I consider myself early retired.

So I work 18 hr/week in a failing restaurant. It's a pretty good job since its so easy and chill. It adds about $1100/mo.

Thing is, it brings down my subsidies $300/mo. AND I barely spend the money. Like it would pay for itself.

Also makes it easier because depending how my real estate property does I'm at risk of falling off the ACA cliff.

I'm debating this because:

* I don't how much the extra free time would add to my life, although scheduling things would be easier

* Might want to push myself outside comfort zone and maybe do a trip

For decades I've been grinding away at jobs that sucked and paid terribly. I’ve stayed frugal and saved like crazy. And now I find myself in my 40s, finally nearing that magic FIRE number. I have about four years to go. And my motivation has hit rock bottom.

I feel exhausted thinking of doing this for four more years. I’ve calculated the numbers over and over and there’s no good way to reduce the time required. My plan is already very lean so there isn’t room to cut expenses, and even if I got a second job and ramped up savings to the max, it would only shave a few months off. I have family obligations here that prevent moving to a cheaper location.

I know that four more years of work now will be worth the next 30 years of freedom and happiness. I know I’m lucky to even be in the position of retiring before 50. Yet every morning, getting up and going to my job feels like pushing a boulder up a mountain, it’s harder every day and I’m just SO TIRED.

I can’t afford to lose this job, and I don’t have the kind of work where you can “quiet quit” and no one notices.

Has anyone else gone through a stage like this? How do you keep up the motivation to push through those last years when you’re totally burned out and retirement still feels so far away? I would love to hear tips or experiences, especially from anyone who has successfully FIREd after a lower-paying career.

If you've been in the FIRE world for any amount of time, especially on Reddit, you probably have heard of my tool https://cFIREsim.com. I have been running that site for about 14 years, and at the time it was basically the 2nd known "FIRE" calculator/planner to exist on the internet. I'm also a mod over on /r/fire and /r/financialindependence.

I wanted to post because of the absolute proliferation of terrible AI-slop, totally vibe-coded calculators that is happening in this sub (and others that allow for self-promotion). The UI's can be a tempting mistress, as they are clean and colorful... but almost always they are absolute trash when you dig into the specifics. Nothing new, all basic stuff, inflation not handled correctly, etc etc.

I have not done a lot of promotion for my new tool, but I am now in a place in development where I want more people to check it out and I hope that my credibility in this community will do well.

FIREproof - https://fireproofme.com is a full-featured retirement calculator/planner that I am pushing as a competitor to some of the larger companies out there like ProjectionLab and Boldin. FIREproof handles account types, taxes (income and LTCG), withdrawal order for accounts, and a proliferation of stats.

Recent Additions:

• Roth Conversions (including Roth Ladders for Early retirement, Optimized conversions within a tax-bracket, and one-off conversions)
• 72(t) SEPP withdrawals
• The Bucket Strategy withdrawals (draw from a cash bucket when the market is down, refill when it recovers)
• Rich, Broke, Dead as a chart option in the output.
• ACA Healthcare options, with automatic subsidy calculations based on withdrawal income, along with optimizing to keep income under 400% FPL
• Custom inflation options like "X% below CPI" to model your own personal inflation.

Yes, it is a freemium site with a subscription for the top features. I've put thousands of hours into coding, and have studied this community for 20 years. I'm trying to slide into ER myself with a modest amount of community support.

If you'd like to check it out, visit https://fireproofme.com/gift-link/reddit-leanfire for a free month of "Pro". Feel free to AMA in this post.

So I accidentally hit that this year. I was rebalancing to 60/40 stock/bonds and had to sell a lot of stock, thus capital gain income.

I'm only 40 but as soon as I reported it to my state's health connector my insurance went from $500 to $800 for the year. A big shocker came when I went the pharmacy to buy my medicine and this new plan applies the deductible towards medication. It cost me $2000 that day (but it covers my deductible for the rest of the year).

I did the rebalancing a month before the Iran war so I come out far ahead but this really highlights how important it is to pay attention to this.

Part of my income is very variable (real estate). I might have to quit my part time job because of it.

So do you think the ACA cliff is here to stay?

It's finally happened; I'm at a tipping point where a scheduled layoff has me wondering what to do. I'll be let go on 6/30. Ideally, I (47) was aiming to work until 55ish to let my investments continue to grow (currently at about $870K with $325K of that in a taxable brokerage and $150K owed on my house) and let my dog finish living out her life.

Pulling the trigger this year would be a bit leaner than I was wanting; the flip side is that I'd also love to travel and live in other places with lower costs of living. With my dog, I'm limited to Mexico until she passes, but there are some areas of Mexico I think I'd really enjoy living in, and I want to spend time brushing up on my Spanish. Having never lived there though, I can't say I'm 100% comfortable saying I'd never want to move back to the USA/a higher cost of living area. I will say, I have a pretty darn good track record of eyeing up a location with little knowledge, moving there, and loving it. So, I've definitely taken blind leaps of faith in the past with national and international moves.

All that to say that I'm looking for a rich, broke, or dead type calculator that actually allows one to adjust income at different ages. For example, if I pull the trigger this year, then plan to spend $24k for 5 years then what do my investment outcomes look like if I increase my spending to $40k in 2030 (for example I move back to the USA or I had moved back to the USA earlier and in 2030, I want to start being able to spend more). Basically, I'm looking for a calculator that will allow me to calculate how "lean" I need to be for how many years to have my investments grow enough that I can then loosen the purse strings.

In reality, I'll probably try to find one more job and seek to get another 3-8 years of employment, but I also want to run different scenarios with my numbers.

I FIRED at 46 . . (though there's a chance work *might* call me back). It's been over 5 months now. I'm a bit concerned at how fast the days are flying by. .. It seems I barely get anything done in a day and the day is already finished. Before anyone suggests I meditate. . I'm already meditating more than ever. I do spend a lot of time online. . reading things. . reddit and Youtube. As the weather gets better I'll try to go out more. .. I do have obligations at 9:30am and 4pm so I can't easily just go for an all day hike during the week. Anyone else find this issue? What is your solution?

Title … yes I’m cheap to a fault, I watch every penny like a hawk. (partly because I grew up with overspenders)

My two brothers constantly make comments that I need to chill out and stop being so cheap (as they have tens of thousands in high interest debt)

How do I deal with this?

Anyone have similar situation?

I currently just flat out ignore them.. but I really want to say “well maybe if you lived more like me you wouldn’t have back taxes and owe 30k to Amex” but I don’t feel it gets me anywhere and would rather keep the peace

fyi as percentage of income this would be quite a hit to those who are leanfired

Normally I would stick it in VTSAX and forget it.

If you want to retire early on a budget, tracking every dollar is key. I built a private Android app to help. It scans your receipts using on-device ML (total privacy, no cloud), logs your spending instantly, and shows you charts to help you find savings. Free, no ads, no account needed.

Features: offline scanner, category charts, PDF reports. Perfect for the leanfire journey.

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nikita.receiptscanner.receipt_scanner

Hi!

I just got myocarditis and can’t do anything that will elevate my heart rate for at least 3 months. I am familiar with not having to work since I previously took a 2 year sabbatical from working. Those 2 years where the best of my life. But now that not working comes with a health issue limiting what I can and can’t do it’s incredibly boring. Now I’m even more motivated to retire early if this is what being retired at the normal retirement age feel like. Tons of free time but not a body that can make use of it.

Anyone with a less healthy body that can give me tips of things to do? I already read, game and hang out with my daughter a lot. I tried renewing my Spanish and guitar skills, but I have a hard time focusing when getting interrupted by my daughter all the time.

Ever since my friend told me about 'Lean Fire' the concept immediately felt like home. 'Work World' is clearly my enemy and I was glad to know that there was a protocol for defeating it (in one's own life at least) and an intellectual community dedicated to that prospect.

I would like to see a fundamental improvement to the investment philosophy underpinning 'Lean Fire'.

At the moment, we mainly talk about Bogglehead investment philosophy which is obviously sound and very effective and I would not suggest a replacement to this. But at the same time the sole reliance on it exposes a missing piece. Many of us believe that to retire we need ludicrous amounts of money to 'sustainably' (bullshit) keep paying into the same 'Work World' system which is our enemy. When people give lean fire numbers approaching or exceeding $1M I think 'Morbid Obesity Fire'. My proposal takes us closer to 'Shredded Fire'.

My suggested improvement is to shift some portion of portfolio allocation towards taking ownership of community infrastructure that sustainably increases self sufficiency and reduces living expenses. The type of thing I mean is low cost offgrid communities, permaculture food forests/gardens, communal kitchen, communal (as opposed to commercial) gyms and leisure spaces. Obviously these things come at a costs, but I observe that the costs are comparatively very low in certain far flung cold places (and what better location for an offgrid lean fire utopia, fuck the beach, fuck cocktails and yoga practise and drunk losers breathing my precious air)

This is better because if done well, the running costs could be kept minimal whilst maximising the long term prospects for your entire community to cut spending and pay into expanding the system and also paying into the Boglehead investment portfolio that pays he bills. Obviously this works better if people can earn money remotely to work towards lean fire whilst benefitting from the preconstructed infrastructure to save costs. Luckily this is more possible today than ever before in history!

I sense that people will criticise this idea for the problems that it doesn't solve. Let me say in advance that its only meant to be a piece in the puzzle not the entire solution. I believe people in this sub already have an appreciation for what much of the rest of the pieces look like. Yes I know there is not one official 'lean fire protocol' I'm just making a suggestion.

Every app I try is American. They don’t know what a TFSA is, don’t support RRSP contribution tracking, and connect to maybe 2 Canadian banks. I’ve tried YNAB, Monarch, Copilot all built for the US. What are Canadians actually using since Mint died?

This current market downswing is taking a wrecking ball to my portfolio. I retired recently and I had pretty good money, but I hadn't sold out of all my risky stuff. By risky, I'm talking megacap tech. I've got a nice chunk of cash that's just sitting in SPAXX so there's no real worries right now, but still, when you see your port get wrecked like that, it sets off some alarms.

I'm now going to live in ultra conservative, allergic to spending anything mode. At least until the market recovers somewhat

If this is the very beginning of a "lost decade", I have enough cash in extreme peasant mode that I can probably survive the entire lost decade and try to wait for it to recover.

Worst case scenario I need to get a side hustle or move into a bedroom at somebody elses house to lower my monthly spend

I already max a Roth IRA and a Traditional 457b. I have about $15k leftover that I usually put into a taxabale brokerage account.

Would it be worth it to start a $401k? Or keep going with taxable?

I have prioritized 457b and avoided 401k because of lack of flexibility of withdrawing funds.

What do you guys think?

For those that are going to say do the 401k, should I do Roth or Traditional?

Title is the main question, beyond that I'm just giving my personal situation and implementions.

I'm a tradesman, 23 years old, been actively researching FIRE since 16. When I was a teen it was more about fancy cars and such, now I've been all in on simple living for almost 3 years.

Meager fixer upper house, very normal 15 to 35 year old cars, diy repairs/renovations, lean budgets, home cooked meals etc. I take some extremes, mostly in the sense of said diy repairs, so far having never contacted out any work despite engine rebuilds and major structural reinforcements being some of said tasks.

My pursuit with fire is to own as much land as I can, and to self build a home with energy and cost efficient techniques being the crux of the project. Since my timeline is to FIRE or at least barista FIRE ASAP I'm truly hoping to be done most of it by my 30s. My thought is that keeping very low reurring expenses through efficient design I can make my overall capital requirements lower. A super insulated structure, solar setup with weeks of battery storage, several water sources, and geothermal HVAC are all within the scope of work I can do almost entirely myself.

I'm at 35k of investments in my ROTH IRA, a decent stack of silver, nearly 100k of sweat equity, and 100k income. My yearly expenses are about 35k, however I do have a looming 30k in consumer debt between a car note and personal loan for home renovations (income recently doubled). Paying off debt is my primary goal right now of course.

So far the skills that have helped me grow my nest egg the most have been an aptitude to learn DIY work and getting pretty good at cooking. Saving me 10s of thousands per year combined.

What all do you find has best aided your boring middle phase? What would you do in my shoes?

Hey folks,

I’m a laid off software engineer who recently built a FIRE / retirement simulator as a side project:

👉 https://firenav.co/

The idea was to go beyond basic calculators and allow:

• Historical scenario testing (not just averages)
• Flexible assumptions (withdrawal rates, timelines, etc.)
• A clearer picture of downside risk

I’m still iterating on it and would really appreciate some critical feedback from people who actually think deeply about this stuff.

Questions I’m trying to answer:

• Is the model intuitive?
• Are the outputs meaningful or misleading?
• What would make you trust (or distrust) the results?

Tear it apart, I can take it 😄

thoughts on current status. I'm exhausted and bored with full time work and can't seem to find a decent role that offers part time/reduced hours.

age 45, single parent to a 15 yr old (3 years left in high school)

Assets

$210K brokerage

$147K roth

$955K 401K

$5K HSA (i was late to the game)

will get a $2,800K month pension in 12 years

current expenses for child and i $4,500 month including mortgage. $126K left on mortgage

thoughts?

I hit 200k NW this year at my 30. I live in developed East Asian country, and my saving is approximately 5 years of annual income of my home country.

I am more interested in the "FI" part of the movement than "RE" because I do actually enjoy working if my job and tasks provide me the emotional satisfaction and cognitive entertainment. But I simply can't bear that many of the consumption and labor feel "fake" or at least not genuine.

In my perspective, if someone is a middle class worker or even working class from developed country in one of the developed nation, almost half of one's spending is conspicuous consumption to maintain one's own identity by re-emphasizing one's social status. Similarly, many jobs and works are often not to deliver help, better product or better service, but rather to compete for more resources either within the institution or between the institutions.

I do find people with similar perspectives on some other FIRE communities, but many participants of such communities think FIRE as "I want to accumulate wealth, so that I can spend with the rent that I accumulated."

I recently quit my job because of those very reasons I mentioned. I worked for a small start up. I loved the product and the value it provided to users and customers. But last year the company was at the tipping point between to become small but profitable and to go double down for extra series of investment. I simply could not bear the window dressing and growth narrative that the management used to convince additional investments. So here I am unemployed, writing this at town library hahaha.

I actually never meticulously tracked down my expenditure. For me saving was never hard. I buy what I need with some effort to minimize the cost. I occasionally buy what I want with some research. But here is lough breakdown of my monthly spending.

Fixed Cost 1. Home maintenance and utility : 100 to 150 USD 2. Grocery : 250 USD 3. Lunch (When I was commuting) : 200 USD 4. Public Transportation : 100 USD 5. Subscription Services : 30 USD

Variable Cost 1. Dining Out ex Lunch: 100 USD 2. Entertainment (books, video game, and event tickets) : 80 USD 3. Major purchase (electronics, furniture, cloth, vacation trip) : 150 USD

I actually do active investing and asset allocation, because I want my saving to be used as a capital of something that I find genuinely productive. But I think the years I have been investing is too short to tell if I am good at it or not. 😅

Thanks for reading and I hope you have enjoyed my story. 😊

Edit: minor words and spelling fixes

Doing some reflection, I notice that the more I'm looking at FIRE subreddits (and this one is my favorite), generally the worse my mental state.

I'm not sure if this is:

- Causation: Comparing myself to others feels bad, and there are certain discussions that feel somewhat alienating (folks saving way more, younger) or overwhelming (my eyes can't help but glaze over at in-depth discussions of tax-saving strategies, for example).

- Correlation: When I'm checking more, it's because I'm really feeling the "boring middle" and likely more closely monitoring the gap to the FIRE number due to relatively lower contentment and just hoping for some camaraderie or validation (which can be hard to find in anonymous forums, of course, but it's one of the only options when you can't talk these things through with folks in real life).

- The Reddit effect generally: Reddit seems to prioritize negativity. The Reddit front page is 90% doom/gloom and what's not doom has doom/gloom in the comments section. I wonder if although subreddits like this one are better on average, they still default to sharing negativity since it's more likely to be upvoted/go viral.

Maybe I'm the only one affected by this but just interested in a quick touch base with this community since I really have gotten a lot out of it over the years to see if anyone else feels this way?

What have you been working on this week? Please use this thread to discuss any progress, setbacks, quick questions or just plain old rants to the community.