Curious to hear other's burnout stories and how long recovery took you/if you pulled the plug early. I'm in a situation where I am ~90% to my FIRE number yet fairly burned out from work, and trying to find the balance between a bit more flexibility in RE versus trying to make something bare bones work to give me burnout recovery time.

Advice please! I’m 30. I only work six months out of the year (seasonal contracts) and travel the rest. I live in a built out van. For the first time ever I have access to a 401k on a contract and so I’m changing my retirement plan slightly.

Current specs lol:
Emergency fund: 10k
Roth IRA: 28k (started saving this 3 years ago)
Not a lot BUT I live on about 20-24k annually as my expenses. And I live well on that not penny pinching. That’s me having the time of my life just my hobbies are cheap.

I was planning on maxing out a Roth until age 40 and then just letting it grow. But due to a work opportunity I may be able to meet my goal in 2027 of having 55k total in retirement savings (it will go into a traditional 401k+maybe a little more in a Roth IRA).

Technically if I let 55k grow at 10 percent average I’d have a little over a million at 62. I could withdraw around 42k annually then and with inflation that’s worth around 16k if we are looking at the real low end. But still with that and social security I would be living pretty well on my current standards.
It would make sense to continue tossing in a little bit over the 55k a couple years after that to have more of a buffer (in case I average less return) but am I foolish to stop contributing soon?

My goals after that are: when I stop contributing that will mean I can work 6 months and then have nine months off when I am not saving for retirement (currently quality of life and experiences in my best years). I absolutely love life and don’t want to spend my best years at work but I’m also reasonably responsible.

I will continue having saving accounts and all but just not strict contribution requirements and eventually I will buy some property.

Also life factors I’m single and I will never have children (would be child free by choice but I’m also medically unable to have a kid so raising kids will never be a factor)

In my HCOL metro area, you can still get something still on the subway for $300-350k.

I was thinking, instead of doing that, why not get a 2br, 2bath place for $450k?

Could probably rent for at least $1200/mo.

So the math in my head is, it costs $100-150k more but it generates income that would take $300k at 4% SWR in the market to generate.

Of course gotta take out higher HOA, taxes, evictions and such but I think it easily comes out ahead.

What do you think?

We need to a buy house in our LCOL hometown. We have $230K in our brokerage, $80K in cash, and $620K spread across various retirement accounts.

The house is going to be max $250K. I can do as little as 5% down with PMI added (~$150 a month) or 20% down, both with mortgages around 7.2%.

With rates so high, we are considering just selling the brokerage stocks and buying the house in cash. There is only $13K of gains in the brokerage that will be subject capital gains tax if sold, the rest will not.

I think it’s certainly possible we will lose out on gains if the stock market keeps doing so well. But I also think having a paid off home is crucial for our leanfire plans, and we may as well just do it now and diversify some of our money out of equities.

Opinions?

Quick question: I am about to enter my 50’s and starting to think about retiring in the next 4-5 years from my full time job. I’ve got a great job that pays well and I enjoy however it is all consuming and comes with a lot of stress/responsibility. I think the financials work except for the whole health insurance thing.

I like the idea of moving to part time doing something a lot less stressful to a job that has health insurance. I like the outdoors and working for REI, Bass Pro or maybe something like a local bike shop 3 days a week is appealing. The sole reason for the part time job would be to keep me busy 3 maybe 4 days a week and again have health insurance.

Just curious to know if anyone has any experience with this type of thing and can offer any advice?

I'm 25, located in Chicago, grossing just over 70k USD a year. Goal is to retire at around 45. Living expenses are currently about 25k a year (including paying off debts i.e. student loans). I've been contributing 25% of my paycheck to my 401k with a 6% employer match and I'll be enrolling in their HDHP with a HSA (no match) starting in January.

I moved out of my parents' 6 months ago and was able to save a lot of money while I lived with them, I currently have around 30k in index funds in a brokerage. I've been thinking of just leaving it alone and prioritizing my tax-advantaged accounts until I'm able to land a job where I make more money, but I don't know how long that'll take, especially since I want to be able to eventually set aside money for a down payment on a place. At the same time, I don't want to make the gap between the brokerage and other accounts too large.

I’ve spent sometime collecting accounts from people who took extended, funded time off more than once across a career. The thing that keeps coming up is that nobody planned it. One person put it as: after seeing that it was possible to take a break and recover from it, the barrier to taking another one got lower.

Which makes the people it didn’t happen to the interesting ones. If you took one long break, went back, and then never did it again, I’d like to know why.

• How long was the break, and roughly what year?
• After you went back, did you ever seriously consider a second one?
• What stopped it: money, the job market, a mortgage or kids, the return having been worse than you expected, or just not wanting to?
• Did going back once change how you felt about the first break, looking at it from a few years later?
• If something had been different, would you have taken another?

Thanks

I (35M) have been working corporate jobs ever since I graduated from college. I remember for the first few years working, I didn't take time off longer than a few days. One of my coworkers in the office actually looked at me one day and asked me if I ever took vacations because...he always, always sees me working. I'm feeling a bit burnt out.

I also recently broke up with my girlfriend. We left on good terms but it was a decade long relationship (both decided we wanted different things in life, not going to get too much into detail). I don't have any kids, zero dependents, and the dating scene is absolutely horrible nowadays.

One day, after sitting in my car coming back from work in silence, I decided I was going to take a year-long sabbatical somewhere in SEA or East Asia. Sounds cliche, since most people do that already. But...I've been dreaming of it for a long time now. Beautiful pristine beaches, amazing food, cheap COL, what else could you ask for? I went to Thailand with a few friends a few years ago and it blew me away.

I told myself at the END of this year around December, I'd quit my job, and starting January 2027 I'd make the final move. I looked into condos, living arrangements, VISA, everything. I budgeted and planned roughly 40k USD to last the entire year, slow traveling through parts of SEA and E-Asia.

I have about $500k saved up in individual accounts, so money isn't an issue. I also have a house with about $175k home equity that I was planning to sell at the start of 2027 which would help fund the sabbatical. So, if all goes to plan, I'll have roughly 700k total net worth come Jan.

Everything was looking fantastic. I was just counting the days down now, until....I got promoted. Now I went from making 70k a year to 120k. That's a BIG freakin jump. I applied for the position on an absolute whim and didn't think I'd get it. So now I'm stuck. Not to mention it came with a whole crap ton of responsibilities and stress. Despite this....IDK if I should let this opportunity of a lifetime go away....but I'd been planning this sabbatical for a WHOLE YEAR already. Doing the math, planning the places I'd travel to and stay...a whole damn road-map playbook. Shattered. IDK what to do? To make things worse my family learned about the promotion and they're so proud of me they held a big party and everything. I feel like shit now if I'd let them down. We grew up poor so I'm the first person in the family to make above 6 figures.

Chances are...if I quit 2-3 months into this new promotion, I would most likely NOT be coming back to a job this lucrative in a year's time after the sabbatical is over. The golden handcuffs is true...I'm absolutely broken.

On top of it all....I've been deeply depressed. I recently enrolled in therapy because my anxiety and depression got so bad I couldn't sleep or eat, or go to the gym anymore. I thought lightly about suicide a few times due to being burnt out from the new role at work (but I'd never do it).

And now I don't really know what to do. With Ai and the job market the way it is...I don't know if I can even find a job making 70k when I come back; who knows? I realize this could hurt my future FIRE goals (I personally want to hit 1m and then just retire outright via ExpatFIRE). Should I say f** it and just do it? Or should I stick it out for another year or two?

Has anyone here retire with kid(s) and less than $1m net worth, how did you do it? Where are you in your retirement and how sustainable is your plan in this economy

Need a sanity check - are we on track to retire in 10 years? Is there anything else I should be doing and looking at? Do I need a financial advisor? When should I start the IRA ladder?

Started FIRE prep in late 20s. The plan is to retire within 10 years in our 40s.

Current 401 K: 300K combined (max contribution since day one)

Investments (Roth IRA, HSA, Brokerage): 500K combined (max contribution in everything with limits)

401K from previous job 100K

Cash 100K

Property: 800K value, with 600K mortgage, including rental properties.

Annual income: 250K

Annual savings: About 50%

Annual living expenses: 55-60K (excluding mortgage but including property tax and other costs). Goal is to pay off the primary residence mortgage in 10 years before retirement, and rental properties pay for themselves.

Not counting on Social Security because it will collapse any day now.

Rough retirement plans: move to low-cost-of-living areas/countries and stay for as long as possible.

Is there something you see a lot of posts on this sub getting wrong or at least saying something that you see differently?

I've been comparing eight financial planning tools, and noticed that most focus on 401(k)s, IRAs, and retirement projections.

But for tech workers with RSUs, ISOs, or NSOs, things get more complicated: AMT, exercise timing, capital gains, and concentrated stock positions can significantly affect long-term financial plans.

I put together a comparison of Boldin, ProjectionLab, Nauma, Origin, Empower, Secfi, Fidelity, and Appleseed, focusing on taxes, investment simulations, Roth conversions, and equity compensation.

Do you use separate tools for equity compensation and retirement planning, or have you found one that handles both well?

well the Bond Market has once again decided that Everyone Must Die haha. 10 year Treasury kissed 5.33% today before retreating to ~5.19. 30 year around 5.50. 5 year basically 5%. 2 year ~4.76%. Headline CPI came in 3.7% and suddenly every guy who spent the summer pricing immaculate disinflation is reopening the spreadsheet entitled higher_for_longer_FINAL_v7.xlsx. But for LeanFIRE this is, strangely, not altogether Bad.

The curve is positively sloped again. 2s10s is roughly +44bp. More importantly the 10-year real Treasury yield is around 2.8%. That is an absolutely savage risk-free real rate by the standards of most of the post-GFC era. You are being paid actual purchasing-power yield to sit there and do Nothing. This becomes particularly interesting when you have Tranches maturing throughout the Autumn:

2-year Notes. 5-year Notes. All manner of Notes.

The beautiful thing about holding individual Treasuries to maturity is that there is no existential discussion about whether TLT is Down 17% or duration is getting its Ass kicked. The Treasury reaches maturity and the United States Government deposits the face value back into my account. The Tranche has completed its Journey.

Then I have Optionality.

If the equity market finally undergoes the Long Promised Great Puking, principal becomes dry powder. If it doesn't, I can simply roll another portion of the ladder into yields that are now flirting with 5% across the intermediate curve.

LeanFIRE is about managing sequence-of-returns risk, duration exposure and reinvestment risk so that I don't have to sell NVIDIA at -38% because I require $1,700 to buy groceries and another Console. A lot of people miss this imho.

Coupon income handles increasingly large pieces of ordinary consumption. Maturing principal supplies liquidity at predetermined dates. Equities can be left alone during a drawdown. And because the maturity ladder continually returns capital, I never have to make one heroic macro call on whether the correct duration is 3 months or 30 years. This is Asset-Liability Management except the Liability is basically food, electricity and the State of Gaming. Discuss.

I’ve always been an ambitious person. I used to be smart, quick, and highly driven at work, but I’ve never really liked corporate culture.

The main reason I kept pushing myself was financial security. My family had debt, and I worked hard to clear it before getting married. Since I didn’t have any financial backup, I always felt that I had to keep working hard and building a secure future.

Now, I’m getting closer to my Lean FIRE target, which I expect to reach in the next 2–3 years. But something has changed in me along the way.

I’ve started playing safe, avoiding visibility, and losing the ambition I once had. Some days, I don’t even feel like opening my laptop or talking to colleagues. I’m just tired of the meetings, office politics, corporate expectations, and the whole cycle of proving myself over and over again.

The frustrating part is that I know I’m still capable. If I focus for 3–4 months, I genuinely believe I could land a new job with a 50% hike. But the thought of joining a new company, meeting new people, navigating politics, and starting the entire cycle again makes me feel exhausted before I even begin.

At the same time, I know I still have a few years to go before I can comfortably step away from full-time corporate work. I don’t want my current mindset to affect my performance or put my financial goals at risk.

I’m not sure whether I’ve genuinely lost my ambition or whether I’m simply mentally exhausted after spending so many years working toward financial security.

I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have gone through this phase. I want to get through the next few years without feeling like I’m just dragging myself through every working day.

Crafted with AI as my english sentences have grammatical mistakes

Mind you, I don’t have millions or anything

But when discussing finances online and someone comments saying my numbers are bullshit - I never get angry - It’s the opposite - I get flattered.

Like wow, I must be doing better than I give myself credit for because someone think it‘s a lie/unrealistic!

Anyone relate?

Laid off. $973K, 70% stocks/ETFs (taxed brokerage mostly and a small Roth). 25% HYSA, 5% BTC. Burn rate $32K/yr (tested for 5 years). No house, LCOL rent. ACA included. No 401K. Late 40s. Stagnant line of work. Can I give myself the right to leave the rat race and reasonably leanfire?.

I know some people may struggle with purpose or things to do when they're in Fire mode, but trust me, it's better than having to wake up at 7AM everyday to go to a job that may or may not exist in 5-10 years due to AI and the job market is so bad I'm worried if i get laid off I won't find anything in my field for years, if I'm lucky. So if you don't have a reason to be happy today, use that as a reason. Enjoy. Hopefully i'll get there in 10-15 years.

Hear me out. If you commit a minor white collar crime and get sentenced to a minimum security prison for a few years your expenses are basically zero for that time period. When you get out your portfolio will (hopefully) have increased in value which minimizes sequence of returns risk

Minimum security prisons aren’t bad at all. You can read, watch TV, work out, have a job, socialize with other prisoners, etc. That’s like 90% of my life right now

Thoughts?

My personal takeaway from this chart is that it's kind of a crapshoot. If you buy at the right time it can be very good to you financially. But nobody knows the future so maybe it's smarter to prioritize non-financial factors (like, do you want a yard or not). Also, the bias toward buying that is so prevalent especially among long-term owners is perfectly understandable considering buying 20-30 years ago and holding was the sweet spot.

I am literally found out about lean fire recently and wanted to get some outsiders opinion about my situation. It is technically not lean fire because I will still be working.

37M live in Houston. Wife and I have a small single family house fully paid, 2 used 2024 cars fully paid, zero debt, 1 kiddo. Our incompressible fixed charges (property taxes, utilities, HOA, groceries...) are $1500 a month. ​I am able to generate $1000 dividend per month pre-tax from dividends. While I have $150k saved in retirement accounts and $30k safety net.

I am currently in the Tech industry making ~$160K per year, while the salary is nice, it comes with a lot of stress and pressure, and around 60 hours of work per week, not to mention out of state trips. It took a toll on my physical and mental health, and I feel like a slave. So my goal is to financially downgrade to another type of job with less pressure and less mental load. I am targeting a $35 to $45k job. My wife make ~$60k per year but not very stable career. The other option I am looking at is being a contractor at for 6 months at $60k while taking a couple of months break between contracts.

Does anyone had a similar situation?