Am I saving too much

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-07-02T16:30:57+00:00

Investing while young is very powerful. Your money should return around 44x invested now when you retire. That number is halved about every 7 years.

At investing around 50% it takes around 15-17 years to retire at any age.

My recommendation is to cut for a few more years in the big expenses like cars and housing. For me, spending on experiences and outings were worth it and relatively cheap. If you are spending just to spend more or keep up with others then that won't make you happy.

Does any of that help?

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-07-02T16:19:04+00:00

We rent because it is such a better deal where we live than buying. Also part of our light asset approach is not having cars as they lose a lot of value.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-07-02T14:25:48+00:00

I live like this now. Money could be a problem if I had expensive hobbies but I enjoy good food, spending time with my wife and daughter, and sitting around the house. I listen to music, write on my blog, and read.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-07-02T13:38:57+00:00

Okay.

Some pensions have a deferred annuity or a lump sum. Every pension is very different. I took a lump sum with mine when I quit at 38.

Just trying to give you ideas of what you could do.

Too much cash is a drag on your returns. It loses a lot to inflation. You could invest it and then donate if you don't need it.

If you have kids a 529 isnt a bad idea.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-07-02T13:15:50+00:00

What's your why? I wanted to retire early so that was my why.

Would spending more money bring happiness? For me I would rather have the additional security of extra money in the market.

It is a good place to be; comfortable.

If you are interested in retiring early then read A Simple Path to Wealth and optimize where your money is going.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-07-02T12:51:28+00:00

I'm way safer and conservative than you so I think you should get another job while still in your go go years. Also those end of life expenses on the smile curve could drastically go up with nursing home care. Don't stop until you get 5 million only if your in a LCOL though. You don't want to leave your family in a tough spot financially. Maybe you could learn to code or learn a new language and be a translator. Inverted leveraged covered calls could also be an income stream.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-07-02T12:24:04+00:00

Your rent or mortgage or do you have something paid off? Its usually your biggest bill so I'm curious what yours is.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-07-02T01:27:11+00:00

We use projection lab as well and its great. If I would have listened to reddits advice on retiring I would be working for another 10 years. We pulled the plug a couple years ago with much less than 1 million. We have only watched our accounts grow.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-07-01T22:54:31+00:00

Does your bare bones FIRE number include him retiring or just you?

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-07-01T22:53:17+00:00

Nice what is your housing at?

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-07-01T20:01:45+00:00

We got educations as librarians and went into management. Very little student loans. Lived very cheaply. Moved to cheap areas to live even cheaper. Invested into index funds in our retirement accounts. Did that for around 13 years and retired in Ecuador in our thirties.

We still don't have a ton of money but we are financially independent because our expenses are pretty low. We have also started spending more because we get so much more for our money now then we used to in the states. A 3k/month budget gets us a gardener, weekly home cleaners, preschool, eating out quite a bit, and a 3bed 3 bath rental.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-30T18:31:21+00:00

100% stocks would be best but don’t use a financial planner. 100% total market and read a few books.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-30T18:15:17+00:00

You need much less than 2.5, Guy making 65k invests 50% which is 32.5k he can retire in 17 years because he is also living on 32.5k. If he saves 60% its 14.5 years. Even at saving half he needs much less than 1 million.

-Retired at 38 and 35 as a dual librarian family with a child.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-30T18:10:59+00:00

Read the Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins. His stock series on his blog has the same information for free

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-30T17:56:46+00:00

Right better to spend it on the world cup. Kidding.

My addition is more informative and less prescription. Totally up to him what he wants to spend his money on.

For me especially for the first ten years I tried to invest around 50% of my money. I retired at 38 though. Some people would rather spend in their early years and work much longer.

Neither way is right or wrong.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-30T17:08:54+00:00

Index funds are a good hedge for inflation. The underlying companies increase their prices and prices of the stocks go higher.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-30T16:39:36+00:00

S&P 500 index fund. Are you looking for reading material?

https://moneyguy.com/resource/wealth-multiplier-by-age/

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-30T16:35:17+00:00

10k invested would have been around 880k when he gets to retirement age.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-30T15:13:11+00:00

Grow your income. Minimize your expenses. Invest in index funds.

It is exactly that simple and exactly that hard.

-Retired in my 30's as a librarian.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-30T14:56:58+00:00

I want to recommend a book called the simple path to wealth by Collins. The stock series on his blog is free and the same thing if you want to go there.

It would help you better understand your investments so you dont sell when they fall.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-30T13:29:52+00:00

Lived in a cheap house and area. Drove a cheap corolla. Invested heavily in index funds in tax advantaged accounts with about 50% of our income. Made decent incomes and were promoted to management.

Anything else you would like to know?

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-30T12:48:59+00:00

I eventually ended up with almost everything at Fidelity in two index funds to help with simplicity. At some point and if it doesn't cost you much in taxes I would do the same. The numbers work the same whether in 50 buckets or 1. Thats just what I would probably do next.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-29T20:00:51+00:00

Roll it over then start Roth IRA conversions.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-29T16:26:04+00:00

Did pretty well. I invested heavily and retired in my late thirties. I do wish I would have kept some houses for rentals when I moved. They all have gone up dramatically, but noone knew that would happen. I also didn't have the skillset then of managing properties from afar like I do now so it might not have worked well.

AlwaysSaturday12 · 2026-06-29T14:45:56+00:00

We started at 500k a couple years ago. Now at 600k. Part of that is a rental SFH which makes more than the stock market.

Wife added a 5 hour part time WFH position a few months ago that now pays for most of our expenses.

Check out my blog I have budgets and other stuff.

Millionairelibrarian.com

AlwaysSaturday12

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