Want to retire early? Here's the real secret.

[disneysteve]

DS I think your view is skewed and you missed the boat on this one.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not suggesting that anyone stay single and childless just to retire sooner. I'm happily married with a great kid and wouldn't have it any other way.

I posted this more as a discussion topic than anything else. It wasn't meant as life advice.

[phantom]

My husband has always made a similar salary to mine, so being married has pretty much doubled my income. But, being married hasn't come close to doubling my expenses. My husband is more of a spender than I am, and being with him leads me to spend more than I would without him. But, it would take more than attending a few extra sporting events a year and regularly splurging on groceries to negate the benefits we get from shared housing expenses. It's harder to quantify, but I like to think we've also supported each other's careers and helped each other to bring in even more money.

Having kids has definitely slowed down our journey towards financial independence though. Day care costs alone are a pretty significant expense. I wouldn't trade our daughter for an earlier retirement, but there's no question that she's expensive.

Even being married and having a kid, my husband and I still might manage to be able to retire by 55. It's a little soon to say for sure, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities.

[97guns]

Overall spending is different when your married, you do things and spend money much faster than you do if your single with no life, I've experienced wearing both shoes.

[rennigade]

Overall spending is different when your married, you do things and spend money much faster than you do if your single with no life, I've experienced wearing both shoes.

Uhh...you along with every other person on the planet. I dont know too many people who are married at birth. I know its different in other countries but in murica people typically wait till 18 or older.

[97guns]

Uhh...you along with every other person on the planet. I dont know too many people who are married at birth. I know its different in other countries but in murica people typically wait till 18 or older.

Uhhh... were talking about finances, not about shooting down monkeys from the canopy with poison blow darts

[disneysteve]

Uhh...you along with every other person on the planet. I dont know too many people who are married at birth.

Maybe not at birth but I know numerous people who met their future spouses pretty young and were together ever since. They never really experienced life as independent adults. They were always part of a couple from the time they were 16 or even younger.

[MonkeyMama]

Personally, I don't see any correlation. My parents retired early. (& my mom never worked).

For us, we have done the one-income thing for 15 years. Though obviously I would do financially better these past 15 years if I wasn't supporting three other people, the flip side of that is our kids are almost grown and we have many income years left ahead of us. Since I am not single, I have 2x the earning potential as otherwise. Maybe more or less, but we tend to generally be at the same income level, so let's just go with double the income potential. (We've always viewed this one-income thing as VERY short-term. It was not our plan to do it for this long, but it's still really just a blip as to our working years). We are also far ahead of our single friends financially, because of the leg up we had with two full-time incomes just out of college. We never spent my husband's income, and he worked full-time for 3 years before we had kids. That's an incredible start for a young 20-something. We started out with our highest income years, so I always feel "backwards".

I do think that most people use kids as an excuse, and spend a LOT on their kids. In contrast, my parents never did that. We won't do that. It doesn't surprise me from that angle. But, I also know many frugal/early retirees who have kids. Two-incomes usually seems to be the key to early retirement. I don't know that I know any single young retirees. Childless? Yes. Single? No.

P.S. We are on track to retire at 50. (This would be if my husband never worked again, but we are reluctant to retire before our kids are done with college. So either way, probably 50).

[disneysteve]

I do think that most people use kids as an excuse, and spend a LOT on their kids.

Certainly, many people overspend on their kids, but even under the best of circumstances, having kids ups your household expenses significantly. Whether both parents work or not, costs are higher with kids than without.

[~bs]

People do overspend on kids, but even if you don't, it's really expensive. I have married and single friends with kids, and from discussions with them, it's tough.

- family medical plans can be expensive, normally only the employee is mostly covered, the rest of the cost is footed by the employee, depending on the employer
- assuming both parents work, cost of daycare is high
- food costs are high, maybe they eat as much as an adult, maybe not. Certainly as a teen they will. Another mouth to feed can be expensive
- family entertainment can be expensive
- clothing expensive unless you're getting their clothes from goodwill or something, and they may rebel against that once they start getting a bit older and peer pressure starts influencing their perceptions.
- will they need their own room? renting/buying a larger place than you would if you didn't have kids is another large cost.
- are you detouring out of your way to get your kids to school? Cost of private school bus?
-college

[TexasHusker]

May not be a bad idea to start tracking expenses so you know what you're spending...then you can give an accurate number and not an educated guess.

Im old school and still use quicken to track expenses.

I'm not that industrious.

[rennigade]

In terms of kids just do what my loser friends do...dont worry about saving a penny for college and dont ever take a vacation...unless inlaws are paying for a trip to disney or a beach vacation somewhere. Other than that you will have medical, you still have to feed and cloth them...thats about it.

[disneysteve]

In terms of kids just do what my loser friends do...dont worry about saving a penny for college and dont ever take a vacation...unless inlaws are paying for a trip to disney or a beach vacation somewhere. Other than that you will have medical, you still have to feed and cloth them...thats about it.

Along with those who overspend, their are some who underspend. That's not okay for a whole different set of reasons.

I do know that when DD is away at college, our expenses drop. They go right back up as soon as she comes home on breaks. At least that slightly offsets college costs since some of those costs aren't on top of existing expenses but rather replace existing expenses.

[moneybags]

A child throws a wrench in the equation, they'r expensive..but two adults (dinks)...theres no argument imo unless one adult is a freeloader or doesnt make much money.

Freeloader - seriously?

I have 3 brothers that retired in their early 50s. They have wives & children. Their secret - work 25-30 years and retire with a municipality pension.

[PeggyHefferon]

Interesting topic. So many variables come into play.

Dual income with or without kids is not an advantage IF both individuals are not committed to living within their means. It can be a huge advantage if both individuals are frugal.

[Gailete]

Interesting discussion Steve. I've been married and I've been single and then married again. I have found that when single, I can stick to my financial plan and am better off financially than when married. Would I have gotten married if I knew what I know now. I'm not sure. I love my kids but the 13 horrendous years I had to spend with their mentally ill father has left permanent scares on me as well as my finances. I was married a second time to a spend-a-holic that took every penny I had in the 4 years we were married. I was finally getting ahead financially again when I got married. Within the next month I got ill and came out of the months of not knowing what was wrong with me with RA and on disability and my then $35K income a year was cut in less than a 1/3. Only now many years later do I feel like I'm coming back out of it and making some progress in saving and getting debts paid off. I've experienced a lot and learned a lot over the years and one of the biggest things I've learned is have your future spouse lay out ALL their finances to you and talk about money and theories of money handling before getting married. If the future Mr or Mrs refuses, then do not marry them! Even with doing that, what a person says they do or will do isn't always what is really happening.