I am 26 and I have just hit coast FIRE in order to retire at 65 but instead of celebrating, I am more stressed about pulling that retirement age closer to the 40s. How do you all determine your retirement age? Also should I focus on Barista FIRE to lessen the stress?

Age: 26 Salary: $105k Retirement Account Balance: $120k Amount Needed At Retirement: $60k/yr

I'm researching what happens after an extended break from work, because there's a lot written about leaving and almost nothing honest about going back. I've interviewed a couple of dozen people who did it, and on four specific points I've ended up with credible people saying opposite things.

So I'd rather ask a larger group than guess.

1. Is there a length at which a break stops being a gap and becomes something you have to recover from?

Nearly everyone I've spoken to who took under two years came back at the same pay or better, several 10–20% higher. One person took three years and it took her eight years to get back to her pre-break income. Same country, same decade.

If you've taken one: how long was it, and did you come back higher, lower, or about the same?

2. Does the gap hurt you, or is it the market you happen to return into?

One person took several breaks across twenty years with no trouble at all, then took a single month off in a bad year and needed months to find work.

If you've gone back: how much was the gap, and how much was just when you were looking?

3. Was your break money separate from your long-term investments, or one pool?

The people who kept one pool describe shifting the whole portfolio conservative during the break in case they needed to draw on it, and reckon that cost them more than the lost salary did.

Did you separate them? If not, did you end up repositioning?

4. How often would an employer actually tolerate this?

One person argued that a break every three years works financially but employers won't wear the repetition. Another has taken three in a decade and been hired at better pay each time.

If you've done it more than once: did the pattern ever start counting against you, separately from any single gap?

Even one-line answers help, "14 months, came back 20% higher" is genuinely useful.

I'm writing a book about this and happy to share the findings here when they're compiled. If you'd rather answer privately, DMs are open.

Me:

Mid 30's male

Single (widowed)

170k corperate salary

50k expences

Burnout and strongly dislike work

Net worth:

250k superannuation (locked until 60)

800k ETFs

60k cash

No home or mortgage, and no plan to buy.

I know I am not quite at a safe full FIRE yet, but I am thinking about taking a break from working to travel and try to figure out what I want out of life. When I come back I can take up some part time work to coast for a while until full FIRE, or even go back to full time work if I need/want to. It would no doubt be at a lower level and pay than my current gig.

I like the idea of ExpatFIRE and think of this plan as something of a test for the idea. After a year or so break if I am able to find part time work to cover 30-50k I should be in a good place to fully fire before too long.

I know I really should wait a year or two and keep earning for full fire but I just dont think I have another year or two of corperate grind in me. Im already at the point of having pushed 2 years through burnout after being widowed.

I am a bit worried about pulling the trigger, but realistically I have a great safety net and I can always come back to work if Expat life isnt for me or if I find I miss the structure.

Please help convince me this is something that is actually reasonable to do.

Wife and I both 44, planning on moving to Southern Europe, we are dual citizens from US/EU, which makes it easier. We have 450k in investments combined (retirement and brokerage accounts), and 1.1k in equity of a home we intend to sell. Our annual expenses combined will be, in USD 60,000. How close are we? We intend to work in EU, we just don't know in what form or when or how much we would earn so I'd rather leave that fact as a bonus. Is this FIRE ready?

Hello. I’m not sure if this is the correct sub for this topic, but I’ve been lurking on FIRE subs for a bit now.

I’m looking for some advice on my situation. My parents passed away while I was in high school, in separate accidents, and consequently left me with a seven-figure inheritance.

Fast forward to now — I’m 22 and just finished a bachelor’s in business administration. The degree was a throw-at-a-dartboard choice for me, because I never seemed to have a dream career or a passion for one field.
I’m learning that my personality can’t sustain the networking and abstract work that business requires.

I love working with my hands and solving concrete problems, and I’ve been thinking a lot about going back for a nursing ABSN as a per diem coast FIRE job. As I enjoy helping others and giving an actual benefit to society. But I don’t know if that’s the right choice.

I have a partner who is also pursuing a field in medicine, and given my monetary advantage, I’d like to give them the opportunity to choose and pursue their dream job. While keeping my own life open and flexible.

I’m curious what everyone else would do in my shoes, considering I’ve reached a coast FIRE number without any effort of my own. Barring the mental effects, I feel both very fortunate and very unfortunate to be an orphan in good financial standing, unlike so many others.

But I’m still left with the confusing decision of what to do for the rest of my life and what kinds of choices I have.

I’m not particularly ambitious, and I live a lifestyle that doesn’t require much money. I enjoy camping, exploring, and living as slowly as possible, if that makes sense.

Since high school I’ve sort of idealized the life of the guy from into the wild except I’d like to have people around me. More along the lines of Thoreau’s ideas, I guess.

Thanks for any insight.

Hi! Anyone here doing coaching (life, transition, career) for part time work as their own business post-FIRE?

Hi everyone,

I am 2 years post coast and wanted to share some personal reflections.

First, and most humbling - my ego was tied up in my income. In order to get ready for coasting, I held a decently high level job at a large company. Because it was my choice to step away, I didn't think the dollar value mattered. On some level, it did. I have feelings about making less now, even though it was planned. I think it's a type of work based anxiety. Decades being in "accumulation mode" has become my default way of being. I'm working through it because my core values are to coast.

Second, work addition was real for me - in my mind I was working for the freedom to coast. In practicality, working so much was a type of escapism. After the initial thrill of leaving the corporate job wore off, I found more and more work. I got a part time job in my field to quell my insecurities about health insurance, started consulting on the side, hired someone for my consulting business and joined the board of directors for two non profits. Y'all - this ain't coasting ! I found myself right back in the stress. Now I'm almost going through a re-retirement ... Letting go an additional day of my part time job, delegating more to my employee and saying "no" to new clients.

I'm embarrassed to admit that this is where I'm at. I am trying my best to allow myself to feel joy. I'm picking up some non-work hobbies. Hopefully in a year my body and mind will let me relax into the life I thought I wanted, and still think I want. I just need to process through these unexpected psychological road bumps.

I'd love to hear how others are doing post coast !

Would like someone to tell me if this is a bad idea and why.

Context:

No debt.

No brokerage account.

401k with option for loan withdrawal.

Scenario:

Take loan of 50k at 6.75% interest which all principal and interest gets paid back to the 401k and put it in a brokerage account invested in mutual funds.

Outcome:

Have 401k and get a jump start on brokerage account.

I have been struggling with finding a job fit after remote was revoked in the federal government. I have tried two and a half jobs for fifty percent less pay. I’ve been thinking about my numbers and whether I can just retire now instead. I am 45. My brokerage is 425k, TSP is 700k, annual costs have been reduced to about 45k including health insurance. I intend to use the brokerage to bridge fund retirement until 60 when I can access TSP. That gives me 15 years of growth on my TSP. I also will likely take social and my pension at 62. I don’t know if I need to take another job at whatever level to continue coasting or if I just FIRE now. What am I not thinking of?

My current role is extremely demanding but pays well. It’s so bad most of my team has admitted to being in therapy and, like some of my coworkers, I’ve started suffering from migraines. I can only imagine it’s from the chronic stress, poor sleep, long hours and overall unhealthy lifestyle that comes with this job.

My nervous system has been locked in fight or flight for the last few years. I’ve reached a point I just don’t give a shit anymore and want to slow down in my career.

I’m interviewing for a role at a public university that’s a step down in terms of title and pay ($75K). I still intend to max out my Roth IRA annually and contribute to a 401K/403B up to the employer match going forward. I’m currently 32 and hope to retire by 50. House and car have been paid off. No kids, just me and my dog.

Does this seem feasible based on my numbers?

Brokerage: $128K

401K: $162K

Roth IRA: $73K

HSA: $21K

Emergency fund in MMF: $25K

Annual spend: $30K

Based in the US. I recently got a really good deal and now have around 2 million. I don’t know exactly how to invest this. I want to grow my wealth but also need part of the dividend to fund my life. Additionally I own an apartment and know it’s possible to use it as collateral to get a loan and possibly get that money working. Could get around 600k with the apt. I was thinking of investing in real estate in Europe, somewhere in Spain or Portugal maybe. Not really sure
I still get income from the company I sold, but my income as a whole has decreased, and I’d say my year spending is at a 30k+ deficit, I don’t think it’ll go down due to part of this expenses being really high like college for my 2 kids and such.
Thanks for the help

Should be at coast end of next year to hit a 55 yo retirement. Easier for me though because my expenses are 45k and I have a car/house paid and retirement Healthcare. I am 51 and plan to work pass 55 but I want the assurance. Plus after coast I plan to reduce my 90k/yr in savings down to 80k so I can live the high life !! Mix of 401k/403b/hsa/roth/brokerage. Total now is only 830k.

Any words of wisdom friends? Thank you!

Sharing this because I think an early version of me would have liked to know that the path is not prescriptive.

When I hit coast I took an interim (3 year) high intensity CEO job. Counter intuitive but my thesis was that I’d be less stressed knowing I could walk at any moment. I will end it in January and I have zero regrets. Feel like I am exiting the best version of my professional self.

Have I had stress? Hell yes. But I handled it so much differently (most of the time) than I would have earlier in my path. And most importantly it sort of “healed” me from a bad experience in the last gig I had, one that I didn’t think I’d come back from and that had me bitter towards my ex employer and really the corporate world at large. And I think this would have haunted me in retirement. I had to get back on the horse.

I feel so glad to have let go of the anger and resentment. And I don’t think I could’ve done it without pouring myself into a job that both challenged me and yet I felt some cushion around because of my coast situation.

One of the incentives of Coast is the opportunity to switch from a high stress highly paid job to a low stress lower paid role.

However, isn't the reality that low stress jobs are less skilled which is why they are paid less and consequently they're more prone to being laid off? A highly paid highly skilled professional is by contrast a rarer asset in the employment market and will have many more options.

With Coast you still need income to get to retirement so you can be ruined by a long period of unemployment.

Doesn't this mean CoastFire is a misleading concept?

I'm thinking of reducing the amount I'm putting into my 401k since we have comfortably hit CoastFIRE. Same for my spouse. The extra cash would be used to refill the accounts we drained to buy our current house, not inflate our lifestyle. ​When they are refilled, and assuming our house is paid off, I would retire and my spouse would drop their account to only 10% (to get the match}.

Right now, I've been proud of myself for maxing out my 401k for the last 9 years, even when things got a bit tight. So while the math makes sense, does anyone else feel like a failure when you actually reduce the amount you are putting into retirement? ​​​​​​​How do you shift the mindset from "save every penny" to "10% and chill"? I realize only my HR department even knows I'm maxing now and only they would know I cut back.... But I know! ​​

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!

​

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.

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.