r/HENRYfinance

$400k HHI, ~$2M NW, but burned out and considering pushing for severance. Am I crazy?

Mid-30s, HCOL area. Combined income around $400k, net worth hovering just under $2M (includes primary residence). On paper we've "made it" but I'm completely burned out at my job and seriously considering pushing for a severance package.

The rational part of my brain says I'm insane to walk away from this income, especially in this market. The other part of me can't imagine doing this for another year.

Some context:

Been at current company 5+ years

Comp is good but the stress/hours aren't worth it anymore

Spouse has stable income but obviously not enough to maintain current savings rate

No kids yet (which is part of why I'm considering this now)

Could probably negotiate 6-12 months severance based on tenure

I know the standard advice is "save more, then coast" but I'm worried I'll just keep moving the goalposts. We're already past the $2M mark - when is enough actually enough?

Has anyone here actually pulled the trigger on something like this? Did you regret it? I'm not looking to fully retire, just reset and find something less soul-crushing, even if it pays less.

Or am I just being dramatic and need to suck it up for a few more years?

29F 32M NYC area with 2nd kid on the way.

- 550k HHI all cash

- 1.3mil liquid NW plus 401k and 529

Deciding between buying a home all cash in a 5/10 school district or leveraging >50% to get into a 9+ district.

I personally think we both have good enough work life balance to help kids with academics at home, and that's a bigger driver of success than school rating.

Husband thinks kids are more like to fall through the cracks in mediocre schools and teachers will teach to the average kid in the classroom.

Has anyone else faced this conundrum?

29M 29F married couple in the Seattle area.

HHI ~280k (tech - formerly ~400k; one spouse lost their job and is struggling to find a new one)

Total liquid net worth ~2.7MM (around 1.3MM in retirement accounts)

Household FIRE number is ~5MM. Plan to have 2 kids (probably the first kid by at latest 35 - timeline somewhat flexible, but don't want to wait too long). The currently working spouse would like to retire ASAP (with a personal FIRE number of ~2MM). The other would be open to working to normal retirement age.

Mortgage on current home ~527,000 @ 2.65%. Home is valued ~900,000 on Zillow.

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We want to upsize to a larger home in a better school district and a safer, quieter community given we want to have children. Our current 2bd 2.5bath home wouldn't cut it for a family of 4. We're targeting something around the 1.5MM price range (at least a 3bd in a solid school district), but the number isn't set in stone. This would be our "forever" home (i.e. the final residential property we'd buy in Seattle, not including when we decide to retire to a lower cost of living area).

Our main disagreement is with respect to timing.

One of us wants to capitalize on the somewhat stagnating housing market to place a sizable (>50% or around ~1MM) down payment on a home within the next year out of consideration of current interest rates.

The other is concerned that the purchase would tie up too large a portion of our current liquid net worth into a relatively illiquid asset. Given that FIRE calculations are generally predicated on applying the 4% rule to liquid assets, a purchase like this feels like it would "set back" the progress toward our FIRE goal.

We *have* considered keeping our current home as a rental property, but not sure the income and the additional considerations that come with being a landlord offsets the opportunity cost of just living in our current home for a while longer and keeping money invested in the SP500.

Has anyone faced this consideration before? What % of net worth are people generally comfortable in keeping in real estate while still targeting FIRE? Grateful for any advice or insight.

Hi all, I’m in my early 30s and have a net worth of about $1.2M, but the unusual part is that roughly $1M of that is in Pokémon cards. The rest is diversified well. So I know I’m extremely overexposed to one asset class, and a very niche one at that.

For context, these cards were originally personal collectibles that I bought with no intention of selling, but there's also no way to prove this. Since they shot up in value, I started selling them a few years ago. For context, I just moved to the US this month. Before moving, I was only selling a couple of cards per month, and because of the tax rules where I lived, I wasn’t paying tax on those sales.

Now I’ve moved to the US, and I’m unsure what happens if I sell. I don’t know whether I’d be taxed as income or capital gains, and I’m also not sure whether selling them could create issues from an immigration standpoint since I’m here on an O-1 visa. I do not want it to look like I’m operating a business.

The other factor is my job: I currently make about $800k, but it’s a very high-risk role with almost no job security, and I could realistically be laid off at any time. This salary is also new for me, which is why my net worth doesn’t really reflect it yet.

So I’m stuck between a few concerns:

1. I don’t fully understand the US tax or visa implications of selling now.

2. if I wait a few months, prices could fall but I also may not even still be a US tax resident by then, and could end up somewhere with more favorable tax treatment

3. I’m not looking for legal or tax advice here, just practical/anecdotal input. If you were in this position, would you start reducing exposure now, wait, or do something else? And for anyone who has held high-value collectibles, how did you think about rebalancing?

Thanks!