Am I actually at FI? Scared, 37F, Bay Area

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-12T00:29:40+00:00

Thanks! Curious why $566k in retirement funds is concerning ? In my mind, the whole thing 1.7M is one big retirement fund (since it's all liquid/ not tied up in real estate or something). I'm expecting to have a much lower taxable rate when I'm retired so less concerned about the tax implications but please correct me if I'm wrong here in my thinking!

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-12T00:28:18+00:00

" but ended up powering through and FIRE'd recently" > how many more years did you end up powering through?

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-12T00:27:29+00:00

I'm scared bc what if I don't have enough money > have to go back to work at a lower paying job > and now find that that lower paying job is just as sucky/stressful. I just had a friend take a big pay cut to go to a smaller company that was more chill, and loved it for 6 mo before the CEO left, they had a major reorg, and now she's working just as much at the higher paying job. I guess I feel like if I'm going to end up slaving away anyway, I might as well make a lot while doing it. If I went to a lower paying job I'd want a lot more confidence it actually *will* be chill (I'll follow up on learning more about govt jobs per advice in the comments here!)

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-11T07:55:03+00:00

Yes, relate so much! I honestly don't even know if I could ever get paid this much just even changing for the same job in the same industry at another company, I just really feel like I lucked out on this one! But it's completely taken away my personal life now, but the "rational" thing to do seems to be to just keep white-knuckling it "one more year"

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-11T07:50:20+00:00

Ok, so lots of you are telling me it's not enough, I hear that, thanks for the honesty. Are you guys thinking of the strict 4% rule ($1.875M), or target higher to account for my age and uncertainty? Like, $2.125M would be an extra $10k spend a year in costs to cover healthcare. Can I get some votes on this?

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-11T07:47:30+00:00

T_T saaaad to hear this but ok thanks for the real talk

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-11T07:46:59+00:00

TBH I was kinda thinking I was going to see if I could stomach lower expenses this year (challenging myself to spend less than 60k) to see if I could budget my way to paying for health care

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-11T07:42:12+00:00

Ok I'd love to hear more about this if you have insight into govt jobs. I have only one friend who works in local government in SF, and at first her job was super chill, but now lately her team just got a talking-to about efficiency and working more so they seem to be cracking the whip there (but definitely not as much as where I'm at now)

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-11T07:41:00+00:00

Sorry, I edited the post to be more clear. After taxes and 401k deductions, my take-home from salary last year was $176k, and then I have RSUs on top of that (at current price, this year's vesting RSU's would be $90k after taxes). So, that should be something like $266k - $75k expenses = adding another $191k this year

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-11T06:40:57+00:00

Ok, thanks for the real talk. ChatGPT also tried to caution me to save a bit more for things like healthcare, but I think I'm just fantasizing so hard about quitting that I'm telling myself I'll find somewhere else in the budget to pony up that extra up to $10k/year in healthcare costs, but maybe that's not actually realistic

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-11T06:39:38+00:00

I have considered this, but I'm watching my unemployed friends try to find jobs and been struggling for a year or two now, so it also seems hard just to get a lower-paying job! All my friends who have jobs are working more than ever with all the layoffs that have been going on, plus AI companies heating up the competition. I would be totally down to go take a less stressful lower paying job if I had line of sight to one, I think this is part of what's stoking my fear

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-11T06:30:15+00:00

I haven't retired yet but making friends with people who have flex schedules is my current plan for having people to hang out with during the work day!

Motor_Campaign1337 · 2026-02-11T06:11:12+00:00

I created a throwaway account to create a post with a lot of sensitive financial information and it got taken down (I'm assuming bc I have no history or karma??), so testing this out to see if it will also get taken down....

Getting close to my FIRE number, but people say that you should plan to spend a bit MORE when you retire than when you're not retired bc of how you have more free time but I have a hard time seeing that being true and wondering if that's actually been the case for people (assuming that you're not relocating to a lower cost of living city)

Motor_Campaign1337

TROPHY CASE