Just a 48-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). We are within striking distance of our financial independence goal. Probably technically there, with our assets right now. But expecting to spend down some of these asstes on the next ~2.5 years of college expenses.
Our FI numbers is also completely meaningless while we still have kids to support and a mortgage. But it's exciting to be so close to the finish line.
Most of our motivation is a scarcity mindset, which I think is a good thing when I look at how well our parents and grandparents (and us) have thrived through a lot of adversity. I chose age 50 for this goal because our parents really struggled to find work in their 50s. Their age, coupled with very challenging economic times.
My motivation has very little to do with retirement. I always worked with people who happily worked (because they wanted to) well into their 80s or even 90s. I have no desire to work full-time that long (and to be clear, the 90-somethings worked very minimally and seasonally), but I don't personally have an end date in mind as far as continuing to use my mind and make money. Shifting to part-time work does appeal to me. But it's also hard to believe that I would feel the same time crunch when my nest is empty. & I just happen to be in the middle of several big changes at work that should make my work life a lot easier. Fingers crossed! I also just don't know how realistic part-time work will be. Just one more thing to start pondering more in another few years.
As we near the end of everything we have been working for... I know we can survive the rest of our lives without paid work. I am starting to think about raising the bar a bit. Our 'normal' is the shoestring. Putting myself through college, saving for a home down payment in San Francisco. We jumped pretty quickly from that to the 'not planned' one-income thing for over a decade. I envisioned more of the same as we got our kids through college, but then it turned into some 'wild spending' years. It feels wild, compared to our norm. I just did some math and the $9K vacation overage, I covered about $2K with credit card bonuses and an unexpected gift. That extra $7K (net) we pulled from our income... Felt wild but it was only 5% of our income this year. I am telling myself more that it's okay to spend 5% of our income. & maybe it was never okay before. But it is now.
I did get my bonus. I decided to let retirement go, for this year. We will just do the 9% minimum for match. Might add 1% to keep us honest (per my sidebar). In my sidebar, I point out we never did less than 10%. I can keep that a bare minimum goal.
Even if we haven't crossed the FI finish line yet, our 50s will be more about working just enough to pay our bills. Saving for retirement is no longer necessary. & of course, we can always work more and save more. If we want to, and is how it's going to be the next few years. Until I actually turn 50, until my kids find their own footing.
While I can give up some financial efficiency (I think at the end of the day we have the income to be less efficient. Something we didn't have in the past). While I can give some of that up, I am not going to give up the employer match (free money). & it keeps us close to the 10% minimum goal.
Oh yeah, we both turn 50 next year. For some point of reference. & because we had a 30% retirement last year, we will only do 10% this year. The two years will average out. You can consider it we started coasting at age 49, but I am more focused on the average over the last couple of years. The coasting really starts next year.
It will take us some time to wrap our minds around retirement no longer being our biggest financial priority.
MH kept pointing out we turn 50 next year, because he has a January birthday. So it's very soon for him. I am just, "What!? I am not even 49 yet." It sounds so far away. My birthday is at the end of the year. So it's why I haven't personally thought about it much but it's very in my face right now.
December 22nd, 2025 at 03:39 pm 1766417948
It allowed me more time to look after an aging parent and just generally have more breathing room in my life. I had reached my retirement savings goal and was eager to do other things with my life that didn't involve working so much.
I think I was very fortunate in having an employer willing to do what I asked them to do: to change my f/t role into a p/t one and hire a 2nd person to essentially share my job with me. And it was some trouble for them to do that because they weren't happy with the first 2 people they hired. For my part, I was not socking away 15% toward retirement savings anymore, just earning the money I needed for day-to-day expenses so my retirement $ was still compounding and growing.
San Fran is definitely a pricey real estate market. You did great using credit card bonuses to pay for that vacation. I've never spent close to that much on a vacation, but my mindset these days is that money spent on vacation/travel is money well-spent.
December 22nd, 2025 at 03:44 pm 1766418269
MH's movie premier (and our son was able to join us) - true bucket list experience
Anniversary Trip - well earned
Austin Film Festival - another bucket list type trip
Annual camping trip (my in laws did not pay this year; we pivoted to a very frugal alternative but it still cost maybe $500)
The usual staycation stuff we usually use our modest vacation budget for
Emergency trip to my son's college town (not really a vacation, but travel spending)
MH's annual Arizona film festival
That's just what I remember off the top of my head. Crazy year.
December 22nd, 2025 at 03:46 pm 1766418399
I hope you are able to easily navigate the transition to less work. I'm also hoping to ramp down to fewer working hours in two more years, after I finish paying off my mortgage.
And a happy early birthday!
December 22nd, 2025 at 07:29 pm 1766431743
December 24th, 2025 at 06:21 am 1766557290
January 8th, 2026 at 07:02 am 1767855761