Sam Dogen retired at 34 with $80,000 in annual passive income. The FIRE dream realized. By 2024, he was searching for jobs again, calling his early retirement a “failure.”
The FIRE movement promises freedom through extreme saving and early retirement. But there’s a pattern emerging: identity crisis, crushing loneliness, mental health struggles, and failed math forcing people back to work.
Only 1% of Americans aged 40-44 actually retire early. Twenty percent of retirees return to work. The 4% rule? It gives FIRE investors just a 36% success chance. Here’s what really happens when you retire decades before your peers.
The Math That Doesn’t Add Up When You Run the Numbers
You’ve done the calculations a hundred times. Save 70% of your income. Invest in index funds. Hit that magic number. Retire at 35 and live off 4% forever.
The math seems simple. But here’s the problem: the 4% rule that the FIRE movement relies on is failing for early retirees.
The 4% Rule Just Got a Brutal Downgrade
Morningstar’s 2025 research dropped the safe withdrawal rate to 3.7%. That’s down from the traditional 4.0% that FIRE calculators still use.
Let’s put real numbers on this. You retire with $1 million. The old 4% rule said you could safely withdraw $40,000 per year. Now? You’re looking at $37,000 annually—a $3,000 cut before you even start.
But it gets worse. Much worse.
Vanguard ran the numbers for people retiring in their 30s and 40s. If you need your money to last 50 years, the 4% rule gives you only a 36% chance of success. That’s barely better than a coin flip.
Think your low-cost index funds will save you? Think again. With a 1% expense ratio, your success rate drops to less than 9%.
Compare that to traditional retirement. A 30-year horizon? 82% success rate. That extra 20 years working isn’t just buying you freedom—it’s buying you security.
Healthcare: The $1 Million Surprise
Here’s what most FIRE calculators don’t show you: the actual cost of staying alive.
If you’re 60 years old in 2025, your average monthly health insurance premium is $1,055.44. That’s $12,665 per year. Before you see a single doctor.
Let’s look at a real example. A Florida couple in their mid-30s will need $566,000 for healthcare before Medicare kicks in, plus another $493,000 from age 65 onwards. That’s over $1 million just for healthcare.
Fidelity’s 2025 estimate? A 65-year-old retiring today needs $172,500 set aside just for medical costs. And you’re planning to retire at 35? Add another 30 years of premiums to that number.
The kicker: 20% of Americans never even consider healthcare costs when planning for retirement. They just assume it’ll work out somehow.
It won’t.
Your First Decade Makes or Breaks Everything
This is where FIRE gets really scary. It’s called sequence of returns risk, and it can destroy your retirement before you even unpack your boxes.
Charles Schwab ran a brutal analysis: Take two investors with the exact same portfolio and returns—just in different order. The one who experienced negative 15% returns in years 1-2 completely depleted their portfolio by year 18. Gone. Bankrupt.
The second investor with those same losses in years 10-11? They had over $400,000 remaining after 18 years.
Same total returns. Same withdrawals. Completely different outcomes.
The first 5-10 years of retirement are “make-it-or-break-it” for anyone planning a 40-50 year horizon. Retire into a bear market, and you might be job hunting by 45.
This is why traditional retirees at 65 have it easier. They need their money to last 25-30 years, not 50-60. Early bear markets hurt, but there’s time to recover. When you retire at 35, you don’t have that cushion.
Inflation: The Silent Killer
William Bengen created the 4% rule back in 1994. Even he admits there’s a problem.
He calls inflation the “greatest enemy” of retirees. And he should know—he invented the rule everyone’s using.
Right now, we’re seeing 2.70% average inflation in 2024-2025. That doesn’t sound like much. But watch what it does to your buying power over 50 years.
Year 1: Your $40,000 buys $40,000 worth of stuff. Year 25: You need $71,000 to buy the same stuff. Year 50: You need $127,000.
Financial experts aren’t mincing words anymore. The consensus for FIRE retirees has shifted to 3.25-3.5% withdrawal rates. Some economists like Karsten Jeske say go even lower.
That $1 million you worked so hard to save? You’re not withdrawing $40,000 per year. You’re withdrawing $32,500 to $35,000 if you want to actually make it to old age.
The FIRE movement sold you on the 4% rule. But the math has changed. The question is: has your plan?
When Your Job Disappears, So Does Your Sense of Self
Meet Gene. He spent 30 years as a dramaturgy professor. Respected. Known in his field. Someone.
When he retired, severe depression hit him like a truck. Dr. Ahron Friedberg, who studied his case, found something disturbing: “What Gene lacked was a sense of purpose…he realized he was no longer ‘somebody’ anymore.”
This wasn’t about money. Gene had planned financially. But he hadn’t planned for the void.
Work Isn’t Just a Paycheck—It’s Who You Are
You probably hate your job some days. Maybe most days. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: your work defines more of your identity than you realize.
When someone asks “What do you do?” at a party, you don’t say “I pursue my passions.” You say “I’m a software engineer” or “I work in marketing.” Your job title is your introduction to the world.
Dorian Mintzer, a retirement coach, puts it bluntly: “All retirees face the identity problem upon retirement.” Everyone. Even the ones who hated their jobs.
Sam Dogen from Financial Samurai retired at 34 in San Francisco. He had the money. He had the plan. But he felt embarrassed calling himself an “early retiree” in such a dynamic city. So he started telling people he was a writer, a coach, a consultant—anything but retired.
He was 34 years old, financially free, and too ashamed to admit it.
That’s not freedom. That’s a different kind of prison.
The Depression That Nobody Warns You About
Dr. Gerald Simonds explains what happens: “Deriving a sense of meaning from one’s work is a powerful promoter of wellness…Then retirement shuts off this wellspring.”
You wake up on Monday. No meetings. No deadlines. No projects. Nothing that needs you.
Tuesday is the same. So is Wednesday. And the whole year after that.
Research published in 2025 confirms work provides “structure for living, goals, and sense of identity.” Strip all that away, and what’s left?
The statistics are grim. 15% of adults over 60 experience depression. Only 10% of them get treatment.
And FIRE retirees? They’re hitting this crisis 20-30 years earlier than normal retirees. At an age when all their friends are still climbing career ladders and chasing promotions.
Dr. Simonds describes the guilt that creeps in: “We suddenly feel that we’re no longer making the world a better place…Guilt comes pouring in.”
You’re not saving lives anymore. You’re not building products. You’re not teaching students. You’re just… here.
The FIRE Identity Crisis Hits Different
Deepak Shukla, CEO of Pearl Lemon Accountants, sees it clearly: “Work often defines who we are, and without it, some cannot easily redefine themselves through retirement.”
The FIRE community talks about finding your purpose before you retire. Build hobbies. Start passion projects. Create a new identity.
But reading about it and living it are two very different things.
David Champion, a FIRE blogger, admits: “Restlessness, disenchantment, withdrawal; these have been features of my FIRE journey.”
Not occasionally. Features. Permanent parts of his retired life.
Dr. Friedberg’s warning should terrify anyone rushing to retire: “Before we voluntarily leave a profession that underwrites our identity, we should think about how we can support our identity once we’ve left.”
How will you support your identity? “Former accountant” doesn’t count. “Early retiree” feels like a cop-out. “Financial independence enthusiast” sounds ridiculous at a dinner party.
Who are you when you’re not your job? That’s the question FIRE forces you to answer at 35 instead of 65.
And most people don’t have a good answer ready.
Your Peers Are Still Working While You’re Home Alone
The World Health Organization dropped a bombshell report in 2025: 1 in 6 people worldwide are affected by loneliness. That’s over a billion people.
Worse? Loneliness is linked to 871,000 deaths every single year. That’s 100 people dying every hour because they’re alone.
43% of seniors say they feel lonely regularly. And researchers found that loneliness damages your health as much as smoking 15 cigarettes per day.
But here’s what the FIRE community doesn’t talk about: when you retire at 35, you’re lonely in a way that’s even harder to fix.
Work Gave You Friends Whether You Noticed or Not
Remember lunch with coworkers? Coffee breaks? Happy hours on Friday? Those weren’t just social events. They were your social life.
Deepak Shukla explains: “For many, social interaction is largely established at work…become isolated from former co-workers.”
Savant Wealth Management puts it simply: “Work is more than just a paycheck—it’s a major source of social interaction.”
When you quit your job at 35, your coworkers keep showing up Monday through Friday. They still grab lunch together. They still complain about the boss. They still bond over shared stress.
You? You’re home. Alone.
A blogger at Living AFI captured it perfectly: “I am losing a sense of intimacy with some of [my friends]. They work a lot—I do not.”
Your friends aren’t trying to ditch you. They’re just living their lives. Lives that don’t include free time on Tuesday afternoon.
The Age Gap Problem Nobody Mentions
Retire at 35, and you’re surrounded by other 35-year-olds. Except they’re all still working.
They’re chasing promotions. Buying houses. Having kids. Building careers. They talk about projects and bosses and office drama because that’s their reality.
What do you talk about? Your investment portfolio? Your morning bike ride? That book you finally read?
The Living AFI blogger saw it clearly: “Everyone is looking over their shoulder at everyone else’s spending and this is how the Keeping Up game begins.”
Your friends are comparing themselves to each other. New cars. Bigger houses. Better vacations. And you’re sitting there trying to live on 3.5% of your portfolio, explaining why you can’t join them for that $200 dinner.
The disconnect is real. And it grows every year.
Your Relationship Might Not Survive
The statistics on retirement and relationships are brutal.
Pew Research found the divorce rate for adults over 50 has roughly doubled since 1990. For couples 65 and older, it’s nearly tripled.
Stephanie Coontz’s research shows “marital stress increases during initial two years of retirement.” When you have all day together, every day, those little annoyances become massive fights.
Brad Klontz, a certified financial planner, explains: “When one spouse retires while the other continues working, it really shakes up the relationship.”
One partner is home all day. The other is still grinding at the office. Different schedules. Different stress levels. Different worlds.
A Real FIRE Relationship That Fell Apart
The Living AFI blogger retired at 38. By the third year, cracks were showing. His partner felt like they were “falling behind” their peers.
In December 2018, everything came out. She felt they were “not going anywhere.” That their friends’ lives were “better than ours.”
The blogger realized: “She felt pressure to keep up with mythical Joneses.”
In 2019, the relationship ended. Infidelity. Divorce. The FIRE dream destroyed the relationship it was supposed to make better.
His final insight cuts deep: “Some people are just wired to move with the pack, stay with the herd.”
You might have the personality for early retirement. Your partner might not. And you won’t know until it’s too late.
Financial independence can’t fix loneliness. It can’t replace your work friends. It can’t bridge the gap between you and your still-working peers.
Sometimes, it just leaves you home alone, wondering where everyone went.
2,500 Extra Hours Per Year With Nothing To Do
Age Wave and Merrill Lynch did the math: the average retiree suddenly has 2,500 additional leisure hours every year.
That’s 48 extra hours per week. An entire work week plus overtime. Every single week.
Supportive Care calls it “temporal disorientation”—the jarring experience of having vast amounts of unstructured time.
What sounds like paradise in your cubicle becomes a psychological nightmare six months in.
Boredom Is Forcing People Back to Work
The return-to-work statistics tell a brutal story.
ResumeBuilder.com’s 2025 data shows 34% of retirees who went back to work did it to “combat boredom.”
Not for money. For something to do.
FIRECracker from Millennial Revolution tells the story of a friend who retired early. Lasted a year. Went back to work because retirement was “boring, lonely, and lacking purpose…it still beats sitting around all day with your thoughts.”
Read that again. Working for money you don’t need beats being alone with your thoughts.
Deepak Shukla sees it with FIRE clients: “Most advocates of FIRE believe that without work structure, their time is wasted.”
You spent 10 years optimizing your finances to escape the hamster wheel. Now you’re on the couch at 10 AM on Tuesday, scrolling your phone, feeling like you’re wasting your life.
The irony is almost funny. Almost.
Life That’s Too Easy Breaks You
Tanja Hester wrote the book on FIRE—literally. Our Next Life is one of the movement’s biggest blogs. She retired at 38 with her husband. And here’s what she discovered: “Life that’s too easy is actually bad for us.”
After 18 months, the reckoning hit. That “What am I doing with my life?” feeling that wakes you up at 3 AM.
Sam Dogen from Financial Samurai puts it even more bluntly: “I got completely lucky…By not facing much hardship, I squandered away my potential.”
This is the secret nobody tells you about early retirement: humans need struggle. We need challenges. We need obstacles to overcome.
Take those away, and we don’t find peace. We find emptiness.
What Work Actually Gave You
Work wasn’t just about the money. It gave you things you didn’t even notice:
Structure. You knew what Monday looked like. You knew when to wake up. You knew what to do first.
Validation. Your boss said “good job.” Your client sent a thank you email. You hit your quarterly goals.
Progress. You could measure your growth. Promotions. Raises. Skills learned. Projects completed.
Challenge. Your brain had to solve problems. Figure things out. Learn new things. Grow.
David Champion, another FIRE blogger, understands this now: “FIRE doesn’t eliminate problems—it just aims to replace them with better ones.”
But what if the problems you replaced your job with—”What should I do today?”—are actually worse than the problems your job gave you?
Sam Dogen’s kids started school. Suddenly he had 8 free hours every day. No kids to watch. No job to do. Just time.
He describes feeling like he wasted his potential. Like he could have done more, been more, achieved more.
You work your whole life to get free time. Then you get it and realize: time without purpose isn’t freedom.
It’s just boredom with better lighting.
Case Studies From People Who Lived the FIRE Dream And Regretted It
Sam Dogen: When $380K Passive Income Isn’t Enough
Sam Dogen’s story should have been a FIRE triumph. Retired in 2012 at age 34. Built $80,000 in annual passive income from investments and real estate. The dream achieved.
By 2023, his passive income had grown to $380,000 per year. Most people would kill for that kind of money doing nothing.
But Sam calls his early retirement a “failure.”
What changed? He had two kids. Bought a multi-million dollar house in San Francisco. Now his family needs $310,000 to $343,000 annually.
Do the math. $380,000 in passive income minus $310,000 in expenses. That’s $70,000 left over. Still more than most Americans make total.
But it’s not the financial comfort that broke him.
In 2024, Sam started searching for jobs. Applied to over 100 startups. Got rejected from most of them.
His admission: “I underestimated my desire for social interaction.”
He lists 14 reasons his early retirement failed. Too extroverted for the isolated lifestyle. Underestimated how much he’d love being a dad. Felt embarrassed calling himself an “early retiree” in dynamic San Francisco.
The man had nearly $400,000 in passive income and was job hunting. That should tell you everything about what money can and can’t fix.
The $3M Reddit User Who Feels “Dead Inside”
A post on Reddit’s FIRE community went viral for all the wrong reasons.
35-year-old guy. Married. Father of two. Net worth over $3 million. Making $250,000 salary plus $90,000 from a startup he built.
By every financial measure, he won.
His words: “I’ve never been more miserable. I feel dead inside.”
“Can’t enjoy anything anymore, even hobbies I once really enjoyed.”
“Losing sleep, spending hours staring at ceiling, thinking about years I’ve sacrificed.”
The community’s response? “You should talk to mental health professional. Not a financial forum.”
That’s the lesson buried in this story. Financial success and happiness aren’t the same thing. You can have $3 million and still hate your life. You can achieve FIRE and lose yourself in the process.
The numbers said he made it. His brain said he failed.
Tanja Hester: When You Need More Challenge Than You Thought
Tanja Hester is FIRE royalty. Retired at 38 with her husband in December 2017. Wrote “Work Optional,” a bestselling book on early retirement.
Her discovery after retiring: “How badly I still want to be challenged despite leaving my career.”
She ended up working more than expected post-retirement. Not for money—she earned almost nothing from it. For the challenge. For the feeling of building something.
The pandemic hit and she realized: “FIRE doesn’t fix everything.”
It took 18 months for the identity crisis to surface. Her insight: “Big changes are stressful to most humans.”
Even someone who literally wrote the book on early retirement struggled with the reality. If Tanja Hester had a hard time adjusting, what chance do the rest of us have?
Living AFI: The Relationship FIRE Destroyed
The blogger behind Living AFI retired at 38. Had the money. Had the plan.
By the third year, he noticed: “Losing sense of intimacy with friends who still work.”
His partner started feeling like they were “falling behind” their peers. Wanted to go back to work.
December 2018, everything came out. She felt they were “not going anywhere.” That friends’ lives were “better than ours.”
The root cause: “She felt pressure to keep up with mythical Joneses.”
2019: The relationship ended. Infidelity. Divorce.
His realization: “Some people are just wired to move with the pack, stay with the herd.”
They had the financial freedom to do anything. But freedom wasn’t what his partner wanted. She wanted the normal life her friends had—career progress, new challenges, forward momentum.
FIRE gave them time together. But it couldn’t make them compatible.
The Healthcare Wake-Up Call
Multiple FIRE practitioners learned the hard way: healthcare costs are way worse than you calculated.
Sam Dogen’s family of four: $27,600 per year for health insurance. That’s $2,300 every single month before seeing a doctor.
HealthView Services calculated what a 35-year-old needs to invest now to cover healthcare until Medicare at 65: $188,500. That’s nearly $200,000 just sitting there waiting to pay for doctor visits.
The Florida couple example everyone talks about? They need over $1 million for lifetime healthcare costs.
The analysis is brutal: “Few Millennials have factored this into financial plans.”
Most FIRE calculators show you hitting your number and riding off into the sunset. None of them show you the $1,055 monthly premium at age 60. None of them account for the $3,000 deductible. None of them prepare you for what happens when your kid breaks an arm and insurance doesn’t cover everything.
Sam Dogen had $380,000 in passive income. Still not enough.
The Reddit user had $3 million. Still miserable.
Tanja Hester had the book deal and the blog. Still needed more challenge.
Living AFI had the relationship and the freedom. Lost both anyway.
These aren’t edge cases. These are the success stories. The people who actually made it to FIRE.
And they’re still struggling.
The Warnings From CFPs And Economists That FIRE Advocates Ignore
The FIRE community loves to quote the 4% rule. They love to share success stories. They love to calculate nest egg numbers.
What they don’t love? The data that shows most of them will fail.
Vanguard’s Research Is a FIRE-Killer
Vanguard doesn’t sell clickbait. They manage trillions in assets and employ actual economists. When they run the numbers, you should pay attention.
Their research on the 4% rule for early retirees is devastating.
A 50-year retirement horizon using the 4% rule? You have a 36% chance of success.
That means 64% chance of failure. Those aren’t gambling odds. Those are “you’re probably going broke” odds.
Add a 0.2% expense ratio? Success drops to less than 28%.
Using typical mutual funds with 1% fees? Your success rate drops to less than 9%.
Nine percent.
Compare that to a traditional 30-year retirement: 82% success rate.
Vanguard’s solution? Dynamic spending—adjusting withdrawals based on market performance. That increases probability from 56% to 90%.
But here’s the problem: dynamic spending means cutting your lifestyle when markets crash. Can you tell your kids “no new clothes this year” because the S&P 500 dropped 20%?
People Are Going Back to Work in Droves
The “unretirement” trend tells you everything.
T. Rowe Price found 20% of current retirees are working part-time or full-time.
Another 7% are actively looking for jobs.
48% say they went back for financial reasons. Their retirement math failed. Their money didn’t last. They need a paycheck again.
During the pandemic, people retired in huge numbers. By March 2022, 1.5 million of them had already returned to the workforce.
ResumeBuilder.com’s 2025 data? 39% of employed seniors have “unretired.”
Retirement is supposed to be permanent. But for millions, it’s becoming just another career phase.
CFPs Are Brutally Honest About FIRE
Certified Financial Planners see FIRE clients try and fail constantly. Their warnings are stark.
Noah Damsky, a CFA at Marina Wealth Advisors, had a client compare pursuing FIRE to “a high school wrestling diet without an end date or cheat meal.”
Kristy Jiayi Xu, CFP at Global Wealth Harbor, tells it straight: “Savings required would put clients into lifestyle they would not want to lead.”
Rachael Burns, CFP at True Worth Financial Planning: “Never one size fits all…designed for the masses.”
Ramit Sethi tells a story about FIRE followers who saved $4 million “and are still highly economical in spending.” The hyper-frugality becomes permanent. You train yourself to pinch pennies for 15 years—you can’t just turn it off when you hit your number.
Economists Agree: The 4% Rule Is Dead for FIRE
The consensus among financial experts is clear.
Economist Karsten Jeske advocates for 3.5% or less. Tanja Hester, one of FIRE’s biggest voices, recommends the same: 3.5% or lower.
Morningstar’s 2025 safe withdrawal rate: 3.7%.
Wade Pfau estimates you have maybe a 65-70% chance the 4% rule works—far from the “near certainty” FIRE bloggers promise.
Conservative financial experts are recommending 3% withdrawal rates for true safety.
That changes everything. Your $1 million nest egg? You’re not living on $40,000. You’re living on $30,000.
The Accessibility Problem Nobody Talks About
Almost one-third of Americans can’t handle a $400 emergency expense.
FIRE requires saving 50-70% of your income.
Do that math. To save 50% of your income, you need to live on the other 50%. That’s hard when you’re making $50,000. That’s only possible when you’re making six figures.
Ramsey Solutions admits FIRE “probably requires income at least in six-figure range.”
Only 1% of Americans aged 40-44 actually achieved retirement between 2016-2022.
Critics note that successful FIRE stories usually come from people with high-paying jobs—software engineers, finance professionals, consultants.
FIRE isn’t a middle-class movement. It’s what happens when high earners apply extreme discipline.
2025 Makes FIRE Even Harder
Finance Monthly’s 2025 analysis: “Rising costs, market volatility, new tax regulations have made FIRE more complex and aspirational.”
Inflation, healthcare costs, and market uncertainty are challenging even the best-laid plans.
The movement is shifting. People talk about “Barista FIRE” and “Coast FIRE” instead of complete retirement. Working part-time for healthcare. Letting investments grow while staying partially employed.
That’s not FIRE. That’s just saving more and working less.
The CFP Board puts it bluntly: “If you FIRE, you’ll still face all classic retirement risks…potentially amplified because retirement will be longer.”
Judith Ward, CFP at T. Rowe Price, notes women and single retirees are even more likely to cite income as their reason for going back to work.
The data is clear. The experts agree. FIRE is significantly riskier than the bloggers admit.
The question is: are you listening?
Making Informed Decisions With Eyes Wide Open
Saving money is good. Investing early is smart. Living below your means creates options.
Those principles work for everyone. The problem isn’t the savings rate. It’s what you do next.
The Core Principles Work—It’s the Extreme Execution That Fails
High savings rates give you freedom. No debate there. Whether you’re saving for FIRE or just saving for life, spending less than you earn is the foundation.
Disciplined investing in low-cost index funds? Essential for building wealth. Everyone should do this.
Geographic arbitrage—moving to lower-cost areas? It can cut your expenses by 30-50%. That’s real money.
The problem: Retiring at 35 amplifies every risk to dangerous levels. Market crashes. Healthcare costs. Inflation. Boredom. Identity loss. Loneliness.
Traditional retirees at 65 face these risks over 25-30 years. You’d be facing them over 50-60 years.
That’s the difference between risky and reckless.
Consider Less Extreme Options
Barista FIRE: Work part-time to cover healthcare and basic expenses. Your investments grow. You still have structure and social interaction. Financial pressure drops dramatically.
Coast FIRE: Save aggressively early, then switch to a lower-stress job. Let your investments compound without adding more. Work because you want to, not because you have to.
Phased retirement: Gradually reduce hours instead of quitting cold turkey. Cut back to 30 hours. Then 20. Then 10. Give your brain time to adjust.
Norman Abeles, a professor who studies retirement, suggests: “If you like your job, stay as long as you can. Try phasing into retirement.”
These approaches keep some structure, some social connection, some purpose—while still giving you way more freedom than a traditional 9-to-5.
Questions You Must Answer Before Pursuing FIRE
Don’t lie to yourself on these:
What will provide identity and purpose without work? “I’ll figure it out” isn’t an answer.
How will you build and maintain social connections outside the workplace? Be specific. Name the communities you’ll join.
Can you realistically relocate to a lower-cost area? Will your partner agree? Will you be happy there?
Have you calculated healthcare costs including premiums, deductibles, and unexpected medical events?
Is your partner fully aligned on the FIRE lifestyle? Not just agreeing—actually aligned.
Are you prepared for a 50+ year retirement? Have you modeled what that actually looks like?
Have you run sequence of returns risk scenarios? Do you know what happens if the market crashes your first year?
Can you be flexible with spending if markets tank? Will you actually cut expenses or just go back to work?
If You Still Want to Pursue FIRE
Use a 3.5% withdrawal rate. Not 4%. Not 3.75%. Be conservative.
Build 1-3 years of cash reserves separate from your retirement portfolio. This protects against sequence risk.
Develop an identity beyond work BEFORE retiring. Not after. Before. Build hobbies that fill 40+ hours per week. Create a purpose outside of “financially independent.”
Create social networks outside your workplace proactively. Join clubs. Volunteer. Build relationships that don’t depend on shared office space.
Plan for structure and purpose that exist independent of employment. What will your Mondays look like? Be honest.
Ensure your relationship can handle it. Have the hard conversations now. Make sure you’re both wired the same way.
Maintain flexibility to return to work if needed. Don’t burn bridges. Keep skills current. Stay open to “unretiring.”
Consider dynamic spending strategies. Be ready to cut back when markets drop instead of depleting your portfolio.
Account for healthcare costs realistically. Add 30% to whatever you calculated. It’ll probably still be too low.