39 in NYC - VERY glad to find this place

[Gekko]

Question for you - why bother with life insurance? I have long term disability insurance and an umbrella liability policy, but not life insurance. I don't really need it with no kids and enough in the bank for my wife's FI. (I may have some token amount provided by MegaBank but nothing I pay for)

Thanks for the response. We have a lot of life insurance on me because we are a single income family - my wife could never generate anything remotely close to my income on her own. Also, though we are +$1mm liquid at this point, much our NW is in r.e., including our home and she does not want to have to sell. Also, much of the life insurance is fairly cheap, so its a why not sort of thing. In order for wife to generate anything similar to our present income for the rest of her life, she'll need $3-$4mm liquid assets.

And we have some life insurance on her because, if anything happened to her, I want total flexibility (to continue working or RE). Of course, we revisit both the insurance and the estate plan every couple of years. We have trusts set up for certain family members, both for tax reasons, and for control reasons. Again, appreciate your input, as we are getting ready to make some radical changes to the estate plan. We also have substantial long term disability and umbrella liability policies.

Funny thing, too much money can be a very destructive thing. Our estate would be large enough to make small-time lotto winners out of a handful of people. Is that a good thing? I think we've pretty much decided that it is not. We're not planning on buying the farm anytime soon, but if it were to happen, we want to make things as easy as possible for people to figure out. We also don't want a lot of infighting over our assets - again fighting over money has the potential to destroy families.

 

[Maurice]

That makes sense.

The good (?) news about my situation is if I die tomorrow, my 1.4MM concentrated position is unlocked - its already fully vested, just in lockup. My wife would then have 2.9MM liquid with a mortgage or 2.45MM without. Using the 4% rule, thats 116k a year with mortgage or 96k without, less than our current spend but definitely more than she would spend on her own (she's incredibly frugal). On top of that, she's still working, although she may quit soon.

Re estate planning, I would also worry about infighting, especially since DWs family lacks both pot and window, as the saying goes, and one of my two siblings lives paycheck to paycheck and has had (and may still have) problems with debt. That's one of the reasons I have a will and have had one since my net worth surpassed half a buck or so.


I should also add, as a guy with no kids, having a few nieces and nephews that know you have a tidy sum in the bank ain't a bad thing as we grow older

 

[Gekko]

That makes sense.

The good (?) news about my situation is if I die tomorrow, my 1.4MM concentrated position is unlocked - its already fully vested, just in lockup. My wife would then have 2.9MM liquid with a mortgage or 2.45MM without. Using the 4% rule, thats 116k a year with mortgage or 96k without, less than our current spend but definitely more than she would spend on her own (she's incredibly frugal). On top of that, she's still working, although she may quit soon.

Re estate planning, I would also worry about infighting, especially since DWs family lacks both pot and window, as the saying goes, and one of my two siblings lives paycheck to paycheck and has had (and may still have) problems with debt. That's one of the reasons I have a will and have had one since my net worth surpassed half a buck or so.


I should also add, as a guy with no kids, having a few nieces and nephews that know you have a tidy sum in the bank ain't a bad thing as we grow older

To your point on reduced spend, I think one of the challenges in general for us is figuring out what our FIRE spend would be. For now, I'm assuming wife would want to replace our income - I'd hate to think of her greiving and having to worry about money at the same time. Also, my extended family situation is similar to yours - nobody else has anywhere near our assets, most are hand-to-mouth, though wife's retired 70-something parents are supposedly north of $1mm NW. Her siblings are not so productive and I see how BIL's are expecting a small windfall from their parents and it makes me kinda queasy.

Re young neices and nephews, you bet it'll be good to keep em around - which is why I'll likely be contributing a good chunk of their college educations.