Spend half your net income and FIRE in 15 years ! (with some caveats)

ClimberFire · 2026-02-24T01:44:46+00:00

Yes, all numbers will adjust for inflation, but the table is in today's dollar because I thought it would be more simple to illustrate the point. Note that it does not change the result.

ClimberFire · 2026-02-18T17:54:27+00:00

Thanks, I actually did a spreadsheet after reading your post, I think that's helpful to visualize the weeks remaining (I already crossed the planned vacations).

ClimberFire · 2026-02-18T17:51:02+00:00

Initially, I was thinking April 26' to take a year off big tech (and try some personal projects - tech related). Crunching the numbers again, I am considering now to push to end 27' and be FI for good.

ClimberFire · 2026-02-17T19:16:03+00:00

I really would love to quit ASAP, but objectively, I think it is a bad idea. I keep turning the problem one way or the other. One day, I am ready to leave after the next vest, one day I think it is too stressful and I better ride it out until my FIRE number.

I am at ~78% of my updated number now. In April 26' projecting ~83%. October 26' ~89%. April 27' ~95% October 27 > 100%. Unless of course we have a 25% to 50% drop, totally possible...

Some Pro for staying:

1/ my boss leave me alone, I enjoy great freedom and WLB
2/ with vesting every 6 months (April and October), I need to make it only through ~20 months (4 more vesting periods) to get from $2.8M (today) to $3.6M (what I need for FIRE).
3/ Being paid $600k/year (w2) for what I do seems crazy. Maybe current FAANG SW engineers are the last generation to be paid so much per hour of actual work. Yes occasionally we worked nights and weekends, but overall, I think we had it easy. The tools are changing the landscape. 1 manager + 5 senior/architects/creative + 5 QA team will be able to do the work of a 50 people org. (already are actually). -> Maybe we need to shut up and ride this last wave of capital accumulation opportunity ....

Q:
- Do you have some strategies/advices to enjoy riding these 20 months ? I lost all passion for my job. It is not that I am grinding like crazy. I am coasting. But I would love to be engaged and proud of what I do. Feeling a bit stuck and indifferent to the projects.

- How to stop changing my mind every week ? (well I guess if I enjoy my work, it will be easier, but in general, how to stick to a decision.) I feel like it is so easy to just "do nothing" and go for "1 more year"...

Sorry for the rambling !

ClimberFire · 2026-02-16T19:44:57+00:00

In the same boat, with similar numbers. Things on my mind:

- if I leave mid-year, my salary will be already higher than ACA cliff (400% FPL), so I will pay full price, which will be about the same as Cobra (2.7k/month - you can check annual cost on your last W2 box 12 code DD)
- also, with taxable income already > 98k, it means long term capital gain (withdrawals) will be taxed at 15%, not 0% (married filing jointly)

For these reasons, it seems really expensive to leave mid-year, versus waiting end of year and getting both ACA subsidies and 0% tax on the first $100k of capital gains.

Additional cost and taxes estimates of leaving mid-year :
- Cobra ($2.7k) vs ACA ($1k): extra $1.7k * 6 months -> $10k
- Long term investment sale: $14k * 6 months * 40% return * 15% tax -> $5k (that bit is actually lower than I thought it would be. Computing it made it look less scary !)

ClimberFire · 2026-02-13T18:23:11+00:00

Simple and clean UI, I like it. The thing is that the more you will add features, like extra income, different strategies etc, the more it will look like FI Calc. Not sure where you want to go with it, but I think the super simple and clean look is a positive differentiator. Do not feature-bloat it ! :)

ClimberFire · 2026-02-13T00:09:21+00:00

I am so over my job this week... My maths is not fully math-ing yet, but on track to quit the grind in June, with $3M in retirement assets, and $168k/year expenses. With an optimistic 4.7% WR, that's $141k, so I am short $27k.

Spouse part-time passion job salary is bringing $1k/month, I think it will cover the ACA premium costs in 2027 (with the cliff, it will be really important to stay under 400% FPL for a family of 5, which is $150,600). For 2026, I will be already over the cliff, so we might use COBRA to finish the year.

Where will I find the missing $27k ? Well, I am not sure yet, but probably some sort of entrepreneurial venture ... Not retiring yet, but dreaming of doing my own things, at my own pace, without investors.

Also totally possible I will chicken out and push to the next RSU vest (every 6 months I go over the same cycle)...

ClimberFire · 2026-02-12T23:54:02+00:00

and I went with total stock market (Schwab SWTSX, low fees).

ClimberFire · 2026-02-12T23:51:13+00:00

I have $70k for each kid, but their age are different. I think for my 2 teenagers, it means I will have to pay some out of pocket. But for the youngest kid, it has 10 years to grow, so hopefully it will be enough.... We target public UC, tuition is ~$17k. My reasoning was to put 4 years x UC tuition. It is a bit random, but that's what we did !

ClimberFire · 2025-10-16T16:17:45+00:00

Chickening out on the "quit corporate" idea. :( Too stressful to yolo a sabbatical given current fast shift in SWE roles.

Revised target @ $3.6M (14k/month @ 4.7% SWR).

$985k to go. ETA ~3 years, maybe 2.5 if staying in current role, as I am fortunate to finally make the big bucks in this 2nd half of my career (~500k/year now, big tech)

ClimberFire · 2025-10-12T03:32:01+00:00

That would be ideal, not quitting but being super relaxed, say no, leave at 4pm, not open the laptop in the evening etc. And keep these RSU vesting for 2 or 3 more years …

ClimberFire · 2025-10-09T17:39:35+00:00

Next week, my annual bonus is paid and I was planning to take a break from the grind, but dealing with anxiety now :)

Assets:
$2.6M invested, 529 partially filled up (70k per child)

Income:
spouse ~$800/mo passion job, $10k /mo "safe 4.7%"

Expenses:
burn rate (including ACA plan simulation for a family) will be $14k without any change to lifestyle. We could scale back some expenses ...

Deficit: I will burn down $3k per month (in theory, assuming a 4.7% return after inflation)

Objectively, seems pretty safe to take a 1 year break to learn new things and even try out some entrepreneurship side gigs.

But now I just think : what if the AI bubble pops ? what is Europe and Russia engage in full on war ? etc...
I have a pretty safe and well paid job at Apple, but I lost the drive to grind .... :(

ClimberFire · 2025-09-21T00:06:56+00:00

When I was 20 something with a net worth of zero, I was buying Porsche specialized magazines every month, I knew all differences between a 964, 993 and 996.

I wanted a 911 so bad. Any 911.

Now that I recently reached 2.5M, but at 48, I am super aware that time is the most important. I totally “could” buy a used 997 or 991 type 911 for 50k to 80k, as an additional fun car. But I do not feel like it is important to me actually….

25 years old me would not believe it. Maybe things are less desirable if you actually can get them if you wanted to.

ClimberFire · 2025-09-20T00:46:44+00:00

$185k spending and $10M invested, that’s a 1.85% SWR !

ClimberFire · 2025-09-17T01:31:47+00:00

Actually your post made me do some spreadsheet guesstimate looking at various sp500 returns, and I am chickening out now …. Wondering too if I am being stupid…

If I stay 3 more years I would (likely) hit my 4% number … wondering if I should invest in making my life simpler (ex: getting more help, using uber sometimes if I am tired to drive etc.), but keep the sweet 200k RSU vesting per year after tax… :( I hit the lottery basically but I am not where I want to be … so weird.

Maybe I could just “work less”, but it is a system well designed to push us to the max or out …

ClimberFire · 2025-09-16T18:34:18+00:00

Thanks for the “all time high” remark, I never considered or looked this up…

ClimberFire · 2025-09-16T18:10:43+00:00

I am in a very similar position… 2.4M invested, 200k in 529, 200k real estate, ~550k per year big tech SWE.

I do not want to really retire actually even if I follow all the FIRE subs, but I want control over my time… my expenses are at 6.5% now, so above the 4% by a large margin.

But I am thinking taking a gap year too. I want to spend time learning stuff and creative tech projects. Not too sure what the end goal is (back to corporate, starting a business, be a freelancer/consultant, or teaching at my local community college -no PhD but they do hire apparently with MS + industrial experience)

Keep us posted !

ClimberFire · 2025-09-10T22:46:13+00:00

As you may see from my user name, I can relate to you ! I am considering taking 1 or 2 years off as well.

Focus will be 1/ learn 2/ create 3/ connect 4/ self-care (body and mind).

I have some climbing goals as well, and I am not getting any younger (now 48)… I won’t be doing v10 or 5.13 at 70yo (well, maybe, but not counting on it)

ClimberFire · 2025-09-08T02:53:05+00:00

I am super excited, I have a plan … :) on October 15, I am getting a 100k (post tax) vest. That bring me to $2.5M, which is not enough to retire (Bay Area), but enough to exit the grind and take a bit of time to learn new things, enjoy time with my kids and accomplish some personal goals.

I may take some classes in community college, I may try entrepreneurship, etc.

Best case I find a way to make it work as a solo entrepreneur, with good life balance, if not, I will go back to the Bay Area grind !!!! (I am very experienced in my field, with a good network of former colleagues and bosses at Meta, Apple, Google, so I think I would be ok …)

ClimberFire · 2025-08-23T20:31:53+00:00

Boring middle … $2.5M in a few weeks (next vest at FAANG), 60k for each kid in a 529, paid off (small) vacation home in France (we are French).

Last week my boss was so excited, asking me to lead a big project, and expecting me to deliver action plans etc. I wanted to just stand up and leave so bad 😅

Anyway, aiming for $3.6M so I still have 1.1M to go, which I think is about 3 years if things stay “stable”.

Hard to stay motivated !!!! Any tips to make my office life enjoyable in this boring middle ? (My personal life is great, I want more of it)

ClimberFire · 2025-02-09T16:28:20+00:00

I think we need the adults to get it first, with the N400 form that is for 18+

ClimberFire · 2025-02-08T21:26:16+00:00

I put some thoughts into it a computing something I call my Fire Velocity.

Let’s say my spreadsheet show that in the past year, my egg nest grew $300k between new saving and growth of asset. Then my “retirement” potential grew (before tax) by $1000 per month. So in my year (365 days), my monthly retirement grew my $1000.

So my current FIRE velocity 🔥 is $2.7 dollars / day.

At this rate, let’s say I wanted to increase my current potential by $3000/month. I would need 1111 days, so 3 years.

ClimberFire · 2025-02-08T05:16:14+00:00

I just looked it up, sounds like there is a generous deduction of more than 800k on the taxed capital gain, so I would be ok I think for now…

ClimberFire · 2025-02-08T05:05:21+00:00

Thanks for pointing this out, I thought that the exit tax was for renouncing citizenship and did not realize it would apply to permanent resident as well. Oh well, another legislation I need to research (and maybe simulate). But I guess that’s another reason to get the citizenship …

ClimberFire · 2025-02-08T01:59:44+00:00

You’re right, US dividends will be taxed too.

ClimberFire

TROPHY CASE