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][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

[/quote]

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."

[/quote]

This. Especially after OP's parents were willing to support him after college!

It seems like OP just doesn't want kids. And that's okay! Just don't have them, it's fine.[/quote]

Exactly!  And the PP doesn't seem to understand how expensive college is.   Why have kids and not be willing to help/support them thru college (or trade school or whatever path they want)?  But the "you are 18, figure out college and life yourself" just isn't in line with my or my husband's plans in life.  And I likely wouldn't have ever ended up with someone who thought that way.  If you are MC/UMC, I just don't get that attitude and feel sorry for your kids[/quote]

prioritizing helping kids with education means diff things to diff people and people have diff number of kids.  Moot conversation. For some it's paying for $$$ private university that's not Ivy or top 5 and to do some fluff major for 4 years while partying in an expensive on campus rental.  For others it's paying 2 years of state school tuition and being frugal with the kid's living expenses or taking loans only if they score a spot at one of the top schools and are going for a $$$ profession.  Our plan is the latter, but if some circumstances happen where we are unable to even provide this, guess what?  Kids are going to have to figure it out like we did, we had zero help from anyone.  If I get ill and unable to work, then my kids are going to have to work.

Also the entire system of college education as "investment" is starting to fall apart at the seams as new grads are getting paid close to what they can make working service jobs and make even more in skilled labor jobs with no education debt.  In the next 5 years the landscape of higher education may be entirely different, so planning to cover all the bases isn't very realistic.

My prediction: 
Minority, not majority will be going to college. primarily the kids of those loaded enough to sponsor academic/art careers, or those tenacious kids working their a$$ off to get up the ladder and into the $$$$ professions,  jobs requiring grad school, etc.   Smart poor kids going into STEM that doesn't pay much but is needed for society to function will be heavily subsidized to make sure there is no shortage.  Employers will be adjusting their expectations and not requiring college degrees for the jobs that are not high paying enough and/or where self education opportunities exist and training can be on the job.  Online education will become standard. [/quote]

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