1) How much income can you generate without it being a strain and where will it come from? If my only choice were Wal-Mart, I would keep wor,king my day job for a longer time. If i could figure out a small business taht I could run PT, or maybe work at a more worker-friendly employer (Costco, Starbucks, etc.), I might find it a lot more palatable.
Ok, send the 2 little kiddies out to sell some lemonade, they have to learn to be 9-5 ers. otherwise they will end up like my son who is 27 and still has to be supported by mom and dad even though he is halfway throught a masters.
2) Healthcare. This is the big unknown in pretty much every retiree's budget. With a family, you can't afford to "go naked", so you'd better have a good idea of what coverage you can get and what it will cost.
Depending on the state, look at the website of your state insurance dept/commission, they may have programs for people with little earned income. This can cosr up to 12k a year for a family plan.
3) College costs. This is up to you, but I plan on funding my kids' undergrad education. If they don't go to college, I am more than willing to fund trade school or help them set up a business. If you can figure this one out and maybe set aside a designated sum, it would be dealtt with and done.
Unless you have a genius or someone who is going into a high profile trade/profession, those who go to expensive schools do not do any better than those who go to local schools.
The proof of the pudding is where I work, we are all accountants/lawyers and some went to city college, very little tuition and some to full tuition college. There is no difference in promotions or success, all have to do with how the indivdual operates, the diploma is long forgotten.
The amount of success has more to do with how you perform, and then how you suck up.
this is the real world.
It does pay to go to Wharton if your son or daughter is working for a high profile firm. Not that Wharton is any better than Brooklyn College for 4K a year.
However if child wants to be a teacher, doctor or whatever where the school doesnt matter in the long run, than the cheapest will do just fine.
Think!, many doctors cut their teeth in very inexpensive out of country med schools, came back to the US, and still make a bundle.
Interesting when compared to financial people and lawyers, grrrr, who present that Harvard or Wharton diploma as though they know something more than someone who went to City U.
My BIL spent 100K of guilt money to send his daughter to out of state school in Indiana, and she ended up working for Macy's walking the floats in the thanksgiving parade.
My son DEMANDED that I send him to Boston University, I told him to lay out the fare at the bus terminal and I;ll reimburse him.
jug
