I’ve been following the boards off and on for nearly a year now. Thanks for all of the great insights. It’s nice to be able to learn from those who are where I’m hoping to reach at some point.
I’m 31, the better half 29. We’ve got kids that are 5, 3, and one on the way due in the fall. The corporate job has put us in a position where DW is able to stay home with the kids and plans to so for the near term (more on that in a bit). We currently have $150K in 401K, another $15K in Roth, a couple paid for residential rentals worth around $75K (aspiring slum lord I guess). We also have some other small amounts of misc cash and $30K or so in home equity. Between my and the corporations contributions we’re adding about $12K a year to the 401K and we also max out a Roth IRA each year. On top of these annual contributions we’ve got another $10-20K beyond our living expenses that we will probably continue to use for real estate investments.
While I appreciate the corporate gig and all it offers, it’s not necessarily my life’s ambition. My wife and I have bought into the idea that in 10 years she would go to work at the local university. This would offer up enough income to cover all but roughly $20K of our living expenses, provide insurance and other benefits, and (as long as the policy continues) free tuition for the kids if they decide to go that route. In the meantime this would free me up for either continuing to develop the real estate thing which, if all goes well, should be generating at least the $20K needed to cover the living expenses deficit.
So what does this have to do with early retirement? I’m hopeful that after our kids make it through college DW will be able to fully retire (52). At this same time (54 years old), I’d hopefully be in a position to either hand the daily operation of the rental business over to a property management company to make it “passive” or cash it out all together. One other item of note is that our current living expenses are around $58K with $20K of that being mortgage dept that we hope to erase prior to retirement.
I know there are a ton of unknowns here, but any thoughts or insights around any part of this plan would be much appreciated as we've kicked this one around for a few months and would like some feedback from others. Feel free to call out the flaws as I’d rather found out now then later ; ) Thanks.
I’m 31, the better half 29. We’ve got kids that are 5, 3, and one on the way due in the fall. The corporate job has put us in a position where DW is able to stay home with the kids and plans to so for the near term (more on that in a bit). We currently have $150K in 401K, another $15K in Roth, a couple paid for residential rentals worth around $75K (aspiring slum lord I guess). We also have some other small amounts of misc cash and $30K or so in home equity. Between my and the corporations contributions we’re adding about $12K a year to the 401K and we also max out a Roth IRA each year. On top of these annual contributions we’ve got another $10-20K beyond our living expenses that we will probably continue to use for real estate investments.
While I appreciate the corporate gig and all it offers, it’s not necessarily my life’s ambition. My wife and I have bought into the idea that in 10 years she would go to work at the local university. This would offer up enough income to cover all but roughly $20K of our living expenses, provide insurance and other benefits, and (as long as the policy continues) free tuition for the kids if they decide to go that route. In the meantime this would free me up for either continuing to develop the real estate thing which, if all goes well, should be generating at least the $20K needed to cover the living expenses deficit.
So what does this have to do with early retirement? I’m hopeful that after our kids make it through college DW will be able to fully retire (52). At this same time (54 years old), I’d hopefully be in a position to either hand the daily operation of the rental business over to a property management company to make it “passive” or cash it out all together. One other item of note is that our current living expenses are around $58K with $20K of that being mortgage dept that we hope to erase prior to retirement.
I know there are a ton of unknowns here, but any thoughts or insights around any part of this plan would be much appreciated as we've kicked this one around for a few months and would like some feedback from others. Feel free to call out the flaws as I’d rather found out now then later ; ) Thanks.