If we add a little self-sufficiency to the equation, it trims back the cost of early retirement even more.

And, I would suggest that retirement isn’t necessarily the classic example of golfing and sea cruises. I think retirement is doing what you want, when you want, where you want, for whom you want and for how much. There is no reason retirement can’t be defined as leaving the rat race behind and getting involved with a new start-up operation of your own that pays less at first but has great potential for future revenue.

Clair

And if you’re really a frugal person, it would be difficult to walk away from a well-paying job to just sit at home and live frugally. You would know that working that extra year or so more will keep drastically increasing your savings. And then you end up working until you’re 60 or 65.

the real goal is the ability to retire when you want but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you would walk away. You might even enjoy working at that time. The older you get, your leisure time changes. You wouldn’t be 50; retire and then hang with your buddies each night at the bar. you may want to participate in something like golf everyday, but that would blow your frugal living aspect.

But all in all, I like the idea of trying to save for 30x your annual expenses.

So, I’m just saying I guess, that kids’ education won’t necessarily cost you 150K – I think it’s crazy to expect that you would save up all that X your #of children. It can be a good thing for the “kids” to start learning how to pay their own costs, too.

Not if they get sick.

My parents would have paid for me, if they had had the money. They helped — but they had four kids, and not enough to go around. I have a little more (not by much I’m noticing lately, though, even with 2 incomes), and most likely will only have 2 kids. So I’ll be able to swing it a little better.

When I look at how cheap my state education was, it truly was a bargain. If you live at home and go to a state school, that is the easiest way to afford college. But most people seem to want to leave home and experience the whole thing. That at the least doubles the cost of school. 4 years of school without board, in my state, runs about $28K, which would be no problem at all to provide — with dorm room, about $50K, a little harder, but still no problem. 2 kids, about $100K.

I’ve put a little bit into a 529, but I’ve been hearing that the less the child has in their name, the better for scholarships, etc.., so most likely I will just take the money out of my own savings at the time.

If you get focused on the mortgage too soon, you’ll have too much money tied up in something that isn’t liquid. This isn’t a good position to be in if you lose your employment. My approach centered on paying off the mortgage in a single year after several years of savings. That allowed me to see clearly that it was comfortable to do so and still have plenty of cash reserves.

Also, I only held the mortgage for 3 years. If you start looking at the extra cost of financing for even another 10 years, it’s clear that getting out of the mortgage early is a big money saver.

Clair

Fast-forward 20+ years and I’m trying to do whatever it takes for my kids to get a 4 year degree without loans. Truth is, I hated every minute of my college experience. I’d get off work at 6:00 from a stressful job and drive to school. Wouldn’t get home until after 10:00 at which time I’d start studying for the exam for the next nights class. Not a fun time, but my company paid 50% of a very expensive private university, so that was basically the only way I could get it done. When my daughter complains about not having enough time for this or that class (she works 15 hrs a week), I just can’t relate.

There are a lot of people that do college the hard way, hopefully my kids won’t have to do it that way though.

I encourage investment for students– ones in which they have to refurbish and put their sweat and $$$ into renovations. Kids need to learn how to deal with something concrete and they will learn so much if they have to manage where they live.

Hopefully I’ll be “released” one day as property manager extraordinaire. Kids are for life.

Ha, too bad that’s not true or we’d all have another 13% a year to save….

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This quote made me giggle. All my siblings are still at home despite the eldest being 24. I feel sorry for my parents, but my siblings can’t afford to buy and so are living at home to save on rent and amass a deposit. Meaning my parents are left with the financial implications of them doing so! Not easy considering there’s three of them.

P.s Love this blog, I’ve been a lurker for a long time but never commented before. I’m 25 so a little younger than you but all the same I appreciate the advice/knowledge/experiences you’re sharing!

People who went to private school tend to value it more. People who went to public school tend to think that it worked out fine for them. I know very successful people either way. It’s very hard to separate the results from the inputs.

Where did I ignore compound interest? One example assumed no return after-inflation, and one assumed a 3% after-inflation return.

If it is true, then what are you buying at those places? That would be terrible to spend that much money and not get a commensurate increase in the quality of education.

However, I am one who thinks that you do get what you pay for in education. I’ve gone to a state school and an ivy league and my classes at the ivy league were far and away better than the ones at the state. I also got my very first (and very good) job out of college solely due to the ivy stamp on the resume. If you can market yourself enough to get into a superb college you can market yourself enough to get a great job after. Once you are over age 50 you might forget how much of a difference that college name and superior education made in your life. Now that’s just one take on it but I feel it is very valid. There are others who say it is just as good at a community college but I just taught a class at one and I don’t agree. For one thing, my laptop was faster than the studen’ts lab computers!!!

Does anyone feel differently? That a high-cost private college is really “worth” the extra money?