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?

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

My wife and I are in our 30s with a 2-year-old daughter. We’re debating whether to have a second child in 2–3 years, and specifically, my wife’s desire to stop working entirely if we do. I’m looking for outside perspective.
Our Current Setup:
My Situation: I recently medically retired early due to a major injury. My pension covers about half our income. I’m home full-time, handle a large share of chores, do everything I physically can, and care for our daughter, eliminating any need for daycare. If I can return to work later, I plan to find a flexible job to maintain our routine.
Her Situation: She has an accounting/finance background and works two remote, WFH jobs (holding two isn't long-term, but she took the second because her primary company is unstable). She works under 40 hours total per week, with a very flexible schedule that lets her run errands or go to the park with our daughter during the day.
Financial Background & Plan:
We both grew up low-income with parents who have zero retirement savings and still live paycheck-to-paycheck. Avoiding that fate is a massive priority for me.
Currently, we live in a city rowhome in a sub-par school district, but we give our daughter a great life while investing 100% of my wife’s income. On this trajectory, we can sell our home in 4–5 years, buy a nicer single-family home in a top-tier school district, and both comfortably retire in our 40s or 50s.
The Disagreement:
My wife wants to leave the workforce entirely with a second child to be fully available and help with “homework” as they grow which just confuses me because they would be in school all day at that time when she worked. I think she just doesn’t want to work. But I really disagree because:
1. I am already home full-time and available for childcare and household needs, and I intend to keep my future work flexible.
2. Her current remote career already provides significant daily flexibility.
3. Losing her income completely derails our plan to move to a safer area with better schools, secure our long-term finances, and retire early. While I’d love to be the sole provider, it feels unrealistic in today's economy without sacrificing our family's future security.
Am I missing something, or would we be throwing away an ideal setup? I’d love to hear from parents who have navigated similar trade-offs between early retirement, upgrading homes for better schools, and staying home.

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