Reply to Has anyone here on a normal income successfully FIREd?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We plan to FIRE at 50, when our sole child is through college.  It's doable - key is to have fewer kids and manage your expectation that Early is 50, not 38. [/quote]

+1000

Once you get your kids thru college (or at least into college with a fully funded 529) then it is much more reasonable to be able to FIRE/retire.  That is a normal "retire early" plan.  Main concerns at that point are health insurance (which would be 15K/year, down from 20-25K for family coverage), home costs (pay off mortgage and all you have is maintenance and Taxes/HOA) and food/utlities/extras you desire. At that point you don't have 1+ not launched kids that you are responsible for.  I agree the key is to only have 1-2 kids.  Cannot personally imagine college for 3-4+ kids (we make too much to get any aide), even with in-state options that's expensive

Plenty of people retire in their 50s/early once kids are launched (off your payroll). Your expenses go way down

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Who said it's a law that you have to put your kids through traditional 4 year college and pay for everything? Majority of people don't even have this option.  Guess what? Their kids still go to college. They take grants/loans and they also attend community college for 2 years saving tons of money.  College courses are only specialized for 2 years.  I don't get it, you push your kids to take AP classes and all that stuff that's supposed to transfer to college credits and they still need 4 years to get a degree in one major?[/quote]

So encourage your kid to do an AA thru dual enrollment while in HS and then you might only need 2-3 years for your degree. Or use the AP courses to save a year.  That is totally fine and many kids do just that.  
But why would you want to saddle your kids with massive debt just so you can sit at home and do nothing starting at age 40?  Why have kids if you don't want to provide for them? I'm not saying "send to 90K+college, pay for medical school, buy them a new car and 200K towards first home" type of providing.  But I do believe if you choose to have kids, you should make every effort to help with college, as the fact remains that the majority of higher earners over their lifetimes have a college degree.  Why have kids to say "oops, now you are 18, you are on your own, figure out how to pay $45K/year for in-state school and get your degree.  good luck with life, see you at Xmas."

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It's a different lifestyle. Who's to say that your lifestyle is any better?

US mil isn't the route I took but it's certainly an option. And veterans get major preference when it comes to fed jobs.[/quote]
it is an option if that is what your kid wants.  But I wouldn't want to force my kid into that unless they desire that.  I'd prefer to work a few more years to help them pay for in-state college/private college with great merit and have no or minimal debt.  I know how crippling debt from college can be (spouse and I had over $80K 35+ years ago---we paid it off in 2.5 years and lived like struggling college students for those 2 years to accomplish that).

Yes, it's a different lifestyle.  But if you are college educated and understand that majority of jobs that lead to better pay over your lifetime require a BS/BA, why wouldn't you plan to assist your kids? Guess I just don't get why you would have kids just to say "sorry, you are 18 and you are on your own financially.  I'm 40/45 and don't want to work anymore"

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