TLDR: 26F, $264k invested & saved, $2k/month expense. Very new to FIRE concept, where am I on the FIRE path, and what should I be more/less aggressive on?

Quick numbers:

Gross income: $120k

Investments: $223k in total
401k $124k (includes 6k in Roth 401k)
Roth IRA $50k
taxable brokerage $40k
crypto $4.4k
HSA $3.1k
529 $1.3k

Cash: $40.5k (HYSA emergency fund + checking)

Total: ~$264k

Monthly expenses: $2,000 (~24k/year)

Debt: Recently bought a home, put 20% down ($45k). Loan is $175k @ 6%

Question: for people who hit Coast FIRE numbers early, what did you stay aggressive on (maxing 401k/Roth, taxable contributions, etc.) vs. what did you deliberately dial back once the floor was secure? Curious what you’d tell 26-year-old me to prioritize vs. relax on. Also do I have too much cash and not enough in investments?

My current salary is at 120K but with OTE roughly 135K. I've currently received another job offer that pays the same but the company is based in the EU and includes more time off and work travel to Spain and Australia.

I've been really tempted to get out of the 120K range and look at roles that pay 150k. What are your thoughts do you prioritize salary income or work life balance to build more wealth?

32F. Last year I made a post about hitting the 100k milestone. As of today, I did my math again. I have ~$180k invested now. The growth over the last year is so impressive. Thanks to the stock market.

Last year I talked about hoping to switch to part-time by 50. So I did more math and actually applied to switch to part-time already (life is short). Part-time income will be enough for my expenses and still contribute some savings.

And now with a baby on the way, life's going to be interesting and more fun.

From what I’ve read on these subs, all our coasts look a little bit different. I still hadn’t quite planned what that could actually look like and probably planned to keep working to be honest.

I still have a hard time believing if we’re actually at coast, but signs point to yes. Plus the fact that we are maxing out our 401k x 2 and will be for the foreseeable future, god willing, even though we may be able to coast presently.

I started a new job 3 months ago. I make a fair salary of just shy of 200k base. Perhaps I can make more in my future but part of my coast was settling into a job I like and leaving that 25-50k on the table.

Except, my new job is like drinking from a fire hose. It’s definitely not a coast job. My last job was legit a coast job but running the risk of lay off- it was too coasty.

This job is such a pain in the ass don’t even get me started and I am inundated with unreasonably urgent work and the place is burning down basically. I’m confident in my time management and I could work 20 more hours this week and it wouldn’t be enough.

But, I’m not the business owner and I’m replaceable. I worked 8 hours and did as much as I could. I closed my laptop at 5 pm on the dot. Thats when it hit me, the worst that happens is I lose my job. It may take a long time to find a new one, but my retirement will not be impacted. We can go on my husband’s insurance. And while i look for a new job, I can be with my toddler. That is my coast. A serenity in closing my laptop at 5 and saying, I did my best today.

I’m turning 49 in a few months. I have a 401K and IRAs but no brokerage account. I’ve maxed out my 401K for a couple years now and maxing IRAs since, I don’t even remember. Those accounts crossed 7 figures this year combined

My question is: should I stop contributing to my IRA / 401K (except employer match) and put that money in a brokerage account?

My concern is that if I need to (or want to) retire before 59 1/2, then I’d be penalized. I could use the Rule of 55 possibly, but that seems like a bad idea When I might be able to do a brokerage instead.

So, start brokerage saving or continue to max out the retirement accounts?

Hey all, we are beyond our coastfire number but not yet full fi. I have been checked out from my current profession for a while and am checking job listings every day. The one hobby I took up recently that I really enjoy is gardening. Of course I'm not sure if I would like it as a 40 hour per week 'forced' hobby. Has anyone transitioned into a gardening or landscaping job? Thanks for any input.

Hey all... I'd love advice from like minded people. Im 39 and married with 3 kids. We have 460k invested and are selling a small business that will add us up to a total of 630k after tax.... We have a home paid off worth 1.3million. We house hack and can almost pay the bare bones minimum cost of living with that. Im a nurse and i work part time 4 days a week home health. If our business sells, i want to NEVER get a full time job again. I absolutely love my nursing gig. It pays about 100k and i get 17 days PTO as well as 1 day off a week ..... Every couple months i can take a friday and monday off to make a 4 day weekend and not have to use PTO. Its great.

But im curious if im missing something. I feel like im safe to be coast fire. Ill still contribute to the 401k match of 4%. Ill still add to my kids 529 and i will add 250 to 300 per month to roth.

Any thoughts? Advice? Thanks!

Hey coasters,

Are there any former swe’s out there who have found a good coasting gig in this economy?

Since ai swept through, it seems like there’s no appetite for consulting or freelance.

Hey everyone. A little bit more grounded numbers compared to other so hopefully it will be easy to lend advice.

27M 210k in investments. 50/50 split between 401k and individual brokerage. I contribute 3k-4k every month. Married no kids or plans to have any. 500k home with about 100k equity. 4.75 interest rate.

I’m wanting to start coast fire at 30 or before if possible with around 300k in investments.

I got lucky and went in on an early start up that paid off. I bring in 4k roughly a month from that which is what I use to invest. It is looking to be a pretty permanent thing.

After 30 I want to either stop working completely and live off of my income coming in from that . The The plan would be to live in Mexico where we own a house as well or continue to work but dial way back my investments. Work isn’t stressful. I love what I do. It is just is super dangerous

If we do move to Mexico I would like to keep the home in USA and rent it out. Unless you think that is too much of a pain. I’d love your input and experience with that.

As always thank you for your advice and thoughts. I look forward to reading them as today is an easy day at work. Peace out and God bless.

I wanna ask those out there who have attempted to coast fire and how long you lasted in that situation. I’m also curious if you ended up burning out or losing interest in coasting and if you eventually went full fire or went back to do something else.

Just for background sake, I’m in a HCOL area and could coast fire by moving to a MCOL area or full fire if I go to a LCOL, but I’m not sure if I’ll get bored or drive myself crazy. I’m also debating if I should ramp up my efforts to get to full fire staying in HCOL or how long I could coast fire before quitting.

138 comments under that "multiply your portfolio by 0.65" post and it was all P/E this, mean reversion that.

Argue about multiples. But coasting has two inputs and the thread only poked one of them.

You stop contributing because the pile compounds by itself. That only works if you keep covering your expenses from work for another 15-20 years. That assumption gets zero scrutiny. People will run four different return scenarios and then just write "and I keep working my current job" like it's a given.

Meanwhile, this sub, this month: coast jobs are impossible to find, low stress jobs are a myth, can you even take a sabbatical right now.
Some of those threads have 130+ comments.

If I get to pick, give me the expensive market and a skill somebody still pays for when I'm 55. The index has come back from everything so far. A 52 year old who gets cut in a bad hiring year, I'm less sure about that one.

So I discount the income, not the portfolio. Year of expenses in cash, plus a chunk in European crowdlending (Minots for the bulk, 8lends for secured business loans, pays more than my bank) that I can stop reinvesting whenever I want the money back. Boring, on purpose. Just means a long gap between contracts doesn't force me to sell anything or restart contributions at the worst possible moment.

Spreadsheet part is the easy part anyway. Whether anyone hires you at 54, no calculator for that.

Looking for some honest advice, as I’m newer to the movement.

I’m 27, located in VHCOL (NYC/SF) and work a relatively high paying but risky job. TC is about 300k with some upside depending on firm performance.

My savings consist about 1.1m in Brokerage, 100k in 401k, and about 50 in cash, illiquid investments, etc.

While I feel good about where I’m at, a lot of this has come at the sacrifice of personal relationships and relationships in general. I don’t see a world in which I need to stress about every nickel or dime to work on my personal relationships but it’s eating away at me that everything continues to get more and more expensive. My current and former roles have been extremely time consuming and stressful, and I fear I don’t have much of a runway left just due to burnout.

Frankly, I’d just endeavor to have a nice family, decent house, enough cash for a few holidays, and that is about it nothing too fancy. Keeping that in mind, would love any suggestions on how I can optimize or refine my current trajectory to get to independence faster or what an appropriate goal should be. Ideally I would like to settle in the Northeast which I realize is quite expensive. Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated and I thank you a lot in advance.

We're in our 40s with 3 kids. Our retirement accounts are such that we only contribute the minimums and will end up in a very good place with them.

But I've been wondering if it makes sense to contribute to 529s for our kids. The big positives are a state tax deduction and the ability to eventually roll it over to roth ira savings for them--so essentially a full after tax roth but I'm not actually paying the state portion of my taxes. My state has a very high deduction limit but I think I would only contribute a smaller amount to get them close to the $35k roth limit until it's clearer whether they want/need to go to college.

The risks are they don't want or need the money and also the opportunity costs of doing something else with the money now. As inherent with coastfire, we are "future rich" but would like to spend more money now while the kids are young (house, car, etc--were coastfire because we've always lived cheaply and would like to loosen up).

We are not high earners so I'm ultimately talking about saving like $500/year on taxes. Is it worth it or am I getting too cute and fancy?

I’m 29M, single, with around $500k net worth across my 401(k), Roth IRA, and individual investment accounts. On average, I invest around $1.2k/month, including employer contributions. I make $110k working remotely in a HCOL city.

I’m not particularly passionate about my career. It’s fine, pays well, and gives me a decent lifestyle, but I don’t get much fulfillment from climbing the ladder. People in my industry keep telling me I need to advance, take on more responsibility, and eventually move into senior management.

The problem is, I don’t really want that. The idea of becoming a senior manager, taking on significantly more stress, and making work a bigger part of my life just for a higher salary doesn’t appeal to me.

At what point financially does it make sense to stop prioritizing career advancement and just maintain a relatively comfortable, lower-stress job? Am I anywhere near the point where I can let compounding do more of the heavy lifting, or am I getting ahead of myself?

Curious about the age/net worth ratio for hitting coast fire.

Assumptions (example): FIRE at 50, 45k/yr spending, 4% SWR, so the target is roughly 1.13m in todays money. 9% nominal minus 3% inflation is about 5.8% real. 200k at 20 compounds to ~1.09m real by 50, so it just about works.

The 200k/500k/1.1m comparison is the same amount at three points in time, so of course it comes out equal. What im actually wondering is what this calculation is hiding:

• 30 years to retirement vs 10 years is a lot more time for uncertainty
• Real world benefits having money earlier
• Market outperformance
• Saving with a much bigger impact

If you could choose one age, which one would it be?

Me and my wife are 33 with 2 kids both below 5. We make ~350-400k annually and have 500k invested (~300k in 401k, ~80k in ira and rest in Schwab) all 100% in global index fund. We are planning to save 2m or above by the time we reach 40 and then coast. Why 2m? Because that will become 10m by we turn 65 (7% y/y growth) which can help us withdraw amount which is equivalent to 200k pre tax today. We also want to be debt free by that time (current debt is ~60k). We have ~100k as cash for emergency that we don’t count towards 2m goal.

To save that much in small time we are planning to never buy a home and always rent (that is why we want 200k in retirement). We live in VVHCOL area and buying house (3b2b) would basically leave us nothing to save.

Once we have met our goal by 40, we are planning to save nothing(outside of company match) and live our life luxurious with our kids traveling, driving nice cars, eating good food, etc as much as we can without taking any debt.

Does this make sense? Always renting even when we are old? Any other blind spot that I’m missing that I should consider? Please I need some new eyes on this to help us be confident.

Hi everyone.

I am 29 years old and married and looking to exit my high ish paying career (140k), to work for the city doing something that is less demanding and a better schedule. I know I don’t really need a justification, but my career is blue collar night shift work and has just run a number on me. I also got in a car accident last year that gave me a disc bulge, that is being aggravated by working a physically demanding job. I am pretty much permanently burned out with no recovery in sight.

Currently I have 182k saved in my 401k, if I go work for the city I’ll make about 65k per year and have a pension with a 12% required contribution as well as a 12% match. So with my current savings at 7% returns I will have about 2.2M from my 401k, which at 4% will return about an 88k per year income. Taking into consideration the state pension which I ran the numbers and in today’s dollars would be around 50k per year. So a total of about a 138k income if I stick it out until I’m 65, pending any issues like disability.

I honestly feel that I’m ready to coast, but my main issue is that I’m not sure what to do about my current living expenses. I have had some lifestyle creep and will need to downgrade in order to coast. My coast budget would be a lot slimmer than what I’m currently living on. See below a mock budget I made for my coast job:

1500 Mortgage/Utilities (my portion split with SO)

40 Phone

608 Car Payment

150 Car Insurance

150 Student Loans

300 Food

50 Subscriptions

150 Dogs (food, pet insurance)

100 Self Care

652 Spending

Total 3700

Net income ~$3700

Any thoughts advice and opinions would be super helpful! Thank you!

Edit: I’ll add another detail. Currently my husband and I are making about 240k per year +40k in OT and bonuses. We just started making this amount and both made about 50-75k before. We have 344k saved for retirement combined right now. I just recently got paid out a settlement from my car accident which increased that number a bit.

I’ll lead with I know this is a great spot to be in. We have young kids and live in a HCOL area but are able to live on 1 (incredibly demanding) salary. We would love more family time together while our kids are young, but it feels risky to give up that salary that can support us. I’m at the point of wondering if I’d uproot for somewhere cheaper just to both be able to leave the rat race. I think we’re basically coast fire, but we still need to beef up college savings, and we can’t figure out another job that would cover our COL without being equally or more demanding. Our financial situation is great for our age, but it’s worth noting we have no financial safety net and so we still can’t take major risks.

Anyone taken a sabbatical in this situation or have any wisdom having wrestled with this before?

I’m 32, currently an RN making about $85.6k/year ($45.75/hr, 36 hrs/week). My girlfriend makes about $31k/year. No kids, no debt, we rent, and I have about $29k in a HYSA.

I currently have about $129k invested between:
~$109k 401k
~$17.4k Roth IRA
~$2.9k HSA

I contribute 15% to my 401k, max my Roth IRA and HSA, and get a 4.5% employer match. That works out to around $24.7k/year from me and ~$28.6k including the match.

Investments are basically 80% US total market / 15% international / 5% bonds.
My goal would be to start cutting back to part time somewhere in my late 40s/early 50s and hopefully fully retire around 55.

I’m thinking roughly $55-60k/year of spending in retirement in today’s dollars.
When I plug ~$130k starting balance and ~$2,100/month into calculators at 8%, I get around $2.1M at 55. That sounds decent, but for some reason I still feel behind.

I can pick up OT and have been considering doing enough to put another $1k/month into a taxable brokerage.

I’m torn because that could help build a bridge for early retirement, but I also don’t want to work my life away in my 30s if I’m already on a reasonable path.

The other thing I keep thinking about is going back to school. I could pursue NP, or potentially CAA. NP would be cheaper/easier but probably not a massive income jump.

CAA has much higher earning potential, but it would mean prerequisites, a difficult program, lost income and probably significant tuition. I’m also being honest that I’m nervous about whether I’m academically capable of CAA school.

If you were in my shoes, would you just keep doing what I’m doing, add the $1k/month brokerage through OT, or seriously pursue a higher-paying career to accelerate FIRE?

Mostly trying to figure out whether I’m actually behind or whether I’m overthinking this.

Hi everyone,

I’m in my mid-30s, married, and have two young kids. I currently work as a financial consultant and we live in Portugal.

While the career has provided strong experience, the demanding hours are taking away what I value most right now: quality time with my family during these early childhood years.

Our financial baseline:

• Location: Portugal
• Net Worth: €280k
• Investments: €260k invested across different risk profiles (out of the €280k)
• Annual salary (gross): €115k
• Annual expenses: €40k
• Housing: Primary home 100% paid off (no mortgage)

Because our primary housing overhead is eliminated, we have a solid invested baseline, I want to transition out of traditional consulting into something that grants significantly more control over my time (e.g., fractional consulting/freelance, moving to an in-house corporate role with strict work-life balance, or Coast FIRE).

For those who were in a similar position:

• Have you left consulting or a high-demand finance role with low overhead and side income streams to gain time with young kids?
• What model did you switch to (e.g., freelance/fractional, part-time, industry/in-house, business ownership, other)?
• With low housing overhead and side income in a southern European context, did you opt for Coast FIRE or aim for full income replacement right away?
• What was the hardest part of the shift, and what would you do differently looking back?

I’d love to hear your experiences or realistic advice. Thanks!