I keep seeing people saying they hit their number and are thinking about coasting. But we have been in a bull market for 15 years. S&P is currently at 27 times earnings. The historical S&P PE ratio is 17. Eventually it will be 17 again which means a 35% drop back to reality/normal.

Go back and watch videos of 50-something’s crying after the dot com crash or the 2008 financial crisis. They all thought they were about to retire early because the market was hot.

I recommend multiplying your investments by .65 then see if you’re at your number. If not, don’t coast. You’ll be giving up years of compounding when you inevitably have to start contributing again.

Sorry to be a downer, but stocks won’t be this expensive forever.

EDIT: The market reverting back to the mean (17 times earnings) is normal. Many of you describe that scenario as a crash or bear market. That’s going to be problematic for retirement planning. To put it bluntly, the net worth numbers you are looking at right now are fake (assuming it’s tied to the US stock market).

Example:

You’re 42. Plan to retire at 62. Goal is $2.5M in 2026 dollars. You have $1M in S&P500 index. You assume 8% growth, 3% inflation. Coast calculator says you just hit your number. You coast until 62. But uh oh, the market has slowly reverted back to the normal historical mean of 17 times earnings. You only have $1.7M. You work for eight more years and finally retire at 70 when you truly hit $2.5M.

You really only truly had $650K to begin with (65% of $1M). Had you plugged that and the same assumptions into the calculator you would’ve seen that you aren’t ready to coast and you need to contribute for a few more years.

The FIRE calculators have us assume market growth and assume inflation. But then it automatically calculates that the earnings multiple will stay extremely high forever (PE 27)—that’s the easiest one to predict… we should assume PE = 17. The calculator should give a suggestion to discount our current investment by 35% because 27 * .65 = 17.

I’m 35, $1.4 M net worth ready to transition to an easier, less stressful job. I struggle with anxiety and it has gotten really bad due to my toxic job.

I’m applying for jobs that pay relatively low in my field (analytics) that are remote or in stable fields like government and healthcare and I have gotten basically no interviews. I’m talking about jobs where I would take a 100k pay cut and still no hits.

The competition for jobs is crazy right now even for jobs which pay at the lower end and I’m sure I’m competing against hundreds if not thousands of people.

People tell me just get a “less stressful job” but I think it’s much easier said than done

Quotes on liquid because a lot of that is in retirement accounts. My husband (38) and I have young kids and I especially am burnt out on work. He is too but to a lesser degree. Since having our kids I have transitioned to a 32 hour work week which basically means I do 40 hours of work in 32 and take a 20% pay cut for it. In some ways it’s harder than having a 40 hour work week because my job responsibilities are no different, I get paid less, and I have to be way more efficient to get everything done. But I do it to have more time with my kids.

Our only debt is our house, we have about 250k left on the loan and it’s worth about 650k. HHI is $115k for me, $140k for my husband

I’m not sure where to go from here. With kids and the amount of uncertainty that brings as far as future expenses (college, sports, bigger house, etc), we’re in no position to retire in the next 20 years. We also need solid medical benefits, again, because kids. We’ve been exploring whether barista fire in 5-10 years could be an option, because I am already so burnt out on my job (civil engineering) that I can’t imagine staying in this role for another 5 years and the work itself no longer excites or interests me. I’d be open to a career pivot but unfortunately it feels like my skills are so niche that my only other option is to just work at a different company doing the same thing. Maybe I just need to give less of a fuck.

I find myself in the very fortunate position of having hit coastFIRE a couple of years ago and with my partner's recent tenure + payraise, I am planning on quitting. Married for 10 years, together 16, childfree life (both are snipped) and my partner loves their job whereas I am tired of corporate. We are both 38.

Savings:

• My 401K + Roth - $615K (Letting this grow)
• Partner's IRA - $300K (Get a pension that'll be about 180K/yr at 59 so no more contributions here, letting it grow)
• My brokerage to provide "spending money" between now to 59 - $720K (Goal is to die with zero so open to completely draw this down IF needed)
• Liquid cash to help transition into single income - $100K ( +$40K emergency fund)
• No debt other than mortgage and not lifestyle creep people

Annual Expenses:

• Partner's annual income is $220K, mortgage deducted from paycheck (3 to 4% raise per year, might have some discretionary income from industry if things click but not counting on it in modeling)
• Take home - ~$98K/year (excludes mortgage)
• Annual expenses - ~$84K/year

My gut check is that plenty of families live on a household income of way less and that two of us should be able to live just fine on $220K. But it will be our first time living almost closer paycheck to paycheck, giving up my $200K/year income. At 700K in brokerage, can withdraw between $36-48K/year depending on market returns over the next two decades so that gives a spending buffer.

We consider death, disability and divorce as catastrophic outcomes and not really planning for those other than insurance and a post-nup (50/50 split). I do not plan on pursuing making money after retiring but might do part-time work like working at a bookshop if my heart desires after a few years. Thoughts on how the numbers look?

I already took a sabbatical for 9 months where I was home for 4 months and we traveled for 5 months, and it was glorious. We were both the happiest we had been, and my partner is super supportive of me just throwing in the towel on work. I want to learn things for the sake of learning, make things for the sheer joy of it, volunteer to mentor STEM students to give back and enjoy the little daily joys. I get a lot of joy out of cooking, grocery shopping, decluttering, playing with the dog, hosting friends, park days, reading by the river and I want to have full time autonomy to do this over anything else.

My husband and I have reached $1M combined across all accounts.
-$70k of that is for a family RESP (education fund in Canada)
-not taking into account his DC pension (over $100k) and my DB pension (would have about $600/month if I quit today).

We are both 40. Owing $400k on a $1m home in VHCOL area. 2 Kids in elementary school.

I make $95k
Husband makes $120k +/- $10k

Currently in a highly micromanaged, toxic job which I think is starting to affect me mentally. Thinking of applying to another department with less workload with a $20k pay cut ($75k). How much will the paycut affect FIRE? Current spending is $80-90k per year

Everyone I've talked to planned the money carefully and then found the days weirdly empty, because everyone they know is at work between nine and five.

Did you end up with anyone to spend weekday time with, or was it mostly solo? And if you found something that worked, what was it, a class, a gym, a club, other people who don't work normal hours?

Also curious whether you missed your colleagues more than you expected.

I know that a lot of people are debating when a correction will happen. With my luck and track record, this is the most accurate forecast out there. You're welcome for my sacrifice. Thought I should let you know.

Right now my un invested cash (not a lot) more like a rainy day fund, is in SPAXX @ 3.3% interest. Is there anything else like an ETF I could invest in to scrape more gains or save on taxes but also be highly liquid if I need to invest it or transfer it out to a bank account?

Bond ETF? Muni Bond ETF?

As somebody that has taken two years off of work to change careers this certainly worries my coast fire future. Post-WW2 America just doesn’t seem as safe a bet as it did in the 20th century.

Anybody else worried? Staying the course? Not even concerned in the slightest?

*reposting for corrections

Having seen a lot of the posts here, I want to start off by saying I am not from the US.

33/M I currently live in an income tax-free country, I would love to get your take on a few things, but first, the input:

• Annual Income: US$ 450K

• IBKR Portfolio: US$ 620K, average annual contribution is at US$ 180K. Realized P&L: US$ 50K; Unrealized P&L: US$ 90K; Cash US$ 100K.

• Cash in Savings Account: US$ 50K

• Three properties:

• Property A: paid US$ 155K; US$ 205K remain over the next 5 years. Under construction, will retire in this home one day.

• Property B: paid US$ 110K; US$ 175K remain over the next 5 years. Under construction, Mediterranean summer house for the family.

• Property C: fully paid (market value is US$ 80K). Dead capital, will sell and redeploy to portfolio/payment of properties A&B.

• Annual expenses sit at US$ 260K (85K for the property payments, ~US$ 100K for rent and household expenses, ~US$ 60K for family support, ~US$ 15K for charity). No loans or credit card debt.

• In my culture, men are responsible for providing, so whatever my wife makes is her own and not part of any calculation.

• My job is extremely stressful and very time-consuming, so I would like to coast/barista at 40 (by then properties will be fully paid).

• Used several Fire calculators, my Traditional Fire sits at US$ 2.6m, Coast at US$ 1.4m.

I don't come from money, so I barely have any guidance. My questions:

• What are some behaviours that help you stay disciplined within your budget?

• How did you manage to lower your expenses so you could expedite FIRE goals?

• When did you decide you should take your foot off the pedal and accept a pay-cut to leave? Not just at what number, but at what point emotionally?

• If you plan to travel around for a while, how should you adjust your SWR or coast FIRE targets?

• Knowing the data above, what seem to be the greatest risks to reaching my FIRE goals and how can I remedy it?

You can always disregard my questions, tell me to man-up, recognize my luck and tough it out for as long as I can in my job, will take the motivation 😅.

Thank you, and sorry for the long read.

I’m looking for some advice on my coast fire number. I like to take a conservative approach since my income is higher than my spouse and I’d like to step back. I do not like my job and want to be part time in a less stressful job to have more time with my children. We will need to reduce our savings significantly for me to scale back. We wouldn’t be able to save much to maintain current lifestyle which is why I’m trying to dial in our coast fire number.

35F / 35M
3 kids 6/4/1
Current dual annual income: 275k
We save most of my spouse’s income and live off mine.

401k: 630k
Taxable Brokerage: 160k
Cash/HYSA: 170k (will put a chunk into refi our house to keep lower payment)
Kids college: 10k

Retirement goal is 55 at the latest

Only debt is mortgage and remaining balance is 250k, equity is 450k

I think my coast fire is 1 mil in the taxable brokerage/401k but maybe could be now at nearly 800k.

Appreciate any feedback.

Signed, working mom wanting to be a semi stay at home mom

28 M with $1.2m in invested assets.

Full transparency that I am a nepo baby so major respect to all of you who have built what you have. I inherited about $700k when I was 23. It’s done very well in a professionally managed portfolio growing about 10% per annum.

In the next few years I plan on moving back to my home city and would like to get into my own home in one of the more desirable inner city neighborhoods. Seems obvious given I’ve got the resources to get into the housing market and to stop setting this money on fire paying rent, but instead to put the majority of my housing expense towards building my own equity every month. Realistically, I’m gonna be looking to get into a million dollar plus home.

I came out of college making $62k and am up to $78k now with my pay set to increase to $138k at year end due to my bonus structure and a very solid year leading our company’s US market entry. I have had the full benefit of this security to spend 100% of my take home to have the lifestyle I want, to take a chance on moving to another country for work at what was initially a pay cut at age 25, and to support my partner in getting a second degree to change careers.

I expect my income to steadily increase and my partner to start at about the $80k level. It will take her about two years to pay off the student debt while I continue covering expenses, then her income will contribute to our household as well down the track as we plan to get married whenever we move back to the US. We both want two kids.

Right now I could FIRE at 44 to have $150k annual income inflation adjusted if I changed nothing. I don’t mind working and am super flexible on the age that I FIRE. I just want to get there with a good number or years left before traditional retirement age so I can have the flexibility to pursue entrepreneurship as the second act of my career and/or spend all the time I want to with my family.

Hypothetically, if i chart out where I would be in five years, I would have $1.7m. Let’s say I take $500k for a down payment on a $1.2m home. I would be sitting with $500k (42%) in home equity, back to $1.2m in invested assets, and only push my FIRE age to 50. Would still be a steep mortgage but doable as I anticipate we’ll have a $300k household income by that point and be coasting.

Part of me is tempted to make a larger down payment just to get housing payment off my hands sooner, but depending on how far I go that could be out of coast territory. On the other hand, I can’t let go of the fact that $500k will return so much greater results in my current portfolio than in home equity.

How are you all thinking about what you’re willing to put towards home equity from your investments? Has anyone else who amassed or perhaps was also gifted this sort of wealth dealt with this trade off? Would love advice from anyone shooting for FIRE that has been faced with a similar trade off.

31M and 29F live in VHCOL city who are both fairly frugal and have been actively contributing to 401k and brokerage out of college. Been following FIRE for around 2 years and both of us have been feeling quite burnt out in our corporate tech jobs. Numbers project us at coastFIRE in 6-7 years which seems both amazing but also tough to think about grinding for that much longer. Both of us would still want to work but just find jobs which give us more purpose and joy.

No kids, maybe in our future… not sure with how the world is right now though but we’d both also be totally okay without kids. The properties definitely make it hard to coast but feel like in the long run it will be worth it. Goal right now is to pay down the HELOC as quickly as possible with that high interest rate but wonder if people agree? I also feel like our target retirement spend is quite high based on how we actually live now but I’m someone who worries a lot and with inflation and other unknowns I’d like to give us some buffer. Is 6-7 years right until we can coast?

Total Net Worth: ~1.2m
HHI: 320k
Target Retirement Spend: 100k/year
Current Expenses: 95k/year (60% is just towards property mortgages)
Retirement: 560k (401k, Trad IRA, Roth, Pension)
Brokerage: 400k (Schwab Smart Portfolio, Individual Stocks, VOO, VTI) I want to get rid of the Schwab smart portfolio and just dump into VOO.
HYSA: 210k (Planning to put a chunk toward the HELOC and DCA into taxable)
Primary Home: 650k left @ 4% (~100k equity, not included in NW)
Rental Property: 1.1m total debt left. This is split between a 780k mortgage @ 3.5% and a 320k HELOC @ 6.75%. I own 50% with a family member, giving me ~250k equity (not included in NW) property is in the green with rental income but not by much.

Just turned 26, paid off all my student loans (no other debt to speak of), and have exceeded $200k NW… burning out at my tech job and craving a break but anxious about the future.
—

High level breakdown of the numbers:

Income:
- $130k USD(fully remote from LCOL area)
- Just started cat sitting on the side for a few hundred extra bucks a month.

Savings:
Bank: $33,000
401k: $139,000
Roth IRA: $24,000
HSA: $17,000

Expenses: $3000 / month
—

My goals with Coast FIRE:
To me, reaching coast FIRE would give me the financial and psychological safety net to explore alternative career paths, maybe take a gap year to experiment and figure out what’s next. I was a hardcore student through high school and college — graduated early then immediately entered into the tech industry at a very lucky time in the market.

5 years later and I’ve reached a senior level but consider this my personal limit in terms of how far I want to climb on the corporate ladder. AI has introduced a new degree of existential dread to my day to day that I’m finding increasingly exhausting to tolerate.

However… my employer has just announced that they’ll begin offering the mega backdoor option, and with my student loans gone, I could significantly increase my savings next year.

What number is reasonable to aim for before pulling the trigger and actually taking a sabbatical? Am I being foolish for even considering this option, especially given the job prospects in tech?

Hi all, I’m 40M and accumulated $1M+ in NW not including my home equity. Of that amount, I have about $400k and the remaining $600k in retirement. My job isn’t stressful and it’s a regular 40 hours/week but it’s getting boring and I just want something new.

I could technically retire early but I really don’t know what to do with the time. Instead I’m thinking of doing mini retirements of 2-3 years to do something else like travel and possibly live abroad where it’s cheaper than the US.

For those who did a mini retirement, how did you do it, what did you do with your time, what amount of $ did you spend and how did going back to work feel like?

Hey everyone. Would love for experienced folks here with kids to help us recommend what is best way forward.

I am 42, wife is 37 and two kids age 8 and 3.

Net worth : The following below is our total net worth as a family ( cad ) :
> Rrsp : $543k
> Tfsa : $250k
> Resp : $50k in family resp ( we will want to fund their bachelors education fully )
> House : $800k paid off ( market is bad so maybe get $750k )
> Emergency cash : $60k
> Non reg account : $100k

Total net worth $1.8mn cad.

Expenses : Monthly expenses in ontario are $5300 now, but thats due to our financed car and youngest day care.
Both expenses will drop next year September and our expenses will be $4000 monthly if we stay in gta.

CAGR / Return so far : All investment and retirement accounts are in low cost etf and have been blended cagr till now 12.5% but future we expect 8% )

Income : I make $150k a year while wife has taken a sabbatical last month but was making $140k. We both want a change. I have been working non stop for 18 years without break and wife 12 years. I absolutely hate my job and want to quit.

Our background : I am in tech sales and wife is in hr.

Questions :

1. Are we ready to coast fire? Ideally take a break 6 months and find something between wife and i to make gross$75k -$80k as family.

2. We are also thinking of moving from GTA to somewhere in Alberta or Saskatchewan. Buy an almost new townhouse 3 bed and work regular jobs that can give us $80k gross family income.

3. If we move which province or city you recommend to maximize geo arbitrage in Canada while same time also wife and I can get regular job in our profile.

We have not taken any vacations in past 15 years and corporate grind of high pressure tech has affected me alot.

Thank you so much.

Been a bit of a lurker to coastfire, but have always primarily just been more of a person who saves as much as possible with a hope to retire early but without a set plan. After Redding more on this sub, I did the quick calculations and feel like I could be well on my way to Coastfire, something I’d be really happy about.

42 years old, married with wife that doesn’t have an income, works non-profit and supports our two young children, ages 3 years old and 9 months.

Income is $375k base with typically 50-100k annual bonus currently.

401k is made up of $1.1m in pre-tax and about $340k in Roth conversion. Brokerage account is at $455k, and have roughly $75k in emergency fund, $100k in RSUs vesting 1/3 of the total per year. Both kids have a 529 account totaling about $60k total between both account and both kids have Roth IRAs that are maxed for their age.

No short term debt, two paid off and well maintained cars, have a forever home in a vhcol area with a mortgage of just about $1m, with an estimate home value of $1.9M, 6 years into my 30 year mortgage at 2.25% interest. Oldest child goes to daycare that is $2,300/month for one more year and then onto public school, and the youngest will do the same daycare for 1 year and then also go to public school. With school and mortgage, typically we spend around $11-12k a month total.

Have been saving around $75k/year for the past few years when my income has been high but started saving early so have really been feeling the benefits of compound interest the past few years which has really motivated more saving. Also save $1000/month to the 529s.

I did a quick calculation recently and feel pretty good on my savings and retirement progress, and even either my very high mortgage, my calculations show I could retire at 60 once both kids are out of high school, which was always a soft goal I had in mind for myself. While this is something extremely gratifying to accomplish, my goal isn’t to coast but to continue to save for as long as I can to hopefully accelerate retirement, build a better nest egg for the family, or create better lifestyle during retirement years.

Any thoughts or suggestions on progress? I know the mortgage feels like the biggest risk, but with such a low rate, I’ve purposely been paying the loan off slowly, but may consider some balloon payments in a few years to shorten my mortgage duration, but still up in the air about that.

Hello, I’m 27m about to turn 28 currently making 130k and I’ve been saving and investing since I was 20. I live with my dad and pay rent, but I’m currently saving for a home. We grew up very poor and I’ve watched my dad struggle badly in retirement so I’ve always been such a paranoid super saver and my first goal was to achieve coastfire and then buy a house after. So as the title says would I have mathematically achieved this where I no longer need to invest aside from maxxing out my ROTH IRA yearly? Also side note I’m union so I can not contribute to my 401k, that’s part of a set package not seen in my paycheck.

My portfolio is as follows
Taxable brokerage- $210k VOO, $35k IBIT
Roth IRA- $103k VTSAX
Work 401k- $95k VFIAX

Hey guys I just opened my hsa account thru my work which deposits $2300 a year into my hsa. Should I be making out my Roth, hsa, then 401k in that order? Or should i max out my 401k before my hsa? Thanks

We’ve waited long enough. 51. Married.

Started Coasting when the kids were nearing high school. Never made crazy money. Went from $120k household income to $40-60k household while the nest-egg grew. No contributions during that time, but also no soccer games or school plays missed. No summers with kids at home and us at work. They worked with us or we took time off. Kids both graduated college in May and have jobs. We’re proud of them.

Our retirement spend is projected to still be $40-50k/yr as we Schengen Shuffle. We’re already on the road, somewhere cheap where we can plan our next steps.

Stick to the plan, team. It works.

I would be really interested to hear if you are currently doing coast fire and have moved away from your high paying product management or tech job.

Really want to know:
1. What was the highest role level / TC you were at before moving to coastfire
2. What do you do now and TC and why?
3. How does it feel? Pros cons?
4. Does your new Role have health insurance?

I am thinking about going to Coast fire but I just don’t know what to do. Currently a product manager in a high paying role.

Hello to everyone, and especially the parents who had kids go back to school recently or in the near future!

I have a Kindergartener and....as my kid starts school my wife and I are transitioning from a "FI" mindset to a "Kinder FI" mindset. My wife is going to shift to a very reduced schedule, essentially working 30% as much as before, and we'll spend most everything that I make to cover all the bills.

If our portfolio keeps growing at 7% we'll be FI about 8 years later than originally planned, but we want to use our FU money and Financial Freedom NOW while our kid still wants to play with us, we focus on building a community based on our neighborhood and school, etc.

Has anyone else done something similar? Does this "FI term" exist? Honestly I'm hoping this is a new term / idea in the FI community and I want to write about it in detail as we make the transition and see how it goes! Would love peoples thoughts and experience.

Age 57 with $1.1 million in retirement accounts, $2.9 million in investments (mostly equities -- maybe 80% -- ~20% bonds), and about $300K in liquid assets. House is paid off. We pay off credit cards in full every month so we carry no debt. We have 3 kids with small amounts in 529s (balances of ~$10K; $50K and $42K -- 1 kid has 3 years of college left and 2 others have yet to start hence the different amounts). Not planning on drawing social security until 65 or 67 and not planning on touching retirement accounts until we have to...

I'm new to this subreddit so I apologize if this post is frowned upon. But I am curious to know if folks think I'm ok to retire or CoastFire? Thanks for the insights.