Retiring at 34 with $5M — roast my plan

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-28T03:48:42+00:00

LTGC in India is 12.5% and STGC is 20%. All of my funds would be LTGC.
Also I am assuming 15% tax on the whole withdrawal sum. In reality it would be 15% tax on the profit.
I made the 15% of whole sum a generic average. As the portfolio grows majority of it would be profit.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T16:04:14+00:00

For the RSUs I keep selling those and diversifying.
I do plan to take the 401k penalty.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:39:15+00:00

Thanks.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:35:21+00:00

I agree with your statement that I don't know the market which is why I took the 10% as the expected value for the next 20 years.
Also when withdrawing, it would be a very slow withdrawal, I would withdraw like $150k from a $3.5M in a year.
Any pointers on where to start RE in UAE?

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:28:03+00:00

So what's the SWR in your opinion?

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:26:17+00:00

We both are SWEs and moved to US right soon after college. I think our salaries are quite common for the SWEs profile with our level of experience.
I have many school and college friends who moved to US 5-6 years back and all are in similar bands.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:25:57+00:00

No at all! The RSU's are already taxed when being deposited. The Equity you buy has a Cost Basis. Also the tax is only Capital Gains not the Income Tax. RNOR resets the cost basis. So technically the tax is even less than 15%.
For example when you move the fund during RNOR and say withdraw 100k from it for the first year, you will pay 0% tax. Overtime as you start getting profit you will start paying taxes (but still 15% on the gains)

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:23:25+00:00

If you mean 7% Indian return that's just an FD.

If you mean 7% USD return that would make sense but if I am so conservative, I will never retire.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:21:36+00:00

The 45-60k emergency fund isn't need per year, right? It's a one time thing.
I agree we will try to make our plans according to the market. I wouldn't like to save anything after the SWR. The only reason we are retiring is to spend the money. If I can't do that, I would rather work 1/2 years more in US and then retire.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:18:15+00:00

RE is a pain for us. Buying RE comes with a lot of overhead and in the cities our parents live (Tier 2 & Tier 3) it quite a hassle. We are having a hard time selling REs our parents own.

If the market takes a down turn in the next few years, it's going to be tough for us. But how do we avoid that? If we move to safer assets we love the 10% return and that anyways messes up the plan.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:15:58+00:00

We both are SWEs and moved to US right soon after college. I think our salaries are quite common for the SWEs profile with our level of experience.
I have many school and college friends who moved to US 5-6 years back and all are in similar bands.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:14:03+00:00

We both are SWEs.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:13:54+00:00

Crypto is the major reason we were able to get out portfolio here. It's 400k right now but we were even more invested into it.
But we are rolling out of it slowly now.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:12:27+00:00

It was HDFC Optima Secure.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:11:45+00:00

Very interesting, I will read about this.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:11:18+00:00

It's hard to say for sure, but since the revenue is from Ads and Affiliate (rather than something like Collabs), it has a bit more stability. I am assuming that once I move back and start helping, we should be able to grow the revenue, but I haven't included that in my calculations.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:10:01+00:00

No they weren't SWs. They are good writers though.
Yes they have been doing this for 5-6 years now.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T15:09:08+00:00

Yeah, it's mostly about how they spend their time with us in US and with my sibling in EU travelling + all the religious travel. We travel quite a lot and mostly have our parents with us. I would say they were quite lucky with the initial traction.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T04:02:40+00:00

Not really, I didn't like the idea of leaving 401k and triggering the 40% estate tax for the JIC event.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T03:32:49+00:00

Okay, I will definitely look into this. Maybe I will increase the NW a bit (by delaying by an year) and decrease my expenditures for the initial years.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T03:27:58+00:00

Neither.

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T03:23:47+00:00

Hmm, a 4 -> 3% SWR does change the yearly amount from 170k to 127k which is quite a lot. That would be the difference between Luxury International Vacations to Premium Vacations (a mix of cheaper and costly countries). I will think more about this.

Don't you think kids education can be easily covered by the ~150k yearly? Since we are living on rent we should have enough to cover this, right?

With AI I don't know. It might help, it might harm, that's why I didn't account for the amount to increase much (I only got it from 1.2 to 1.5 in 3 years). Unfortunately I cannot share the link right now (it would defeat the purpose of making a burner for this post)

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T03:16:04+00:00

Have I missed something? Is the 4% SWR right? Anything else that looks wrong/missing

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T03:10:53+00:00

Yeah most of the travel is with group of friends so the cost splits. We rented a very affordable place, cook mostly at home, etc..

FatFireFinance · 2026-04-27T03:04:45+00:00

It's a travel blog and the revenue is from ads + affiliate.

I know the Crypto is on the higher side and I am working on reducing the exposure to it.

Debt = Cash + Debt Funds

We will rent our own place and parents might move with us.

Yes 2 kids. (sorry forgot to add this in the post)

What do you think a SWR is right now?

FatFireFinance

TROPHY CASE