A post appeared on 5ch reading, “A friend of mine retired at 40 with ¥30 million in savings and is living the good life — 8 hours of sleep, coffee, the gym, and public baths.” The post sparked a heated thread over whether ¥30 million is actually enough to FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early). Some argued that, factoring in the pension eligibility age and inflation, you’d need at least ¥150 million, while others pointed out it could work depending on how the money is invested. Opinions also split over a more fundamental question: if you’re not investing the money and just drawing it down, can that really be called “FIRE” at all?
What people said
1AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:22
＠
So I heard from a friend — this 40-year-old guy who FIRE'd with ¥30 million sleeps 8 hours,
drinks coffee in the morning, works out at the gym, and relaxes at a public bathhouse in the middle of the day,
2AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:24
Depends how much you're spending on yakiniku (Japanese BBQ), I guess
6AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:26
There actually are a few people here and there who FIRE on about that much
They're probably putting the ¥30 million to work, earning around ¥1.2 million a year off it, and living frugally
8AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:28
9AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:28
If you're gonna FIRE at 40, you need at least ¥150 million minimum once you factor in inflation
10AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:29
Even if you work until 65 and collect your pension, ¥30 million still feels shaky
11AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:29
He'll probably get "fired" (laid off — pun on FIRE) from whatever job he goes back to
14AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:33
People in their 40s these days probably won't be able to collect their pension until 70
Guess we're working till 70, fellow comrades
15AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:33
At 10-years-ago prices, maybe… nah, still doesn't work
16AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:36
So he's just been burning through the ¥30 million without investing it?
If he'd been investing it for the past 10 years, it would've doubled even while drawing down living expenses
17AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:37
Planning to quit work at 60 and start my pension at 60 too — 7 more years to go
19AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:42
Re: #17
Not only does your pension get reduced if you claim at 60, you also lose disability coverage
24AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:46
Re: #19
You need to weigh the odds of dying before 65 against the odds of becoming disabled before 65 and actually getting approved for disability pension
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is notorious for stalling on disability pension approvals — it takes six months to a year from filing the paperwork to getting certified
41AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:09
Re: #19
Are you a government shill or something?
It's still better than dying before you ever get to collect anything
18AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:40
"Heard it from a friend" — classic blue-checkmark fabrication (a nod to X/Twitter's paid blue-check accounts known for posting made-up engagement-bait stories)
20AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:42
Any company willing to hire an old guy who's been unemployed for 10 years is gonna be a "black company" (Japanese slang for an exploitative, abusive employer)
21AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:43
The reduced payout for claiming at 60 really sucks though
Such a garbage system
25AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:46
Like hell you can FIRE on just ¥30 million
26AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:47
You can tell that comment was written by someone who doesn't actually get FIRE
A lot of people mistakenly think it just means living off savings until they run dry
27AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:48
Depending on how long you plan to FIRE and what kind of lifestyle you want, ¥30 million could be enough
28AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:49
I'm almost 60 and they just keep piling more work on me — I can't keep up with the pace at work anymore
I just want to quit already
29AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:50
Seems like there'd be quite a few people living off investing around ¥30 million out in Kitsuki (a small, low-cost-of-living city in Oita Prefecture)
30AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:50
As a healthy minimalist who cooks at home and prefers light seasoning, I could probably pull it off
But there's no way a yakiniku-loving middle-aged guy could ever manage FIRE on that
32AnonymousSep 11, 2026 15:53
Sometimes the people with no greed are the ones who do best at investing
I know someone who bought about ¥15 million worth of gold 20 years ago as deposit-insurance protection (to stay under Japan's ¥10 million deposit insurance payoff cap) and just left it sitting in a bank safe deposit box
Apparently it's worth over ¥200 million now
34AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:02
If you own your home outright you barely spend money anyway
Make your coffee at home, work out at home too
Bathe at home, eat yakiniku at home too
You could do it all on ¥50,000 a month
That's ¥600,000 a year
¥6 million over 10 years
¥24 million over 40 years
Easy!!!!
35AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:04
That's not FIRE
That's just burning through your savings
36AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:04
Not even kidding, I quit my job at 50 and between severance pay and savings had ¥100 million — living it up doing whatever I want every day now
37AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:05
Coffee tastes best made at home anyway
I get my beans from a place that roasts their own
Costs about ¥50 a day
38AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:06
Let the guy have his coffee, come on
39AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:07
Humans can really only enjoy themselves up to about age 70 anyway
No matter how much money you have, you can't take it with you
40AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:08
These days you need like ¥60 million just to buy a condo
42AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:09
Isn't FIRE supposed to be about living off FX or stock trading?
43AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:10
40 is still too young — you've still got sex drive and material desires, that'll never work
44AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:11
Hiroyuki said it's smart to start claiming your pension early at 60 and run it through government bond yields (Hiroyuki, the outspoken founder of 2channel/5ch, often weighs in on money and life-planning topics)
45AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:12
¥30 million split over 10 years works out to ¥3 million a year
46AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:12
Come to think of it, haven't seen many stock threads lately
47AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:13
A run-down house out in the countryside goes for like ¥1 million
48AnonymousSep 11, 2026 16:13
Both my parents died after only collecting their pension for a few years
So I'm planning to start taking mine at 60 too
Background and Key Points of Debate
FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) is, in principle, meant to cover living expenses through investment returns — under the commonly cited “4% rule,” the rule of thumb is having roughly 25 times your annual living expenses saved up. The thread’s observation that “if you’re living on ¥3 million a year, ¥30 million runs out in 10 years” cuts to the heart of the debate: if you’re not investing and simply drawing the money down, that’s not really FIRE — it’s just early retirement funded by a shrinking savings account. That distinction is where opinions in the thread diverged most. On pensions, commenters also raised the system that reduces payouts for early claiming (e.g., at age 60) and the trend toward a later eligibility age, though the thread didn’t get into specific reduction rates or program details. The oft-cited figure of “¥150 million needed” is likewise just one benchmark that shifts depending on assumed living standards and inflation — reading it as the single correct answer would be a misunderstanding.
Leave a Reply