What's the best age to be an empty nester?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I view this differently than most people, but I still have young children (7 and 4). I'm glad the younger one won't be off to college until I'm 56! That still feels very young to me. My husband and I had our 20's/early 30's to travel, explore and focus on careers, save money, go to grad school, have fun with friends and spend time with our families. We're planning to retire or semi-retire in our mid-50s so that will hopefully be another fun chapter. We both lost a parent as young adults so know that health can change at any moment and are grateful we were able to spend our time as we have so far.

This.

My spouse died when our youngest was a college freshman so I went from empty nester to widow. My plans to retire in my 50s are now scrapped. No plans to travel since it's just me.

Sorry for your loss. Everyone should have life insurance until retirement. Lesson for everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Why not just have some kids? You're young enough

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I view this differently than most people, but I still have young children (7 and 4). I'm glad the younger one won't be off to college until I'm 56! That still feels very young to me. My husband and I had our 20's/early 30's to travel, explore and focus on careers, save money, go to grad school, have fun with friends and spend time with our families. We're planning to retire or semi-retire in our mid-50s so that will hopefully be another fun chapter. We both lost a parent as young adults so know that health can change at any moment and are grateful we were able to spend our time as we have so far.

This.

My spouse died when our youngest was a college freshman so I went from empty nester to widow. My plans to retire in my 50s are now scrapped. No plans to travel since it's just me.

Sorry for your loss. Everyone should have life insurance until retirement. Lesson for everyone else.

life insurance is almost never 'that' much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I view this differently than most people, but I still have young children (7 and 4). I'm glad the younger one won't be off to college until I'm 56! That still feels very young to me. My husband and I had our 20's/early 30's to travel, explore and focus on careers, save money, go to grad school, have fun with friends and spend time with our families. We're planning to retire or semi-retire in our mid-50s so that will hopefully be another fun chapter. We both lost a parent as young adults so know that health can change at any moment and are grateful we were able to spend our time as we have so far.

This.

My spouse died when our youngest was a college freshman so I went from empty nester to widow. My plans to retire in my 50s are now scrapped. No plans to travel since it's just me.

Sorry for your loss. Everyone should have life insurance until retirement. Lesson for everyone else.

life insurance is almost never 'that' much.

Term life can be "that" much. When I became a SAHM, my DH bought term life insurance for himself that would give me more than enough to continue living in the same home, fully fund my kids college and wedding, and never have to work again in life. It included my retirement. Thankfully, this bought us peace of mind and nothing happened to my DH. Now he is near retirement with a generous pension and we have long since dropped the term life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I view this differently than most people, but I still have young children (7 and 4). I'm glad the younger one won't be off to college until I'm 56! That still feels very young to me. My husband and I had our 20's/early 30's to travel, explore and focus on careers, save money, go to grad school, have fun with friends and spend time with our families. We're planning to retire or semi-retire in our mid-50s so that will hopefully be another fun chapter. We both lost a parent as young adults so know that health can change at any moment and are grateful we were able to spend our time as we have so far.

This.

My spouse died when our youngest was a college freshman so I went from empty nester to widow. My plans to retire in my 50s are now scrapped. No plans to travel since it's just me.

Sorry for your loss. Everyone should have life insurance until retirement. Lesson for everyone else.

life insurance is almost never 'that' much.

Term life can be "that" much. When I became a SAHM, my DH bought term life insurance for himself that would give me more than enough to continue living in the same home, fully fund my kids college and wedding, and never have to work again in life. It included my retirement. Thankfully, this bought us peace of mind and nothing happened to my DH. Now he is near retirement with a generous pension and we have long since dropped the term life.

We have $5m in group term life insurance and it will stay that way until retirement. It would be hard enough to be widowed early but we want to know that the person left behind will be set financially.

[Anonymous]

Why does everyone want to be child free? Why did you have kids if you want time without them so much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will be 48 and my husband 50 when our youngest starts college. I am looking forward to it!! 8 more years. I think we will still have some of our youth and hopefully a good decade to travel together.

Those are great ages. We will be...over a decade older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well my youngest will go to college when I'm 58 - so probably not that! I worry I'll only have 10 more great years once I'm kid free before my energy level and physical abilities tank (assuming I even have them that long)

Buuuut - I also had an amazing time in my 20s and early 30s - working and living in several different countries making friends around the world, building a career that I feel good about, going to grad school, challenging myself in other ways, having lots of leisurely weekends and time to focus on myself and my friends

If I had to pick a decade to be kid free - I'd definitely pick 25-35 over 48-58. I wish I had more time for fun after they're out of the house, but not at the expense of giving up the fun I had 25-35. I'll taking being a single 28 year old living it up in another country over being a 54 year old doing a river cruise with nice walking tours any day.

Another take: I have way more money now than in my late 20s. At 55 I can afford to take a 2 week trip to Europe and spend $50K for the 2 of us. My first trip to Europe in late 20s was 10 days, and was done fairly frugally, as we didn't have the $$$ to spend.
Can also assure you that a river cruise in Europe is farthest from my mind in my mid50s----maybe when I'm 70. But not before then. I plan my own trips and travel much nicer than that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does everyone want to be child free? Why did you have kids if you want time without them so much?

If you do parenting right, your kids will grow into independent adults. That’s the reward for all of these years of hard work. I’m a teacher and it’s a very similar job.

[Anonymous]

Life doesn't work on our schedule and everyone doesn't prefers same schedule but to answer the question, 28-36 is ideal range for having babies and 45-55 to become empty nesters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does everyone want to be child free? Why did you have kids if you want time without them so much?

If you do parenting right, your kids will grow into independent adults. That’s the reward for all of these years of hard work. I’m a teacher and it’s a very similar job.

Totally true. But this doesn’t actually answer the question. Of course you raise them to be independent. If you don’t, you are doing it wrong. But why are all these people not living their best life with their kids around? Why not just be happy in your own timeline?

[Anonymous]

You don't know how you'll age and what life would throw at you so plan for kids to be 18+ adults before you turn 55.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I view this differently than most people, but I still have young children (7 and 4). I'm glad the younger one won't be off to college until I'm 56! That still feels very young to me. My husband and I had our 20's/early 30's to travel, explore and focus on careers, save money, go to grad school, have fun with friends and spend time with our families. We're planning to retire or semi-retire in our mid-50s so that will hopefully be another fun chapter. We both lost a parent as young adults so know that health can change at any moment and are grateful we were able to spend our time as we have so far.

This.

My spouse died when our youngest was a college freshman so I went from empty nester to widow. My plans to retire in my 50s are now scrapped. No plans to travel since it's just me.

Sorry for your loss. Everyone should have life insurance until retirement. Lesson for everyone else.

life insurance is almost never 'that' much.

You choose how much you have. We carried $4M on both of us, until kids were out of the house (and we were financially set for retirement).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does everyone want to be child free? Why did you have kids if you want time without them so much?

To enjoy them, but also know they grow up and move out on their own, starting their own adult lives

You still see them, just not as much (unless they live nearby). I loved the time with my kids at home, but am more than ready to finally "do things that do not revolve around what is best for the kids" after 20+ years of doing that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does everyone want to be child free? Why did you have kids if you want time without them so much?

If you do parenting right, your kids will grow into independent adults. That’s the reward for all of these years of hard work. I’m a teacher and it’s a very similar job.

Totally true. But this doesn’t actually answer the question. Of course you raise them to be independent. If you don’t, you are doing it wrong. But why are all these people not living their best life with their kids around? Why not just be happy in your own timeline?

Because when you have college to pay for, and don't yet know if your kid will fully launch (ie be totally financially independent),you don't overspend.
Hard to travel (even with kids in HS) unless you trust to leave your kids home alone (and not host parties).

we traveled a lot once they were 3-4+ and G&G watched them. By MS/HS, once the oldest could drive, we did leave them alone and in charge of themselves, but we were very lucky ours were totally trustworthy