I am not sure how the hell we will be able to manage that (retirement) with the lifestyle we got today. Not that I am rich, far from it, but I am not sure I want to ask my kids for help... and that seems more and more the direction we're moving in.
I shiver at the thought.
Culturally, as a Filipino kid, everyone knows that kids are indebted to the parents for them being born. Wtf.
I do help my parents because I love them, they dont ask but they don't need to.
But I will not ask help from my kids, they dont owe me anything.
We live in the UK now, but my wife and I will just have to retire to the Philippines where everything is a whole lot cheaper.
Then don’t. I’m 50 and my wife (48) spent the last four years “decontenting” our lives. I started working remotely in 2020 and we sold our big house in the burbs (for twice what we had it built for in 2016) after our youngest graduated and downsized to a condo in state tax free Florida. We are now down to one car and our fixed expenses are a nothing burger.
She also “retired” at 44 and spends time on her passion projects. We travel a lot and have done the digital nomad thing for a year flying one way trips across the country. In other words, when I do retire, we will already have cleared most of our bucket list.
Yes I am a “staff” engineer at a smaller company now - equivalent in pay to around what I was making as an l5 (mid level) at BigTech. But with a lot less stress. I have no need to make more money except for inflation adjustments
If I found a job at a higher level that I thought I'd really enjoy and that I'd be good at, I'll be interested, but otherwise I'm content.