Topic Title: Reader Case Study Semi - RE and let my assets grow or keep working?
Life Situation: 30yo MFJ. 1 child (6mo) planning on a couple more before were done.
Gross Salary/Wages: Me: $107,000 Base 15% yearly bonus; SO: $75/hr Works PT. LY W2 $108,000
Pre-tax deductions 401k: $36,000 (employers match an additional $10K/year). HSA: $6750.
Adjusted Gross Income: LY $170,000
Taxes: Approx. $50,000.
Monthly take-home: Averages $10,000/month
Current expenses:
Rent: $1,200
Charity: $600
Child Care: $600
Car Payment: $533 (0% APR; 1 year left)
Travel: $430
Groceries: $375
Restaurants: $300
Utilities: $150
Student Loan: $125
Phone: $112
Professional Licensing: $100
General Merch: $100 (mostly wedding gifts and some baby supplies LY)
Insurance: $83
Pet: $75
Gym: $60
Entertainment: $50 (Shared Netflix account and some Redbox rentals)
Monthly Expenses: $4,931/month
Expected ER expenses: Approximately $4,000/month without loans, licensing, and smaller cell phone/charity bill
Assets:
401K: $157,000 VSTAX and S&P tracker (0.05% ER)
Savings Account: $18,000 at 1% for Home down payment in a couple years
HSA: $9,750
Brokerage Acct: $30,500
Roth IRA: $16,500
529: $24,050
Total: $255,750
Liabilities:
Student loan: $18,000 3.4% (we're currently discussing emptying the HDP savings account and finally getting rid of this loan - it's what's remaining from our $125,000 of grad school loans)
Car Loan: $6400 0%
Total: $24,400
Specific Question(s): Since our first child was born, my wife has scaled back to 3 days a week. Shes still health insurance and 401K eligible. We tested it last year, and we can live safely off of her income alone. Im at a fork in the road where I can either work another 7-10 years and get fully FIREd. Or, we could grind out another 3-5 years at our same savings rate of approximately $120,000/year and then scale back to the SO working 3 days a week (Id also work PT for a local non-profit Ive been plugged in to as a volunteer for a couple years which would add an additional $10K+ a year). At which point, we would cover only our living expenses and let our investments do all the heavy lifting for another decade; fully retiring at the ripe old age of 45.
My question for the MMM community is two-fold:
1. Have I overlooked anything major?
2. Would you rather work hard for 10 years for full FI, or would you choose to work hard for half the time but be forced to do some sort of more enjoyable but still paid work for an additional 5 years beyond what you would have been forced to do? That was pretty wordy. 2 choices:
10yrs hard work
5yrs hard work. Then another 10yrs of PT more enjoyable work.
Im leaning towards the latter because it helps mitigate the health insurance concerns we have, and it gets both of us out of full time demanding jobs while our kids are still young.
Thanks for the input!