For the people in your 20s who plan on retiring in your 30s, what are you doing to get there? 401k, investments, all of it. And, why did you choose those?

I’m 24 and have this mentality.

I have been financially on my own since I was 14, and always working 1-2 jobs to stay afloat. Have been in some pretty shading living arrangements in the past. Had to live without any insurance for a good chunk of my life while growing up, I’m fortunate to have been mostly healthy. Needed to take a semester off sophomore year of college to get my finances together to tackle some medical debt and still managed to graduate a semester early. I have no inheritance, and put myself through college, have always paid for my own beater vehicles, rent, utilities, phone plan, food, etc.

Today, I make about 175k a year from my W2 job. I think because of the strain I’ve constantly felt, I’ve been extremely conservative with my spending. Total NW is about 200K. Unfortunately a lot of it is tied up in my Roth 401k + Roth IRA, I followed the ‘good’ advice for 95% of the population that wants to retire at 65 and tried shoving everything I could into my retirement accounts. I now recognize that may have been my biggest mistake so far as I have no intention of working that long. Not sharing all of this for sympathy or bragging, but wanting to show that anyone is capable of doing exactly what you asked. Don’t listen to the MD talking trash above who has bought into the delusion that what you’re asking isn’t possible or shouldn’t be asked.

Like some others who have posted, I am actively working on acquiring real estate. Utilizing good debt is powerful & once you understand how the tax code for businesses in the US works, taxes can literally make you rich. Read that last part again. Get an amazing accountant. W2 employees are taxed at the highest rates in our country. If you can form a business that generates income and utilize the power of write offs, the government will not take a cent of your W2 income, and that’s just the beginning. Once you obtain scale from your business, you will be free from working. Appropriate process design, delegation, and automation (great skills you learn as a consultant) should seriously minimize your obligations to your business.

I’ve financially modeled out my potential futures a couple times, and I’m expecting ~500k per year without working a W2 job by the time I’m in my mid 30s. Maybe I’ll keep going, maybe I won’t - not sure yet.

Want to achieve something? Write down what you want. Then imagine taking it 10x. Next begin understanding and acting on the steps to get there. Even if you fall short if you’re smart about it you should still find yourself considerably higher than your original goal. If you fall, rise up and come back stronger. Don’t get trapped in the monotony of working for 30+ years and being a miserable old coot like that MD shaking your cane at kids who dreamed bigger than you ever did.

@OP: great that you’re thinking about it early on!

I only discovered the concept of FIRE when I was 30, but am on track to hit my FIRE target ($10M NW) when I’m 40. Since you’re already thinking about it now in your 20s means you’ll have a head start and able to get there in your 30s if you have a plan and stick to it.

Currently at $6M NW at 36 split across stockmarket investments ($4M generating $200k annual passive income in the form of monthly cash dividends that I currently reinvest), rental income ($360k property generating $14k annual income) and rest in cash (waiting to deploy into stock markets) and some insurance annuities ($160k - stupid mistake I made when I was in my 20s).

My path to FIRE is slightly different from what’s been suggested above in that I’m mostly focusing on investing in the stock market rather than real estate. I don’t invest in single name stocks but target dividend funds that generate monthly cash flow for me to spend when I FIRE.

This is partly because I’m not based in the US (so don’t have 401k or all the tax stuff related to RE or W2 income) and also I find RE in the various countries that I’ve lived in quite time consuming to manage and I prefer easier methods to earning passive income (that is also easily accessible globally since I plan to travel quite a bit when we FIRE).

My target cash flow is $300k annual in cash dividends so I don’t have to touch the principal. Assuming 5% dividend returns - this means I need to have $6M invested. I currently have $4M invested generating annual passive income of $200k, so have a little more to go.

The remaining $3.5M+ is buffer for kids plus property once we’ve decided where our forever home(s) will be.

Currently have 1 kid + SAH spouse and planning for a 2nd so just to say that FIRE isn’t just for young singles working in tech.

All my NW came from saving and investing my earnings from my consulting salary; no inheritance, no debt and no investments in crypto / meme stocks.

When I was in my 20s, I was basically on track to retire in my late 30s but I was so miserable that I decided that I'd rather live a fun life while doing a job I like than being miserable for the rest of my life.

Go to the FIRE bowl. A lot of great tips.

I inherited $5M in my 30s.

Since no one is particularly helpful so far…a friend of mine is on track for retirement at 35-40. Started in consulting and moved to tech. Currently at ~170TC. Aggressive savings, frugal living (Costco, lean diet,simple vacations, lots of working out). Definitely need some luck though. Shes on track to make a100% return on real estate and had some luck in crypto.

But the real differentiation is attitude towards how much is enough. Some think you need over 100k passive to survive. She’s happily living with well below that.

Married w/one kid too.

I’m 25- i make 100k and my take home is around 65- and i am looking to have 15 houses by 35 sfr. If each home cash flows 600 on average (based on equity increased refinances over 10 years) that’s 9k a month pre tax after property management. I have one home looking at house two rn. As time goes on more mortgage gets paid down and cash flow increases even without getting new properties and laggards can be sold to upkeep the portfolio and reshape. I don’t wanna “retire” i want to be working 10-15 hrs maintaining my money producing assets by 40, while having the flexibility to travel eat exercise and enjoy time w my beautiful fiancé

Buy a lot of lottery tickets and hope one day you win the jackpot.

Seriously though, how much do you think you’ll need to retire that young? I would argue what you really want is to be free from the corporate shackles and to “do what you want” even though you’ll end up working on pet projects most likely , otherwise your going to be really bored for the rest of your life.

Lmfao this question is so out of touch

I know one person who did this without being independently wealthy and he sold his startup (retired @32).

If you want to retire by 30, you’ll want a bunch of assets. Airbnbs, or condos or planes or helicopters…anything you can leverage passively

You won’t retire in your 30s with 401ks

FIRE is something the asset class sells the salary class to convince them that if they stop buying food and pay their taxes, they can have slightly more money than their neighbor

I read everything on the Bogleheads wiki. I aggressively save my money and have done 1 job hop and presented 1 outside offer to Accenture to get higher pay. I don’t live in an HCOL either.

I’m at 550k net worth in mid 20s. Plan to have $2-3m by my 30s and then at least by financially independent. Maybe or not I’ll retire

Not a FIRE guy, but if you’re interested in retiring in your 30s, why would you be dumping money in a vehicle that doesn’t allow disbursements until your 60s?

Age 27 planning to “retire” at 40, but really just want to become a middle school gym coach or teacher at that point. My target is 8m in savings by then, spend 20 years in Ed and get a pension. Anyways, about 50% of my take home pay goes into either 401k or account with UBS. By 30 I want to buy my first house, and by 33 I want to buy a second house (2x FHA loan: one for me, one for spouse.) I haven’t done the math in a bit, but this gets me pretty close to the mark assuming increased pay YoY goes straight back into investments.

Have not thought about costs of starting a family/ kids at all for this though which will probably put a wrench in everything

Maybe I'm not supposed to comment because I'm 37 but I started buying primary residences in my early 20s and turned 2 of them around for a decent profit then moved from MCOL to LCOL near family, bought another fixer upper with 20% down and now we're sitting pretty with well over 50% equity and a house payment all-in <1K. We are pretty frugal and like simple things but high quality groceries 😬 I have three kids so daycare is stupid expensive but our mortgage is <8% of our gross so once kids are out of that I'll get a huge "raise" plus I'm moving up quickly at work. I didn't start my career really until 32, the same year my first child was born, so really I am still trying to move fast despite being older already. I'm maxing my 401 and wanting to start doing some other types of investing (like real estate) soon - should get a big raise this summer and have no real plans to increase spending. I love my job but want to feel "free" and honestly I already do given our low bills. I'm super happy.

I am 34, and a close friend who is the same age is going to retire in about 9 months. He makes about 500k a year through his corporate job, rental investments, and has invested in opening franchises. Caveat being, he is retiring from corporate America and will solely focus on his investments, and continue to invest. He bought his first piece of property when he was 22 with his dad as a co-sign. It is possible, but it just depends on what your definition of retire is.

Nfts