Financial Independence 25F, $240K net worth, $130K salary in tech - want to quit job and travel, then take a lower paying job that is more personally satisfying. Any feedback on pros and cons? |
- 25F, $240K net worth, $130K salary in tech - want to quit job and travel, then take a lower paying job that is more personally satisfying. Any feedback on pros and cons?
- Daily FI discussion thread - September 25, 2018
- [CA Bay Area] Legal Immigrant Couple. 220000 in High savings. 15000 stock, 35000 in 401k. Struggling for decisions due to immigration laws.
- Late Bloomers - Could Use Some Encouragement
- I made a spreadsheet to calculate coast % and required contribution across multiple goals and timelines. Thought i should share.
- 23 Y.O with high tech salary and low expenses. $150K net worth. Afraid of real estate because I don't want to bind myself to a location. I can't think of any other options except the stock market.
- Tech workers with these high paying jobs we keep hearing about, what do you actually do?
- 28 DINKs in tech. Just hit 1MM!
- What scares you most about investing or managing life savings?
- Being frugal working towards FIRE but bored to tears. What can I do?
- Anyone ever check out Aaron Clarey on YT?
- Impact of HCOL home purchase on FI prospects
- Have you taken a mini-retirement or sabbatical?
- 24/M/California - Just hit 100k NW
- Private professional malpractice coverage on top of what firm/hospital provides (to protect assets/windfall).
- Wrestling with some ideas...
- Would it make sense to make a separate subreddit for baristaFI/coastFI?
- Quick Barista Fire Question
- Backdoor Roth IRA discussion
- 401k vs traditional brokerage vs real estate savings
| Posted: 25 Sep 2018 12:47 AM PDT Hi there. 25F in HCOL area, with a finance job that pays about $130K before taxes. I've been fortunate enough to not have student loans coming out of university, and (personally believe) I have also saved fairly well since I started working three years ago. My total net worth at this point is around $240K, all-in of cash, investments, vested company stock, and retirement accounts. Could probably be higher given my salary, but also feels like an okay place to be so far.. I'm thinking about 1) quitting and taking time off to travel, volunteer and reflect on what I want to do; 2) finding a job afterwards that is more satisfying than what I do now - which will likely pay less in a separate industry. Likely I would take 3-4 months off, with another 3 months of buffer to spend actively finding a job. I'm torn between wanting the financial flexibility that FIRE provides, and with wanting to have saved properly— and wanting time to properly reflect on my career and decisions I make, and having a job I find meaningful and not just a way to retire early. In your view, what are pros and cons to the approach? All feedback is appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Daily FI discussion thread - September 25, 2018 Posted: 25 Sep 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]  |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2018 12:57 AM PDT We are both from India. Legal immigrants. I work on a work visa, have a software engineering job at a company. My wife is working on a dependent work authorization. We earn $10k net per month and save ~$4400. Despite having all this and I know we are fortunate and much better than a lot of other people, we cannot afford to buy a home. Since the last 6 months, we've had so many ups and downs in our happiness because of constantly changing immigration laws. Basically USCIS, save jobs USA and DHS have decided to take away my wife's work authorization. (She was hired after ~15 different interviews at different firms where she worked hard to pass them and she has a college degree and architecture license in India) Now I am completely unsure what to do. All our financial planning has gone to waste and to be honest I am not sure if we are even going to be able to live in the United States with these draconian immigration changes. This thread isn't to vent about that and I don't want to trigger politics. Since the last six months, I am constantly changing my 401k/HSA elections and trying to just wrap my head around what to do for my financial future. If she is forced to leave her job, there's no way she can sit at home and it's going to be really difficult for us to live on one salary. Especially in the bay area. We have no idea on what it would be like to move to another state or area and it probably is not possible because USCIS has removed my work visa premium processing as well. Greencards for Indians take up to 16+ years. Our plans were to invest our cash in a home and after that, maximize our 401k contributions and invest in IRA/index funds. The rest would be organized in fixed budgets for each year, for travel and expenses. But now, I am not sure which direction to take. Do I invest my cash in funds and sit it out while the immigration laws make or break (shake?) our lives? Please do not misunderstand the purpose of this thread. I am not here to criticize america or the government or it's immigration laws. The country has given us far more than any other country has and whatever it's people and government decide for itself is on them. I am just utterly overwhelmed by these changes and their ability to disrupt everything in my financial/personal life. I guess I am just looking for guidance as to what to do with my assets. I am a "temporary" immigrant, as this country has decided to make me aware of, and need some advice as to what kind of investments would help me secure myself financially, considering this temporary condition. I may have to move to India and I am not sure if my 401k investments (some of them require you to be in the USA?) are the best investment for my money? Or should I put them in cash or stock investments? or just leave them in a high interest savings account? Please advise me from the perspective of our condition of being only temporary residents in a country that doesn't seem to need or want us anymore. Edit and update: I have my i140 approved. [link] [comments]  |
| Late Bloomers - Could Use Some Encouragement Posted: 25 Sep 2018 02:26 PM PDT So I was laid off a month ago and it wasn't surprising. I saw it coming and had updated my resume. It still sucked when it happened, but I was bored to tears anyway and the only thing I miss is the $100K salary and maxing out my tax advantaged accounts. By serendipity I learned of a new job, and began interviewing right away. The process was long involving multiple interviews because there was a revolving door with this position (red flag #1) as well as several others I won't get into. Finally I got the offer and it's even $10K more than I was making with some other perks. But my instincts kept telling me the job was going to be a nightmare and I've had jobs like that previously where the stress wasn't worth the money and affected my health. I turned the job down. Wife has been supportive, but disappointed and now I'm starting to feel lost and anxious. I'm getting max unemployment for the next 4 months, have a little savings ($100K NW), and the wife works so we'll get by until I figure out my next move. But man, when I did the math, we probably could have at least lean FIRE'd in 7-ish years if I took the job... So ... it would really lift my spirits to hear any stories about those of you who got a late start, like late 40's, even 50's and basically started over and were still able to FIRE. Or not even FIRE, but still claim SS at 62 and not have to pinch pennies! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2018 08:45 AM PDT Hey FI! I posted about a month ago in one of the daily threads about my coast matrix and there was a lot of interest in seeing it. I've since updated it to add more features such as asset allocation, and contribution calculations. To edit, save a copy to your google drive. Let me know what you all think, if you have any suggestions for new features, if you see any bugs, if my colors suck. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZV5pUq9FyOjb0b2n_Oh5DzbSshmXKdZ4NTkmmhv7v1g/edit?usp=sharing [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2018 01:46 PM PDT Disclaimer: Not from the US, currently in Israel. Hi all, I'm 23, graduated from university about half a year ago and I've been working at big silicon valley tech firms for about 2 years now, out of which 1.5 years part-time while studying. I make around $100K-110K net, out of which around $30K is in RSUs. My expenses are around $15K a year. I'm only 23 and my problem is that while I think in general, Real Estate is a great way to reach FI (at least, that's what all the guests at the Mad Fientist are advocating), at my stage in life it's not necessarily the right decision. I don't want to bind myself to a certain location because I don't know if I'll live in the same city or even country in the future. I also currently enjoy better returns in the stock market than I would in real estate and I am more familiar with the stock market. I currently have:
I lived in Germany about 15 years ago but now I visit family there about once a year and the money is just sitting there. I should do something about it. I need to check if it's worth bringing it to Israel or if they'll tax it. I don't mind managing it from afar. I think it's too early in life to go into real estate. I'm not married and I don't know where I'll live in the future. I don't want to manage properties from another country. This leaves me with very few investment options other than stocks. Other than just dumping all the money into the stock market, what else could I do in my position? Or should I just continue investing in stocks and index funds? Or, alternatively, should I bite the bullet and enter the real estate market now because there is something that I'm missing and it would actually be good to get into that market at my age and stage in life? Any help is much appreciated. Thank you all. [link] [comments]  |
| Tech workers with these high paying jobs we keep hearing about, what do you actually do? Posted: 25 Sep 2018 03:51 PM PDT I suspect you aren't the guys telling the rest of us to restart our computer every time there is an issue and then googling the problem when we say we already did the restart. So what is your job? [link] [comments]  |
| 28 DINKs in tech. Just hit 1MM! Posted: 25 Sep 2018 01:22 PM PDT Similar theme to a lot of posts here, but I just hit a major milestone and can't tell anyone irl, so i'm bragging here! Me and my wife are both 28, east coast tech. No crazy startup luck or anything, just working and investing. We have about 20k in cash, and the rest in 401k/Roth IRas/Vanguard taxable. Jobs/salaries Me and my wife met our Junior year of college. We both got good grades and scholarships, and graduated with a combined 40k in loans. Our starting salaries were 70k and 0. I went for a science degree in school but didn't really enjoy it and wasn't interested in going for post grad, so I just tried to find anything in tech to get my foot in the door. I was unemployed for for ~6 months while my wife supported me and eventually found a job making $20 an hour that got my foot in the door. After a year and a half I got a promotion to ~70k and with way more responsibilities. The job included a tiny amount of coding, and then my salary started going up like crazy as I learned to code more. My wife has just had a steady increase over time, with a few bigger jumps due to promotions. Although I make more than her now, my bonuses will cut in half soon, and i've come pretty close to hitting the peak salary i'm going to get at my current place. Current salaries Spending/lifestyle I grew up lower middle class and maintained that lifestyle through college. Luckily, although my wife had a bit of a nicer upbringing, she was pretty onboard with living frugally. When we first graduated our salaries weren't crazy yet and luckily two friends from college moved to the same place as us, so we lived with them. Turns out that we all get along really well, and we're actually still loving together today (just in a nicer place). It means that our rent is only ~1800 after utilities, which is amazing considering how nice our place is. Since we live in a city with great public transit and terrible traffic we don't have a car and don't have to worry about payments or insurance. If there's any place public transit can't reach we just Uber/Lyft. We live pretty modestly, and our hobbies are relatively cheap (sports, running, board games, videogames, yoga). We like to drink and party with friends, but tend to do it at each other's houses instead of the bar, so it ends up not being too expensive. The thing we spend the most money on is food, since we only cook dinner 3 days a week and eat out the rest, including lunches with coworkers. We go on a 2-3 vacations each year, with 1 that is usually expensive and longer and 1-2 cheap/shorter ones. Overall we pretty much buy whatever we want, we just got lucky in that we don't really want all that much yet. Although we're frugal, when we hang out with friends we're never cheap. We'll be sure to bring more beer than we're gonna drink (and not the cheap stuff), more snacks than we're gonna eat etc. Whenever coworkers want to go somewhere nice for lunch, or out for drinks after an occasion we make sure we're there. According to Mint, we spent ~50k in 2017. I know from that math that means we can retire pretty soon, but we'll eventually have kids and want a house, and i'm not worried about trying to calculate all the numbers yet. I'll wait till there are a bit less unknowns and just continue saving until then. TL;DR Me and wife graduated together. Both got into tech jobs with stupidly high salaries. Live pretty frugally compared to coworkers with similar salaries, and have just saved/invested whatever we don't spend. Not sure if there's any point to this post other than bragging/getting out my excitement. Feel free to ask any questions though! [link] [comments]  |
| What scares you most about investing or managing life savings? Posted: 25 Sep 2018 11:56 AM PDT Looking for general input on what scares people most about investing? No right/wrong answers here. Just wondering what keeps the average person up at night? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Being frugal working towards FIRE but bored to tears. What can I do? Posted: 25 Sep 2018 11:09 AM PDT I'm saving aggressively - 50% of my salary. I'm 26 and on track to retire at 40 but I am so bored, what can I do to stay sane? My main hobbies? Hiking and camping (unpleasant and cold in the UK winter), sailing (expensive), horse riding (expensive), travelling (expensive and only 4 weeks holiday), surfing (I live 5 hrs from the surf), electronic festivals and music gigs (not cheap). The only cheap hobby I enjoy is going to the gym and developing websites and apps. When I spend time with my friends, previous partners or Tinder dates it usually involves drinking a $1 lime and soda at the pub or eating pizza at my house to save money on going out. The only time in my adult life I have never felt bored is when I was backpacking around Asia but I can't do this for the next 14 years. To top it off, my day job is a soul sucking office job and either bores me to tears or makes me so stressed I can't sleep. Does anyone have any advice? [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone ever check out Aaron Clarey on YT? Posted: 25 Sep 2018 11:01 AM PDT He doesn't talk about FIRE at all really but he does have a very refreshing yet depressing perspective on many topics. He seems frugalFIRE but doesn't acknowledge it. Bascially he thinks the world is absurd and he has checked out and is "enjoying the decline". Really, really entertaining videos though. [link] [comments]  |
| Impact of HCOL home purchase on FI prospects Posted: 25 Sep 2018 03:58 PM PDT Looking for any thoughts or advice on my situation; I realize I'm very lucky to even have these questions. Basically, I'm starting to realize that two goals in our lives might be mutually exclusive. I've been keeping up with this sub for little while now and spouse and I are interested in FIRE—Coast FI probably more realistic. But we are also intending to move from our current HCOL area to another HCOL area in another country, hopefully within the next few years. A typical home that would last us a long time in the area we want to live costs $700k-1.2m. That's the part that feels like it might make FI impossible for us. Here's where we are now: ~$382k taxable brokerage account (82% stocks heavy on VTSAX, 18% bonds) ~$57k Roth IRA rolled over from a 401k and $9k IRA rolled over from a 401k, both in VTIVX ~$7k in an old 401k I need to roll over ~$69k in current 401k Total investments: ~$529k Liquid cash: ~$544k (From a recent work windfall. Will owe some tax but already paid most via withholding.) No debt—paid off student loans with windfall. Total NW: $1.07m (weird to type that) Spouse and I are in our early 30s. Combined gross income about $280k. Income and expenses have both increased recently due to changes in life situation. Brokerage account is from me socking money away for a number of years. Spouse has largely not been a saver in the past but has come around on it. Expenses probably around $120k. I would like that to be lower and we're working on it. We've only recently started getting more serious (again) about budgeting after letting expenses balloon. (Can't change everything, like existing rental lease, on a dime.) The main reason I haven't yet put the cash anywhere is skittishness about investing money that will be eventually used for a home, and I've been thinking I'd like to simply dump as much into the down payment as possible to reduce the otherwise pretty large mortgage that would be required. May not be approaching that correctly. We're obviously in a really fortunate situation at the moment so I'm not complaining at all, but are we basically locking ourselves out of FI by looking to buy a home in a HCOL area? That's kind of how it feels. I realize such a home is more expensive than we probably SHOULD be considering. Apologies if this is a stupid question. [link] [comments]  |
| Have you taken a mini-retirement or sabbatical? Posted: 24 Sep 2018 09:13 PM PDT Throwaway account. This isn't about FIRE in the strictest sense, but is a variation on the "retire early" part. I've just started an open-ended sabbatical a few weeks ago, partly due to burnout (working at a tech startup) and partly due to the fact that my job was no longer enjoyable (for a lot of reasons). I've loosely structured the time to be split between self-care, side projects, hobbies, and family responsibilities. While I feel good about the decision overall, I still have a decent amount of anxiety over it. We've already reached our leanFIRE number, but I'm just entering my prime career years (early 30s). I have this deep fear that after my sabbatical I won't be able to find a good job and I'll slowly fade into irrelevance. I'm not so worried about the income, but way more worried about leading a useless, unfulfilled life. I generally love to work if the work and people are good, and it's important for me to be socially connected to others who enjoy building things and adding value to society. Have you guys taken mini-retirements or sabbaticals from your careers? It'd be so helpful for me to hear how it all worked out for you. A few specific angles I'm interested in:
Appreciate any stories or advice you are willing to share - looking forward to reading responses! [link] [comments]  |
| 24/M/California - Just hit 100k NW Posted: 25 Sep 2018 09:00 AM PDT Hey, long time lurker here. Posting on a new account because I don't want this much personal info attached to my main. Like a lot of people here, I'm a software engineer. In 2017 I graduated with a bachelor and master in CS from a high-tier school and started at one of the big tech companies. Coming from a lower middle class family in the nation's heartland, I was fortunate to have generous financial aid during my bachelor program, and between the aid, provision from family, merit scholarships, and savings from tech internships, I graduated with no debt but very little surplus money other than a few Bitcoin I had bought in 2015 as a speculation but (luckily, it turns out) mostly forgotten about (I sold most of it that autumn for around $30,000 in profit after taxes). This year, I have maxed my 401k pre-tax contribution, and I am also maxing out my mega backdoor. My company's 401k is managed through Vanguard, so the available funds are top-notch. I currently have 70% S&P, 10% total bond market, and 20% international (I am personally bullish about American business performance relative to other nations at the moment for various tax-related reasons). I would describe myself as being closest to the FatFIRE mentality. Retiring early isn't my only goal, so much as merely having the freedom of financial security... and to me, having to keep a small lifestyle for the rest of my life is not freedom. I do believe in functional frugality, though... I drive a Toyota, for instance, because driving is something I only do a couple of times a week (yay corporate bus systems!). However, I live by myself in a luxurious apartment a few miles from work, since I spend a very large amount of my time there, and thus I care much more about my quality of life while there (plus, studies have shown a shorter commute is one of the top indicators of happiness and job satisfaction). Savings at the moment:
Debts:
Income -- around $200k before tax... expected to go up to $250k after 2 years (one promotion):
Expenses are around $70k per year at the moment. $60k of this is rent, utilities, car payments, and insurance. Upsides:
Downsides:
Anyway, for those who read this far, congrats! Is there anything glaring that I'm missing? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2018 02:18 PM PDT X-post from Law, slightly modified Using a throwaway for obvious reasons. I work for a law firm, have no particular concerns about any claims for malpractice, and firm has coverage. However, I am quite wealthy from family money, more $$ on the way, and have no idea how robust the firm's coverage is, although I suspect not very. We do not handle million dollar deals/claims, I am not worried about any current case or issue but I am risk averse and have significant personal assets to protect; I'm the guy who is o er insured, buys umbrella, etc. Anyone ever buy their own additional professional malpractice coverage on top of firm/office/hospital coverage? If so, what are the pitfalls/logistics? Do you need to disclose/liaise with firm/hospital and or firm/hospital's insurer? That might be a deal breaker as I would prefer to keep wealth (and thus basis for more coverage) private. And, let's face it, this is me being somewhat neurotic -- surprise surprise for a lawyer. TIA. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2018 12:59 PM PDT I might be mistaken, but I feel like this community shares a pretty similar outlook on life and what it is all about. It seems to me that we all want FIRE so we can be "free". But what are we supposed to do with this freedom? Once all necessities are covered and your future finances are set, you don't actually have to do anything. So where are we supposed to find meaning? I watch a lot of Jordan Peterson and he seems to think the meaning of life is voluntary responsibility and "lifting a heavy load". I understand what he means, but it only makes sense if the responsibility you are taking on has any value to you. It seems he is saying "lift a heavy load" for the sheer sake of it. Or maybe for the sake of social validation, respect, etc. But I think most of us here understand that social validation isn't important at all. In fact, to achieve FIRE you pretty much have to not care what others think about you because it is so counter to the culture we live in. I also think many of us are aware of our psychology so well that we realize that we shouldn't follow it because it tends to lead to bad decisions for us as individuals. To sum it up, it appears that you have to reject society, or many of its norms, to achieve FIRE. Then you have to return to them after you have achieved FIRE otherwise you suffer the mental anguish of being a useless, unproductive, fringe member of society. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Would it make sense to make a separate subreddit for baristaFI/coastFI? Posted: 24 Sep 2018 06:18 PM PDT There's already one for leanfire and fatfire. It's a unique strategy. What do you think? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Sep 2018 04:00 PM PDT I've been trying to narrow down the definition of Barista FIRE. Is it one of the following: (a) you need to get a part time job in order to meet expenses (b) your investment income meets your expenses and a part time job gives you the buffer or am I way off with both? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 25 Sep 2018 09:57 AM PDT I am trying to contribute to my Roth via backdoor method. I currently have a traditional IRA from a previous job and 403b plan with current job. My understanding is that if I consolidate the funds from my traditional IRA to my 403b I would be able to pull off the backdoor IRA conversion without being subject to the pro rata rule. Is that true? Anyone have experience with this? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| 401k vs traditional brokerage vs real estate savings Posted: 25 Sep 2018 06:02 AM PDT Could use some opinions on how best to allocate my investment dollars in order to hit FIRE. I'm able to save about $100k/year and struggle with where to allocate it. Options are:
The past few years I have basically been waiting until end of year and then tossing around $45k in the retirement accounts and then using the remainder for real estate purchases and renovations. My main issue with this is that while my retirement accounts and real estate portfolio are growing, my after tax accounts (which should be a main source of funds for early retirees) are small. There is a risk that if my cash flow from real estate isn't sufficient when I plan to scale back from the corporate job in 5ish years, I won't be able to draw a percentage from my VTSAX because it's all stashed away in retirement accounts. I hesitate to commit to 100% real estate or 100% index funds because I see the benefits of both. Has anyone had a similar asset allocation experience? What approach would you use to help make a well-constructed plan? [link] [comments]  |
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