take care of health now!
You don't need to wait till you retire to take care of your health! That's very important. So you have a son half way through college and another wanting a 2nd BS degree?
We have 2 kids we put through college. We started saving $750 a month when they were in junior high after meeting with a CFP and were able to fund their 5 year degrees at a state college 9 hours away from home. We made good money (together) and so it worked. It was a great relief to get them both off our payroll at the end of the 5 year period, however. Our daughter got her BS in Nursing (she worked hard and got good grades and worked part time for spending money). Our son got his BS in Accounting and managed to get his MS in Accounting as well during his 5th year. So, for us, it was 5 years. Our daughter had to get into the nursing program within the college first which delayed her 1 semester.
A friend of my husband used to say (he and his wife raised 4 kids) you either pay now or you pay later. I often thought of that since I didn't want 30 something year olds struggling to make ends meet. Both our kids make over $100k now and are just turning 29 and 30 this fall. Hallelujah! They are fully launched.
As for us, I never got a 4 year degree and paid for every nickel of my 2 year degree (parents couldn't help). My husband got his engineering degree during the first 2 1/2 years of our marriage as I worked and he went to school full time (Electrical Engineering is no joke). He did work one summer at the blackjack table in Reno between semesters. He had a blast and made some good $$. He graduated at age 29.
So, back to our philosophy. Since things went very well for us after my husband got his Engineering degree, we decided we wanted to fund our kids' degrees. They worked every summer starting with first year in high school and saved up to pay for half of their first car. They always had skin in the game. We also told them if their grades were below Bs while in college, it would be game over. We would stop paying and bring them home. They both also had to maintain certain GPAs for their majors so that helped also.
I think most of us parents want more for our kids than we had. But, with that said, kids need to partner with you to help out with expenses. YOU do need to address your health problems right away. There's stress classes with the HMOs and yoga and counseling through your health care provider that's just a co-pay away. There's even EAP (free through your work at most large companies). I went to one of those counselors once when I had a run in with my boss. It was WONDERFUL. 3 free visits for each topic. So many topics like the one you are wrestling with or work stress etc.
It sounds like you didn't plan for the costs that were involved for some reason with regards to college for your kids or maybe your oldest threw a curve ball with his wanting a 2nd BS degree. My husband retired a year ago (1 year EARLIER than the original plan) because we ran the numbers and figured out it was worth it for him to leave his very stressful job than to grind away another year for another $300 a month. Life is too short! So he did retire and then lost 25 lbs while starting a lot of athletic activities. He LOVES his new life. I'm so glad we decided he could retire.
Also, on another note, is your nest egg really big like in your 401k? If so, you can withdraw while you are working since you are over 59 1/2. The tax law is more favorable (federal) and we are all in lower brackets than 2017. As a result, we are now paying off our house by the end of 2018.
So, there's a lot of variables that might make it all do-able. You may be able to retire AND help w/ college. It sounds like you have raised some awesome sons!
Sometimes my husband is tight w/ money even though we are sitting pretty financially. And he acts like we can't afford things that we certainly can. I guess it's from years of watching our dollars and dimes and nickels. Sorry for the long post. We all want you to be healthy so that you can enjoy a well deserved retirement.
