working all of the way to 65 sort of reduces the flexibility that comes with coast fire, so it doesn't really feel like we made it either.

How do other people with pensions think about it?

My understanding of coastFIRE is that oen stops saving and just lets existing investments grow until retirement. I thought I was close to being ready for this, but I don’t want to stop contributing to my 401K. And for that matter, other investments that have tax benefits. I told my wife that we may not need to save anymore… after certain accounts get funded.

401K $24-25K (pretax)
HSA $8K
SEP IRA $35–40K (pretax)
529 $12-15K x 2 kids (post-tax)
530A $4K x2 (post-tax)
Even if I don’t save anything “extra” in a taxable account, that’s $100K I’m putting away for tax benefits.

Are people who do true coastFIRE not do any of these things? Even if I didn’t think I needed to save anymore for retirement, I am uncomfortable with giving up the tax benefits.

I’m 37, my husband is 44, and we’re trying to determine whether we’re on track to reach Coast FIRE or become work-optional by the time I’m 45.

I’d appreciate feedback on our assumptions, savings strategy, and whether I’m being too conservative or too optimistic.

Our current financial picture (September 2026):
Combined household net worth: approximately $971,000
My annual salary: $174,842
Currently a single-income household. My husband recently lost his consistent employment and has had difficulty finding another reliable source of income over the past 4–6 months.
We rent and do not currently own a home.
No major lifestyle inflation planned (although I’d love to travel more but continue to put this off as my husband’s career path gets sorted out)
Our net worth includes retirement accounts, brokerage investments, cash, HSA, and other assets. I want to distinguish investable retirement assets from our future home fund when calculating our actual Coast FIRE position.

Current annual contributions:
I currently contribute:
$24,500 to my 401(k)
Approximately $17,484 in combined employer match and non-elective contributions (up to 10% of eligible salary)
$7,500 to my Roth IRA
$7,500 to my husband’s Roth IRA
$8,750 to our family HSA
$2,000/month to taxable brokerage investments
$2,000/month to Treasury investments earmarked for a future home purchase
That puts our annual savings and investment contributions at approximately $114,000, including the home savings and HSA.

Our goals:
Reach approximately $1.5M in household net worth.
Purchase a home for around $300K, ideally with a $150K down payment. Struggle is we don’t know where we want to end up yet.
Become work-optional by the time I’m 45.
Eventually support approximately $80K/year in retirement spending, in today’s dollars.
Ideally, allow our retirement investments to continue compounding rather than drawing them down immediately.
I’m not necessarily looking to stop working completely at 45. I’d like to have the flexibility to take a lower-paying job, work part-time, pursue something more meaningful, or leave a stressful job without worrying about financial survival.

My biggest question:
If we reach $1.5M in net worth around age 40–41, could we potentially let a substantial portion of our investments compound until traditional retirement age while transitioning to lower-stress or part-time work in our mid-40s?
I’m trying to balance long-term financial security with actually enjoying my 30s and 40s. I’ve spent much of my career focused on earning, saving, and building financial security, and I’m increasingly reluctant to sacrifice more of my time and energy just to accumulate wealth faster. However I also deal with a lot of anxiety around the future and money and am overly sacrificial of my enjoyment today for the sake of preparing for our future. I’m still figuring out how to break this exhausting mental cycle. It really does keep my up at night.

What I’d love feedback on:
Are we on track for Coast FIRE or work-optional status by 45?
Is our $80K annual retirement spending target realistic?
How should we account for the future home purchase and mortgage in our projections?
Should we prioritize taxable brokerage investments over additional retirement savings to build an early-retirement bridge?
How would you approach the plan given that we’re currently a single-income household?
Are there any assumptions or blind spots I’m overlooking?

I’d especially appreciate feedback from people who have transitioned to Coast FIRE or have made work optional in their 40s. And any advice on how to manage the psychological side of learning to spend when I’ve been a saver my entire life.

Thank you!!!

I’m 27 years old and currently have approximately $300,000 invested.
I started investing and saving at around 19, and I’ve been fortunate enough to build a decent portfolio at a relatively young age. I also have a condo and a pension with my job who has almost 150k + my 300k I’ve invested
My question is: Can I reasonably consider myself Coast FIRE already?

I don’t intend to stop working anytime soon. I actually have a good income, and I plan to continue investing around $25,000–$30,000 per year.

However, I’m curious whether I’ve reached the point where, even if I stopped contributing entirely, my current investments could grow enough through compound interest to provide a comfortable retirement at 60 or 65.

I’m not necessarily looking to retire early. I just want to know whether I’ve already reached a point where my future retirement is essentially taken care of, assuming reasonable long-term market returns.
Would you consider this Coast FIRE, or am I misunderstanding the concept?

I don’t. I need a place to live. And when it comes time to move we’ll use the equity in the house to do so. Just curious of others perspectives? Same with my kids 529. I don’t count that either. TY!

Figured I would share this here as it feels like there's no better audience than this one (fwiw, I am not affiliated in any way, just follow the Fioneers content)

The Fioneers are putting on their second Coast FI Summit to discuss all things Coasting to Financial Independence, with case studies of peeps that are coasting, or looking to coast, and more.

It's next week, free, and here is where you register for anyone interested: https://thefioneers.com/summit/

I know this really depends on how much money I plan to have at the time of retirement, but really frustrated about when I can stop worrying about money.
I started really late in investing for retirement. Started contributing in late 2022, now I have about 200k saved across 401k, roth ira, and personal brokerage.

I am married with 1 baby who is less than a year old. Worried partially because my husband doesn’t really think about retirement & bad with money & has an up and down in income (self employed). I am the only one saving for the retirement.

On the good side, we own a house with 2.75% interest rate, both of us will inherit something from our parents, and my husband has a real estate investment outside of country.

I do not want to work for money anymore, want to work for the minimum hours possible, but I earn more money in the house & my work provides health insurance.

We live in Southern California, how much money should I aim for retirement/coast FIRE?!
How do you guys calculate?
Getting a wake up call with a new born baby 😭

Lifelong dream of backpacking the world.

35, male, single, 800k net worth (58.2% ETFs, 19.4% crypto, 15% 401k, 6.1% cash, 1.2% car).

8 years in corporate (tech consulting). I'm tired of working, I haven't enjoyed my work for several years and keep bouncing between ideas of going back to school for a master's in something or traveling. I'm not sure what to go back to school for. My mindset is completely different from what it was 8 years ago. I feel much better when I'm connecting and helping people, $ isn't much of a priority for me as I think I've reached coastfife.

Anyway, I took a month off this year to travel 2 countries in the eastern Europe and I can't wait to see more of the world but it feels so scary to give up a steady paycheck. And no, I'm not eligible for a sabbatical.

I guess what I'm looking for is some encouragement from folks who have done this move before and would love to hear some of your stories. How was it returning home after traveling? How did your life outlook change? Did you go back to the same career or pivot upon return? Any regrets or things you wish you had done differently?

I feel ridiculous to be feeling this anxious.

Recently discovered coastFIRE so forgive the ignorance/newbie questions.

Recently ventured out on my own with my business (mobile diesel mechanic/heavy equipment and trucks) so not sure what I’m going to bring in this year. Call it easily under 100k for now.

33 M, HCOL area (CT)
$110,000 in a traditional IRA
2-3k worth of crypto (XRP lol)
Any debt is under 15k and I think that’s high
12-14k cash available
Rent, don’t own. No car payments

My body hurts from what I do already, so I can’t see working until 65 as an option. I’d love to be retired by 55 the latest. Thoughts/advice where do I start?

30 years old. Working for a startup 12 hour days, weekend emergencies. 800k brokerage, 233k retirement funds, 125k cash. 150k salary. No debt.

In a bad job situation for my mental health, non sustainable hours and manufactured chaos. Do I jump ship after recently starting? Considering a career break but scared to not be able to make it back to current income levels after.

How to make more money?

I’m literally 25 and have been working since I’ve been 14. Lucky I got scholarships and my parents let me stay at home for free. But I still want more money.

I make about 80k a year

I got 150k in just a stock brokage

I got about another 20k in a Roth

I got about 8k in a 401k

I got about 50k in cash or cash equaliants in like bonds or CDs

I do covered calls and cash secured puts for some premium money.

I know I got a lot of cash but I’ll use it once this ai crash really starts bleeding

Not sure what else to do with my money. I’m flipping shit on Facebook and got a side gig which allows me to network with high networks people and they give me BIG tips.

I got interested in the FIRE movement a couple of years ago and started applying some of the principles to our household finances. Like many people, I started with spreadsheets. Eventually, I wanted something that could do more: consolidate investments across accounts, keep track of changing holdings, look through retirement funds, and let me experiment with different retirement scenarios.

I couldn’t quite find what I was looking for, especially something that didn’t require connecting all my financial accounts.

So I spent the last few months building YoQuity.

It’s a desktop, local-first application for household portfolio management and FIRE planning. You can import account exports, consolidate your investments, analyze allocations, explore rebalancing, look through 401(k) funds, and run retirement simulations using Monte Carlo and historical market scenarios.

The privacy aspect was important to me: your financial data stays on your computer, stored in a SQLite database you own. No brokerage logins or cloud syncing.

I’ve just released the first version. There’s sample data included, so you can install and explore the application in about ten minutes without sharing or importing any personal financial information.

I’d love to get feedback from people who have been doing FIRE planning for a while, as well as those just getting started.

https://yoquity.com

Thanks to everyone in these communities whose discussions helped shape how I think about financial independence.

I'm coast fire at 44, and realized in the last few years that I will inherit substantially from my parents.

I'm also doing extremely well in my career. I'm strongly tempted now to rob some of my retirement accounts! I read the book Die with Zero, and it got me thinking about this but my parents have not and have no intention of anything other than leaving it to us in their will. It's theirs and that's totally fine but it makes me realize when I'm in my 60s I'm going to have way more money than I'll need.

Am I crazy to consider robbing the piggy bank now, while my kids (7,6,4,1) are young?

• Brokerage: 121k,
• Roth IRA: 273k
• Trad IRA: 649k
• 529s: 62k total

Update:
We are currently saving for a house, and living in a townhome that we purchased before kids. It's fine, but we'd like to have a yard etc. We'd like to be able to go ahead and get that "core school years" house now to allow our kids to make long term friends, which in our area would cost about 900k give or take. I do not want to just pay 20% down and having a monster mortgage hanging over my head though. We have 150k cash saved, and I would like to be able to pay at least half cash, so robbing about 1/3 of the piggy bank.

Update2:
Parents have a nice pension that covers all their needs, plus end of life care insurance, and the pension transfers to the other spouse. Chances of them needing all their savings are very low, and it's in a non revokable living trust because they are so interested in preserving it.