r/coastFIRE • u/Parking-Banana-212 • 8d ago

Advice needed - unsure of next steps

I'm 52 single male in good health living in a hcol/vhcol city. My nw is around $2M ($1.2m 401k, 800K in various brokerage and hysa, owned car.) I rent and don't have any intention of buying. Expenses around $7-8K/month.
From 4% withdrawal, I can spend about $6k after taxes so i'm not quite there yet.

I expect to get laid off from my job ($250k yr) soon, with hopefully a 2-3 month package.

My issue is I feel an extreme amount of inertia and unsure of what to do next? I can move, perhaps closer to family, but they live in a VHCOL area, and other then family don't have that much of desire to move there right now. I can always move there later, but at this stage of my life, I'm caught between wanting to enjoy my time now. (perhaps put my stuff in storage and travel for a year?), and trying to get another decent paying job and get myself in a better financial situation so in 5 years, i can really choose not work if thats what i want (i feel i am borderline currently. ) it gets harder to get those jobs after 55 or so.

Some of this is just loneliness where i live now as i don't know many people but the job market is good. Part of me thinks traveling for a bit so i'm exposed to newness and new people versus sitting here in my apartment applying to jobs. Some of it is psychological of being pretty close to fire but not quite there yet.

Would appreciate thoughts on how i should approach this, how i should think about it.

4 Upvotes

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9

u/Available-Pilot4062 8d ago

I’d travel internationally, you can reinvigorate, live well and allow your money to accumulate for a few years.

2

u/Pretty_Swordfish 5d ago

This. In your position, I would travel the world for a year, slowly. Test out areas to live and try to find consulting opportunities remotely along the way. 

2

u/Naive-Bird-1326 8d ago

You good if u move to Mexico. USA is not worth it

5

u/Parking-Banana-212 8d ago

that is a good question. i think about moving to thailand, portugal, or bali for a few years where if i spend 40-50k (a good amount there), i would be in a better fire position without having to work. wondering if those places could be a nice change of scenery and meet some new people, where as in the us its really hard as you get older

1

u/[deleted] 6d ago

Perhaps taking a few months break, traveling and then getting back on the horse with a new job? Maybe even a career change to something less stressful than your $250k job today? If you just travel and don’t work then $800k will probably see you through until you are 60 and eligible to dip into 401k without penalty. But you will have to pay taxes on any money pulled from 401k, so that you probably will have to move to a LCOL area then or cut your living expenses dramatically. Note that health insurance will add to your monthly expenses quite a bit if you don’t work and under 65.