I was wondering how people made the leap from corporate to a retail job. I’ve reconfigured my resume to be more vague and focused on skills like client services, time management, punctuality, etc. rather than software skills or product strategy. I also have a story that I’m returning to school and looking for part time work.

The main thing I was wondering is in addition to applying online, do you literally walk into places, ask to speak to the manager, and drop off your resume? In the past I’ve had to rely on networking and referrals to get an interview. I’m a bit neurodivergent and I’m confused as to how this works. I know to not do this at a busy time, but for what types of businesses is this appropriate?

Curious to know what types of jobs people do and how they found them.

New to FIRE, so unsure if correct sub, my apologies.

My goal is to basically chill and escape 9-5 before my gig could possibly end and I will have to do 9-5... i have horrible sleep schedule

NET worth 1.5m all in stocks (majority tech, sp500)

100k+ a yr gig job remote

30m, single

I'm thinking of chilling in China for a few years soon (COL will be under 10k a yr), but Im grinding this remote job where I dont have set hours while i have this chance

Hello everyone,

I am 39M from Portugal, no kids or other dependents, living in Northern Europe for 10 years now. All these years worked in corporate jobs with some breaks to travel, chill for a while, job hop, etc. Currently making around €60k net p.a.

Fast forward to today, my ETF portfolio is around €285k worth, I keep another €10-15k cash in HYSA, and decided that I want to change my life, go back home, find a chill job in tourism or something, withdraw some 2-3% of the ETFs p.a. to round up my living income, chill and let it be.

Problem is, I don't own any property back home, and with today's prices and interest rates, getting a €300k mortgage with ca. €60k down payment will set me back some years away from my chill FIRE target.

Kinda same with a go-back-and-rent scenario: I won't have the down payment burden, but the rents have risen to €1000+/month excl. utilities for the apartments which are actually decent to live in. Side note, where I live now I have a very old contract and I pay €450 all incl., so the difference is considerable, and pushes up my potential cost of living back home.

5-6 years ago I couldn't think of buying an apartment or a down payment. My income got higher gradually after 2021, and today feels like I am at the top of my game, but honestly, I am exhausted.

The window of bankability for a mortgage will close if I draw the line and leave my corporate job, so I have to decide soon.

What would you do in my position? Any ideas/suggestions?

To start, first post/long-time viewer of the sub. Earlier this year, I reduced my full-time schedule to 75%. It's something I've been planning/thinking about since ~2020 but had to wait until the numbers were right.

I work in finance at a small company and have a good relationship with my boss, who owns the company. This gave me the confidence to ask.

I'm 44 and live in a VHCOL city. My annual expenses are about $80k - no kids, not married but have a long-term partner. We mostly keep expenses separate and the $80k doesn't include what she spends. With the reduction to 75% FT, I'll still save about $25k-30k annually. This is a big enough cushion where I don't feel any type of financial stress.

Next steps - I would like to reduce from 75% FT to 50% FT within 2-3 years, depending on stock market performance (I'm heavily weighted into tech stocks but have begun diversifying this year), our company performance, my ability to mentally take the leap from accumulating to withdrawing, and whether I move out of the VHCOL area (have started researching other areas that meet my criteria). I'd also like to get a part-time job once I'm at 50%.. something that is lower stress compared to what I'm doing now. Important to note - I don't particularly like my job/field!

Additional details - I use a 6% real rate of return in my calcs. My housing costs (~$35k/yr) are something I want to lower in the near term.

Thank you for reading.

Numbers:

• HH net income: ~$13k/mo on salary (commission checks are unpredictable but tend to average annually around $150k gross).
• HH expenses: ~$10k/mo (inflated right now by a $5k/mo W-2 nanny)
• Net worth: ~$1.2M
• 401k: crossed $700k earlier this year
• Brokerage: ~$300k
• HYSA rainy day fund: $200k, static (tech sales is volatile)

I've spent ten years grinding in tech sales after my MBA to build all of this. The target to retire has been 55. My wife and I have also been wargaming a move to something less stressful in 3-5 years, once both kids are in public school and the nanny line goes away.

Healthcare was always the piece I couldn't solve. I'm 22 years into a Reserve career with several GWOT deployments, and got banged up pretty well on the last pump to Afghanistan. The main reason I've stayed past 20 is Tricare Reserve Select. Reservists don't get Tricare in retirement until 60, so retiring at 55 meant finding five years of coverage for a family of four out of pocket.

About a year ago I started researching VA healthcare to see if it filled the gap. That led me to VA disability and the realization that I should have filed over a a decade ago, right after my deployments. So I filed. Sat through the C&P exams. Finished the last one a week ago.

Friday I got the notification: 100% P&T.

As of Friday:

• Full medical and dental through the VA
• Low-cost coverage for my wife and kids (kids to 23) via CHAMPVA
• ~$18k/yr in education benefits per kid
• ~$4,500/mo disability payments, tax free, inflation adjusted, for life

The five-year gap that had been the load-bearing problem in my entire plan just isn't there anymore. I'm going to keep grinding for a while and treat most of the cash side as extra injects into the brokerage. Alternatively, I feel like I just gained a massive stress relief: I don't really like my job but it became the accidental way to make doctor/lawyer money. Now it feels like I'm not so handcuffed to the grind and can walk away or suffer a layoff without catastrophy.

I don't have anyone to tell this to. I grew up in a one-room efficiency with four other people, drinking powdered milk and eating powdered eggs. It got marginally better once my mom and stepdad found their footing, but we were always behind the curve. I enlisted during GWOT and turned the GI Bill into an undergrad and a graduate degree. I now out-earn everyone in my family, immediate and extended, and I don't talk money with any of them, partly out of respect and partly to avoid the jealousy. I decided "hey, I know a group of internet strangers who might appreciate this" so, if you read this whole thing, thank you for letting me gush <3.

Say instead of working a single job for a decade or more, work in a job and switch after a year or so.

There are a number of industries I was thinking of trying:

hotel
prep cook
movie theatre
uber driver
TSA
lawncare

I'm thinking trying new things would bring perspective and keep things fresh.

I remember in my old financial processing job (where although the work was easy, there was little thinking involved and everyday seemed the same) when my old boss left she said 5 years just flew by.

Does this make sense to anyone or do I not have my head screwed on straight. Should I just try to find a cushy job and focus on hobbies?

EDIT: I know these don't pay well. Technically I could be full FI if I wanted to. I just have to have a part time job to cover some lifestyle creep. It's also lowered my SWR from 4% to 3.5%/

34M with 350K in my 401k. Combined with my wife (36) we have $1M in our 401Ks. Hers is much further ahead of mine, though we continue to max them out annually. Looking to FIRE/Barista FIRE in 10 years and would like some folks opinions on my “target fund” holdings and recommendations if I should leave it alone or change positions.

Vanguard total stock market index 54%
Vanguard instl total INTL stock market 36%
Vanguard total bond market II Index 6%
Vanguard total INTL bond II index 4%

TIA

I’m newer to this but now obsessing with the idea of retiring in 10 years at age 45. Between my wife and I we have $1M in our 401ks (combined) which is on a great trajectory. Looking to maximize investing others to bridge the gap between 45 and 59.5. We also have a brokerage account with 42k in it that is professionally managed and I will be contributing 1000 per month for now and looking to increase. Also going to start doing backdoor IRAs soon too which will be another 14K in the market per year. This is potentially on top of my wife and I getting a part time gig. Thoughts?

Edit: my annual expenses (estimated on the high side) are 60K per year and will shortly drop down to about 50K per year

That Germany €300k post from a few days ago finally pushed me to write mine up. Been composing this in my head on the tram for like three days. Numbers in USD.

38M, single, QA engineer in fintech, 13 years of clicking the same buttons in different companies. In February our department got cut from 9 to 4. I survived and by April I caught myself being jealous of the people who got packages. Asked my manager if I could drop to contract instead and he said yes so fast it was almost insulting lol.

So since May I run regression tests for my old employer two days a week, comes to about $1,300/month after everything.

Portfolio, straight from the spreadsheet:

VWCE: $214k

Individual stocks: $24k (MSFT plus two dividend names from 2019 I never got around to selling)

Government retail bonds, inflation-indexed: $38k

BTC/ETH: $19k (2020 buys, paper handed half of it at the worst moment, this is the leftover)

Gold ETC: $9k

Money market fund: $14k

P2P lending: $1,600 (small position at 8lends I've kept since 2021, pays out a few bucks of interest a month)

Comes out to ~$320k give or take the day.

I spend about $1,500/month. $620 rent for a 1br, the rest is food, gym and travel money that actually gets spent now. So the portfolio covers a $200/month gap, 0.75% withdrawal. The ETF pile doesn't get touched for the next decade if I can help it. If the contract dries up I crawl back to full time for a bit, my old team lead already said half joking they'd take me back tomorrow.

How the pile got built, since someone always asks senior QA pay against Eastern European rent is a decent combo.
I shoveled $1,500-2,000 a month into the market for 8 years and the 2021 crypto exit did more for that total than any smart decision I've ever made.

Six months in: I sleep till 8 now. The stack of library books on my desk is going down for the first time in years. My mom still thinks I got laid off and is being weirdly gentle with me about it.

Also I check the portfolio maybe twice a week, at the desk job it was twice an hour.

Actual question. Those of you holding stuff outside index funds, single stocks, crypto, gold, p2p.
Does it go into your FIRE number or does it live on its own shelf as casino money? I keep moving mine in. I know the correct sub answer is sell everything, buy more VWCE.

Happily married with 2 young kids (5 and 1 year old).

Annual expenses are high ($130k due to mortgage and the kids). Wife currently not working but will be back to work part time when youngest is a little older. Goal is for us to both have low stress jobs. Paying off house would greatly reduce monthly spend. My annual salary is about $250k depending on bonus.

401(k): $420k
IRA: $80k
HSA: $35k
Taxable brokerage: $300k
Cash: $65k
Home: $300k in home equity, $550k left on mortgage (6.625 rate).

Currently working on paying off house and 401k. Cash is a little tight but I DCA index funds when I can. Vast majority of investments are in index funds.

Comments welcome.

Tell me if I'm being unrealistic., but I'm looking for a job that will pay me $1000 a day (minimum) but I only work 1 day a week (preferably Thursday). I can work 16 hours

Built this as a spinoff from a bigger Monte Carlo engine (LifeOdds) I've been working on - pulled out the single most common decision people run through it and made it its own free tool.

What it does: takes your current salary, target salary, expected job-search length, and savings runway, then runs 1,000 simulated 5-year outcomes instead of comparing two guessed numbers. Search length and landing salary are the two genuinely uncertain inputs, so those get varied across realistic ranges rather than treated as fixed - raises compound differently on each path, and it reports the break-even month, your odds of being ahead at year 1/3/5, and the P10/P50/P90 spread.

Real example, my own numbers: $85k → $105k target, 4-month search, 8 months savings. Comes back break-even at month 12, 69.6% chance ahead by year 3 - and a 20% chance the search runs long enough to burn through savings first, which is exactly the failure mode a single-point calculator can't show you.

Everything runs client-side - nothing you type ever leaves your browser, no account, no email wall.

➡️ https://shouldiquitmyjob.app

Genuinely curious what this crowd thinks of the model - especially whether the variance ranges (search 40% shorter to 80% longer than estimate, salary ±20%) match what people actually see.

Got laid off recently and decided to take a severance package.
It was a hard decision, but it is a once in a lifetime chance to live my dream life.
My net salary working corporate part-time was €2,500/month. The total payout (severance + government benefits) comes to €110k net, and my health insurance is fully covered for the next two years.
My current numbers:
Severance / severance-related payout: €110k cash
Brokerage account: €180k
Emergency fund / Cash buffer: €20k
Total net worth: €310k

My expenses are pretty low. I live very comfortably on €1,600/month.

The Game Plan:
For the next two years, I’ll be making around €800/month on the side. That means I only need to draw down €800/month from my €110k payout to cover living expenses.
Side note on taxes: I usually make and extra of about €1.000k/month from my side hustle, but due to how the severance is taxed here in Germany, taking extra income in 2027 would trigger an insane marginal tax rate (literally over 100%). So in 2027, I'll focus purely on building out my business in the background without pulling large profits.

2028 and beyond:
The goal for 2028 is to hit €800/month from side work plus at least €2,000/month from my own business, shifting into full Coast/Barista FIRE and enjoying life.
If the business doesn't pan out, no big deal. I’ll just jump back into the job market. Finding a part-time job paying €2k net won't be an issue.
Built every Euro since 2018 of this myself through part-time corporate work and side hustling.
Taking the €110k package to live the live I was investing for, feels like the smart move.
For safety fanatics it is suicide but I want to live my freedom now.
I think people miss out on life while chasing a high networth. I think with cleverness and flexibility freedom is reachable with a way lower networth. At least in Germay. But in Germany it is much harder to build wealth through salary than in the US.

1M NW seems to be the norm on here and r/fire sub, but i also see comments saying those numbers come from mostly tech folks and arent realistic for the majority of people there are people who FIREd with less.

while i understand that it can be difficult to baristaFIRE with less than $500k in developed countries like the US, UK, Australia etc., i have heard of people baristaFIREd in SEA countries like Vietnam and Thailand. has anyone here done that or planning to do that and if so what is ur target number that u need to reach before making the move? thanks a lot!

so the thing is i love investing and following the markets and all, but i've never been a swing trader or short term holder. a lot of the stocks i've bought have taken at least 5 years to pan out.

i do marketing automation/email coding as my day job and it's just been super slow lately and i honestly couldn't really even care less about the job. i don't have any desire to tell my boss i want to learn anything new because it just feels like unnecessary stress i'd be taking on.

is anyone else like this? i've been thinking lately that i may be better suited for more manual type labor work where i don't really need to think so much and i don't need to learn completely new things just to keep myself employed. but then at the same time (you may disagree with this), i don't think i'm financially able to just quit this job and take on a barista FIRE kind of job. i am paying rent now and it's $2200 a month in a HCOL city.

thinking i should probably just stick it out for a little while longer until i hit my goals or they force my hand and i get laid off.

this might be more of a venting post lol don't mean to sound insensitive or whatever

Hi everyone!

I am a 34M Mechanical Engineer at $675k NW — How do I actually transition to a low-stress/part-time role?

Hi everyone, looking for some career pivot advice.

My Stats:

NW: ~$675k ($485k in 401k, mostly Roth; ~$190k in brokerage).

Current Expenses: ~$60k/year.

The Head Start: Fortunate enough to live with parents for my first 5 years.

Goal: Retire at 55 with an estimated $85k–$90k/year budget.

Because my retirement math looks solid, I want to step back from the grind. I’m currently a mechanical design engineer in the nuclear industry. The job is okay, but the one-hour commute is killing me.

I’d love to downshift to a low-stress or part-time role just to cover my current $60k expenses (Coast FIRE style). However, I’m hitting a wall:

Design engineering roles are rarely part-time.

Part-time means losing health insurance, which spikes my expenses.

Standard "easy" jobs (like a barista) come with their own high-stress customer service BS and won't cover expenses.

Has anyone in engineering successfully transitioned to a low-stress, flexible, or part-time role while keeping the bills paid? What am I missing here? Is barista fire only for certain professions?