My Path to Financial Independence as a Software Engineer

Post by kfajdsl » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 3:56 PM UTC

martincmartin wrote: post #196

refurb wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With that income? Sure, if kids came into the picture during the last day 3-4 years it would increase his expenses, but he’d presumably also have another income, at least for a few years? I don’t disagree that for middle income earners kids are a huge expense, but when you’re making $350,000+ each year, $30,000 for childcare isn’t a dramatic expense. Same with all the incidentals.

The biggest expense is college, at least in the U.S. If you retire before they apply, you may want to be conservative and set aside the cost of the most expensive college. MIT is $77k/year [1]. For two kids, that's $616k. And it increases faster than inflation, estimate 6%/yr. If you have enough money in the bank that you're financially independent, they won't qualify for need based aid, you'll have to pay the sticke…

Post by alexk307 » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 3:57 PM UTC

anm89 wrote: post #116

supernova87a wrote: post #109

Here's 2 questions for the "FIRE" crowd. 1) To stop working when you hit a certain number seems to me to be falling into the faulty logic illustrated in Freakonomics -- when a taxi driver works every day towards a certain $ figure, he suffers on crappy days (keeps on driving to little benefit) when fares are just not coming, and cuts off his earnings on great days where business is pouring in like crazy. Instead, you…

It only makes sense if youve got something else you want to do. Id venture almost none of the FIRE crowd end up sitting in front of a tv eating microwave dinners for 60 years because they retired. I mean maybe thats what some people want and more power to them but thats not what FIRE is about

Post by Aeolun » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

yunohn wrote: post #157

dsomers wrote: post #121

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What an absolute joke. The United States has terrible class mobility compared to the Netherlands or Germany for example. You don’t have anything to support what you said other than a skewed perspective created by American centric media. Edit: I guess the down voters here hate facts. The US scores lower on social mobility than the majority of European countries https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Social_Mobility_In…

Given my experience in NL, I would disagree. I see a very clear class divide here, which is just mostly ignored by the middle/upper classes and government. Most of the population spend the majority of their income on rent, commuting, and essentials. Students also have lots of debt over the past decade (15k on average). Owning a car is expensive, but so is public transport (esp. for a family). Renting is expensive, bu…

Post by DogLover_ » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 3:59 PM UTC

stackbutterflow wrote: post #301

DogLover_ wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't "just move". It is quite difficult to get into the US

Is it harder to get into the US or the EU?

Post by xwdv » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 4:03 PM UTC

vjeux wrote: post #160

xwdv wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much should one expect kids to cost? Is an extra $1k in expenses a reasonable estimate?

Child care in the bay area is $2-3k / month per child. Plus you need a bigger home with one more bedroom so an additional $1-2k/month. Then a bigger car. This is without all the expenses related to having a child such as healthcare, food, activities… It goes up quickly!