To them, they wouldn’t know any better between “new” and “second hand” things. What about private school if they can’t get into a good public school? All of your points are right on! And everyone’s version of this looks different. Reaching financial independence is better thought of as a process instead of a number to hit, although it is important to have a goal in mind that will allow you to live comfortably when it’s time to retire. They’re certainly learning good money habits, but they might not have the financial opportunities that the parents have, and they would end up with an expectation that large families are the norm and wouldn’t be able to provide for their own. It works (sorta) for me! Just got a new couch? I had the Geo-Arbitrage conversation with my wife recently. I had the pleasure of chatting with Simi, or Mrs. Money Mustache about kids and money recently. Parents of multi-child families also have additional advantages that childless or single-child families aren’t going to see. YES! It requires a financial skill-level and mental robustness that goes way beyond the average saver. But don’t lose hope or become discourage by the lack of voices telling you “it’s possible”. (BTW here is a easy chart that can help you see how long it will take you to retire based on your savings rate.). Earn more, or take a bit longer to reach FI. If you scour the rockstar finance directory you’ll find 1471 personal finance blogs (as of the time of this writing). We spend on select activities that have value. Annual Dividend Income: $58,576 A two income household (should) be able to save a fair bit. Did your blog URL change recently? As for FI, I started thinking about FI when my first child was born and entered into real estate investing. Being frugal can reduce that financial drag, but won’t eliminate the loss of an income entirely. In the past, I’ve said that children are one of the best reasons for financial independence. We moved to a low cost area with a strong employment market to combat the rising expense of larger house. You’re on your path to Financial Independence, and you’re more than happy to add to your brood. Now that I’m back at good but not amazing salaried work it’s time to start planning a little more carefully. It’s possible All it means is that in the event that you did not work a single day more in your life, you would still be able to take care of your essential expenses without having to depend on any one for financial support. That’s right, even Mrs. Tako and I! Peer pressure is pushing them down an unnecessarily expensive path in life! He’s a father of two that’s now semi-retired. In general, the FI crowd is pretty resourceful and hard-working – a second, or third, or fourth child may change the math and the timeframe, but I think many of your readers can ultimately achieve the end result they are striving for! Learn how to live on one income and have fun with the second.. I noticed that a lot of the FIRE bloggers you mentioned above had a good income (or their spouse did) before they retired. So full financial independence means that you have freedom to choose what to do with your life. STANDARD DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. It’s all about choices. With this freedom, they’re enjoying having more time together as a family. If you’re willing to work a little harder and up your frugal game just a little bit more, you can easily find yourself with a savings rate of 50% or more. Financial independence also allows you some flexibility and peace of mind. Anyone who’s stepped into a Costco or a Cash ‘n Carry knows that it’s possible to save money by buying in bulk. Living at home, looking for jobs, vehicles needing repairs, etc. Financial Independence for Family I was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1980 and I think that makes me a borderline millennial with some behaviors from Generation X. I was raised by frugal parents who taught me the value of hard work and saving for the future. But the joy comes with prices: money, time, endless worries, stress, you name it. My wife and I have been married for 25 years. Why is that? We have 2 kids and spending more time with them was a large factor in pulling the FIRE trigger. I’m new and relatively unknown but I’m a blogger with three kids who reached FI many years ago and left the 9 to 5 for side gigs and way more free time to do things like comment on other blogs! I’m not going to lie, kids do cost money. Live within your means, spend thoughtfully, and save for our future. I think 2 is manageable. I started to get interested in FI cause I make a very low income (1300usd/month). Even in financial independence there is no one size fits all since everybody has a different desired standard of living. Market downturns. We have two kids and hope to reach FI over the next 3 1/2 years before turning 50. I think very worst case scenario. There simply isn’t a TL;DR version of “Financial Independence for Parents with Multiple Children“. In order to produce the podcast and keep content up free for you, I work with partners so this post may contain affiliate links. Thanks for tallying up the blogs with multi-kid families! Tracking our families journey toward financial independence with seven kids! This is fairly new to us, so we are still updating this post as we go along with various other links to … Having a chest freezer saves us an immense amount of money by allowing bulk purchases to be frozen (especially when on sale). You simply can’t tell if they’re financially independent (or even striving to be FI). Financial Independence, to me, is a sign of a strong and healthy financial life. A lovely family that I’ve actually met in person. Either way be nice to your kids, they will be the ones choosing your nursing home! # Of kids: 2. Financial independence is something that all of us want, but it can be elusive. I think it is sort of like giving to charity. The children clearly slow down the path to FI. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), how long it will take you to retire based on your savings rate, closer to financially independent mindset, simplifying your finances and enjoying parenthood, How to Diversify Your Income with Side Hustles, Best Joint Checking and Savings Accounts for Couples, How to Shift and Live on One Income (Even if You're Dual Earners), How to Quickly Create Your Retirement Plan with Spreadsheets, Working Through Illness and Financial Lows to Abundant Permaculture with Justin and Rebekah Rhodes, Simple and Affordable Bucket List Ideas for Couples, How to Seamlessly Switch to a New Bank or Credit Union. And my child is nearly three! It’s certainly not easy though. Wife works part time Tawcan — A FI family with two children living in Canada. My wife and I have 4 children and we are on the path to FIRE. Of the women that become mothers in the U.S., the average has 2.4 children. For example, if a young couple who is renting out a small room is having a baby and need their in-laws’ help with babysitting, they need to move to a bigger space instead of cramming 4 people in a tiny room with 2-3 other adult roommates. We have followed many of your suggestions, including handing things down, buying in bulk, and sharing. Can’t drop down to one car? It’s probable if you do it right It seams like it takes kids right out of college that aren’t in high paying jobs a few years to get established, at least at our house it does, and so it goes. This has helped significantly in compounding our wealth over the years while still maintaining a lifestyle we enjoy. Menu Home; Contact; Tag: large family FI November spending I first started tracking our spending back in August. Almost a $1M!! I think kids are just like that. I know from personal experience it can be hard to make some changes, but even if you start with a few adjustments, it can pay off big time. I came away energized and ready to speed up our own progress. For instance, since I plan on working part time after I reach financial independence, it makes sense to factor that part-time income stream into my … Well on your way to financial independence! I have been lurking FI blogs for years and this is going to send me down a bunch of really gratifying rabbit holes…I’m going to spread it out so I remember to interact with the littles too I got here from bingeing Millennial-Revolution. You have to read the whole book, pay less for it, read it faster, and memorize more if it… all while changing a dirty diaper and cooking a nutritious meal. The human race isn’t dying out, and children are far from being rare little unicorns. Previous Post: How to Diversify Your Income with Side Hustles, Next Post: How Motif Investing Is a Game Changer. 14 March 26, 2018 Financial Independence 12 Secrets To Find Your Path For Family Wealth Most of us don’t make one big financial decision that makes us (or our bank accounts) a success or failure. Great post! At the same time, you might feel a little bit lost for not being needed anymore. I’m not a financial professional so please take my advice as opinion. That’s what we’re thinking (but more out of organization of space since we are in a townhouse with 2 bedrooms on top and 2 on the way bottom floor.). After interviewing other FI couples with kids and doing case studies for families, the math shows that yes, it is absolutely possible to do this with kids. The important takeaway is you two should sit down and discuss your plans. He reached financial independence and retired from fulltime work in 2012. We comment on each other’s blogs, send tweets, and sometimes even meet in person. As an added bonus, your kids grow up seeing the effort and the reward of financial independence. Finding good examples in your own local community is difficult — Most families don’t openly share the necessary financial detail. You can add one more to the “FI chasers with kids” blog count. “But what if they want tennis, golf, or piano lessons? They have a very funny blog that sometimes delves deeply into the trivial details about how they run their household (think thermostat settings and laundry loads). . We got on board a bit late but have the heart for it and managed to keep a stay at home parent full time (husband) while I/we enjoyed 3 separate year long Canadian maternity leaves with the whole fam while saving a little bit here and there. There is now, more than ever, a large body of evidence as well as tools, tips and lifestyle hacks that can bring financial independence to people in a relatively short period of time. Great post. This journey is about creating a sustainable lifestyle for you (and your family), that doesn’t feel like deprivation. Even with one, it’s tough. This proves an important point — When you have a second child you do not need to move into a larger home. Why? What if they want to go to graduate school and get a Phd? That’s how I feel, as a mom of one grown-up kid, lol. Instead, I recommend reading the blogs of multi-child families that actually made it. Kids sharing bedrooms sounds like a reallyyy good idea. If you’re a parent (or a soon-to-be parent) and you’re interested in financial independence, you’ve probably noticed a certain demographic is missing from our little community — Lots of kids. Changing Your Money Mindset With Kids. As for income, after becoming a parent, it pushes you to test your limits to make more for your expenses and then a bit more for emergencies. I think it certainly doesn’t help towards FIRE but it can be done- as you’ve proven! Now I’m writing at SomeThingsDontChange.com. Root Of Good — A frugal three-child family that seems to spend most of their time traveling and simply enjoying life. I don’t buy myself any new clothes at retail (though I do shop on resale websites for clothes with tags still on them) and FireBear does not have that many clothes. What Does Financial Independence Look Like? Ah Slow Dad. . Menu Home; Contact; Category: Uncategorized My Realtor Start up costs. The blog is a good balance of financials, and detail about how they live. One of the prevailing theories about the lack of larger families in our little community, is that children are financial shackles. While it works, it is only one of several ways. We are also saving for college (not necessary but our choice). Get on a plan to pay it off faster. Like Mr Money Mustache!Financial independence means being able to do whatever you want in life without having to worry about money.You get a new boss who is impossible to work with? While raising a family of any size is a certainly a challenge, achieving financial independence with multiple children is harder. I like to call these advantages “Economies of Scale”. Read our full advertiser disclosure.Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. You can keep your smartphone plan, but maybe you can switch provider, slashing the bill in half or more. It’s not impossible and not nearly as expensive as you might think. Required fields are marked *. Money Scrap — Caroline managed to reach FI as a single mom with three kids before age 55. While childless couples run like mad toward the goal of financial independence, those with families are (supposedly) tied down by the little financial shackles called children. It’s a very expensive way to raise a family. Tracking our families journey toward financial independence with seven kids! I mean, if we really need the money, I’m sure we could do something that would get the kids what they wanted. With this freedom, they’re enjoying having more time together as a family. That is so true. We live in a 2 bedroom condo and it wouldn’t work with 2 kids (plus my mom for 9 months/year.) Your path needs to be fulfilled with financial independence but also personal independence. Moving to a place where the cost of living is cheaper in some cases can allow one of you to stay at home with the children. Normally, I try to avoid political and polarizing subjects like racism. Check out resources I share so you two can sit down and discuss your unique circumstances. They’re a treasure trove of financial details, frugal living tips, and the joys of living a financially-free family life. Just utilize the home you already have more efficiently! Our net worth would be much higher if we hadn’t had kids, but I have no idea what I’d do with the extra money . When you have multiple kids they develop this incredible ability to destroy anything nice within five minutes. In our case, the Tako boys are 2 years apart. We have 13 kids ages 2-24. The bottom line is Simi and Pete have focused their energies and … There’s no set time frame that you must reach FI by. Mr. Tako's Adventures in Early Retirement (with Kids). My family is living proof, as well as the handful of personal finance bloggers that have achieved similar success. Know Basic Financial Calculations. New parents tend to create a mental vision of what their family is should look like — A well-appointed 3 bedroom house in the suburbs. With that mindset, they were able to sock away a ton of money in investments. The Tako family is preparing to do this ourselves. Even though my life is really good compared to most of the world, I now nitpick at every little thing that could be simpler if we were FI. Those things all help on the journey to FI. Technically he still works, but really doesn’t need to. Here’s our personal account of our journey to try and reach FI with a child. Bunk beds for the win! I like how you point out how Mrs. CF has two children… is she FI too? But it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I don’t know when the housing culture changed, but entire families used to share one bathroom, and each bedroom would sleep two or more children. For our second kid, we reused a lot of things that we bought/received from our first kid. Also, you’re perfectly right on the new clothes thing. If you don't truly love your spouse, then you'd make her depend on you for all her financial needs. 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