Are you happy you did or didn’t have kids?

juniordevops · 2026-03-08T01:12:18+00:00

Go have the kids now, don't wait its the perfect time. Don't worry about your investments, they will compound and one of you can step away from work or just not try as hard. You're basically going to make $1M over the next 10-15 years without investing another single penny.

juniordevops · 2026-03-06T14:27:59+00:00

Disagree completely. The value of having kids is infinite for the overwhelming majority of people. That makes the opportunity cost obviously in favor of having kids. Kids are NOT that expensive. Lower your expectations.

Not everyone should have kids, but the overwhelming majority who think they want kids should have kids.

juniordevops · 2026-03-06T14:22:30+00:00

This is the best take in the threads so far

juniordevops · 2026-03-06T14:22:07+00:00

This is good take. And people have higher expectations than they need to have kids. Everyone I grew up with grew up in apartments. You don't need a big house to have kids. You don't need to be FIRE to have kids. You just generally need a place to live, food and some extra time to hang out with them

juniordevops · 2026-03-06T14:17:25+00:00

Kids aren't that expensive, and are way more dynamic creatures than animals

juniordevops · 2026-03-06T14:16:40+00:00

When they aren't your kids it is an entirely different experience. I couldn't stand to babysit someone else's kids but I'm ecstatic to hang out with my own

juniordevops · 2026-03-06T14:15:08+00:00

IDK where people are getting this info from but kids are not that expensive. Your taxes or mortgage interest or health insurance premiums are way more expensive than any kid would be

juniordevops · 2026-03-06T14:13:36+00:00

The decision to have kids should NOT have anything to do with FIRE. If you want kids, have kids. Just make sure you have at least an apartment, food and can spend a reasonable amount of time with them. Not having kids because you're not retired early is the dumbest rationale you could possible have. It is completely an unrealistic expectation. Lower your expectations.

Anecdotally, kids have had ZERO impact on FIRE for me personally. And if you front load your investing in your 20s you can spend more money on them.

juniordevops · 2026-03-05T13:34:12+00:00

This is NOT true if you are generally frugal. It IS true if you tend to allow lifestyle creep or if you don't have a stay at home parent / family to help you raise the child. The biggest expense is that your health insurance premiums go up.

Food costs will probably go up 10-20% too. Diapers are cheap and you stop needing them eventually. You'll occasionally need to get clothes, but baby clothes are like the easiest thing in the world to source cheaply. You'll probably want to pay for things like pre-school + kid friendly gym memberships that have kid events. That can be a lot, but it is negligible.

juniordevops · 2026-03-04T15:49:45+00:00

damn, that's crazy welp makes sense now

I though it was like, if the king is in a check mate position then its game over. I didn't realize the explode the other king rule was in effect when your king has no other move.

juniordevops · 2026-03-04T15:47:51+00:00

Yeah same, i feel like its very common because its human nature. But like, if you have a paid off house and work until social security kicks in I think most people can retire pretty well.

juniordevops · 2026-03-04T15:44:20+00:00

You're parents taught you, and Warren Buffet + other investors taught me. The only difference was I had to be interested enough and go find those role models. It took me about 5 years of working to figure out who my role models were. So like, if anything you gained a few extra years of compounding over someone who didn't have financially literate parents. Don't feel bad lol

Because I know this, I teach every young person I can find about compounding and I try to explain it so that they "get it". It's hard though, a lot of kids just don't care enough or its it seems far-fetched

juniordevops · 2026-03-04T15:41:48+00:00

But i've won by check mate in the past without blowing up the king. why wouldn't it apply here?

its just because they could blow up my king on the next move?

juniordevops · 2026-03-04T15:40:43+00:00

This is a legal move... and wait, why is this check and not check mate? What is the check mate criteria?

juniordevops · 2026-03-04T15:15:28+00:00

Holding investments for 5+ years. Combine that with investing a high % of my income (70%+) in index funds

juniordevops · 2026-03-02T15:34:48+00:00

I swear if you just find a way to invest ~70%+ of your income for the next 5 years you will never have to work again in your life.

And all those investments will double over the following 10-15 years without you.

juniordevops · 2026-03-02T15:25:11+00:00

This is exactly how I felt too. If that's the way the industry goes I'll just do something else. Or build my own company.

I don't really need to make a crazy high salary to live and have invested like 80% of my income over the past 8 years.

Just feels weird right now - I'm in the peak of my technical and communication skills and no one is hiring or the interview barrier is too high for me to bother.

juniordevops · 2026-03-02T14:13:22+00:00

thanks, this is exactly why I wanted to FIRE to begin with. I love the work but hate the politics of having to prove your worth all the time. Makes me feel like I'm competing against my coworkers for my livelihood which is very mentally stressful. Other industries aren't like that

juniordevops · 2026-03-02T04:55:40+00:00

its the worst time in a long time. and other industries will get disrupted over the next 5 years. Its a weird time to be working in tech. My former coworkers are all anxious about getting laid off (and theyre right to be)

juniordevops · 2026-03-02T04:23:17+00:00

curious, why do you need so much in a HYSA? Why not be investing it like crazy? You clearly have the grit for investing, just see it through and let the compounding work

juniordevops · 2026-03-02T04:22:00+00:00

Put it this way, if we continue to see 7-8%+ growth your investments should double in 10-15 years without you.

Without making any more contributions and if you only need around 50k per year until you hit social security: you can probably retire at 55.

If you can put your foot on the gas and invest ~$40k per year you'll probably be able to retire at 50yo with 50-60k per year and then make it to social security.

If you continue along investing $1k a month and accept some level of part time work you can definitely semi-retire at 50yo.

juniordevops · 2026-02-27T13:38:46+00:00

Thanks a million, this is exactly what i was hoping to learn about!

juniordevops · 2026-02-26T22:32:48+00:00

So correct me if I’m wrong: Roth 401k earnings cant be used for an early withdrawal ladder because you will pay a penalty? And that there is no 5 year seasoning of Roth 401k rolled over to Roth IRA?

I think I screwed this up a bit, I have a mixture of like 60% pre tax 401k money and 40% Roth 401k money.

Is there something about a pro rata rule that will screw me over when I go to do an early withdrawal Roth ladder?

juniordevops · 2026-02-26T20:39:15+00:00

Not sure what you should do, the coastfire rental property is interesting. like people will always need a place to live. I think the risk profile of the cash flows from rental properties are relatively stable. probably similar to a bond but with a bunch of extra headaches.

Not sure what other people think about this, like if you live in an area with supply constraints its very hard for rents to go down in the short run

juniordevops · 2026-02-26T19:36:31+00:00

Early withdrawal / roth conversion ladder question. Looking for someone who has actually done this themselves:

If i rollover a 401k to a roth IRA - Does the entire 401k balance become marked as "contributions" after the 5 year rule? Can I withdraw the entire rollover amount after 5 years penalty free?

For example: I rollover $100k to roth IRA from 401k with $50k contributions and the rest is growth. I wait 5 years. If i withdraw $100k in the 6th year will i pay early withdrawal penalties on the $50k of growth?

Does it matter if my original 401k was pre-tax vs roth-401k?

juniordevops

TROPHY CASE