Hey there,
I also am in a similar age range, 25, with the same goal, retiring in my early 40s. I also started getting serious about researching and mapping out a long term investing and work strategy around 20. So I am very similar to you, but just a few years further along.
I also work in a technical field, I am an electrical engineer, patent agent, and expect to soon be a patent attorney.
I think you are off to a good start, you seem to have a strong grasp of a lot of the basics needed in order to lay out a detailed long term plan investment plan, and you seem to have decided on how you will earn the necessary income in a way that will make you happy. You also have found a good partner in life, which I hope to do myself at some point.
I think you should look up something called the "Generation-X Retirement Calculator", I think that will give you a quick idea of how inflation is going to affect your plans. I found it very useful, it accounts for inflation, taxes, and the effects of an aggressive savings strategy. I plugged your numbers in, and your numbers do account for inflation, for the most part. I think your salary increases expected is a little too conservative, it should at least match inflation (I plugged this in as 3.5%). Also, your investment returns are fine, plug in an average of 7 or 8%, which is before taxes, and that should be conservative enough.
The remaining two big considerations are having a paid off house by the time you retire, and having enough excess income to pay for private health insurance, which I would say needs to be about at least $10k/year (+ inflation adjustments for each year). The only way you are going to be able to easily afford that, and perhaps some unexpected increases, is to have your house paid off by the time you retire. So, that will require a house you can pay off in about 20 years, so most likely, no more than a $250k house, at the largest, or, you can get a more expensive house (e.g. if you live in California where 250k is impossible), and then downgrade to the equivalent of whatever a 250k in that times inflation adjusted dollars.
Students loan interest is tax deductible, by the way, under a certain income limit, and you are easily under the income limit. I don't recommend paying them off quickly.
All of that should be pretty feasible, the biggest problem is go to be lifestyle creep, or if stuff happens, which it may. Your plan doesn't allow for much lifestyle creep. I am certainly hoping stuff doesn't happen to my plan either...but it is inevitable some adjustments will have to be made (e.g., the next 10 years are as bad as the last 10 years). Keep working on ways to improve your income, I think that will be your best bet for providing a little more breathing room in your plan. I think, if nothing else, your wife has a lot of income growth potential still to realize.
I also am in a similar age range, 25, with the same goal, retiring in my early 40s. I also started getting serious about researching and mapping out a long term investing and work strategy around 20. So I am very similar to you, but just a few years further along.
I also work in a technical field, I am an electrical engineer, patent agent, and expect to soon be a patent attorney.
I think you are off to a good start, you seem to have a strong grasp of a lot of the basics needed in order to lay out a detailed long term plan investment plan, and you seem to have decided on how you will earn the necessary income in a way that will make you happy. You also have found a good partner in life, which I hope to do myself at some point.
I think you should look up something called the "Generation-X Retirement Calculator", I think that will give you a quick idea of how inflation is going to affect your plans. I found it very useful, it accounts for inflation, taxes, and the effects of an aggressive savings strategy. I plugged your numbers in, and your numbers do account for inflation, for the most part. I think your salary increases expected is a little too conservative, it should at least match inflation (I plugged this in as 3.5%). Also, your investment returns are fine, plug in an average of 7 or 8%, which is before taxes, and that should be conservative enough.
The remaining two big considerations are having a paid off house by the time you retire, and having enough excess income to pay for private health insurance, which I would say needs to be about at least $10k/year (+ inflation adjustments for each year). The only way you are going to be able to easily afford that, and perhaps some unexpected increases, is to have your house paid off by the time you retire. So, that will require a house you can pay off in about 20 years, so most likely, no more than a $250k house, at the largest, or, you can get a more expensive house (e.g. if you live in California where 250k is impossible), and then downgrade to the equivalent of whatever a 250k in that times inflation adjusted dollars.
Students loan interest is tax deductible, by the way, under a certain income limit, and you are easily under the income limit. I don't recommend paying them off quickly.
All of that should be pretty feasible, the biggest problem is go to be lifestyle creep, or if stuff happens, which it may. Your plan doesn't allow for much lifestyle creep. I am certainly hoping stuff doesn't happen to my plan either...but it is inevitable some adjustments will have to be made (e.g., the next 10 years are as bad as the last 10 years). Keep working on ways to improve your income, I think that will be your best bet for providing a little more breathing room in your plan. I think, if nothing else, your wife has a lot of income growth potential still to realize.
