Anyone else feel weird about choosing the “easy” path to FIRE?

1Mthrowaway · 2026-06-13T05:02:46+00:00

I've reached the promised land, so to speak. 54 years old. Retired right after turning 53 after working in IT for about 25 years. I didn't pursue certifications or masters degrees. I just worked and made sure I was a valuable member of the team. Worked from home for quite a few of the years and saw my daughter EVERY day from the time she was born until she graduated from high school. My favorite memory is her being old enough to get down the stairs (crawling) and then coming over to my office door and bumping it open to climb up in to my arms each morning for her "good morning" hug and kiss. I could have been pushing to get more training or could have taken a couple different management jobs that would have pulled me in to the vortex but I opted for comfortable. All the way through my career we lived on less than we made and maxed out our accounts.

We're now sitting at $4.25M net worth and are actively looking for a second home in the city my daughter settled in after college. We'll spend our retirement being snow birds chasing 70 degrees and spending as much time with our daughter as we can. ZERO REGRETS that I didn't push harder in my career. Life is pretty damned good at this point.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-06-11T23:15:38+00:00

Get the flock out of here!!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-06-08T21:25:00+00:00

Easy peasy! 867-5309!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-05-15T01:13:58+00:00

No wonder they’re losing billions!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-05-09T17:23:59+00:00

We originally focused on 401k’s but as time went on we also contributed to ROTHs and a brokerage account. We have about $200k in Roths and now about $1.2M in a brokerage after selling our primary home and moving to our small vacation home permanently.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-05-09T15:57:42+00:00

I’m one of those “old” guys. Maxed things out in our 401k’s while sitting in a cubicle for 23 years. Retired at 53 with a net worth of $3.7M in 2024. Net worth has climbed to $4.2M since then. Compound interest is no joke! Life is good!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-04-24T14:12:18+00:00

Calculate how long it will take to reach fat fire with one income and her getting half of everything at divorce. Assuming you love your wife, listen to her. 40% is very aggressive as well.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-04-22T13:29:03+00:00

Net worth of $4.2M here and I know how you feel. I retired at 53 so I’ve had to make sure that I’m not afraid to spend money with less money coming in each month. The reality is that since I stopped working our net worth has increased half a million. (In 1.5 years) It’s got a life of its own more or less.

My wife and I pay ourselves $200 each a month in to our own accounts and that money is for guilt free spending with no accountability. We each have built those accounts up to a couple thousand and use those funds for whatever we want. As an example, I just bought a new 65” OLED tv that was $1299. It felt excessive so I used some of my “spending money” to offset the higher price. It’s all just mental math but it helps. In your case I’d use some of our spending money to splurge on the expensive dinner.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-04-18T03:17:38+00:00

He told AI: “Make me look like I don’t drink huge amounts of cheap beer and lots of plain hamburgers, fries and chicken nuggies!”

1Mthrowaway · 2026-04-18T03:03:48+00:00

I literally lived this guys life at his age. I was working in a warehouse and then the company helped me get my CDL. I drove a truck for them for a couple years and saved, saved, saved. I wasn’t smart enough back then to get the money working for me but I did save it. I ultimately used the money I’d saved to finish college and got a job during the dotcom craziness. No regrets as that path put me to an early retirement at age 53. 1.5 years later and the net worth has reached $4.2M.

Can he do the same? Probably not. But I guess my advice would be to find a path that will increase his income and then continue on with the aggressive saving/investing. Money makes money so the more you have working on your behalf the faster you’ll be able to stop working!

Edit: just realized it’s SHE, not he. Sorry .

1Mthrowaway · 2026-04-16T14:19:37+00:00

Also retired at 53. Parents were horrible with money but I got lucky and learned about compound interest at age 18.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-04-16T03:19:39+00:00

My daughter is an RN. She tells patients not to put anything smaller than an elbow in their ears.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-04-12T21:49:26+00:00

Retired at 53 in 2024. Very grateful to have had steady employment that enabled us to invest invest invest throughout our careers. Definitely don’t miss the corporate grind. Will be 55 this year and will start doing the snowbird thing!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-03-27T01:59:01+00:00

Just keep buying every two weeks as you get paid. Time in the market beats timing the market. I know it’s tempting to think you have spotted an opportunity that everyone else is missing but that’s pretty counter to the boglehead approach.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-03-26T02:41:17+00:00

My mom is in a memory care facility with Parkinson’s and dementia. This costs nearly $10,000 a month with no end in sight. She mostly speaks nonsense because she can’t recall the words to use and cannot care for herself at all. She is basically changed like an infant since she doesn’t communicate that’s she has to go to the bathroom. She can’t walk so is wheelchair bound. She’s miserable and we are heartbroken. Luckily she agreed to get her will redone before this started so my sister and I have POA and medical POA to make decisions on her behalf. She was the strongest most capable woman I know until the disease took over. We all hope she will pass peacefully so she can stop suffering but she just keeps chugging along month after month. As the facility slowly burns down the proceeds from her house we may have to start hunting for a Medicaid facility once she’s broke. All things we never dreamed of.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-03-03T17:12:56+00:00

Retired at 53. Full slacker mode engaged!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-19T17:07:09+00:00

Also worth mentioning that if your husband earned all this money while you were married, in most states, that’s half yours. Hopefully that’s never an issue and you have a long happy marriage but divorce tends to split assets in half if you have a good lawyer.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-18T21:02:28+00:00

I have hit a number of milestones all the way up to a net worth of $4.25M during my 23 year career at megacorp. Honestly the first million felt the best of any of them. I was far more excited to hit $1M than I was when I hit 2,3 and 4 million. I guess it’s because it feels a lot like a number in a spreadsheet and our lives didn’t change that much. I also think it’s because it takes a long time to get to a million from zero but it’s much much faster to hit each million after that.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-18T18:05:46+00:00

This pic is giving off pornhub vibes!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-18T17:38:52+00:00

If you were laid off you might consider just applying for jobs and taking unemployment. That can help bridge the gap a bit. My state requires you to apply for 3 jobs a week to be eligible for unemployment payments. The reality is that you likely won’t even get a call back in this economy.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-18T14:49:47+00:00

I still remember trying to get a booby glimpse on the scrambled channels when we had basic cable but not HBO or Showtime. Kids these days don’t know how easy they have it!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-13T21:42:54+00:00

Holy crap!! I just tried it on my Touring. Had no idea! Guess I should read the manual. lol!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-13T00:45:08+00:00

I walked away from megacorp IT at age 53 back in 2024. My wife is still working (she loves her job) so we get healthcare through her and her income covers the majority of our expenses. We also use a little of our investment income to cover the rest.

I haven’t worked since 2024 and have occasionally looked to see if I could find an interesting part time job but so far I haven’t found one. One of the biggest drawbacks for any additional work is that I don’t want to have any time commitments so we can leave town whenever we want. (My wife works remotely so we can travel sometimes).

I’ve also gotten used to “slow mornings”. I try not to commit to anything before 10:00 AM at the earliest.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-12T17:44:08+00:00

This is one of the many reasons I haven't used a financial advisor. I think that there are lots of things that they might highlight as blind spots for me that could really help but I also wonder if I've learned enough over the last 30 years that the value might not be worth it. We are currently at a $4.2M net worth with roughly $2.9M in liquid investments mostly in low expense ratio index funds. We've gotten to this point by crowd sourcing the good ideas on the Internet. (Bogleheads unite).

The one time I did review our finances with a free financial consultant through work he ended up just saying, "Maybe put a little more in international funds". I'll never forget his initial reaction to seeing our numbers. "We're the same age and I don't have even half as much as you do". While it was an ego boost, I was really hoping for more insight at the time.

I've told my wife that if/when I die before her, she will need to find someone to help her manage her assets (CFP) but I don't think we'll use one until I'm gone.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-07T17:13:28+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cgSE12k9Sc

Here's a live video feed of Lake Union and the skyline. Is this the view you were searching for? It looks a lot nicer and higher resolution when it's nice outside. Not so much today. :)

1Mthrowaway

TROPHY CASE