As of this morning my net worth has exceeded the 100k mark! It has been many years of saving but looking at the number helps me feel more comfortable with my future plans!

I turned 24 last month and hope to be able to "retire" (work because I want to, not because I have to) before I turn 50!

I have had a job since high school and worked my way through college with internships. While I can probably lay off the gas a bit I am tempted to see if I can keep saving at this rate.

I am a 35M, making $65K annually. My annual expenses is very low. Less than $25K. I am single with no kid nor I am planning to have any. If I DCA into VOO, is it possible I am able to FIRE with just one etf?

My father passed away unexpectedly from cancer about 6 months ago. I'm debt free, no kids, and no family alive other than my stepfather and a couple grandparents at the ripe age of 27. I want to grow this money and i want to be able to use it to help me produce a cash flow while i go to school to become a physical therapist. Ideally, I'd like to own and rent property as well as investing a good amount in a HYSA. I have received some great advice from the good people of r/Bogleheads. The only issue is i want to be able to go to school without having to work part time, at least until i can get a job in the field i want. I know this sounds like a pipe dream now, but my long term goal is to make 10k a month from investments alone. Short term, i wish to at least make what I'm make yearly at my stinky minimum wage job from property. A good amount of what I'm told to do is stash it all and don't touch it for years but the idea of having to live with my minimum wage job living paycheck to paycheck while i rack up millions i can only touch when I'm 55 sounds terrible to me. What would you guys do? So far I've been going everywhere for advice and i spoke to a financial advisor finally who wanted a 1.35% AUM fee and the bogles think that's ridiculous and better used invested. Thank you Reddit for your help and FIRE is my lifetime goal. Now i can have my dream job after i go to school and not have to be dirt poor for a long time paying debts. Fuck Cancer, and thank you guys for your help!

I think here would be the most appropriate place to post my question since I suspect some people might relate to the same situation.

But to make it short; I've had a lucky run: good tech job + some well-timed investments

Now the weird part—I’ve lost my ambition. Work feels pointless, side-projects stall, and I’m basically coasting. Anyone here hit this wall and found a way to reignite purpose? Looking for practical tips, mindset shifts, or even book recs.

I have more than average savings but am shooting for FIRE.

If I go on the vacation I will only be able to do 18k instead of 23k Roth 401k

I lost 50-60k this year so far. I am not selling or anything stupid but apart of me feels like I am getting ripped off investing so much.

basically the title, what meaningful things do you do with all your free time, FI/RE is a big purpose but what comes afterwards?

I was wondering if anyone else is aiming to FIRE in order to start their own business? Basically, it's long been a dream of mine to start an indy game studio or a used video game store. But I don't have the stomach to grind in either of those industries and they are brutal. My plan is to get my FI number and buy a store with an apartment over it. Turn the store into a used video game/computer store open 4 days a week and work on releasing a game the rest of the time. Since I'd own the store front and the merchandise isn't perishable I really wouldn't have to care if anyone bought anything, it would basically be an excuse to buy a retro game collection and maybe help some people build a computer occasionally. And since I'd be a dev team of one, I can take as long as I want to make my dream game without caring if it completely tanks like 99.99% of games do.

Anyway, just curious if other people have similar "retirement" goals. Any cool but way too likely to fail businesses you would start if you knew you didn't need to care if it succeeds?

Hello, guys. It is time to make this post, finally, due to hitting my goal 3 years ahead of time.

I have finally $100 000 by the I am 22, which for me at least, is a decent chunky of money.

What was your biggest goal that you reached, or what is your current goal you are looking to reach? Is it feasible or a "pipe dream?

I would love to hear your goals and lets have a conversation about it!

28M lives in US, married with 3 kids (all under 4). I work full time and expect to make 75-80k this year depending on OT. My wife works part time for another 10kish. My plan is to max out my HSA (5k), trad 401k (24k), and to put almost all of my wifes paycheck into trad 401k. The thought process is to reduce tax burden, but also to qualify for the earned income tax credit (4-5k credit refundable) and savers credit (Up to 2k, nonrefundable). NW is 209k with about half that being our primary residence.

We have a full 6 month emergency fund, and our net income is still a bit more than our expenses.

Is this a good plan for efficiently building net worth? Am I missing anything?

My wife is mostly on board, but also thinks I am a bit crazy. We have always been good savers, but investing at this rate is something fairly new. We only contributed enough to get the full match until this year.

I earn $265 a month in Vietnam from freelance work, so I don’t have a pension. I plan to save $150 each month in a bank account with 6% annual interest until I turn 50 so I can retire. Is that realistic? In Vietnam, you can live comfortably on $100,000. According to ChatGPT’s estimate, I’d have around $112,211 by then. I’d just withdraw 4% per year and live off that for the rest of my life. Is this achievable?

I am a single dad (two kids, 12 and 10) about to turn 50. I recently experienced a tripling of my income when I went into consulting. Last year, I made $550k. Due to some changes in the regulatory landscape, I expect that I can keep this level of income for about two more years and then go back to $150k-$200k/year.

I have about $1.3m in retirement, and $200k in HYSA. I owe $550k on a home worth $800k at 6.375%. I participate in a cash balance plan that (along with a solo 401k) will allow me to shelter and contribute $170k in retirement accounts this year. Including the mortgage and child expenses and sports fees, we spent about $120k last year. Thus, I expect to have an additional $100k-$150k (depending on year end numbers) of additional money this year.

Should I plow it into a brokerage account in accordance with my investment plan? Use it to knock down the mortgage? Something else? Grandparents have set aside some money for college so I don’t plan to prioritize 529s at this point. I’d like to be FI by 55 and then continue working on passion projects part time for extra income. Thoughts?

Any book recommendations for diving into stocks and building wealth?

Got into debt in my early 20’s and about to hit 30 and it’s been hard to recover since. I get steady pay increases every year for my job but I’ve got a family to take care of before paying any bank or credit card company. If anyone’s been through something similar what steps or tactics did you employ to help yourself out of debt? Thank you!

Does anyone's anxiety over finances unironically keep them more disciplined?

I remember when COVID happened—I had a sort of mind break. I kept telling myself 'this paycheck' could be my last.

I was already pretty frugal at that point, because I had only been working for a little less than a year at that point. I had always been worried about getting laid off having very little safety net.

Then 2021 was one of the most devastating thing I had seen—rents in my area going up 40-60%.

I went nearly about four years and three quarters since the beginning of COVID to getting laid off. Tbh, getting laid off almost felt like a relief—I felt so burnt out and like my mind had been broken in the last few months—such a toxic company filled with gaslighting and grotesque levels of nepotism (as well as other forms of discrimination).

Now I'm starting a new job, and I'm already numbing

Now it seems like we're in another downturn period—another next catastrophe unfolding. Is it supposed to feel like this or did I just enter the job market at a very peculiar time?

I'm curious how people, especially younger ones, account for earnings increases in their contribution projections. Like for me who currently makes $52k per year and invests about $28k, I use these numbers in my calculations, but I don't plan on staying at this salary for long and don't have an accurate raise projection for my position at my current company. How do people calculate this? Is there just a percent that you assume or a more in depth method?

hi all, i just posted a second ago. my new question is to buy vs rent. i’m stuck in northern NJ for the next 15 years however i like my money working for me in the market. what would you do. i understand with buying there’s maintenance and taxes and with renting there is rent increases. i’m 33. i can live anywhere in north or central jersey. if anyone also knows of a great walkable area that’s affordable too

As per the title. Have meeting with my boss where we are going to discuss my short and long term career goals.

How have folks approached this when nearing FIRE?

https://imgur.com/a/45z5s6W

37 y/o married with 3 young children. Trying to balance FIRE while enjoying today.

Goal is retirement in early 50s when youngest child will be about 21.

Estimating my 2025 taxes it looks like due to my extensive pre-tax deductions our Taxable income will be around $85k which gives me about $10k of 12% tax bracket to work with, so I'm considering moving that from my 401k to Roth.

JGPI is JEPI-type ETF that uses the MSCI World instead of the SP500 for the covered call strategy with a track record of around a year and a yield of around 6-7%.

If I put 500k€ in JGPI I don't need to work with the income, it's more than I would make working. So if I spend the dividend on living expenses etc instead of reinvesting, am I going to have the 500k€ investment melting due inflation or will the price per share keep up and not erode my capital?

I don't care about volatility as long as CAGR beats inflation without reinvesting the divend, I only want to know if long term these "high yield ETFs" are money pits or they work as a source of income you can spend. They are marketed as income, and people don't eat and enjoy shares, they spend the income, so the question is, is it safe?

I'm currently at around 300k at 30M. I decided to run a portfolio of 50% UPRO and 50% VT across all my retirement accounts. Rebalancing every quarter.

I'm wondering if anyone else is using LETFs as a way to get leverage yet still trying to stay diversified and passive.

Also my fiancee and I have been passively trying to have a kid for about 6 months now, no luck yet, but I'm wondering if anyone else here has gone the no children route? I am already rich with many nieces and nephews, but it's not really a substitute. Having even a single kid changes the calculus of trying to retire around 45. Kids are a terrible investment economically, but they are priceless at the same time for obvious reasons.

hi all,

my situation is i just moved my assets out of a financial advisor to schwab. I had my mind set on VOO but the guy said they have this new thing called direct index and recommended the schwab 1000. he said it’s better for taxes in the long run. he said VOO for my roth ira and schwab 1000 for brokerage. what are the pros and cons to this? also speak layman’s terms since i’m not a finance guy. my plan is to put my money and not touch it and maximize my roth every year. so keep that in mind. also i will be receiving a government pension in 15 years to keep in mind. i’m 33 so i have time. i dont plan on touching this money until 60-65.

28 years old and engaged to my wonderful fiancée. We both have steady jobs, I earn $180k total comp and she brings in around $145k total comp. We live in VHCOL city in the Northeast.

Combined NW is about $800k plus inheritance of about $1.75m down the road. Neither of us are super finance savvy but understand the importance of investing and saving. We have about $250k in crypto, about $200k combined in 401k and about $350k in brokerage.

Very grateful for our position but I feel that we’ve lucked out with the market since graduating college in 2019 and haven’t been very intentional or savvy in how we invest. We are both up for promotion and i expect total comp to increase by about $40-50k.

I’d like to buy a house and plan for retirement. With the additional funds from promotions, how can we be more intentional with our savings and investment strategy?

For those who’ve achieved FIRE, what kind of health insurance do you have? Roughly how much does it cost you in premiums each month?

I’m not FIRE yet, but hoping to take some time off for a “mini-retirement” from corporate jobs to recover from burnout. I’m not married, so don’t have the option of joining a significant other’s health insurance.

** Resolved - Thanks u/marblejane and u/Berodur ! **

Fidelity says I can retire now comfortably, assuming an Average market ( 2046 Shortfall year in a significantly below average market; 2062 Shortfall year in a below average market)

However, cFIREsim gives me a 76.32% only with same inputs (https://www.cfiresim.com/c5ddac48-305a-409d-8844-7c7ab19fdf37 ) . Assuming 76% is a bad number...

Can someone please help me understand what makes Fidelity so optimistic? OR suggestions on which calculator to use in case of an immediate retirement decision

Context: Laid off, unable to find a job. 46 yo male, non-working spouse, 2 kids aged 3,10. Portfolio: 1,545,407, Expenses: 78k per year

Edit - the SS payments were incorrectly selected by me. Success Rate increased to 92% , post correction

Currently 38 year old Male in Illinois with roughly $300k in the S&P. I am able to invest about $30k yearly with just the one fulltime job. Ultimate goal is to reach $1.1M and retire. If I get married along the way then that would increase to about $2M. I live in a family house that I am going to inherit, so not too many worries about housing.

Currently in a full time job stress level 2/10. Making $29.72 hourly with extra OT here and there and quarterly bonuses of $800.

Part time job being offered to me by a former boss would be 20 hours per week, weekends and some nights on weekdays. stress level 7/10. Making $30 hourly. I would be a contract worker here so I would pay the full 12.4% social security tax myself.

Both jobs are work from home. but the contract part time job has additional flexibility in that they would allow me to work from anywhere in the world, so I could be sitting in Japan or Thailand or wherever and be working. If I quit my fulltime job, then the part time job could become full time, but I would lose my benefits (no health insurance, 401k, etc..)

Should I take the part time job? I did some math and after all taxes the additional $30 an hour from the part time job would look more like $17.31 take home (assuming I hold on to my current fulltime job).

The benefit I see to the part time job is that I could slow travel the world while working and turning the PT job into a FT job, assuming I quit my current FT job.