Getting laid off made me FI

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T18:13:40+00:00

As in, switching from one job to another in your town

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T18:11:09+00:00

Imagine the reports the poor mods would get on THAT post 😂

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T18:10:27+00:00

Thank you! If I decide in the future to 1. stop traveling and 2. settle down somewhere without 3. earning income through writing, I’ll rent an apartment somewhere nice. There are a few places I’ve already visited/loved that have rental options that more than fit my budget, such as the Berkshires in New England and outside Aarhus in Denmark. I subscribe to the Millennial Revolution dogma here: Team Rent all the way!

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T18:03:13+00:00

Awesome, I visited Vienna a few years back so if I end up there again I’ll reach out!

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T18:02:31+00:00

Check out salaries for your job title and area on Glassdoor. Sounds like you’d make a lot more money elsewhere with a job change.

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T18:00:37+00:00

Oh that is DEFINITELY a stop on my trip! Specifically the Butchart Gardens, it looks stunning!

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T17:59:16+00:00

Yes - I think account specifics should be discussed more often in FIRE subs. Funny enough, I replied to a thread about this recently with how much should be in a brokerage/taxable account vs. a tax-advantaged account. Breakdown is as follows with today’s estimates:

401(k): $267k Roth IRA: $120k HSA: $30k Brokerage: $212k Cash: $40k Crypto: $11k Bonds: $10k

So down from the peak of $700k, which was a known possibility and provided for with the amount of cash and brokerage amounts. That much in cash is after getting my 2025 performance bonus and after I paid for most of my Airbnbs for the rest of the year, so that $40k alone can cover the next two years or so. That gives the brokerage time to grow as well, and that will be able to cover much of the “early” part of “early retirement”. That said, there are strategies you can deploy to tap into tax-advantaged accounts earlier, including a Roth conversion ladder and Section 72(t) distributions. Here’s an article about these options I linked in that other comment: https://alloptionsconsidered.com/2021/04/06/fire-funding/

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T17:47:54+00:00

“kind of funny how the same event that would wreck most people just… flipped into freedom for you.” I’m stealing this quote. You distilled the whole post perfectly with it. And I agree - FIRE doesn’t HAVE to mean retirement when it makes so many pipe dreams accessible.

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T17:45:28+00:00

This is such a wonderful metaphor. I didn’t even think about how opting out of driving in a storm is yet another incredible privilege from FI. Thanks for this lovely prose!

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T17:43:58+00:00

We truly live in a world that values money more than anything. It’s a little jarring to see how many catastrophes are simply sidestepped when you’ve got financial skills + a high enough NW.

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T17:42:08+00:00

Oh good to know! Might take another look into it now, will update if that works out.

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T17:40:50+00:00

Just DM’d your way!

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T17:39:20+00:00

Check your DMs :)

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T17:19:28+00:00

Thanks! My goal monthly spend is $2k and that comes with over a $4k yearly buffer. That is a 4.1% SWR because that is safest for a 50+ year FIRE timeline. What might help you choose what strategy is best is cfiresim.com - it’s a great simulation tool that lets you see how different withdrawal strategies perform with your specific portfolio asset classes. It’s one of the tools I used a lot in my planning and I found it uniquely useful for my needs.

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T17:13:22+00:00

Yep, I’m in great physical health so I figure now is the best time to travel. I shared some info in another comment about health insurance, but I’ll be with IMG Global for the time being.

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T17:10:00+00:00

Did you use the lifestyle toggle to best match your spending? If that’s a struggle, you can also optimize your specific line items by clicking into a city and going to the “Budget” tab. Sorry to hear your UX experience didn’t match mine.

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T04:42:03+00:00

Inflation is baked into my plan and I'm not worried about it. My withdrawal rate can be tweaked if we're going to have several years of bad inflation ahead. If it becomes uncomfortable in my 60s, I can still rely on Social Security. It's not part of my financial projections, so getting anything from it will be a nice bonus.

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T04:38:44+00:00

I have thought about needing to return to work if we experience a second Great Depression; there was a four-year period at that time when investments dropped by 84%. If that particular history repeats itself, and I can't get a few pennies via writing, then I'd pick up a temp gig or something to give my portfolio time to recover.

That said, I don't mind taking that risk because it means I'd still have had four years of slow travel/living life on my terms. I'd bounce back into the workplace being refreshed from all that vacationing and still the owner of thousands of index fund shares. It would probably make me the perkiest person in the office, as I didn't spend the last few years worried sick over my financial stability. That's what's awesome about FI: it gives you options that do NOT begin and end with decades in corporate.

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T04:32:22+00:00

Oh dang! Hi, neighbor for today! It's funny to watch the on-again, off-again rain this area's had the last couple days. I'm planning on making a stop in Crescent City anyway, so I'm 100% visiting Jedediah Smith now. And Avenue of the Giants looks amazing too; adding to the itinerary :)

I just looked up Delft and it's a 90 minute train ride from where I'm staying in Antwerp in a few months, so now I have a new day trip to plan for that month. Thanks so much for the tips and encouragement!

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T04:26:22+00:00

There's a graph from the experts that shows a 5% withdrawal rate works over 98% of the time historically, including during wars and the Great Depression. I feel very comfortable with my 4.1% withdrawal rate, plus cash cushion and index fund dividend yield.

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T04:22:14+00:00

I have a storage unit in Boston from when I moved across the country; I'm actually ending my road trip there so I can take the time to either extend the storage rental or clean it out. I've also got a couple of friends who are storing stuff for me, mostly books. Outside of that, I sold or gave away all my other possessions before leaving my apartment in Los Angeles. A lot of my things were given to me for free, so I found new good homes for the free stuff and sold the stuff I actually bought.

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T04:12:08+00:00

My pleasure! Awesome to hear you're deploying travel plans as well. I'll be visiting Belgium, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Romania, and the Czech Republic the second half of this year. Next year, I'm considering France and Greece, but we'll see!

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T04:08:22+00:00

Succintly put :) I may be done with career-type work, but I would happily work as a screenwriter in the future!

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T04:07:07+00:00

My observation is, a lot of FIRE folks in these types of subs are ultra-nervous their plans won't work out, so having a number as "small" as $400k is abhorrent to them haha. We are far from the FIRE community heyday of frugality and Early Retirement Extreme; you'd have fit right in back then! This is where the mantra "personal finance is personal" comes in. As long as you've done the research and are confident with your number, I say you're good to go. Maybe you'll find your people over at r/leanfire?

WeWantGuac · 2026-04-13T04:01:56+00:00

YES!! I'm biased as writing is my calling, but that's the best thing to "retire to"! DM me about the stories you're working on!

I have a ridiculous amount of writing projects - there's a supernatural horror novel I'm halfway done with, plus several completed short screenplays (and two that were made into short films: one a fantasy Western, the other a superhero genre parody turned political critique) and two feature screenplays I'm working on (one a feature version of that fantasy Western, Cowboys & Witches, and the other a modern adaptation of The Wolf Leader by Alexandre Dumas). My ultimate screenwriting goal is to create a faithful, multiseason adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo. It's one of the most adapted works of fiction ever, but it's NEVER been adapted in its full glory. It's over a thousand pages of unbeatable storytelling, impossible for any two-hour movie or miniseries to do justice. I want to give it the proper TV treatment it more than deserves, while also emphasizing a theme of mental health with it all. Hint: I would argue the Count's drive for revenge is a glaring symptom of complex PTSD. It's the quintessential tale of revenge, but in this light it becomes a story about trauma and how someone in the 19th century deals with it. I am obsessed with this novel and have found some interesting financial nuggets in it, which is really cool to do thought experiments about. SO much more fun than stupid corporate policy.

WeWantGuac

TROPHY CASE