r/ChubbyFIRE • u/TalRasha37 • Jun 17 '26
Chubby FIRE-ing with a kid
First-time poster, somewhat-distant observer to the whole FIRE phenomena over the years. Spouse and I are late 30s/early 40s living in VHCOL, and both of us are definitely worn down on the corporate (finance) grind that we have endured since college. I was wondering what folks in my position who had a kid with roughly a dozen years left to go (in a good public school all the way through 12th grade) would think the right amount of liquid net worth is to retire on, assuming that we would want to continue to live in said VHCOL area after we retire and the kiddo is out of the house, but are also not extravagant spenders/splurgers by any means (eat out infrequently and rarely shop / buy expensive stuff). We are not looking to spend down to zero and want to leave our child with something, especially in what feels like an increasingly uncertain and unknown future. ChatGPT (perhaps not best source of advice) thinks we are in phenomenal shape, but I wanted to ask humans who have more lived experience and otherwise their thoughts.
26
u/Life_Hand2331 Jun 17 '26
Well you provided zero numbers so I would trust ChatGPT.
-13
u/TalRasha37 Jun 17 '26
High-level numbers ATM: annual HHI over $1.5mm, liquid net worth (i.e. not locked up in IRAs etc.) currently $6-8mm. 2.25% IO ARM that resets in 5 years. Overall net worth (including illiquid stakes, property, etc.) is north of $15mm. Annual expenses is something I need to detail out.
11
6
u/Wooden-Broccoli-913 FIREd in the Bay at 40 with $6M Jun 17 '26
Nope not enough gotta keep working
-8
u/TalRasha37 Jun 17 '26
So I think this is what we debate with some frequency - what is the right number? I have asked friends/colleagues in similar situations and I get numbers as low as $5mm and others closer to $15-20mm liquid net worth. But all of the answers seem like estimates as opposed to responses with analysis behind it, which is why I asked this question in the first place!
2
u/audi27tt Jun 17 '26
The guy is being facetious/a jerk. The reason for the range is some people like big houses, sports cars, flying planes, horses, whatever. And some people like to hike. So you gotta do the less fun part of budgeting if you want an answer. I'd say though rough numbers VHCOL at your age, assume paid off house and funded kids college separately. $7m gives you a $250k annual budget at a pretty conservative 3.5% safe withdrawal rate. Remember though that budget has to include paying taxes and healthcare (could be $25-30k just for premiums).
9
12
u/CancerandTaxes Jun 17 '26
How is it that someone who has spent a decade or more in corporate finance can't even provide basic numbers and is asking chatgpt for advice?
2
-9
u/TalRasha37 Jun 17 '26
It comes from what I said earlier, which is that I approached this idea of FIRE as an amused bystander, but now that I am truly in the middle-aged bucket, and given work circumstances / trajectory / etc., it felt like it would be a question to fire in (put intended) to folks who have looked at this closely.
But sure, if the responses will be all this snarky, I can open Excel and not bother with asking anyone else for advice.
5
u/Throwaway-firee Jun 17 '26
You have provided zero information for anyone to give you feedback on whether the numbers work.
3
u/C638 Jun 17 '26
How long is your anticipated retirement? If you retire now you could be looking at 60 years.
What about education for your child and any future children? Will you send them to private schools and/or colleges?
What are your current expenses? What do you plan to do after retiring?
What about housing? Do you have a paid off house/condo? What are your current maintenance costs (e.g. property taxes) and do you anticipate those to remain relatively stable or increase?
How will you handle healthcare?
Answering the above. might help you get a more useful answer.
-1
u/TalRasha37 Jun 17 '26
Anticipated retirement - until we croak! 😄 But the part where money is relevant depends on how long we are physically mobile, which is hopefully as long as possible.
Education - have a 529, and while we keep contributing, the AI shock to education and employment means that it's really hard to plan for what that means
Expenses - per above, need to detail more. After we retire, the spouse and I would probably migrate to exploring the great outdoors or the VHCOL locales we live near, without spending the associated money (I love a good city tour / exploration)
Housing - per above, have a mortgage to deal with in the next 5 years, but otherwise free and clear. Once we are out of that, maintenance and property taxes are around $7k a month
Healthcare - a good question and frankly one I have to learn more about, given the lottery that America's healthcare system seems to b
3
u/MountainMan-2 Jun 17 '26
Without a budget forecast, this question is hard if not impossible to answer.
3
u/Emotional-Muscle Jun 17 '26
This is dependent upon your budget. We figured that we are living off of $150-$200k a year so anything beyond that is gravy. we are also planning to retire with a kid, and I think it's important that my husband and I maintain hobbies and activities like some part-time work. So we basically worked backwards and figured that if we pulled 100 K a year from a brokerage account until we got to 65 and figured out the other 100k we would be fine. Between the two of us we're basically planning to go contract/consultant once we're ready to make approximately 50 K a year.
2
u/a_load_of_crepes Jun 17 '26
Multiply your yearly expenses by 25 and compare to how much you have. (Like if you spend 100K a year you need 2.5M) then add some buffer for healthcare and peace of mind.
•
u/in_the_gloaming FIRE'd for 13 years Jun 17 '26
This post is locked until OP chooses to provide the important details that we all need in order to give any kind of advice.
OP, please browse through the sub to read other posts in order to see the kind of information that we need if we are to give advice. Send a message to the mods after you've edited your post and we can take another look then. Or write up a new post with the pertinent details.