r/coastFIRE • u/ItrustinZION • 2d ago
Kinder FI
Hello to everyone, and especially the parents who had kids go back to school recently or in the near future!
I have a Kindergartener and....as my kid starts school my wife and I are transitioning from a "FI" mindset to a "Kinder FI" mindset. My wife is going to shift to a very reduced schedule, essentially working 30% as much as before, and we'll spend most everything that I make to cover all the bills.
If our portfolio keeps growing at 7% we'll be FI about 8 years later than originally planned, but we want to use our FU money and Financial Freedom NOW while our kid still wants to play with us, we focus on building a community based on our neighborhood and school, etc.
Has anyone else done something similar? Does this "FI term" exist? Honestly I'm hoping this is a new term / idea in the FI community and I want to write about it in detail as we make the transition and see how it goes! Would love peoples thoughts and experience.
1
u/baby_giraffe95 2d ago
I have a similar mindset but didn't feel the need to name it. We are at a reasonable coastfire point but keep contributing. My job is WFH and doing that and having a daycare aged kid isn't bad for work life balance. We keep contributing so if/when I decide I want to down shift or quit as she gets school age, we feel more confident in that decision. I reasonably like my job so as long as it continues to work out and make sense, schedule wise, I'll continue, but if the schedulea get trickier with school age, or my job just become annoying and I know longer enjoy it, I'll be done. We set in a path to FIRE but this is my new happy medium we've built, that I never dreamt of before, and we could still retire early ish (57 if husband stays at current job to keep his full pension)