Hi everyone,
I would like to seek your opinion and advice on FIRE and inheritance/gift money.
About me: I came to this country, from a developing country, 15 years ago for graduate school. After receiving my M.A.s and Ph.D. (in humanities) I started teaching in college. I received tenure and promotion on my 35th birthday, and a year later, permanent residency of the U.S. I’m female, single, and I don’t plan to get married in the near future.
What I’ve been determined to do, since the very first day of living in the U.S., is self-reliance and independence – which is exactly the essence of American culture. I never borrowed any money from anybody (including my parents, see below), have never been in debt, and have been saving vigorously. After 5 years of part-time work (as a graduate TA and RA) and 10 years of full-time work, I’ve saved 300K. That’s from saving 60-70% of my salary, which is far from being 6 figured.
Now, in a few years I’ll be turning 40, and my parents, who are still living in my home country and don’t plan to immigrate here, will turn 70 next year. I’m their only child, and I wanted to stay in the U.S. for at least 20 more years. My parents grew up in poverty, but after a lifetime of hard work and skillful investment, their asset is as follows:
- Two nice condominiums, each in a major city in my home country: About $2.2 million
- Investment in mutual funds, wealth management, some stocks, etc: $1.2 million and growing steadily
- They have their monthly pension ($1700 each, and they need less than half of it to live comfortably) and excellent health insurance.
I had long been dreamed of retiring around 50 ---never seriously planned, and I chose “50” since “50” seemed to be a major watershed in life. Then earlier this year, I fell gravely ill for a few months (although I had maintained a very healthy lifestyle), and my illness taught me that nothing is guaranteed, and crap happens no matter how much you want to avoid it. So I wanted to retire in a few years and start exploring life.
My dilemma is: after calculation, I realized that with my own $300k, I’m nowhere near immediate retiring. My goal, and what I need, is $500k, for which I need to work at least 5-7 more years with a teacher’s salary. That time frame is fine with me. But as I described above, my parents have more than enough money, and they are more than willing to give as much as I need to me – now as gift money, and after both of them pass away – inheritance. If I don’t use the money (to accelerate my journey to early retirement for now), who else? But again, if I use their money to fund my early retirement, I feel that I would have cancelled out all my effort in the past 15 years to be independent – I could have used their money from the very beginning and relieve a lot of hardship, right?
What would you suggest? I appreciate your help.
