Her income after graduation might be as low as $40K/year (and this won’t take into account the years it will take us to pay off our SL).
Huh? She's working while she's studying I guess? How does she know she'll continue to love her work after graduation? I "loved" my job at 26, would never have thought I'd want to RE, never had a second thought on it. 8 years later, I'm keen to get out now! I'd recommend she save heavily anyway, to give herself choices when she does hit 40 or 50 :)
The way we've organised it, I'm happy to continue working for another 10 years, the hubby wants to stop asap. I've worked out that if we save 50% of both our salaries for 5 years, he can then retire. At that point I only need to work another 5 years, depending on the stock market. I don't mind working an extra year or so in addition to that if needed.
After 5 years we've basically worked enough in total, that the dividends/interest being paid out by our assets will be returning enough to cover his half of the expenses. But we don't literally cut our expenses in half and share them, we just have a pool of money. I'm more interested in that 10 year deadline - if we can make it, then I'm happy.
Note that we already have around $150k saved up, so that's why our scenario works out.
For example, would it be any different for me to leave "my" $375K in "our" Stash while we live solely on her income instead of investing "her" extra $15K each year?
I don't see any difference to that :) We will be living on my income, while "his" stash works to add to the stash for when we retire. However I'm earning a bit more than him, and I'll be able to save as well. I'd say the riskiest part of the plan, is relying on a single income - what is your contingency plan if she loses her job, or becomes disabled? Would you be able to get back into the job market at that point, or if it's IT - will you become obsolete?
Our 5 year plan leaves us with $600k when he retires, which means it can pay out just enough for us to scrape by without cutting into savings, should I lose my job after that. alternatively we could buy a small house with it, and then we don't need to worry about rent. I will have life insurance and disability insurance/trauma in case something happens to me. We have public health in our country, so not too much to worry about there. I've also applied for another job that comes with a 20% raise - would she have any opportunity to increase beyond the $40k? If she's just starting out, I'm sure she could?
Note: My figures are in NZ$. And rent/housing prices where I live are ridiculous - we could move after 5 years to a cheaper area and then I wouldn't even need to work much longer.