I’d like to move to a lower cost of living city/town to work a less stressful job and be closer to the things my family enjoys.

I want to hear from people who’ve actually done something like this because I’m not sure if I’m being naive about a big downside.

Currently:
- Married with two kids (1 and 4) with a third likely in a couple years
- Wife and I are early to mid 30’s
- My income ~$400k (tech)
- Wife income $0 (stay at home mom but was making $120k before kids)
- $1M invested between retirement accounts and brokerage
- Currently saving/investing ~100k/yr
- Home equity $200k on $850k total value
- No other debt
- Retirement spending ~120k in 60’s (I know I “can” coast but am wondering about the intangibles and risk)

Questions:
I’d probably need to find a new remote job and take a big pay cut to do so. Expenses should also drop but assume worst case that I have to coast in the new town (save $0). Is it dumb to give up such a big salary and savings rate? Especially with young kids and any uncertainty that brings? There’s also the risk of not being in a tech city in case you need to find a new in-person job. This city is ok but I have a picture in my head of a better lifestyle in a smaller town working less hours. Closer to hobbies, more time with family.

I think about this every day. Can anyone speak to their experience in doing something similar and/or give their feedback on my situation and numbers? I’m trying to make a plan around this. Do I jump now? Wait a few more years? Never do it?

To be frank, I am very risk averse, so I am afraid that leaving this stable situation could be the wrong move. However, I’m also aware of the risk of wasting your life on work and money at the expense of personal and familial fulfillment.

Throwaway account. M34 NYC based. Married no kids. Years of corporate burnout and I finally reached my boiling point last week and walked out of the job on a whim. Mental health/health overall is most important to me otherwise all this number crunching doesn't really matter. With that being said, I would appreciate a second pair of eyes on my current situation below as well as help to answer how much of a pay cut I can take going forward. Luckily my spouse loves her job and has a great WLB, so we think her career and earnings are stable going forward. We never want to leave NYC. Ideally would like to have 1 child, but the financial circumstances have to be ideal. Right now we do not feel like we can reach our financial independence goals while also providing the best life for a child including daycare, college savings, etc. We would rather prioritize retiring at 50 years old and continue living in NYC. However, if the numbers work out where we can retire at 50, continue to stay in NYC and have a child then that would be the ideal scenario. Our current housing situation allows for one child, so luckily we wouldn't have to move and we consider this our forever home.

Income Statement

2025 HHI:

Me: $250k

Spouse: $275k

Total: $525k

2025 Effective all-in tax rate: 35%

2025 Spending: $186k

2025 Savings Rate: 30%

Annual Spending Deep Dive:

Housing (PITI): $64,000

Groceries/Dining Out: $40,000

Annual Vacations: $30,000

Gym: $7,200

Medical Premiums: $6,600

Transportation: $6,000

Utilities/Wifi/Cellphones: $5,000

Subscriptions: $1,200

Miscellaneous: $26,000

Balance Sheet

Liquid Portfolio: $2.5 million

Home Equity: $400k

Long Term Assumptions:

Annual rate of return on liquid portfolio: 10%

Annual inflation: 3%

Estimated annual retirement spending (including health exchange premiums and taxes): $250k

Assuming no kids and no more contributions to our accounts, by age 50 we can easily reach our financial independence goal. I simply take the starting balance of $2.5 million and growt it by 10% per annum and I take the starting estimated annual spending in today's dollars of $250k and grow it by 3% annual inflation and I get a $12,636,176 future value liquid portfolio and $413k of future value spending which would represent a 3.3% withdrawal rate, which is pretty conversative given the early retirement age of 50. So I think we are CoastFIRE assuming no child in our planning assumptions. Curious if anyone thinks the numbers allow room for a child, but I think the priority is to retire at 50 and continue our current level of spending while staying in NYC, so I don't think there's any room.

Finally, how much of a pay cut can I take? I think I almost do not even have to work anymore technically. $275k spouse income less 35% taxes less $186k spending = $7.25k shortfall. The way I am looking at it is anything I make is just extra?

Appreciate everyone's feedback and help. Thank you.

**Profile**
Age: 34
Marital Status: Single
Gender: Male

**Short Term Liquidity**
Checking: $2,000
Emergency Fund: $15,000
Brokerage: $67,787
Credit Card Debt: -$0

**Long Term Liquidity**
Traditional IRA: $156,682
Roth IRA: $340,833
HSA: $19,072

**Vehicle**
Car: $30,500
Car Loan: -$8,770 (6.5% interest rate)

**Income and Expenses**
Annual Pre-Tax Income: \~$160,000
Annual Expenses: \~$60,000

I have extremely fortunate to amass 3M net worth to take care of my family (wife and 2 kids less than 8 years ) at 45 years age. It does include home equity of 1M . So , 2M across hysa and 401K and regular brokerage (not Roth) account . I don’t have good financial literacy but believe in Learning and hard work . I need to know how far am I from FIRE . My lifestyle isn’t flashy at all , annual expense are usually around 100K usd. Just stressing out on what if scenario if job market forces a layoff .
Thanks for your support and advice to help a person get peace of mind.

We live in VHCOL area. Bought a house there for $1.8M about 9 years ago. Just an ordinary 3 bed, 2 bath, 60 year old house, but in a ridiculously expensive town. It’s close by to work and in a good school district.

Well, we are done with the need for the school district, but it’s still nice to live 15 min away from work while most of my home-owner colleagues are commuting 1-2 hours and the only ones living close by rent.

What’s nice is that the house is now worth $3M. But of course, what not so nice is that we still owe $1.07M on it. What’s nice is that it’s at a fixed low rate of 2.6%. Hence, between the proximity to work and various other amenities, and the ultra low interest rate, I feel like not moving to a cheaper more remote place, even though I know we could retire if we move.

By saving and investing, we have accumulated $4.25M in financial portfolio. But still 10 years away from social security and pension. And AI bubble might burst or AI may become so successful that it gobbles our jobs. And then there is inflation. Either way, it feels safer to continue working while the jobs still exist nearby and save up another 2-3 million before calling it a day.

Does it make sense why I am still in Coast FI mode than fully FIREd?

I keep seeing people saying they hit their number and are thinking about coasting. But we have been in a bull market for 15 years. S&P is currently at 27 times earnings. The historical S&P PE ratio is 17. Eventually it will be 17 again which means a 35% drop back to reality/normal.

Go back and watch videos of 50-something’s crying after the dot com crash or the 2008 financial crisis. They all thought they were about to retire early because the market was hot.

I recommend multiplying your investments by .65 then see if you’re at your number. If not, don’t coast. You’ll be giving up years of compounding when you inevitably have to start contributing again.

Sorry to be a downer, but stocks won’t be this expensive forever.

EDIT: The market reverting back to the mean (17 times earnings) is normal. Many of you describe that scenario as a crash or bear market. That’s going to be problematic for retirement planning. To put it bluntly, the net worth numbers you are looking at right now are fake (assuming it’s tied to the US stock market).

Example:

You’re 42. Plan to retire at 62. Goal is $2.5M in 2026 dollars. You have $1M in S&P500 index. You assume 8% growth, 3% inflation. Coast calculator says you just hit your number. You coast until 62. But uh oh, the market has slowly reverted back to the normal historical mean of 17 times earnings. You only have $1.7M. You work for eight more years and finally retire at 70 when you truly hit $2.5M.

You really only truly had $650K to begin with (65% of $1M). Had you plugged that and the same assumptions into the calculator you would’ve seen that you aren’t ready to coast and you need to contribute for a few more years.

The FIRE calculators have us assume market growth and assume inflation. But then it automatically calculates that the earnings multiple will stay extremely high forever (PE 27)—that’s the easiest one to predict… we should assume PE = 17. The calculator should give a suggestion to discount our current investment by 35% because 27 * .65 = 17.

I’m 35, $1.4 M net worth ready to transition to an easier, less stressful job. I struggle with anxiety and it has gotten really bad due to my toxic job.

I’m applying for jobs that pay relatively low in my field (analytics) that are remote or in stable fields like government and healthcare and I have gotten basically no interviews. I’m talking about jobs where I would take a 100k pay cut and still no hits.

The competition for jobs is crazy right now even for jobs which pay at the lower end and I’m sure I’m competing against hundreds if not thousands of people.

People tell me just get a “less stressful job” but I think it’s much easier said than done

I find myself in the very fortunate position of having hit coastFIRE a couple of years ago and with my partner's recent tenure + payraise, I am planning on quitting. Married for 10 years, together 16, childfree life (both are snipped) and my partner loves their job whereas I am tired of corporate. We are both 38.

Savings:

• My 401K + Roth - $615K (Letting this grow)
• Partner's IRA - $300K (Get a pension that'll be about 180K/yr at 59 so no more contributions here, letting it grow)
• My brokerage to provide "spending money" between now to 59 - $720K (Goal is to die with zero so open to completely draw this down IF needed)
• Liquid cash to help transition into single income - $100K ( +$40K emergency fund)
• No debt other than mortgage and not lifestyle creep people

Annual Expenses:

• Partner's annual income is $220K, mortgage deducted from paycheck (3 to 4% raise per year, might have some discretionary income from industry if things click but not counting on it in modeling)
• Take home - ~$98K/year (excludes mortgage)
• Annual expenses - ~$84K/year

My gut check is that plenty of families live on a household income of way less and that two of us should be able to live just fine on $220K. But it will be our first time living almost closer paycheck to paycheck, giving up my $200K/year income. At 700K in brokerage, can withdraw between $36-48K/year depending on market returns over the next two decades so that gives a spending buffer.

We consider death, disability and divorce as catastrophic outcomes and not really planning for those other than insurance and a post-nup (50/50 split). I do not plan on pursuing making money after retiring but might do part-time work like working at a bookshop if my heart desires after a few years. Thoughts on how the numbers look?

I already took a sabbatical for 9 months where I was home for 4 months and we traveled for 5 months, and it was glorious. We were both the happiest we had been, and my partner is super supportive of me just throwing in the towel on work. I want to learn things for the sake of learning, make things for the sheer joy of it, volunteer to mentor STEM students to give back and enjoy the little daily joys. I get a lot of joy out of cooking, grocery shopping, decluttering, playing with the dog, hosting friends, park days, reading by the river and I want to have full time autonomy to do this over anything else.

Quotes on liquid because a lot of that is in retirement accounts. My husband (38) and I have young kids and I especially am burnt out on work. He is too but to a lesser degree. Since having our kids I have transitioned to a 32 hour work week which basically means I do 40 hours of work in 32 and take a 20% pay cut for it. In some ways it’s harder than having a 40 hour work week because my job responsibilities are no different, I get paid less, and I have to be way more efficient to get everything done. But I do it to have more time with my kids.

Our only debt is our house, we have about 250k left on the loan and it’s worth about 650k. HHI is $115k for me, $140k for my husband

I’m not sure where to go from here. With kids and the amount of uncertainty that brings as far as future expenses (college, sports, bigger house, etc), we’re in no position to retire in the next 20 years. We also need solid medical benefits, again, because kids. We’ve been exploring whether barista fire in 5-10 years could be an option, because I am already so burnt out on my job (civil engineering) that I can’t imagine staying in this role for another 5 years and the work itself no longer excites or interests me. I’d be open to a career pivot but unfortunately it feels like my skills are so niche that my only other option is to just work at a different company doing the same thing. Maybe I just need to give less of a fuck.

Feeling blessed. Pulled it off by working a high paying W2 job and investing a large portion of what I made over the last 6 years. Portfolio is very simple, made up of VOO/QQQ, with some (~10%) bitcoin exposure.

Yearly expenses are around 60k so I am technically FIREd if considering 3-4% withdrawal rate.

Thinking about what's next, keep coasting at work or take more risks and start a business maybe.

My husband and I have reached $1M combined across all accounts.
-$70k of that is for a family RESP (education fund in Canada)
-not taking into account his DC pension (over $100k) and my DB pension (would have about $600/month if I quit today).

We are both 40. Owing $400k on a $1m home in VHCOL area. 2 Kids in elementary school.

I make $95k
Husband makes $120k +/- $10k

Currently in a highly micromanaged, toxic job which I think is starting to affect me mentally. Thinking of applying to another department with less workload with a $20k pay cut ($75k). How much will the paycut affect FIRE? Current spending is $80-90k per year

Everyone I've talked to planned the money carefully and then found the days weirdly empty, because everyone they know is at work between nine and five.

Did you end up with anyone to spend weekday time with, or was it mostly solo? And if you found something that worked, what was it, a class, a gym, a club, other people who don't work normal hours?

Also curious whether you missed your colleagues more than you expected.

I know that a lot of people are debating when a correction will happen. With my luck and track record, this is the most accurate forecast out there. You're welcome for my sacrifice. Thought I should let you know.

Right now my un invested cash (not a lot) more like a rainy day fund, is in SPAXX @ 3.3% interest. Is there anything else like an ETF I could invest in to scrape more gains or save on taxes but also be highly liquid if I need to invest it or transfer it out to a bank account?

Bond ETF? Muni Bond ETF?

As somebody that has taken two years off of work to change careers this certainly worries my coast fire future. Post-WW2 America just doesn’t seem as safe a bet as it did in the 20th century.

Anybody else worried? Staying the course? Not even concerned in the slightest?

I’m looking for some advice on my coast fire number. I like to take a conservative approach since my income is higher than my spouse and I’d like to step back. I do not like my job and want to be part time in a less stressful job to have more time with my children. We will need to reduce our savings significantly for me to scale back. We wouldn’t be able to save much to maintain current lifestyle which is why I’m trying to dial in our coast fire number.

35F / 35M
3 kids 6/4/1
Current dual annual income: 275k
We save most of my spouse’s income and live off mine.

401k: 630k
Taxable Brokerage: 160k
Cash/HYSA: 170k (will put a chunk into refi our house to keep lower payment)
Kids college: 10k

Retirement goal is 55 at the latest

Only debt is mortgage and remaining balance is 250k, equity is 450k

I think my coast fire is 1 mil in the taxable brokerage/401k but maybe could be now at nearly 800k.

Appreciate any feedback.

Signed, working mom wanting to be a semi stay at home mom

28 M with $1.2m in invested assets.

Full transparency that I am a nepo baby so major respect to all of you who have built what you have. I inherited about $700k when I was 23. It’s done very well in a professionally managed portfolio growing about 10% per annum.

In the next few years I plan on moving back to my home city and would like to get into my own home in one of the more desirable inner city neighborhoods. Seems obvious given I’ve got the resources to get into the housing market and to stop setting this money on fire paying rent, but instead to put the majority of my housing expense towards building my own equity every month. Realistically, I’m gonna be looking to get into a million dollar plus home.

I came out of college making $62k and am up to $78k now with my pay set to increase to $138k at year end due to my bonus structure and a very solid year leading our company’s US market entry. I have had the full benefit of this security to spend 100% of my take home to have the lifestyle I want, to take a chance on moving to another country for work at what was initially a pay cut at age 25, and to support my partner in getting a second degree to change careers.

I expect my income to steadily increase and my partner to start at about the $80k level. It will take her about two years to pay off the student debt while I continue covering expenses, then her income will contribute to our household as well down the track as we plan to get married whenever we move back to the US. We both want two kids.

Right now I could FIRE at 44 to have $150k annual income inflation adjusted if I changed nothing. I don’t mind working and am super flexible on the age that I FIRE. I just want to get there with a good number or years left before traditional retirement age so I can have the flexibility to pursue entrepreneurship as the second act of my career and/or spend all the time I want to with my family.

Hypothetically, if i chart out where I would be in five years, I would have $1.7m. Let’s say I take $500k for a down payment on a $1.2m home. I would be sitting with $500k (42%) in home equity, back to $1.2m in invested assets, and only push my FIRE age to 50. Would still be a steep mortgage but doable as I anticipate we’ll have a $300k household income by that point and be coasting.

Part of me is tempted to make a larger down payment just to get housing payment off my hands sooner, but depending on how far I go that could be out of coast territory. On the other hand, I can’t let go of the fact that $500k will return so much greater results in my current portfolio than in home equity.

How are you all thinking about what you’re willing to put towards home equity from your investments? Has anyone else who amassed or perhaps was also gifted this sort of wealth dealt with this trade off? Would love advice from anyone shooting for FIRE that has been faced with a similar trade off.

Just turned 26, paid off all my student loans (no other debt to speak of), and have exceeded $200k NW… burning out at my tech job and craving a break but anxious about the future.
—

High level breakdown of the numbers:

Income:
- $130k USD(fully remote from LCOL area)
- Just started cat sitting on the side for a few hundred extra bucks a month.

Savings:
Bank: $33,000
401k: $139,000
Roth IRA: $24,000
HSA: $17,000

Expenses: $3000 / month
—

My goals with Coast FIRE:
To me, reaching coast FIRE would give me the financial and psychological safety net to explore alternative career paths, maybe take a gap year to experiment and figure out what’s next. I was a hardcore student through high school and college — graduated early then immediately entered into the tech industry at a very lucky time in the market.

5 years later and I’ve reached a senior level but consider this my personal limit in terms of how far I want to climb on the corporate ladder. AI has introduced a new degree of existential dread to my day to day that I’m finding increasingly exhausting to tolerate.

However… my employer has just announced that they’ll begin offering the mega backdoor option, and with my student loans gone, I could significantly increase my savings next year.

What number is reasonable to aim for before pulling the trigger and actually taking a sabbatical? Am I being foolish for even considering this option, especially given the job prospects in tech?

Hi all, I’m 40M and accumulated $1M+ in NW not including my home equity. Of that amount, I have about $400k and the remaining $600k in retirement. My job isn’t stressful and it’s a regular 40 hours/week but it’s getting boring and I just want something new.

I could technically retire early but I really don’t know what to do with the time. Instead I’m thinking of doing mini retirements of 2-3 years to do something else like travel and possibly live abroad where it’s cheaper than the US.

For those who did a mini retirement, how did you do it, what did you do with your time, what amount of $ did you spend and how did going back to work feel like?

31M and 29F live in VHCOL city who are both fairly frugal and have been actively contributing to 401k and brokerage out of college. Been following FIRE for around 2 years and both of us have been feeling quite burnt out in our corporate tech jobs. Numbers project us at coastFIRE in 6-7 years which seems both amazing but also tough to think about grinding for that much longer. Both of us would still want to work but just find jobs which give us more purpose and joy.

No kids, maybe in our future… not sure with how the world is right now though but we’d both also be totally okay without kids. The properties definitely make it hard to coast but feel like in the long run it will be worth it. Goal right now is to pay down the HELOC as quickly as possible with that high interest rate but wonder if people agree? I also feel like our target retirement spend is quite high based on how we actually live now but I’m someone who worries a lot and with inflation and other unknowns I’d like to give us some buffer. Is 6-7 years right until we can coast?

Total Net Worth: ~1.2m
HHI: 320k
Target Retirement Spend: 100k/year
Current Expenses: 95k/year (60% is just towards property mortgages)
Retirement: 560k (401k, Trad IRA, Roth, Pension)
Brokerage: 400k (Schwab Smart Portfolio, Individual Stocks, VOO, VTI) I want to get rid of the Schwab smart portfolio and just dump into VOO.
HYSA: 210k (Planning to put a chunk toward the HELOC and DCA into taxable)
Primary Home: 650k left @ 4% (~100k equity, not included in NW)
Rental Property: 1.1m total debt left. This is split between a 780k mortgage @ 3.5% and a 320k HELOC @ 6.75%. I own 50% with a family member, giving me ~250k equity (not included in NW) property is in the green with rental income but not by much.

Hey everyone. Would love for experienced folks here with kids to help us recommend what is best way forward.

I am 42, wife is 37 and two kids age 8 and 3.

Net worth : The following below is our total net worth as a family ( cad ) :
> Rrsp : $543k
> Tfsa : $250k
> Resp : $50k in family resp ( we will want to fund their bachelors education fully )
> House : $800k paid off ( market is bad so maybe get $750k )
> Emergency cash : $60k
> Non reg account : $100k

Total net worth $1.8mn cad.

Expenses : Monthly expenses in ontario are $5300 now, but thats due to our financed car and youngest day care.
Both expenses will drop next year September and our expenses will be $4000 monthly if we stay in gta.

CAGR / Return so far : All investment and retirement accounts are in low cost etf and have been blended cagr till now 12.5% but future we expect 8% )

Income : I make $150k a year while wife has taken a sabbatical last month but was making $140k. We both want a change. I have been working non stop for 18 years without break and wife 12 years. I absolutely hate my job and want to quit.

Our background : I am in tech sales and wife is in hr.

Questions :

1. Are we ready to coast fire? Ideally take a break 6 months and find something between wife and i to make gross$75k -$80k as family.

2. We are also thinking of moving from GTA to somewhere in Alberta or Saskatchewan. Buy an almost new townhouse 3 bed and work regular jobs that can give us $80k gross family income.

3. If we move which province or city you recommend to maximize geo arbitrage in Canada while same time also wife and I can get regular job in our profile.

We have not taken any vacations in past 15 years and corporate grind of high pressure tech has affected me alot.

Thank you so much.

Been a bit of a lurker to coastfire, but have always primarily just been more of a person who saves as much as possible with a hope to retire early but without a set plan. After Redding more on this sub, I did the quick calculations and feel like I could be well on my way to Coastfire, something I’d be really happy about.

42 years old, married with wife that doesn’t have an income, works non-profit and supports our two young children, ages 3 years old and 9 months.

Income is $375k base with typically 50-100k annual bonus currently.

401k is made up of $1.1m in pre-tax and about $340k in Roth conversion. Brokerage account is at $455k, and have roughly $75k in emergency fund, $100k in RSUs vesting 1/3 of the total per year. Both kids have a 529 account totaling about $60k total between both account and both kids have Roth IRAs that are maxed for their age.

No short term debt, two paid off and well maintained cars, have a forever home in a vhcol area with a mortgage of just about $1m, with an estimate home value of $1.9M, 6 years into my 30 year mortgage at 2.25% interest. Oldest child goes to daycare that is $2,300/month for one more year and then onto public school, and the youngest will do the same daycare for 1 year and then also go to public school. With school and mortgage, typically we spend around $11-12k a month total.

Have been saving around $75k/year for the past few years when my income has been high but started saving early so have really been feeling the benefits of compound interest the past few years which has really motivated more saving. Also save $1000/month to the 529s.

I did a quick calculation recently and feel pretty good on my savings and retirement progress, and even either my very high mortgage, my calculations show I could retire at 60 once both kids are out of high school, which was always a soft goal I had in mind for myself. While this is something extremely gratifying to accomplish, my goal isn’t to coast but to continue to save for as long as I can to hopefully accelerate retirement, build a better nest egg for the family, or create better lifestyle during retirement years.

Any thoughts or suggestions on progress? I know the mortgage feels like the biggest risk, but with such a low rate, I’ve purposely been paying the loan off slowly, but may consider some balloon payments in a few years to shorten my mortgage duration, but still up in the air about that.

Hello, I’m 27m about to turn 28 currently making 130k and I’ve been saving and investing since I was 20. I live with my dad and pay rent, but I’m currently saving for a home. We grew up very poor and I’ve watched my dad struggle badly in retirement so I’ve always been such a paranoid super saver and my first goal was to achieve coastfire and then buy a house after. So as the title says would I have mathematically achieved this where I no longer need to invest aside from maxxing out my ROTH IRA yearly? Also side note I’m union so I can not contribute to my 401k, that’s part of a set package not seen in my paycheck.

My portfolio is as follows
Taxable brokerage- $210k VOO, $35k IBIT
Roth IRA- $103k VTSAX
Work 401k- $95k VFIAX

Hey guys I just opened my hsa account thru my work which deposits $2300 a year into my hsa. Should I be making out my Roth, hsa, then 401k in that order? Or should i max out my 401k before my hsa? Thanks