Hey! It’s a pleasure to be here. I’ve been a long time lurker, and have learned a ton from you over the years, and excited to finally make an account here to get your input. Here’s a little bit about our situation and specifics:
Background:
Wife and I have both worked pretty normal jobs over the last 15 years, got married young, traveled and waited to have kids, had tons of fun, didn’t start investing seriously till about 5 to 6 years ago (except we always put something in the 401(k) for the match). Fast forward to now, we have a couple sweet kids, we both worked full-time, and my wife quit her job a few years back. I work remote in IT. The last two years we have realized that our time is short with our kids and we’d like an adventure. We are also interested in a more minimal and simple life (we’ve gotten rid of most our possessions). We also want to move closer to family so that I can take care of my mom whose mind/health is going bad. We have access to a nice family property out there where we plan to live in a tiny house on wheels. We should be able to stay as long as we want, but we dream of having our own place and build a little cabin. Hookups are all setup, it’s a sweet location near my family and right in the great outdoors. Our kids are excited and so are we! Feel free to ask any questions about the plans.
Personal and financial details:
Late 30s male, married with two children (under age 8)
No state income tax
About $700,000 in VTI in brokerage account
About $300,000 in the 401(k) all pretax, in a mixture of total international and US funds
About $150,000 in VTI in Roths
A little bit of cash and coins
No real estate
We have no debt
Income is around $200k tc (work remote, have nice starlink at family property)
We currently rent in a nice HCOL area and our annual spend is about $85k
We have some money set aside for helping girls start a business or go to college (not counted in our net worth)
Have term life insurance (plan to keep it for another 10 years maybe)
Two paid off cars, some other paid off small toys
Inheritance will be sizable, but not banking on it
So we are pretty close to 90% equities 10% cash/coins totaling $1.3m NW. This does not include the property and paid off tiny house or education funds.
Future plans:
We decided to downsize and so we built a tiny house on wheels (all paid for). It’s nice and has been a lot of work. Over the last couple years we rented a couple of tiny houses and got a feel of what we like and if it would work for us, and we are really happy. We plan to move in the spring of 2023 and it’s our dream to live on land, build a garden, and enjoy the slower life. I plan to work for another one to five years depending on how things go. we would like a more permanent house once the kids are a little bit older, but it doesn’t have to be fancy. We have the option to build on this property, potentially, but we may want our own. I’m pretty handy so I will probably do this in phases myself and get some help here and there. I like my current job, but I’ve always seen it as just a job and would like a different pace of life. The stress does get to me. We have some side hustle options. Really excited to focus on the family, getting healthy, learning new things, and staying active! Life is too short to continue the rat race for too much longer.
We will spend about $40,000/year living in the Tiny House
We won’t spend much in utilities, and this budget provides cushion for some unexpected things. Already researched our health benefits, won’t be a problem getting some on the exchange, especially once i stop working, for now my job has good benefits for all of us.
Questions:
-financially, how are we looking if I stopped working at some point? With inflation, it’s a little scary, but we plan for 3-3.5% withdrawal rate even with taxes, and I also plan to work for another couple years as needed. My goal is for my income the next couple years to pay for building a small permanent house
-any thoughts or questions on the plan?
Thanks for all your support, great to be here, and I’ll keep you posted!
Background:
Wife and I have both worked pretty normal jobs over the last 15 years, got married young, traveled and waited to have kids, had tons of fun, didn’t start investing seriously till about 5 to 6 years ago (except we always put something in the 401(k) for the match). Fast forward to now, we have a couple sweet kids, we both worked full-time, and my wife quit her job a few years back. I work remote in IT. The last two years we have realized that our time is short with our kids and we’d like an adventure. We are also interested in a more minimal and simple life (we’ve gotten rid of most our possessions). We also want to move closer to family so that I can take care of my mom whose mind/health is going bad. We have access to a nice family property out there where we plan to live in a tiny house on wheels. We should be able to stay as long as we want, but we dream of having our own place and build a little cabin. Hookups are all setup, it’s a sweet location near my family and right in the great outdoors. Our kids are excited and so are we! Feel free to ask any questions about the plans.
Personal and financial details:
Late 30s male, married with two children (under age 8)
No state income tax
About $700,000 in VTI in brokerage account
About $300,000 in the 401(k) all pretax, in a mixture of total international and US funds
About $150,000 in VTI in Roths
A little bit of cash and coins
No real estate
We have no debt
Income is around $200k tc (work remote, have nice starlink at family property)
We currently rent in a nice HCOL area and our annual spend is about $85k
We have some money set aside for helping girls start a business or go to college (not counted in our net worth)
Have term life insurance (plan to keep it for another 10 years maybe)
Two paid off cars, some other paid off small toys
Inheritance will be sizable, but not banking on it
So we are pretty close to 90% equities 10% cash/coins totaling $1.3m NW. This does not include the property and paid off tiny house or education funds.
Future plans:
We decided to downsize and so we built a tiny house on wheels (all paid for). It’s nice and has been a lot of work. Over the last couple years we rented a couple of tiny houses and got a feel of what we like and if it would work for us, and we are really happy. We plan to move in the spring of 2023 and it’s our dream to live on land, build a garden, and enjoy the slower life. I plan to work for another one to five years depending on how things go. we would like a more permanent house once the kids are a little bit older, but it doesn’t have to be fancy. We have the option to build on this property, potentially, but we may want our own. I’m pretty handy so I will probably do this in phases myself and get some help here and there. I like my current job, but I’ve always seen it as just a job and would like a different pace of life. The stress does get to me. We have some side hustle options. Really excited to focus on the family, getting healthy, learning new things, and staying active! Life is too short to continue the rat race for too much longer.
We will spend about $40,000/year living in the Tiny House
We won’t spend much in utilities, and this budget provides cushion for some unexpected things. Already researched our health benefits, won’t be a problem getting some on the exchange, especially once i stop working, for now my job has good benefits for all of us.
Questions:
-financially, how are we looking if I stopped working at some point? With inflation, it’s a little scary, but we plan for 3-3.5% withdrawal rate even with taxes, and I also plan to work for another couple years as needed. My goal is for my income the next couple years to pay for building a small permanent house
-any thoughts or questions on the plan?
Thanks for all your support, great to be here, and I’ll keep you posted!