I recently received a great comment on my post, Why All Rich People I Know Still Have Life Insurance. It was the last line that stood out. Here's what Marc had to say.
I had life insurance ($1M) through my employer back when I worked full time, but since I cut back to ~10 hours per week I no longer have it. My spouse still has hers through work (also $1M) for very cheap, but once she calls it quits in the next couple years we won't carry any more life insurance.
I'm not dogmatic about it like some of the pre-FIRE folks you mention, but we don't see any reason for life insurance in our case. We keep 3+ years worth of spending for our emergency fund in cash, so we avoid some of the concerns expressed in the article. That said, we do have an umbrella policy. Unlike our financial needs in the case of an untimely death, there is no ceiling on judgments due to one's personal liability, especially in a litigious state like California.
For context, we are in our early 50s with children in middle school and high school, south SF Bay Area. Net worth > $10M.
Marc and his family are obviously doing great. I’m also a fan of him only working 10 hours a week. Kudos to them. However, I still have yet to meet anybody in real life who is rich, has kids, and doesn't have life insurance. Although, I've met plenty of people online who say they'll drop their coverage once they stop working. But I'm still skeptical.
Saying you'll do something once you hit a milestone and actually doing it once you get there are two completely different things. Money is emotional, and we are creatures of habit. It's why the one more year syndrome exists.
But this post really isn't about whether you should keep life insurance once you're FIRE with kids. (Obviously you should, and Policygenius is the easiest way to get a no-obligation quote) It's about something bigger: whether to retire while your children are still at home, or wait until after they've left.
My view, if you can afford it: don't wait.
Retire When Your Kids Are Home, Work After They Leave
When I read that comment, a household worth over $10 million, with a middle schooler and a high schooler, and a spouse planning to call it quits in a few years, I was surprised. Personally, there is no way I would keep working if I had that kind of net worth and both my kids were within five years of leaving home for good.
We all know that by the time your child turns 18 and heads off to college, you've likely already spent the overwhelming majority of the in-person time you'll ever get with them. The widely cited “Tail End” analysis puts that figure at roughly 90% or more. After they leave, you're living off the final sliver.
And I already feel an incredible urgency about time in my late 40s. I can only imagine how much more fiercely I'll want to protect it once I'm in my 50s like Marc and his wife.
More Money Changes Nothing
Choosing to earn more money when I already have $10+ million, instead of spending more time with the people I love most, is a complete non-starter for me. I just don't understand how spending 40-60 hours a week to earn another $500,000 before taxes is going to positively change my life.
But I also understand that money and status are intoxicating and hard to walk away from. Meanwhile, some people have genuinely amazing jobs that fill them with joy, purpose, and passion. We all deserve to pursue what we want, not just what's best for our kids. So I get it. There's no single right answer here, only the one that fits your life.
I wasn't lucky enough to sustain my passion for finance after 13 years, so I wanted out. But I've been fortunate enough to keep my passion for writing alive for 17 years. I write before my kids wake up and while they're at school. It’s always satisfying to put idea to paper and hear from y’all.
The Conventional Path Versus The FIRE Path
There are two common ways people sequence career, money, and kids.
The conventional path: work, have kids once you've got some financial stability, keep working to provide for them until they finish college, then retire. Kids are expensive, time-consuming, and exhausting. Nobody denies that. And there's no upper limit to what you can spend on them if you let yourself.
The FIRE path: grind in your career and save and invest 50%+ of your income for 10 to 25 years, retire early thanks to passive income, travel the world and explore passion projects, then have kids. In theory, this gives you more time to be present and to build a stronger relationship. Then, once your children leave for college or work, you can ramp back up into full-time opportunities if you want to.
Both have real tradeoffs.
The conventional path often means having kids younger. As a result, you get to share a greater percentage of your lives together. That is by far the biggest advantage, and you feel it most in the second half of your life.
One of my own biggest regrets is having children late. Not only will I not be around as long, I also wasn't able to have more kids. The downside of the conventional path is more stress from juggling career and family, less energy, and sometimes weaker relationships and more tension at home.
The FIRE path usually means having kids later, because you're so focused on saving, investing, and escaping your career that there's no room for them yet. Then, when you finally pull the trigger, you may find it harder to conceive naturally because of biology. And when you do have kids, you won't get as many years with them as you'd like.
The flip side is you'll likely spend far more time with them during their first 18 years than you would have while working. You may also have more financial resources as a FIRE parent, which can make providing for your family less stressful.
So life is full of tradeoffs. There is no objectively better path. There's only the way things actually unfolded for you, and the way you wish they had.
The Hybrid Way Seems Optimal
My wife and I have a running joke: there's no need for both of us to suffer through the same hard thing.
So one way to balance career and family is for one person to grind for the big paycheck while the other stays home with the kids. This makes a lot of sense, especially since one parent at home eliminates childcare costs. Once your child is eligible for full-time preschool, you can decide whether to send them. Just know that full-time parenthood is harder than any banking job, so there's that.
The other hybrid version: one or both parents leave their full-time jobs after having kids and work part-time or on their own projects from home. COVID's greatest gift was normalizing remote work and, in effect, getting paid to be around your kids more. The money will be tighter and you'll likely pay the full cost of health insurance, but you'll never get these years back.
The Problem With Going Back To Work After The Kids Leave
The plan to FIRE before kids, spend their childhood with them, then return to full-time work once they leave sounds great in theory. But it has some obvious holes. The first hole is timing. Say you FIRE at 48 and have a child through IVF the following year, with your wife at 43. You'll be 67 when that child leaves home. Do you really think you'll have the energy and desire to go back to work full-time then? Probably not. And even if you wanted to, employers may not be lining up to hire a 67-year-old, the same way a life insurance company is unlikely to hand you a fresh 30-year term policy at that age at an affordable price. You have to FIRE by no later than 40 to make this work.
The second hole is wealth. After 18 years, you might be so wealthy that working for someone else feels completely illogical. You're already FIRE, which means you have substantial investments compounding for you. Eighteen years of growth at even just 8%, while withdrawing 3.5%, would more than double your net worth. So if your $10 million became $20+ million, why on Earth would you go back to work for less than $1 million a year at age 69?
The Main Solution To Having Both A Career And Family
For me, one year of full retirement was enough to know neither extreme worked. The answer was designing a lifestyle that gave me more control over my time.
A lifestyle business, consulting, writing, part-time work — anything that pays you while leaving you in charge of your own calendar. You get to be there for breakfast, school pickup, and the random 6:20 am snuggle, without giving up income or identity entirely. You don't have to choose between being present and being productive. You just have to design a life where the two stop fighting each other.
That's the whole point. Money buys you the option to be there. The real tragedy is spending your healthiest years earning money you'll never need, while that 90% quietly slips away.
It's also a big reason I'm writing my next book, Your Children Will Be OK: Helping Them Navigate An Uncertain Future (2027, Portfolio Penguin). The most valuable thing we can give our kids isn't a bigger inheritance. It's our time, our presence, and the confidence that they'll be fine. Money helps. But showing up is what they'll actually remember.
Readers, if you had a net worth of over $10 million, would you encourage your spouse to keep working full-time while your kids were still in middle school and high school? Are financially independent parents underestimating how much they'll miss their children, and how much they'll regret not spending more time with them, once the kids are gone? Why don't more parents who have the money retire with kids at home instead of after they are gone?
Know Exactly Where You Stand Financially
Debating whether to retire while your kids are still at home? First, know what you actually have. Sign up for Empower, my favorite free financial tool. I ran my 401(k) through its investment analyzer years ago. The result: I was quietly paying thousands a year in unnecessary fees on actively managed funds.
I switched most of the portfolio to ETFs and have saved over $50,000 in fees since. Grinding at a job you'd rather leave while bleeding money in hidden fees is a painful combination. You can fix it today, for free.
The cleaner your picture of your finances, the easier the real question gets. Can I afford to be more present right now, before time with the kiddos slips away?
Want a free financial review with Empower? Link over $100,000 in investable assets and you'll qualify. Check out this post for my full experience.
This question has been on my mind for several years as my net worth has reached 7 mio. As an expat on the old-style package it is hard to walk away. Private international schools plus activities cost $85k a year for 2 kids contributing to $250k a year in expenses. I work for a good organization that allows me to WFC, take plenty of time off allowing me to spend a lot of time with my children. I am an older father and happy it worked out this way. I do not have life insurance as the last time I checked buying life insurance in Asia was expensive. Maybe I should double check.
Still working, NW approaching $20m. My wife is no longer working, two middle schoolers.
I could retire. However the OMY is especially alluring in that I work in an AI adjacent field and thus times are amazing right now (very lucky to have two of these booms in a career), I work from home and can do what I need to in 20-25 hours a week.
I do a lot of drop offs and pick ups. I do practices. I cook dinner. I don’t travel much for work. We do travel as a family a lot, taking advantage of any time out of school.
Why continue? Honestly it’s hard to walk away in the middle of a boom. Someday soon it will end and I will have no regrets. For now, I find myself both in the ultimate FU position and liking my job. OMY is easy when it’s like this. We are very blessed to have this opportunity.
PS – no life insurance, we do have a healthy umbrella.
Loving / enjoying your job in a hot market is a dream come true. I’m glad at least your wife has the flexibility.
Might as well ride the boom until it’s over.
At some point, did you have life insurance? And if so, when did you drop it?
thanks
I don’t think it needs to be 10+; but I am aiming for 6…3 for nest egg, 2 for residence(s), and 1 for lifestyle purchases (a boat, world cruises, that Corvette ). Eventually move excess into a family foundation to support education, first housing, and business ventures. I’m ~ 4 NW now, mid 50s, 4 kids 3 grown 1 still at home. I’ve enjoyed your story since I found FS 10 years ago, I wish I had earlier, no big regrets other than I wish I had put a higher percentage of savings into after tax investments sooner. I downshifted job 3 years ago , less pay but work is more rewarding and is remote; have time to coach my sons high school golf team and be more involved in those last few years at home. I appreciate that you keep thinking, challengIng norms and yourself, and writing about it.
I retired at 38 with net worth around 7-8M. Had kids right around that time.
Wife retired in her late 20s few years before me. 5 years later now NW is up considerably (over 10M) strictly through held investments (typical 70/30 split).
Have a small side-hustle working from home 5-10 hours a week. 2 Kids (3 + 5). We’ve both been there for nearly every doctors appointment, school drop off, trip and birthday party so far in their life.
Zero interest in doing any more long hours work for money we will likely never need/use (outside of a passion/hobby that might bear some fruit).
Time feels more scarce then ever with myself and kids , as I’m approaching mid 40s.
Sounds like a great plan! can you share how you got to $7-8M by age 38? What were some of your investments and moves you made, including the industry you work in. Folks are always wondering how to boost their net worth.
Sure. Started a small start-up @ 30 (boostrapped / with very little investment) in the personal care space . Business threw off good rev/profits to save several M the next several years. Eight years later (@38) I sold the entire thing at peak revenue, yielding me another several M – while simultaneously freeing up my time 100% (wife quit work a bit before I sold). Took it all and followed simple bogleheads approach (70/30 porfolio) that I haven’t tinkered with at all since. Zero real estate or speculative investments of any sort (have been overly conservative my entire life).
Good stuff! Thanks for sharing.
This post comes at such an opportune time. I just quit my $300k job to stay home with my 4 & 2 year old children. $2.5mm NW, husband’s salary will cover living expenses. I already see their youth slipping by so fast. I hope I’m making the right decision walking away; it’s easy to have “one more year syndrome” knowing I could further cushion my family’s long term financial security.
Congrats! And when they go to school full-time, you can try to go back to FT work if you wish.
You will NOT regret spending max time with your kiddos before they go to school FT, I promise you this!
I did the same when kids were this age. It’s been 3 years and am a different person. Able to be present and alert for the kids, and apply my business acumen to them – the greatest product your family will launch.
I still worry about what happens in 15 years…will we run out of $ at age 80 with expensive care…but not enough to make me stop being in the kids life now.
$7M NW, late 40s
Great article, as usual, Sam. I am your outlier – my wife and I do not have term life insurance, only disability insurance, despite having two kids under 5 and not yet rich (but thankfully not HENRYs :). Why? Combination of our poor upbringing framing our perspective, keeping a global context of what wealthy means, limiting our expenses, and having a cash cushion.
Context: I grew up poor (dad was a housekeeper, mom was busy raising 4 kids) and my wife immigrated from a developing country, so “poor” really means something to us – not having seen it, but having lived it. I got breakfast cereal one a year on my birthday (bread, oatmeal the rest of the year), and was at Costco earlier this week looking over my cart and realized that 80% of the items I was buying would have been luxury purchases for my parents (including shopping at Costco). Existing in Canada or especially USA w/ 80K a year (maybe not in the bay area, but you can move) **IS** doing well by the standards of 80% of the world’s population. I felt that growing up, and feel that (to a far, far lesser extent because it is observational, not mandatory scarcity) every time we travel.
We are late 30s and soon-to-be-40. NW approaching 4M. Our household income is now ~1M/year (but only been this for the past 2-3 years, and will hopefully remain stable). We didn’t really start earning meaningful income until early 30s. Given our expenses are 180K/yr, and we could comfortably trim 50K off that by quitting our optional but highly luxurious nanny (more of a housekeeper and home organizer, though does care for kids too), it really comes down to burn rate. We have about 500K in cash. Only debt is 700K mortgage. We drive cheap domestic cars, have what feels like a luxurious house, and really do feel rich because we have an enormous heap of autonomy at our jobs and control much or our time. I am extremely grateful that I simply cannot relate with the “burned out corporate type” working under a micromanaging, domineering boss. If my boss became a psycho, I would just quit and take a year off to spend with our littlest while picking up some locum work – or not.
I struggle with choosing to continue working while having little kids – someone else can always get another MD, but I’m the only Dad. I find it ethically tough to convince myself to outsource 30 hours a week of childcare to somebody else so that I can have, maybe 40 million at age 70 (God willing I live that long) instead of 10 or 20M. Found it hard at 1M and 2M NW, so the compromise is part-time work about 3-3.5 days a week, which still means time not seeing my kids (I can’t flex my hours totally) but still see them a reasonable amount, and I have the insurance policy of staying in the workforce doing a job that I genuinely love and cannot believe I get paid basically 90K per day of the week that I work. It feels unjust knowing how hard my Dad worked for peanuts.
Balance all of this knowing that much of our wealth is in the stock market which would divide by 2 at any time.
As always appreciate your perspective; my only feedback would be to keep it global and recognize the almost comical degree of wealth we have in the west (while struggling in some ways with a much greater degree of “poverty” of other sorts). Also, working in healthcare, I see intimately most weeks how little comfort money really brings in a time of need, assuming the basics are there. And those basics are not always financial.
Keep up the great work.
J&A
$500,000 is a massive cash cushion. So I can see why you wouldn’t have life insurance. However, I still suggest you look into a policy. You might be surprised how cheap it is. And if you get sick later, the cost will be exorbitant or you might be uninsurable. You just never know. You can always cancel.
Part-time work is a good balance. It’s the hybrid approach that makes a lot of sense, especially once the kids go to school FT.
What does your wife do?
She is a surgical specialist and brings home the cash. I am also a specialist but non procedural hence much lower pay than her (well under half even adjusting for hours). We both love our work and key is owning her business rather than being a private equity buyout sucker. And that is with her leaving at 8am and home by 430 (when not on call).
Cool cool. Sometimes, I wish my wife brought home the cash too :) But she brings home lots of love.
Yes, owning your own business can be a great benefit. I’m a big fan.
Cash is love!
And ownership is the way. There was a great DOAC podcast with Chris Koerner recently – so many opportunities in the world now to create a business. I also think of the team at Doomberg, a finance/energy newsletter. $300/year ($1,200 for “pro” tier, whatever the hell that gets you), and with their subscriber count, works out to at least $10M/year+ revenue with minimal overhead and a team I surmise of no more than 5 or 6. Heck of a lifestyle business.
Sam – will take yours and Bill’s advice to my wife!
Yes, at their ages & given their income even $10 million combined in term life would not be a burdensome expense.
I am constantly tired after I get home at 5:45 PM. It would be nice to just be able to nap during the day and have energy for them in the evenings.
I think the key issue is inertia. If you’re not getting laid off and things are generally going OK, the easiest path is to just keep on working and keep on making that money and getting that Security. And the easiest thing is to come home and crack up a beer and watch the NBA finals while you trust your kids will do their own homework and spend time on their mobile devices. I know it’s not ideal, but I think that’s why for most people.
Inertia is tough to stop.
I definitely try to nap in the afternoon before the kids come home, and that’s especially after playing pickle ball or tennis, which takes a lot out of me nowadays.
I went to a conference about 40 minutes south of San Francisco for startups and by the time I got home, I didn’t wanna do anything. So I wonder if that endurance muscle simply builds if you have to work and take care of the kids after. It must.
Just over 13 million net worth, but I continue to work. Why? Largely because I enjoy my job. It’s easy to do (~ 25 hours per week), mentally engaging, and I still have time for my hobbies, which includes golf 2-3 times a week on weekday afternoons. My kids are now in college, but when they were younger, instead of playing golf in the afternoon after work, I was spending time with them after school. Overall, I’ve always believed in work life balance, and have rarely worked more than 40 hours a week. Nobody really notices how many hours are put in, so my recommendation would be to balance work with life and enjoy both by being present in whatever you are doing.
Cool. What type of job do you have and how much do you make?
I would certainly keep working if I enjoyed it, and my kids were already gone.
I work in the energy business and make about 800k. Half of that is equity compensation which has been a bit higher than normal in recent years, due to high electricity demand from utilities and datacenter companies.
Very nice. Is there a net worth target figure or retirement date you’re shooting for? Or given you enjoy your work, might as well go until you don’t?
10 million was my target and now I have passed that. My wife retired before we hit 10 million, once I assured her that compound growth would get us there very easily/quickly with just one income. Currently, my only real financial concern is whether or not my kids can make enough in the future (as you’ve covered in other articles). Thus, I justify my continued employment as “insurance” to make some good money for my kids future, especially since the job is enjoyable. Anyway, hard to say how long I will go, but probably only 2-3 years or the next recession, whichever comes first :). I’m hoping to develop an intellectual hobby (like your writing) to fill in the gap after I retire.
Cool. Just remember, the one more year syndrome is a sneaky devil!
10 million was my target, which I’ve passed. I suspect I will retire in 2-3 years or the next recession, whichever happens first. Your website has helped a lot over the years!
Interesting perspective. It’s true that time with one’s kids is a finite asset. It’s easy to focus on maximizing net worth, but being financially independent while your kids are still at home may provide a much greater return in memories and relationships than retiring after they’re already moved out. The challenge, of course, is finding the balance between financial security and not postponing life for too long.
We’re “retiring” to spend all our time with our kids as the first and only priority. And we don’t need a magic number, passive income simply needs to exceed living expenses. As soon as that threshold is met anyone can retire. We’re just shooting to do it before our oldest becomes a teenager.
And since we will be homeschooling and traveling full time, well have plenty to keep us busy.
After they move out and go to college and whatnot we can always figure out what we want to do, whether or not that means making more money or something else entirely.
Homeschooling and doing long travel is awesome and definitely a great way to grow up and spend time with children. We did 18 months of homeschool during Covid and it was a blast. Unfortunately, we felt uncomfortable traveling because we had a newborn as well. Homeschooling is so much more efficient than regular schooling. It’s crazy but parents need to have the discipline to teach.
Related:
https://www.financialsamurai.com/homeschooling/
It’s great advice to prioritize the limited and “priceless” time with family . But unless someone has earned enough by their forties (and has enough passive income annuities)…the job market for an older former banker/tech exec hasn’t worked fulltime in years is challenging.
Indeed. But what if your net worth was over $10+ million and you’re in your 50s with kids out of the house within 5 years? That’s the premise of this post.
I have had this internal debate myself in recent weeks – we don’t have NW > $10M yet but we’re very close to our FIRE number. Is working more at a job that I don’t love worth that much to me now vs spending the next 4 years with my rising high schooler enjoying his journey through adolescence? I find the time I spend with my son much more rewarding than stressing through another work day full of deadlines that are non-emergencies.
I can guarantee you time with family is far more valuable than more money, especially if you’re close to your FIRE number.
The thing is, there’s a high likelihood that your net worth will continue to grow post FIRE given investment returns have outpaced 4 to 5% for decades now.
Of course past performance is no guarantee of future performance. However, I can tell you straight up that after 14 years of FIRE, I am shocked by my own net worth growth, which has far past anything I modeled or imagined back in 2012.
And I do know that at almost 49 years old, time is way too valuable to waste doing something you don’t enjoy doing anymore.
“But this post really isn’t about whether you should keep life insurance once you’re FIRE with kids. (Obviously you should.)”
It’s not obvious to me. I don’t understand why you would keep paying for life insurance. If you are FIRE, what actual need is there for it? Or is it just to blunt the blow of you passing as a sort of feel better with this big chunk of money? Also, life insurance would be on top of the money from social security survivor’s benefits. My survivor’s benefits says it is over $5K a month until my kids age out.
Yes. Peace of mind and smooth out the transition during a very traumatizing event.
What Financial stage are you in and do you have a life insurance?
I see you mentioned in a previous post you have three kids and are still saving for public college. There are actually two stages that is worth testing. When will you retire? And then whether you will drop life Insurance. Because I know a ton of people who say they will retire or they have enough, but they never retire out of fear. And then they wake up 60 years old and wonder where the time went.
Check out: Why Every Rich Person Has Life Insurance
My wife and I have been doing the Hybrid model for many years now. She spent 7 years going back to school to pursue a degree in accounting and to study/pass CPA exams. She landed a 9-5 job for a couple of years, but she recently resigned to start her own accounting business. Meanwhile I have been grinding away on my government job. This setup allowed my wife to spend most of her time with our children and avoid child care cost.
I will be eligible to retire in 5 years at 55. By that time our daughters will be 14 and 12. That will give me time with them while they are in their middle and high school years before they go off to college.
My wife and I have been doing the Hybrid model for many years now. She spent 7 years going back to school to pursue a degree in accounting and to study/pass CPA exams. She landed a 9-5 job for a couple of years, but she recently resigned to start her own accounting business. Meanwhile I have been grinding away on my government job. This setup allowed my wife to spend most of her time with our children and avoid child care cost.
I will be eligible to retire in 5 years at 55. By that time our daughters will be 14 and 12. That will give me time with them while they are in their middle and high school years before they go off to college.
This is exactly what led to my early retirement.
I only get this ONE shot to be there for my kids when they are living in my house.
Thankfully, I had made enough to be able to call it quits.
Now I try to encourage young folks to start as early as possible, so that they have the same opportunity.
I used a glide slope approach.
Pre kids, I worked long hours then reduced overtime when our son was born. When he was 7, I switched to being a self employed consultant & have been slowly reducing hours ever since. He is now in high school, & I consult ~10 hrs/week.
We have more than 10m and dh works full-time in our mid to late 40s. Our kids are 16 and 13. I work part time. He chooses to work because he is bored. Our kids are at school all day and there isn’t much to do..they are gone from 715 am to 5 pm most days and the 16 year old drives themself to and from. So during his week off of work not in school break he was super bored.
We take every school break off traveling but you can’t travel in high school and middle school off break unless you home school. So what are you going to do? Sit at home or have hobbies? Great.
But he spent years working because we had the kids earlier. And the best years were being younger parents with them. We are more energetic and we almost had a 3re but a miscarriage happened. Then we decided to stop.
How do you fire when you have kids so young? We had them before you fired at 33. We were done by then. And honestly it’s pretty awesome. I look forward to maybe having grandkids when I am young enough to run around with them. Another plus to earlier parenting.
Yes you have no money to fire but lots of people have kids without money. You don’t need millions to have kids. In fact we had very little having just finished grad school. But having kids early was the best
And now we fly first class and do amazing trips with them.we did amazing trips with them from when they were young it just cost less
So he doesn’t want to stop working. He himself said he’d be bored sitting at home. Our only hobbies? Were raising kids. We didn’t have time in our 30s and 40s to have hobbies. Kid stuff took up all time. We spent all our time with our kids. And I did not work for 7 years after having the first. And even then I work only part time. So we could have hit the $10m faster if I had. But why? We had enough and have enough. I didn’t expect us to make so much and do so well
I hope my kids have kids so I can be like my mom a young grandma. Think about it Sam. Having kids later means if they follow your path will you be around to see the grandkids? So is it better to wait to be fire for kids? Or just have them when you Are stable and in a stable relationship? Is money everything?
Sounds like the perfect arrangement. Congrats! If you don’t mind sharing how you made your first $10 million by 40, I think a lot of folks would appreciate some perspective and tips.
Given you don’t work and mentioned you don’t have hobbies, what is it you do when the kids are in school? Marc’s wife (comment from top of post) still wants to work a few years and then plans to retire. So maybe you can give her some ideas
Glad your DH is grinding at work to make more money and you guys are good with it. That’s all the matters. Is there a target net worth you’re shooting for?
I’m always exhausted after a long days work. To then have to prepare food and do homework with the kids is tough. Often times, I don’t have the energy to have the patience to work with my kids to do their homework so I let them do it on their own. But of course, they aren’t as disciplined as I’d like. So I’m thinking about retiring early as well while my kids are in middle school. Help develop their foundation for a more independent life ahead.
This post hit me harder than I expected on a Tuesday morning while I’m eating lunch at my desk for the third time this week.
I have two kids, ages 7 and 10, and my husband and I both work full time. We’re nowhere near $10M, but we’re doing okay. And I still lie awake at night thinking about how little I actually see them. Not just “in the same house” see them, but really present, actually paying attention, not mentally drafting emails while they tell me about Minecraft.
The “Tail End” stat about already having used 90% of your in-person time with them by 18 should be illegal to publish. I read it and had to close my laptop for five minutes.
We keep telling ourselves “just a few more years.” Just get to the next raise. Just pay off the car. Just make it to summer. Meanwhile my daughter stopped asking me to watch her gymnastics practice because she already knows the answer.
I don’t have a FIRE number yet. But this post made me start calculating one. That’s something.