Hello fellow bogleheads
Thanks for everything you do here for the group. I’m interested in hearing the groups opinion on the following situation.
Us: Family of 6; HCOL; ages 45; currently salaries between DH & DW - $375k. Take home pay: $18.5k
Retirement: We currently max out 2 403b(s) and 2 backdoor Roths. We have an employer match of 10%. We save roughly $100k/year in retirement accounts. Current value - $1.5 million
Family: We have 4 children (15, 13, 11, & 7) and finding that life is getting more and more expensive. We save $25k for college each year for our children and have $125k currrently saved. Working for a major academic university, children could go to the known university for 65% off price of admission (currently $12k/year). Bank of Mom & Dad will pay for the entire undergrad if child decides to go to this school. If not, they will pay the difference.
Mortgage: In forever house (until kids are out of the house!). Current value $900k; mortgage $430k @ 2.5% for another 26 years.
Spending: We save 1st and then spend everything else. We do value education and all children are in some form of private school - $30k/year. We save another $15k in a brokerage account and have $100k saved in this account. Our monthly spending is around $15k/month all in
I always said we wanted to retire by 50 and slow down. We work in medicine and the thought would be to do enough part-time jobs to make enough to pay for our daily living in our 50s and retire completely by 55/60. I have come to the realization that with 4 children and the cost of life, this will not be possible. The good news is that we really enjoy our jobs (for the most part!), get paid well (for our roles), and could do this for another 15-20 years! This would be when our last child finishes college. So I think the plan now will be to work fulltime till we are 60 and then possibly switch over to the part time role or retire all together.
If we continue on the this saving path, when last child finishes college, we would have $7.5 million in retirement accounts (7% return). At a 3.5% withdrawal, this would be $263k/year, much more than I anticipate we will need at 60 and without children in the house. My math has us needing closer to $180k/year without spending for kids.
So what is my point! At times, I feel that we are just movers of money. Money comes in and just as quickly it goes back out. Kids tuition, car payment, kid activities, groceries, etc. We never seem to have that “extra little bit of money” to do things on a whim. I know this is not true due to automating our savings, we are saving a decent amount of our income and when I do our NW calculations each quarter, I see we are doing fine.
So if you made it this far, here are my questions:
1. Are we saving too much (i know this is a loaded question?)
2. When do you slow down in retirement savings?
3. Do we just stay the course knowing that this is a crazy, expensive time in life? As long as retirement and college saving goals are hit, just keep grinding day to day
4. For those that have gone through this, do you regret saving too much in your 40s when kids are around vs having security in your 60s.
5. Any suggestions that you have for us would be more than welcome to hear! Even if you feel we should do something completely different
Thanks for everything you do here for the group. I’m interested in hearing the groups opinion on the following situation.
Us: Family of 6; HCOL; ages 45; currently salaries between DH & DW - $375k. Take home pay: $18.5k
Retirement: We currently max out 2 403b(s) and 2 backdoor Roths. We have an employer match of 10%. We save roughly $100k/year in retirement accounts. Current value - $1.5 million
Family: We have 4 children (15, 13, 11, & 7) and finding that life is getting more and more expensive. We save $25k for college each year for our children and have $125k currrently saved. Working for a major academic university, children could go to the known university for 65% off price of admission (currently $12k/year). Bank of Mom & Dad will pay for the entire undergrad if child decides to go to this school. If not, they will pay the difference.
Mortgage: In forever house (until kids are out of the house!). Current value $900k; mortgage $430k @ 2.5% for another 26 years.
Spending: We save 1st and then spend everything else. We do value education and all children are in some form of private school - $30k/year. We save another $15k in a brokerage account and have $100k saved in this account. Our monthly spending is around $15k/month all in
I always said we wanted to retire by 50 and slow down. We work in medicine and the thought would be to do enough part-time jobs to make enough to pay for our daily living in our 50s and retire completely by 55/60. I have come to the realization that with 4 children and the cost of life, this will not be possible. The good news is that we really enjoy our jobs (for the most part!), get paid well (for our roles), and could do this for another 15-20 years! This would be when our last child finishes college. So I think the plan now will be to work fulltime till we are 60 and then possibly switch over to the part time role or retire all together.
If we continue on the this saving path, when last child finishes college, we would have $7.5 million in retirement accounts (7% return). At a 3.5% withdrawal, this would be $263k/year, much more than I anticipate we will need at 60 and without children in the house. My math has us needing closer to $180k/year without spending for kids.
So what is my point! At times, I feel that we are just movers of money. Money comes in and just as quickly it goes back out. Kids tuition, car payment, kid activities, groceries, etc. We never seem to have that “extra little bit of money” to do things on a whim. I know this is not true due to automating our savings, we are saving a decent amount of our income and when I do our NW calculations each quarter, I see we are doing fine.
So if you made it this far, here are my questions:
1. Are we saving too much (i know this is a loaded question?)
2. When do you slow down in retirement savings?
3. Do we just stay the course knowing that this is a crazy, expensive time in life? As long as retirement and college saving goals are hit, just keep grinding day to day
4. For those that have gone through this, do you regret saving too much in your 40s when kids are around vs having security in your 60s.
5. Any suggestions that you have for us would be more than welcome to hear! Even if you feel we should do something completely different
Statistics: Posted by newtoohere — Sat Mar 30, 2024 9:22 am — Replies 26 — Views 1416