44 with kids at home

[Mileage]

Good day to everyone. I'm 44 (as is my wife). We have 5 children and are still managing 3 in the house, with the youngest being 5. We never really considered early retirement until very recently, and now we worry that we are too old to make any real headway towards doing so.

My main goals here are to try and figure out if this is possible and how we might be able to manage it at this point. Looking forward to the discussions.

 

[RobbieB]

Spend less than you make and invest.

 

[street]

Need to gather some numbers of what you have, get an accurate number on expenses. See what you have and set a goal for X years down the road of an age you can retire. Like Robbie said, need to start saving and investing as much as you can each day and spend less. Get some number and share them with us and you will get some great and honest advice for what you intend to do.
Good Luck!

 

[SevenUp]

What do you think of the suggestions in this Investment Order post? They will be generally applicable for most, but of course individual situations may differ.

 

[NgineER]

You've got time, depending on how much of your income goes to expenses, what your nut is to date and what you consider early.

Although I'm not a MMM follower, this post eloquently spells out ER vs. savings rate.

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/

 

[rodi]

Welcome Mileage!

I was about your age when I got super serious about retiring early. I had always contributed to my 401k... but I upped it from 10% to the max allowable. That took some budget adjustment. We also started making extra principal payments on the mortgage. Again, had to tighten our belts to achieve this.

By diverting funds into mortgage reduction and retirement savings we were forced to re-examine our budget - and found lots of little places to trim, painlessly. (Renegotiate cable, get a less expensive cell plan, cut as many monthly (recurring) subscriptions/costs as we could. ). It became a game. My coworkers teased me that I always brought my lunch to work - but I had the last laugh when I retired early.

The bonus of trimming our spending, was that meant we needed less for retirement spending. Because we'd learned to live comfortably on less money - so our retirement budget wasn't as big.

I retired at 52, concurrent with paying off our house. That was 8 years ago - our sons were 11 and 13 at the time. Their 529's were fully funded for public 4 years of school.

The key is to look at your spending and put as much as you can towards savings (retirement, regular, 529s, mortgage reduction, whatever.)

Welcome, and good luck!!!

 

[Love This Community]

Welcome aboard Mileage! Lots of friendly folks here with great knowledge. Feel free to ask questions.

 

[travelover]

Very big picture, you need to calculate your annual expenses in retirement projected to include inflation. Then, you need to accumulate about 25 times the annual spend (less pensions, SS, etc) and invest it in stocks and bonds at about a 50 /50 ratio.


There is endless quibbling about the fine points, but this is the big picture.

 

[badatmath]

Also check out the ACA cost of medical insurance for a family.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Welcome Mileage... lots of nibbling around the edges but the core is pretty simple: Figure out what you spend/reasonably expect to spend and from that you can determine statistically what total assets/allocation you will likely need to be successfully retired.


A [-]bit[/-] lot of psychology of money thrown in too that makes everyone's journey unique. These boards are a trove of great information, read back through, search questions you have (or ask them), and lurk and read. If there is a local meet up, go! This is by far one of the best corners of the internet out there!

 

[HI Bill]

At 44, it may or may not be too late. It depends on your current assets and debts, your projected spend, desired lifestyle in retirement, and especially, what you're willing/able to sacrifice now to spend later (deferred spending, aka, investing). In 14.4 years, you could double your current invested assets twice (assuming an average rate of return 7.2%)...according to the "Rule of 72". Even if you can't retire early, you can be well-prepared to retire by 60.

 

[SevenUp]

...you could double your current invested assets twice (assuming an average rate of return 7.2%)...according to the "Rule of 72"

...in 20 years. 72/7.2=10.

To double in 14.4 years requires a 10%/yr return per the Rule of 72.

 

[livingalmostlarge]

DH is 44 and I'm 43. He'll be 45 in December. We have 10 and 12 year olds in the house. FIRE at 50. Totally doable maybe even now if we would cut back but no. But seriously it's always possible. Maybe instead of FIRE it'll be downshift to working less then fully FIRE.

 

[pacergal]

Welcome to the forum, Mileage. Feel free to ask questions, the folks here are happy to answer.

Have you played around with Firecalc? How do your numbers look? what is your target for savings/spending?

Biggest thing is LBYM (live below your means--not spend every dime, save early, save often, but do allow for some fun along the way)
Know your monthly spend/budget.

We retired at 60, not real early by many here, but far earlier than we thought we could!