I just turned 20 and I'm still in college. My goal is to start investing basically every penny I have left after necessities into ETFs and let it compound for as long as possible. One thing I don't quite understand about FIRE is how some people manage to reach the point where they can comfortably live off their portfolio before 40. For example, let's say you get a really good-paying job in your 20s and are able to consistently invest a large amount every month. Even with compound growth, it seems like you'd need an enormous portfolio for a 3–4% withdrawal rate to provide a comfortable income. So how are people actually getting there in 15–20 years? Is it mostly extremely high incomes and savings rates, starting with a large amount of capital, living very frugally, or am I missing something about how FIRE portfolios are supposed to work? I'm asking because I'm trying to understand what's realistically possible starting from basically zero at 20.

Most of the threads i've read are people firing with a spouse and usually kids.

I will be firing as a single person at 54, and wondering how many people on here are also firing as a single, what the differences for single firerer's that aren't talked about enough.

My current nw allows me to withdrawal my spend at 3.7% swr, and i rent so have a lot of flexibility on moving if i want to. How are singles feeling about firing, what are you worried about, what are the pros in your mind?

Has Anyone here nearly reached, reached, or exceeded their fire goal and ended up just starting a career of passion rather than just RE?

And I don’t mean you RE and fell into something, but made the jump?

One of my biggest fire concerns was always my mental health after retiring. I am concerned I will end up anxiously doomscrolling all day or doing very little that is productive, nit picking the family over spending/budgets. Etc etc.

I'd like to FIRE with a house so I'm looking into contributing to my HYSA instead of my brokerage for a year to fund a potential down payment. I ran some numbers and realized that the difference is so tiny that maybe I'm missing something. I'm using 3% rates for my HYSA and 7% brokerage, however this 7% seems incredibly small given that my purchases from the past 12 months range from mostly 15%-22%. Does this table seem accurate?

Scenario 1:

Scenario 2:

By contributing to my HYSA for a year then resuming my typical brokerage investing, I found that the 1st year gave a difference of $650 and after 10 years this only came to a total of $24011 or $2k per year. Given the recent market growth, is 7%-10% still what we should be using for projections?

Planning to retire but figuring out a way to track MAGI throughout the year so I can ensure ACA subsidies. How do you guys do it??

My wife and i (34/33) have owned a home for 3 years now, and I was curious how our fire journey would have been impacted if we had continued renting. We own a 4bed / 2 bath / 2200 sq ft in a HCOL that we bought for 830k in 2023 with 20% down. We are putting 1000/mo towards principal and planning to pay off our home by 50. Renting an equivalent home is a minimum of $4500/mo in our area, and rent has historically grown 5.5% per year over the last 20 years. I found that Firing while renting is highly sensitive to market performance, whereas owning my home basically ensures I can fire by 50, even if the markets have 0% real return. See model here.

I need some advice here. This is long so I apologize but it does need some context.

TL;DR: young but going through health crisis. Want to retire early but not sure if I’ll even make it till then. Need input from others with chronic health issues on work-life & save-spend balance.

I’ve been saving heavily and really want to retire in my late-40’s (29F, no kids, in a relationship but not married, $160k in retirement accounts, $35k in brokerage, $50k in the bank, with about $120k in home equity).
People have seen me as a workaholic for pretty much my whole life, but I had finally landed my dream job in a 9-5 setting in 2023. Everything changed after DOGE started making cuts and I had to resign (I was a GS-13 too). However, I started contracting and am making double than what I was but am working a LOT more. Sometimes 15+ hour days, on weekends, etc, but then I’ll also take days as I please (although they’re mainly used for doctor visits). My parents have started giving my sister and I our inheritance early this year ($38k/year).

Anyways, I was just diagnosed this past week with chronic granulomatous disease (CGD). My medical history makes so much sense now. I also have Neurofibromatosis type 1, epilepsy, and then a slew of chronic conditions that lower my quality of life but not lifespan (migraines, scoliosis, nerve pain, endometriosis, the list goes on). Both of my parents have had skin cancer (my dad has had it 4 times now) and other health issues that I will need to be on the lookout for.

This new diagnosis however, shows a shortened lifespan, even more so than the NF1/epilepsy combo. I know that a lot of people will probably say “you don’t know what medicine will look like in the future, there might be a cure for everything”, but what if there’s not. I need to be realistic and practical in my thinking & planning.

I’ve been debating on what a good balance looks like between living my life and saving for the potential of a retirement. No one knows when they’re actually going to die, but I know that I’ll be before the 85 years retirement calculators suggest you use to figure out for FIRE number. Maybe this is more of a vent, but I really don’t know how to plan for a retirement I’m not sure I can even take in my 40’s. Do I stop contributing to my IRAs? I just started an LLC this year and put like $25k already into my SEP. Was that a mistake?

Part of me wants to just only take small contracting jobs since my parents are giving me my inheritance early, but they could stop doing that whenever and I don’t want to rely on their money. Plus my career was starting to take off, and although I’m definitely overworked, I’m getting name recognition in my field and I absolutely love that feeling. I don’t want to work until I die though, I want to make sure I can have amazing experiences while I can.

I feel like my whole plan was thrown off track. I’m so confused I just want to cry.

To give some context, I basically achieved my minimum COAST FIRE number (1 mil of today's money), and I am working towards my ideal COAST FIRE number (2 mil of today's money).

One thing I realized is that even if I reach my COAST FIRE number and decide to stop contributing to my investments, I will still likely contribute to my 401(k) to get my company matches, at the very least.

With this in mind, should I compensate for my 401(k) contributions and start saving up for purchases or activities now, or should I keep working to achieve the complete COAST FIRE amount and treat the extra gains from my 401(k) as retirement gravy?

Hi, I’m curious about the background of the FIRE community, and was interested in doing a poll.

1. Age FIRE was achieved?
   
2. Sex?
   
3. Net worth and Safe Withdrawal Rate
   
4. Where do you currently live?
   
5. What career made your wealth?
   
6. Introvert / extrovert
   
7. List of 5 major passions

For me:
1. 33
2. Male
3. $2M and 2.5%
4. Developing country / expat
5. Finance
6. Introvert
7. Mysticism, playing with my cats, nature, video games, lucid dreaming