I’m an active forum member, but I’ve created a burner account for this question due to information about my job I do not wish to have tied to my regular username. Hope that’s ok.
I am 32. My husband and I think we would like kids, but not yet.
I work for a business that I helped to start. The business has a guaranteed workload until I turn 38 years old, at high profit levels. At that point the business will close, as we have fulfilled our obligations to our clients, and the boss wants to retire. (Nothing is ‘guaranteed’, I know, but I can only work with the very good facts I have at this time, so that’s what I’m doing).
If I stick it out until I am 38 I will have funded our retirement accounts such that we can retire comfortably at 55 without me having to ever work again.
There is a significant possibly of a payout for all the years I put into the business. Obviously it is not guaranteed, and I wouldn’t want to take it for granted, but the boss has always said he would ‘see us right’ at the end. I would guess around £100k (and it's an educated guess because I look after all the finances and have 10 year's experience dealing with this guy). I mention this because I would hate to leave to have kids at 37 and not get this ‘golden goodbye’.
Assuming I didn’t get a final payout, my husband would be 40 when I ‘retired’ and he would have to work until he was 55. This is based on his current salary, with no pay increases, which is unlikely, but I like to be cautious.
Should we get a payout, it would pay off our mortgage. This would give us a surplus yearly income of £10k, and we would be spending about £19k in retirement, so for each year two years he worked my husband could retire about a year earlier.
The issue with all of this is my biological clock. Having kids is never guaranteed, you can’t just order them up and 9 months later they appear. And, the later you leave it, the harder it may become. Also, there is increased risk of problems with the pregnancy or the health of the child.
Also, we would ideally like 2 kids. If all went perfectly to plan I suppose that would mean delivering one at age 38 the day after the company closes (ha!) and one at age 39/40, which sounds very late to me. But, things like this rarely go as planned, and, of course, we have no data points as to how easy (or hard) we might find it to conceive. (Does family history have any bearing? If so, that would help, as we have parents, brothers and cousins who conceived LITERALLY on their first attempt).
Mustacians, with your collective experience, is it worth delaying kids so that 1) i never have to work again and 2) my husband can join me in retirement after 15 years (or 10 if I get a pay off)?
If I gave up work now to have kids we would have 8 years of retirement funded and my husband would have to work until he was 68 whilst finding some way to meet the shortfall of £4400 from age 68 until 8 years before death. Presumably that would mean me going back to work for much lower pay (I would not wish to be involved in starting another company during the heavy child-rearing years, plus I was in the right place at the right time with this one. The original idea and impetus was not mine).
Me going back to work is not ideal because while my husband really enjoys working, I hate it, plus my earnings at present are ridiculous for what I do, due to being involved in setting the company up. I would be very very lucky to earn half of what I do now, for twice the hours elsewhere, and that's without taking into account childcare, or a potential break in employment to wait until these (imaginary) kids are in school. Taking a career break and staying this involved (read: big salary + bonuses) in my current company isn't looking likely (and I don't want to debate the justice/injustice of that. This company has treated me amazingly).
Thanks for sharing your collective wisdom.