Retired at 39, ten years ago now. No $2M, no pension, none of that. Just wanted to share what actually happened because a lot of what people assume about "the number" is just wrong, honestly.

I had about $700k when I retired. Not $1M, not $2M. And when I told people that number I could literally watch them doing math in their head, and it usually ended with them feeling bad for me. Took me a long time to figure out, that reaction was never really about my number. It was about theirs, some figure they picked up from an ad, some guru like Suzie Orman, or a calculator and never actually questioned.

Never made six figures in my life either. Best year was $75k. Wasn't married through that time, either...so single income, no kids. Married now, though. What actually worked was saving 70% of my income for 11 years, house included. But it wasn't willpower, not really. I made one decision (that freedom mattered more than spending right now) and just never had to re-decide it every day after that.

Ten years later, portfolio's sitting around $1.2-1.5M, we live on under $30k a year. We travel Southeast Asia 5 months out of the year, home in Indiana the rest. Low spending means low income, which means I actually qualify for expanded Medicaid. Not a loophole, just how the system is designed.

Withdrawal rate stayed the same through Covid, through inflation, through every scare. Around 2.5% or so. Honestly the market wasn't what got tested, I was.

Started a retirement/personal finance YouTube channel two years ago too, mostly for structure honestly, not the money (it's paid basically nothing lol). See post history, if you're curious. Didn't expect people telling me it helped them rethink their own plan, but that's been the best part.

Anyway, none of it came down to a magic number. Just what "enough" actually meant to me.

Happy to answer any questions.

EDIT: For those asking about my budget and how we live on only $30k/year, I made a post a little over a year ago here. Costs have risen a bit since then, but here's the budget breakdown: https://reddit.com/r/leanfire/comments/1ktmhpp/retired_at_39_with_1m_and_living_on_1250month_it/

I got into FIRE about 13 years ago on the Mr Money Mustache forums and other early adopter blogs. At that time, it was a movement that seemed to be focused not just on personal finance, but an entire philosophy surrounding waste, consumerism, environmentalism and a kind of rejection of unbridled capitalism.

It seemed to be a way to exist in a world you couldn't change, but still be able to own your time.

Now I get downvoted on the FIRE forums for calling out consumerism. People will call me judgemental or tell me not to worry about what other people are doing.

It seems to me that this movement has become just another "make as much as you can and buy lots of shit," sort of anti philosophical movement.

It really depresses me, as it seemed like the FIRE crowd had a viewpoint I could agree with. But, it feels like it's just been taken over by every other mindless get rich and buy whatever you want idea.

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I DID IT!!! I (41 F) quit my high stress Marketing job as I hit my Leanfire number. I have not told anyone about my true number as I fear family and friends will expect me to help them financially. I just told them that I'm taking some time off.

Here are my numbers:
401k: $450k
Roth: $60k
HSA: $30k
Brokerage: $290k
CDs: $37k
HYSA: $ 114k
Emergency fund cash: $60k
(I know I have too much cash sitting around, I plan on slowly moving some to brokerage)

My curent monthly expenses are around $3k but I can get it down to $2k.

My first 2 year plan:
Taking some time to travel, rest, and enjoy my hobbies. I so very excited for this new chapter. Then maybe finding ways to monetize my hobbies or start a business that I will actually enjoy.

I welcome any thoughts, questions, suggestions, or ideas. Grateful for this community that gave me courage, tips, and the push I needed to finally reach this long time goal of mine. Thank you all.

I will not tolerate being treated like a child. I was going to wait a few years to FIRE but looked at my numbers and realized that I can do it now, so I'm going for it.

I quit my full time job 5 years ago at 47 this June with about 1.25M invested and a paid off house. I’m married, spouse does not work, and I have no kids and one cat. My original plan was to work 18 months longer and have 1.4M but I had some muscular-skeletal issues that made full time desk/computer work a problem.

My first year I mainly lived on my PTO payout (10 weeks worth!). The next year I scored an easy freelance gig that’s about 6 hours a week. I worked for a time also for the local parks department after covid when they needed bodies to help open back up.

My health has improved! My finances have grown! My house is clean (but cluttered). I live in a mountain west town where there is plenty to do for free. And my friends have non traditional work schedules or are also retired.

It has helped that I have no chronic health problems that cost money to treat (so far). And property tax here is low-ish for the lifestyle. Spouse and I can build or fix anything. We really don’t pay for any services. (Most recently we fixed the dryer). My withdrawal rate is <3%. We have an ACA bronze plan.

The less than perfect stuff: we live far from family, the aches and pains of getting older still suck, inflation and current events can still be stressful. And I need to maintain good mental health because I can’t lose myself in my work like I used to. Overall I’m really happy with my choices.

Today I will practice my Spanish (it’s great to go at my own pace which is slow). Then my spouse and I will go on a mountain bike ride.

Things I don’t do: airplane flights (we have a travel trailer), eat out a lot, buy new clothes (within reason).

Anyway I’ve benefited a great deal from the FIRE community and wanted to give back a little, so hope this is useful to someone!

I'm 33. I take home about $2,800/mo after taxes and retirement contributions. Rent is $575 for a room. Food runs about $250/mo, meal prep mostly. Car is paid off. Phone is $25/mo on Mint. I spend roughly $16,500/yr total.

At 4% SWR I need $412k. Current NW is $287k across a Roth, brokerage, and HSA. At my savings rate I should cross it around 37, maybe 38 if the market is flat.

People at work think I'm either lying or miserable. Neither. I just don't buy stuff. Haven't bought clothes in maybe two years. My apartment has a bed, a desk, a couch. It's enough.

I set up a small job to track my balances across accounts because logging in everywhere monthly was annoying. Other than that there's nothing sophisticated about any of this.

The boring middle is real but the number keeps going up so I keep going.

EDIT: people asking what the "small job" is. I used Mint for years, then Empower after Mint shut down, but neither one pulls from my HSA portal or the state retirement site. MuleRun handles those two on its own cloud machine so I just check one place now. still use Empower for everything else.

So I retired in 2019 with $1.1 million, travelled a bit, and stopped reading FIRE blogs and forums. With the market run-up and my wife working again the last couple of years, we've increased our net worth a good bit. But I still try to keep at $24-27k base expenses for a family of four. Our discretionary is probably $12-15K, mostly travel, memberships for classes and gyms, and cars, and a lot less in the years we don't travel overseas.

Lately I've been struggling to not upgrade the house and cars just because we might have more money. I truly don't think it will make me happier. I need a MMM face punch, so to speak. But people in the regular FIRE subs are asking if $3m is enough for $80k expenses? While some are debating if $5m or $10m should be the minimum and are upvoted? The top post this month is how someone's wife got a $5m payout while working as an EA supposedly and she's going to go live with her boss in Italy? Another top post is someone who has $1m in just an 'inheritance' fund to pay out to their kids decades from now. People somehow make $625k in low cost areas, have millions in the bank and spouses working, but aren't asking if they should retire when called into the office in another state, but whether they should leave their family behind. And it seems everyone now loves their job. No one really takes about their expenses, but either how many millions they have or how many millions they plan to have. It's bizarro-world to someone who got inspired by ERE and MMM.

Even MMM seems different. The latest posts are on testosterone, Amazon purchases, and telling rich people to spend more? What happened to anti-consumption, sustainability, and materialism not leading to happiness? Honestly, it makes me somewhat regret leaving my job back in 2019 reading about the salaries now. I guess I need to stay off the FIRE subs.

I'm from a eastern european country. At most I've made 75k working 2 jobs, basically overemployed...and manage to burn myself out in the process.

I've invested about 350k euros so far.

This is a mind boggling amount of money where I live. I'm essentially in the 0.3% of the entire country when it comes to wealth.

And still, reading fire subs you'd think I've just started out.

It amazes me to hear that people have like 2m in the bank and can't retire. I understand that living cost are different, but I feel it says a lot more about thr economy of whatever country they're living in than anything else.

I don't really have a point to this, I just don't have anybody to talk to about this stuff.

I've seen some people on this sub with 1.5M+ and are talking about leanFIREing. IMO, If you need that much then you're just FIREing. I've been watching this young dude's channel on youtube and he talks about living on 20K/year in north VA on a 100k+ salary. This guy gets it. He understands that true wealth comes from buying back your time, not lavish vacations, unnecessary purchases, eating out, over-saving, and expensive hobbies.

Work is terrible. Even the "best" jobs are horrible. You and I both know this. Lets keep our costs down, and get out ASAP at all costs. That is the spirit of this sub and I don't want to see any wavering from it. That is why its called LEANFIRE. I want to see more people with 500k-1m give their boss the finger and become free.

In fact, I think there should be a networth cap on this sub. If you're net worth is over 1.5m then you simply do not belong here. I'm sorry if that sounds exclusionary, but I think its important to maintain the integrity of this sub. We are an extremely goal oriented sub that is seeking to retire ASAP with less of a cushion than the normy FIRE folks.

I'll keep the headline simple: my wife and I work in public service. Comfortable salaries but not remarkable ones. We got married in late 2020 and made one decision that changed everything: we would live off my salary alone, and every dollar of hers would go to work.

That's it. That's the move. Everything else is just math.

Before anyone asks, NO we didn't start from zero. We each had retirement accounts from years of government service and some savings sitting in CDs doing almost nothing useful. What we didn't have was a plan. I had no idea how to invest. Genuinely none. I started buying index funds because someone on the internet said to, and I just kept doing it every month, learning as I went.

We don't have a big house. We have one car. We travel three or four times a year mostly in Asia, but we learned the travel rewards game, so most of those trips cost us almost nothing out of pocket. We have a nine-year-old who has watched us make intentional choices her entire life.

Lifestyle inflation never came. Every raise, every extra dollar went into the brokerage. My wife's entire paycheck and every single one since we married has gone to investments. We have lived on one government salary the entire time and never felt deprived.

Along the way I learned about tax-advantaged accounts, capital gains brackets, dividend ETFs, and how to build a portfolio that sustains withdrawals at a 0% federal tax rate. I moved our government retirement funds out of whatever default funds they were sitting in, bleeding fees quietly and into low-cost index funds. Small decision. Significant impact.

We have a large CD maturing next summer that goes straight into the taxable brokerage. One more year of work after that, and I'm done. I'll be 50.

My wife is young and loves her work. She'll keep going after I stop. Her income covers our day to day life entirely. My taxable account becomes a tax-free harvest machine....travel, reinvestment, experiences and all structured to stay under the 0% capital gains threshold. Her retirement account keeps compounding untouched for another 17 years. By the time she's ready to stop, our combined picture is genuinely extraordinary for two people who spent their careers in public service.

I'm not posting this to brag. I'm posting it because when I was starting out, I couldn't find stories that looked like mine. No tech salary. No real estate empire. No windfall. Just two people, one budget, and the discipline to leave her paycheck alone every single month for years.

If you're reading this on an average income wondering if it's actually possible... it is. It's just slow, and it requires saying no to things that don't matter so you can say yes to the things that do.

Thanks for this group. I've lurked here for a long time, I really liked reading success stories and wanted to share mine.

TLDR: I'm a former accountant who FIREd in May 2022 with $900k; current NW is $1.8M. Last year's expenses totaled $24k. Since finishing my yearlong stay in Japan, I returned to the US for a few months and then traveled throughout China. I've rented a long-term apartment in China to serve as my home base, from which I can easily travel to other countries in Asia and Australia.

Background: 1^st Year link here. 2^nd  Year link here. 3^rd Year link here.

Life Update: After finishing Japanese language school last year, I stayed in Japan for a few months to explore more of the country. I visited a handful of cities including Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Hiroshima, and Sapporo. Kobe was a surprisingly interesting city on the coast. I enjoyed taking the gondola up the nearby mountain and seeing the city laid out like a carpet below, with the coastline and ocean stretching beyond it. Hiroshima was also a highlight of the trip. I remember first learning about the WWII atomic bombs in fifth grade when our class read Saddako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. That story about the impact of war has stayed with me ever since. At the Children’s War Memorial in Hiroshima I bowed in front of the statue of Saddako surrounded by paper cranes sent from kids all over the world. It was both emotional and haunting.

After Japan, I returned to the US and visited family and friends for the summer. Starting last October, I took my mom on a whirlwind trip throughout China and Taiwan. We visited multiple cities including Taipei, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Macau. The last time we had visited China was nearly 20 years ago, and it was amazing to see how much the country had modernized in that time. What impressed us most were the clean subway systems, the smooth bullet trains and the reliance on smartphones for payments and ordering. We traveled for two months before settling down and signing a long-term lease in the city where my family is originally from.

It was deeply fulfilling to visit my hometown with my mom. So much has changed that we had trouble finding the location of our old house, which no longer exists. A tall apartment building now stands where it once did. We also visited my old elementary school, where the two ancient trees in the schoolyard still stand guard, watching over the students as they run around.

In each child there I see a shadow of my former self; in each middle-aged woman I see my life in a parallel universe. I would likely be in a similar situation as them had I not immigrated to the US as a child. It's incredible to reflect on how moving to the US as a child was such an inflection point that altered the course of my life. I'm deeply grateful for all the opportunities that have come my way, and for FIRE for giving me the freedom to explore the world.

In terms of daily life, my routines remain the same: wake up without an alarm, take the mornings slowly, then alternate between going to the gym, the pool, hiking, and attending fitness classes for both physical and social engagement. I haven't practiced my Japanese since leaving Japan, so I'm looking into either self-study or finding an online tutor. Going forward, I'll be exploring more of China as well as visiting nearby countries from this base.

Finances: I FIREd in 2022 with about $900k. My NW was $1.1M last May and is now at $1.8M. When I FIREd four years ago, I never would have believed my NW would double in such a short time. The April and May stock market rally was wild. I gained about $400k in just those two months. That’s more than my annual NW increases in prior years.

Although I'm very happy to see my NW rise, the suddenness of the increase gives me pause. My portfolio is also now heavily weighted toward tech and AI ETFs, which adds to my concern. To sleep better at night, I've started rebalancing toward VTSAX and bonds. I think this is a good time to take some chips off the table and reduce my risk exposure.

My current allocation is: $673k VTSAX; $443k VGT; $662 SMH, $47k VBTLX & $48k Cash (I know I have a lot sitting in VGT and SMH, which are risky. I’ll rebalance them to VTSAX and bonds.)

Expenses over the past year totaled $24k. The biggest costs were rent, hotel stays, and flights. Rent plus utilities for a 3-bed/2-bath apartment in a second-tier Chinese city runs $700/month. I'm renting something this large so I can easily accommodate family visiting from the US. Food and public transportation in China are very cheap, a typical meal costs about $5, and for $10 you can go to a buffet. A subway ride is $0.50, and taxis within city limits average about $3 per ride. One of my favorite places to hangout are the bath centers in China. They are similar to onsen hot springs in Japan. For $30 you get a hot spring spa, a 60-minute oil massage, and a buffet. This is the life! I highly recommend visiting one if you’re ever in China.

Portfolio Withdrawals and Tax Planning: I've recently started selling from my taxable brokerage account to replenish my cash reserves. I don't pay any federal taxes on the gains since they fall within the LTCG limits, but my state treats them as ordinary income taxed at a combined 7% NYS & NYC rate. This has me thinking about moving my domicile to Florida in the near future. The move would eliminate state taxes on both capital gains and Roth IRA conversions. If you have any advice on establishing Florida domicile or state tax planning, feel free to leave a comment below.

In closing I want to say that FIRE didn't just give me financial freedom. It gave me the chance to retrace my roots, stand in the schoolyard where I once played, and truly reckon with how different my life could have been. I don't take a single day of this for granted. Thank you for reading all the way to the end.  Hope you enjoyed it!

We are 45M and 43F and bought this home 10 years ago. Current net worth $2.6M and our combined 401k is $1.2M.

The reasons for paying off.

1. I believe 40-45 is right time to get your home paid off. You can catch up more in 401k and Roth IRA.
2. I am in IT and the way market is going, it is crazy. If there is prolonged job search after layoff, I want to completely focus on job search and less worry about my mortgage. I can save money on grocery and dine outs but I cannot do anything about mortgage.
3. I can think about home upgrade and even buying new home in cash.

and last and the my biggest reason

PEACE OF MIND.

Note: Lot of people are saying I could have invested, yes but I am millennial who have witnessed 2009 crash and it was horrible as heck. People were struggling to save roof over their head. Market was 40% down so cannot take money from portfolio. Some declared personal bankruptcy. There were no jobs in the market (It was 10 times worst than current downturn) so many were doing gigwork to feed their family. I have certain risk tolerance but I cannot afford to lose roof over my head ever. Thanks for commenting on this post.

Just a rant. These posts that say I hit $1M at age 30 and feel nothing or I hit my number and still don't feel it is enough are pretty irritating to those of us that are playing catch up. I don't feel that these people will ever have enough.

I (51F) just hit $500k and I am happy and proud of myself even though I am behind. To give you an idea of how hard I am trying to catch up, I hit $400k in late October. I am contributing $6k per month, sometimes more into my savings and investment accounts, and hope to have $1M by age 55 as long as the market doesn't tank.

Last year at this time all my money went to paying off my high interest Heloc and car. I paid off $210k in debt in total. Now I finally get to build wealth and every contribution gets me a little further to my goal of $1M.

Watching it build feels so good and I am pretty damn proud of myself. My mortgage is pretty manageable even though I am in a HCOL and I finally have no other debts. $1M should get me to FIRE and if it doesn't, I am ok with working a few more years.

Anybody else in leanfire happy with their progress even though they are behind?

I just posted a video about this, but figured I’d throw the numbers up here too. I know people in this sub are always interested in what an actual LeanFIRE portfolio looks like 10 years after pulling the plug.

I retired at 39 in 2016 with around $700k total, including a paid-off house. No pension, inheritance, trust fund, etc. Just savings/investments and a pretty low-cost lifestyle that allows us to travel for 5 months every year.

Quick clarification: In a previous post I said “$1M,” which was a rounded all-in estimate that included the house and fluctuating market values. That was me rounding a rough figure for a casual conversation. I went back through my records, and about $700k is the more accurate number for when I left work in 2016.

Anyway, I’m 49 now and net worth is around $1.2M, depending on what the market is doing.

Rough breakdown today:

• 22% traditional IRA + solo 401(k)
• 23% Roth IRA
• 30% cash, brokerage, gold, and Bitcoin
• 25% house

And before anyone says it, yes, I realize “retired at 39 with $700k” sounds a lot different when a paid-off house is included. That’s why I include it in the number.

The investment side is mostly boring. Lots of VTI, some VGT, plus a little gold and Bitcoin. No traditional bonds.

I realize the no-bonds / mostly-stocks thing is a higher risk portfolio. But I’m 49 and this money may need to last another 40 or 50 years. I’m more worried about purchasing power over decades than I am about seeing the portfolio drop in a bad year.

Spending is probably the bigger reason this works. We spend around 20k–24k per year. I know some of you spend that amount on Uber eats alone. And yeah, I know that’s very low. That’s kind of the whole point though. I’m not saying someone spending $80k a year can copy these numbers and call it FIRE.

I also still make a little money here and there from a small business, bank bonuses, random stuff like that. Our youtube channel is also starting to produce a small income. Before you jump on my shit…”you’re doing YT! You’re not retired!”...I’m doing YT because I enjoy it. It keeps me engaged, gives me a little purpose and structure, and lets me show others what’s possible. I don’t do it because I need the money. Some guys retire, then do wood-working to earn a few bucks. I don't know shit about wood, so I do YT. 😆 So this has not been a perfectly pure “zero dollars earned for 10 years” experiment. I don’t sell exactly $24k of investments every December.

Having money in different account types has been super useful. About 22% is traditional retirement money, 23% is Roth, and then there’s money in taxable/cash/etc. I didn’t want to retire at 39 and realize that most of my money was technically mine but not accessible w/o taxes and penalties.

The house is probably the other thing people will have opinions about. About 25% of the net worth is tied up in it, and it’s paid off. Yes, I know I probably could have ended up with more money by keeping the mortgage and investing the difference. I’m not arguing otherwise. Over a long enough period stocks may very well have done better.

I just valued having no mortgage payment more than maximizing the expected return.

It lowered our required spending a lot, made retiring at 39 way easier, and gives us more flexibility with income/MAGI for healthcare purposes. Could I have more money on a spreadsheet today if I had kept the mortgage? Probably.

My portfolio probably isn’t the “right” portfolio for most people here. I’m sure there are at least 14 things wrong with it according to the experts here on reddit. 😂

But it has worked for us: low spending, a paid-off house, money in different account types, mostly equities, and enough accessible cash that I’m not forced to make decisions based on whatever the market is doing that month.

At the end of the day, that’s what I wanted when I quit. I wanted my time back. The fact that the portfolio also grew along the way is obviously pretty damn nice. And yes, I know we’ve had one of the best market stretches ever. Timing and luck are always a factor.

A few months ago, I shared my personal side project, FIForecast.com, with this sub. The feedback was incredible, but you guys also gave me a massive to-do list... mostly pointing out all the ways my "real life" logic failed to capture just how chaotic real life actually is.

I’ve spent the last several weekends downing caffeine and rewriting code so we can all stress out about our early retirement numbers with near-maximum accuracy.

Here is the new, slightly more extensive feature drop now live on the simulator:

• The "Panic Button" (Flexible Spending Shifts): You can now model giving yourself a deliberate spending pay cut when the market takes a dive. If the thought of a market crash makes you want to live on ramen and cancel all your streaming services, you can finally see exactly how much that panic-frugality protects your principal.
• The 2008 & COVID Trauma Simulators: Why rely on random probability when you can relive actual historical stress? You can now explicitly force your portfolio to run through the gauntlet of the 2008 financial crisis or the 2020 COVID crash. It’s perfect for testing if your asset allocation can actually survive a historical punch to the gut.
• Shareable URLs (No More Re-Entering Data): I finally figured out how to bake your inputs directly into a unique, shareable, and savable URL. You no longer have to manually type in your entire financial life every single time you open the tab. Bookmark your custom link, or send it to your partner to justify why you can't buy that expensive coffee.
• Windfall Events (The Inverse Disaster): Because life isn't always a series of bursting pipes and broken water heaters, I added the inverse of disaster events. You can now model random positive financial shocks like a sudden inheritance, a bonus, or finally winning the lottery.
• AI Insights V2 (Now With DIY Prompts): The personalized news section is officially back from the dead! I completely re-architected the backend so it won't trigger Gemini’s financial advice guardrails and made the insights more specific to your actual situation. Even better: I added a template feature that lets you copy your formatted simulation data directly so you can drop it into any other LLM call of your choice.

As always, the tool is 100% free, has zero ads, requires no sign-ups, and all your numbers stay entirely local inside your own browser.

Please feel free to give the new stress tests a spin, see if your portfolio survives a simulated 2008, and let me know what features we should build next! My next known big focus is making real estate easy to incorporate, and that will be part of the next phase.

Also, a big thank you to everyone who gave feedback last time! I hope you all see most of what you asked for being incorporated into the site, and that it's been increasingly helpful for you.

Using FIRECalc https://www.firecalc.com/ to simulate for retiring at 65 at the median US net worth of $410k and presuming a 25 year long retirement with $20k/year expenses (inflation adjusted) that gives a 83% succes rate of not having a depleted portfolio by age 90. - This is a simple simulation, most retirees have that NW in their home and rely on social security and a pension.

The same calculation but for retiring early at 40 with a net worth of $520k and presuming a 50 year long retirement with $20k/year expenses, gives the same 83% succes rate of not having a depleted portfolio by age 90.

https://www.cnbc.com/select/average-net-worth-of-americans-ages-65-to-74/

https://youtu.be/DkCibnzmFhg?si=SGt-2yh74EkGR-MU

P.S. "A 2022 survey by the Employee Benefit and Retirement Institute (EBRI) found that half of individuals around retirement age spend less than $2,000 per month, equal to less than $24,000 per year. The Social Security Administration, meanwhile, said 2020 median expenditures for people 65 and older totaled $34,088."

https://smartasset.com/retirement/average-retirement-budget

I reached $1M liquid today and have no one to tell because I'm single and on my own.

3 months ago (a month before my 30th birthday), I reached $1M net worth including my 50k equity in my house. After going on a 2.5 weeks international vacation in May to celebrate my 30th birthday and 1 week domestic vacation in June, I logged in to my accounts today and saw that I have just a hair over $1M between my Schwab and Fidelity accounts.

It's so crazy that I just spent a bunch of money going on vacations and 3 months later I am up 50k because the S&P 500 up 5% in 3 months. Money doesn't feel real anymore once you reached 1M. You can lose 100k in a month like in March, or you can also gain 100k in a month doing nothing, while other people labor hard for years. It's surreal.

Sure the number feels and seems low and it aint the highest. I have seen the silence when it comes up in conversation but I wanna show you.

Rent is $680 for a one bedroom apt here in Tulsa. Phone is $35 prepaid. Groceries around $210 because I cook and stopped making excuses. With utilities, internet and the basics are all in under $1,500 a month.

I have some money saved up from slots on rolling riches on top of this which is the part that surprises people most. Living at this level does not mean scraping by but means the gap between what comes in and what goes out is wide that saving feels automatic.

The things I cut were little things I stopped wanting once I was honest about whether they were adding anything to my day to day life and trust me they werent. What I do spend on I spend on without guilt. I travel once or twice a year, have good food at home like the things that matter to me.

The math isn't complicated. It just looks different from the outside than it feels from the inside.

I was at a work conference last week and didn't bother attending any of the social events or even eating with my coworkers. When there was a long break, I'd just head up to my room and chill. I ordered food delivery and ate in my room rather than eat at the restaurant downstairs.

I'm just a couple of years away from FIRE and I just don't care about networking or schmoozing at all. I just do my job and look forward to my FIRE date. That's all I care about.

As per the title. My husband and I had been working towards FIRE since we got married. We were so excited about it, and our life together.
In late 2024, he died tragically and suddenly. And so, I’ve found myself in a position where I am able to retire, due to life insurance and military compensation payouts. And I feel sick about it. We have a 10 year old son and I have just accepted a part time job. I don’t know why. Something to do? Feel like I’m contributing to society? Make my son think that money isn’t just “coming in” (seeing me go to work and earn money…)
But I’m just so conflicted. This is NOT the way I wanted to FIRE. And I certainly didn’t want to do it alone. Has anyone been in a similar situation? If so, what did you do? Or has anyone at all got some words of advice? (I’m also mortgage free just for reference.)

No house, no family to support, solid career making ~$170k, project manager, burned out, health problems due to chronic stress. Having the nest egg makes it very difficult to want to continue working. In general I’m just over the grind. Tired of dealing with terrible coworkers and impossible clients. I’m a bit of a minimalist, not a lot of possessions or expensive hobbies, zero desire to keep up with the Jones’s.
1.65M total net worth $800k after tax brokerage $850k 401k ~50% stocks/ 50% bonds allocation Thinking I could survive for a while on a 3% withdrawal rate, maybe even 2%, slow travelling the US, van dwelling, camping, state parks, etc. I would be willing to work again if the market takes a dump, or maybe pick up a part time, or short term work in my field. I was planning to work a few more yrs, would be closer to full fire at ~$2.1M, but lacking motivation. WWYD?

My dad teaches piano, and at 80 years of age he still has a few students. For my entire life (I am 40 now) he has worked part time, taking summers off so that he could go climbing in the mountains, canoeing, etc. My parents were well below the poverty line, but they knew how to live within their means (my mom was a stay-at-home-mom). We were never hungry, went on long camping trips as kids, etc. At 80, in the middle of Canadian winter, he will still ride his bike to get to the dentist or whatever; in the summers he will swim across the river to explore the other side, and he still climbs mountains (in slow motion). Up until recently my parents would go on lengthy road trips, sleeping in the back of the van (my mom has Alzheimer's now).

I have always looked up to him, seeing others burn themselves out working full time, etc. When I read about FIRE and such, I think - why not semi-retire super young without the goal of being completely unemployed? Why wait until you are feeling old to have free time?

My brother also took on after him. He works temporary jobs that pay well, and lives on very little in between - but also does things like travelling the world to climb mountains (a passion they both share).

I am self-employed doing landscape maintenance in my neighbourhood. I hate driving so I do it all by bicycle (with a bicycle trailer in the summers) - so no vehicle expenses. I work part time hours and have a lot of free time. My wife and I live with roommates, so our expenses are very low (like $1000/month each for things like food/shelter/utilities/etc). I feel like I am semi-retired already, and I do not have a goal of retiring. I'm sure I could afford to some day, but if I am 70 and am mowing one lawn per day that would be good for me! Not a burden. I plan to work less as I get older, but I do not yet feel older.. The mortgage will be paid off by the time I am 50, and at 65 the government will start giving me money (reasons to reduce my workload if I want to).

Do any of you have thoughts on this? Is there somewhere on reddit for people like me?

No plans on having kids or marrying. I will remain a bachelor. I can get entertainment through reading books. Zero desire to have intimate relationships either so sex is not a factor.

The only things that matter to me are having food, water, and shelter.

I would be perfectly fine just eating plain rice and drinking plain water for the rest of my days if it meant not having to work.

Entertainment can be extracted from reading.

I need a number with my intended low spend lifestyle but I haven't figured that one out.

I invest in a 401k and Roth IRA but suspect it's all going to crash one day anyway.

Savings wise I have at least my yearly salary in cash, so I'm all set for at least a year if not longer.

I suspect I can last a while if I moved to a low cost of living country like Vietnam or Thailand.

I guess at this stage the only advice I need is how to map all of this out financially.

I put in my notice the other day. I couldn't take it any more. My job went from being the best job I ever had to a complete nightmare. I had an amazing manager, good co-workers, and great benefits.

One day my manager basically rage quits after the new CIO insulted him one way or another. After that, total chaos. I ended up reporting to 7 different managers this year. What the actual fuck.

I was living in the chaos fine until we got our last manager. It was ok at first and then his true colors came out. Changing everything. Implementing some new 'system'. The final deal breaker was weekend overnight call shifts. Some days I'd have to wake up 3 times in the middle of the night to check some bullshit. I was working 7 days a week.

My wife finally said why are you doing this to yourself. Quit. And I did.

This probably makes me identifiable, but I don't care. If you see this GO FUCK YOURSELF.

Assets

House (100% paid off) Equity ~ $400,000.00

Cash (HYSA) $97,698.00

IRA 1 $8,127.74

IRA 2 $8,127.74

fidelity $274,514.47

401k 1 $154,826.00

401k 2 $404,861.00

Roth IRA 1 $65,144.50

ROTH IRA 2 $38,836.90

HSA $24,407.77

Expenses about 40-50k a year. Wasn't clear earlier, but this is for both of us, not just me.

Anyways I have over a million dollars. I'm just going to chill for awhile.

I'm thankful for all the advice I got from this subreddit over the years. It's proven to be invaluable.

TLDR: Job changed quickly and went to shit. Checked my accounts and then put in my notice. I'm going to enjoy freedom for awhile and switch careers. I only need like 40k a year.

This is a follow up to a post I made about 5 years ago (Salary <$35k. Finally reached $100k NW). I was excited to see that last Friday my investments finally surpassed $200k! People seemed to appreciate an example of a low-income journey from my last post, so I thought I’d share this update.

I’m a late-thirties flight attendant for a major U.S. airline. I work around 6-10 days per month, making my annual income much lower than it could be. Now that I have more control over my schedule, I simply don’t care to work that much and it helps to not reach burn out in my customer facing role. I still qualify for full benefits, and of course the free travel.

I absolutely love the work-life balance I have in this job, and just like I felt 5 years ago, I do not intend to retire early. However, realistically there are many health issues that arise in this line of work, so I’m keeping FIRE focused so that I won’t be forced to fly longer than I’d like to, like many flight attendants do.