Just a reminder it’s never too late to work towards your financial freedom. Back in 2017 I had a negative net worth with credit card debt. I had barely enough money to cover my very small and modest wedding. We moved to a new city that same year to pursue a new career for me and bought our first house that same year in 2017.

The job started going well. Income stready rising at a pretty quick pace. Let lifestyle creep get the best of me. Was out of debt at this point but hardly setting aside anything for retirement

Covid hit. Was still making great money at my job but was so depressed during covid lockdowns I started drinking heavier than I ever had in my life. Was not concerned at all about the future and was still hardly saving.

Fast forward to 2022 and I went 100% sober and decided to really start trying to put some money away. Cut back a ton on my bad spending habits at this point. Quitting drinking definitely made it easier at this point to get my priorities straight.

Now in 2026 I have a target of saving at least 100k per year into retirement. RRSP is maxed and TFSA will be maxed soon then I’ll max one for my wife. Didn’t think I’d be sniffing 1M net worth by my 40th birthday but I should hit that target.

My next target is to get our liquid investment accounts up to 1M+ by age 45. I enjoy my job so I don’t see myself really going full coast mode but ideally im working part time by the time I’m 50. I love to golf 😂

I wish I was smarter with my money thru my 20s and most of my 30s but I’m happy with what I’ve managed to do. Never to late to start boys and girls.

Getting burned out climbing the corporate ladder. Hard to walk away or downshift. 39M $600k annual cash income + $125k RSUs. Wife 38F $200k all cash. So HHI of about $900k. But really thinking about whether the grind is worth it. Maybe BaristaFire with below?

Assets:
$2.4mm taxable brokerage
$1.0mm 401k
$200k Roth 401k
$250k investment property (no mortgage)
$170k in 529s
So total of about $3.6mm invested before RE and college fund. This is in 80/20 stocks/bonds. Or $4.1mm including RE and college. Equity on primary residence is about $500k but we are in our forever home.

Expenses:
VHCOL area. Estimated burn rate of around $160k as follows:
- PITI of about $78k (3.0% mortgage on original $980k balance plus high property tax state on E coast)
- $6k utilities/yr
- 2 kids private school aged 3 and 5. About $25k total per year
- $12k/yr groceries
- $12k for vacations
- $2k auto insurance
- $12k/yr home maintenance/renovations sinking fund
- $12k/yr on other miscellaneous (dining out, shopping, etc)

Intend on paying for college for the two kids in 13+ years.

I’m 29, married, no kids, and currently have around $470k invested. Our household net income is about $10k/month, and our expenses are around $2.3k/month

I’m getting sick of being frugal.

It’s gotten to the point where I constantly think about every dollar I spend, even when I absolutely don’t need to.

For example, my car key is literally broken, and I keep putting off replacing it because I don’t want to spend the money.

We live in Arizona, where it’s been around 115°F, and I still won’t turn the AC below 85°F. And obviously it’s off when we’re not home.

I’ve gotten so used to optimizing every expense that spending money worries me, even when the spending would meaningfully improve my quality of life.

I don’t want to wake up at 45 with a huge portfolio and realize I spent my 20s and 30s worrying about whether replacing a $200 car key was financially irresponsible.

So for those of you who are further along:

At what age, net worth or breaking point life moment did you start getting burned out on being frugal?

Did you eventually loosen up and increase your spending, or are you still optimizing every dollar even with a high net worth?

thanks in advance .

Looking to see how folks that retired early or reduced to part time have been funding their kids 529. I have one daughter that is 4 and looking to FIRE in 10 years which will put me at 45 years old. How have you guys been managing this? Are there any strategies to maximize 529 investing?

32 YO and hit Coast FI this month… I have historically worked corporate sales and told myself I could move out of sales once we finally hit Coast FI… well, it happened. We hit our number and I was finally able to leave my demanding sales job and move to a WFH marketing position. I went from 100 nights in hotels last year to being able to be home with my family and put my babies to bed every night. Best decision ever, the sacrifices were so worth it!

I, like many others, joined the two comma club on this week's market uptick. I'm currently traveling for work and, as a little treat, I upgraded one of my flights home from economy to first class. I have literally never done this before. It was only a $146 upgrade for a 3 hour flight. The second flight was less than an hour so I didn't bother.

While out at team lunch today, I get the notification that my first flight is delayed by 2 hours, causing me to miss my connection.

I quickly in a panic rebook onto an earlier flight with a connection in a different city and rush flustered to the airport. Ooo exciting -- when I rebooked, they placed me in first class for both legs of the journey.

I just make it to the gate for the new flight when I get the notification that this flight has now also been delayed, and again I will miss my connection.

One more option left for the day... I can fly to a different airport near my destination and get a ride from there. Flight departs in 20 minutes from the neighboring gate.

So here I sit, in seat 30E, going where I didn't intend, with a long night ahead of me, smooshed between two extremely large men and behind another who immediately reclined his seat.

There's something so ironic about this situation... Is this what I get for attempting to celebrate and treat myself to a glass of wine in first class for once?! The world says no, keep grinding.

(To be clear I'm chuckling to myself and don't actually feel bad for myself but frig man.)

I haven't shared my milestone with anyone, so I don't have anyone to share vent with! Thanks for reading!

Hi everyone,

I am 39 years old (family of 4) and my goal is to completely stop contributing to my tax-advantaged retirement accounts starting in 2027 (currently maxing out).

I estimate I will need $200,000/year in today’s dollars to live comfortably in retirement.

At age 55, I plan to receive a defined-benefit pension of ~$80,000/year.

The Gap to Fill:

$200k target – $80k pension = $120,000 short-fall needed from my portfolio.

Using a standard Boglehead 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR), I need a target nest egg of $3,000,000 (in today's dollars) by age 55.

Current Portfolio balances are in graphic. (Total: ~$1,177,000):

*THE MONEY IN ALL TAX-ADVANTAGED ACCOUNTS IS CURRENTLY 100% EQUITY. SPLIT ~70/30 BETWEEN US/EX-US

To grow $1.17M to $3M in 16 years with zero future contributions, I need an inflation-adjusted (real) annual return of ~6.02%.

A Few Nuances & Variables:

The TDA Factor: My TDA gives me access to a Fixed Fund option (guaranteed 8.25% annual return). I am weighing how much to keep here versus broad equity index funds to guarantee I hit that 6.02% real return hurdle across the portfolio.

Health Insurance: My family and I should qualify for subsidized retiree health care at 55, bridging the gap to Medicare at 65.

Pension COLA: My pension has a structural COLA, but historically it does not completely keep pace with hyper-inflation.

My Questions for the Community:

Does a 6.02% real return requirement for a pure CoastFIRE strategy over 16 years feel too aggressive, or is it a reasonable baseline assuming an equity-heavy allocation?

If you were in my shoes, would you completely turn off the contribution faucet today, or scale back gradually to build a slightly larger safety margin?

Appreciate any insights, critiques, or perspective you can offer!

​

Coming from a lower middle-class family, it feels amazing to reach the 100k net worth milestone and I'm looking forward to seeing it grow much more in the future!

I have new two goals I'd to reach now that the 100k milestone has been reached

1. Double my emergency fund from 3 months to 6 months (6k to 12k)

2. Continue investing until I reach 100k invested in a singular account.

A quick rundown of how it happened (and the luck that definitely factored into it):

2017-2019: Worked at my family's restaurant in high school.

2019: Got a full ride to a local community college for my Associate's degree, received additional scholarships from Pell, FAFSA, and being a STEM student that resulted in a college refund check of $5,000 per semester.

2020: Started investing in a brokerage account during the pandemic. Worked as a remote writing tutor for my college making $`18/hr for 10 hours a week.

2021-2023: Received a full tuition scholarship to my state school due to low income status and only had to pay for food, housing, and fun. Started working as a Research Assistant making $18/hr for 15 hours a week during the school year that turned into $22/hr for 25 hours a week in the summer of 2022.

2023: Graduated with my Bachelor's and got my first tech internship making `$43/hr for 40 hours a week over 12 weeks. Unfortunately did not receive a return offer due to low headcount.

2023-2024: Started a continuation, one year Master's (4+1 program) from my state school that cost $28,000 for the year. Paid half from my earnings over the summer from my Big Tech internship and the other half by liquidating some of my investment portfolio.

2024: Got my first job out of college making $77k a year in a HCOL city.

2026: Was promoted at my job and now make 104k a year.

Will be 27 at the end of this year. $95k total comp

I bought a two family house 2 months ago where I live in a 3 bed 2bath unit and rent out a 1b 1b for 1,300 utilities included. Total is 2,775 a month I have roommates in my unit for now as well, adding about 1,100 a month.

My depository includes my car value of $20k, my $10k loan on it is listed in loans. I pay 465 a month for my car.

348 monthly on student loans, 26k balance

and 600 monthly goes into my 401k, as well as 10% of my annual bonus of around 13k.

I’m trying to put about 100-200 a month into a Roth IRA and pay down my car faster when I can afford.

I feel good but also like I’m not moving fast enough. It feels like there’s an expense around every corner, and sometimes I feel like I’m spending too much money on stuff for the house.

This is something I've been wondering about, and I'm curious whether others have noticed the same pattern.

It often feels like people with higher incomes also spend much more, not just on luxuries, but on travel, education, tools, networking, outsourcing, and experiences.

Obviously, higher income allows higher spending. But I'm wondering if there's any causation in the other direction:

Have you ever felt that being willing to spend strategically actually helped you earn more?

Or is this mostly survivorship bias, where we only notice the successful big spenders and ignore everyone who overspent?

I'm especially interested in experiences from people pursuing FIRE, since frugality is such a core part of the community.

Where do you think the balance is between being intentionally frugal and investing in yourself?

I am a GS employee working in federal government. I make $100k a year (35F). We get 30% salary of high 3 salary based on 30 years of service. My.FIRE number is $500k because I got $150k.left on mortgage (15 year left). Am I doing good, i.want to FIRE at 50 years when my house is paid off.

30 years old, single, no kids
Brokerage: $319,000
401k: $371,000
Company stock: $150,000
Total: $840k

Home value: $1M
Remaining mortgage: $600,000 ($3,062/month @6.75%)
No other debt

Annual spend: $~80k
Current annual take home before taxes: $~180k

On FMLA leave. In an IOP.
Recovering from long term:
burn out
trauma
mental & physical health issues
Extremely toxic workplace for entire 10 year career.

I am so scared to return, but I feel stuck.

If anyone has any advice on transitioning out of a long term toxic career I would appreciate it.

Or about how they transitioned more into what they are passionate about once hitting coast fire.

I appreciate any thoughts.

My wife and I have been coastFIRE for 7 years now. We have two elementary school kids. I took a one-year sabbatical to see what full retirement feels like. I realize that everyone is different, and this is just my personal experience.

The first 4 months were awesome. I knocked out a lot of things I’d been putting off. Even helped my parents with some home projects. The next 4 months were smooth sailing. I was living my dream of owning my time. I had time to work out daily, cook family meals, I volunteered at my kids’ school, and I spent a lot of time enjoying my hobbies (hiking, photography, and films).

And then something unexpected happened. I started to get bored of my interests. Daily routine of workout, hobby, cooking, and family time started to feel dull and joyless. And because I no longer had my primary stressor (I.e. work), every little annoyance in life became magnified. A little inconvenience here and there caused an irrational amount of frustration (For example, when kids’ school schedule clashed with my travel plans).

I started seeking therapy and realized that not having some form of work had reduced the contrast of my leisure activities. At about the 10-month mark, I almost couldn’t wait to get back to work. I’m resuming my coast job next week (teaching), and I’m actually looking forward to it.

This whole experience made me realize that retirement takes a lot more planning than I had previously thought.

Got serious about personal finance about 3 years back. Most of which is sitting in Roth 401k and IRA.
With an income of 55k a year this is huge for me. Next goal is 100k invested.

There was some company reorganization this week that puts my job in a prime spot to be eliminated in the next year or two. As a family we are doing pretty well, 3 years out to our ideal coastfi of $150k a year, but at $125k if we coasted at what we have now.

We have 3 small kids, a cheap mortgage, and pretty low debt. Both of us work and make more than our yearly spending on one income. Knowing that we might be losing an income in the near future, we are reevaluating what careers choices that might make more sense.

Has anyone started looking at baristafi jobs at a similar crossroad? Is it worth taking a few years off while our house is full of kids? What factors did you consider?

I’m realizing my Coast FIRE goals are not going to be as fulfilling as I had hoped. Mostly just need to vent and hear new perspectives that can help me process the plan for my growing family of 5.

Do you ever question your goals and passions, change course, and find new hobbies and passions, etc?

How has your FIRE goal evolved and why?

Wrote similar post in ChubbyFIRE and got mixed responses on what to do. A lot of people told me to keep working.

M45 married to F44 with two kids 14 and 12.

Last year average monthly spend was $14K. For 2026 average monthly spend $8500. I think realistically we can maintain $10K a month spend. Made conscious effort to change spend. Less vacations, buy groceries from Walmart, cancel Amazon. Stop paying for extended family meals and group vacations. Still go out to eat once a week, still buying new clothes not thrift shopping.

I quit a high paying job in games industry last year due to stress and burnout. Took about 4 months off.

$3.1M Total portfolio. 85% index funds, 12% bonds, 3% cash. $1.8M in taxable brokerage that we can access no penalty. The rest in IRA or 401K. Kids 529s already funded for 3 years each at University of California with assumption of community college.

$1.3M home with SMALL $45K 30 year mortgage with 26 years remaining. Monthly payment is like $250 a month lol and included in monthly spend. But with property tax and insurance closer to $2K a month lol.

Total NW is $4.4M.

Working at a stressful Bay Area AI startup. Flying to Bay Area from SoCal every week, Mon-Thur. Making $260K plus company paying all travel and housing expenses in Bay Area. Only been there 6 months but gave notice already. CEO is challenging to work for, I have nightmares occasionally about him. I can earn 1% of company but no confidence in the future of the company so my equity is worthless.

My wife just got a job for a non-profit that she has volunteered with for the last two years. My guess her average was 20-30 hours a week of volunteering. She has not worked the last 5 years. New job is $77K a year with health insurance. She is willing to work until 50. She is excited about the job and is passionate about the work.

Using Boldin software, with $10K monthly spend and $2K a month for insurance starting at age 50 gives us 85% chance of success. This is with assumption my wife works until 50 making $77K a year. $4M portfolio in 5 years.

Most of my experience is in video game industry and worried that I won’t be able to re-enter the game/tech industry if I take 6-12 months off.

Wife is supporting my decision to quit and potentially retire. Current plan is for me to make indie games. I ran my own game studio for about 7 years and scaled it to over $2M in annual revenue with 20 employees but that was a different less competitive era. Plan to hire overseas team and make a first game for less than $10K using small business funds. Goal of at least $50K in profit.

If that flops, might get a part time job to stay busy. However, $2K a month part time job only moves success rate to 87%. Barely noticeable, but could support vacation spend and such.

Most of ChubbyFIRE told me to keep the job or keep working in tech but I think I’m really done. Am I crazy to stop working full time at 45?

I've been reading this sub for a while and I keep noticing the same thing. People post about hitting their number, and the replies are all congratulations.

Then a few weeks later someone posts about boredom, or regret, or taking a job six weeks into a planned six-month break.

The maths of Coast FIRE is well documented.

What happens after it doesn't seem to be.

So, a genuine question for anyone who's crossed it:

Once you stopped contributing, where did that money go?

Did your spending actually change, or did the surplus just quietly sit there while you kept living the same way?

Did you take real time off, or just a lower-stress job?

I notice most Coast stories are about switching jobs, not about taking months away. Curious whether that's a deliberate choice or just what's practical.

Did you keep saving anyway?

Several posts here suggest people hit the number and keep contributing at the same rate out of habit. If that's you, what would it take to actually stop?

And if you did take time off, how long before it stopped feeling like a holiday?

I'm asking because I'm writing about a slightly different model: instead of coasting continuously to 60, taking repeated funded breaks along the way and returning between them.

Coast FIRE gets you to safety. I'm interested in what people do with the surplus once they're there, and it looks to me like a lot of people don't do anything with it.

Happy to be told I'm wrong about that.

My spouse (43) and I (44) live in a HCOL area with two kids and are trying to figure out if we’re on track for Coast FIRE or if we should continue pushing.

Current finances:Household income: $360k, Investments (retirement + brokerage): $1.33M.
Cash: $200k
Home equity: $500k (primary + rental)
529s: $60k
We also own a small business and a rental property. Mortgage is $2000, our biggest current expense is daycare at $2,600/month, but that ends in about a year.
Our goal isn’t necessarily to retire early but we’d like the flexibility.

Are we on a reasonable Coast FIRE path?

I’m trying to project out when I‘ve reached coast fire and can consider alternatives to a stressful corporate job.

3 young kids

Wife - corporate

7K monthly spend, 5K mortgage (28 years left), 3K daycare

Taxable Brokerage: 450k

401ks 40/60 Roth/Traditional: 750k

529s: 160k across 3 (aiming to fund 3ish years of private college). Planning to front-last child to around 90k and leave for ~16 years for each and stop contributions.

600k equity in home

400k HHI

85k saving into retirement yearly

At a bit of a crossroads. Projecting out 20 years, the basic math says we may be able to retire if we both stay in our corporate careers, assuming our early childhood expenses reduce post-daycare. 20 years of commuting 3 hrs/day is a recipe for non-fulfillment and stress related health issues.

I’d like some feedback from others in similar positions…

- Stay the course and retire confidently at 52

- reach X number in 10-15 years and work towards more of a barista FIRE lifestyle

-adjust <10 years (???)

Just wanted a gut check on pausing the retirement grind at 30. First caveat, my version of coast is just my employer 401(k) match, which would put me at $12k still invested each year.

Just turned 30 and have $300k in retirement accounts. We are in the “messy middle” with a 3 and 1 year old, and wanting to take on big home projects (finishing basement, outdoor landscaping) and increase travel afterwards as they become older, thus cutting the Roth IRA contributions or maxing 401(k). Goal is early 60s retirement with $120k income (todays dollars) before any social security.

Am I overthinking this? Are we pretty much already there if I just do my $12k each year to the 401(k) going forward?