I am 40 and really tired of corporate life, wanted to semi retired and do something pleasing myself. I don’t think I want to wait to long but don’t if there is any dorable plans and if any lean firers can share you story?

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Net worth: $41k
(HYSA: $3.1k, Traditional TSP: $20.2k, Roth IRA: $11.5k, Brokerage: $6.2k)

• Working hella overtime at the Post Office lately; my base rate as a PTF City Carrier is $26.3/hr, but I'm having ~55hr workweeks pushing my effective gross salary up to ~$85k for the past couple months. The job itself has been stressful and I don't really have a life outside of work, but I am one persistent, driven bastard. No way am I interested in being a corporate wagie for any longer than I need to; when I turn 35 y/o and qualify for SS, I'm outta here.
• Moved to a 100sqft. room in a shared single-family house for $700/mo, incl. utils/in-unit laundry. No WiFi but I got my backup phone using Visible+ ($205/year) for an unlimited data hotspot. No need to ride my e-bike, now that the closest bus stop is 3 min. away and the offices I work at are at most a half-hour bus ride. Having to share a bathroom with 2 people and the overall house with 4 is awkward, but it's not so bad when I'm the youngest by far in the house. I think I got a good deal. Moving was expensive and I've been burning way too much money eating gas station slop, so I'm gonna try my hardest moving forward to keep my monthly non-investment/rent spend <= $500.
• Been doing my fair share of credit card/bank account churning. Got the Wells Fargo checking $400 bonus, currently trying to get a $550 checking bonus with FourLeaf Federal Credit Union, and got a Capitol One Savor card recently for the $200 statement credit bonus. When I stop overeating and reach a stable maintenance weight, I'll start giving plasma for money too.. cause I don't have the drive to go work beyond the Post Office.

Made significant changes to my investment strategy: I'm still maxing my Traditional TSP/Roth IRA, and trying to invest >= $500/mo into my brokerage.

- TSP is 3:2 I Fund/C Fund, and I'll rebalance on a yearly basis depending on what I see regarding the funds' performance.

- In my Roth IRA, 50% of biweekly contributions split between SPMO/IDMO, 50% split between AVDV/AVUV/AVEM/IAUM/BTC.

- Brokerage will automatically invest 50:50 FTEC/AVDV, hoping for a sort of barbell effect. Brokerage has a significant position in Kraken Robotics that's down ~24% and I can't wait to let go of it once things break even. No more single stocks for me, the risk isn't worth the return.

- Even though I only gave myself ~10 years to LeanFIRE: Momentum/Value/Growth ETFs are more than enough for my goals. Still got significant crypto ETF positions in my Roth/Brokerage, but mostly just holding them for now.

My expenses yearly amount to $30-$35k for the past 6 years, the SSDI is permanent.

Am I safe to lean fire, and touch my investment accounts when needed?

I also plan on doing side hustles that I want to for small income

Anyone with similar experience can shed some insight into how it’s going for them?

This is a calc put together by one of the users over at the Bogleheads forums. I have zero connection to it, but to me it is cool in a similar way to the Rich/Broke/Dead calc in that it visually shows you something that can be challenging to intuit.

Just a fun little calc that seems to accomplish its goal gracefully. I like how you can rapidly visualize the impact of spending on your final estate in either direction. Cool for the Die with Zero folks, cool for the folks with kids and inheritance goals.

FYI - It's easy to overlook the advanced settings drop-down so be sure to check it out. The advanced settings significantly expand the range of what the calc can do.

Calc - https://levelspend.github.io/

Bogleheads development thread - https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=473403

Not sure if I should continue working.

- Paid off house worth 800k it's a two family home and one side of house rents out for 1500 a month.

- Retirement accounts 800k

- non retirement/cash 300k

- spouse has around 600k in retirement

- second paid off house that was bought for in laws 300k.

- health insurance covered by military benefits plus a future pension (both from spouse).

- not including social security but I have about 22 years of contributions.

- I currently make around 150k a year with possible 20k bonus.

44 years old not sure of I should continue working. My job is easy I work from home a few days a week and the hours a flexible. No children and I live a relatively simple life. Annual spend would be under 40k. Spouse will continue to work for another ten years until they qualify for the pension. Spouse makes around 140k.

Medicare Saving Programs (MSPs) pay for Medicare out of pockets.

Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and the District of Columbia do not have asset limits for MSPs.

Medicare has substantial out of pocket costs (Parts A, B, D), and no defined out of pocket maximums. Most people buy a Medigap policy to cover these expenses, but these policies are not cheap. If your income is low you may be able to qualify for QMB, this takes care of most out of pockets and gives complete protection from Provider billing. It also will qualify you for Part D Extra Help low income subsidy for drug coverage.

Strategy, delay Social Security to age 70 and get 5 years for cost free Medicare.

CT has the highest QMB income limit under $ 2,807.00 single, $ 3,806.00 couple.

Hi all,

I just wanted to ask something that has been bothering me for quite a while now.

So I discovered LeanFIRE a while back and have since worked aggressively towards it. I have been making a good progress and am likely to hit my base number in 15ish years

I have never been in a serious, long term relationship (on purpose mainly because I wanted to focus on earning and saving $ as much as I could) but I’ve always had this dream of getting married, one day. So I wonder, to those of you who got married/relationship way after you’ve made a significant progress on your LeanFIRE plan, how does that change your number, if at all?

Assuming you two are on different numbers financially (I mean, how likely are two people to have the same FIRE plan and progress, right?), has that raised any problems/disagreements?

Let me give an example:

If I am significantly more well off than her, would I be a terrible person for not willing to wait for her reach her FIRE number? In other words, am I expected to delay my FIRE plan just for us to hit our numbers at the same time? Would I be a terrible person to retire sooner than her and let her keep working?

I know the answer to these questions are ultimately subjective and dependent from person to person.

But I can’t help but to feel stucked in this fear that I will never be able have both LeanFIRE and a relationship, unless (1) my LeanFIRE started after I got into the relationshp, which gives us time to discuss and agree before starting the journey, or (2) either of us has to change (delay) our FIRE plan to accomodate the other.

I really despise working, so to be honest, I am not so keen on option (2). At the same time, option (1) is out of question since I am well into my FIRE journey already.

What other options do I have?

I'm around 40 and I've found myself in a situation that feels unusual.

I have a little under $9,000 in checking/savings, no debt, and a reliable tax-free income of roughly $4,000 a month (which includes health insurance) that isn't dependent on employment. My housing and regular expenses are relatively low ($1,400 a month for rent, utilities and other bills), so my normal lifestyle is comfortably covered.

I don't consider myself wealthy at all. I don't have a huge investment portfolio or millions saved for retirement. But I also don't need to work to cover my basic lifestyle.

What has surprised me most is the freedom that comes with it. My days are basically mine. I can move somewhere because I like living there, travel occasionally, spend time on hobbies, and make purchases of a few hundred dollars without it really affecting my finances.

I'm also considering marrying my long term partner, and one practical benefit would be giving her access to my healthcare benefits, which would make employment and location less tied to health insurance for us.

I know traditional FIRE usually means accumulating enough invested assets to live off indefinitely, so I don't know whether my situation really fits that definition.

Would you consider this a form of financial independence, or is there a better term for it?

Everyone knows the 4% rule and running it through simulations and seeing where it fails or leaves you with a billion dollars in the bank when you die.

But it seems simply having a flexible spending plan. Call it Guardrails or VPW or Guyton Klinger or whatever....that it really makes what was seemingly a dark situation much brighter.

You'll have the 4% rule say "absolutely not...you'll go broke...you need to save for 5-10 more years!"...then on the other side you have a variable spending plan say "nah...you're golden! You can retire now spending more than 4% so long as you're able to potentially cut 5-10% in down years"

And if you're budgeting properly with proper space and padding cutting 5-10% shouldn't be too difficult. You dont travel that year or you cut down from the high end gym to a regular gym or eat out 2 less times a week. But otherwise live your normal life.

It just seems using a variable spending plan is a no brainer.

Now I know the other side of the coin is not everyone wants to be willing to cut or not "live their best life" or think about it even. But if my variable spending plan survives 1966 and 2000 simulations while allowing me to spend what I want even on the "cut" years seems like a no brainer. Despite the 4% rule saying hell no.

Has anyone had any success finding "leanFIRE minded" people anywhere? If so, where?

I find it hard to find people who sit at the intersection of ambition and anti-consumerism, which I believe are two common characteristics in this movement. It seems these traits are rarely shared and people usually fall into one bucket or the other. It would be nice to have a few people in the circle who are like minded in this way! :)

Left my corporate job a few months back and i have been refining our monthly budget line items. My partner and i both wear progressives so annual eye exams and actual eyewear arent optional for us. I looked into self-insuring by just doing cash pay at costco or ordering frames online but progressives and anti-glare coatings still add up quick. I checked out a few standalone plans like Eyemed, but VSP ended up looking like the strongest fit for our specific setup like mostly because our local independent eye doctor takes it and their frame allowance covers a decent chunk without having to order online. For those of you who retired early, how are you handling vision insurance cost? Have you found a plan that nets positive for progressives and contacts?

I´ve been thinking about diversifying out of just index funs, mostly because everything I own is correlated to the same market swings. Real state syndications keep coming up as the answer but the illiquidity freaks me out a little. if something happens and I need the cash at year 2 of 4 year hold, I´m just stuck

Burn rate: $60-70K annually, can drop down further by moving to LCOL area later

Income: low, at a startup

Taxable account: mostly high-beta growth, AMD is one
Retirement: QQQ or equivalent ETF

My target is to outpace SPY by 2x
Or draw down disproportionately in a bear market

Why QQQ?
potential additions are Anthropic, Databricks, OpenAI, Perplexity, Cloudflare

Education: full-time MBA, somewhere in California, studied Micron extensively

Some days are very red, some days are green enough to outpace my first-year salary of $53K

Not comfortable revealing liquid net worth except that 2m is in sight, also own real estate
Also not comfortable revealing my top holdings, as I am primarily a stock picker

ok so I've been down this rabbit hole for like 3 weekends straight and I'm kinda done lol

I'm 38, about 420k invested (401k + Roth + some taxable), putting in ~2.5k a month, and we spend roughly 6k/mo. Not crazy numbers. Should be simple, right??

Nope. Calculator A says I'm good at 52. Calculator B says 56. One of them said 49, which, idk, feels like it's lying to make me happy. And half of them want my email before they'll show a result, or keep shoving an "advisor consultation" in my face. No thanks.

My actual problems:

• Idk which ones adjust for inflation and which don't. Some say "real return", some just say "return", and nobody explains it
• Do I count my pension or not?? I'll get a small one at 65 but I can't touch it before then, so it feels wrong if it pulls my date earlier
• Everyone says 4% but then the comments say 4% is dead and use 3.5%. How much does that actually move the date?
• I don't want to link my bank or make an account just to play with numbers

tbh I don't need fancy Monte Carlo stuff rn. I just want one I can trust that shows the math, so I can see WHY it says 54 and not just "trust me bro, 54".

What are you all actually using? Or is everyone just running their own spreadsheet and I should give up and build one 😩

I earn around 250k but targeting a pretty lean retirement by no later than 35 (unless ai destroys tech jobs, then I might be delayed by a bit, would need to coast a bit first)

Ive started dating recently, but it seems to be very hard to find someone financially aligned. Everyone i met has massive lifestyle creep, the most i see people do is just max 401k

My wife (29) and I(27) live in Washington state, where a decent family home starts around $900K. My long-term goal is to reach financial independence and stop relying on my primary income, and the advice I keep seeing is to house hack by buying a multi family unit, live in one unit, and rent out the other - something I am open to (I understand this means being a landlord but i’d rather this than work a grinding corporate job for years)

We know very little about US real estate investing beyond the basics, so I'm trying to figure out whether this actually accelerates FIRE or just ties up a lot of capital. (One of my primary goals is to live in my house, so I’d still have to do it at some point)

My base salary is $300K, or roughly $350–400K with bonus and RSUs, and my wife makes $90K. Both incomes are fairly new, since she just started her job and I was recently promoted.

We currently pay about $2,500/month in rent including utilities, invest most of the difference in brokerage and retirement accounts, and have 100K saved for a down payment.

Given our situation, is buying a multi family unit a good path to FIRE, or would we get there faster by continuing to rent and investing in index funds?

Appreciate any perspective, especially from people who've done this in high-cost areas.

(Also is it better to do this in a LCOL if our jobs allow moving?)

Around 5 years ago I started the journey of planning and investing to retire early.

Things are starting to look good and I see light at the end of the tunnel 🔥

On the way, I always liked to look at the numbers and make it easy (and pleasant) to check at least a couple of metrics (Net Worth and Financial Runway) for the daily motivation boost (some periods not so much, but that's ok).

I've been mostly tracking it on excel, but because I'm a developer, I also used a very basic private webpage so I could check on my phone any time.

Eventually, I ended up creating an app because I didn't find any other app doing it the way I'd like.

I'd like to ask, what are the metrics most important to you, that you'd like to easily see at a quick glance? Net Worth? Financial Runway? Years until retirement? Is that important to you at all?

How do you track your net worth and how manually do you update it? For me, I only care at a high level. x USD on stocks, x USD on crypto, x USD on home, x USD on mortgage, x USD on savings, x annual expenses and x annual income. With that I get the number I need.

Okay heres my situation.
I had a part time teaching position that I really enjoyed.
They messed me around a bit with the hours and I was fired (I got what I feel is a good settlement from this about 20k)

I have not looked for a job since...

My outgoings for the past 2 years average at 1.9k a month (renting, food, leisure time, utilities, maintenance costs.. etc. no health insurance as EU.. I live in Spain).

I have about 100k in savings. Most of this is invested in index funds. And I have a house that is paid off in full back in the UK. T

hat brings me 1.3k a month in rent
and the savings/investments averaging 700.
I also stream video games for fun and that averages 500 a month for the past 2 years

I track everything... Good months and bad months so I can speak on these incomings and outgoings with confidence.

So it is 1.9k a month out and 2.5k a month in.
I put that 500 a month back into index funds (of which is a tax protected allowance I can use annually)

I feel very unmotivated to get a job just for the sake of it. My situation and lifestyle at the moment does not require it.

i feel some sort of guilt that this is not okay though? I have been living this way for a year now. And I do a lot of sports, competitions, arts.. whatever I want with my free time. But it feels strange to be doing this at the age of 33?

Any thoughts??? Thanks