Need some FIRE advice please. I am currently 25 M, with 125k in savings across my 401k/ESPP/Personal Brokerage Acct. etc. I have no debt. Base salary of 125k with up to 25% bonus.

I contribute 20% to my pre tax (employer matches up to 6%) and 5% in my Roth 401k and 10% in my ESPP. I keep only what I need in my checking to pay rent and have some fun on the weekends, but all relative would you say that I am allocating my funds correctly. Huge believer in value investing and compound interest.

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For people looking to FIRE, contributing to a trad 401(k) will in almost all cases serve you better (that is whole 19.5k in trad, and 0 in Roth 401k). Then do the whole 6k in Roth IRA (backdoor if you need to). Your current marginal tax rate will almost certainly be higher than your rate when you retire and start draw down.

likesmart

What is your question?

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From what you've said, it seems there's still some money on the table

Disagree with D2. This OP is 25 yo and making 125k a year (congratulations to him/her). I fully expect that when they are 35 yo they will be making 250 a year and in a higher tax bracket. These early years should be a Roth then switch to traditional.

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Agree with Deloitte 2 here. It also really depends on career and savings rate/FIRE timeline. I was a pharmacist at 25, made $125k for a while and made it to FI at 32 with $1M on $24k budget…then I took 8 months off and then started doing finance full time…now I make $40k per year, but I’m at $2.5M at 37…budget is still $24k. I did the math about a year ago to see how stupid doing Roth 401k was for four years at the max back around 2014+/- a few years(don’t remember the exact years now)…and the tax rate I volunteered to pay was 28% on every single 401k dollar for four years…now I do remember that this cost me $75,000. Those dollars invested instead of spent on taxes, would have grown to $75,000! But I still did ok, so things look good for you too!
Just don’t do Roth if you are saving more than 50%(unless you’ve done all the pre-tax you can…just work on selecting really tax-efficient investments in a taxable account.

Math doesn't add up, you're over the annual limit on the 401ks maxes at around 19.5k a year.

Mega backdoor.

You’re in a good spot, 25 and no debt is already great

Both are valid arguments. I personally am all Roth because I believe I’ll be in a higher tax bracket later, and as you build wealth and assets you will most certainly have income even if you retire early (capital gains, rental income, retirement withdrawals, etc.) Another uncertainty to consider is that there is a chance that tax rates go up in the future. Two sided coin, but I doubt that high earners will ever be taxed less than they are now.

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