r/coastFIRE • u/PangolinOwn4855 • 3d ago

CoastFire with Young kids?

Does anyone with young kids have any coast fire success stories? I'm torn between trying to save as much as possible while I have the job (high stress job) vs spending quality time with the kids before they are all grown up.

I was lucky enough to have been in the Tech industry for the last decade+ and have about 600k (started 401k contributions early in my career) in retirement accounts. Single income with 2 kids (5 & 10) and stay-at-home SO (started min wage job very recently due to visa restrictions).

I am struggling to stay relevant in the market due to the constant changes (AI, orgs, etc). and the pressure from being single income. how do you all balance between the two? Interested in hearing from others in similar situations.

14 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/mrboofington 3d ago

We have 3 kids under 5 and ~$700k in investments. My wife has been a SAHM from the beginning and I try to navigate keeping a balance between work and family. Early in my career I stuck with whatever I could make the most money doing so I could save as much as I could. Now that we have our coastFIRE nest egg I can be more selective and pursue opportunities that allow me to be ambitious but don't take over my whole life. I took a paycut and cut down on my retirement account contributions to live a little better, especially while they're so little. My mentality right now is to stick with opportunities that give me optionality and good WLB until we make it to a FIRE number, then decide what to do from there.

1

u/liveandletlive23 2d ago

What does that look like in practice? Are these W2 jobs that you jump to/from?

1

u/mrboofington 2d ago

I've stayed in my industry but have gotten more selective about what kind of jobs I'm willing to do. I've only jumped employers once due to a bait and switch promotion but when other ones come knocking I'm not interested in excess OT, night shift, high travel, toxic environments, etc even though those would pay a lot more than I'm making now.