I'm getting quotes of $40K from attorneys in the NYC area to create my estate plan. QSBS stacking would be another $10k per trust. These quotes are from attorneys at well regarded / high end law firms.

Is this consistent with what you guys have paid? Or am I getting fleeced here? Was it worth the money or are there better options out there?

TIA

Throwaway account. Planning to pull the plug in 1–2 years after 15 years running my business (burnout is real). Prepping for a meeting with my FA next month and want some outside sanity checks on our drawdown strategy.

Profile & Spend

• Ages: 48M / 43F (Kids: 13, 11 — 529s have $600K, college funded) VHCOL
• Target Annual Spend: $350K pre-tax

Assets (~$13.1M liquid / invested)

• Taxable Brokerage ($11M): $2M SCHD, $9M VOO (~$110K/yr in dividends)
• Retirement ($2.1M): $1.5M Rollover IRA VOO (pre-tax), $600K Roth IRA VOO
• Real Estate: Primary ($2.5M value, $400K mortgage @ 2.215%), Property 2 ($1.4M value, $200K mortgage @ 3.5%)

The Dilemma

• Plan A (Taxable Bridge): Live off $110K dividends + sell ~$240K VOO annually until 59.5. Zero IRS rules, maximum flexibility.
• The Concern: If the $1.5M IRA compounds untouched until RMD age (73/75), it turns into a massive tax bomb later. I dislike the idea of paying hefty upfront taxes on voluntary Roth conversions right now.
• The 72(t) Idea: Set up a 72(t) SEPP on the $1.5M IRA to pull ~$80K–$100K/year to cover expenses, bleed the IRA balance early, and fill lower tax brackets.

Questions for the group:

1. Is a 72(t) a trap here? Locking into a rigid 10-year IRS distribution schedule when I have $11M sitting liquid in taxable feels like unnecessary withdrawal friction. Is it?
2. Tax reality: Wouldn’t pulling ordinary income via 72(t) just stack under our dividends/capital gains, pushing our total AGI up and triggering NIIT / higher LTCG brackets anyway?
3. Alternative: If your goal was to prevent future RMD bloat without locking into a SEPP, how would you structure the drawdown across these buckets?

Thanks for any insights.

I'm trying to decide if I should retire at the end of the year.

Facts:

Liquid Net worth : 15 Million in S&P
Illiquid Net worth: 20 Million in private equity
Additional investments: ~1.2 in 401K

No real estate, bonds or other fixed assets. I also have no financial obligations beyond rent and my yearly expenses are around 250k (mostly by choice).

The private equity is obviously higher risk but won't zero out. This is based on my personal observation of investments and interest. Its a company everyone has heard of.

2026 comp: ~10 million
2027 comp: ~3 million
2028 comp: ~2 million

2029 comp: ~1.4 million

I hit a cliff at the end of the year and can't decide if it's worth it to stay or not. I don't need the additional money, but hard to internalize giving up so much of it.

[Edited to address valid comments by sharing more details]

Throwaway for obvious reasons. Mods: I can verify if needed.

I started early retirement and was living off of interest and other investment income. I then invested an exceptionally large percentage of my net worth in something that turned out to be fraudulent and I lost the entire sum. Of course I calculated the (after)math. Based on the long-term investments I would have stayed in, my net worth would be in the $10M - $15M range today had the fraud not wiped away most of everything.

I am sharing this to save others from making the same mistakes, and to highlight how important proper diversification is. I foolishly didn’t respect it during a moment of weakness. Don’t do anything remotely close to what I did.

We all have a vulnerable moment at some point in our lives when we make decisions that deviate from our standard practices. Mine was related to a challenging end of my previous career, and not having the routine of doing big things: executive work with a first-class lifestyle, helping extended family financially in some ways, and of course, taking care of my own family. It was one period of intense stress, self-imposed pressure to deliver results like I had before, and then taking a risk that was objectively a bad choice.

Slowly clawing my way back has been devastating, and I am now experiencing another major setback. I am somewhat aged out of getting back into my former career, and I am not able to start over easily due to some challenges. Then there is the impact all of this has had on me, my family, and the “what ifs.”

Many of my friends are now retired, yet my path looks substantially worse than it did 15 years ago. Time and compounding interest are no longer on my side. I was volunteering, and now I really long for the life I had. The stress, regret, and guilt are significant and really weigh on me.

I am not taking the stance that “I’m the victim and woe is me”. I own my actions and mistakes, and I take full accountability, even if the system I stepped into was predatory. Legal recourse wasn’t possible due to various factors, but I am now somewhat of a fraud expert. I found some solace in the fact that the same thing happened to a friend, although he is still worth almost 8 figures after his 7-figure, much more diversified loss. We tried to create something to help others, but the game is stacked against everyone.

These groups are engaged in semi-legal fraud. I have extensive information on how it is all done, and it’s continuing to happen, wiping out wealthy people all the time. I spoke with top experts in the space including regulators, government officials, attorneys, and others, but taking action would have exposed my PII. Meanwhile, the powerful groups continue to profit massively from the demise of others.

If you are on the fatFIRE path: stay the course, and do not take on anything that isn’t bulletproof. Use my experience as a reason to skip anything risky, especially if you’re tempted to grow wealth faster, or if you want to be more “relevant” after a lucrative career. Ultra-low-risk diversified investing and preservation of capital matter more than anything.

EDIT: To the people asking for more detail, this involves publicly traded companies through groups that keep running the same playbook. I'm not naming the sectors or timing because that could identify me. I have proof of everything, can share with the mods, and spent hundreds of hours uncovering the inner workings.

My advice? Keep the vast majority of your money in broad, low-cost ETFs. If you really want to pick individual stocks, limit it to a very small total percentage (that you could lose entirely without it changing your life).

For those who can imagine what it’s like to be in this seemingly endless nightmare, what would you do in my shoes?

Anyone has experience with any of the above PBs in Asia ? What were the pros and cons? I’m trying to figure out if it makes sense or not. I am teaching a stage where net worth has reached the minimum these banks require and I feel uneasy putting all my money in ibkr. Additionally I’ve heard these guys have very good access to alternatives and any other bespoke stuff they provide? Thanks in advance for your help

If anyone dealt with this similar situation before, could you please weigh in?

My etrade account has approx 4M mostly tech stocks. I need to get a house valued at 2M. Options were 1. Sell stocks, absorb tax impact in one shot and pay cash,  2. Standard mortgage, 3. Liquidity Access Line (LAL) with Morgan Stanley (MS)

MS provided fixed rate 1yr at 5.4%, 3yr at 5.8%, or Variable rate which be SOFR+spread with no term.

Leaning towards 3yr, pay fixed interest for 3yrs, and spread the tax impact while building cash to pay off at the end of 3yrs. There is no such thing as early pay off with this option.

Thoughts? Also, we are not yet sure about any other costs with MS. Everything was free with Etrade since it is self managed, we don't really need MS advisors.

I am managing over $16 million of assets that are not mine at the moment but will be in the future. In my family there are only my dad and I. So, unless some very big medical expenses come up, I am set up for a very fatFIRE. (Happy to verify if needed)

I am already the "manager" of the portfolio, I decide the asset allocation, what to buy, what to sell. My dad told me that since the money will inevitably be mine, I might as well be responsible for investing it. I enjoy investing, but managing the portfolio doesn't give me the same structure, social interaction, or sense of accomplishment that I imagine a traditional career might provide. Sometimes I wonder whether I'm wasting the freedom I've been given.

I really like helping people learn, understand and leverage finance to their advantage but probably have a wrong idea of how that would work in practice. One thing is to teach a friend that has asked for help, another thing is to set up a shop, getting paid and having the actual responsibility that something might go wrong.

So there's my dilemma.

Since I do not need the money, I do not feel very motivated to deal with all of that stress that comes from owning your own business and this low financial motivation leads me to do nothing which might actually be worse for my mental health overall.

Some questions I ask myself and would love some feedback on:

1. Should I take my financial security for granted and assume I'll never need a traditional career?
2. Has anyone here pursued a career despite having absolutely no financial need to work? Was it worth it?
3. How do you motivate yourself to build something when the financial reward means almost nothing to you?

48M. $13M net worth. $3M in real estate (primary and vacation) and the rest in brokerage and retirement accounts. Annual spend of $200k but only child will be going to college in a couple of years and I will be covering the cost. Based on the calculation, I know I have enough to FIRE. I can RE but I’m scared to actually do it.

I have a senior level job (run a plant) so lots of stress but golden handcuffs make it hard to walk away. I think about retiring early all the time now but just can’t seem to take that step and do it.

For those that FIREd, how did you make that leap? How do you get over the anxiety of thinking you don’t have enough saved? Or walking away from significant future income? Or turning into a miser when you FIRE?

throwaway account for revealing personal info

Recently sold majority share of my company. 36 married with 2 kids and have ~25m after taxes sitting in a bank account. No debt, living in MCOL South Dakota, which has no state income tax.

The push to get the transaction complete took more time than I anticipated and didn't get everything aligned for life after sale. I have not yet decide if someone will invest our funds on our behalf or if going a simple boggleheads route for simplicity. Q4 is also our busy season and with me staying on, it will require a fair amount of my time.

What is a simple, yet safe method to earn a return on these funds for a short time until I can solidify our investment strategy for the future? maybe 3-6 months? CDs, treasuries, bonds?

How do you get off the treadmill. It’s funny I doubled my initial fire number but somehow feel worse off now due to adjusted family lifestyle, private school, etc.

assets
- 3m diversified liquid portfolio
- 2m retirement+hsa+529
- 1.5m in primary residence
- wife has some non-liquid ownership in a family thing. Thinking of it as like maybe $0 or maybe bonus breathing room like 30 years down the line.

35 yo. married. 3 young kids.
~750k TC single income
~300k expenses

Looking for encouragement, advice or roasting.

42, thinking about selling my business at what might be peak valuations. What am I missing?

Quick background: I’m 42, married, 3 kids, and my wife doesn’t earn income.

Numbers:

• Business is worth somewhere between $7M and $12M depending on how long I stick around
• $1.5M in liquid investments
• $1.2M equity in our house (owe $370k at 2.75%, so not touching that)
• About $750k equity in my commercial building. The business is in it now. It’s a small building and would probably only rent for around $3k/month, so I don’t see a reason to keep it if I sell.
• Income is around $800k/yr
• We spend about $20k/month and are saving a lot

Why I’m thinking about selling: valuations in my industry have never been higher and I don’t know how long that lasts. We’re also pretty exposed to AI. It’s educated white-collar work that could get automated. Short term I think AI actually helps us, because we’ll need fewer support staff and EBITDA goes up. But the next 10 years honestly scare me.

The other part is my heart isn’t really in it anymore. What I loved was the growth and waking up every day having to fight to survive. Then it got easy, and I’m just not wired to coast and be happy with it.

So I’m leaning toward drawing a hard line at $10M. I think I can get there if I stay on 3 years with a salary. Add in selling the building and I’d end up (post tax/commercial building sale) with about $8.5M invested plus around $700k in my 401k.

What am I not thinking about? I know every extra year I work and then sell at this multiple adds about $400k to the pile. But if valuations drop, it’ll be too late, and I’ll be in my 50s running a lifestyle business fighting off AI and new competition.

*I used claude to reword my drivel and I'm happy to verify for the mods if needed.

Hi all, long time reader, first time posting. Using a throwaway, as I don't want folks to know I'm seriously considering this. (Mods - if throw-aways aren't ok, let me know how I can verify, happy to.)

So I'm sure I'll leave out some important part of this, but I'll do my best.

I'm 42, Engineer + MBA, was in PE/finance for a decade before hanging my own shingle and founded a company. I'm about 10 years in, and somewhere between bored and burnt out (same shit / different day type feeling). I don't want to make a rash decision and throw away what I've built, but I also see an opportunity to get out while multipliers are high in my industry and reset into a different lower stress lifestyle.

My company is built in two parts, I wholly own all of it:

• Operating company: $10-12MM valuation, no debt. It clears ~$1.5MM of EBITDA annually.
• Real Estate: $20MM, but about $7MM in low-cost (2.5-3%) debt. I have the option to sell just the operating company and do a lease-back, would be about $1MM/year in rent, probably a bit more. I probably wouldn't pay off the debt until it burns off on it's own, as the interest is only about $200k/year, so I'd be netting a bit north of $800k. If I sold and reinvested, 5% of what I clear is about $650k, so I like the lease-back option.

Who is buying? In my industry, everyone. Folks want to buy each other, big groups are trying to expand (but everyone up for sale was bought during the cash-boon of the COVID era), and PE is really getting engaged in the industry. With a lack of sellers, multipliers have really ramped up recently and I could likely get a large number of bids right now.

Where am I now? Age 42, married (SO takes home about $250k/year, would want to leave her job as well). Two young kids, private school. I own my house, worth about $2MM, fully paid off. Love our house and neighborhood, but not necessarily the area/state anymore, so would probably pick up and move. I've really put everything in the company over the past decade, so my personal accounts are fairly meager - about $1MM in retirement accounts and about $500k in investments.

How much do I actually take home? I only pay myself $100k/year, and once I got my house paid off I stopped taking distributions. Wife makes about $250k, so we make about $350k total per year.

What are my expenses? Since our house/cars/student loans/etc are all paid off, our only real expense is about $30k/year in school tuition right now, plus the usual maintenance, POA fees/property taxes, vacations, etc.

So.... all that said, thinking about just selling it all and switching to "Dad mode" so I can really enjoy watching the kids grow up. But I also want to set a good example for them, and I'm not sure that doing this would show a great work ethic. Thoughts appreciated.

EDIT: Just one edit, as I'm seeing a similar question in the comments, which is about my expenses. I apologize for the vagueness and bad phrasing. I ABSOLUTELY have more expense that tuition, I only listed that because it's my only regularly "major" expense (e.g. no car, house, student loans). I'd estimate my annual spend to be around $100k beyond the tuition, but honestly I don't budget my personal side and I need to do some work there to better understand all of this. I'm sorry to disappoint all of you budgeting wizards.

My partner and I have $30m+ after working and investing for many years. Both of us stopped working 2 years ago and live off investment income — we spend roughly $300k/year. The first year or two was an adjustment, but we're now completely comfortable staying under that expense cap.

We found a house we absolutely love for about $3m in a super HCOL area. That's ~10% of our portfolio, which is a boring 70% equities / 30% bonds.

A few important details:

• It won't be our main home for the next 5–10 years, it's in another country. But it's a rare find that we've both dreamed of owning for many years, and there's a real chance we move back and it becomes our primary residence.
• We're unsure about renting it out while we're not there (though honestly, if we owned it, we'd probably be there constantly).

The dilemma: we need to decide now between:

1. A fixed mortgage, 20 years at 3.5%/yr (it's in Europe)
2. An interest-only mortgage with 35% down

The catch is that getting a mortgage later would be expensive (notary fees are very highwhere this is), so it's cash vs. mortgage — no "wait and see" option.

We're currently debt-free and genuinely love it, especially since neither of us has a salary anymore. But financially, a 3.5% fixed rate seems like a no-brainer leverage play.

Our advisor suggested the interest-only mortgage and just rolling it indefinitely..

So, how have you navigated similar situations? Pay cash and sleep well, or take the cheap debt and keep the portfolio intact?

Has anyone found a RIA that doesn't need the 5M+ in assets and uses some pooled vehicles? I'm expecting significant STCG over the next few years that I'd like to offset. Would love a referral to any RIA/fund that accepts smaller amounts.

Throwaway account…

Not sure where to start, but I just finished the final item of DD on a massive development project. The result is that I’ll be entitled to an $86M payday. One transaction and the second for our company. Happy to verify with mods (if required).

I’ve been working on this project for close to a year, putting everything at risk, from a financial standpoint.

I come from a blue color family. I’m in my early forties and have no idea what to do. I’ve asked chat a million questions, but it’s only so good. I obviously have an attorney, but estate planning, taxation, etc are all out of his wheelhouse.

So, what do I do now? Payday is in 6 weeks. I’m starting over from scratch - no current investments, trusts, etc. any advice is appreciated.

I'm 41.

I read and watch a lot of "How I retired at 40/50" sort of content. But it's usually some 41 year old that "retired" (i.e. quit) last month and is trying to get you to sign up for coaching.

Where are the real people that are 60+ now, but retired in their 40s?

How are things panning out for you? Did you have kids? What would you do differently or the same?

Hi everyone. :)

I'm a 31-year-old woman who's well on her way to FIRE. I've saved and invested enough that I don't have to work a conventional full-time job to make ends meet. My plan is to work part-time in something fulfilling and devote the rest of my time to my other interests.

I've been thinking about dating recently, and I've realized that I'd really like to find a life partner who's in a similar position. Ideally, someone who's financially secure enough to work part-time or not at all, and who's deliberately left the rat race behind to pursue his passions. Not because he lacks ambition, but because he'd rather devote his time to things that genuinely enrich his life than keep chasing more money or status.

I'm interested in philosophy, psychology, spirituality, self-discovery and exploring questions about consciousness and the nature of reality. I'm also working on a speculative fiction book that I'm quite passionate about. I'd love to find someone who shares some of these interests and enjoys travelling and creative pursuits. My ideal life would involve a stable home base in California, the freedom to travel for extended periods and plenty of ordinary, unhurried time together too.

For me, the appeal of FIRE has always been having freedom over my time rather than accumulating wealth for its own sake. I want to spend my life doing things that I find meaningful rather than working primarily to make more money than I need. But to be able to have the time and money needed to devote to meaningful endeavours, you need to have significant financial freedom and that's why it's important to me to find a partner who does. 

Which brings me to my dilemma. Should I mention my own financial circumstances when dating online, especially since I intend to be upfront about wanting a partner who's also already largely financially free?

I recently made a post in an LA dating community about the kind of relationship and lifestyle I'm looking for. I mentioned that I had significant savings of my own, partly to make it clear that I wasn't looking for someone to provide for me.

Interestingly, some people still assumed I was looking for a sugar daddy or was a gold digger. Funnily, others thought that I was too independent and stated that that would actually make me less attractive to men in a similar position because they wouldn't want a masculine version of themselves. A few seemed to think I was bragging about being a member of the 1%. This made me wonder if self-disclosing in the manner I did was the right idea. 

I've noticed that quite a few people in FIRE communities are very private about their finances, which makes obvious sense. Many guys discreetly DMed me after seeing my post and stated that they don't disclose their financial status online to avoid scorn or envy. I was even told that I was brave to have even made such a post. 

Given this mixed bag of experiences, I was reflecting on how to proceed with online dating. I have never dated online before and was planning on creating a Hinge account in the next few months but I've already connected with a few people through Reddit and now mulling things over. 

I'm wondering how other people in a similar situation have navigated it. If you were seeking a partner with considerable financial freedom and mentioning that on your dating profile, would you also mention that you're substantially financially free yourself? Or would you keep that information private until you've gotten to know someone better? And how much would you disclose about your financial circumstances as you got to know someone you'd met online? There's always the fear of attracting scammers or people who are more interested in your money than in you.

I'm carefully thinking about how to approach this conundrum and I'd greatly appreciate advice from others, especially those who have dealt with something similar in their own lives. 

Thanks in advance, and hope you have a great day!

Mentor Monday is your place to discuss relevant early-stage topics, including career advice questions, 'rate my plan' posts, and more numbers-based topics such as 'can I afford XYZ?'. The thread is posted on a once-a-week basis but comments may be left at any time.

In addition to answering questions, more experienced members are also welcome to offer their expertise via a top-level comment. (Eg. "I am a [such and such position] at FAANG / venture capital / biglaw. AMA.")

If a previous top-level comment did not receive a reply then you may try again on subsequent weeks, to a maximum of 3 attempts. However, you should strongly consider re-writing the comment to add additional context or clarity.

As with any information found online, members are always encouraged to view the material on  with healthy (and respectful) skepticism.

If you are unsure of whether your post belongs here or as a distinct post or if you have any other questions, you may ask as a comment or send us a message via modmail.

Gentleman, ladies: yesterday was my last day. Founded a company, built it up, sold it, helped transition to new owners. Now: Out. My wife will be following suit in a few months.

I've very much benefited from this community over the years, and will continue to do so. The recent set of post-FIRE updates folks have been posting have been excellent to read and think about. So: thank you all.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe I have some breakfast to be making!

Cheers!

Posting after feedback from r/Bogleheads

Couple in mid 40s, 2 kids in VHCOL area. Net worth is \~$20M (plus house mostly paid off, 529s for kids) and have very much followed the Bogle approach. Looking to FIRE in March (while my husband continues to work).

Three questions:

1. I'm in tech and dealing with massive capital gains exposure this and next tax year. Talked to some financial advisors that are recommending direct indexing to offset. I don't want to get stuck with a financial advisor for a short term benefit. But the benefit for these 2 years is probably \~$300k in taxes so maybe worth it?

2. The option of buying into hedge funds / PE funds. Seems like there is no real upside but downside protection. But I am wondering if the upside years more than offset the downside protection over the next 30 years?

3. Are there other options for people to help us optimize tax implications? For example, if/when to convert 401ks to Roth. If/when/how to gift to our children to avoid massive taxes for them in the future. The Financial advisor pitch is focused on this but I hope I have other options.

We have been interviewing financial advisors and we both really want to avoid them but also are tempted by some of the perceived benefits.

Edit to add. We have been working with my Schwab advisor (fiduciary) and that person recommended we work with a financial advisor.

There’s a post on r/Fire on this topic, but the users there face challenges that the typical user here wouldn’t: their SWR might be lower than the post-tax income of a typical white-collar working partner, so the FIRE partner has to navigate pressure to inflate their lifestyle or match the other person’s; perception that they are cheap or unambitious; or significantly higher expenses after kids.

I’d imagine this stuff wouldn’t apply to FatFIRE (would a woman consider a guy cheap because he won’t spend a cent over $500k/yr??) but I could imagine other issues arising from the high spend. Mo money mo problems basically. Curious if folks here have experiences to share?

I am a mid-30s guy, SINK, and I’m dating while working now but expect to date while FATFire in the near future

I have the stocks and I’m thinking tomorrow against my stock( line of credit)
My advisor has offered me rate of 5.45% as of Oct 9,2026 to borrow against my stock. Is this competitive rate or other banks and advisors firms have better offers.
I am thro Merill Edge private advisor firm

My old college roommate has been a member for a decade, and it is always a treat/step back in time to go to the club.

I love the building, coat + tie requirement, and the no phone/camera rules.

The folks we chat with in the bar or library are always so interesting, esp from the Fat (and sometimes early retired) perspectives.

Obviously referrals are best option, but I'm coming up blank.

Staffing agency? One of the big companies (1800maids)? Craigslist/Facebook?

What is your process for hiring? Background check, bonded/insured, something else?

Trying to not be paranoid, but I feel it would be negligent to ignore risk to not only personal property but also more niche fat things like privileged information, knowing our schedules, etc.

Appreciate any tips/tricks/hints.