Financial Independence Article in today's New York Times gives a non-sensationalized view of FI/RE. |
- Article in today's New York Times gives a non-sensationalized view of FI/RE.
- Daughter uncovers that her elderly parents' broker traded excessively to enrich himself
- Why should you keep your net worth private?
- 24M - First Big Milestone - 100k NW - Charts and Thoughts Inside!
- Daily FI discussion thread - September 01, 2018
- Mega Backdoor Roth Question
- $250k Problem
- We have about 8 months to get our our FIRE/semi-FIRE launch prepared. Please help us get a plan together.
- 1 million net worth reached
- Next step towards FIRE?
- What is your side hustle?
- What should I do with this HSA money?
- Philanthropy on your journey/when did you start to feel you were “turning the corner”???
- Your money or your life
- How do you protect your assets from health care costs
- Check on my plan
- 401k vs Brokerage account for Overseas Contractor
| Article in today's New York Times gives a non-sensationalized view of FI/RE. Posted: 01 Sep 2018 07:39 AM PDT It's a shame that the comments section is turned off for it. [link] [comments]  |
| Daughter uncovers that her elderly parents' broker traded excessively to enrich himself Posted: 31 Aug 2018 09:52 PM PDT Article from the NY times about a JP Morgan broker who made excessive trades to get the commissions (funnelling 10% of the money in the account to himself during one year). He was meant to manage the money in that account for an aging couple and for their daughter with developmental disabilities. Learning points, I think:
How it ended?
Yeah... I would also feel that my expectations hadn't been met, if a broker did that with my investments... [link] [comments]  |
| Why should you keep your net worth private? Posted: 01 Sep 2018 12:46 PM PDT I've been saving for FIRE, and that means sitting on a fairly large (and growing larger) nest egg. My parents were fairly wealthy, and I always grew up with the understanding that you didn't talk about your finances beyond a very small, very trusted circle. Recently my wife (who comes from a different background) shared our net worth # with her sister. It wasn't a big deal (it's family after all), but I was a little taken aback. We talked about it, and I had trouble articulating why one should keep it private. I feel like I sometimes read horror stories on this subreddit about what happens when you talk too much, but I can't really bring any to mind. Can someone explain where you draw the line when it comes to sharing info about the state of your finances and why? [link] [comments]  |
| 24M - First Big Milestone - 100k NW - Charts and Thoughts Inside! Posted: 01 Sep 2018 08:54 AM PDT Hi everyone, A few months ago I turned 24 and I'm excited to say that today my NW has just surpassed my first big milestone of $100k. My plan for this post, and the subsequent ones to follow, is to keep track of my mindset towards FI, towards work, any goal changes, and anything else I seem to be pondering over. It would be great to have this as a reference point for myself for the years to come on my journey as well as seek out some advice from others on anything that might be on my mind. I've seen several posts in this format and it's extremely inspiring to read about some of the awesome journeys that most of you are going through while on your way to FI and (potentially) RE. This may read more like a blog/journal entry, so bear with me, but I'd love to hear some thoughts on anything you might pick up on while reading. I'll preface this by saying that I have been extremely lucky in a number of ways that have allowed me to reach this point so relatively early with the below points.
Some stats to put things into perspective:
Fancy Graphs and Data Tracking One part of my financial learning has been about how to effectively use Excel to keep track of expenses, earnings, investments, and budgeting ideas. This is something I have an enormous amount of fun doing. This sheet has evolved and grown over the past year due to an obsessive amount of tracking. Eventually I stumbled upon this post by /u/FItemp34097 . Which gave me some amazing ideas for how to organize my spreadsheet. If you'd like to see how it works a little better, check out his post, or feel free to ask any questions as I've modified it here and there to fit my needs. Getting it to where it should be exactly is still a work in progress so you'll likely see some erroneous data in places… In addition to this, I'm working on a way to automatically grab values from my accounts and import them into my Excel sheets. It's relatively clunky and personalized, so nothing really worth showing off, but I feel it makes it clear how much drive I have to set these kinds of things up for my finances. Current Lifestyle / About Me I currently live about 4 miles from my office and try my best to bike in at least twice a week. Sometimes more; sometimes less. While biking to work is good exercise, I do still try to work out at the local gym which I (luckily) get free entry to, due to my mom working there, but I likely would not pay for a gym membership and instead do body weight exercises if not for that. I was much more, I wouldn't say motivated, but more disciplined last year with my working out and have slowed down since, but I'm attempting to pick up the pace again this year after the short slump. I've made a good group of friends in some of my co-workers such that we eat lunch together (packed lunches on my end!) and we occasionally hang out after work. I still live in the town that I grew up in along with a good chunk of my best friends from school as well. As such, my in-person non-work social interactions are still frequent, which is wonderful and often feel like I may be taking this luxury for granted. On the other hand, I do often find myself at home preferring to play video games (a big part of my life), albeit with those same friends. As I stated before, I don't make many big expenses, but the biggest I made recently was building a new computer for about 2k with the bonus I received. I felt I would treat myself to it as I know I would get a great amount of usage out of it, and the rest went straight into my investments. Other than that, I try to keep my expenses down to a minimum, even with the fact that I am not paying for rent, groceries, or utilities aside from my phone/car insurance. Things I've Learned Since Beginning my Journey
Overall, I feel like I am way more confident in myself with how much I've absorbed since starting, especially with respect to finances. I'm looking forward to what else I can improve on and learn about anything I can. Goals for the future / Things I want to learn
Other Thoughts / Struggles / Ideas Work When I first learned about FI, my brother had sent me an article from MMM ( this one I believe ) when I was first joining my new job and trying to learn about contributing to my 401k and such. I think this story is pretty familiar for most after their first couple of MMM posts, (or ERE or whichever way you found out about FI) in that I went ahead and began binge reading from the start of the vast list of posts and information out there on FI. I was hooked from that moment on. Every fiber of my being strives to reach FI as early as possible, the majority of that stemming from my outlook on work/life. I think the one word I can use to describe myself when it comes to working a fulltime job is: Unmotivated. I am content with doing enough to get by for a job that I'm not passionate about. I want to spend my time doing that which I enjoy and working hard on my own terms. Doing projects that I deem worthy of my full 110% effort. In the end, it really has turned me off from work in general, meeting deadlines, and stressing about finishing (or not being able to finish) my work. Though, I'm unsure as to whether this is strictly for working under someone else or if it's an issue of passion. This is something that's been weighing on me more recently, however, since work has picked up quite a bit due a transformation in the part of the organization I work in where I'm one of the pivot points. I'm all up for challenging myself to learn, but the stress created from this has been a lot to handle. I know that I'll likely be rewarded greatly for taking this on and pulling through, but part of me is dissatisfied with my job in the sense that it is a cause for a major amount of stress. And even though I do love the company I work for, I'm not absolutely in love with what I do. The less emotional part of me is saying that I'm lucky to have the job I have, because of the great benefits, vacation time, decent pay for my position, and I'm worried that I won't find a better company out there in those regards. It also feels shitty and "complainy" to feel like I'm "burning out" less than two years into a job. I'm wondering if it might be a good idea to look into getting a different job within the same company, but it might be hard to bring it up at this time due to the impact it might have on my team's output. Alternatively, I've recently been toying a lot with the idea of coasting to FI after a certain point; Thinking about random jobs I could have, living frugally, and making enough to survive. Doing all of that without dipping into my investments seems entirely possible and exciting to me even if it's not my ultimate ideal (FIRE as early as possible). I find myself very frequently envisioning myself doing some other job and thinking on how it might go. Overall, I feel like I may need to make a change at some point if my mindset suffers any further. If anyone else has had similar thoughts or would just like tell me I'm being silly, please let me know what you think, as this is one of the main things weighing on me currently. Post-FIRE Lifestyle One of the things that I'm sure some of you've experienced are questions from family and friends regarding "What you plan to do when not working?". To me that answer is simple. Whatever the hell I want! I'm not worried in the slightest in my ability to find enjoyment in anything (or conversely, nothing), as long as it's on my terms. I know it's bad to speak from such little experience on the topic, but I really have not one worry that I would end up being bored or dissatisfied once I'm FIRE'd. Even if I didn't have SO many other potential interests in my life, I feel as if I could play video games/watch Netflix for an eternity and still be content with myself, which seems like a great FIRE trait to have. Due to both this and my outlook on work, I think I'd be content with a leaner than average FIRE, but I'm aware there's always things that can change that goal along the way. (Mainly Health/Love/Finding a job I absolutely love) Another big question I get is "Where do you plan to live?", this one's a little tricky still for me. My family is a big part of my life and it would be a major change if at any point I wasn't living in the same state as them. As I said before, I don't think that buying a house in my state would be something I'm interested in doing, and I think I would be able to handle moving away and being on my own, but I'm still hesitant to do so. I think my parents especially would be pretty devastated even though my siblings will likely still live in the area for years to come. For friends, I'm less worried because of the fact that a good chunk of time I spend with them is online anyway and I think I'm pretty decent at making friends. However, it will likely be much more difficult to do so if I'm not working in an office or something. I've (very briefly) toyed with the idea of living in a different country, but at the moment I haven't given it too much headway as it's a slightly unnerving thought to me at the moment. I'll need to learn more about different countries before really thinking about it as a real possibility. I have extended family on the other side of the country in a really nice LCOL area, so this is also an option too as a midpoint between the two. (Living near family, but also on my own). I think there's room for me to spend more money in some areas (mainly in a social context), but I have no real need to. I have gotten some minor backlash from friends and family alike on my style of frugality and it's something I still struggle with, but have been way better at lately. I feel as if I come off as cheap, more so than frugal and I want to work on making this impression better for myself in their eyes. If anyone has any tips on this kind of thing, please reach out because I'd love to hear it! Overall, I'm pretty proud with where I am right now. I've learned a whole lot that I'm proud of myself for and I'm excited to see where these next few years take me. There's definitely so much more to discover about myself and my needs once I move out on my own, so it's hard to project a true date for my complete FIRE, but I think I'm at a good place. I know my story isn't anything extraordinary, but I appreciate anyone taking the time to have made it to the end! I think the next time I write will be at 200k, or next year, not sure which yet. Happy FIRE'ing everyone! [link] [comments]  |
| Daily FI discussion thread - September 01, 2018 Posted: 01 Sep 2018 04:10 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: 01 Sep 2018 07:11 AM PDT Just found out that my company's 401k plan is going to start to offer after tax 401k contributions up to the 55k limit and one in service withdrawal/conversion per year. This is great and I am going to take advantage of it as soon as it becomes available. Question for all you FI-ers... the plan allows for conversion into either the in-plan Roth 401k or allows to roll into my Roth IRA - pro's/con's to each ? What would you all choose and why ? Thanks in advance ! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Sep 2018 11:15 AM PDT Hi All, First let me say that this sub has changed my life completely. I am a divorced 37 Year old single male with 1 child, living in a HCOL area. 6 Years ago I had a -40K net worth after a tough divorce, and I was out of work. I am in software sales, and fortunately since then I had a good couple of years, where I was able to learn to earn and save and with tips from r/financialindependence, r/Frugal, and r/Flipping to get where I am today. Current Net Worth: 460K IRA: 60K (diversified ETFS) 529: 10K (age based plan) 401K: 140K (Max contributions, 3% match, 2045 Target Retirement Mix Fund) Cash: 250K I max out my 401K and IRA every year, but currently make too much for a ROTH. Here in lies my problem. As you can see, I am sitting in too much cash, and essentially losing money to inflation. I would like to be somewhat conservative with my cash, and keep it liquid if I want to buy a house or buy a business. Also, Ive went broke 2x (2008 & divorce in 2012), so I really cant stomach the S&P500 for short term swings. Any advice on how to conservatively invest the 250K for liquidity, ~>4% return using vanguard funds or ETFs? I am currently looking at short term retirement funds like 2021 and such. Thanks all for the advice, and keep going for FIRE. If I can do it, you can do it! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Sep 2018 02:20 PM PDT My wife's job contract and our lease go until the end of June, 2019. We're about "done", psychologically, with the life we've been living for many years (at least 10), which, many people would agree has been lame in many ways. It's time for a big change. I think we may be able to either FIRE or semi-FIRE at that point, but we're sure not for prepared for it today, September 1st, 2018. So, can you help us plan? I would like to make this transition as financially and personally wisely as possible, in the spirit of FIRE. This means I don't want to look back on this time and think, "Damn, I made another $5,000 missed opportunity mistake!", or "Gosh, that was so much more unpleasant and time-wasting than it could have been if only we..." Given that, questions like what steps should we be taking, what should our timeline be, what "gotchas" should we watch out for, and others are nebulously percolating through our heads these days. I'm going leave our particular facts out of the post for now, because I don't want to bog it down. If requested, I'd be happy to share whatever facts about us. Some of our big questions are:
[link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Sep 2018 12:29 PM PDT Throwaway because I don't really want my details floating around. Although FIRE is a goal, I don't think I'll actually retire too early, but it helps me save. Breakdown 46M/Wife 48F 475K in 401K 730K Home(I owe 173K, hope to pay it off early in about 10 years) Other smaller misc. savings and investments. Work for fortune 500 making 130-150K/year This is the first year I'll max out my 401K. I hope to max out until I retire. At 55 I could potentially have 2 million. At 65 I could potentially have 3-4 million. I expect at least one more down turn before I need to put money in safer investments. I also want to try and save 100K or more in liquid investments for whatever comes up. I haven't started that yet, but probably next year. I'm not that frugal but I'm responsible about my money. I am currently driving a Prius, but will buy a brand new truck next year. I generally pay off my cars in 2-3 years. I plan to have this truck for a very long time, minimum of 10 years. I would say based on this sub, I am in the "normal" retirement category where I'll probably work until at least 60. Of course, anything can happen and anything can change. I won't live past 80 most likely because of some health issues. Anyhoo, I can't really share this information with anybody, so thought I'd share it here. Feel free and critique, offer suggestions or ask questions. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Sep 2018 12:02 PM PDT I'm not one to place myself as the center of attention; however, I have a fairly important question to ask, at least for my family. I'm 26 and married. Both my wife and I served active duty military for 8 years and recently got out to be closer to family and pursue other professional goals. Neither of us came from money growing up and saved like crazy while in the military. We just bought our first house in cash (simple 3-bedroom in a quality school district 30 minutes between two midsize cities (100-200K population each)). Our goal is to build a rental property portfolio and eventually retire off the income (ideally by 50 years old). Initially we are thinking about investing in 3 to 6-plex's in the $130 - 200K price range (prices vetted w/local realtor and personal research). We are currently debt free and I signed a 9-month work contract where we'll have between $65-90K after bills are paid. My initial plan was to put 50% down on a rental property and pay it off as soon as possible (in about 2 - 4 years). We're looking for any financial advice from people. Should we put more or less down? Are there other FIRE avenues we should consider? Right now we have a blank canvas and are open to ideas. P.s. If we go the rental property route, we'll be working with a real estate attorney and property management company, because we both work full-time and don't want to deal with tenants. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 31 Aug 2018 10:41 PM PDT I'm a high school teacher, looking to try to create some more income. tutoring not an option at my school. I am really looking forward to seeing the diverse ways you all make some moolah on the side! p.s. yes, I'm also working for promotions as well [link] [comments]  |
| What should I do with this HSA money? Posted: 01 Sep 2018 08:55 AM PDT I have an HSA with about 8K in it. I put money in pre-tax. MY deductible is $2700, and I add $300 every month ($150/pay) I have 3 options for investing some of it (see pic) If they manage it for me, it has a monthly fee of 0.08% (80¢ per thousand invested) I do NOT feel like I can manage it myself (the second option) and don't want it to do nothing ( the third option) So, is the fee they charge reasonable? I could add what I put in my HSA into my Roth instead, but I would just max out sooner. I was thinking of taking 4K and having them manage it. I have already met my deductible for the year, and I'd have next year's deductible plus a cushion. I'd like to have enough in it to cover expenses when I retire (5 years, max) Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| Philanthropy on your journey/when did you start to feel you were “turning the corner”??? Posted: 31 Aug 2018 10:26 PM PDT Posting from throwaway. I am 41 years old. NW ~ $1.45M. Young daughter with a healthy college fund. Only non-mortgage debt is a low interest car loan and I have enough cash to pay it off any day. I have started for the first time making political donations (small ones) month to month with plans for these funds going to charitable causes after the elections. Then I started thinking about starting my own scholarship fund. Not sure how or when I will do this but I have some early ideas and I'm reaching out to professionals who can help me get it off the ground. In the past decade my charitable donations have been an embarrassingly small fraction of what I earn. I love the idea of setting up a scholarship in my family's name, including many of them in the selection committee, but likely funding it all myself financially. My questions are: 1). Anyone who has done this I would love to hear your experience, not only on logistics but also on any intrinsic rewards for giving back. 2). For those heavily in to philanthropy at what point did you reach a threshold where you felt comfortable with this arrangement? Or did you do it from the beginning knowing it would affect FIRE plans? Bottom line I feel like I am turning a corner where I can feel comfortable doing this while also feeling I am not cheating my family based on what we have today, knowing I will continue to build those family accounts.... And yet at this point I feel as if I have reached my time to start giving back in an impactful way. In my younger years I took great pride in my volunteer efforts. In the following years I focused much more on wealth building (easy to transition when your NW is a huge negative number). And now those circumstances have changed. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Sep 2018 06:37 AM PDT Hi folks, I read this book last week and I felt overall nothing much new for a person who knows already FI and the steps to take. The below two things were little different: 1. Taking stock of all your assets (absolutely everything) and income (again from day one of your pay day). 2. Calculate monthly expenses and tax as percentage of net worth. This one was really interesting. What do you guys think about above two? Does it give any additional benefits in point 1 as the time spent will be quite more? How useful is metric mentioned in point 2? [link] [comments]  |
| How do you protect your assets from health care costs Posted: 31 Aug 2018 05:25 PM PDT Even with insurance you can still be hit with gigantic bills. Can you protect your assets from health care expenses? Health care can drain twenty years of saving and investing in under a week. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 Sep 2018 07:37 AM PDT Quick check on my FIRE plan: I have been blessed to work in a career that will provide a defined benefit pension which will more than provide for my needs in retirement. The pension does not have COLA and benefits are not exceptional so those are my main two concerns there. I plan to retire early from this career and begin to draw the pension. Our home is not paid for yet, however, I plan to work in a lesser role 4-5 more years, live on the pension, and use work income to pay off the mortgage. Obvious problems I am missing? Poke holes in my plan... [link] [comments]  |
| 401k vs Brokerage account for Overseas Contractor Posted: 01 Sep 2018 01:08 AM PDT Throwaway. I'm an overseas contractor for Uncle Sam and I'm getting a "Cost of Living" allowance which is 20% of base pay which I receive post tax and 401k. So what this mean is that for every dollar I put into my 401k, I'm losing 20 cents. So my problem is this, I have to put in 6% of my salary to get the company to match with 3.5%. Let's use even numbers: $100k salary = $6k to 401k, $3.5k from employer with free money This leaves $13k which I can either put in the 401k tax shelter or put in a brokerage account to receive 20% on that immediatly = $2.6k extra ($13k * 20% ) but I pay capital gains tax on any dividends yearly which for my chosen fund VTSAX is 1.6% at a rate of 0%-15% tax. I feel like I should be smarter than this but I can't wrap my head around it. [link] [comments]  |
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