My Wife and I Have Finally Saved Enough for Early Retirement. Now She Wants to Throw It All Away.
I (45 M) have been married to my wife (43 F) for 20 years this summer. From the day we met, we shared a natural frugality. It was easy for us to live on one income and save the other. Even when we together made choices that in retrospect went past frugal into cheap, we did it as a team. We always planned on using the money to retire early, but we’ve reached the point where our definition of “early” is an order of magnitude apart. My wife was thinking of retiring when she’s 55 when she can get full access to her teacher’s pension. I was thinking more like… now.
We have millions saved in retirement accounts, not just that pension but a state-run 457 plan, Roth IRAs we can withdraw contributions from (and use a Roth conversion ladder to get more out in five years), and 403(b) and 401(k) accounts. Using the so-called 4 percent rule scaled down to a 3.33 percent rule, we have more than enough money to continue our current lifestyle indefinitely. On top of that, we have huge 529 accounts for our kids, a huge emergency fund, and a ton of home equity.
We’ve talked in circles about this for the last couple of years. I don’t see the point of continuing to work when we don’t need any more money. My wife doesn’t see the point of stopping work when we don’t have plans for all of our freed-up time. We can’t start traveling the world while the kids are still in school, and I guess there are only so many house projects and hobbies we can pursue. I really enjoy my job and current employer, but even so, it’s hard to stomach working there or anywhere else for another decade.
—My Wife Won’t Let Me Quit My Job
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