| ▲ | glimshe 4 hours ago |
| The FIRE community and my own personal situation prove you very, very wrong. It's absolutely possible for a upper middle class family to retire in their 50s, even in their 40s, if they live frugally. |
|
| ▲ | aprdm 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| "Live frugally" , "FIRE" , "work in tech" All incompatible with 99% of the upper class, neither do they want to eat ramen to retire early. You're also one medical disaster away from being "very very wrong" |
| |
| ▲ | jandrewrogers 12 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | I know several people with normie jobs (not tech related or government) and normie lifestyles that saved up enough money to never need to work again by 50 while still maintaining their lifestyle. Most still work because they have no idea what to do with their time even though they don’t need to work anymore. You can easily derive that this is possible from the median household finance statistics published by BLS, never mind the upper class. It isn’t that hard if you care to do it. | |
| ▲ | snake42 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | FIRE doesn't depend on having a tech job. Its all about income to expense ratio. Planning for medical events is something that gets talked to death in these communities. | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | How do you plan for a potential quarter million dollar medical bills over a couple of years? | | |
| ▲ | Retric 41 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Good insurance is one aspect including long term disability coverage if you haven’t retired. That’s the thing medical expenses when young are unlikely enough insurance is a viable strategy. Long term it’s worthwhile to move to a country with a less expensive medical system. You can move basically anywhere in retirement and be better off. | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 24 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Again like I have been saying, good insurance is predicated on the open market and ACA being around and not being killed by Republicans. Even if they don’t outright kill it, they are trying to put in a “death spiral” where only sick people use it and insurance companies don’t want to participate. LTC not discriminating against pre-existing conditions is also post ACA. |
| |
| ▲ | 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | [deleted] | |
| ▲ | snake42 an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | The same way that an employed person would plan for this. Catastrophic insurance plans put a cap on how much your medical bills can be. | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 an hour ago | parent [-] | | An employed person since the ACA hasn’t had to worry about lifetime caps… Oh and catastrophic insurance plans only have to cover pre-existing conditions since the ACA - which one party is actively trying to kill. |
|
|
| |
| ▲ | mech998877 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | 90%+ chance the person you are replying to has health insurance that will cover them in case of medical disaster. | | |
| ▲ | glimshe 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I absolutely have health insurance, the most expensive available on my state. That doesn't protect me 100%, but what health insurance (including the ones available at most companies) does? People who have poor money management skills believe that FIRE=Ramen and no health insurance... In fact, it's about getting a 30K car (the one I bought new 3 years ago) instead a 70K car despite having the money. | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | And what happens when the Republican Party gut the ACA and you have a pre-existing condition. Do you know what life was like trying to get insurance with a pre-existing condition before 2012? | | |
| ▲ | scottyah an hour ago | parent [-] | | Then they can just skip insurance. Most people don't need it, especially if they already have a lot of money (which is what FIRE means) | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 36 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Obviously said by someone who is young and never had or knew anyone that had an expensive medical procedure like a friend who is 45 who I have known since 2003 and is cancer survivor and now has to have open heart surgery |
|
| |
| ▲ | mattmanser 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | 99% of people have poor money management skills? It's statements like this that makes FIRE a fringe scene. | | |
| ▲ | scottyah an hour ago | parent [-] | | you're saying 99% of people think FIRE = ramen? I doubt that many even have heard of it |
|
|
|
|
|
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| And health insurance as soon as the ACA is gutted and you have a pre existing condition? Sure I could retire to Costa Rica or Panama. One of those are a plan B and we will be in CR for six weeks and we are both learning Spanish - I am. decent at it. I bet you also your idea of upper middle class is not statistically valid. https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/ |
| |
| ▲ | chasd00 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Costa Rica is on my retirement shortlist. I really like it there and have taken the family for vacation a couple times. I've driven the whole country pretty much North to South. Puerto Jimenez is one of my favorite places but it's very rural. There's some nice areas an hour or two North of San Jose as well. I've met a handful of US families that, when the pandemic hit, just sold everything they owned and moved to Costa Rica. As far as central america goes Costa Rica is a bright spot of stability and like a functioning government. I live in Dallas so pretty much have to know a little Spanish but there isn't much of a language barrier at all. You could do a lot worse than Costa Rica. | |
| ▲ | glimshe 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I didn't get where I am by taking random bets, but I'll say you'd lose your money here. | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Were you around and trying to get health insurance before 2012? I was. The startup I worked for shut down and while I had a well paying contract lined up literally the next week, I couldn’t get health insurance at any price because of a pre-existing condition even though at the time, I was a part time fitness instructor and I had just gotten through running my first (and last) two half marathons. If you are betting on the stability of the US health care system outside of employer funded health care, that is a monumentally stupid bet with one party actively trying to kill the ACA. | | |
| ▲ | Jach 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | So what did you do? Clearly you didn't die. Did you just have no insurance for the week before the new job started, or what? This also happened to you while you were working and slightly between jobs. So it's not really a FIRE concern if the concern is the US messing up the health care system even more in that it would effect everyone whether working or not. Generally speaking, an answer to mitigating a lot of types of risk with a FIRE model is: you just go back to work for a while. This is easier the younger you are. Edit: Also I thought COBRA would have been a more recent thing but it was Regan era. So did you not have employer-sponsored coverage with the startup? | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | No, my then fiance/now wife and I canceled our wedding we had planned, and went to the courthouse and got married six months earlier so I could get on her insurance. Also, just so happen I did end up in the hospital three weeks later because something happened that affected my breathing for an entire year. And how do you “go back to work” if the entire reason you need to go back to work is that you have a health condition? If you haven’t checked, jobs aren’t that easy to come by quickly in 2026 in tech like they use to be. Sure I could find someone to give me a contract if not hire me full time - but we are still back to not having insurance . The US messing up insurance on the open market is the concern and it being back like it was pre ACA. That only affects the unemployed under 65. As far as being between jobs - usually you can get COBRA for a limited amount of time - not an option for FIRE. Oh yeah, that brings up another point, I did pay for COBRA for two months back then. The contract I had paid more than enough to afford it. Then the acquiring company shut down their insurance plan and COBRA wasn’t even an option | | |
| ▲ | scottyah 42 minutes ago | parent [-] | | You do know you can have a wedding even if you're already on-paper married? The ceremony really has nothing to do with the legal act. | | |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 30 minutes ago | parent [-] | | So wouldn’t it go against everything that FIRE stood for to spend money on a wedding after you lost your job? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ▲ | bjourne 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Statistics! Can a person below the median income afford to retire early? The answer is a resounding no. Can a person the top 10th percentile (upper middle class) afford to retire early? Yes. |
| |
| ▲ | raw_anon_1111 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/ So the top 10% is a household income of $250K and most of those couples didn’t reach that until their 40s. They aren’t making $225K as an L5 at 25 years old like a former intern/new grad I mentored when I was at BigTech Most software developers won’t even see above $160K inflation adjusted during their career. Most work in second tier cities in the “enterprise”z. | | |
|
|
| ▲ | carlosjobim 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Thanks for living frugally. Since you now have some spare money, I decided it's time for a rent increase. And a tax increase. |
