Author Topic: Examples of families being able to retire by 40  (Read 12079 times)

Baron235

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Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« on: October 31, 2017, 02:01:07 PM »
I am looking for a couple of examples of people who have been able to retire by or around 40 while at the same time having kids. And I figure this place is the find the best examples. If anyone has a journal that they love that meets this requirement, blog, or their own personal experience, please let me know. 

I am trying to compile them to share with people when they say it can't be done (have a family and retire by 40ish)


FireHiker

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2017, 02:17:31 PM »
Justin at http://rootofgood.com/ retired with three kids; I think he was 33 when he retired? His wife retired a couple years later if I am remembering correctly. He used to post here, but not much anymore I think.

 (edited because my link didn't work the first time, sorry)

wordnerd

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2017, 03:55:31 PM »

hello867

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2017, 07:54:55 PM »
We are close! Have 2 kids. I have already quit but husband is still working but doesn't need to be. I am 34 and he is 38.


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MrThatsDifferent

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #4 on: November 01, 2017, 12:49:59 AM »
Look for forum member and moderator Arebelspy. He and his spouse retired at 29 on school teacher salaries and rentals. They had their first child shortly after retitring while travelling the world and now on to #2 while doing the same. He has a couple of journals, a blog and some articles written about them in his forum signature.

Former? What happened?

Llewellyn2006

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #5 on: November 01, 2017, 03:21:09 AM »
Look for forum member and moderator Arebelspy. He and his spouse retired at 29 on school teacher salaries and rentals. They had their first child shortly after retitring while travelling the world and now on to #2 while doing the same. He has a couple of journals, a blog and some articles written about them in his forum signature.

Former? What happened?

"Forum" member, not "former". He still posts here.

boarder42

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #6 on: November 01, 2017, 04:19:45 AM »
Good plan I hate the kids excuse.  They only cost as much as you personally make them cost. Like anything to some level that cost can be controlled and their life experience maximized

Rhoon

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2017, 08:41:09 PM »
We are close! Have 2 kids. I have already quit but husband is still working but doesn't need to be. I am 34 and he is 38.


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May I ask what you are currently doing for Healthcare? ACA?

hello867

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2017, 09:33:57 PM »
We are close! Have 2 kids. I have already quit but husband is still working but doesn't need to be. I am 34 and he is 38.


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May I ask what you are currently doing for Healthcare? ACA?
We are currently purchasing health insurance through the marketplace. About $1500 a month


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Loren Ver

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #9 on: November 02, 2017, 05:38:27 AM »
My dad retired from the Air Force at around with two kids.  He is the reason I thought that was normal and am aiming to retire before 40 (no kids).  I wish I had learned more from him before he died at 54.  I'm glad he didn't spend the end working :). 

Another place to look is Pete (MMM) as he retired to have a kid.  I'd also check out the case studies for numbers.

LV 


John123

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #10 on: November 02, 2017, 06:48:21 AM »
Good plan I hate the kids excuse.  They only cost as much as you personally make them cost. Like anything to some level that cost can be controlled and their life experience maximized

Lol...you must not have kids.  What about childcare?  In my case half our income vanished because we choose to have my wife stay home and raise our kids.  This was 8 years ago. She now works part time for a fraction of what she once made.  Sure, we could have paid someone else to raise them at a lower cost, but we had the means and this was the option we choose.

Food? Clothes? Healthcare? Sports? College? The list goes on.  They cost a lot.  Probably around $400,000 in lost wages alone at this point.




Prairie Stash

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2017, 08:14:23 AM »
Good plan I hate the kids excuse.  They only cost as much as you personally make them cost. Like anything to some level that cost can be controlled and their life experience maximized

Lol...you must not have kids.  What about childcare?  In my case half our income vanished because we choose to have my wife stay home and raise our kids.  This was 8 years ago. She now works part time for a fraction of what she once made.  Sure, we could have paid someone else to raise them at a lower cost, but we had the means and this was the option we choose.

Food? Clothes? Healthcare? Sports? College? The list goes on.  They cost a lot.  Probably around $400,000 in lost wages alone at this point.
So your wife retired? When you retire your income generally drops...your rationale for retirement hardly matters, she retired and she spent extra years out of the work force doing something she wanted to.

John123

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #12 on: November 02, 2017, 08:52:11 AM »
So your wife retired? When you retire your income generally drops...your rationale for retirement hardly matters, she retired and she spent extra years out of the work force doing something she wanted to.

At first I didn't understand your response.  It's not related at all to my comment on the cost of raising kids, but then I peeked at your post history and found out that you just like to argue and contradict everything. 

SAHP=Retiree?...seriously offensive btw.  But that's what you're after I guess.  Sucks to be you. 

MOD EDIT: Read Rule #1 Please.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2017, 05:56:20 PM by arebelspy »

John123

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #13 on: November 02, 2017, 09:28:12 AM »
Sorry OP, let me try and steer this back on topic. 

I'm over 40 with kids and am getting really close to pulling the trigger.  Part of it is not by choice.  My company is running itself into the ground and I believe bankruptcy is imminent.  I want at least $50K per year to live the way I want.  I don't have $1.25M invested quite yet, but my house is payed for and I do have a good bit of SS accrued. Plus, I plan to make money on the side.  I'm pretty risk tolerant and don't mind rolling the dice a bit. I'm hoping the company can hold on until at least spring.  I don't want to start my freedom in the middle of winter.  I have school aged kids so I'm stuck to the school calendar.

John

       

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #14 on: November 02, 2017, 09:41:07 AM »
So your wife retired? When you retire your income generally drops...your rationale for retirement hardly matters, she retired and she spent extra years out of the work force doing something she wanted to.

At first I didn't understand your response.  It's not related at all to my comment on the cost of raising kids, but then I peeked at your post history and found out that you just like to argue and contradict everything. 

SAHP=Retiree?...seriously offensive btw.  But that's what you're after I guess.  Sucks to be you.

I have kids, and I agree with boarder42 and Prarie Stash here. Going by John 123's definition there would be no such thing as an early retiree with children under 18. They would all be classified as SAHPs.

Personally my plan is to downshift to part time work before age 40 and spend more time on kids, self-care, and hobbies/projects. I could press on until age 45 or so and fully FIRE, but I am getting really burned out on work+parenting, plus I have really good health insurance and can go as low as 20 hours/week and keep it.
 My SO has already gone to part time work so we don't pay for childcare, just some lost wages. This is mainly because neither of us work traditional hours so a regular daycare wouldn't work, and we  have no family nearby to fill in the gaps. He can still work part time because 3x 12 hour shifts is considered full time for my profession.

Fireball

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #15 on: November 02, 2017, 09:50:42 AM »
Getting there. I'm 36 and my wife is 34, kids are 6 and 8.  LCOL area and we make about $215k before taxes.  I'm down shifting to 4 days a week at the end of this month and plan to coast into ER at 39 or 40 as long as there are no surprises.

John123

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #16 on: November 02, 2017, 09:58:49 AM »
I have kids, and I agree with boarder42 and Prarie Stash here. Going by John 123's definition there would be no such thing as an early retiree with children under 18. They would all be classified as SAHPs.

I feel like I'm in bizarro world.  You really can't see the difference between a SAHP and a retiree?  If one parent works and the other raises the kids, they are not retired.  They are a SAHP.  If both stop working, they can claim they are retired.

Why denigrate SAHPs?

mathlete

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #17 on: November 02, 2017, 09:59:38 AM »
This is a great thread idea!

Kids are my #1 concern too. Whenever I talk to my GF about ER, she tells me that kids will likely blow up whatever plan I have. She's maybe half right. Were overdue for a conversation about this...

I'm glad to see that there are some non-celebrity blogger examples here though!

mathlete

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #18 on: November 02, 2017, 10:04:17 AM »
I feel like I'm in bizarro world.  You really can't see the difference between a SAHP and a retiree?  If one parent works and the other raises the kids, they are not retired.  They are a SAHP.  If both stop working, they can claim they are retired.

Why denigrate SAHPs?

I'm with John here. Quibbling over definitions of "retired" is usually a waste of time, but I would pretty firmly say that one parent working while the other parent raises kids meets very few definitions of "retired", and pretty much no definition of financial independence. Especially if the SAHP goes back to work at some point.

A 1 SAHP situation is very much about a shift in the division of labor. A focuses on raising kids allowing B to earn the money that the family still very much needs.

mathlete

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #19 on: November 02, 2017, 10:10:32 AM »
Good plan I hate the kids excuse.  They only cost as much as you personally make them cost. Like anything to some level that cost can be controlled and their life experience maximized

Eh, I don't know about this. I feel that this could be true of any future kids I may have, but that is predicated on all of my kids being tiny little versions of myself.

Happy and healthy. Free of most major physical and mental ailments. Anti-consumerist. Very appreciative of alone time.

aneel

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #20 on: November 02, 2017, 10:15:18 AM »
Very much agree with the below - it is a division of labor which sometimes allows the working parent better success at work with more ability to focus or meet work demands they wouldn't otherwise meet if sharing child care responsibilities equally.

As for our situation, we have a big age gap in our marriage (I'm 31, he's 42).  Hubs is the SAHP, and we are not counting on him working again.  We have 1 kid and will be adopting a second in the next few years, and we're on track to FIRE in 10 years when I'll be 41.

Side note - adopting from US Foster Care can be an extremely frugal and altruistic way to start a family :)

I feel like I'm in bizarro world.  You really can't see the difference between a SAHP and a retiree?  If one parent works and the other raises the kids, they are not retired.  They are a SAHP.  If both stop working, they can claim they are retired.

Why denigrate SAHPs?

I'm with John here. Quibbling over definitions of "retired" is usually a waste of time, but I would pretty firmly say that one parent working while the other parent raises kids meets very few definitions of "retired", and pretty much no definition of financial independence. Especially if the SAHP goes back to work at some point.

A 1 SAHP situation is very much about a shift in the division of labor. A focuses on raising kids allowing B to earn the money that the family still very much needs.

scantee

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #21 on: November 02, 2017, 10:21:58 AM »
Good plan I hate the kids excuse.  They only cost as much as you personally make them cost. Like anything to some level that cost can be controlled and their life experience maximized

Eh, I don't know about this. I feel that this could be true of any future kids I may have, but that is predicated on all of my kids being tiny little versions of myself.

Happy and healthy. Free of most major physical and mental ailments. Anti-consumerist. Very appreciative of alone time.

I have kids and while I do think they have slowed down my path to early retirement, I also think that people grossly exaggerate the extent to which kids impede financial success.

As far as the SAHP/retiree debate, I've always thought that some of it comes down to how bizarre of a euphemism Stay at Home Parent is. If you think about it, what the hell does that even mean? It usually means that someone has chosen non-income producing child- focused activities over income producing ones, which is a fine and worthy choice, but the "stay at home" part really does not capture what I think is intended, which is something closer to Professional Parent.

I personally like the word homemaker, because I think it is more descriptive and all-encompassing of the work involved. But that word really is denigrated at this point so we probably need to think of something else.

John123

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #22 on: November 02, 2017, 10:22:31 AM »
Good plan I hate the kids excuse.  They only cost as much as you personally make them cost. Like anything to some level that cost can be controlled and their life experience maximized

Eh, I don't know about this. I feel that this could be true of any future kids I may have, but that is predicated on all of my kids being tiny little versions of myself.

Happy and healthy. Free of most major physical and mental ailments. Anti-consumerist. Very appreciative of alone time.

Great post!  As to the last two points, good luck with that.  We do not buy much of anything outside of birthdays and Christmas, but man, if given the choice, they would spend it all.  Alone time...doesn't exist in my house.  They're on you 24/7. 

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #23 on: November 02, 2017, 11:01:00 AM »
I feel like I'm in bizarro world.  You really can't see the difference between a SAHP and a retiree?  If one parent works and the other raises the kids, they are not retired.  They are a SAHP.  If both stop working, they can claim they are retired.

Why denigrate SAHPs?

I'm with John here. Quibbling over definitions of "retired" is usually a waste of time, but I would pretty firmly say that one parent working while the other parent raises kids meets very few definitions of "retired", and pretty much no definition of financial independence. Especially if the SAHP goes back to work at some point.

A 1 SAHP situation is very much about a shift in the division of labor. A focuses on raising kids allowing B to earn the money that the family still very much needs.

My post was not intended to denigrate SAHPs at all, just saying that if both parents retire then they are both SAHPs by your definition. I think that would be a great situation. You are doing really well if you are able to have one SAHP.

  In your opinion, if spouse A retires and spouse B chooses to continue work even if it is not strictly needed (for example to have lower than a 4%WR), is spouse A a retired or not? Also what would you call a single parent who was FIRE?
« Last Edit: November 02, 2017, 11:05:44 AM by MrsWolfeRN »

John123

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #24 on: November 02, 2017, 12:31:43 PM »
My post was not intended to denigrate SAHPs at all, just saying that if both parents retire then they are both SAHPs by your definition.

I never provided any such definition.  Prairie Stash said my wife was a retiree because she is a SAHP.  I disagreed.  You responded and agreed with Prairie Stash that a SAHP is a retiree. I'm not sure why because most SAHPs do not consider themselves retired and many would take offense at the suggestion.  Hence, your denigration of SAHPs.

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #25 on: November 02, 2017, 12:41:45 PM »
My post was not intended to denigrate SAHPs at all, just saying that if both parents retire then they are both SAHPs by your definition.

I never provided any such definition.  Prairie Stash said my wife was a retiree because she is a SAHP.  I disagreed.  You responded and agreed with Prairie Stash that a SAHP is a retiree. I'm not sure why because most SAHPs do not consider themselves retired and many would take offense at the suggestion.  Hence, your denigration of SAHPs.

Hmm. Sounds like a good topic for a poll. I don't know enough FIRE folk IRL to be able to ask them. Since this is an early retirement forum, I doubt that most people here would be offended at the thought that they are retired, whether they are parents or not.

mathlete

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #26 on: November 02, 2017, 12:47:55 PM »
My post was not intended to denigrate SAHPs at all, just saying that if both parents retire then they are both SAHPs by your definition. I think that would be a great situation. You are doing really well if you are able to have one SAHP.

  In your opinion, if spouse A retires and spouse B chooses to continue work even if it is not strictly needed (for example to have lower than a 4%WR), is spouse A a retired or not? Also what would you call a single parent who was FIRE?

Maybe the definition of SAHP is what is in dispute here.

To me, a SAHP describes a lifestyle situation in which one parent focuses on managing the household and raising children while another parent earns income.

A single parent, or two parents who stay at home raising children (in lieu earning income) are technically "parents who stay at home", I suppose. But SAHP isn't the descriptor that comes to mind for this setup. More like, "independently wealthy".

boarder42

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #27 on: November 02, 2017, 01:25:58 PM »
Good plan I hate the kids excuse.  They only cost as much as you personally make them cost. Like anything to some level that cost can be controlled and their life experience maximized

Lol...you must not have kids.  What about childcare?  In my case half our income vanished because we choose to have my wife stay home and raise our kids.  This was 8 years ago. She now works part time for a fraction of what she once made.  Sure, we could have paid someone else to raise them at a lower cost, but we had the means and this was the option we choose.

Food? Clothes? Healthcare? Sports? College? The list goes on.  They cost a lot.  Probably around $400,000 in lost wages alone at this point.

its a choice to have a parent stay at home to chalk your kids up to those lost wages is a choice your family made. 

I think the other posters here correctly summarized the other list of things on your list of why kids are expensive and negated most of the concern their.  But your post correctly illuminates exactly what the OP is trying to counter so reading along with some of the stories here could help change your tune.


madamwitty

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #28 on: November 02, 2017, 01:44:48 PM »
My post was not intended to denigrate SAHPs at all, just saying that if both parents retire then they are both SAHPs by your definition. I think that would be a great situation. You are doing really well if you are able to have one SAHP.

  In your opinion, if spouse A retires and spouse B chooses to continue work even if it is not strictly needed (for example to have lower than a 4%WR), is spouse A a retired or not? Also what would you call a single parent who was FIRE?

Maybe the definition of SAHP is what is in dispute here.

To me, a SAHP describes a lifestyle situation in which one parent focuses on managing the household and raising children while another parent earns income.

A single parent, or two parents who stay at home raising children (in lieu earning income) are technically "parents who stay at home", I suppose. But SAHP isn't the descriptor that comes to mind for this setup. More like, "independently wealthy".

This whole argument sounds to me like the Internet Retirement Police in reverse. Who gets to decide whether another person is "retired" or not?

Personally, I plan to retire by 40. DH and I have both spent stints at home as SAHP. Currently we each work part time (both in the mornings, so we CAN both be home with the kids in the afternoon; though we are not always both there.) I will definitely say that sharing parenting responsibility (and other homemaking tasks) feels vastly different than the times where that responsibility is asymmetric.

boarder42

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #29 on: November 02, 2017, 02:27:33 PM »
Slow2Fire those healthcare costs are higher than we would get on the exchange once FIREd on insanely high income compared to most mustachians'- 75k give or take including mortgage so healthcare costs likely decrease when you FIRE.

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #30 on: November 02, 2017, 05:29:38 PM »
My post was not intended to denigrate SAHPs at all, just saying that if both parents retire then they are both SAHPs by your definition.

I never provided any such definition.  Prairie Stash said my wife was a retiree because she is a SAHP.  I disagreed.  You responded and agreed with Prairie Stash that a SAHP is a retiree. I'm not sure why because most SAHPs do not consider themselves retired and many would take offense at the suggestion.  Hence, your denigration of SAHPs.
You took that in a weird way. How is being compared to an early retiree offensive? The entire goal of this forum is to achieve early retirement, in my case my dream of early retirement is to be a SAHP. Implying that either term is a denigration is a matter of perspective. I take both terms to be complimentary, that's my view of life though. If you find it argumentative to be presented alternate viewpoints, this forum isn't for you, however I'll accept your compliment. I appreciate that you find my views are dissenting from popular mainstream views.

Its a matter of perspective that you missed earlier. Far from being an insult, being an early retiree is a compliment (especially on this forum). Being able to have a SAHP is an achievement, not a cause of concern. I find it weird that you think being compared to a retiree is insulting, don't you want to also be a retiree and a SAHP? What is your personal goal here, is it to work forever or FIRE to spend time doing non-work? in your case presumably family related stuff?

If you read the original blog you'll see that the forum was founded by a person who retired precisely to be a SAHP. He likes to call himself retired and a SAHP,  most find it a very blurred line, there's not a whole lot of difference.

semiretired31

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #31 on: November 03, 2017, 07:14:13 AM »
I want to reply to this fully.... but I'm not sure I can do my wife justice.  She stayed at home for 8 years with the kids.  I could definitely see a world where our life would be better if she stayed at home now while the kids are in school.  The combination of depending on her for so much while I run around, travel and concentrate on work.  Not to mention... the flexibility to go travel with me at the drop of a hat. 

Keeping a house and managing our family's life is no small task.  I appreciate everything she has been able to provide for us and I think it makes us a happier/healthier family unit. 

I don't if I even contributed.  Maybe I just needed to get that off my chest... Heh.

HawkeyeNFO

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #32 on: November 03, 2017, 07:33:09 AM »
I'm 44 and retired last month.  I live in a very HCOL city's most expensive suburbs, and we have 3 kids.  It can be done, but it certainly is not the norm.  It takes years of planning and saving ahead of time to make it work.

John123

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #33 on: November 03, 2017, 08:56:05 AM »
My post was not intended to denigrate SAHPs at all, just saying that if both parents retire then they are both SAHPs by your definition.

I never provided any such definition.  Prairie Stash said my wife was a retiree because she is a SAHP.  I disagreed.  You responded and agreed with Prairie Stash that a SAHP is a retiree. I'm not sure why because most SAHPs do not consider themselves retired and many would take offense at the suggestion.  Hence, your denigration of SAHPs.
You took that in a weird way. How is being compared to an early retiree offensive? The entire goal of this forum is to achieve early retirement, in my case my dream of early retirement is to be a SAHP. Implying that either term is a denigration is a matter of perspective. I take both terms to be complimentary, that's my view of life though. If you find it argumentative to be presented alternate viewpoints, this forum isn't for you, however I'll accept your compliment. I appreciate that you find my views are dissenting from popular mainstream views.

Its a matter of perspective that you missed earlier. Far from being an insult, being an early retiree is a compliment (especially on this forum). Being able to have a SAHP is an achievement, not a cause of concern. I find it weird that you think being compared to a retiree is insulting, don't you want to also be a retiree and a SAHP? What is your personal goal here, is it to work forever or FIRE to spend time doing non-work? in your case presumably family related stuff?

If you read the original blog you'll see that the forum was founded by a person who retired precisely to be a SAHP. He likes to call himself retired and a SAHP,  most find it a very blurred line, there's not a whole lot of difference.

Yes, it's so weird isn't it.  Claiming someone who stays home to raise children is retired.  I think most SAHPs would disagree that they are retired.  The first definition of retired according to google is: 1. having left one's job and ceased to work.   The inference you make here is that SAHPs don't do any work. 

Just don't call my wife retired.  She works hard raising our family and now she has a part time job that she hates, but it puts on on a better path towards FI/RE, so she marches on.  Your initial troll post was unnecessary. 

I've think I've said enough about this.  I'll end my comments to this thread with this post.

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #34 on: November 03, 2017, 12:20:50 PM »
Good plan I hate the kids excuse.  They only cost as much as you personally make them cost. Like anything to some level that cost can be controlled and their life experience maximized

Lol...you must not have kids.  What about childcare?  In my case half our income vanished because we choose to have my wife stay home and raise our kids.  This was 8 years ago. She now works part time for a fraction of what she once made.  Sure, we could have paid someone else to raise them at a lower cost, but we had the means and this was the option we choose.

Food? Clothes? Healthcare? Sports? College? The list goes on.  They cost a lot.  Probably around $400,000 in lost wages alone at this point.

"your kids don't need food, clothes, or healthcare" - i am guessing that's the typical dogmatic response to this from forum members.

kids can be expensive, they can also be less expensive. the latter could be coined as "cheap" but it's relative, and it's not truly cheap.

seattleite

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #35 on: November 03, 2017, 05:50:39 PM »
I am looking for a couple of examples of people who have been able to retire by or around 40 while at the same time having kids. And I figure this place is the find the best examples. If anyone has a journal that they love that meets this requirement, blog, or their own personal experience, please let me know. 

I am trying to compile them to share with people when they say it can't be done (have a family and retire by 40ish)

I'm going to skip the entire discussion above and just answer your question. We FIREd this year, I am 40 and my wife is 41. We have two young children of preschool and elementary ages.

We moved from a very HCOL place on the west coast to a LCOL place closer to family. A big motivation for the move was to be closer to family while raising our children, but the LCOL and the ability to FIRE was a big deal for us too.

We are only a few months into it so I don't have a lot of experience with it and I'm not quite sure how it will go. One of my big scary questions for 2018 was health insurance. I sort of crossed my fingers and took a leap of faith that it would be alright. My COBRA for the family of four is $2100/month so I want to get off of that as soon as possible. It was a huge relief when I was able to run the actual ACA numbers for next year on Wednesday. We are going to be paying less than $400/month with much much smaller copays and deductibles and such. It will make it a looooot easier next year.

I find that the biggest opportunities to spend a lot of money for kids are: 1. Airline travel across the country (4 seats are a lot more expensive than 2 and you end up buying more expensive flights to avoid time spent traveling with the kids), 2. Healthcare (My wife and I are a bit trigger happy with the consulting the doctor thing so we are checking up on things a lot with the kids), and 3. Food (the amount they consume is tiny but they can be picky eaters so we end up buying expensive food like TJ's freeze dried mango because it will give us a moment of peace).

For us the first problem goes away by moving closer to family, the second is fixed with ACA (at least for 2018), and the third is fixed by me spending more time at home giving at least one adult the ability to think about preparing food without the kids antics shutting down our brains.


Northern gal

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #36 on: November 03, 2017, 07:45:52 PM »
This whole argument sounds to me like the Internet Retirement Police in reverse. Who gets to decide whether another person is "retired" or not?
.

I agree. My idea of early retirement involves spending time with my kids, engaging with my local community, cooking my own food,pottering around my backyard growing my own food.

Oh, these are all things a SAHP does and that would cost money to outsource? Oops. I guess I will not ever retire.






GU

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #37 on: November 03, 2017, 09:05:42 PM »
Getting there. I'm 36 and my wife is 34, kids are 6 and 8.  LCOL area and we make about $215k before taxes.  I'm down shifting to 4 days a week at the end of this month and plan to coast into ER at 39 or 40 as long as there are no surprises.

What do you do to make that sort of money in a LCOL?

CanuckExpat

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #38 on: November 03, 2017, 09:53:14 PM »
Going by John 123's definition there would be no such thing as an early retiree with children under 18. They would all be classified as SAHPs.

Can partially confirm, two SAHP/Retired People/Whatever here, with toddler and infant: some days make you miss white collar workplace..
Then again, no alarm clock nor asking for vacation days. Soon as we find daycare solution, we're all set ;)

EmFrugal

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #39 on: November 04, 2017, 05:51:48 AM »
My DH and I consider ourselves mostly retired because we left our corporate drone jobs to pursue careers we love and find fulfillment in. Yes, there is still a lot of work involved and it can be demanding at times, but it is work we absolutely love and that gives us meaning in our lives. His work as a government attorney generates income. My work as a mostly full-time parent does not, but my budgeting skills have saved us a lot. I did start my own small business as a fitness coach and work early morning. This bring in a small income and keeps me balanced.

Honestly, we are right where we want to be, choosing to work the jobs we have because they are our dream jobs and allow flexibility and a nice work-life balance. Neither of us view retirement as quitting work. It just means pursuing work we are passionate about. So I think a lot of it has to do with your perspective.

We are both 35 and have three kiddos. On our reduced salary (my now nominal salary and DH's switch from high-rolling private firm to government), we still have healthcare benefits, live in an amazing, walkable/bikeable community, and are able to continue saving half of our take home pay... Mostly to keep funding those 529's. Our older age retirement accounts are actually pretty set, but I imagine we will still be doing some part-time work 'til the end for fun because we like it.

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #40 on: November 04, 2017, 06:32:18 AM »
Getting there. I'm 36 and my wife is 34, kids are 6 and 8.  LCOL area and we make about $215k before taxes.  I'm down shifting to 4 days a week at the end of this month and plan to coast into ER at 39 or 40 as long as there are no surprises.

What do you do to make that sort of money in a LCOL?

Engineers make this. They have about 4 years on my wife and I we'll be at that easily in 2-3 years with dual engineer incomes
« Last Edit: November 04, 2017, 06:36:12 AM by boarder42 »

onewayfamily

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #41 on: November 04, 2017, 10:23:39 AM »
We FIRE'd about a year and a bit ago aged 28/29 with 2 kids. We're aiming for another 1-3 kids as well.
It's definitely doable! Everyone has a different journey and for some it's definitely a lot harder than for others. I'll say for us it was relatively easy as I'm Australian and I think that Australia offers very unique advantages for achieving FIRE.

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #42 on: November 20, 2017, 12:43:47 PM »
Thanks for all the examples.  I am going to link out to this for people that question me on this in the future. Hopefully, more and more will join the ER phase.  So many people reject the notion on the outset and I hope this helps change their paradigm even if just slightly. 


MrThatsDifferent

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #43 on: November 20, 2017, 01:00:08 PM »
Good plan I hate the kids excuse.  They only cost as much as you personally make them cost. Like anything to some level that cost can be controlled and their life experience maximized

Eh, I don't know about this. I feel that this could be true of any future kids I may have, but that is predicated on all of my kids being tiny little versions of myself.

Happy and healthy. Free of most major physical and mental ailments. Anti-consumerist. Very appreciative of alone time.

I have kids and while I do think they have slowed down my path to early retirement, I also think that people grossly exaggerate the extent to which kids impede financial success.

As far as the SAHP/retiree debate, I've always thought that some of it comes down to how bizarre of a euphemism Stay at Home Parent is. If you think about it, what the hell does that even mean? It usually means that someone has chosen non-income producing child- focused activities over income producing ones, which is a fine and worthy choice, but the "stay at home" part really does not capture what I think is intended, which is something closer to Professional Parent.

I personally like the word homemaker, because I think it is more descriptive and all-encompassing of the work involved. But that word really is denigrated at this point so we probably need to think of something else.

I love repositioning things, why not Professional Domestic Manager?

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #44 on: November 20, 2017, 02:09:33 PM »
We are close, see my signature... Like 4 years out.

We have 1 kid, and really only one stable income.

It can be done, don't worry about what others think or say.... I just don't bring it up anymore.

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Re: Examples of families being able to retire by 40
« Reply #45 on: November 21, 2017, 04:05:17 AM »
This whole argument sounds to me like the Internet Retirement Police in reverse. Who gets to decide whether another person is "retired" or not?
.

I agree. My idea of early retirement involves spending time with my kids, engaging with my local community, cooking my own food,pottering around my backyard growing my own food.

Oh, these are all things a SAHP does and that would cost money to outsource? Oops. I guess I will not ever retire.



This^ +1.  People get to caught up in the definition. We weren't 40. I was 50 and she was 46.  We were FI and decided to be Fire'd so we could spend more time with our 4 kids. And while we would be fine on ACA she took a job for just the Health Insurance reasons till this stuff gets resolved. It really hasn't changed things much other than its saves us about 5k a month doling out 3k a month and her measly pay BUT its all by choice and we would be fine the other way too. She likes it , its around our schedule so call it what you want but when you go to work when you don't have too? well that's pretty much fire'd to us.  And I agree with those with the argument about how much kids cost etc.. Its all about the decisions you make in how you raise them.  The can be as expensive as you want them to be or they can be pretty inexpensive. Ours all played /play sports. 2 in college but we also planned and saved in 529 s and the first 2 got scholarships so far. If tha'ts the way your looking at it then don't have kids its a sacrifice some of us are willing to make and well worth it.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!