I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?

[Anonymous]

Previous poster again. Just saw the post where OP said she is 12 years until the end of college. So she has a 4th grader?

Yeah, don't retire. Your most expensive kid-related years are all in front of you.

Also, never assume your kid will attend XYZ college. We thought this and then lo and behold we have a kid attending an Ivy (never would have predicted this as we did not ourselves and we didn't push for it). A few months ago we received the formal first year cost estimate from the university and it's $97k. And we don't qualify for any aid on our HHI of $350k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:350k each or together? If together, how did you amass 5 million?

I’m wondering this too. We are a few years younger than OP, make close to $400k combined and have been maxing out retirement for ages. We have just under $3M total (incl house equity) and I’m not sure exactly what we could have done differently to get to $5M. There was either some impressive market picks or they have a non-standard form of income.

You could have started earlier. DH and I are your ages. We have never made more than $200k a year and most years have been below that. We have the same NW that you do. The only difference I can name, based in the info given, is that I opened my first IRA at 19 and contributed the max every year.

If we had your income, we would be well over $5m.

I suspect that your ability to max out retirement accounts at age 19 onward is based on some sort of assistance in the background. Either you were living at home with minimal expenses, receiving an allowance, or something similar. Either way, you're right that time is the big factor here, but not everybody has that ability so early on in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Previous poster again. Just saw the post where OP said she is 12 years until the end of college. So she has a 4th grader?

Yeah, don't retire. Your most expensive kid-related years are all in front of you.

Also, never assume your kid will attend XYZ college. We thought this and then lo and behold we have a kid attending an Ivy (never would have predicted this as we did not ourselves and we didn't push for it). A few months ago we received the formal first year cost estimate from the university and it's $97k. And we don't qualify for any aid on our HHI of $350k.

If you retired you wouldn't have that $350K HHI, and would qualify for aid. Problem solved

[Anonymous]

OP is unserious because her income numbers were combined not separate, but the jobs are separate.

[Anonymous]

OP wanted us to say husband should keep working and she should take a low stress fun job.

I think you should work out a real budget and plan together. Seriously you could retire now, especially if you have health care and a stream of income, but if it makes you feel better, go through the numbers.