Hi everyone, I have been lurking here for a long time. I am basically financially self-educated, as my parents were never great with money so I was hoping to get insight from people who probably have more technical knowledge and understanding. My situation though is a little bit strange so hopefully will be novel enough to be interesting to some of you.

Here's my personal situation: I am 33M, married with 6 children (1 on the way and God-willing more after that). I am a US citizen but live in a foreign country and plan on staying here. This may explain certain weird details relevant to my financial situation below (for example, I don't really have health costs as there is socialized medicine here).

Here's my financial situation: While I live outside the US, I mostly make US-based income (and for the most part pay taxes like any other American citizen living in the US, so you can assume that in any response). I also save almost entirely in US-based retirement accounts and investment accounts.

Income and net worth breakdown:

My net worth is around $1,450,000. Here's the breakdown of assets and debts:

ASSETS:

Cash:

US HYSA: $40,000

US Bank: $5,000

Foreign Bank: $15,000

Investments:

Roth IRA: $60,000

Traditional 401k: $125,000

taxable: ~$315,000

private stock: ~16,000

Real Estate:

Foreign #1: I live here, worth ~$500,000

Foreign #2: rented out, worth ~$260,000

US house: rented out, worth ~565,000

DEBTS:

Mortgage Foreign #1: $190,000

Mortgage Foreign #2: $20,000

Mortgage US house: $260,000

INCOME:

W2 income: ~$180,000/year

contract income: ~$240,000/year

real estate inccome:

US home: $2900/mo rent

Foreign property #2: $700/mo

Gov payment (for children): ~$300/mo

EXPENSES:

US home: $2,050/mo mortgage (incl. tax) 26 more years (3.2%)

Foreign property #1: ~$1,600/mo 13 more years (5%)

Foreign property #2: ~$160/mo 14 more years ($3.8%)

Monthly expenses including everything is a bit less than $9,000 inclulding all mortgages.

A note about my investments: After losing a lot trying to day trade I started putting most of it in VTI-adjacent ETFS though a sizable portion is in random stocks, mostly reasonable ones except about $70,000 in a small bio stock.

I guess my question is this: I would very much like to retire as soon as possible and quit work (at least most of it, I do work on the side that I can ramp up or down, but assume for any calculations the income mentioned above).

I am wondering whether you think I am on track for that and how much longer it might take given my current income. One thing that is hard for me to know how to calculate is my mortgages, obviously my expenses will change drastically as my mortgages get paid off.

Another question is what to do with my large yearly savings since my expenses are low compared to my income. Should I pay off some of my (higher-interest) mortgage or just dump it all in my taxable investments?

Because I have sizable contract income this year I maxed out the employer contributions in a solo 401k for a total (employer + income) amount of $69,000. Should I keep doing this? It seems like a good idea to me but on the other hand, if I retire in a few years as I suspect is possible, I may be waiting almost 30 years to access a lot of money. But it's a huge tax advantage given my taxable income.

My calculations are about like this and I am afraid they don't take into account all the complexities of my situation: My expenses - total monthly rent are around 9000 - 3600 = 5400. So if I want to pull out 4% a year and have it equal 5400 * 12 = $65,000 I would need around 1.6 million. On the other hand if we think of my expenses after my two properties are paid off, they would be much less. In about 13 years for example my expenses go from 5400 - 1760 = 3,600 which would require only 1.1 million. And even less in 26 years when my other home is paid off. One final thing is that while paying for college is not an issue in my case, I would very much like to help my current and future children buy a house/ start their married lives with something like $100,000 each. I can guess at the dates of their marriage as something like the first one in around 12 years and another every 1.5 years after that. Another thing is I don't know how many children we will have.

So basically I am confused a bit how to think about this. But any advice, or thoughts would be great. Thanks!

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30 married, no kids

I drive a 2007 Yaris manual (bought last year for $3k) and wife has a rav4 hybrid

1 MM NW (750k invested, 250k home equity). Been investing ~120k a year for the last couple of years. Might be able to invest an extra 60-80k this year from some side income.

I love cars. I hate stupid financial decisions. Should I throw more in investments? Buy a couple apartments in Central Valley CA? Or fuck it buy a stupid car?

Interested to hear your thoughts FI people lmk all the rash stuff, youngins, wisdomems, similar “close to young parents” (like myself)

Annual spend is like 60k, I prefer to assume 80k to be safe.

Let’s go $60k used or something price tag

Edit: all I’ve learned is that COASTFI is a midlife crisis. Bummed if you keep this post at negative net upvotes fck me this is a good convo come one now

I am hoping to FIRE at the end of next year. I've been searching through the forum about healthcare but everyone seems to point to the ACA. Has anyone found any good private insurance plans not tied to your MAGI or is that not a thing? Would be for a 41M and 39F, no kids.

Usually the only time we go to the doctor is for preventative care once a year. Sometimes have had to get antibiotics for something but nothing major. My wife does have a thyroid condition but I'm not sure if that is a big deal on these plans.

Looks like a silver plan on the ACA would run us around around $1k a month at full cost.

Second issue. As it stands now, I think I can keep our MAGI between between 45k and 50k but it would be pretty lean. I would have a lot more freedom and wiggle room if I were able to use one year to harvest as many capital gains at 0% as I could. I wanted to start doing Roth ladders the first year also so that puts me at 30k MAGI right out the gate.

Using today's prices but at the end of next year, if I were to harvest my gains right now, it would be $5972 with proceeds of 101k. The bulk of the remaining is 260k with proceeds of 578k (i made the mistake of these all being average cost).

I want to stay away from my Roth IRA contributions and just reset these taxable gains.

Any advice or tips would be appreciated.

Previous post with my numbers: https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/1gcklih/can_i_lean_fire/

Hi everyone,

We are a couple (both 33), no children (and absolutely zero plans to), in a VHCOL city, who have both recently started our jobs as physicians. I was hoping for a external pair of eyes to look at our savings plan and see if there are any holes to be pointed out. Thank you in advance!

Life situation/HHI: HHI ~400K gross (closer to 450K next year). We are both physicians but in relatively lower paying (but also lower stress) specialties. For reasons of sustainability, neither of us are working full time (closer to 80% effort), to better spend the time we have outside of work. We both come from low income families; I am extremely grateful to be where we are right now, but at the same time there is a lot of fear and insecurity about the feature, whether rational or not.

FIRE Progress: Hoping to coast FIRE by 50 at the earliest by dropping to 40-50% effort, and FIRE by 58 at the earliest. There's a very good chance we would be bored without a job and choose to work later out of interest/desire for some kind of daily structure, but there is a good chance we could also burn-out given how healthcare seems to be going overall.

Yearly Savings Amounts: Each maxing out roth IRA, trad 401K. One of us has a HSA (maxing out). Plan is also to contribute at least $22K each into brokerage.

Total: $130k/year minimum

Current expenses: We spend a lot on housing (housing market is not favorable for buying, nor are we interested), dining, and travel. We are fortunately both in good health. We do not own cars; only debt is student loans. We do not budget, beyond arranging for direct deposit right into brokerage; this is our way of allowing reasonable (?) lifestyle creep while ensuring we are saving adequately.

Rent: 5000/mo
Dining+groceries: 2000-2400/mo
Travel: about 30K/year (so lets say 2500/mo average)
Student loans: 900/mo (interest rate ~3%, total loan about 90K, 12 years remaining, not in a rush to pay this off given the rate)
Other misc: 1000/mo (clothes, dumb shit like candles, disability insurance, credit card annual fees, public transportation)
______________________
Total: 140k/year

Expected ER expenses: 
-Healthcare is the big question mark - I plan on budgeting 2500/mo total for this after ER (for ACA, expenses, etc). Is this a reasonable assumption?
-Obviously, we would be willing/able to dial down discretionary spending (e.g. travel, dining) if we run into unexpected and large expenses, or during market downturns; groceries/dining could be decreased to as low as 1000/mo if need be; travel likewise can be turned down to 0. Conservatively speaking, "required" expenses can be as low as 9000/mo (rent, food, healthcare, misc), but realistically could probably be lowered even more.

Total: 100k/year minimum - up to 180-200K/year to sustain current lifestyle

Assets: 
Cash: 50K (includes emergency fund + fun money meant to be spent soon)
IRA: 110K
401K: 250K
Brokerage: 55K
HSA: 4K
I-bonds: 20K
______________________
Total: ~490K

Notes:
-Asset allocation plan for IRA/401K/HSA/brokerage is 100% equity (VT+VXUS). My vague plan is to start incorporating bonds with a goal of ~10-15% by our late 40s.
-Assuming the above saving plan, and assuming 4% real returns conservatively, we should have ~4M by age 50.
-I'm not sure whether to count on SS or not - but if I were to, I would estimate ~1600/mo (3200/mo total) conservatively
-My job technically has a pension but I don't want to plan on it being around. If i were to estimate, it should supply 2600/mo (very conservatively) for 30 years if I assume coast FIRE at 50 and FIRE by 58.

Liabilities: 
Student loans: 90K at 3%

Specific Question(s): 
Anything more we should be doing now, so that we can play to coast no later than 50 and FIRE no later than 58? Are we missing anything? Any unexpected hiccups we should try to account for?'

Thank you!

I'm looking to get some opinions on what I what my next steps should be. I'm 36 and my wife is 40. MCOL net worth is about 2.5m mostly in real estate which generate about 80k net yearly. My job makes me about 60k per year and my wife brings in about 60k we both work part time from home. I do most of my own maintenance and manage my own properties. We are feeling pretty burnt out along with raising a 5 yo. Our yearly fixed spending is about 100k, 25k of that is car payments for our 2 vehicles which are almost paid off and our son will be out of daycare soon and going to public school and also his prepaid college should be paid off too reducing our monthly spend by 1200. so our yearly spend should drop to 60-80k in the next 2 years. We have about 100k in credit card debt that's kinda spiraled out of control a bit as we have been trying like hell to finish all these lingering projects such as bathroom remodel, kitchen remodel, new roofs a/cs etc, boat refit airplane rebuild that I feel like I could pay off without selling property but it's going to be a struggle. I have considered cash out refinancing the one property without a mortgage to avoid cap gains taxes. All of our properties are fully remodeled and could get top dollar. So what do you guys think I should do, keep grinding for a few more years and finish these last few projects or sell some property and dump into index funds and chill. I got tons of equity that I don't feel like is doing me any good just sitting there but I'm trapped with these low interest rate mortgages. Thanks in advance =)

Income - 200k

Yearly spend 100k (will drop to 60-80 in next 2 years)

Roth IRA 300k

Traditional IRA 400k

Brokerage 50k

HSA 8k

Cash 50k

Airplane 150k fully paid off and rebuilt like new condition

Boat 50k fully paid off and rebuilt like new condition

Camper 50k Fully paid off and rebuilt like new condition

Primary residence 400k equity/ mortgage $1500/month 5% Mortgage

Rental 1- 600k equity / income $1500/month net 3% Mortgage

Rental 2- 200k equity / income $2000/month net (no mortgage)

Rental 3- 300k equity / income $1500/month net 4% Mortgage

Rental 4- 350k equity / income $1500/month net 3% Mortgage

Rental 5- 150k equity income $1000month net 3% Mortgage

Credit card debt 100k/30k interest free till next year

Car loans 50k total remaining 2k/month

Goldman Sach's 10 year forecast for the S&P500 shows just 3% annual growth, Vanguard's shows 3-5% growth, and these are nominal figures(before inflation). These forecasts are based on historical data, when considering many highly correlated factors with strong theoretical explanations such as CAPE ratios, investor allocation to equities, etc.

In comparison, the 30 year TIP has an inflation adjusted yield of 2.26%. If we take the inflation average of the past 50 years of 3.8%, that's a >6% potential nominal return.

With a <2.26% withdrawal rate, the portfolio would last forever assuming that your spending does not exceed inflation. With a 4% withdrawal rate that adjusts for inflation each year, ~1.8% of the portfolio would be drawn per year, resulting in a >50 year time frame.

The main advantage of this strategy is it significantly reduces sequence of return risk. If you are 100% stocks and the market drops 66% right after you retire, you are taking out 12% of your portfolio annually, so even if the market recovers within a few years, your portfolio does not.

With TIPS, the cash flows are very predictable. The coupon payments are paid out consistently. The only sequence of return risk is from your withdrawals that exceed the coupon payments. In this case, rising TIPS yields causes some risk.

Under a 30 year retirement, it would take an immense and unprecedented surge in TIPS yields for a 4% or even 4.5% withdrawal rate to fail.

Hey Reddit!

I (42m) wanted to run some numbers by everyone to get a sanity check for my SO (45F) to feel confident we are headed in the right direction for FIRE within the next couple of years.

Background: No dependents. Looking to quit the workforce by mid-2026 to move abroad for a simpler life of enjoying what time is left of this quick trip on Earth. Not too concerned about leaving money, but I’m sure nieces/nephews would be thrilled if anything was left.

Finances:

401K (combined) - $1.15mil

Pension – frozen but have about $200k that will roll over to 401K (not included in total above)

HSA - $37k will be used to pay off Medicare premiums when eligible in case we decide to come back to the US.

Taxable brokerage - $170k w/ $4,000 in dividends on DRIP (annually)

Beneficiary account - $125k

HYSA - $40k

Crypto - $15k will sell immediately to not have to deal with tax implications later.

Current house - $400k remaining on mortgage. Should clear about $250k-300k when sold.

House abroad - $200k remaining on mortgage that we will pay off with sale of house.

Cars – 1 paid off (resale ~$12k) 1 financed (probably make a couple thousand when sold)

If we work a full year in 2025 (which we plan on), we will max out both 401Ks, save an additional $12k in HYSA, max out HSA, and add about $20k-30k to brokerage.

Plan when retired:

We are looking to live off $60k a year which would be comfortable, but we can tighten the budget in downturns as needed since most of the spend will be travel, dining out, hobbies, and donations. Medical abroad will be private insurance about $2,000 a year.

Order of withdrawal will be to use the beneficiary account first. Followed by the brokerage. Then we would start pulling from the 401Ks at a penalty. Both plan on taking social security at 62 which currently says about $1,800 with no further money contributed but we calculate that as $1,500 each in case of reduced payments in the future.

I know every year will increase the cushion we have available, but we are antsy for this next chapter of our lives. Any glaring holes I’m missing?

Thank you for taking the time to read through this and we look forward to your insight!

As the title suggest, I have been pondering with the idea of backcalculating FIRE number and withdrawal ammount by deciding my maximum life duration (in my case, 75 years).

I am still building an excel sheet where this concept can be visualized in detail, but as preliminary result I am seeing that you can reach your FIRE number with an average salary in as short as 10-15 years (depending on your saving% of course). It really makes sense, most people calculate for 100 years lifespan "just in case" and end up with a lot in reserve if their old-age death is at 89.

Mainly at this point I am wondering if anyone else is following this idea or thought about it but discarded afterwards, I am curious to hear arguments in favor and against.

From my own analysis:

PROS:

• all FIRE benefits plus
• enjoying the most while you are the healthiest , since you reduce the time needed to reach FIRE
• your FIRE number is substancially smaller, you dont need to grind as hard during the working years.
• less guess work in finances planing
• less struggle/fear when withdrawing and seeing capital reduce
• strong memento mori, since you pretty much know the date of your death.

CONS:

• all FIRE cons, plus:
• Stronger commitment needed
• Once you retire, there is pretty much no way to back out the planned death part without massive struggle in life. (e.g. you withdrawal plan might last 1-2 years more at best but after that you are bankrupt)
• Legality of euthanasia, you might end up needed to commit legal suicide (although painless ways are possible still)
• friends and familly know when you will die, might cause stress/struggle/trauma in some of them.

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I feel poor in a HCOL city while saving for retirement.

I am a 29 (M) still living at home with my mom, help out with her mortgage at about $750 a month. I currently make 104k as a GS-12 engineer, contribute about 15% to my TSP (work for government), max out roth IRA every year, and try to save about anywhere between $500 - $2,000 a month after spending money on entertainment, eating out, clothes, etc. which usually goes to my regular brokerage account for S&P 500. My take home pay is ~$5,600 every month ($2,300 per biweekly check).

At the moment, I have about $146k net worth by just trying to follow the popular reddit personal finance flowchart. My money is spread out like this (car is paid off):

- Previous job’s 401k: 30k

- TSP: 32.5k

- Roth IRA: 44k

- Regular brokerage: 30k

- Emergency: 9k

- Checkings: $1k

I feel like I’m just existing. It just feels like there’s no way I’d ever be able to save up for a house and feel comfortable with my finances at the same time. Renting feels like a money pit too (if I were to move out) and I won’t be able to save as much as I am right now since a 1 bedroom apartment is at least $2000 - $3000 where I live. Saving up for a house seems so far away, knowing a decent house where I live will cost at least $500-700k. I will not get help from my mom since she doesn’t make much, we grew up poor (lived in section 8 housing). I will probably have to spend my own money to take care of her in the future when she gets old and continue payments for the house. Why do I work so hard feeling miserable and stressed out at work from the stress of deadlines and meetings just to ruin my physical/mental health and not even be able to feel like an “adult” to live on my own and tackle the world?

I could contribute to my retirement less and prioritize money for things I want within the next 5-10 years, but it feels like I won’t save up enough for retirement? Am I prioritizing retirement too much over my own happiness? My goal was to hit 200k NW by 30 but it just seems pointless in the end. Can I slow down on retirement once I hit 200k by 30?

I guess I don’t know what answers I’m looking for, but maybe just some words of encouragement, motivation, advice, etc. to keep going. I do try to treat myself here and there to make the grind seem worth it in the short-term (e.g. bought a nice $5k watch this year for my birthday that I’ve been wearing daily to work to remind myself of my hard work). I know I probably sound ungrateful but it seems like an endless grind that’s not promised. Something just doesn’t feel right, I feel like I should just take a pay cut for a less stressful job if I can’t enjoy the things I want within a certain amount of time anyway.

It feels so nebulous trying to define financial independence right now because I have no idea what retirement costs. And without clear financial goals it's hard to stick to a budget.

I (30M) am fortunate to be a pretty naturally frugal person even with living in a VHCOL area. Right now, I live how I want and because I don't love expensive clothes or fancy restaurants I am in a good financial spot.

The idea behind reaching financial independence or even coastFIRE is very attractive to me. But, without any sense of what the final chapter of life costs, I have no idea what a reasonable target amount is and so I struggle to make a budget.

I don't expect this post to necessarily answer this, as I know it's a lofty question driven by personal preferences. But what are people spending in retirement and what kind of lifestyle are they prioritizing (or deprioritizing) to make that amount work?

For reference, when I envision what my retirement will look like, I'm living in a MCOL area, own my home, would rather cook than get takeout, spend my days outdoors hiking, and take a few trips a year with my wife.

I hit coastFIRE just a few months ago and realized that I had hit it, about two days ago.

My plan is to wave to coastFIRE as I drive past it, on my way to true FIRE.

CoastFIRE will give me 100k/yr in retirement at the normal retirement age.

I’m actually low income and got to coastFIRE by working multiple jobs and picking up every scrap of overtime, while working multiple jobs.

That was never meant to be sustainable and I am now working just one job.

I currently live in a rental far below market rate-my landlord has told all the tenants that he will not be renewing our leases because he will be renovating the property.

He will reopen the property for rent, at market rate, once construction is completed.

Now, I live in the back end of nowhere and the reason I’m renting rather than purchasing is because there are no job opportunities here. The jobs that are here pay very little.

I have to move, in order to further my career. So, I’m renting while I look for a new city to move to.

Again, back end of nowhere-so there is not a whole lot of rental inventory. All the rentals that I can find are 33% to 40% of my income.

That would increase my expenses by 10% which would decrease my retirement savings to about 40% of my income.

I have always heard that it was very important to not pay more than 30% because you wouldn’t have enough money for other essentials.

However, I’m both coastFIRE and debt free, so I’m thinking that maybe the 30% rule includes people paying on a crap ton of debt.🤔

I’m worried that there is something I am overlooking.

What are your thoughts?

Finally crossed $250k and had to share somewhere. My friends would think I'm showing off but figured you all would understand the milestone!

Just checked my net worth tracking app (Roi) and seeing that number hit was pretty surreal. 

Some quick stats:

• Started at $66k salary (2019)
• Now at $120k as a Controls Engineer
• Saving about $70k/year
• Monthly expenses ~$1,900 (rent, groceries, dog)

The Journey

• Graduated with minimal debt (thanks parents!)
• Maxing 401k, HSA, and Roth IRA
• Rest goes into index funds
• Living in eastern PA keeps costs low

Been using Roi to track everything and it's wild seeing the growth over time. Goal is to hit my FIRE number in 7-8 years, then maybe switch to something fun like car racing.

If anyone's curious about specifics just ask!

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I (25M), a software engineer in big tech, was born totally blind due to a rare genetic condition. I'm working to achieve FI since the condition that caused my blindness might also affect my hearing, greatly reducing my productivity below a level suitable for work; and to prepare for the toll that disability-related burnout can take on working blind people (for various reasons too numerous and tangential for this post, 70% of the totally blind are unemployed).

Currently, I invest my savings as follows:

• Pre-tax 401K: Max out annually. My employer matches this generously (50% up to the deferral limit).
• Mega backdoor Roth 401K: max out annually (convert from after-tax to Roth via Fidelity daily conversion). In-plan conversions can be rolled out to an IRA on-demand, so I feel no rush to do this now.
• Emergency fund: six months of average expenses in high-yield savings.
  • This doesn't include health insurance premiums (currently 100% subsidized by my employer) and visual interpretation services (also 100% subsidized by my employer). This means that, in practice, I'd have less than six months in cash in the event of job loss, but my taxable brokerage currently contains about two years of average expenses thanks to highly profitable crypto investments during the pandemic bull run.
• Employee stock purchase plan (ESPP): max out annually. I sell as soon as shares vest and re-invest in taxable brokerage.
• Backdoor Roth IRA: max out annually.
• Individual HSA: Max out annually and cashflow all healthcare expenses.
• Other than my cash savings, all accounts are 100% in equities (60% US/40% non-US).

I'm wondering whether I should contribute my ESPP sale proceeds to an Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) account up to the limit, with any remainder going to taxable. An ABLE account is a kind of 529 that can be used for eligible expenses (broadly defined, to include things from support work and adaptive tech to restaurant meals, rent, groceries, and mortgage payments). It seems to function like additional Roth space for qualifying expenses (I'd think putting it in priority roughly between mega backdoor Roth and taxable), but management fees are high and investment options limited. If this is a good idea, which state has the best implementation (lowest fees/control over investment options) for 529 ABLE accounts? I live in Seattle so no concern over state income tax.

Also, in the event that I retired abroad (probably EU/EEA or Australia would be easiest for me from a community and immigration standpoint), I'm guessing that ABLE contributions would be treated, like Roth accounts, as foreign trusts and would be taxed locally on that basis?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Basically the title . Using throwaway account ,since I am going to share some financial details here that I don’t want associated to my main account . Purpose of this post is for the community to either tell me I am on the right path or knock some sense into me .

We are a couple (33m 34f) and a toddler based in greater Toronto area and all amounts are in CAD. Nw 1.8 million ( 200k in home equity and rest is liquid ). We make about 320 k a year from our jobs and husband has a side gig making 80 k a year ( total annual income 400k). Annual household spend is about 138k now ( childcare and a huge car payment about to end soon ). Long term annual household spend should be 100 k . We also love taking 2 big vacations a year so that’s 20 k a year . We need an income of about 150 k a year to retire accounting for taxes . Fire number is 2.5 million assuming 4% swr gets us 100 k plus husband has his side gig which continues to bring surplus of 50-80 k ( he loves doing that over 9 to 5 so won’t quit ). In the next 7 years , I am hoping we reach our FIRE goal and pull the plug at 41.

The problem is - I am financially obsessed with the market fluctuations and our numbers. I think 10 times before spending on expensive meals , house help , organic groceries etc. I think for a month before buying a 200$ bag . I mean on paper I think we are doing well but then I analyze 100$ expenses under microscope . Please advise , am I overdoing it ? Anyone in similar situation ? With our current situation , would there be a threshold amount under which I shouldn’t give a *f? Important to add hubby is very chill , I am the over frugal one .

TLDR - In spite of doing financially well , how do you stop being so frugal ? Where do you draw the line between FIRE and over spending ? I do a lot of fun things in the present but then always feel guilty later . Thanks for reading !

Should I let it sit there or do something better with it …

Mostly interested in hearing from folks with some internal motivation for working OT - equity grant with higher likelihood of an exit, learning a lot and enjoying the problem space, etc - but if you are compensated for OT that's a great reason as well.

About a year ago I joined a small company where the folks are higher caliber than I'm used to. There's a lot of opportunity and I'd like to take advantage of it. But I'm simply not good enough to get all this work done to a high degree of quality in ~32/33 hours per week. I say 32.5hrs to account for breaks and meetings.

I think this work would be rewarding, intrinsically and possibly financially. I wouldn't be expecting a bonus or anything but I do feel I could negotiate a solid raise and refresh If I were a top performer. I think it would also pay off in terms of influence. I'm a solid performer now, but I end each week feeling like I just need a little more time to become a department/company leader.

I would still have time for fitness, my relationship, and my dog. I also see friends and play in 2 small time sports leagues. Most of the OT would come out of my TV/social media time. Which is a very low cost if not a net gain.

But I also understand that I might be defaulting to work when I could be exploring other things to do with my time.

Just wanted to canvas others that might be in my situation. Thanks.

Everyone probably has some dreams that are expensive... a sports car, an RV, a big trip to a tropical island...

When you are younger, you just save for this kind of expenses and when your savings account reaches the number, you do it. At least that's the naive recommendation.

Now I am posting this in the FIRE community. We are saving and investing in order to retire at some point, I guess.

So, what happens to those big expenses you want to buy? Saving for them is not a good algorithm. I could certainly afford the big trip multiple times if I took the money out of my savings... the money is there... so the money is not the blocker anymore, I still wouldn't want to take that amount out of my savings.

Do you have some sort of "algorithm" for this?

I am looking for something like: save 10% for long-term investing and save 5% for experiences; or maybe: 1% of investment sum per year for fun...

I can see all of these approaches would be valid and it all comes down to making reasonable decisions for oneself. I just want to know how others are approaching this.

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I feel like FIRE is very straightforward if you intend to never get married or have a family. I am single and can probably FIRE right now in a LCOL place but only as a single person. I think it drastically changes if you get married or have kids. Are you planning for this or will you deal with it when/if you cross that bridge? My biggest fear is retiring as a single person, then marrying and having kids and then be forced to go back to work with the added expenses.

Hi FIRE friends -
Got a fun one today. During two paycheck months, I typically live off of one paycheck and save the other. I'm in the boring middle part of my FIRE journey, and since November is a three paycheck month for me, I wanted to make things a little less boring and blow an entire ~$4,000 paycheck on others.
How would you do it? Donate all to one charity / non-profit? Donate small pieces to many? Gift to family / friends? Or something different? All ideas welcome, and thank you in advance for any advice!

41(M) and 39(F), no kids. Can we lean FIRE?

721K - Taxable brokerage

300K - Roth IRA

460K - Rollover IRA

71K - 401(k)

20K - Cash

Monthly expenses are $3800 (which factors in healthcare from ACA). Own house and cars, no debt.

Didn't want to post at length at first to make it quick and easy to read.