Balance FI vs. legacy building/giving

[Livethedream]

As my wife and I have been talking about what FIRE would look like for us, we seem to get stuck when it comes to passing on a legacy and being able to donate “lots” of money over the course of our life. We’re just not sure what this will look like. Trying to figure out what our FIRE amount is seems much harder when we have these extra goals of wanting to pass on significant assets to our children and donate to causes we like.

Example, Say i would work 5 more years past our proposed fire date but it would add 250,000. If this money is set aside for X amount of years it could be worth XYZ and be used for above mentions.

I guess much of it comes down to willingness to work longer for these things, just struggling to find a balance.

[2Cent]

That is quite admirable.  But consider you probably won't be leaving your kids anything until they are about to retire themselves. I would instead include the same budget for giving in your living expenses as you are having now. Then that is just included in your expenses and the calculation becomes simple again. Or maybe you could mentally retire and just donate your paycheck to charity for a few years until you feel it is time to stop.

[sokoloff]

We plan on paying for undergraduate college (my wife's #1 priority), on giving them a small amount as they start adulthood, and then aren't making anything more an overt goal. (The reality is that in 95+% of scenarios, we will end up with an estate or giving opportunity of multiple millions of dollars, by the natural variability of personal/defined contribution retirement savings.)

I am certain to work past my minimum FIRE date (as that is already in the rear-view mirror) because I enjoy my job and the kids are in elementary school anyway. That is what's allowing us to expand our plans to full college and small "get started" gift.

We'll make the call on other giving as we get older and see how things are developing. I don't think I'd work years longer at a job I didn't love for the sole purpose of increasing my giving, but I personally don't have to answer that question.