Potential Change of Course. Wondering how is Coast FIRE Working for You?

[Edubb20]

I have been on the FIRE train for about 5 years. My goal, from the beginning, has been typical FIRE.  No Coast, No Lean, No Fat. The current rate of progress leads me to believe I have  ~8 years  (with conservative growth figures) until I'm about there, but now I'm reexamining  my objective.

The pandemic has been kinder to me than it has to most. Our dual income's never got hit, my work has been mostly remote, and my job feels stable moving forward out of Covid. In fact, my work life balance has been fantastic and I'm working FAR less real time hours to produce probably slightly more. Unfortunately, due to the nature of my work, I will likely be returning to mostly on-site work here shortly.  I'm not, no matter how logically I present it, going to be able to negotiate more than small amount of flexible at home work moving forward. Just the nature of the beast. I don't want to get bogged down on this for the sake of this thread.

So, now, confronted with going back to my mostly fine(but still exhausting) career for the next 8 years, I'm strongly considering what might be a Fat Coast (is that a thing?).  I wouldn't be Lean FIRE, but I'd have a healthy buffer above the amount I'd need compounding to achieve a much later retirement date of my choosing while working extremely part time(partner as as well). I'm confident I could hit this Fat Coast in about ~3ish years from now. 



So, I'm not looking for a review of my potential shift in strategy, I'm mostly looking for general insights from those experiencing anything similar or those who opted to coast already. True coasting, not the "I'm actually fully fired but continue to work" coasting.

Some guiding questions on my end are: 

For those who coast with ACA as insurance, what has your experience been?

How, mentally, have you handled the drastic reduction in wealth generation usually associated with perusing full fire?

Did anything disrupt your plan?

Would you have done anything different in retrospect?

Other general advise for those looking to coast that might be frequently overlooked?

in retrospect, would you go back to full FIRE strategy (aka hang on a little longer) if you could have a redo from your decision to coast?



Bonus question for normal fire people reading this:

For those of you fully FIREd.  If you could go back to the date in which you could have coast fired would you have considered that path knowing what you know now?

[Nate R]

Good questions! I have no answers, just similar feelings. PTF.

[Fish Sweet]

I will most likely be Lean Coast FIRE-ing, although I didn't set out to do so.  I left a full time role early in 2020 with the plan of pursuing a change of career back into another full time role, the pandemic struck, family emergencies happened, and now I'm left with about a quarter of my FIRE number and a small crafting business that will hopefully make enough to cover my living expenses + save a little until I do hit my FIRE target.  Despite that, my net worth has only gone up thanks to accidental market timing and passive growth.

- Insurance-wise, I'm in California so our low-cost ACA insurance options are... shall we say, probably more plentiful compared to other states.  I opt for high deductible, low cost plans with nationally recognized insurance companies (so not tiny unknowns with ??? levels of care), and I do keep enough in my EF funds to cover the deductible.

- Mentally, I'm in a MUCH better place... to a degree that is almost surprising to me.  I had been very burnt out in my previous role, but financial security has always been a big anxiety point for me and I thought that the stress of my job was balanced out by the reassurance of watching my $$$ numbers go up and up.  I would daydream all the time about FIRE, and tell myself that I only had to keep my nose to the grindstone a little longer, a few more years.  Obviously, that didn't happen.

You know how people will say that they started spending less money in retirement because they realized they no longer needed to spend to offset their unhappiness at being at work.  The opposite happened to me.  I had gotten so stingy and used to depriving myself of any convenience or joy because the money I earned felt so hard won, like I was paying for every dollar with blood, sweat, and tears.  Now, I spend more and earn significantly less, and am much happier for it, because I'm no longer living in the shadow of that insecurity.  Feels like a weird humblebrag to type out, but moving on from that scarcity/deprivation mindset has also made me a more generous, compassionate person, and a better friend & partner. Watching my net worth go up almost despite myself helped with that worry too.

- Disruptions, yes.  See above pandemic & family emergencies.  I keep a much bigger EF fund now than I did when I was working FT, and it was still depleted by the events of last year, mostly helping out family.  Even though it's not peak financial optimization, I still opt to keep a large EF fund as a launching pad for if my plans need to drastically change, or if I'm hit by some really wild medical stuff.

- In retrospect, I almost wish I could've held out at my last job long enough to have gotten laid off & collect unemployment like most of my team, har har.  No, but I honestly wouldn't have done anything different. Leaving when I did allowed me to experience a taste of my coasting life before the pandemic shut everything down. It's also given me precious time with loved ones that I won't ever get back.

- For me, Coast FIRE-ing is everything I wanted out of FIRE, I just didn't realize it yet.  My business is the work equivalent of a FT job (I'm certainly putting 40+ hours into it every week) and I'm barely making enough to cover my expenses, and yet I'm much happier now.  I truly enjoy what I do and would be doing it even if I had hit my FIRE target number... so I just cut out the middleman and also every part of working life that I hated (COMMUTE BLEGH.  Professional dress BLUGH.)  The hard work I put in during my younger years to build up a solid $$$ foundation has paid off, and compound interest is doing its magic.  And if shit really hits the fan and I had no choice but to go back to work, I have the confidence I have the flexibility to do that too.

- Advice wise, I'd just be realistic about being able to live within whatever $$ limits make sense for you as you coast your way to FIRE.  None of that "we spend 60k a year, but I'm sure if we left our jobs and trimmed the fat it could go down to 35k" aspirational thinking.  DO think about where you want to be in 3 years, 5 years, 10 years... whether you coast FIRE or if you pursue traditional FIRE, and how to best achieve those goals.  But DON'T deny and disregard the happiness of your current, present self in favor of your future self.  That way lies burnout and madness.

[Morning Glory]

PTF. I am also looking at coasting with ACA and some very part-time work, after I downsize my house and decide where I want to move to. 

Coasting sounds a lot more appealing than working full time and then full stop.  It gives you the opportunity to quit the full time grind a bit sooner, while also allowing you to keep your skills current in case some disaster happens and you need to return to work. 

[Freedomin5]

We did that for a few years before hitting FIRE. We set intermediate goals for ourselves. We started by working full-time + side gigs for a few years until we were debt-free. Once we hit that milestone, we downshifted and got rid of the side gigs, until we hit our second milestone — we had enough in investments that, if left to grow to traditional retirement age, would be enough to cover our estimated expenses. Once that happened, we downshifted again, and I went to part-time work.

We could lean FIRE right now, but our options would be very limited in terms of where we chose to live and we would definitely need to use geographic arbitrage. So we decided to coast for a bit longer. I found a job that pays about 60% of what I was making before in my high stress job. I work normal hours (not crazy hours like before), and I have a ton of vacation time.

We are planning to downshift again to one income in a few months. It’s hard to put a hard stop to contributing to savings/investments. It’s helped for us to mentally prepare and estimate contribution and continued growth. In the past, our net worth has increased exponentially. We expect our net worth to increase linearly moving forward. As in, we are contributing less, but we have more in investments that is growing passively. It helps to know that.

I would not change my decision. I have noticed that, with more free time, I have to be careful not to take on too many additional projects “because I have the time”. I had gotten so used to a crazy schedule (work 6.5 days per week, 13 hours a day, with no breaks) that a balanced schedule felt wrong to me. I had to remind myself that my new schedule is healthy and normal, and give myself permission to be “lazy” and “do nothing”.

Funnily enough, we are still adding quite a significant amount to our nest egg each year. Coasting has given us the mental space and capacity to do other interesting stuff, some of which has generated additional income. Also, the markets have done really well. In our case, wealth generation hasn’t really slowed.

[Edubb20]

- For me, Coast FIRE-ing is everything I wanted out of FIRE, I just didn't realize it yet.  My business is the work equivalent of a FT job (I'm certainly putting 40+ hours into it every week) and I'm barely making enough to cover my expenses, and yet I'm much happier now.  I truly enjoy what I do and would be doing it even if I had hit my FIRE target number... so I just cut out the middleman and also every part of working life that I hated (COMMUTE BLEGH.  Professional dress BLUGH.)  The hard work I put in during my younger years to build up a solid $$$ foundation has paid off, and compound interest is doing its magic.  And if shit really hits the fan and I had no choice but to go back to work, I have the confidence I have the flexibility to do that too.

This is how I'm starting to feel about it when I really try picture it in the minds eye.  I'm not adverse to work (mostly of the part-time variety) and I have a few skills that would make for good part time work. The golden handcuffs are starting to chafe in my current roll.


thanks for the the reply!

[FIRE Artist]

i consider myself coast fire but i still worked full time.  I call it coast fire because 7 years ago I switched from a high stress, high hours high paying job to a low to moderate stress, 37.75 hr/week job with a total comp cut of 40%.  Basically I no longer contributed to any FIRE savings during this time but did contribute to my public sector pension.  All my take home money was spent on lifestyle, and going to art school at night, and pretty closely matches what I want to spend in retirement anyway, understanding that work related expenses will reduce after I fully retire.

This coast fire saw my net worth double from 1MM CND to 2 MM CND  through market increases, and home equity gains.  I could retire this year as was my original plan, and I may still, but since work from home, my job is pretty low stress and I kinda want to wait out the early aftermath of the pandemic before I pull the plug, I think I will stick it out another year or two if my employer will have me.  My job is on a fixed term contract and is done in June, my employer may not renew my contract at that time so I am just going to take things as they come.

No, I would not have done anything different.  My previous job was extremely high stress and I was burnt out.  I needed the time to figure out who I really wanted to be after retirement anyway so no reason not to spend that time in a job that I enjoyed.  That is the thing about high stress jobs, you don't have time to figure out who you are outside of work. 

[Fish Sweet]

- For me, Coast FIRE-ing is everything I wanted out of FIRE, I just didn't realize it yet.  My business is the work equivalent of a FT job (I'm certainly putting 40+ hours into it every week) and I'm barely making enough to cover my expenses, and yet I'm much happier now.  I truly enjoy what I do and would be doing it even if I had hit my FIRE target number... so I just cut out the middleman and also every part of working life that I hated (COMMUTE BLEGH.  Professional dress BLUGH.)  The hard work I put in during my younger years to build up a solid $$$ foundation has paid off, and compound interest is doing its magic.  And if shit really hits the fan and I had no choice but to go back to work, I have the confidence I have the flexibility to do that too.

This is how I'm starting to feel about it when I really try picture it in the minds eye.  I'm not adverse to work (mostly of the part-time variety) and I have a few skills that would make for good part time work. The golden handcuffs are starting to chafe in my current roll.


thanks for the the reply!

I hope you're able to pursue that line of thinking and throw off those cuffs!  I knew I was tired of all the demands of my job (and I'll be honest, it wasn't a bad job, just not right for me) but that I still wanted to do income producing work, just on my own terms.

Coast-FIRE has really given me the best of both worlds -- flexibility to do whatever the hell I want and indulge in new interests and creative pursuits, sleep through Mondays, pursue an income producing hobby as a business and feel like my financial gains still have meaning.  It ain't perfect (what is)- for example, barring some unexpected windfall I doubt I'll become a homeowner anytime soon and costly emergencies can feel more painful when you're making less than you're used to.  I chose self employment, which means sometimes I'm working until midnight or later.  But it's been wholly worth it.

[SpareChange]

I coasted in the fall of 2019. Went halftime at 1 week on/off when I was about 80-85% of being lean FI, just before turning 45. I work in a very downshift friendly career/job. It's also very stable, and I don't hate it, just certain days:). My general aiming point was to be in position to fully FIRE if I want to by 54.

For those who coast with ACA as insurance, what has your experience been?

I still qualify for employer bennies, so no ACA experience.

How, mentally, have you handled the drastic reduction in wealth generation usually associated with perusing full fire?

Better than I thought I would. The market rally and extra work I've put in during the pandemic have probably influenced that. Still, last year, I invested roughly a third of what I did my last FT year.

Did anything disrupt your plan?

No, not really.

Would you have done anything different in retrospect?

I don't think so. It's worked out pretty well.

Other general advise for those looking to coast that might be frequently overlooked?

Off the top of my head it's hard to come up with anything, since every situation can be so different. I do find myself not perusing the SORR threads as much any more. Some industries are more amenable to this than others. Some are more stable than others. If you're worried about not having a job in 2 years, maybe the slow twitch long race isn't the optimal one for you. Still having a schedule could interfere with slow travel type experiences. All of these would be hard to overlook though I'd guess.Also, keep in mind if it matters to you that the actual number of hours worked may not differ much between the two options, they're just spread out over a longer period.

in retrospect, would you go back to full FIRE strategy (aka hang on a little longer) if you could have a redo from your decision to coast?

In my case, no. Some time after deciding coasting was the way I wanted to go, I started to notice chronic physical issues creeping in due to the nature of my work. Not sure I could go back to 5 days a week anymore frankly. Going PT really helped with those. My father passed away shortly before I went PT, and my new schedule really allows me to help my aging mother.

[Aethonan]

These responses have all been incredibly helpful.  Thank you OP for asking the detailed question!

[scantee]

I hope to reach my major coasting goal by the end of this year. At that point I plan to quit and take 6 to 12 months off of work entirely at which point I’ll start working again. I figure I am in a position to be picky and will only consider jobs that are flexible, interesting and allow for full remote. My expertise is in project management which has a fair number of jobs like this so I’m not too worried about being able to find something. I’ll likely be able to still save quite a bit once I go back but I’ll probably also be more lax with my budget and do a bit more splurging.

I do have a bit of experience with coasting as I intentionally plateaued my career and worked part-time when my kids were young. Zero regrets. It allowed me to spend time with them while also getting me out of the house (being a full time SAHP would not have been a good fit for me). That experience helped me to feel confident in doing it again although I am a bit nervous about quitting entirely even if it is just for a year or less.

My opinion is that coasting is probably a better path for many (most?) people who are drawn to early retirement. The reality is that most people who retire early go on to earn money in some capacity at some point. The younger you are when you retire the more likely it is that you’ll work again. Coasting acknowledges this truth and uses it to leverage smaller savings amounts for some freedom from work on a quicker timeframe. I mean if you’re the kind of person who can save enough to fully retire by 30, great, good for you. For those of us who aren’t as fortunate/driven coasting may be the better option.

[chasesfish]

Bonus question for normal fire people reading this:

For those of you fully FIREd.  If you could go back to the date in which you could have coast fired would you have considered that path knowing what you know now?

Yes.  I did an entire interview about it

https://thefioneers.com/coast-fi-financial-independence/

What kind of net worth do you have?  I think 500k before 40 is the magic number for CoastFI to work

[waltworks]

I spent a lot of time coast FIRE and IMO it's great for people who want to stay involved in some form of work even when FIRE and have the flexibility to do less work for less money. Obviously not all jobs work that way.

I mean, if you're happiest working 10-20 hours a week in some way, then why should you work a ton now to race to total FIRE, when you can live the life you want *now*? That's the logic, as I understand it, and it makes good sense. I personally will probably never stop working in at least some capacity (I've was working ~20 hours or less a week for many years before FIRE and continue to now).

Regarding the ACA, don't get hung up on it. It's like normal healthcare from your employer, unless you make so little you get bumped to Medicaid, which has some downsides in terms of finding providers in many places but is otherwise fine too.

-W

[jfer_rose]

I intended to coast but I'm not sure what I'm doing now. I quit my job in 2019 at nearly 85% of what I considered my full FIRE number (I considered myself lean-FIRE at that time). I left for a one-year program to learn woodworking with the intent of getting a part-time coast job after graduating. But plans changed. The pandemic caused a delay in my program completion when in-person classes were cancelled and then made me less excited to work in a traditional job when I did. (The completion of my program happened to coincide with our biggest surge in the virus locally and I really liked being able to stay home while that was occurring.) I had the opportunity to start a business and was excited for the opportunity to earn some extra income and find meaningful ways to fill my time. In the meantime, market growth was stellar and my stache took me by surprise growing past my full FIRE number.

So I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing now. I still have the business, but I'm not knocking myself out to earn clients. That said, I have no regrets about my decision to quit and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Full retirement was never my goal but I'm excited to decide what I do with my time and energy going forward.

ACA has been simpler than I expected. I still worry I may not have enough money for unexpected events as my net worth is on the lean-FIRE end of the spectrum. Perhaps the biggest obstacle is that I currently rent but potentially see myself wanting to own again someday so I may want an income in order to obtain a mortgage. But there are many, many low-paying jobs I would honestly be excited to try for a bit, so I feel I am well-positioned to ride out whatever may come my way.

[chasesfish]

I'll give a third vote to "the aca was easier than I expected"

My insurance card looks almost identical to my employer's card.

Only difference is I pay the first $13,000 instead of the first $5,000 (then an 80/20 split to $10,000).

Slightly worse coverage, a little more expensive, but meh. 

[Edubb20]

Bonus question for normal fire people reading this:

For those of you fully FIREd.  If you could go back to the date in which you could have coast fired would you have considered that path knowing what you know now?

Yes.  I did an entire interview about it

https://thefioneers.com/coast-fi-financial-independence/

What kind of net worth do you have?  I think 500k before 40 is the magic number for CoastFI to work

My best guess is that the wife and I will be around 500K @ 38ish. I'll dig into your interview now!

[SpareChange]

You might find this thread to be of interest...

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/post-fire/calling-all-downshifters!/

[Arbitrage]

I have been on the FIRE train for about 5 years. My goal, from the beginning, has been typical FIRE.  No Coast, No Lean, No Fat. The current rate of progress leads me to believe I have  ~8 years  (with conservative growth figures) until I'm about there, but now I'm reexamining  my objective.

The pandemic has been kinder to me than it has to most. Our dual income's never got hit, my work has been mostly remote, and my job feels stable moving forward out of Covid. In fact, my work life balance has been fantastic and I'm working FAR less real time hours to produce probably slightly more. Unfortunately, due to the nature of my work, I will likely be returning to mostly on-site work here shortly.  I'm not, no matter how logically I present it, going to be able to negotiate more than small amount of flexible at home work moving forward. Just the nature of the beast. I don't want to get bogged down on this for the sake of this thread.

So, now, confronted with going back to my mostly fine(but still exhausting) career for the next 8 years, I'm strongly considering what might be a Fat Coast (is that a thing?).  I wouldn't be Lean FIRE, but I'd have a healthy buffer above the amount I'd need compounding to achieve a much later retirement date of my choosing while working extremely part time(partner as as well). I'm confident I could hit this Fat Coast in about ~3ish years from now. 

I'll be able to answer this in a couple of years for you.  We were in a similar position as you a couple of years ago, and I was all aboard the full-FIRE train as well, but we changed plans last summer, and are now going to coast.  It's been a tricky coast to set up, because we're moving to a different state as well, but the pandemic has actually enabled it to happen, as our employers are now willing to accommodate remote work (and both will also allow us to go part-time).  I'm going to go to 20 hours, and my wife will take a leave of absence, and then go back ~10-15 hours. 

We still plan to go full FIRE in a couple of years, but this coast will give us far more financial security than otherwise; I don't think we'd have been able to execute our plan confidently without it.  Making FIRE happen in mid-2021 was always our stretch goal; while the market has been kinder than our planning, the surge in housing prices (greater surge where we're buying than where we're selling) has essentially lopped a couple hundred K off of our stash, so I'd be pretty uncomfortable with a clean break.  I'd also be sweating all of the details where we are now - TONS of one-time costs with fixing up the new house, fixing up the old house, moving, and selling.  Knowing that even our meager part-time work will more than cover our costs gives us a lot of assurance in a time of great uncertainty.

My part-time work comes with benefits, so I won't have to jump aboard the ACA train until I give that up.

[Cassie]

It sounds like many have found a better work/life balance.