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fourkids

61yo + good nest egg + healthcare job + Covid = Retire Now

fourkids

Please try counseling first. Make an appointment today. So many of my 40ish couple friends are going through such hard times this year. The whole COVID situation, stress upon working parents, remote learning stress (ugh), etc. is just too much for couples to handle right now, and we are taking all o...

fourkids

If it will make you feel better, get it.

Or retire, if you are vested in your pension already- which most teachers are by age 58/62.

Or can you take a year leave of absence? Some friends and families are teachers and have take leaves of absence in the past for non-medical reasons.

fourkids

I’d make your adult son(age 20?), figure it out himself.

Or perhaps a used moped or motorcycle? Bumming rides off friends? Uber for farther trips?
First lesson in real adulthood

fourkids

Camry. Best selling car in America for a reason.
Ours is 12 years old and has been flawless.

fourkids

Coulda woulda shoulda
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all be rich.

Stop looking in the rear view mirror, just move forward.

fourkids

I would lean towards working that extra year, to get that healthcare benefit. That's huge However, try to cut the amount you commute by cutting your work days per week. My spouse is an academic with a long commute also, but always schedules Fridays off. Can you schedule all your classes in 3 days, l...

fourkids

I've read several times recently that: the single biggest determinant to long-term happiness is having meaningful relationships. connections with people. It makes sense. You should reach out beyond your introverted comfort zone (I know, I'm one too) and join some groups to search for some like-minde...

fourkids

Absolutely DON’T QUIT. You have the best of both worlds now. Don’t mistake meal planning, prepping, errands, volunteering at school etc as “quality family time”. It’s not. It’s unpaid female labor. Take a portion of your very good salary and outsource absolutely everything that is not direct time sp...

fourkids

Rerod- you work at U of I. All employees are pension eligible. How much will your pension be at age 55 or at age 60? This is important info that you left out

fourkids

I was in a similar position years ago. Turned it down. good decision. Reasons you should turn it down: Open office space- yuck, especially for private work that needs to be done as Controller. same salary- always get a raise. don't leave for a risky tech company, unless you believe they have a great...

fourkids

It's all about what allows you to sleep well at night.
To each his/her own.

and having a "decent pension" is a luxury most of us don't have.
If I don't get it right, I could have 0 income at age 80 or 90.

fourkids

your last chance to go somewhere fun before kid #2 arrives. Logistics get harder after that. Skip a kid trip- your 2yo won't remember it anyway. Do something fun for YOU. Try Nashville. 9 hr drive. warm. kid-friendly enough St. Louis. also fun, but not quite as warm. all other Midwest cities (Chicag...

fourkids

We love our minivan... for 4 kids. With 2 kids, a sedan is just fine. Your wife will not "need" to sit in the backseat with your kids for long. Only consider the minivan if: you drive another couple or family around at least once a month. otherwise they can drive their own car. you haul lo...

fourkids

Go back. Often, workers think the grass is greener elsewhere and it just isn't. you swap one group of problems for another. I quit a job once after 2 weeks, and simply told them it wasn't a good fit and not what I expected. I'll never get another job there, but it didn't tarnish my reputation at all...

fourkids

Sounds like you want your cake and to eat it too. You got a low GPA, you want low stress, etc. To an outsider (and perhaps a boss), it seems like you don't want to have to work too hard. The successful people I know in accounting/finance put in some very hard work in their 20's to get certified, gai...

fourkids

The U.S. and many other jurisdictions are enacting more robust KYC (know your client) rules and regulations that make it harder and more costly for banks and other financial institutions to have certain clients (especially foreign). Therefore, it is absolutely understandable why Chase or any big ban...

fourkids

giving 2 weeks notice is the right thing to do.
most reputable companies pay the 2 weeks. if not, worst case is you have extra unpaid time off between jobs
Absolutely DO NOT cancel your vacation for any reason. You don't owe them any more than 2 weeks.

fourkids

spend the next 3 days full-time researching as much as possible and make your decision in the required 3 days. no decision is ever made with perfect information. -if 2 are close, make respectful counter offers for both (either for a bit more money, vacation time, benefits), but don't say you are eva...

fourkids

kids rubber bath toys
bathroom soap dish
kitchen sponge- to disinfect

fourkids

Yes... but only if you don't succumb to the higher level lifestyle and spending of your neighbors in the HCOL area. Expensive houses, cars, vacations, kids activities, outings, etc. are all extremely commonplace in HCOL areas, so you have to willfully buck the trend, otherwise your savings rate can ...

fourkids

As I recommend to all my working mom friends in similar situations- Ask your employer to drop down to part-time before you EVER just fully quit your job. Many mom friends have struck a good balance with work when they go down to 3 days per week. having 2 days at home solves a lot of family juggling ...

fourkids

to maximize your professional learning
to challenge yourself intellectually
to avoid boredom
if you are passionate and great at your job, to fulfill your highest potential

the money doesn't hurt either... especially when it can help achieve a much earlier retirement

fourkids

Godot- are you being deliberately obstinate by quoting the OP's entire post?

fourkids

I agree, I hate quoting long test strings. It simply wastes so much space on a page and actually makes a thread harder to follow.

Is there a way to turn off viewing quotes?

fourkids

Career is a marathon, not a sprint.
1 hour commute, plus the loss of work from home is terrible. not worth the $30k increase.
when you're working and have young kids, your most valuable asset is time. don't give it up.
you can go for the promotion in a few years

fourkids

Great grid.
I just looked at my budget, and how funny that my "savings" is exactly 29% and my "housing" is exactly 14%.
I guess I really am a super saver. Yay me.

fourkids

your future career growth is the biggest determinant to your future wealth. Don't waste time on other futile exercises.
work hard, get promoted, seek bigger opportunities, pursue more education as needed.
at age 50, if you make $900,000, you'll be much better off than if you made $100,000.

fourkids

we have a 4000sf+ house. It's a PITA. I miss my old 3200sf house.
Get the "smaller" house.

fourkids

$8800.
you do not want to move. this is an inconvenience to you. you shouldn't be put out in any way. you many have to move to a hotel and keep your stuff in storage until you find a new apartment you really want to sign a new lease on. all this stuff is not cheap or insignificant.

fourkids

Having the option to take time off of work, and go back to your same job is a gift. Take it. Spend some time with your baby.
Can you do it again if you have a 2nd child? Many parents I know wait to take time off until their 2nd child comes along, because it saves on double the childcare expenses.

fourkids

my advice is stop while you're ahead. trying for a 3rd can result in twins (like us), health problems (for mom and/or kid) I would heavily discount advice from people who's kids are already grown. Raising a kids/teens now is much different due to the invention of smartphones, social media, a vastly ...

fourkids

Congress passed a law in 2016 to ensure that families with kids under 13 could sit together, called the "Families Flying Together Act", as one Congressman said “to put an end to the absurdity of toddlers sitting separate or unattended on an airplane — requiring airlines to plan ahead so th...

fourkids

Always buy in the good school district. your house is much more likely to retain/increase its value that way.
$50k/yr for 12+ years of private school tuition could pay for a lot of house

fourkids

Mlm wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2019 3:00 pm I would stay put and maybe buy bunk beds in the future.

Yep, bunk beds are great, and sharing rooms are great. Kids love to have company, otherwise they will be coming into your room in the middle of the night.

fourkids

From personal experience as one who has upsized with additional children: A big house with toddlers and infants is not optimal. It is soooo much easier to have baby items close by- short walk to crib, changing table, bottles, diaper pail, etc. Adding in additional stairs, rooms, cleaning with young ...

fourkids

Thesaints wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2019 3:44 pm Better to ignore the existence of hot water and continue to take cold showers. It also saves on the energy bill !

but cold showers don't add up to a savings of $4 million. The extra $500/year I spend on a hot shower makes me a tolerable person

fourkids

I fully agree.
I'd rather retire at age 50 with my Toyotas while my neighbors work until their 67 or 70 with their BMW and Land Rovers.
Cars are purely functional to me.

fourkids

Charities need and are appreciative of both.
Give whatever you have more of depending on what stage of life you are in.
20's, retired? you probably have more time to give
40's working full-time with kids? you probably have more money than time

fourkids

Tell her to grow up, be responsible and start providing for herself.
Tell her you don't owe her a thing, and you don't want to talk about it again.
She needs a dose of tough love now, for her own good and future

fourkids

this is a personal values question on what works best for your family. but an important question is: will your spouse be able to reenter the workforce easily after a year off? my spouse and I have always worked full-time, but I now believe that in order to work 30 -50 years of your life, it's probab...

fourkids

we have 3 cars. it's a pain in the butt. and we actually have garage space for all of them. it seems like 1 car is always being serviced for something. unless I had a true need for one, I would skip it. rent a hot rod a few times each year for a week or so. you will come out way financially ahead wi...

fourkids

4 years in a booming economy is absolutely too long to go without a raise. Either your company or your indusrty is in decline, which is a sign to get out. Or your company is just being extremely cheap, which is also a reason to get out. I went 2 years without a raise, but it was 2009 and 2010, the d...

fourkids

If you are serious and committed to getting your MBA, then absolutely switch jobs.
If the idea only intrigues you, then don't.
Spending 3 years of your life working and going to MBA school is exhausting and should be taken very seriously with an end goal in mind

fourkids

Ignore the request. If he asks again, simply say "No thanks." The less said the better. You only have 1-5 years left. You can coast as is. also, are you a woman? bosses always try to dump admin crap on women, because we tend to say ok. I'm in Sr. Mgmt and the CEO still trys to dump crap on...

fourkids

Don't waste the money. "Vacations" with babies/toddlers aren't vacations. They are just trips. As a lover of travel, I've tried multiple times to take my 4 young kids on vacations. We've failed miserably almost every time, and I've regretted spending the money. But we have some hysterical ...

fourkids

no time is too short to leave if it's a 50% raise like you are getting. Congratulations. You simply say they are giving you a 50%+ raise, and you can't turn it down. I left once after 11 months for a 50% raise, and in hindsight, it was a great career move. They realized I was underpaid when they had...

fourkids

I would ignore completely the neighbor's thoughts. If you sell, the next owner is likely to tear down as well. The neighbors have no right to effectively make you sell your house. I would re-evaluate the project based on objective criteria that you know now that you've owned the house for a year. Is...

fourkids

add your 2019 salary + your bonus=total comp then divide 19,000 by your total comp to get the % contribution that you need to max your 401k for the year. round up on the % if you need to. then set your 401k contribution in Fido to this %. This will make sure you max your 401k and don't lose out on a...

fourkids

Generally, 529 plans are a good idea if you are saving for college, rather than a taxable investment account. To determine available financial aid, you have to complete a FAFSA application. It calculates that 5.64% of parental non-retirement assets should be used toward school expenses. This is call...

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