We’re in our mid-30s with $2.3 million but face large expenses on the road to our $5 million goal

A Reddit user is feeling stuck and frustrated as she tries to achieve her goal of saving $5 million to retire early. While she has a good start with $2.3 million invested already, she has recently suffered a job loss, and she’s concerned that she’s not achieving her savings targets quickly enough — especially given that there are some things she wants to do now to enjoy life.

So, how can she handle the stress of these “middle years,” when she’s no longer excited about getting started and watching her nest egg grow, but when she doesn’t have nearly enough yet to make stopping work a viable option?

Deciding between investing and living now is proving to be a hard balancing act

The poster explained that her immediate frustration centers around the fact that her job is being eliminated and, with her $300K base salary plus a $50K to $75K in annual bonus income, she earns 2/3 of her household income. The job market isn’t great, and she’s stressed out by the fact that even with her $2.3 million invested, she thinks that it’s going to be around a decade or so until she gets to the point that she has $5 million and feels comfortable quitting.

She’s also not certain whether she should just keep investing aggressively in hopes of getting to the point where she is financially independent and doesn’t have to worry about a job loss, or whether she should do some of the things that would make her life better now.

For instance, she found her dream home, which costs $1.2 million, and she’s mulling over the idea of having a baby. However, buying the house or having a child would increase her expenses, making her more vulnerable in the event of another job loss and putting off the date when she can quit.  So, she isn’t sure if she should go forward. 

How to manage competing financial goals and feel secure about the future

The Reddit poster is facing the kinds of decisions that everyone has to face at some point in their lifetime — and it seems like the choices she is making are not making her happy.

Of course, everyone has the option to just invest as much as possible while putting off having a family or living the life that you want in the present. And, this could lead to happiness later if you achieve financial independence at a young age and no longer have to worry about money. However, the price of this approach may simply be too high for most people — this Redditor included.  

Living unhappily for decades and giving up dreams of having a family just to be able to retire a few years earlier will likely lead to a lot of regret. And, it’s largely unnecessary as you can have some financial security even if you don’t do that. With the Redditor’s $2.3 million, for example, she should easily be able to earmark some money for emergencies to cover her bills for a while, if she finds herself unemployed and losing her job won’t be a disaster.

Ultimately, because she is dissatisfied with her finances and is having difficulty in balancing competing goals, her best option is likely going to be working with a financial advisor who can help her define a path forward.

An advisor can help her understand different scenarios of what her financial life could look like with or without her dream home, and with or without having a family. Armed with this information, she can better understand what sacrifices she’d need to make to accomplish different objectives.

She can also work with the advisor to create a plan where she feels secure enough to allow herself to live a little now while still feeling reasonably confident that she’s on the right financial track. With $2.3 million in her 30s, she’s doing better than most people, so her advisor can help her build upon her success and find happiness. 

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