r/ChubbyFIRE

My entire life I have managed my own money and have been pretty close to the S&P return (amazing how index funds work), but I am now considering retirement and I know there are things I do not know, and I thought an advisor would be helpful. I have contacted 4 different advisors (one local and three national) and they have given me some interesting ideas, but then they mention their fees. 0.8-1% of my assets??? With ChubbyFIRE that can be $50-100k a year. Each and every year? And their advice is to buy index funds and bonds and just monitor it. I asked for their returns against the market and they were AT BEST comparable to their "hand picked" benchmark (which was always a group of mutual funds I had never heard of).

If you agree with the 4% approach per year, then you are giving away 25% of your yearly income to the financial advisor. Do people really do that? The advisor I just met said they based their fee off Assets Under Management (AUM) to align our interests. WTF? If my advisor is paid on a percentage of how much they exceed my 4% minimum withdrawal, then we are in alignment, but being paid on my assets (especially when the marginal fee decreases as my assets go up) means they really don't care.

That was my rant - my real question is whether anyone has solid recommendations for true hourly or flat fee based advisors. Two of the firms I contacted stated "flat fee based" and what they meant was their fee as a percentage of your assets ("bait and switch") would effectively be flat.

Hi all

I posted this in personal finance, and people recommended I also post this here.

I'm 46M, married to a 45F homemaker, with two kids 4 and 8. I work in big tech, making 320K-380K / year and getting burnt out and staring down at the possibility of getting replaced by AI, or laid off due to being "old" or whatever. I've been fairly diligent in saving, preparing for a worst case scenario. We live in MCOL city in the US.

Our yearly expenses are roughly 100K, and based on that I created a goal of 2.5 M on the low end (4% withdraw rate) and a high end goal of 2.8M (3.5% withdraw rate).

For HC I've budgeted $30K per year based on some rule of thumbs I've read, but haven't dug deep into the details.

For college my kids will get the money from their 529s and we'll help them use that money as best as possible, but they won't get a blank check from us.

I have recently reached my low end goal, and while I'm not necessarily quitting today, I would like to have a plan for when I do switch from "saving" to "withdrawing" in my late 40s early 50s.

My goal would be to keep income in the first capital gains tax bracket (less than $96,700 for a couple, adjusted by inflation), so that I can avoid paying capital gains tax.

How does it work when I switch from saving to withdrawing?

How often should I withdraw? (Monthly? Quarterly?)

What's strategy should I use to choose where to withdraw from?

Breakdown of our situation:

Short term / Emergency 
HYSA	                                 31K
IBonds	                                 43K
Brokerage (AOM super conservative ETF)	 32K
Short term / Emergency Total	        106K

	 
	
Investments
Investments (Taxable)                   911K
HSA (invested in ETFs)	                122K
REIT	                                106K
Roth IRAs	                        176K
IRAs (pre-tax)	                        299K
Employee RSUs (vested)                  111K
401K (pre-tax)	                        461K
401K (Roth)	                        344K
Investments Total	               2530K

	

Home	500K
Mortgage 250K @ 2.875% 	

	
Other Assets that I exclude from my net worth 
Kids 529	200K (127K for the 8yo and 73K for the 4yo)

No debts beyond mortgage

35 y.o couple with a toddler. I make ~$210k/yr, my wife makes ~$175k/yr. 
Our annual expenses are ~$130k/yr. 
We can live off one income without changing much although we’d likely have to cut back on our investing contributions, but we’ve reached escape velocity where compound interest has taken over and that isn’t as important anymore.  My wife intends to take a less stressful, lower paying job. I also want her to take her time in deciding her next step.

Our invested assets were $2.6M as of Jan 2026 when we last checked. (It’s definitely higher now given our contributions & investment choices) About $1M is in a brokerage account. 

Mortgage
$222k remaining @ 5.25%
$2400 monthly payment
We have been making addtl $2250/mo payments (in total we pay $4600/mo to the mortgage)
Continuing with the pre-payments, we’d pay the mortgage off in about 5 years. 

If we pay off the mortgage now, we’d save an additional $30k in interest payments, which incidentally is almost exactly how much we’d pay in Long term capital gains tax on a $200k withdrawal from our brokerage at 15%. (I think)

If the mortgage were paid off, our largest expense would then be daycare for our 2 year old ($1700/mo). No plans for another kid.

I like my job & I like getting a paycheck, but would love to slow down in the next few years as the kid goes into elementary school. My wife may not retire early. 

At this point, I think I value getting “lower to the ground” vs “seeing how high the nest egg can go” since compound interest is doing most of the work (we contribute about $100k/yr but that would drop after wife leaves job).

I think if we pay off the mortgage now, we make it easier for me to FIRE in a few years and be able to live off my wifes lower income on our own. 

We both want to be debt free, and I am operating off motivated reasoning to want to pay this off as I believe at 5.25% we are in the gray zone of if it makes sense or not so wanted some other perspectives on this. Thanks.

I’ve been using Boldin and Income Lab to model retirement for a my wife and I where we both get SS. Most couples can withdraw 5.5% very safely. Especially if you are willing to use risk based guardrails. For anyone not familiar with how guardrails work, you really need to because it allows you to spend more while guaranteeing you don’t run out of money. You just need to be willing to reduce spending if there is a large 30% drop in the markets.

Even the creator of the rule revised to 4.7% ..

Secondary account used only a couple of times

TL;DR

Late 40s, US/EU citizen, single/no kids, ~$5-6M liquid. High-income job in Europe, but I have mentally checked out and am thinking of FIREing or being FIREd. Historical spend in VHCOL US city was ~$40k–80k/year excluding taxes; European spend still unclear.

Main concern is whether taxes, future housing, longevity, and possible long-term care make RE riskier than it looks. Looking for a sanity check on whether these fears are rational and how others would model/manage them

I know basic FIRE maths looks ok (4% of 5m much bigger than 80k) but how should I think of the above concerns?

Context

I am thinking of FIREing or be FIREd: currently working in Europe with high income(by european standards, however do not enjoy what I am doing anymore and have essentially checked out (by my standards) one or two years ago and would not be surprised if it eventually catches up to me. Given my company timelines and country regulations it would take a while for from when they decide to get rid of me to actually being out without a job.

Personal Info

US / EU citizen, late 40s, no kids, not married. Health: good, though family history makes think both about longevity and late-life health-care risks (including long term care)

Liquid Worth

I currently have USD 5-6m liquid worth, mostly in the US but some in other countries.

Overall allocation is 25% cash and bonds, 75% equity low cost index funds

The above is split approximately 50% taxable and accessible, 50% tax advantage but locked till 55.

Housing

I am renting in the country I am currently living in for work

I own a house in another European country that I keep empty for me to use when I visit friends.

I also have family housing options in my home country that I use when visiting, and very likely will eventually inherit.

Spending

While living in a VHCOL US city my yearly spending ranged between 40k-80k excluding taxes (so inclusive of housing, trips, etc). The high end included some medical procedures not covered by insurance at the time.

Do not yet know what my spending is like in Europe

Scenario I am considering

1. I could FIRE in a relatively tax-friendly European country
2. I could FIRE in my home country (preferred) to spend quality time with my parents. Issue is that investments would be taxed very heavily, with poor/no offsetting for capital losses
3. II could eventually move back to the US, likely to a high-tax state where close family currently lives

Concerns

Issues on my mind are (a) what if I move back to US and need to buy a house at a later age? (b) what if I live a very long time e.g. 100 (c) what if I need expensive care for a long period of that life

Those concerns + the high tax rate of scenario 2 are making me feel uncomfortable with the idea of "RE" though I am very attracted to it.

I am not even sure what is my question - maybe getting a sense check if my fear are irrational, ways to manage the concerns, suggestion on how to manage tax jurisdictions, should I quite or coast, ...

On paper I’m comfortable, my spend is easily well under what my investments make every year. About to embark on a year long road trip (maybe longer depending on health) and plan on a lot of travel both in the States and later in Europe. I’ve handed the reigns over to a wealth management team with the objective, “Don’t make me poor”. So all of my bills are covered, I’ve basically “won”.

However, there’s always those “what if” scenarios and maybe I’m not seeing the whole picture. Anyone here have a story to share about things going sideways and having to adjust later in life?

Family of four in San Francisco, I priced out the local ACA HMO plan, and with an optimized AGI of $107k my annual premiums would be $4k and max out of pocket of $14k.

On the other hand, paying for COBRA on my low deductible corporate plan would be $36k per year with minimal out of pocket, and the tax deduction (on 7.5%+ of AGI) brings the effective cost down to $28k.

Seems like a no brainer to pay $10k extra for much better coverage and no need to switch our existing doctors? Can keep COBRA for 36 months here in California.

Anybody else who has FIREd maxed out their COBRA as a bridge in early retirement?

I don’t talk about my finances but when friends and new acquaintances find out I don’t have a job, own property in different countries but don’t have a mortgage etc, occasionally they will casually ask “wow you must be a millionaire?!”

I don’t know how to respond to that? If I say nothing it sounds like I’m confirming it and I don’t want to say yes/no - because my finances are none of their business.

How does one respond to this in a polite way that shuts down further questions?

Edit: as for how friends find out about my properties - I split my time between multiple countries and I’m usually busted when I don’t know anything about the local rental/mortgage market

1. Reduce portfolio risk as you approach a pre-defined FIRE number and age. Standard glide path

approach.

Pros: More certainty in hitting FIRE at a specific age
Cons: Takes longer.

2. Stay aggressively invested all the way until you hit your number, but run the risk of having the rug pulled out from under you at the last minute.

Pros: Get there faster
Cons: Not only the rug pulling, but also the risk of getting greedy and blowing past your number without pulling the trigger

56M & 66F. No kids.

Retirement account: 5M Savings account: 250k

Liability: 180k house mortgage

Wife is about to start drawing SS ($3000 monthly after Medicare)

Monthly budget is 13K

My health has recently taken a severe dip in quality. I find it difficult to work anymore. Used to make 300K, but this year I’ve only pulled in 4K. Turning away lots of projects. My health seems to be forcing me into early retirement.

Based on the above numbers, I’m thinking the math works in my favor.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Wife and I have $4M+ in 401Ks/invested, $6M net total including home. Early 40s. $800K+ HHI. We plan to work until we are mid-late 50s. 2 young-ish kids.

It seems that best case scenario the stock market keeps ripping up, in which case the $4M doubles or more by time we retire.

Mid-case, the market drops for a while due to war, AI job losses, etc, in which case we keep buying "cheap" stocks with our high income.

Worst-case, there is some sort of an AI job apocalypse, in which case life gets harder but we are still better off than 98% of the world and maybe there is even deflation in which case our relative earning/skills/existing wealth still keeps us above water.

Maybe I am missing something, but the above seems like a decent heuristic for three primary future paths.

If we hated our jobs and wanted to retire sooner, I'd be a bit more worried about scenario #2.

Thoughts?

*A few background notes: our income increased a lot in the past few years. We had a long training / job loss early in our careers. We also received an inheritance (sad but thankful) that boosted our net worth this year. Two years ago, I was feeling less confident -- and we were planning to work longer. Finally, the pandemic was a huge blessing -- I went from 12+ hours of commute per week to about 4.

Both 41. Two kids in 6th and 3rd grade. Trying to figure out when and in what order we pull the trigger. Numbers first, questions below.

Snapshot

Income:
~$1m

Annual savings:
• 401k: maxed & $25k mega backdoor Roth & $11.2k employer match
• Wife’s 403b: maxed
• 529s: $1,500/month ($275k balance, not counted below)
• Taxable: ~$300K (50% in taxable & 50% to deferred comp)

Investable assets:

Taxable brokerage - $2.4m
Deferred comp - $625k (Vested and invested)
IRA - $875k
Roth - $320k
401k (~50/50 Traditional/Roth) - $215k
403b - 235k (spouse)
Total ~$4.7m

Other:
• Home: $1.5M / $365k mortgage (2.5% - 9 years left)
• Cash: $250k
• Allocation: 85/15% across all accounts

Pension:
•~$40k/year state employee pension, collectable at 60. Currently 19 of 25 years served.

Spend: $200k year (includes 529 contrabutions)

Q1: Pension cliff — how do you model it?
Each year short of 25 costs $3k/year in pension income (24 years = $37k, 25 years = $40k). Each year past 25 adds $3k. She can collect at 60 regardless of when she stops working — so this is purely about the annual benefit amount, not eligibility.
How are people modeling a deferred stream like this against the cost of OMY? Just PV the delta and compare? The $3k/year increment feels meaningful at our spend level but also feels like a trap if we’re not careful.

Q2: Should the higher earner stop first?
The intuitive move is I stop first (stress, income asymmetry) while wife continues for pension accrual, benefits, and 403b contributions. But that means she’s working while I’m not, which has its own dynamics.
Has anyone sequenced it this way — higher-earning/higher-stress spouse exits first while the other stays in a lower-pay but benefit-rich role? How’d you think through the timing and the household dynamics?

Q3: Healthcare bridge
Employer coverage now. Post-retirement we’d need to bridge to 65 on ACA — but with deferred comp distributions, Roth conversions, and taxable withdrawals all hitting MAGI simultaneously, subsidy management seems really complex at our spend level. How are people actually modeling this? Hard dollar assumption? Separate stress test for healthcare inflation?

Q4: Does high income now change the retirement math meaningfully?
Each additional year at my current income is doing a lot — compounding the portfolio, paying down the mortgage, and building capacity to help the kids later (beyond the 529s — housing, grad school, etc.). But we’re also in a high tax state and time is finite.
How are folks thinking about the value of OMY at high income vs. the non-financial cost? And are you baking future kid support into your FIRE number or keeping it separate?

Q5: Two-phase spend
$200k is real spend today with kids at home. Once they’re through high school we’re open to relocating and our spend would likely drop property taxes are $25k of the spend. Do you model both phases explicitly or just plan to the higher number and treat the step-down as upside?

Happy to answer questions in the comments. Main things I’m trying to get sharper on: pension timing math, sequencing the exit, healthcare modeling, and whether high income meaningfully extends or changes the calculus.

Mid 40s, 2 kids (8 & 10). 2 x full time jobs. $350k + $250K (& bonus/equity, not included as very variable). HCOL.

~$1M in 401ks, ~$1M in brokerage, ~$100k HYSA, ~$50k HSA. ~$700k mortgage (2.75%) on primary residence worth $2.5M. No 529s so will have to come from expenses, if they go that route.

Income has increased quite a lot over the past 5 years, so this savings amount is only 1-2years old. We tried to keep lifestyle creep to a minimum from HHI of ~$300-400k. Income is probably closed to capped now, unless we get very lucky/willing to move to VHCOL which we are not.

Liquid NW based on multiples of income it feels like we’re behind, but savings rate (33% of gross) doesn’t seem like it can easily be increased.

Cubbyfire liquid NW number is $6M (~3x current)…

30M, $4.7m, (and $15k/month post-tax income for a few more months)

Back then when I was pre-FIRE, I always told myself to do some weird lying about my occupation to avoid telling people that I consider myself wealthy enough to never work again.

• My closer friends already knew about my plans to retire so no point in suddenly making up something else for them.
• My more remote friends only knew me as someone who hardly has time for them due to work. Straight up telling them I am a lot more available now because I'm retired was the easiest way to let them know.

So far I didn't really encounter much negativity or envy, no one really asked me for money or whatever else I feared what could happen if I'm honest about my status. And it feels good to simply not lie about anything.

Now to the part I haven't considered: When I meet new people, one of the first topics that come up is work. Regardless of how you try to steer a conversation it's almost inevitable. Back then I explained my business, some were interested, others were not but now it's completely different.

Simply saying "I'm retired" with a little more information on what I did either makes new acquaintances say "I don't know what to say to that" and honestly I don't know what to say to that either because the situation is just as weird to me OR they put on this face of pity like my poor soul is gonna live off $1000 for the rest of this life - probably because frugality is the only way the average person can compute early retirement.

Surely if I had gold chains on my chest and presented myself differently people would rather assume "rich" than "frugal" but I'm not the kind of guy to go for looks or bragging like that. The only way one could tell is if they saw my car keys but that's a way of flashing I'm not into.

Some people ask "so what are you doing now all day" and maybe that's what I should simply start telling them myself without waiting for that question but apart from that I have zero ideas how to make that response less boring or pity-inducing.

So what do you do?

And I should add that I'm not giving everyone the "I'm retired". Met someone I overheard almost not being able to pay her car repair so I just told her about my general occupation without much detail but situations like this are an exception.

I have the following plan and I was wondering if I am missing something:

* I am 55M, live in Europe, own a nice house in the alps and I have around 3m $ in investment accounts.

* I want to have 150,000 $ per year for the first 10 years then I can go down to 100,000$ per year. (depending how the markets go I can adjust of course.). Also with 65 I will get around 25K in state pension per year + free health care.

I was thinking of the following strategy:

* I put 5 x 150k = 750 K into a "cash pot" which is in reality "low volatility" investments (overnight ETFs, fixed term deposits, bonds with right duration etc.). That will make around 3 % to 4 % at current interest rates.

* the rest 2250K I put 100 % into the stock market (MSCI world ETFs and similar)

* depending on the stock market development. In good years I sell up to 5 % and move it to the cash pot and in bad years I sell less or nothing. That means if there is a stock market crash I do not need to sell because I have my "cash pot". Even there would be a major stock market crash in the first year - I could wait 5 years for the stock market to recover.

What is your view?
Is it too aggressive to set a budget of 5 % of my investments as a yearly withdrawal target?
Is a 5 year cash pot a good strategy to protect against the sequence of return risk and to protect my good sleep?
Is there a better strategy?

I’m 27F and my husband is 31. No kids and no plans for kids. We have about $5M net worth, ~$4.1M of that is in index funds/ETFs. The rest is cash and crypto. No debt, and we currently rent in a VHCOL city.

We own a business that has a shelf life, and it’s been steadily declining in profit over the last year or so. My guess is that we can get a couple more years of solid income from it, and then we want to retire. We’re currently investing about $50k per month right now so if the stock market cooperates, we’re hoping to hit $6M-$7M NW by the time we retire.

We have a cash buffer of about $300k currently, and once our current lease is up (in about a year) we plan to slow-travel full time for a couple of years, taking breaks in between to stay with family. We won’t have really any fixed expenses so we could easily cut our spend if the market takes a turn for the worse.

I know we’re in a really good place financially, but the long time horizon gives me anxiety, especially with how uncertain the world feels right now. Has anyone else here FIRED in their late 20s to mid-30s? How did you manage the uncertainty? Should we increase our cash buffer as we get closer to retiring?

TIA for any insight!

I’m (47M) planning to pull the trigger and leave my W2 career within the next 12–18 months. My spouse has already "CoastFI'd" into a low-stress role. I’m looking for advice from those who have already transitioned - specifically regarding the "lending and logistics" tasks that are significantly easier to secure while you still have a high-income paystub.

Our Situation:

• Ages: Both 47. Two kids (one independent, one starting college next year).
• Net Worth: $10.5M
  • Big Tech Equities: $5.5M (Concentrated in GOOG, MSFT, and AMZN).
  • 401k/Retirement: $1.5M.
  • Private Equity: $1.5M.
  • Primary Residence: $1.5M (Fully paid off, H/MCOL).
  • Misc (HSA/529/Other Stocks): $500k.
• HHI: ~$800k. Spouse recently moved to a $100k low-stress role which provides our health insurance and a "social" outlet.
• Annual Spend: $150k–$170k. We live very comfortably at this level.

The "Post-W2" Plan: I’m not looking for a "lay in a hammock" retirement. I plan to deploy $1M–$1.5M into a "boots on the ground" business or a real estate portfolio to stay engaged and generate active/semi-passive income.

My Pre-Exit "To-Do" List:

1. HELOC: Securing a large HELOC on the primary residence while the $800k HHI makes the paperwork a breeze.
2. Auto Loan: Financing a new vehicle now to lock in rates and approval based on current W2 income.
3. Real Estate Portfolio: Acquiring 1-2 rental properties on 30-year fixed mortgages now, rather than trying to qualify via asset-based lending later.

Questions for the community:

• Lending: For those who pivoted to RE/Business, did you find the HELOC/Mortgage route sufficient, or do you wish you’d set up a Pledged Asset Line (PAL) or SBLOC against your equities first?
• The "One More Year" realization: What did you realize you needed (or should have applied for) only after the W2 vanished?
• The Big Tech Concentration: Given the $5.5M in GOOG/MSFT/AMZN, how did you handle the glide path toward diversification in your final year without triggering a massive tax event?

I’d love to hear from folks who have made the jump - what did your "final 12 months" checklist look like?

Later 40 / mid 50s DINKs not in tech. $3M across retirement and taxable accounts, $1-1.2M home equity, about $500k rental property equity. We're saving aggressively the last few years after getting serious about the future.  

I know intellectually we're doing well. Projections say 5-8 years to our fire $6M (tho $7M would be more comfortable). But mentally, I'm stuck. 

Spouse and I each had big work setbacks (financially for them, trajectory / mentally / image for me) and it broke something in my brain. I can't stop obsessing about this $6M number, how to hit it and when I can quit.  It's my escape hatch. It's always on the back (or front) of my mind.  When can I quit. How to push the timeline.  What will life be like when I get there. What if the current state of the world sets back the timeline. How can I get to $6M faster.

Voluntarily quitting is would set me back FAR on the timeline - I need the gold from the golden handcuffs to get to the finish line, even tho I feel constantly crushed at work. In our setbacks I realized neither of us will be able to replicate our compensation elsewhere (~40% total comp cut) and our jobs are not remotely as secure as I thought so there's a level of panic right below the surface.

I try to look forward to my real life. a mini vacation coming up, or summer in general, hanging with friends... but my mind just comes back to the accounts. 

Has anyone ever dealt with this in the later half?  It's a combination of insane burnout (which I know many have posted about) but also the inability to focus on my life. How did you keep FIRE from consuming your actual life?

44M, wife is 42F, one dog, no kids. All of our assets are combined, no separate accounts (outside of retirement accounts), everything is OURS. $3.8M in cash and investments. Slightly less than half in tax advantaged retirement accounts, $250k in cash, and the rest in brokerage accounts. No debt other than mortgage, have ~$200k balance @ 3% with 9 years to go. Wife wants to continue to work due to healthcare. We currently use her insurance for both of us. She makes ~$130k and job is stable. My comp varies from $200-$300k but am getting burnt out. We live far below our means.

I feel like we are beyond fine but I can’t shake the anxiety about stepping away. Am I overthinking things? What else do I need to consider? I moved to my current company a few years ago and initially enjoyed the low stress IC role but through a variety of factors have ended up back in a senior high stress role with a fair amount of travel. Would like to step away early next year.

MCOL area outside of Minneapolis. Spend $100k-$120k per year.

Our net worth has hit 8M and there is a chance that we would cross 10M this year. My husband brings in most of the money. I am working as well and make around 200K. However, to focus on our kid, I had to take a backseat at work (turned down all the traveling jobs and declined promotions) and never tried to climb the ladder. As our net worth is getting higher, I would like to leave the job mainly because I feel stagnant at the current place (mainly due to all the opportunities I never took and now the ship has mostly sailed). I am not sure whether I should just retire or switch careers. I am someone who loves going to work and have great colleagues and solve problems. But anytime I try to find a job, I am riddled with why due to our net worth. When I look at folks who retired at early age, they mostly do volunteer work and sports. I feel it’s too early for me to give up my career ambitions (not for money) but for my brain. Can anyone relate? Have I got it all wrong? I wanted to post in FATfire but it’s mostly entrepreneurs. I am looking for insights from folks with W2.
Edit: I am 39F. One kid going to middle and not having any more kids.