We’ve done it twice. The first time was probably the most common and boring story— we bought a house. It was planned and we’d been intentionally living cheaply to save up.

The second was when my wife stopped working. This was during Covid when all the return to office stuff started and we’d just had our first kid. Now we’ve got two and she’s (mostly) a stay at home parent with a passion/hobby business.

I have Fidelity and Vanguard for my brokerage. I use a local credit union for my banking.

I use vanguard for brokerage (recently switched for TD ameritrade though)

Nothing I’d recommend. I use Betterment for my brokerage but only because having a managed account exempts me from some employer imposed holding requirements.

No kids yet, but assuming I do eventually:

My parents paid for my education costs almost entirely (except for books/supplies). I would want to do the same for my kids, because it gave me much more flexibility in starting my career. They were of the belief that you shouldn't start your adult life in debt, and I frankly agree.

I should hit my fire number their senior year of highschool. If they receive scholarships, I will probably do "one more year" just in case. If they need help, I may move back my retirement date more. But it all depends on how hard they tried in highschool. If they are a C student, I would encourage them to join a community college or a technical school that matches their passions.

We’re working on front loading 529’s. The goal is to have enough in each to cover four years at a good in state university plus some buffer. Obviously they might literally do something different but it feels like a good baseline. Finishing this front loading is one of the items on our pre-FIRE checklist as the plan is to pull the trigger long before they’ll go off to college.