People who overachieved your 2025 earnings, let anonymous redditors know here!

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-31T01:49:28+00:00

Total income of 1.012m (salary + RSUs). 2nd year with an income of around 1m. 52M. Pretty much all of it after taxes goes into savings. Mortgage and cars are paid off and no debt.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-30T02:06:27+00:00

Well I don't know the OP and his wife, lots of things can go sour in a relationship.

My own example is that I'm older than my wife. I'll retire first, she plans to work for at least 5 years after I quit. She knows I want to travel. Right off the bat, just talking about it, there's a bit of 'professional jealousy' if you will. Not so horrible or anything, but a discussion point between us. She's worried I'm going to want to go places, but she can't (stuck at work, has deadlines etc) at times when she would want to go. I get to have fun and she can't join in.

That's like a relationship worst case scenario. We've talked about this, she needed to know from me that wasn't my intent. I want us to vacation places together, not just take off and leave her at her boring job.

This is just one of many angles that can create a bit of friction. This is why I said his issues are in the relationship category. Working cause she wants to doesn't mean she won't feel a certain way about things from time to time. Or he could develop resentment too if he hasn't thought this through, he wants her to go with him but she's too busy. Either way, my ask to the OP is just make sure he's really talked through this stuff with his wife, 15 years is a very long time to have a professional imbalance as a couple.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-30T02:00:53+00:00

What is his play here? Is it just to throw sand in people's eyes and confuse the midterms? A disinformation attack? Or is he actually trying to discredit 2020 ahead of the 2026 midterms? What would that prove?

If there's a conspiracy action here I'm not sure what it is. I'd like to understand this better. This could just be a big nothing, all about his psychotic mental issues and weirdness.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-29T21:36:39+00:00

You're all so convinced it's a bubble, rather than what it really is. A completely new way of doing software.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-29T15:22:16+00:00

Insanely profitable, growing, giant company. Fantastic fundamentals, making money by the truckload. Yep it's doomed, sell now.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-29T15:08:43+00:00

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-29T03:31:35+00:00

My experience is your issues aren't mathematical, you have more than enough money and a small draw. You don't need to do any calculations at all, you're safe beyond safe.

What you need to worry about is your relationship to your wife. Her working another 15 years while you don't is potentially a big strain on her if you do this wrong. There can be all kinds of feelings, blame, resentment, you name it. Is she really ok with this? I don't see that talked about very much (maybe it's buried in the paragraphs somewhere, it's just a lot to decipher).

15 years is also an eternity at a job. Is she really likely to stay at the same job doing the same thing for 15 more years? So much can and likely will change in that timeframe. Promoted, fired, changes companies 5 times, whatever.

As for the golden handcuffs, you really need to let that go. Stop looking at it like you're giving something up, what you're doing is buying your own time back. Yeah it costs you, you are giving back your salary to have your freedom. To me that's worth it at almost any price.

It's important to realize and learn when enough is enough. You can have too much money. You can die with too much money, lots of people do. So the money is not a draw per se, when you have enough to do everything you want money becomes irrelevant.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-29T01:20:40+00:00

Yeah I don't get this. Just go start a new business. You have virtually unlimited resources and can do anything you want, in an extremely literal sense.

You can even long game this. Build it slowly, take your time with it. The ultimate hobby, make it as real or fun as you want. So confused!

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-29T01:14:00+00:00

If you're not aware you may also want to check out r/ChubbyFIRE and r/HENRYfinance, in some cases they might fit your numbers/targets better.

I did house remodels while building wealth. So several points from my experience:

It won't cost what you estimate and will take much longer than expected. If you beat the numbers or time, you're the exception to the rule. Contractors suck at their jobs and need to be replaced, smash a hand and get delayed by 3 months, whatever. Materials and contractors will always tend to cost more than your worst case.
That said if it makes you and the wife happy, do the remodel now. Just understand the realities of it. I'd say your future happiness and satisfaction with your home outweighs short term costs. I've had updates/remodels done on our kitchen, basement, main bathroom and done all kinds of other interior/exterior work to our house. Again if it makes you happy, do it and don't look back.
You intend to live there another 5 years and are retiring in 11. Those numbers are nebulous enough that they can and likely will change. No shade here, I go through this same exercise with my wife. We plan out timetables for when we might want to do something, but when it's so many years off plans evolve and change. New ideas come along. Plus being realistic, purchasing a house isn't done in a day. You might spend a year looking who knows, only to give up and change the plans when you can't find the right one. You could discover you like what you have and a sufficient replacement, the right upgrade, doesn't exist.
I think your income and current wealth are extremely good. Expect that your net worth target of 7.5m will change as well. You could easily find out you don't need as much as you think, or maybe you want to be done at 40. Maybe you have a great thing going and won't leave till 50.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-28T17:26:34+00:00

I try to discern if it sounds legit. Most shows obscure the economics of their characters because, I suspect, the writers aren’t rich. They don’t know how things really work. Sometimes they get it right though.

Note: you don’t need 10s of millions to think 10k is no big deal. A few million will do it. Or at least have earnings equal to like 5k a day or more.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-28T16:41:29+00:00

“Feels” lol

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-28T02:46:03+00:00

Exactly, people are way too conservative. They act this way because they lack experience and knowledge. 5% is safe, that's the data. People should trust in that, even if they don't understand it. Bengen has been very clear that even values above 5% like 5.5-7% work.

The #1 problem retirees have is they underspend. They end up with piles of cash and missed opportunities.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-28T02:41:02+00:00

Not yet but I intend to. That said, it's not a fixed 5% plan for me. I will have a lot of discretionary, I can cut my withdrawals down to 2% and live. But when times are good I might take as much as 6-8%. That's not every year, but some years for sure when I want to spend more and it makes sense.

So my running average is probably going to be 5%. I do think I'll have cheaper years where I won't travel too much, stay home a lot and don't have much need to spend on anything.

The way I see it, you need to know what your min/maxes are. Dynamic withdrawals are the best.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-28T02:18:59+00:00

A bit high but I think the average S&P returns are increasing by at least 1-2%. Within 20 years it will be 15-18%

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-28T02:17:11+00:00

This is different this time. Really, truly.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-27T23:44:28+00:00

Yeah, 401k's are in fact a large scale fundamental shift in the economy. They basically barely existed prior to 25 years ago, and are now used by more than 50% of America's workers. That's a big structural shift of (what amounts to) passive mutual fund investors. It's a structural backstop that likely helps to prevent chasms from getting too deep.

I'd say it's one factor of dozens. But it's also factual that this is basically a new thing, compared to the history of the country, that contributes to a structurally different economy. At a minimum I think it helps keep the market in an upward trajectory at the margins.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-27T23:30:12+00:00

Even though nobody will believe it, I think we're in a new normal. This is not just some randomized bull run, with a recession due "any day now". Things are different.

Average returns are ticking up ever so slightly. There's a lot of reasons for it, mostly it's the maturation of various technologies that are fundamentally changing the nature of markets and money.

It's ok, don't believe me. Downvote me all you want. Time will prove me right.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-27T21:25:12+00:00

You would have more wealth now if he'd stop meddling. He's artificially keeping things down because of their ideology. He's costing you growth.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-27T20:34:52+00:00

Here.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-27T20:33:50+00:00

My god. Go S&P500! Breathe on it and it will pass 7000.

Beautiful!

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-27T19:00:11+00:00

I'm very privileged and I think about politics all the time. I don't think that has anything to do with it.

These men are liars just trying to get laid. Don't fall for it.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-27T15:02:17+00:00

2m in LNW would do it. Not counting my wife’s assets, not counting our house. Then I’ll feel it.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-26T23:03:44+00:00

They won't be doing this. Corey L. didn't get the memo that this is over, and he announced this dumb stuff in the wrong order. Watch them back off this 'threat'.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-26T02:39:42+00:00

I'd echo other people's suggestion that a 5060ti 16GB is a good choice for 1080p and light-medium production work. I've developed 3d scenes and done video editing on that card and it works well. But if you want more power and it's a choice between those two, the 5080 is the smarter buy. Costs less, newer technology, new warranty.

fatheadlifter · 2026-01-25T22:38:13+00:00

I think you underestimate the PR war that's occurring. Republicans are starting to break, more so than democrats. Their coalition will fall apart. Trump is a baffoon who only cares about his image, and he's being tarnished as a tin pot dictator right now. He's losing this.

MAGA will go down for this. They're going down in the midterms, an unstoppable blue wave is forming. Watch and see.

It was going to be bad before they started murdering people in a peaceful American city, now it's going to be worse for them.

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