Found this blog last week and it is such a help. It is really just what we have been looking for as far as financial advice and we are so happy to find like-minded souls. Can't say enough about MMM!!!!
I am a SAHM of two children, ages 8 and 10. My husband and I are both teachers. We're 46 years old. I worked full-time up until our children were born. I then stayed home full-time for eight years. When our youngest entered school full-time, I began supplementing our income by doing long-term sub gigs (pay is decent for temp work, but not as much as I'd get as a contracted teacher) and part-time tutoring jobs.
I have thought about going back full-time, but my subbing gigs have made me question that for many reasons. One is that it was pretty crazy having two full-time teachers in the house. Yeah, summers off are great, but good teaching requires a 50 hour work week, more if you really want to be amazing. Plus when your own kids get sick, it means scrambling for a sub and writing plans. And....it can be very stressful, although also very rewarding.
Anyway, I've been trying to decide what to do, as I love teaching, but it is a HUGE time and energy commitment to do it full-time. And I just don't know if I have it in me to do it the way I want to with two kids of my own.
But come to find out,thanks to this blog, it seems like we might be at FI already, which gives me some flexibility as to what I'll do. Despite the fact that we were living solely on my husband's income for 8 years, we managed to stay out of debt and continue saving and investing. We lived very frugally but enjoyed life very much in a nice home, nice town, etc.--not a McMansion, but a nice 280k home in a university town.
Currently, based on MMM's formula, my husband could retire now. When we multiple our yearly expenses by 25, we end up with less than what we currently have saved and invested!!! Who knew? we thought, well actually we had no idea how much we really needed to retire. thought it was more like a million, at least. AND...That doesn't even include his teacher's pension. He doesn't want to retire until at least age 55, though, so we have at least 9 more years to accumulate our retirement fund.
To top it off, my husband has inherited about 380k from his mom, who passed away last year. We are thinking of paying off our mortgage with this, which leaves another 130k cash for investing and paying for our children's college educations.
I should confess that two years ago, we purchased two brand-new Hondas (civic and crv) to replace our clunkers which were on the verge of dying and very unsafe to drive. I know...we should have bought used again, but we were 44 years old and really feeling like a new car would be nice. Well, I was, anyway. My husband would have been happy with another used car, but he enjoys the CRV now. However, after reading this blog, we may sell the crv and buy a cheaper used car. Interest on our loans is 1% but still.
So is this really possible? I mean, we have been been living frugally for so long it is now a way of life. We don't feel we have missed too much. Really, being able to stay at home with my children was priceless. The main things we think about spending money on now are home repairs and remodeling.
We never expected to get to FI this fast. And if we hadn't found this blog, I might have taken a full-time job without really needing to right now. But I keep thinking that there must be something we missed with the math. We really have no other debt, other than our cars and mortgage (mortgage is 3%). No student loans, no CC debt, nothing.
On thing...when we did the x25 thing, we weren't sure whether or not to include our mortgage payment, because for one thing, we may pay it off early with the inheritance, and we weren't counting the inheritance in our assets at that point. We were just using our retirement funds as a basis for the calculations. And, even if we didn't pay it off, we would invest the money elsewhere and have the mortgage paid off before my husband retires from teaching.
Any thoughts? I am also curious to hear about other families with one primary wage-earner. I always thought I would go back to work full-time someday. Now I am thinking it isn't necessary. I am wondering, why lead the crazy double-income with kids life if we don't have to? I will find something to do at least part time eventually, because I feel I need it for my own self-esteem and a feeling of contributing something to our household. Something financial, that is! I believe I contribute plenty with the housework, cooking, childcare, etc., and having me home really frees up my husband to focus on his work, and makes life easier for us all. Not to mention that I really like not having to rely on babysitters and after school care.
Any thoughts most welcome!