Nuts - going back to work

[Rustic23]

40 yrs old, three kids one less than a yr old, and 2M if reserves. Yea, you could most likely make it, however, at 40 you are in your prime earning years. I think you are doing the right thing. Take the 250, save for the 5 years and re-evaluate your position. Even waiting 10 years would not be out of the question. Your youngest 10, oldest in college and two to go. You would be about to get those large expenses out of the way. Retiring at 50 still gives you plenty of time to do just about anything you want. Only real question for me would be the stress induced by work, and only you and your wife can answer that.

[Finance Dave]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 73ss454 I always thougt that you work to get enough $ so you don't have to. I must be missing something! 2M not enough, I should be really worried because I did it with a lot less than that.

But he does have 3 young children and he's only 40. Everyone's situation is different. He probably could stay retired if he wanted to move into a $125k house and stop eating steak out...but he may have that lifestyle today and not want to move downwards from it.

Although I don't make nearly that much money, I'm kinda the same way. I have a few expensive hobbies and would rather work a few extra years so I can continue with them.

[willowbeezer]

thanks for everyone's perspective...

Life is a set of tradeoffs and hopefully, i can find the right balance between work/financial security and family. Its nice to know that I can make it with a downsized job working part-time. Just knowing that will make my work life much better as I will no longer feel compelled to push myself to exhaustion climbing the corporate ladder. I'll target 5 years and will assess then if work is still rewarding.

As for us, my wife works part time and combined we have recently pulled in quite a nice income. Although we live in a relatively affluent suburb, we own a McStarterhome, I drive a 12yr old vehicle, don't eat out much, modest vacations.

Even though we live well below our means and try not to keep up with the Jones, its remarkable how much we still spend in the Chicago Suburbs. High property taxes, utilities, extracurricular activities for the kids, etc.... it all adds up.

I am happy that others on this board can make it work for them on say $60k/year!

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by willowbeezer I am happy that others on this board can make it work for them on say $60k/year!

Just call it a miracle.

Ha

[sailor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha Just call it a miracle. Ha

When you wrote this, it reminded me of Mel Brooks (like in History of the World, Part I - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )
But to me it's not a miracle and I know plenty of families living on less.
As a discussion fodder I can attach YTD Quicken report of our expenses & budget.
It's almost end of the 3rd quarter and our expenses so far been 45k, making our yearly expenses very close to 60k