My husband and I (34) have about $750k invested between retirement accounts, taxable accounts and company stock. We are a single income household with 3 young kids ages 2, 4, and 7 living in southern California. We’ve been putting around $800 per month per kid into their 529 accounts since they were born. Right now we are investing around $100k per year (retirement accts + taxable). When I plug our numbers into online calculators, it seems like we’re vaguely on track for my husband to retire eventually. However, I still worry it’s not enough for the following reasons:
1. I’m finding it very hard to estimate our annual expenses during retirement. We had kids younger and we didn’t have much money before we had kids.
2. The period of time when the kids will be in college is such a mystery to me. We will have kids, sometimes 2 at a time, in college for at least 8 years. Aside from the 529 accounts, I’m assuming we will have to cover significant expenses beyond tuition as well, so I wonder how that will affect our ability to save during those years. Do we have to save more aggressively now to account for this?
3. What if I might want 1 more kid???? Haha.
4. My in laws’ financial status is unknown. I have no idea what their retirement will look like and what kind of support they will need.
How do I get a better idea of what we need and when we can take our foot off the gas? Or do people just keep saving as much as they can and hope it’s enough? It’s worth noting that investing $100k per year is not easy for us and we live pretty modestly compared to our friends. After saving for retirement and tithing 10% of our income to our local church, our monthly expenses have to be pretty tight. It would be nice to know when we can stop being so aggressive so we can enjoy life a little more.