How This Couple Grew Their Liquid Net Worth to $2.3 Million and Crafted Their FIRE Plan

Key Takeaways

Liquid assets—such as cash, stocks, and brokerage accounts you can tap immediately—create flexibility that other assets can't match.
Growing your income matters more than pinching every penny, especially if you don't let lifestyle inflation creep up on you.
Staying invested during market drops prevents the timing mistakes that cost the average investor over 1% per year.

A married couple in their mid-30s recently shared their financial situation on Reddit's Financial Independence community: they have $2.3 million in liquid assets and a plan to hit $4 million before age 42. They pull in around $550,000 per year combined.

"Once someone reaches multi-million-dollar status, the psychology of money shifts from anxiety and optimization to confidence and resilience," Gary Clement, PhD, CFP, and chair of the financial planning education department at The College for Financial Planning, told Investopedia. "There's a deep sense of ease that comes from knowing you can handle almost anything that comes up without financial stress."

They aim to accumulate $4 million in liquid assets within seven years.

Here's how they got here.

What "Liquid" Actually Means—And Why It Matters

Liquid net worth includes cash and investments that you can convert to cash quickly, like checking and brokerage accounts. The Federal Reserve says that it includes any asset that’s available to meet obligations quickly, without selling property or triggering early withdrawal penalties. It doesn’t include your house, your 401(k) that you can’t tap without penalties, or that car sitting in the driveway.

Important

For someone planning to retire early, liquidity is everything. For this couple, having $2.3 million in accessible funds means they can pivot, weather a downturn, or walk away from their jobs without scrambling.

Compare that to the median U.S. household net worth of $192,900 in 2022—and remember, that figure includes home equity. This couple has built more than 10 times that amount.

How They Built It

They work in finance and fintech and bring home about $550,000 together each year.

The couple invests using dollar-cost averaging, which the SEC describes as putting equal amounts into investments at regular intervals regardless of market conditions. Prices fall and your money buys more shares. Prices rise and you buy fewer shares. The method smooths out your average cost per share over time.

Staying invested matters. Still, most people fail at it. Dalbar's 2025 report shows the average equity investor earned 9.24% last year while the S&P 500 returned 10.35%. That difference costs investors each year. The couple avoided this problem by continuing to invest through downturns.

The Path to Early Retirement

Clement has advice for anyone trying to build wealth early: “Eliminate anything that makes wealth accumulation feel like ice skating uphill. High-commitment expenses like large homes, car payments [and] lifestyle inflation create ongoing drag that makes early retirement unnecessarily hard.”

The couple kept their spending relatively flat even as income grew. Clement identifies this as the defining trait of successful early retirees: "disciplined patience: the ability to delay gratification not just once, but repeatedly, over long periods."

The couple wants $4 million by their early 40s, which would generate roughly $160,000 annually using the 4% rule. However, the 4% rule was designed to sustain a retirement that’s at most 30 years long. Retire at 42 and your money might need to last 50 years or more. That’s why many financial planners now recommend withdrawal rates closer to 3.5% for retirements extending beyond 30 years. Using a 3.5% withdrawal rate, then, would generate roughly $140,000 annually.

The Bottom Line

This couple did a lot of things right. They earned good money and didn’t spend all of it. They stayed invested no matter how the market performed. Now, they have choices, including retiring early, “quietly quitting,” cutting back to part-time, and more. That’s what $2.3 million in liquid assets buys: flexibility and stability, now and later.