I posted an introduction a couple of weeks ago with our plans for ER in 2016. As a re-cap, I am 40, married, with kids age 7 and 10. The issue I struggle with most often is “What impact will our ER choice have on our kids?”. We have purchased each child 4 years of tuition in the state university system. Current 529 plans should grow to about $50k each covering room and board for 4 years as well. The ER budget will cover reasonable expenses for clothes, entertainment, and sports/school activities.
What my ER budget doesn’t specifically cover is cars/insurance, graduate school, house downpayments, and potential future wedding plans. We paid for nearly all of these expenses on our own after leaving home, although some of our costs were financed on a revolving door of 0% credit cards widely available from 1995-2005.
I guess I struggle between working longer to fund a never-ending number of kid-related ‘reserve’ funds versus ER and actually being more present in their lives. While ER may not allow us to pay for grad school and such, I can offer them all of the lessons I learned while doing it the hard way.
I know that this is highly individual choice each family much make about how to best prepare their kids for adulthood, but what experiences have others had? Has anyone encountered resentful kids who didn’t understand parents ‘giving up’ healthy salaries that could have provided them with new clothes, cars, iWhatever, ….?
Omalley
What my ER budget doesn’t specifically cover is cars/insurance, graduate school, house downpayments, and potential future wedding plans. We paid for nearly all of these expenses on our own after leaving home, although some of our costs were financed on a revolving door of 0% credit cards widely available from 1995-2005.
I guess I struggle between working longer to fund a never-ending number of kid-related ‘reserve’ funds versus ER and actually being more present in their lives. While ER may not allow us to pay for grad school and such, I can offer them all of the lessons I learned while doing it the hard way.
I know that this is highly individual choice each family much make about how to best prepare their kids for adulthood, but what experiences have others had? Has anyone encountered resentful kids who didn’t understand parents ‘giving up’ healthy salaries that could have provided them with new clothes, cars, iWhatever, ….?
Omalley