Husband (31m) and I (28F) will be trying for our first baby soon. Plan is to have 2 kids, fairly close in age.
Recently I've become a little 'obsessed' with the idea of financial independence/retiring early. A huge part of me feels like there is more to life than working, having children and retiring at 67 (or even 55, which still feels depressing). Hanging on to this idea currently gives me hope, but I'm aware that I'm just looking for a way to escape.
Husband and I are in a good financial position with relatively well paid jobs for our age, and I feel like as we are still fairly young we have options, but struggling to know what the right thing to do (for us and future family) is.
Financial details:
Household gross income c£100k (Husband earns £55-60k, I earn £50k)
Salary net of tax/NI & pension & rail fair is £5400/month
£160k mortgage on a 3 bedroom semi in SE of England
Mortgage is 30 year term, £600/month payment
Other monthly bills (incl gym £120, council tax £150, tv £70, phone/internet £60 , mobiles £60, insurance/adhoc £40, gas&elect £90, credit card £400
So total monthly commitments is £1,590
Petrol & groceries about £400-600
So total outgoings including food is currently c£2200
Leaving £3,200 as disposable income/savings
Husband and I are agreed that we are not going to chase having a bigger house/car/keeping up with the Jones' if it means that we get to have some freedom when we're relatively young and have the energy to travel when we retire.
If I assume that having a child/children will cost about an additional £500- £700 per month, then that leaves £2500 to save every month.
If we decide not to send them to private school in the next 10 years, then a saving of £2500 per month would give me about £650k of cash by the time I'm 40 (7% stock market rate).
If we were to retire at 40, and withdraw 4% of this year on year then we would have about £26k of interest income = c£2200/month which is our current expenses and standard of living.
Basically.... what do you think of this life plan? Am I missing anything here? Will our kids be missing out a lot if they don't go to private school (as we could afford to send them there but then would not have savings). Planning on bringing them up with learning the value of money, so don't want to give them everything.
Right now I just feel like I'm at a crossroads, and whatever path I take now will determine my future, and it's a little scary but also exciting if I can pull off early retirement. I just want to know how I can balance everything to get the best of both worlds (realising that I am in this very fortunate position I don't want to waste it).
Any thoughts on what you would do if you were in my position would be great, and any advice or insights on things I may have missed would be appreciated.