Delaying ER until Kids Complete College?

[TargaDave]

We are semi-ER with two DD's (12 and 18). The college money is in seperate buckets and there is enough there for in-state public schools. For out-of-state or any of the pricy privates they would need to contribute.

The 18 yr old (smart but wild) graduated a year early (her own doing), entered a top in-state university and then dropped out after 6 months to "find herself" only to discover how hard it is to live without M&D paying the bills. We still keep her on our health plan just in case and the bucket is still there though it is a tad smaller, and it won't be there indefinitely. Hopefully she is going back next fall. At least the younger one is not giving us a serious dose of heartache (yet) like the older one!

 

[JustNtime]

Hunh, that's odd, my spouse just wanted to know if my nuke bonus pay would continue to be sent to our joint checking account while the search & rescue guys were doing their thing...

Hmmm... I've always been suspicious of what those SAR guys were up to while you sub guys were down under.

I'm sure you reassured her, the pay folks are clueless and don't make adjustments for that sort of thing...

 

[Maurice]

If I were to wait until my son (age 5 months) were through college, it wouldn't be ER, it'd just be R. But I've already put the money away for his college, so I'm good.

 

[Independent]

Whether it's college, vocational school, helping a kid start a business....... whatever, it's just another expense to account for in determining your FIRE status. I think the real question is the change in flexibility caused by going FIRE while you still have dependents at home. If something changes (kid's health, plans, etc.) while you're still working, you still have the option to continue on (ugh!) if necessary. Once you walk out the door, at least for many of us, it might be difficult to undo the decision.

I didn't FIRE until I had the finances for my commitments (mainly a trust fund for a grandchild with special needs) locked up. I probably would have handled the commitment to help with the kid's college the same way although in my case I had my family early and was an empty nester at RE time.

This describes what we did.


However, I wonder if anyone has considered this approach? With a higher income and reasonably bright kids going to private schools, we didn't qualify for any measurable "needs based" aid. Suppose I had quit work before the first started college, and gone back to grad myself. The FIT that I wouldn't pay plus the big increase in college aid would have replaced more than half my salary. If I could have had a modest assistanceship on my own, I could have afforded a late-life career change.