This week's person has the numbers. The question is whether they have permission to actually use them. The person: 30, single, no kids. Senior SWE at a Fortune 500 earning $180k in Boston. Deeply burned out, managing some mental health conditions, and running on fumes. The numbers: - Retirement accounts: $359k - Taxable brokerage: $72k - Cash: $56k - Student loans: -$10k - Net worth: ~$476k - Current expenses: $60k/year - The plan: Move to Southeast Asia, drop expenses dramatically, and pick up light consulting work — maybe 5 to 20 hours a week — while leaving the portfolio untouched to grow. The worry: AI disruption in tech makes stepping back feel risky. What if they can't get back in? My take: The Coast FIRE math is solid. $359k at 30 with 30+ years of growth is doing a lot of work already. And if living expenses drop to $25-35k in SEA, they barely need to earn anything to make it work. The AI concern is real but worth flipping around — if the industry is shifting anyway, burning out in a stack-ranking culture for two more years might not be the protection they think it is. Sometimes the spreadsheet says go before the person feels ready. Over to you: Has burnout ever been the thing that finally pushed you to make a move? Was the career risk as scary as you thought it would be?

Here is a great tool I used to see where I stood with my retirement, and it helped give me confidence I was ready to make a change. I haven't found a better one yet, but if you've got a calculator you like better, by all means please post it. https://walletburst.com/tools/coast-fire-calc/

Every week I'm going to break down a real budget scenario and we'll talk through whether this person is in a position to make a move — or what's standing in their way. Here's this week's situation: The person: 33 years old. Left a high-earning corporate career ($115k/year) to pursue more meaningful work, now earning $65-80k depending on overtime and side income. Planning to retire around 60-62. Will have a pension and likely Social Security, though they're hesitant to count on either. The numbers: - Saved: $316k in brokerage and retirement accounts (mostly S&P500 and broad ETFs) - Contributing: ~$1,100/month to retirement accounts - Retirement income target: $75k/year - Potential complication: wants kids in the next few years, which may reduce contributions considerably - The wrinkle: They ran their numbers through multiple Coast FIRE calculators and got completely opposite answers — some said they'd already made it, others said they had a long way to go. (This is actually a calculator assumption issue around how inflation is factored in, not a sign their math is wrong.) My take: At 33 with $316k already saved and nearly 30 years of growth ahead, they're likely closer to Coast than the pessimistic calculators suggest. The pension and Social Security — even discounted heavily — reduce the pressure on their portfolio further. The bigger open question is what $75k/year actually looks like in retirement after inflation, and whether that number has been stress-tested. Now over to you: Do you think this person has hit Coast FIRE? And what would you want to know before making a call either way?

Hey everyone—welcome to our Finance Review space! This is where we can help each other take the sometimes-abstract idea of CoastFIRE and make it real. Whether you’re just starting out or already halfway coasting, this section is for: ✅ Reviewing each other’s plans and numbers (without judgment) ✅ Sharing tools, spreadsheets, and resources that make tracking easier ✅ Celebrating small wins (paid off a credit card, bumped savings rate, finally opened that TFSA/401k) ✅ Asking the “Am I on the right track?” questions we all have Think of it like a gym for financial independence—you show up, put in reps, and we all get stronger together. To kick things off, I’d love to know:👉 What’s one resource (spreadsheet, calculator, book, or podcast) you’ve found helpful for understanding or tracking CoastFIRE? Drop your answers below 👇 and let’s build a shared library for the whole group.