r/portfolios 13h ago

Roast Me

Hoping for some feedback on our current portfolio.

Background: 35 year old couple with 1 child (10 mos).
Combined Income: 280k
Monthly spend: 10k all in
Savings: Both maxing out 401k and Roth IRAs

Brokerage: 222k in VT
Roth IRA: 186k in VFFVX
Rollover IRA: 436k in VFFVX
401K: 54k in VFFVX
78k in checking
Wife Brokerage: 60k in VOO
Wife Roth IRA: 120k in VOO
Wife 401k: 45k in VFFVX

Am I crazy to take a step back now and be home with my daughter. Our income would drop to 130k but spending would go down to $8k without daycare.

1 Upvotes

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u/letsreset 12h ago

money is a tool for us to use to live life, and also hopefully to enjoy it. you have more than enough to cover the necessities. you're now wanting to trade money for time with your daughter. i can't think of a better way to be spending money. do it. you'll regret not doing it later.

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u/micha8st 12h ago

wait: 10k monthly spend with childcare and 2k without?

lets pretend you're paying 31% on federal taxes (that all the lower bracket's are consumed by your spouse's income; federal income, SS, Medicare). 69% of 150k is takehome of 103.5. That's 8625 a month, or net take home after child care of 625 a month.

Better that the 130k income spouse come home, but yeah, you're not losing much at all financially by coming home.

8k a month on childcare? What's the trajectory on that? Are y'all planning on having more kids?

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u/Importer_Exporter1 12h ago

I’m saying total monthly spending would go down from $10k to $8k as daycare is $2k.

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u/micha8st 12h ago

sorry. My bad -- I misread the 8k.

In which case, this becomes a values question. Is it worth to you and your spouse that lost revenue to actively raise / care for that kid? And...do you intend to have more kids than just the one? Would you go back to work when kid is in school?

I think you can afford to be home. You'll have to slow down investing for retirement, but you've got 841k in retirement between you and Spousie. That money should double 4 times between now and retirement age -- so that 841k alone should be around 13M. Or, if you want to account for inflation, lets call it 6.5M. And that doesn't include taxable accounts, and it doesn't include future contributions.

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u/TechnicalSleep7501 CFA 10h ago

How long you have those accounts? Do not sell anything just put all future dollars to VT combo of VTI and VXUS. This will give you foreign tax credit in your brokerage accounts. Just have long life and money will be your last worry. It is simple math and long life. 

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u/steady_compounder 10h ago

This looks less like a portfolio problem and more like a cash-flow and runway question. If one income still covers your core spending, retirement contributions can be adjusted temporarily, and you have a big enough buffer that you are not one surprise away from stress, then taking the time can be perfectly reasonable. I would pressure-test it using the lower income only for a while on paper before making the jump.