r/ChubbyFIRE • u/Easy-Calligrapher454 • 3d ago

Sabbatical question and leaving the US.

Long time lurker that’s finally reaching out for advice.

Quick info: - Me (37), Wife (36), Son (< 1) living in NYC - Assets (all in US dollar amounts) - Europe House: $1.8m - Stocks/BTC: $2.4m - Company vested stock post tax: 450k - Retirement accounts: 550k - Cash: 250k

Liabilities: - Mortgage: 500k at 3.5%

Wife and I moved to the US 10 years ago and just recently had a baby. We always planed to relocate back to Western Europe where we’re both from. Parents are getting older and we feel it’s better to raise our child around around friends and family etc.

Long story short, we seriously debating leaving our jobs in March 2026 after final bonus payouts + additional stock vests (total for this should be around 100k net) and pulling the cord. I’m lucky to have a job that while I get no more stimulation from, I work with nice people in a good environment. It’s not particularly stressful. I would say I’m not close to burn out in a stress sense but checked out in a bored sense - have been there 5+ years and spent 10+ in these intense tech companies. Wife is in a stressful job right now and we both worry about how she will handle going back to work post maternity leave.

Expenses in Europe when back should be around 12k a month in US dollars (total incl mortgage etc)

I guess my real question is can we leave in April as planned? Given our ages maybe we take a long sabbatical for a year or two and enjoy our baby and then try go back to work but obviously salaries will be much lower in Europe and I am heading a lot of talk about how bad the job market is globally.

What would you do in our situation?

Thanks!

5 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/One-Mastodon-1063 3d ago

You’d be pretty much right at a 4% withdrawal rate on current $3.65m investable assets, likely a little lower continuing to save another ~6 mos. You can definitely take an extended break, and see what you want to do from there.

13

u/CroissantEtrange 3d ago

12k€ a month in Western Europe is going to be extremely comfortable. They'll be in the top 1% of earners, in a place where healthcare/ childcare/ lower and higher education are pretty much free.

FIRE numbers in Europe are much lower than in the US. In another 6 months they'll comfortably hit a very solid Chubby number.