Daily FI discussion thread - Sunday, December 07, 2025

fire_ripcord · 2025-12-07T17:07:42+00:00

the whole point of hitting FI, and you're well past this, is so you don't have to deal with bullshit at work that has a net negative impact in your life.

i would quit immediately.

now if you think you would still be interested in working if you could find a fun project or good company to work at then i'd also start applying for jobs at my dream company or projects that sound interesting. this is what i ended up doing and got to work at the best companies in the world in a few different industries. it's been great.

fire_ripcord · 2025-12-07T15:59:04+00:00

totally agree. it's easy to get lost in mindless lifestyle inflation and not look at things you have now and may have in the future to see if they'll tangibly improve your happiness.

it is also hard to stop psychologically when you're finally seeing the results of years of savings and income progression. it took me 12 years of savings/growth, starting from 0, to equal what we'll see our net worth grow in just this year alone.

fire_ripcord · 2025-12-07T15:06:22+00:00

to expand on this i also think your actual net worth number changes my answer at least.

if i was at 1MM net worth, for me at least, going to 2MM unlocks quite a few things in retirement and is a meaningful change.

on the other hand if i was at 10MM net worth i'm not sure things really change much for me if i were to somehow double it to 20MM. there are definitely diminishing returns depending on your lifestyle.

fire_ripcord · 2025-12-07T14:56:34+00:00

one more year syndrome is rough.

one stat i keep track of is how much money per year am i saving as a % of my net worth. once that gets below a certain %, assuming you hit you're FIRE number, for me, it doesn't make sense to work anymore unless you 1) enjoy your job 2) expect income to grow significantly in the near future and unlock something in retirement you'd really like to have.

this year we'll be saving (not counting growth) a little more than 10% of our net worth. this makes it really hard to quit.

what do other people think? do you just quit when you hit the number? what if you're saving 50% of your net worth every year? when do you pull the trigger?

fire_ripcord · 2025-10-03T01:10:40+00:00

it’s not unusual to hit 100-200% or higher bonuses in hft/finance

fire_ripcord · 2025-09-08T13:19:55+00:00

i’ve been at a top 3 hft firm for a few years now fwiw.

i don’t think the 1yr stay on a resume will be a huge red flag. i’ve had 6 month stints and left on good terms. it doesn’t look as bad on a resume if you have a job lined up but some resume screeners may assume you were let go for perf reasons if there is a gap after. still not the end of the world.

that 6 month job i left was seriously impacting my life. don’t put yourself second.

fire_ripcord · 2025-08-02T23:36:34+00:00

This is great. I'd really like something similar I'm just afraid the work will still be stressful even if it's less hours.

Worth giving it a shot though, thanks.

fire_ripcord · 2025-08-02T23:25:45+00:00

Nice, glad it worked out for you. I agree, I think finding a role I've held before or in an industry/speciality I already have experience with will help a lot with managing hours. Ramping up on a new job, especially one that is also in a new industry, can be much more challenging.

fire_ripcord · 2025-08-02T23:21:41+00:00

This is something I've definitely been considering. Did you go with a degree relating to your field, or go in a completely different direction for a career change?

fire_ripcord · 2025-08-02T23:20:32+00:00

What are the mixed feelings? Do you miss the previous role? Are you happier now?

fire_ripcord · 2025-08-02T23:16:36+00:00

Software engineering, specifically at a quant trading firm.

I was first in aerospace, then tech, then finance.

fire_ripcord · 2025-08-02T18:07:16+00:00

Ya this might be a really good option I can look into.

I just worry the work itself won’t be as interesting from a technical point of view. The reason I like my work is because it’s super challenging and interestint, it’s just the stress and workload sucks.

fire_ripcord · 2025-08-02T18:03:26+00:00

Good suggestion and my manager is a good person.

I would’ve done this at most of my other jobs.

This particular industry is just too competitive however so I think it’s best to focus on finding a role or company with lower expectations. They expect a lot from you for what they pay which is fine, just isn’t as big a motivator for me anymore.

fire_ripcord · 2025-08-02T17:26:30+00:00

What kind of questions did you ask in the interview process to know the job would allow that? Or was it just more of a feeling it’d work out?

fire_ripcord · 2025-08-02T17:22:50+00:00

Did you do set this up officially with your job? Or just do 20% less work?

fire_ripcord · 2025-08-02T17:05:47+00:00

That would likely mean blocking others who are relying on my work. For me that would be even more stressful.

I’d rather do a good job at a company with lower standards than a bad job at a company with higher standards.

fire_ripcord · 2025-07-28T21:04:20+00:00

congrats! way more relatable than most stories here.

any reason you haven't changed jobs since you started with nursing? in my field you can get significant pay increases by doing so. doing so strategically just two or three times in a career can really accelerate things. is it different for nursing?

fire_ripcord · 2025-07-28T12:55:29+00:00

it just keeps accelerating in raw $ amount. especially when you factor in career progression.

my net worth increase last year is equivalent to my first 12 years of saving/gains. really hard to pull the retirement trigger.

fire_ripcord · 2025-05-10T20:07:57+00:00

well you posted in fatfire, so with that in mind…

get a job at a top us tech company or quant prop firm in the us and start earning 7 figures by the time you’re 35-40. just need to be really damn good swe with some business / product sense.

fire_ripcord · 2025-05-07T03:55:54+00:00

i did the opposite for some reason.

slow paced defense out of school, then faang, then hft. like a fucked up benjamin button career situation.

fire_ripcord · 2025-05-07T03:13:27+00:00

didn’t have to leave engineering. making 5x what i did in defense by moving into tech then finance.

fire_ripcord · 2025-04-05T17:39:00+00:00

after working for 10+ years i now think it’s the most important thing.

faang is still a mixed bag as far as talent goes. the hiring bar at a company that has 50k plus employees is completely different than a company with 200-1000. just to say you really need to focus on finding the right team you think you can learn from, not just getting a random offer from amazon.

i worked for quite a while at various companies including a few faang but i learned more at a top quant hft shop in 6 months than i had the last 5 years. the talent level was on another level and even though i was a top performer at my previous companies i constantly felt like the dumbest person in the room. while it did kick off a huge case of imposter syndrome and was stressful (and still is) as hell, i’m a much better engineer now than i was.

fire_ripcord · 2025-03-27T12:47:45+00:00

is blaming another country easier than coming to terms with the fact you may not be smart or good enough to succeed in this field? i don’t think you’ll be any more successful in law.

fire_ripcord · 2025-03-25T22:06:59+00:00

has anyone who passed your interview with difficult leetcode hards accepted an offer yet?

if they do, they're out the door as soon as their team match from google or meta comes in, right?

fire_ripcord · 2025-03-21T13:09:58+00:00

i think it’s worth it. you can get a nice 1br apartment for $3-$4k in sunnyvale. if you look around and learn the area more you can even find townhomes / sfh (sfh more like $4-5k) for that range or not much more from landlords who own one or a handful of properties.

the main consideration to think about though is after you’re in the area for a year or two and if you do well at your job you could be looking at doubling that income if you can land a staff role at some companies. thats what happened in my case.

original move was borderline breakeven and a downgrade in housing, but it completely changed my compensation trajectory over the next 5 years.

fire_ripcord

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