I'm mainly curious about parents and siblings running their own households. In my family, we pretty much NEVER talk about money in any specific detail. We talk about retirement and saving, but more in generalities.
I've recently started offering advice to my brother-in-law (at his request), and I have to admit, it feels kind of good. Funny how it started. I was at a concert with several family members including his 14yo daughter. I don't remember how it started, but I responded to someone's comment by saying something along the lines of "Every dollar you save in your 20's is worth 10 times as much as a dollar saved in your 50's".
I often wonder how my siblings families are doing. I've been an early retiree aspiree for years and my goal comes to fruition in a little less than two years when I turn 55. Assuming no major disruptions, DW and I should be very comfortable for the rest of our lives. I've talked about early retirement for years, but I'm not sure anyone else gets it as they don't generally ask many questions.
We grew up in one of the lower-end neighborhoods of our small city. Parents divorced when I was 9, and things never looked good from a financial perspective. Needless to say, I've come a long way from there.
I did have a brief exchange with my 78yo father a couple of weeks ago. I asked him why he didn't think I'd be retiring when I said I would. He said something about his investments and being able to afford certain things, and that he probably had a lot more than I did. I straight-up asked him how much he had invested. After some hem-hawing, he said "about $250,000". I said, "Dad, you don't have to worry about me. DW and I have multiple times that amount saved for retirement and will be just fine." I don't know if he believed me or not, but when it dawned on me that he thought $250K was a lot of money, I was kind of shell-shocked.
In a way, I guess it was a bit of validation of our LBYM lifestyle. We live in a relatively modest, middle-income home, and I still drive the 2001 F150 I bought brand new (and paid off in 3 years). I guess we don't look like we're "there". But yeah - we can do just about anything we'd want to; at least once!
I've recently started offering advice to my brother-in-law (at his request), and I have to admit, it feels kind of good. Funny how it started. I was at a concert with several family members including his 14yo daughter. I don't remember how it started, but I responded to someone's comment by saying something along the lines of "Every dollar you save in your 20's is worth 10 times as much as a dollar saved in your 50's".
I often wonder how my siblings families are doing. I've been an early retiree aspiree for years and my goal comes to fruition in a little less than two years when I turn 55. Assuming no major disruptions, DW and I should be very comfortable for the rest of our lives. I've talked about early retirement for years, but I'm not sure anyone else gets it as they don't generally ask many questions.
We grew up in one of the lower-end neighborhoods of our small city. Parents divorced when I was 9, and things never looked good from a financial perspective. Needless to say, I've come a long way from there.
I did have a brief exchange with my 78yo father a couple of weeks ago. I asked him why he didn't think I'd be retiring when I said I would. He said something about his investments and being able to afford certain things, and that he probably had a lot more than I did. I straight-up asked him how much he had invested. After some hem-hawing, he said "about $250,000". I said, "Dad, you don't have to worry about me. DW and I have multiple times that amount saved for retirement and will be just fine." I don't know if he believed me or not, but when it dawned on me that he thought $250K was a lot of money, I was kind of shell-shocked.
In a way, I guess it was a bit of validation of our LBYM lifestyle. We live in a relatively modest, middle-income home, and I still drive the 2001 F150 I bought brand new (and paid off in 3 years). I guess we don't look like we're "there". But yeah - we can do just about anything we'd want to; at least once!