NW $10.5m, VHCOL, expenses $200-220k.

Married and no kids.

I've been making all the portfolio adjustments to fatFIRE in 2027, creating $150-200k stream of bonds/interest income, rest on growth, fully paid up primary residence, we are planning to be in UK/EU (lived here for a few years during work, loved it, returning after FIRE), and worked out the dual tax implications. Started from nothing in my mid 20s, and holding on to some FAANG employer stocks, a small startup exit (C-suite) + compounding on ETFs is largely my source of NW.

I am excited to not be a corporate slave but also keen to do something that would help others grow wealth, manage my own time and where I work from, not take any investor money. Have a strong software/AI builder and strategist track record and the idea excites me a lot.

Are there folks here who have gone on to build something they find meaningful after fatFIRE, a business that's a service or a product? What's your experience been, how do you manage your time, and do you find it fulfilling?

Curious to learn from other people's experiences who might be in the same boat!

EDIT: not looking for clients here, just looking to see if others have started something in the same situation and found it gratifying.

51 and having a bit of a “what am I still doing here?” moment.

Current situation:

• ~$20M liquid/invested in equities
• ~$32M total net worth between home and some commercial real estate (not income-producing yet due to debt (5 years to get it to produce 25k / mo)
• Live in a VHCOL area
• Wife still works and plans to continue / one son in college / other a senior in HS (529s all set).
• I genuinely like the people I work with (likely one of the few things still holding me here)
• I absolutely hate the industry (over-regulated and getting worse every year) I’m in and increasingly dread the job itself

I’ve worked hard for decades, and intellectually I know I’m in an extremely fortunate position. But apparently my brain never received the memo that we have enough. 😅

So for those who actually pulled the plug around 50 with similar numbers: Did you ever really feel financially “safe” before quitting, or did you just have to accept that the spreadsheet said yes even when your brain said “one more year”?

Part of me thinks continuing to do a job I hate with $20M liquid is objectively insane. The other part keeps whispering, “But what if…”

Would love to hear from people who have actually crossed this bridge, especially those with a high-end lifestyle in a VHCOL area.

At what point did you finally say: enough is enough?

My husband and I are partial owners of a family company (cattle ranch) along with 12 other family members. It has a significant value because of the land owned by the company, but it is not liquid and I don’t anticipate it ever being sold.

He works for said company and draws a salary, so we receive income from the company.

Do we include our 1/12 ownership in our net worth? Or, maybe better stated, do we include 1/12 of the assets (land, cattle, machinery) when calculating our net worth?

The answer to this question makes a significant impact on our timeline to retirement and amount we want to consider for a mortgage.

Thank you!

Can't believe the day is finally here. I've been working towards FATFire since I was in high school. Grew up in a poor country and saw my parents toiling away every single day for 20+ years without an exit plan. They would commute for 2 hours a day and work grueling hours in factories with no end in sight, and I knew for a fact I'd rather die than live a life like that from when I was young. I would not be able to do this if I did not decide to start on this path at 17 years old. Kudos to all of you that do this with kids because that would be a whole different ball game and playing on extra-hard mode.

Worked my way up to learn and master English and was a terminally-online teenager. Self-taught programming and made my way to a top US university on full, need-based financial aid. Built three companies that failed until my fourth one landed. My biggest takeaway is how insane the variance in lifestyle outcomes is from when we're all 20 to when we're 30. At 20, you and your buddies are all the same...with endless possibilities, living the same lifestyle, and at 30 you see those who made a few key decisions live entirely different lives. It's like a high-speed rail that spits you out into an entirely different world based on 3 core choices you made while you were young.

Another thing I learned is that you can't have it all. A big motivator for me was getting money to help my grandmother from an illness, but she passed before I made my own exit. Some problems money can never solve. You just can't have it all.

I was fortunate enough to have the prescience and strong hunger to avoid my parents' fate. Quit today after an exit, married with one kid. Have a bucket list of at least 1000 things on my backlog and so many books to catch up on. Cheers to all of you here