Financial Independence At age 38 my dad had no savings and started a family. He retired at age 60. Hoping this inspires some of the older FIRE candidates out there that it's possible. |
- At age 38 my dad had no savings and started a family. He retired at age 60. Hoping this inspires some of the older FIRE candidates out there that it's possible.
- Ill be 40 this year.
- Any ex losers here close to reaching FIRE?
- Daily FI discussion thread - March 08, 2018
- North American FIRE Location Recommendations
- Guardian article about the Frugalwoods
- Few questions about Mega Backdoor Roth Use
- Asset Allocation for Retiring in 20s
- People who have already reached fire, what sources of income are supporting your lifestyle?
- New to investing in registered retirement fund, question about fees over 1% (avoid or not?)
- Does anyone has any experience with Fundrise (real state investment company)?
- Can we afford a 760K home and still FIRE at a reasonable time?
- 27/m unsure what to do with cash and monthly savings!
- Can someone help me learn about FIRE in British terms?
- Curious about this community's work-life.
- My 401k plan is finicky with how much I must contribute to maximize it -- is this normal?
- Roth vs taxable account
| Posted: 07 Mar 2018 07:07 PM PST There are a lot of posts on here about young 25-35 year olds with bank accounts which would lose them friends, and this leaves the people who are getting to the game later in life disheartened. For those of you who are starting your FIRE journey at 40, I have a success story to share with you. It's not pulling yourself up by your bootstraps or making $200k/year, it's simply getting in the mindset, getting in the groove of saving and working towards a goal. My parents never called their financial goals FIRE, but they did exactly what we're all here for without the name. The kicker and point of this story is that my father didn't start his career until he was 38 years old.
He found that the most lucrative thing in his field (environmental) wasn't the science but the business side. He walked into consulting firms and told them they needed a dedicated sales person for their office. One office took him on and offered him a six month trial period to see how he did. They didn't pay him much but it was a foot in the door. After those first six months they offered him a full time position. He continued in the field for the next 25 years, building a client base which he would take with him if he changed jobs. The problem is he was pure overhead at these companies, and there's not much room at environmental companies for overhead. He got cut from jobs probably every five years on average, so it was high stress, but it was better money than even the engineers at the companies made. His hobby of classic cars also doubled as his side-gig, and he sold car parts on eBay for fun. A necessary note to add here is my mom was a SAHM until the early 2000s when she started her own business which did fairly well at providing additional income. He retired at 60 in 2016, 22 years after starting his career. He put three kids through college. His income by the end was $110k-$130k. He has told me how jealous he is that I got a real financial education and I started saving 20 years before he did – a sentiment I've seen on here as well. His statement on money which has stuck with me is: "It's not about how much you make, it's about how much you keep." Being diligent about spending money on needs and experiences rather than things allowed a 40 year old to retire in 20 years. Use all the financial tools available to you and never for one second believe that you started too late and you'll never retire. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Mar 2018 05:29 AM PST This is year where ill be saying life begins at 40. My life is a struggle since i was born but lets not get into that deep. My 2nd life started 2003 when I got married early at the age 23 a yr after college for the reason i got my girlfriend pregnant. Apparently in my culture and how i was basically raised by my parents i have to face it and be a man. We live in the suburbs in a third world country where the only way to work is through govt offices and get paid roughly $80-100 per month. Or work as labor in farms get paid $3 per day. I got lucky enough to get in the govt and since i have a bundle of joy coming i have to find extra work. Long story short my son was born and this babies guzzle so much milk that my pay is not even enough for 2wks worth of milk. 2007 i decided to go abroad for greener pastures and thankfully i did. After a yr wife came with my son and we live happily for 10yrs i was working hard and learning to save and hopefully go home to my country for retirement or stay in this nice country. Been saving for 10yrs. Unfortunately the universe has other plans. We separated. Everything just went crumbling down together with my job. So she left so as my savings and left with nothing. Been struggling to get back on my feet from zero. Its tough that im older now but im very hopeful that another 10yrs of savings will eventually get me to my goals. So the lesson here is that with what i read here from this kids 20-29yo who post 10k-100k in saving is it enough what should i do. Listen guys i envy you that you have that much at a young age. Be smart with you money. Life throws us curve balls sometimes and if you arent ready to hit that you will eventually go back to square one. Be smart with your money and be ready with life. As for the oldies but goodies around my age. Its not too late. We have roughly 10yrs to make that goals to retire early. As for me i try as much to have multiple source of income to get me to that 10yr goal. It wont be easy it will require a lot of work but at least i know im not wasting my time. This will be my 3rd life as how i pictured it and i hope curve balls wont be as tough when i was younger coz this vessel im in has the mileage already and its not a s tough 20yrs ago. But it could still run. So for everyone reading this there is always chance dont lose hope. Time will always be there all you have to do is Just start doing it now. Dont even let your brain talk you out of it. Do it. [link] [comments]  |
| Any ex losers here close to reaching FIRE? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 11:08 AM PST I'm 22 years old, sick with an autoimmune disease, overweight, living at home with parents, unemployed, criminal record, high school dropout, $100 in my bank account, depressed and anxious etc.. I'm a total loser. I have zero skills, other than speaking 3 languages which isn't really a skill. I know rags to riches stories are everywhere but at this point it feels impossible to me. I would like to hear your perspectives from the other side, the successful side where the grass really is greener. I'm sure some of you have felt hopeless before. Do you have any insight into the process that you'd like to share? I'd be very grateful to hear it all. [link] [comments]  |
| Daily FI discussion thread - March 08, 2018 Posted: 08 Mar 2018 03:08 AM PST Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply! Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked. Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| North American FIRE Location Recommendations Posted: 08 Mar 2018 09:43 AM PST I'm several years out from early retirement but already beginning to research good FIRE locations. I'm currently living in a HCOL (higher salary) area and taking advantage of the higher salary during my working years while keeping my expenses low. I will need to move upon retiring since this area is almost impossible to purchase housing in and I'm (rightly) worried about housing/rent costs rising to an unsustainable/unpalatable level during retirement. So I'm asking this sub for recommendations of North American locations with LCOL that I should visit over the next several years to determine whether they would be a good place to FIRE. I am purposefully not providing any personal criteria since I want to be open to all suggestions. Edit #1: Thank you all for the recommendations. I'm staying open-minded and using these suggestions to build a road trip list. Additionally, I agree with the commenter that suggested I add more specific preferences to my post. Top preferences: - Prefer water - lakes, ocean, rivers to kayak in over mountains to hike in - Prefer a temperate or moderate climate (My SO isn't a fan of rough winters) - Access to good medical care - Obviously would like to afford to buy so rural setting or smaller town because I'd like to have an acre or two of land if possible - Low to moderate cost of living [link] [comments]  |
| Guardian article about the Frugalwoods Posted: 08 Mar 2018 10:20 AM PST The commenters are LIVID. "Bullshit." "Preposterously naive." "Living on a trust fund that they failed to mention." "It doesn't count as a successful retirement if you leave your job at 32 and are already working to publish a book about said retirement a few short years later. That is just a long-term, and admittedly pretty complex, marketing strategy." "The book is paying for their retirement." Anyone else have thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Few questions about Mega Backdoor Roth Use Posted: 08 Mar 2018 02:05 PM PST I just started contributing after-tax contributions to my workplace 401(k) plan about a month ago and had some questions about the whole Mega Backdoor Roth process. Background: I have about $250k total in my 401(k) plan, split between an S&P500 index and a "LifePath 2045" plan. Of the $250k, around $205k are pre-tax dollars that I rolled over in December from several other IRAs. Around $2k are post-tax dollars that I have contributed via paycheck deductions over the last month. No gains so far on the $2k post-tax dollars according to the rep I talked to. The remaining $43k are pre-tax contributions from my current job, both my contributions and some employer matching dollars. I was ready to perform my first in-service distribution today, planning to roll over all the pre-tax dollars to an IRA and all the post-tax dollars to a Roth IRA, as the Mad Fientist suggests. When I called Fidelity though, the rep told me a few things about my plan that surprised me: 1. I could not roll out the $43k pre-tax contributions until age 59.5 or separation of service. 2. I could choose to roll over ONLY the $2k in post-tax dollars and leave all pre-tax dollars in place. 3. The plan only allows me to perform one such distribution every 12 months. (This 401(k) plan is through Cisco, plan provider Fidelity, in case anyone happens to be familiar..) I was kind of surprised, especially about point 2.), since I haven't heard any posts mention a strategy of rolling out only post-tax dollars. Will doing so create any tax obstacle that I'm not aware of, other than paying taxes on any gains on those post-tax dolalrs? Also, this scenario brings up a few more questions:
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| Asset Allocation for Retiring in 20s Posted: 08 Mar 2018 02:38 PM PST Hi everyone, I recently received a windfall of $700k, which I'm using to try to retire early with annual expenses at $24k a year (3.4% withdrawal rate) and pursue some of my passions and hobbies full-time. I've spent many hours reading /r/financialindependence, /r/personalfinance, Bogleheads, MMM, and books like A Random Walk Down Wall Street, but I'm still not sure how best to allocate my assets given that early retirees are in a peculiar position due to two opposing factors:
My original plan was to go with a 90% stock / 10% bonds allocation given that I have a high risk tolerance, but I'm not sure whether factor (2) would actually sabotage factor (1) due to the withdrawal of some funds when the markets go down, thus hindering my ability to recover optimally. I'm open to returning to work if the market crashes severely (a Shiller P/E ratio of 33 is certainly not inspiring...), but I'd like to make this money work for me if possible. What asset allocation would you recommend to someone in my position? I'd love your advice and pointers to anything I may have missed. Thank you so much! I love this community. [link] [comments]  |
| People who have already reached fire, what sources of income are supporting your lifestyle? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 03:43 PM PST Hi reddit! Trying my best to reach fire and am curious as to what people who have already reached fire, what sources of income are you using to fund early retirement?ive been reading that once done with maxing retirement accounts and having an emergency savings fund, a good next step to reach fire is to open a taxable investment acciunt. I have the following questions:
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| New to investing in registered retirement fund, question about fees over 1% (avoid or not?) Posted: 08 Mar 2018 03:13 PM PST So my company forces us to use great west life for our registered retirement savings and the fees for my current plan are 1.281%, and the lowest possible fee you can have is 1.26%. They force us to contribute 3% then only match that at 2.25% (which I have recently learned is actually not very good compared to many other companies out there) but anyway since we are forced to use this plan I decided to contribute more to work towards my early retirement. Problem is I think I might actually be better off contributing the extra money somewhere else since this fee seems pretty bad, what do you guys think? Especially since it seems I could just do a self-directed registered retirement savings account that could have a much lower fee and just put it in index funds of some sort. I'm also curious if there is any kind of data about average level of employer retirement plans across the western world to see how my plan stacks up, even though I'm pretty sure the answer is not that well. [link] [comments]  |
| Does anyone has any experience with Fundrise (real state investment company)? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 02:38 PM PST I'm looking for ways for long term investment besides an IRA and a 401K. I've been contemplating Fundrise for a while since they offer pretty good product depending on what you're looking for (short, mid, and long terms). I'm curious on how truthful are their numbers and if it is as awesome as they look. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Can we afford a 760K home and still FIRE at a reasonable time? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 05:06 AM PST Hello all - I wanted to check the affordability of a home we are planning to purchase to get a viewpoint on retirement potential and financial feasability. Age 31 My Salary - 131K Wife's Salary 120K Approximately 200K in cash 410K in Brokerage Accounts 230K in 401ks Apartment in NYC with Zillow value of 770K - current residence, potential rental income of about 3,000 a month. Mortgage of 390K left. We are looking to buy a house in the Suburbs at about 760K. We have the cash for 20% down (recently gifted so not currently invested). The real killer is property taxes around 18K a year. From my calculations, roughly 55% our income will go towards necessities (Mortgage@4.5%, Tax, HOA, Transport, Food, Utilities, Gas). I suppose we can afford it, and I understand the overhead implications of a larger home - but the community, locations, schools (potential kids in the future, hence the purchase), wife's happiness 8-) , I think makes this doable. Would love to get your thoughts and opinions! Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| 27/m unsure what to do with cash and monthly savings! Posted: 07 Mar 2018 08:52 PM PST Little background, I am a 27/M single. Last year I made about 90k. Current investments/assets include: My house is worth $275k or so and I owe $60k (I bought it for 125k and renovated it). (mortgage/insurance/taxes are about $900 a month) Savings accounts (liquid) $108k Traditional inherited IRA $125k Personal Roth IRA with about $12k Own my f150 outright (need it for work) it's worth about $26k I also have another 15k invested in things like cryptocurrency and Lending club. I own my own swimming pool cleaning business which is very profitable where I live. The business is worth about $100k. I rent out the two rooms in my 3/2 home which is an additional $12k per year. So my living costs are basically nonexistent. I'm a little late to the game with the Roth IRA, but I am maxing it out every year in fidelity's total stock market index fund and costs are almost nonexistent. The money in the inherited traditional IRA is currently being used to fund my personal Roth. There are all sorts of insane rules with inherited Traditional IRA's so I've been just using it to fund my ROTH until I come up with a better plan. I've been doing a great job of saving, the problem is I am not really sure what to do with the money. My roth is already being maxed out every year and I have over 100k just sitting in an Ally savings account basically doing nothing. I was toying with the idea of just paying down the mortgage since I plan on being in my house for another few years and the loan is at 4%. Are there any vehicles that you would recommend for someone as young as I am? I own my own business so I don't have 401k options or anything like that. Traditional IRA's have all sorts of rules and I would plan on using the money in it way before I turn 59 1/2. I guess I can narrow it down to two questions. I can save about $1500 a month after all my expenses. What should I do with the money? And what should I do with the 100k I have sitting. Pay down the mortgage? Dollar cost average into the market? What vehicle? [link] [comments]  |
| Can someone help me learn about FIRE in British terms? Posted: 08 Mar 2018 03:36 AM PST Is there a UK equivalent for this sub? I'm new and still don't really understand FIRE. Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Curious about this community's work-life. Posted: 08 Mar 2018 02:18 AM PST So, I am curious about: 1. what you do for a living? 2. How much do you get paid per year? 3. What bracket of COL do you live in? (H/M/LCOL) 4. What is your ideal FI number + ideal age? [link] [comments]  |
| My 401k plan is finicky with how much I must contribute to maximize it -- is this normal? Posted: 07 Mar 2018 07:20 PM PST I learned some interesting things about my 401k. My company matches .50 on the $1.00 up to 6% of my income. My gross is about $5000 per paycheck (every two weeks). I didn't make contributions from Jan to Mar. Today I contributed 20% of my paycheck ($1000), and my company only contributed $150 (.50 on the $1.00 up to the first $300). This means there's no way for me to make-up for lost time. I lost 3 months of company match that I can't recover even if I make bigger contributions. Since I only get a match when I contribute, there's also the risk of capping out at $18,500 too early. Let's say I max out my 401k in October. Then I won't be able to contribute in November and December. Since I only get company match when I make a contribution, I'd miss 2 months of company match, which would leave money on the table. Thus, if I contribute too little I risk not maxing out my 401k, and if I contribute too much, I risk not maxing out my match. And it seems tricky to contribute exactly the right amount because I must pick whole percentages (6%... 7%... etc) instead of exact dollar amounts. There are no defined rules in the plan for excess contributions and I am not sure if my employer will over-contribute. Adding the profit-sharing plan at work makes this even more sticky. Does it sound like I'm thinking about this right, and is this typical for a 401k? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Mar 2018 07:01 PM PST I feel like the taxable account does not get enough love. If you want to retire early fund that baby and learn about tax gain/loss harvesting. If you are married like me and in the 0% long term capital gain tax it seems like taxable account is the better option. Mostly because it is more flexible, FYI my roth is currently larger than my taxable but that is shifting. edit - I have had some large losses in my roth and I get no benefit...example of something a taxable would handle well. I am trying to stop with the stock picking...VGT and VTI! [link] [comments]  |
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