Hi! Some sudden math and I'm back into the FIRE mindset

[module4330]

Hi all! I'm Module.

I am a 37 year old father who has been dreaming of FIRE for at least the past 10 years. However, when my child was born, my wife got a series of complicated autoimmune conditions. Between the medical expenses and the increasing cost of parenting, I kind of tried to give up on FIRE in my heart since I didn't think it was all that possible. I've been sitting at what's essentially "CoastFIRE" and working on coping with the medical issues in the family while holding down a job and watching the retirement numbers go up. I figured that it's always hard to predict expenses with complex medical situations.

However, two things have changed since then:
1. I've got a second child on the way, due in about a month's time. My feelings about needing to get away from work to help and do more parenting alongside my sick wife have loomed larger.
2. I logged into my company's stock portal. I realized that I'm getting what I'd consider an astonishing amount of value in RSUs and stock in the next year. Long story short, I work for a tech company and the AI bubble is currently working in my favor.

The amount of stock coming my way is, before taxes, about 60% of my retirement account value over the next 4 years. Needless to say this kicked my mind into gear and made me realize that maybe retirement is possible in the short-term. Before this, my spreadsheet calculations have usually had me sitting 6-10 years from retirement depending on what my calculations are on SWR, market returns, how I calculate my retirement expenses, etc.

Depending on how the stock prices go and if I do short-term or long-term sales, and what my expenses end up being, I could potentially retire in 2032 or 2031. It bums me out on that one is that is pretty much the exact time both my kids will start elementary school and the maximum benefit of being retired early starts to fade.

Fund type	Amount
401K	~$555,000
Roth IRAs	~$345,000
Post-tax index funds	~$500,000
Kids' funds, both 529 plan and post-tax index funds	~$42,000
HSA	~$24,000
Possible stock windfall across the next four years, untaxed	~$920,000

I'm expecting to need/want about $130k (including planning for about a 10% tax rate) after retirement. This includes a fairly aggressive budget for medical, home repairs and travel and it might be too high for most folks. I'm planning on doing a fairly traditional Glidepath with a planned SWR of 3.75%.

Some of the looming questions and anecdotes that inspired me to come here and start reading are:
1. When you have school-aged kids, how hard is it to travel? We were planning on increasing our travel budget dramatically when I'm not working but it both seems hard to travel with young kids and school-aged kids.
2. Does anyone have anecdotes of early retirement with serious medical problems or autoimmune conditions? My wife's condition really does control more of our life decisions than we'd like.
3. I'm currently calculating that our cost of living will be higher in retirement. The short of why is that I will be paying for state college for two kids, aspiring to travel a lot more, and catching up on home repairs. It's just so hard to know what I'll need. My retirement spending spreadsheet currently has a weird bump above my SWR during the children's college years.
4. I am trying to figure out how to sell my stock in the best way for me. I've never felt comfortable holding tons of stock in my employer. As the prices are skyrocketing, I have to weigh the benefits of waiting to sell for long term capital gains vs. selling quickly to lock in the price.
5. I think that I will have to figure out a backdoor Roth IRA since I'll be exceeding the limit in the short-term because of these massive stock sell-offs. Of course, I already contributed half a year of Roth IRA before I realized this. I'm currently feeling intimidated by this and feeling the need to talk with an accountant.

Any thoughts from you folks on this? This has been a mental challenge for me because I had been mentally filing FIRE as a pipe dream and not a possible reality.

Thanks, all! I'll probably mostly be lurking but I'd love to chat, too.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I'm not in a position to address your questions, but welcome to E-R!

 

[RetiredHappy]

1. There are people who pull their kids out of school to travel. I simply don't recommend it because my upbringing has instilled into me that formal education takes priority over everything else.

2. I have serious autoimmune conditions but with medications, I live a full life and all my test numbers are better than most healthy young adults. One doctor commented that I am very healthy to be taking so many medications. She got that wrong, I am healthy because I am on so many medications. My out-of-pocket costs are definitely higher than the average person because of doctor visits, lab work and medications. I travel 3 months year in retirement.

Cannot comment on (3), (4) and (5).

 

[module4330]

1. There are people who pull their kids out of school to travel. I simply don't recommend it because my upbringing has instilled into me that formal education takes priority over everything else.

2. I have serious autoimmune conditions but with medications, I live a full life and all my test numbers are better than most healthy young adults. One doctor commented that I am very healthy to be taking so many medications. She got that wrong, I am healthy because I am on so many medications. My out-of-pocket costs are definitely higher than the average person because of doctor visits, lab work and medications. I travel 3 months year in retirement.

Cannot comment on (3), (4) and (5).

I have no intention to interrupt school/learning for travel, which would mean squeezing all travel into the seasonal breaks, I think. I suppose that how viable that is depends on if my kids will want to spent those breaks with friends or traveling.

Before the pregnancy, my wife's conditions were mostly managed by medication but with every pregnancy the autoimmune situation can really change. She wasn't anything like before the conditions surfaced, but life was at least liveable.

 

[livingalmostlarge]

I think you won't make enough by 2032 to do it. Not at $130k.

That being said I found it easy to travel with kids through middle school pulling them out. But now in high school I get hard push back. And now they don't want to travel all summer they want to hang out with friends. First summer they want to stay at home all summer. So life changes.

And kids only get more expensive as they get older not just in college. Remember all the travel x 4. Food. We do two hotel rooms now. Four airline tickets, and mileage tickets are a joke. You will never find four mileage ticket savers like the bloggers say midweek in October. You will never be able to mimic a travel blogger. Cheaper yes but you will want non stop and not red eye flights and better times with kids. And hotels you won't get free nights but rather paying weekend premiums.

How do kids get more expensive? Sports, Dr, extracurriculars, braces, clothes, driving, etc. I can't explain it but I swear it's more.

 

[RetiredHappy]

OP has about $2.3M, not including the small amount in kids fund and HSA. To get to $3.5M in 6 years, with contributions and stock market co-operation, it is possible to get there. If stock market grows at 7 percent compounded, the $2.3M can grow to $3.5M without additional contributions to provide for $130K withdrawal at 3.75%. But realistically, we should not count on the bull run to continue in a linear fashion. So between 6 more years of contributions and growth, OP may get there.

 

[module4330]

I think you won't make enough by 2032 to do it. Not at $130k.

That being said I found it easy to travel with kids through middle school pulling them out. But now in high school I get hard push back. And now they don't want to travel all summer they want to hang out with friends. First summer they want to stay at home all summer. So life changes.

And kids only get more expensive as they get older not just in college. Remember all the travel x 4. Food. We do two hotel rooms now. Four airline tickets, and mileage tickets are a joke. You will never find four mileage ticket savers like the bloggers say midweek in October. You will never be able to mimic a travel blogger. Cheaper yes but you will want non stop and not red eye flights and better times with kids. And hotels you won't get free nights but rather paying weekend premiums.

How do kids get more expensive? Sports, Dr, extracurriculars, braces, clothes, driving, etc. I can't explain it but I swear it's more.

The reasoning behind me believing that this could happen is that I currently make about more than 130k and am saving approximately 80k a year. Between that $80k/year I usually save, getting about $230k from stocks each year, and then a possible market return of about 12%, I can end up with 3.7m after four years.

Obviously this is doubly market-dependent. I need my employer's stock to do well and then I need to get good market returns up until I retire.

 

[Koolau]

I suggest you run FIRECalc

FIRECalc: A different kind of retirement calculator

www.firecalc.com

You can do a fair amount of modeling with it.

 

[DrRoy]

On #1, we virtually never travel when kids are out of school. Sometimes kids are disruptive, but mainly that is when travel locations are the most crowded, and that detracts from our experience. I'm not even counting the issues of dealing with your own kids that would be with you. It is harder and less pleasant to travel when kids are out of school.

 

[SecretlyFI]

Be sure you thoroughly research health insurance options and health care expenses. If you retire in 2032 you’ll need insurance for 20+ years before medicare eligibility. Considering your wife’s known health issues and anything can happen with yourself and 2 kids, you want to really make sure you’re all protected. Look closely at ACA - plans, premiums, deductibles, co-insurance, rx, out of pocket max, and understand it can all change alot in 20 years. Also understand if there’s any network limitations. For instance, in my state, none of the ACA plans have any out of network coverage, except in emergencies. The network is quite broad and includes all my doctors, but there are some areas that are notorious for most providers being out of network (psychologists come to mind, for example). So you need to feel comfortable that you can provide any care that’s needed for your family, without hesitation. Also have a plan for where your sources of income will come from and what your MAGI will be, since that will determine subsidy eligibility. And that can mean the difference of monthly premiums of $200 vs $2500.

 

[Koolau]

Apparently, plans are so different state to state that it could literally be worth moving states to get the coverage/price you need. If one were to accomplish such a move AND reap (for instance) an overall lower cost of living, a state move might be even more attractive.

I don't think the concept of moving states for retirement is that wild. We have members here who moved countries to seek "something." Sometimes it was overall lower costs but it could be for health care costs alone.

Just thinking out loud (again). YMMV

 

[module4330]

Be sure you thoroughly research health insurance options and health care expenses. If you retire in 2032 you’ll need insurance for 20+ years before medicare eligibility. Considering your wife’s known health issues and anything can happen with yourself and 2 kids, you want to really make sure you’re all protected. Look closely at ACA - plans, premiums, deductibles, co-insurance, rx, out of pocket max, and understand it can all change alot in 20 years. Also understand if there’s any network limitations. For instance, in my state, none of the ACA plans have any out of network coverage, except in emergencies. The network is quite broad and includes all my doctors, but there are some areas that are notorious for most providers being out of network (psychologists come to mind, for example). So you need to feel comfortable that you can provide any care that’s needed for your family, without hesitation. Also have a plan for where your sources of income will come from and what your MAGI will be, since that will determine subsidy eligibility. And that can mean the difference of monthly premiums of $200 vs $2500.

You're right that I probably haven't done enough research in this area. My current post-retirement budget has me paying for a family-sized platinum insurance plan and then has me hitting the maximum out of pocket as a place-holder/test. I managed to find something that uses the same insurance company that I use at work now so I was hoping it was comparable.

 

[module4330]

Apparently, plans are so different state to state that it could literally be worth moving states to get the coverage/price you need. If one were to accomplish such a move AND reap (for instance) an overall lower cost of living, a state move might be even more attractive.

I don't think the concept of moving states for retirement is that wild. We have members here who moved countries to seek "something." Sometimes it was overall lower costs but it could be for health care costs alone.

Just thinking out loud (again). YMMV

For now, we're locked in to where we live because that's where the grandparents are. Do you know which states are considered the good ones for ACA plans these days?

With my wife's conditions, she seems to do better in mild climates and at sea level, but the places that have those things tend not to be the cheapest places either...

 

[module4330]

I suggest you run FIRECalc

FIRECalc: A different kind of retirement calculator

www.firecalc.com

You can do a fair amount of modeling with it.

I've done a bit of FIRECalc. I found it a bit easier to map out a budget that changes year to year with a spreadsheet. I've got inflation and a variable budget (to account for college and the like) but my spreadsheet doesn't have monte carlo simulations which is an obvious downside.

I will see if I can better model my situation in the advanced tabs of FIRECalc.

 

[FIYes]

One blog that you might want to check out is Root Of Good. He used to post here on ER. Sorry, I forget his name. He retired early with young children.

 

[module4330]

One blog that you might want to check out is Root Of Good. He used to post here on ER. Sorry, I forget his name. He retired early with young children.

I will take a look. It seems that the site's anti-bot scraper decided I was a bot and banned me so I have to view it from the Wayback machine.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

He was on Reddit but he hasn't posted in 4 years.

https://www.reddit.com/user/rootofgoodblog/comments/

 

[SnowballCamper]

1. When you have school-aged kids, how hard is it to travel? We were planning on increasing our travel budget dramatically when I'm not working but it both seems hard to travel with young kids and school-aged kids.
2. Does anyone have anecdotes of early retirement with serious medical problems or autoimmune conditions? My wife's condition really does control more of our life decisions than we'd like.
3. I'm currently calculating that our cost of living will be higher in retirement. The short of why is that I will be paying for state college for two kids, aspiring to travel a lot more, and catching up on home repairs. It's just so hard to know what I'll need. My retirement spending spreadsheet currently has a weird bump above my SWR during the children's college years.
4. I am trying to figure out how to sell my stock in the best way for me. I've never felt comfortable holding tons of stock in my employer. As the prices are skyrocketing, I have to weigh the benefits of waiting to sell for long term capital gains vs. selling quickly to lock in the price.
5. I think that I will have to figure out a backdoor Roth IRA since I'll be exceeding the limit in the short-term because of these massive stock sell-offs. Of course, I already contributed half a year of Roth IRA before I realized this. I'm currently feeling intimidated by this and feeling the need to talk with an accountant.

Any thoughts from you folks on this? This has been a mental challenge for me because I had been mentally filing FIRE as a pipe dream and not a possible reality.

Thanks, all! I'll probably mostly be lurking but I'd love to chat, too.

1. It's much harder than when they're grown, and you're stuck in peak season if you keep them in school. We didn't pull our kid from school to travel, but obviously some people do that. We did a lot of camping.
2. Have you looked into an ABLE account? We're lucky to not qualify, but it seems like a good idea for those who do.
3. I've discovered that state school is very reasonable for tuition with room & board about double tuition costs. There is no limit to 529 contributions. Communicate to the kids what you have contributed to their education in the 529 account early on as they develop their expectations for college. I would separate college funding and the 529 from retirement fund planning to avoid the bump from college.
4. I would definitely hold until the LTCG rate applies. Unless you know something the public doesn't know....

Best wishes on your journey!

 

[livingalmostlarge]

You're right that I probably haven't done enough research in this area. My current post-retirement budget has me paying for a family-sized platinum insurance plan and then has me hitting the maximum out of pocket as a place-holder/test. I managed to find something that uses the same insurance company that I use at work now so I was hoping it was comparable.

So for me we're still on employer provided healthcare and finally switched to a hdhp and i can't figure it out. It doesn't seem to be working for us. we have a lot of "non"covered insurance stuff from prescriptions and everything. It really sucks. Our medical bills without insurance would be up the wazoo. I've mentioned my younger had $20k a month scripts. That's not why we are working, DH wants to work, but it is nice to be covered by an employer plan and not sweat it. It's also why with a lot of our personal medical stuff we just OOP and have a very, very large cushion.

When we were looking at FIRE 10 years ago more "lean" around $3-5m i was very nervous about the medical aspect for my two kiddos with lots of medical. Now one kid is better, one kid still has autoimmune stuff, and DH has stuff, and so do I. So without the ACA we would have been uninsurable. Preexisting conditions would have killed us.

Now we have enough to cover all possibilities and here we are still working. I figure now we can afford concierge medicine when we retire.

 

[module4330]

FireCalc update: I don't see a way to set up a Glidepath or a more dynamic portfolio. I do get at 2032 retirement at 96% and a 2031 retirement at 93% success. 93% feels a bit low but we all end up pretty risk-averse in retirement, don't we?

1. It's much harder than when they're grown, and you're stuck in peak season if you keep them in school. We didn't pull our kid from school to travel, but obviously some people do that. We did a lot of camping.
2. Have you looked into an ABLE account? We're lucky to not qualify, but it seems like a good idea for those who do.
3. I've discovered that state school is very reasonable for tuition with room & board about double tuition costs. There is no limit to 529 contributions. Communicate to the kids what you have contributed to their education in the 529 account early on as they develop their expectations for college. I would separate college funding and the 529 from retirement fund planning to avoid the bump from college.
4. I would definitely hold until the LTCG rate applies. Unless you know something the public doesn't know....

Best wishes on your journey!

This is the first I've heard of ABLE accounts. We're currently going through the paperwork to try and file for disability officially. We may have to wait for that to complete, hopefully successfully) to use this account. I will investigate. Thanks!

So for me we're still on employer provided healthcare and finally switched to a hdhp and i can't figure it out. It doesn't seem to be working for us. we have a lot of "non"covered insurance stuff from prescriptions and everything. It really sucks. Our medical bills without insurance would be up the wazoo. I've mentioned my younger had $20k a month scripts. That's not why we are working, DH wants to work, but it is nice to be covered by an employer plan and not sweat it. It's also why with a lot of our personal medical stuff we just OOP and have a very, very large cushion.

When we were looking at FIRE 10 years ago more "lean" around $3-5m i was very nervous about the medical aspect for my two kiddos with lots of medical. Now one kid is better, one kid still has autoimmune stuff, and DH has stuff, and so do I. So without the ACA we would have been uninsurable. Preexisting conditions would have killed us.

Now we have enough to cover all possibilities and here we are still working. I figure now we can afford concierge medicine when we retire.

I will have to do some detailed prescription comparisons then. Thanks. This is the sort of stuff that's pretty hard to plan for since the insurance can change over the next 4 years so much.
@livingalmostlarge, have you had luck negotiating lower costs when you're paying out of pocket? I am currently on a HDHP but it's shockingly high quality because my employer is fairly large. I haven't really had to deal with the shocks of a poor insurance plan.

I bundled this all into one message since I seem to have hit the maximum messages in a 24 hour period. That's a rough limit! I guess I gotta save my words and use them up all at once.

 

[livingalmostlarge]

I don't know i haven't bothered to try. I just pay and it might not matter. After all we are going to likely switch back to the PPO next year. The HDHP is annoying.

ABLE accounts have a limit of $100k. You may want to look into a SNT as well.

That seems good enough for 93% success. I'm surprised it ends up that way. I guess the other issue is inflation.

 

[pjigar]

First of all "Don't count your chickens before they hatch". Second of all, please read this post if you haven't already:

Some Important Questions to Answer Before Asking - Can I Retire?

1. What are your expenses? No, your real expenses that you have tracked carefully over a period of at least two years, not some rough estimate that you just pulled out of thin air. If you don't know where your spending flow goes now, you've got no business turning off the income flow. 2. Are...

www.early-retirement.org

1. Two words: Very expensive. Try looking up prices for travel during summer break and winter break. You will be shocked.
2. If you can control you MAGI and get ACA then healthcare costs will be high but manageable. If ACA were to go away or you don't qualify for subsidies then healthcare can get VERY expensive. Get real quotes with different ages e.g. 40, 50, 60 (premiums get really expensive as you age). Health Insurance Marketplace Calculator | KFF
3. Projecting future expenses is especially hard since the inflation for travel, education, healthcare, etc. tend to run a lot hotter compared to the other expenses. Track your current expenses for a few years and use appropriate multiplier for the high inflation categories. e.g. we use 2x multiplier for travel, etc. Also don't forget to include lumpy expenses like cars, HVAC, roof, etc. in your expense projection.
4. No good answer. If you wait then that that chicken may not even hatch! If you sell RSU at vesting then a bigger tax bill.
5. Backdoor Roth IRA is easy, just keep $0 balance in your traditional IRA to keep things simple. Check with your 401(k) plan if they allow after-tax contributions and in-service withdrawals/conversions. If they do then you have access to mega-backdoor Roth contributions as well. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4488493-mega-backdoor-roth

Having said all that, don't get ahead of yourself. Control and track your expenses. Judiciously save and invest for now. Smell the roses. Reassess everything in 5 years.

I ran a quick FireCalc with 2.5M portfolio balance (assuming all your RSU vest and match market returns), $130K annual spending, $60K annual contributions and 2032 retirement date. I got 100% success rate.
Link to this set of data

Run FireCalc again after your RSUs vest and you have a clearer picture on your future expenses. Good luck.

 

[module4330]

First of all "Don't count your chickens before they hatch". Second of all, please read this post if you haven't already:

Some Important Questions to Answer Before Asking - Can I Retire?

1. What are your expenses? No, your real expenses that you have tracked carefully over a period of at least two years, not some rough estimate that you just pulled out of thin air. If you don't know where your spending flow goes now, you've got no business turning off the income flow. 2. Are...

www.early-retirement.org

1. Two words: Very expensive. Try looking up prices for travel during summer break and winter break. You will be shocked.
2. If you can control you MAGI and get ACA then healthcare costs will be high but manageable. If ACA were to go away or you don't qualify for subsidies then healthcare can get VERY expensive. Get real quotes with different ages e.g. 40, 50, 60 (premiums get really expensive as you age). Health Insurance Marketplace Calculator | KFF
3. Projecting future expenses is especially hard since the inflation for travel, education, healthcare, etc. tend to run a lot hotter compared to the other expenses. Track your current expenses for a few years and use appropriate multiplier for the high inflation categories. e.g. we use 2x multiplier for travel, etc. Also don't forget to include lumpy expenses like cars, HVAC, roof, etc. in your expense projection.
4. No good answer. If you wait then that that chicken may not even hatch! If you sell RSU at vesting then a bigger tax bill.
5. Backdoor Roth IRA is easy, just keep $0 balance in your traditional IRA to keep things simple. Check with your 401(k) plan if they allow after-tax contributions and in-service withdrawals/conversions. If they do then you have access to mega-backdoor Roth contributions as well. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4488493-mega-backdoor-roth

Having said all that, don't get ahead of yourself. Control and track your expenses. Judiciously save and invest for now. Smell the roses. Reassess everything in 5 years.

I ran a quick FireCalc with 2.5M portfolio balance (assuming all your RSU vest and match market returns), $130K annual spending, $60K annual contributions and 2032 retirement date. I got 100% success rate.
Link to this set of data

Run FireCalc again after your RSUs vest and you have a clearer picture on your future expenses. Good luck.

In projected expenses, I've been using the costs of a local platinum ACA plan with us hitting max out of pocket.

I've set aside several thousand dollars each year in my budget for home repair, car replacement, and such. My home is from 1987 and I'm projecting $1000/month for housing upgrades and maintenance, setting aside $425 a month for appliances and $335 a month for new cars.

For the RSUs, I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much and definitely spending far too much time staring at the stock price considering I don't have anything to sell right now. It's going to be hard psychologically for me to get the next set of RSUs and then hold them for a year before selling as the price fluctuates.

Regarding the IRA, it looks like I'm going to have to withdraw my contributions for this year and re-contribute to an IRA to do a backdoor Roth. I'm permanently nervous about doing my taxes wrong, but I can handle it. I don't think my employer supports the mega backdoor Roth but I will have to check.

I've been tracking my income and expenses since 2018, but my expenses have been climbing steadily, especially with the medical needs increasing and then one, soon-to-be two, children. I've been using an average of the past 18 months as a ballpark number. I've also developed a spreadsheet that uses this data along with some estimates for future changes (vacation, parenting, new medical issues in old age, etc) to reach that expected 130k number. My sheet has it varying from year to year which is mentally helpful to me. I have a single static inflation rate for my whole sheet but I will try some category overrides to see how that works out.

Even without my RSUs making me any money, I have to remind myself that I will retire sooner than most almost no matter what happens. And with the disability situation, I think we need to increase the spending in the short term to help with quality of life through house cleaning and more childcare, as much as I don't want to shell out on that.

The reason I'm getting a lower success rate than you in Firecalc is that I've expanded the length of my retirement period beyond the 30 year default to make the very bold assumption that I'll live to be 90 and I've added special expenses to pay for two four year college degrees when that comes around.

 

[pjigar]

I am glad you are on top of all excess and lumpy expenses. Like I said, the picture will be much clearer as the time passes.You are on the right track.

To state the obvious, unfortunately you are not ready financially to retire anytime sooner than 5 years. I know how frustrating this can be. I have a special-need kid and I wanted to FIRE ASAP at some point. But I stuck it out and bought some more time with a flexible job. Be patient and keep swimming. Time is the major magical variable in retirement planning.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Hi all! I'm Module.

I am a 37 year old father who has been dreaming of FIRE for at least the past 10 years. However, when my child was born, my wife got a series of complicated autoimmune conditions. Between the medical expenses and the increasing cost of parenting, I kind of tried to give up on FIRE in my heart since I didn't think it was all that possible. I've been sitting at what's essentially "CoastFIRE" and working on coping with the medical issues in the family while holding down a job and watching the retirement numbers go up. I figured that it's always hard to predict expenses with complex medical situations.

However, two things have changed since then:
1. I've got a second child on the way, due in about a month's time. My feelings about needing to get away from work to help and do more parenting alongside my sick wife have loomed larger.
2. I logged into my company's stock portal. I realized that I'm getting what I'd consider an astonishing amount of value in RSUs and stock in the next year. Long story short, I work for a tech company and the AI bubble is currently working in my favor.

The amount of stock coming my way is, before taxes, about 60% of my retirement account value over the next 4 years. Needless to say this kicked my mind into gear and made me realize that maybe retirement is possible in the short-term. Before this, my spreadsheet calculations have usually had me sitting 6-10 years from retirement depending on what my calculations are on SWR, market returns, how I calculate my retirement expenses, etc.

Depending on how the stock prices go and if I do short-term or long-term sales, and what my expenses end up being, I could potentially retire in 2032 or 2031. It bums me out on that one is that is pretty much the exact time both my kids will start elementary school and the maximum benefit of being retired early starts to fade.

Fund type	Amount
401K	~$555,000
Roth IRAs	~$345,000
Post-tax index funds	~$500,000
Kids' funds, both 529 plan and post-tax index funds	~$42,000
HSA	~$24,000
Possible stock windfall across the next four years, untaxed	~$920,000

I'm expecting to need/want about $130k (including planning for about a 10% tax rate) after retirement. This includes a fairly aggressive budget for medical, home repairs and travel and it might be too high for most folks. I'm planning on doing a fairly traditional Glidepath with a planned SWR of 3.75%.

Some of the looming questions and anecdotes that inspired me to come here and start reading are:
1. When you have school-aged kids, how hard is it to travel? We were planning on increasing our travel budget dramatically when I'm not working but it both seems hard to travel with young kids and school-aged kids.
2. Does anyone have anecdotes of early retirement with serious medical problems or autoimmune conditions? My wife's condition really does control more of our life decisions than we'd like.
3. I'm currently calculating that our cost of living will be higher in retirement. The short of why is that I will be paying for state college for two kids, aspiring to travel a lot more, and catching up on home repairs. It's just so hard to know what I'll need. My retirement spending spreadsheet currently has a weird bump above my SWR during the children's college years.
4. I am trying to figure out how to sell my stock in the best way for me. I've never felt comfortable holding tons of stock in my employer. As the prices are skyrocketing, I have to weigh the benefits of waiting to sell for long term capital gains vs. selling quickly to lock in the price.
5. I think that I will have to figure out a backdoor Roth IRA since I'll be exceeding the limit in the short-term because of these massive stock sell-offs. Of course, I already contributed half a year of Roth IRA before I realized this. I'm currently feeling intimidated by this and feeling the need to talk with an accountant.

Any thoughts from you folks on this? This has been a mental challenge for me because I had been mentally filing FIRE as a pipe dream and not a possible reality.

Thanks, all! I'll probably mostly be lurking but I'd love to chat, too.

I treasured spending the first 12 years of my son's life taking them to school every day volunteering in his classroom volunteering all over the school I was at all of the school events all the plays all of the classroom things some of my best memories that I've treasured definitely worthwhile I didn't retire until I was a week before I turned 40 that was to be honest a little early but that was just about the time he was born.


If anyone else from my little boy Gabe he's 21 now and a real son of a b**** I have no idea where he got that from must have been my wife