[jimbo_joe]

Hey, how do you plan FIRE with children? My daughter turned one recently and we're planning to have at least one other child. While I can see myself FIRE and be able to live off savings at some point I feel that children costs (education, general upkeep like housing, food, and other stuff) x number of children for the next 20-25 years (roughly until they become self-sufficient) coupled with economic uncertainty are unpredictable enough that I can't imagine myself FIREing when I have my children to provide for.

[geekster777]

Honestly, I've been hand waving this somewhat. We'll be on my wife's insurance for the next several years at least, and live in an area where public schools are quite good (Massachusetts). My assumption is that each kid will add ~$15k in cost a year, though I could be underestimating this. I'm planning a few layers of buffer here. 1) My wife wants to keep working past 6 years from now and has no interest in FIRE (this is huge, but 6 years is a long time for her to change her mind). 2) Once kids are old enough for elementary school, I can go back to work. If my math is wrong, 7ish years of overspending shouldn't set back our FIRE too considerably. 3) Being a stay at home dad to start should seriously eliminate the expensive childcare costs. 4) My FIRE numbers don't include my 401k/IRAs, which I can dip from (with penalties) if necessary.