Related Posts
Rough out here.
Any ladies want to chat with a 30/f?
These are my favorite clients by far.
Additional Posts in FIRE Financial Independence Retire Early
Sooo AMC.. who’s in?
😂
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Mentor
We FIRE’d a couple years back with 2 kids below 3 at ages 37/38. In the past 2+ years we’ve spent 4-5 months each year slow traveling in Europe / Asia with our kids doing a combination of world schooling and private schools for the months we’re not traveling.
It’s been great and our kids are now 5 and 2 and have been to 10 & 8 countries respectively. It’s been so rewarding watching them learn and grow with all the new experiences we’re having together.
Subject Expert
Zero percent tax on dividends! Now that is extraordinary.
Bowl Leader
Had my first kid 9 days ago, and have never felt more convicted to stick to the plan to retire within the 5-8 years. We won’t have the money to spend big on super competitive youth sports, vacation properties, etc and we will live in a reasonable home in a MCOL area.
My hope is that when my children look back when they’re older, they’re happy we got to spend more time together living a middle class lifestyle vs living a fancier lifestyle with a largely absent parent.
Mentor
Congrats on your baby!
I think it is awesome if you can do that, but I was not able to. I am going to be retiring next year (in my 50s) while my kids are teens. I would never have been able to cover all of their activities and pay off their college tuition, plus help my elderly parents, if I left earlier. Please think about the costs that you will be incurring, such as competitive sports and associated travel, plus education before you pull the trigger. I spent well over 6 figures on competitive sports alone. Add pre-college and college tuition for multiple kids, and you get closer to 7 figures.
Thank God, no. One daughter's competitive dance was probably 15-20k annually until she went to college. Other kids were not as hard core about their activities, so costs not as comparatively large, but still a few thousand a year. It could have been much worse, especially if they went to private school.
I’m 41 with one kid, but the wife wants more. I’m prepared to grow our family while recognizing it impacts my retirement.
It’s changed my perspective on FIRE. Retirement isn’t my goal, happiness for my family and myself is. If I can do that while still working, I will
I can imagine it would be very hard to achieve FIRE with kids. Having kids is super expensive! I am single and still working on getting there.
I think you should begin by what your current lifestyle costs you per year and forecast of that will increase or decrease based on anything you can change
Subject Expert
Yes. The OP will get more insight from measuring her income and expenses and so on than she will from us guessing about them. :)
I should add that figuring out my FIRE number is what mostly feels impossible given the changes in experiences as they grow.
Subject Expert
Have a nice day. :)
You might want to create a couple FIRE scenarios. Start with what would be your number post kids. Add on a cost for universities. Finally add on an incremental number for annual kids expenses (incremental travel, activities, food, etc. closer to what you are spending now).
That will at least get you in a ballpark and you’ll be able to start.
A rule of thumb we came up with was that our spending on hobbies/travel would likely increase by the same amount that we would reduce spending on the kids when they moved out.
Thank you for this! You're absolutely right and now I know what we'll be doing the rest of our holiday break. 😅
How prepared is your husband to retire now since you indicate he is about 20 years older than you are and therefore closer to a more traditional retirement age? You indicate that you only started investing within the last five years but how about your husband?
Eh, he didn't really invest or save heavily in the past. He has some in a 401K and some military retirement but its not the kind of numbers we all know are needed for FIRE. He could retire in maybe 5 years if my income doesn't. But that would also delay retiring early for me. We have a lot of planning and math to do.
Coach
Yeah, I think tough with young kids. Many unknowns in terms of costs as they grow. I don’t know that you can know your Fire number with them with certainty now. I have multiple kids and absent a lotto win type windfall, the youngest I would conceivably retire is when my youngest starts high school. There are multiple reasons for this that aren’t related just to accumulated assets.
I’m prepared to “temp FIRE” to have these years w the kids and go back after they’re older.
As for figuring out the number, I continue to update it each year looking at fixed costs and an average of the last 5 years. So far the number has changed little despite inflation.
This is a great idea and honestly not something I had considered. Thank you!
I could only really ever entertain the full FIRE without kids. They are tremendously expensive and then there’s the whole setting an example thing when they are in their teens thing when I’d otherwise be retired. I shouldn’t “need” most of the income I earn in that period and plan to use it to put them well on their way to FI
We have 2 under 5 and are close to fire but have been working on it since 22. Also 39.
Also congratulations on your newborn!
We are under 40, 1 kid under 5, in a HCOL. $1m liquid NW. HHI $550k (+ bonuses $100k+). Basically started taking investing seriously in 2020. Spouse is on track to Barista FI at ages 45-55. Basically work part time just to get benefits, contribute to 401k, and stall until we can take advantage of the rule of 55. We should be fat FI by 55. I will probably continue working anyways. I don’t think we would be on track if we had another kid, but 1 is doable within our plan.