Financial Independence Anyone here still haunted by their childhood? |
- Anyone here still haunted by their childhood?
- The post-scarcity phase
- Weekly Self-Promotion Thread - August 08, 2018
- Daily FI discussion thread - August 08, 2018
- How long do you stay at a job?
- IT side hustle
- Decisions: low cost of living vs high income potential
- Spending too much on personal vices...
- Question about Vanguard investment account vs Roth IRA account
- Will be selling my company and making ~$3M after taxes. How do I handle this payout responsibly? Don’t know where to begin.
- A short article detailing the benefits of renting and viewing renting as a 'location asset'
- How do you stop your self from disliking, hating or rage-quitting?
- Any executive types become MOSTLY financially independent and move to a low wage- low skilled part-time job?
- Example of 401k plan language that allows for Mega Backdoor Roth?
- Would you move to a new city (Philly) for a new job with a big pay increase?
- Vanguard accounts
- How to calculate the asset value of a pension
- Would you postpone your retirement if the stock market drops 50% the year before your planned retirement date?
- Healthcare costs estimates in Retirement
- Daily FI discussion thread - August 07, 2018
- Anyone here move to part time after taking early Social Security at 62?
- The Yield Curve Explained and Why it's Been Flattening
- I am financially independent. Help motivate me to quit desk life or keep going
- Which is Better: Pay Off Mortgage or Invest?
| Anyone here still haunted by their childhood? Posted: 08 Aug 2018 01:05 AM PDT I grew up poor. Really poor. Housing. Government benefits. Single parent. The only time we had food is when ma and I would go down to the women's centre to get a supermarket voucher. $40. Otherwise it was always canned food. Makes sense why I was so constipated all the time. It was awful. All my clothes were secondhand. I never got any new toys. They were all hand me downs too. Everything was a hand me down. I couldn't have music lessons even though I showed a massive interest. This was wayyy before YouTube days so you couldn't learn online for free. I spent most of my time watching whatever's on tv. It was awful. I've since turned my life around as an adult and it's amazing. I'm in a very comfortable position for my age group [$534k net assets DINK] and I don't have anything to worry about financially. However, every now and again I do get very anxious. And I don't spend. And I bring my COL right down, sometimes unnecessarily. I need a night guard so my teeth will stop moving. They cost $1k-ish. At my position with our income, this isn't even a hiccup. But I get so afraid of ever having to experience my childhood again, I begin to think that it's frivolous. Until I get reminded of how silly the situation is. Of course I'm getting those night guards! Are any of you, still haunt by your childhood? How do you cope with it? Edit: Thank you everyone. Especially u/thorskay. Enjoy the gold. I have great comfort in knowing that I'm not the only one. And that my anxiety is 'normal' and I'm not a freak. It's going to take time and patience and possibly therapy for me to get over this. But I can and I will. I believe in myself. I got this far. And FWIW, I don't live in North America. Have called and couple places for quotes and $1k mark is right for the kind of night guard I need. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Aug 2018 09:59 AM PDT Recently, I crossed the threshold where I'm technically financially independent: the safe withdrawal rate of my investments is more than my yearly spending. Like many users on this sub, I'm not ready to retire yet: I'm in my early 30s, enjoy variously aspects of my job (though I might switch companies), and most importantly don't have the rest of life figured out yet. No family yet, and only just starting to build up the right set of hobbies to retire to. So the plan is to keep working while it's enjoyable, and focus on building a great life outside of work. One interesting thing that I've noticed is that at this juncture, a core FIRE strategy (keeping lifestyle inflation in check) starts to break down. I call this the post-scarcity phase. All needs are met, and all earnings go towards chubby-fying or de-risking retirement. (I'm not interested in de-risking because I picked withdrawal rate that is low enough that there's little benefit in reducing risk) So how should spending work in the post-scarcity phase? If I'm not increasing spending now, then I'm just hoarding cash to later more drastically increase spending. It makes no sense for example, to keep spending at X until retirement, then retire to spending 3X. A fun thing that I've started doing as a solution to this "problem" is pegging my spending to my portfolio size, even while working. Instead spending a fixed X/year, I'm switching to spending 3.5% of my invested assets per year. Some interesting observations: [link] [comments]  |
| Weekly Self-Promotion Thread - August 08, 2018 Posted: 08 Aug 2018 04:08 AM PDT Self-promotion (ie posting about projects/businesses that you operate and can profit from) is typically a practice that is discouraged in /r/financialindependence, and these posts are removed through moderation. This is a thread where those rules do not apply. However, please do not post referral links in this thread. Use this thread to talk about your blog, talk about your business, ask for feedback, etc. If the self-promotion starts to leak outside of this thread, we will once again return to a time where 100% of self-promotion posts are banned. Please use this space wisely. Link-only posts will be removed. Put some effort into it. [link] [comments]  |
| Daily FI discussion thread - August 08, 2018 Posted: 08 Aug 2018 04:08 AM PDT 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]  |
| How long do you stay at a job? Posted: 08 Aug 2018 09:12 AM PDT I've been working for about 10 years since graduation, I'm on my fourth job and potentially considering a change. I've been at my latest job just over 2.5 years. Curious what everyone thinks about job hopping and at what point does it start to hurt more than help your ability to increase income. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Aug 2018 03:10 PM PDT So I work in IT compliance and love my career choice. Would like to find additional income to reduce my working years and enjoy my future years even more. Looking for ways to get passive/side hustle money along with my current income. What have others in IT done? Edit: wife and I are both 32 and debt free. We are hoping to retire by 50 and really live life before we are old and unable to enjoy it. [link] [comments]  |
| Decisions: low cost of living vs high income potential Posted: 08 Aug 2018 05:35 AM PDT So I'm in a little bit of a dilemma and I'm not sure what to do. I currently work as a CPA in a higher cost of living area. I'm only about two years into my career. I really enjoy my job for the most part, but as with all jobs there are a few things I don't love (45 min commute to clients, stress, ect...). Recently, I heard about a job opening in my hometown (tiny town 2k population) that sounds really tempting, but I just want to make sure I consider everything before making a decision. The job in my hometown would come with a modest salary increase ($15-20 k), decrease in stress, and a 5-10 minute drive to work. I also have the option to purchase a home that would significantly reduce my mortgage (about $150k in debt reduction). I'd probably have a lot more fun as well because I'd be a lot closer to my hobbies. I'd probably also see a reduction in hours worked per year 200-300 hours The largest drawback I see is that the potential for salary growth is very limited. I'd be right below the CFO at the company, so to advance, the company would either need to grow dramatically (not highly likely) or the CFO would need to retire. At my current job the income potential is much higher, but I'm not sure I want to grind out 3-4 more years in public accounting to start to see that benefit. Before I make any decisions I just really want to get a 3rd party view point on what factors I should consider. I've talked to a couple of my managers but I think they have a lot of bias towards staying because that's the decision they made. Other staff/senior level employees have told me to take it, but I also feel like they don't have a lot of new perspective to add because our situations are so similar. I have another interview on Thursday with the company. It's fairly likely I'll get a job offer. Is there anything specific you would consider before making a decision? Can you think of anything I need to ask the company at my interview? Overall how would you weigh cost of living and quality of life vs earning potential. I'm only 25 so this is a hard one for me. I don't think I have enough perspective and experience to make an informed decision. [link] [comments]  |
| Spending too much on personal vices... Posted: 08 Aug 2018 04:25 PM PDT I'm pretty frugal with most aspects of my life. I only buy things on sale, never pay interest, cook at home, no interest in high fashion or jewelry. I don't even have netflix. I also drive a used car that is fully paid off. I don't gamble, or drink in bars. But I have one major vice that is sucking a ton of money from me. I spend roughly $2000 a month of young and ripe prostitutes. It makes me happy. What should I do? [link] [comments]  |
| Question about Vanguard investment account vs Roth IRA account Posted: 08 Aug 2018 03:41 PM PDT Hey awesome FI community- hoping you can help me with this. Current situation: $25k in VTSAX investment account $35k in VTSAX Rollover IRA account (came from my prev. employers 401k). I had tried to put the $25k in my rollover IRA account, and was upset to find out I can only put $5500 per year. From what I've heard about the compound interest gains, I feel like i'm missing out on maximizing my return by having two accounts- but it was the only way I can see this working. I just signed up for 25% of my income to go into my 401k company account (fidelity), which I'll then rollover into the Vanguard when I eventually leave. Am I doing anything wrong here? The goal- get as much as I can into one bucket of VTSAX so that I can start getting those returns over the next 30 years. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Aug 2018 03:31 PM PDT As the title states, my company is being acquired and I will make approximately $3M as a payout. I'm not really financially savvy (I was a tech co-founder), and am concerned about my ability to proceed wisely. I want to ensure this payout continues to grow and to have the option to leverage that capital for further investments. I don't know where to begin and am seeking any advice you may have. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| A short article detailing the benefits of renting and viewing renting as a 'location asset' Posted: 08 Aug 2018 02:01 PM PDT https://twocents.lifehacker.com/why-higher-rent-can-be-a-good-investment-1828059876 Paper here: www.nber.org/papers/w24867 There's a short summary of the paper in the article: "[W]hen you choose to move to a pricier and amenity-laden city, you're transferring resources into the future—i.e., saving!—by establishing yourself near opportunities for higher pay and human capital" [link] [comments]  |
| How do you stop your self from disliking, hating or rage-quitting? Posted: 07 Aug 2018 05:06 PM PDT I've found myself in a tough cycle. I know my FT job is mostly a means to an end (I enjoy my career but a job is a job). But the idea of sticking around just to stick around (for money or whatever) at times seems...like a bad idea. For those who know they dislike working on things that aren't theirs how do you deal? EDIT: Want to clarify my post as I realize based on comments its not entirely clear what I'm saying. Or it is and I'm just a dummy. Either way, hopefully y'all will review and provide more invaluable feedback. After getting into FI and firmly believing in the time/money exchange that we often do for work it's become hard for me to immerse myself in going to my job. The job itself isn't horrible but knowing I could, in theory, be doing anything else with my time, makes it difficult to swallow. This feeling I'm realizing is also sort of seeping into my view of the work, too. How do other folks in this community balance that feeling while not letting it really put a stinker on your mood, whether daily or while at work or whatever. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Aug 2018 10:23 AM PDT A friend of mine who is in his mid 50s is a business executive (senior manager) at a large corporation. His employer works him like a dog and he is mentally and physically exhausted. He does not have enough money to survive financially until his pension and Social Security can kick in around 2025. He did not save and invest enough as of today to cover his needs without working until he can collect SS and his pension without a huge annual withdrawal from his savings and investments. He is always talking about taking a 4% distribution and moving to a part time job and scaling back his lifestyle. I tell him that few employers is going to hire a $150K senior manager at a low wage low skilled job paying $12 an hour for a twenty hour a week gig. Those jobs are "set aside" for immigrants and young people. And low wage jobs are not necessarily easy. Think Undercover Boss! He disagrees and thinks that it would be easy to move from an executive role to a 20 hour a week low wage job. Your thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Example of 401k plan language that allows for Mega Backdoor Roth? Posted: 08 Aug 2018 10:07 AM PDT After a couple years of dealing with a terrible 401k from Mass Mutual, I've successfully lobbied my employer to switch to Vanguard! Since changing providers means writing up new plan documents, I've asked if we can change the plan to allow Mega Backdoor Roth contributions up to the annual $55,000 limit, and my employer approved of the idea. However, we're a small organization with no HR or benefits department, and I want to make sure that this gets set up correctly. Would anyone here be able to tell me what sort of verbiage we need in the plan documents/summary plan description to allow after tax contributions and in service distributions? I want to make sure I get it right this time since changing the plan in the future will incur additional costs. [link] [comments]  |
| Would you move to a new city (Philly) for a new job with a big pay increase? Posted: 06 Aug 2018 10:55 PM PDT I'm 32, single, and have grown up in the Boston area all my life. I've never lived in another city. I've worked for the same company, in a niche industry, for 10 years, and make high $80s to low $90s. Net worth is $450k. Currently save 45% of gross salary, and I plan to be financially independent by mid 40s. I feel like I've hit a wall at my current company in terms advancement opportunities. Our main competitor is headquartered in Philly, and has an opening for a director level position. The interviews are going well, and the ballpark salary is around $140k. My preliminary research shows that Philly is a cheaper city than Boston, so a big salary increase + lower CoL is a double win, and will accelerate FI. Having said that, I've also read that Philly is dirty, has a fairly large homeless and drug problem, and higher crime rates overall. All of my family and friends live in Boston. I wouldn't know anyone in Philly. The salary increase would be so high though, that I feel like I need to take it just to set the bar for future negotiations with other companies. What would you do? Update: Thank you everyone for all of your responses. It's nice to hear from people who live in Philly, and from people who have lived in both cities. I left this out of the original post, but I do have one parent and one grandparent with health issues. Though they are both improving, part of me feels selfish for leaving the other parent to care for both by herself. As people said though, the plane ride is quite short, so it wouldn't be hard to visit often. Update 2: Crazy day! I just heard back from another company in NYC to which I had applied several weeks ago. Salary is likely higher than $140k, but CoL is also much higher. Let's see if I can leverage the potential offers against each other. Never been in such a fortunate position before. It seems to pay not to be complacent, and to look for opportunities outside of your home city if possible. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 08 Aug 2018 12:32 PM PDT I'm still a little confused about FIRE and the trinity study and the idea that if you have your money in the market you can safely withdraw 4% (subject to personal preferences). Lets say my money is in Vanguard. Do I just put it all in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, Admiral Shares (VTSAX)? Let it ride and once every month pull out my stipend? Or is it more complicated than that? I've read a lot about various FIRE approaches and the 4% approach, but I've never really seen anything about specific funds or distributions. [link] [comments]  |
| How to calculate the asset value of a pension Posted: 07 Aug 2018 09:50 AM PDT Since a pension isn't something that can be taken out in a lump sum at any given time , I have always been curious how to calculate the actual worth of one. Especially since pension benefits will make up roughly 33% of my FIRE plans. I have browsed around online a few times over the past couple years and find conflicting answers. Whether it is a single life pension, or something that can be given to a beneficiary, how do you calculate the total asset value of a pension? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Aug 2018 06:12 AM PDT Everything is a go. Your long planned retirement is on schedule for January 1st 2020. You started the intellectual and financial planning for a retirement in 2018. As of August 2018, you had the 2 million you needed in your 401k. Any increases to that amount is just gravy. You would be happy if that amount just steady. But in early 2019, a major recession starts. (Something about a trade war or something, who knows.) The bull market crashes and the SP500 Index drops 50%. You had a 60/40 portfolio in your 401k. The bond market did nothing in 2019 but the stock market was down 50%. Your 2 Million dollar portfolio in 2018 is now only $1.3 Million. Are you still retiring or are you going to wait until the market comes back in 5-10 years? [link] [comments]  |
| Healthcare costs estimates in Retirement Posted: 08 Aug 2018 07:02 AM PDT Curious to hear how you all estimate what your healthcare costs will be once you retire. In particular how you factor that in your FIRE number. [link] [comments]  |
| Daily FI discussion thread - August 07, 2018 Posted: 07 Aug 2018 04:08 AM PDT 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]  |
| Anyone here move to part time after taking early Social Security at 62? Posted: 08 Aug 2018 05:58 AM PDT Effective in January 2019, I will be collecting early Social Security and a pension at age 62. Combined, my early Social Security and pension will be about $2500 a month. I got a part time teaching job at a local Community College. My pay should be under $17,000 annually for that job but my monthly pay could vary. Social Security rules say that if I earn more than about $17,000 a year, they will cut my Social Security checks $1 for every $2 I earn above the maximum. Here is my question: Will they cut my early SS check if I earn over $1400 a month, or only if I earn over $17,000 in the full year? Some months I may earn MORE THAN $1,400.00, but I don't expect to earn more than $17,000 in a year. (What a life it will be. Without taking any money out of savings and my investment accounts I can make about the same income per month, with my SS, pension and fun 5 hours a week part time teaching job than I was making working a full time job.) [link] [comments]  |
| The Yield Curve Explained and Why it's Been Flattening Posted: 07 Aug 2018 08:57 AM PDT Thought I'd share - I always knew what the yield curve was but I never understood why people watch it so closely. Great resource that explains it well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L_zQGPNXOk Anyone here ever use the yield curve as an investment tool? Have you been doing any trades lately as a result of the yield curve's movement? [link] [comments]  |
| I am financially independent. Help motivate me to quit desk life or keep going Posted: 08 Aug 2018 08:38 AM PDT Below is my situation. Any advice or comments appreciated! Context: I want to take advantage of this life and do the most I possibly can during my short time on earth with my friends and family. While I am motivated to succeed and make a difference in this world, I like to have fun more than I do work for someone else's agenda. Currently, I work for the benefits (primarily healthcare) and salary as a cushion and not as a way of life. The company is fantastic, in a very interesting tech space, and I get to enjoy the perks of a high-growth San Francisco startup working remotely in a smaller office across the country. I also get to walk to work (an Atlanta dream)! While this is all so incredibly great, it's quite demanding, and I find myself constantly wishing I was doing something else other than sitting behind a computer, constantly hopping in and out of seemingly pointless meetings to fill time, and having weekly 1:1s with my manager across the country. By nature, I do not enjoy this type of daily grind. I am the son of artists, who is naturally creative, adventurous, and rebellious. While my work is not directly creative, it does allow me to plan my day and approach to client's problems creatively. I truly run my own agenda with them. I obtained wealth before this job (6 months on the job and counting), and I find it's more often than not difficult to stay motivated knowing that I'm not dependent on this employment. With that said, I am always want to learn new things and this company definitely provides that. Over the past decade, I have dabbled investing in the stock market, angel invested in a tech startup (pending results) real estate, and crypto (no this is not how I obtained wealth). I am hoping to get advice on whether to take the plunge (or if it's possible given my numbers below), leave my job and explore this world. I do not feel as though I have an agenda on what I would actually do or go, but would still like to make an income in replacement of my lost salary and continue to build my wealth. Age Me: 30(M) Wife: 29(F) Location Atlanta, GA, USA Employment Tech (non engineer or developer) Education BS, Finance Relationship Status 1yr married to a lovely woman! Finances Net Worth: ~$5M
Thanks in advance for any and all advice and comments. Edit: formatting. [link] [comments]  |
| Which is Better: Pay Off Mortgage or Invest? Posted: 07 Aug 2018 05:42 AM PDT Here's a question that has strong feelings on both sides: Assuming you have all other debt paid off, which is better to focus on with your extra funds: paying off your mortgage or investing? On one side, the "pay off the mortgage" folks will argue that there's no feeling like being completely debt free and that paying extra on a mortgage is a guaranteed return. On the other, the "invest more" folks will claim that the odds are you will be better off financially by investing since return rates are generally much higher than mortgage interest rates. Of course you could do both, but let's leave that option off the table for now. Which do you think is better and why -- especially as it pertains to those trying to reach financial independence and/or retire early? What factors would make you consider an alternative position (maybe if mortgage rates climbed or if the stock market looked like it would be flat for a decade)? [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from financial independence / early retirement. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment