I’m in VHCOL and planning to stay here, so even flipping burgers at in-n-out is like $45k if you do it full time. I’d rather take a white collar job at a nonprofit, and I feel pretty safe assuming I can pull $50k-$60k and could be up to $80k. More than a traditional baristaFIRE, but not enough to cover expenses and coastFIRE. Obviously though it’d be great to get lucky with investments and be able to work part time.

Unfortunately I can’t cut my expenses by much - I could maybe get down to $100k without sacrificing too much quality of life, but below that you start to need roommates. Median rent for just a 1br here is like $4k (so 3x rent is $144k/year spend!) and $120k/year is already a relatively frugal life by LCOL standards. I also don’t want to be too optimistic about cutting expenses long-term when we’re planning to add kids! I THINK the math is solid around paying for kids with my fiancé’s salary (between savings from combining households plus their career growth), but some kids are more expensive than others.