It’s been a while since I wrote much about our children. So here’s a big update on what they are up to as the kids of early retired parents. 

For those new to the blog, we have three kids: two adult daughters plus a teenage son. Our daughters are 19 and 21 years old while our son is 13. 

When I first retired almost 13 years ago, our son was only one year old, still getting pushed around in a stroller. Our daughters were 7 and 8 years old and in their early years of elementary school at the time. 

Fast forward to today and we have two college graduates and an almost-high schooler! 

Our Daughters, the College Graduates

Our daughters graduated college in 2025. They both pursued business degrees. They each started full time jobs soon after graduation. I’m going to preserve some level of anonymity for them by vaguely saying they work in the finance field. 

Their College Era

Their paths through college were similar in many regards. Both took some AP classes in high school which resulted in credit for a few college classes. Both daughters graduated high school a year early and did half time high school, half time community college during 11th grade in high school. 

After graduating high school they each did 3-4 semesters of community college to complete all the electives and basic coursework for their eventual four year degrees. One of the girls took summer courses in order to accelerate her college schedule. The other one chose to get some work experience at a local cafe during the summer and throughout the school year. 

After graduating with an Associate’s degree (or two) they moved on to their Bachelor’s degree program at one of the local state universities. Throughout their community college and university days, they lived at home. One daughter completed a fully remote four year degree while the other daughter commuted almost daily to the university about 15 minutes away from our home. 

They both graduated early. Our older daughter graduated at age 20, which was two years earlier than she normally would have. Our middle child graduated college at age 18, a full three years earlier than she would have had she followed the traditional high school and college route. 

In terms of finances, they both managed to get various grants and loans that more than covered their tuition, fees, and books. Any excess financial aid was invested into index funds. The goal was to arbitrage the financial aid money by investing it. The expectation was that the funds would grow enough to pay off the smallish student loan balances accumulated during the college years. 

They each left college with around $30-40k in investments and about $10,000 in student loan debt. All loans were federally subsidized loans, so no interest accrued until six months after they graduated. Some of their investments were accumulated (and grew!) throughout their childhood from various gifts and earnings. 

The 2025 Job Market

It was tough finding a job in 2025. The employment market for recent college grads was probably the softest it’s been in a decade or more. 

Eventually they each landed something that came with a decent income and good opportunities for advancement and on the job learning. It might not have been the perfect job. But it is much better to have six months or a year of solid industry experience on your resume instead of a blank spot as you wait for that perfect opportunity to come along. 

As it turns out, everything was fine. Within six months, they each completed their training programs and got promoted at their jobs. The promotions even included a decent pay bump! They have career goals and aspirations and life is good (other than having to work all day!). 

Acquiring student loan indebtedness turned out to be a prescient move. Their jobs come with a student loan repayment program whereby their loans will be paid off within four or five years. It amounts to a couple thousand dollars per year of free money that they wouldn’t get if they didn’t incur student loan debt. 

Our Daughters Today

At age 19 and 21, they are fully employed and living at home with us for the time being. They could probably move out on their own. But it would be a stretch financially. 

In the meantime, staying at home saves them a ton of money (and probably more headaches than they realize!). They can afford to max out their Roth 401k and Roth IRA, thereby laying a very strong foundation for their future financial lives. 

Our middle child (the one that graduated college at age 18) has early retirement as a specific life goal. At this point, she’s rapidly approaching a six figure net worth. There’s a decent chance she retires before her dad did (at the old age of 33!). 

Our oldest child doesn’t have specific early retirement goals in mind but appreciates not being poor. So she saves aggressively too. Work is work, as we know, and I think both of our kids can see the advantages that come with not having to work for a living. 

Our Daughters’ finances

In number terms, contributing the maximum to retirement accounts looks like this in 2026:

• Roth 401k – $24,500
• Roth IRA – $7,000
• HSA – $3,400 (employer provides ~$1,000 HSA match)

The total comes to $34,900 to max out all these accounts. These contributions and payroll taxes consume over half their paychecks. However, they don’t have a ton of expenses to cover themselves since they live at home.

We don’t charge them rent or utilities. We pay for the groceries while we’re at home (and they have taken it upon themselves to pay for their own groceries while we’re out of town). As long as they’re saving and investing a ton of money, and helping out around the house, I don’t mind providing free housing. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. 

One daughter bought her own car and pays for the related expenses. The other daughter drives our car but pays for her own gas. All their personal expenses are their responsibility such as clothes, technology, entertainment, and fun budget. 

Did they miss the classic “College Experience”?

I’ve received this question at least half a dozen times in the comments on the blog. 

I’ll define the “college experience” as some variation of spending four years at a traditional university, living mostly on campus in the early years and possibly moving to an off-campus apartment in their junior or senior year of college. Maybe the college experience involves deep learning and personal development, or maybe it involves a bunch of drunken debauchery (and in very rare cases, both of those!). 

My daughters lived at home during college. At first glance it seems like they didn’t have the semi-independent living arrangement of the dorms or their own apartment. Except to some extent, they did. Since two of our kids became adults, we have been traveling for weeks or months at a time without them. So our daughters have experienced living alone, or together with their siblings as “roommates” with no parental supervision, for extended periods of time. 

Throughout college, our kids made friends and went out socially like many of their friends. It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of their friends live with their parents too. It’s simply a different world with a different set of expectations today versus the 1990’s when my generation went to college. I don’t blame the kids – it’s nice having a big house that’s mostly run for you instead of having to provide for yourself! 

I asked our daughters if they missed the classic “college experience” and the answer was “not really” and “it’s hard to know how an alternate reality would have played out versus my actual life”. There’s certainly the possibility that the classic “college experience” could have been hugely detrimental with a much worse outcome in comparison to how things actually turned out. 

What about graduating 2-3 years early and missing out on the full four years of college (or five, or six or more, in some cases)? From their point of view today as gainfully employed 19- and 21-year old college graduates with plenty of money and growing portfolios, I don’t think they feel like they missed much at all.

Today, they lead busy lives at work, surrounded by many young, professional work friends and the excitement that comes with that. Is a work friend worth more or less than a college friend? What scale do we use to weigh these two types of friends? 

Overall, it’s hard to definitively say if missing the “college experience” was a benefit, a detriment, or whether it’s possible to know for sure. You make a choice and live with the consequences, and the outcome in this case looks pretty good with the benefit of hindsight. 

Our Teenage Son

He’s about to turn 14 and currently wrapping up the last couple months of middle school. In the fall he will start high school, and probably follow a similar academic path as his older sisters. He’s doing well academically but so far doesn’t really know what he wants to focus on college or career-wise. 

Looking ahead at the next few years, we’ll be focused on driver’s ed, getting his learner’s permit, figuring out the car situation, and figuring out the college question too. 

The story of his youth and path to adulthood still has several chapters left unwritten, so you’ll have to check back in a few years for updates! 

Closing thoughts

Things have turned out well for our kids. Our two older kids are adults now and have decent jobs with advancement potential. They still live at home but it’s allowing them to turbocharge their saving and investing for the time being. 

We’re gone for several months each year so they get to enjoy the freedom of living on their own for small stretches many times a year right now. Given how many other kids are living at home well into their 20’s and sometimes 30’s, I feel like our kids are pretty far ahead of the game right now. 

Well that it’s for me for now. Thanks for reading! 

Did we do the parenting thing correctly? Fire away!

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