Reply to Can we afford to retire now?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To the OP: while the consensus that you’re not ready to retire tomorrow is sound, please don’t let this board convince you that you need to wait 5 years! My advice would be to start tracking your expenses more closely for a year (I use Simplifi as an easy option with a good app) while continuing to save what’s comfortable on your great earnings. With a year of data, you may well find that you can retire or significantly scale back earnings in 1-2 years. Personally, my goal is 55 and ~$4m in today’s dollars plus a paid off house. But I know that works for us because I know what we spend to feel comfortable. [/quote]

Did you miss the part where she’s still paying for private HS and hasn’t paid for college yet?[/quote]

Yup!  the OP "Could retire now" but not with the private HS and college not fully funded yet.  Oh, and still owes over $600K on their house.  [b]Most planning to retire early have education taken care of (saved for) and own their home[/b] (or have the money set aside to pay it off and it's not part of their "retirement dollar amount").

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This is the ideal scenario which doesn't always work in reality.  In real life people in their 50s are not always growing their NW even if they keep working.  Some even lose their livelihood or at least have it vastly reduced by having to take on less enjoyable, more junior and less paying jobs. Investments don't always go up in real world because people invest into different things that don't always go up and some people take risks that don't pan out and they lose a lot.

It's possible and not infrequent that such families have to rethink the path for their kids when their college savings fall short and they find themselves in a situation unable to keep the stream of income they counted on (or maybe sometimes unwilling due to various reasons like failed marriage/divorce/health issues, etc).  People also sometimes downsize housing for economic reasons even if their kids aren't done with school yet or fully launched or whatever. Expecting this won't happen and NOT planning for exit plan with LESS is also not a very smart way to live.

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