Financial Independence Can't tell if this Bloomberg article is satire or not |
- Can't tell if this Bloomberg article is satire or not
- 8 years and $36k in credit card debt finally paid off!
- FIRE and Healthcare (Marketplace / Medicaid / CHIP)
- Daily FI discussion thread - November 04, 2018
- Question about Roth 401k -> Roth IRA rollover into early withdrawals
- How likely is it that FI/RE is a bubble phenomenon?
- FIRE Blogs
- FIRE and beautiful things?
- Careers for Financial Independence
- ACA plans: Silver or bronze?
- Other ways of investing in yourself
- Are there people in your life that serve as motivators for your frugal/FIRE lifestyle and goals?
- Question: TSP Roth / Non / Both?
- How do you count rental real estate for FI purposes?
| Can't tell if this Bloomberg article is satire or not Posted: 04 Nov 2018 07:27 AM PST Ignoring the actual SWR math that goes into FIRE:
About Suze Orman's FIRE opinions:
About the purpose of money:
[link] [comments]  |
| 8 years and $36k in credit card debt finally paid off! Posted: 04 Nov 2018 10:37 AM PST It has been a long trip to where I am today when I made my lat credit card payment. I accrued significant credit card debt in college (not student loans) and then after getting married with a very crappy job, and basically living on credit cards. I was living on the east coast, paying a ridiculous amount of money for a tiny apartment and general cost of living. Since my job was work at home, I made the decision to find a nice community in the midwest and relocated. My monthly housing cost dropped from $1500 down to $500 - i went from a tiny apartment, to owning a 4-bedroom ranch. My overall cost of living also went down significantly. This allowed me to start paying more than the minimums on my cards. Surprisingly, my credit was excellent so over the last 8 years, I was able to move around the balance every 12 months to a 0 interest balance transfer card, so I paid very little interest on this balance.(other than 2-3% BT fees). I have also learned so much from this sub about frugal living, which further contributed to my ability to pay down my debt, and build a $15k emergency fund. I made it! I am flying like a bird! Stop using credit cards if you can... Edit:I did. You can too. The only reason I share this is to inspire you. The link in the text that I share is an article explaining the details of the balance transfer. The balance transfer helped me. I shared the information in this article because I found it important. Please do not misunderstand me. [link] [comments]  |
| FIRE and Healthcare (Marketplace / Medicaid / CHIP) Posted: 04 Nov 2018 05:15 AM PST Hey all, One of the "benefits," as I see it, of being a self-employed person is that I can manipulate my AGI / MAGI by $37,000 (18.5k each for both myself and my wife) + 20% of our net business income each year by maximizing our i401(k) contributions, plus another $11,000 if we contribute to our IRAs. Since the inception of the Healthcare Marketplace, and with it the steady increase of our insurance premiums, I've decided to lean hard on those i401(k) contributions to bring our MAGI down to the point where our insurance premium are as low as possible. This saves us ~15k in premiums as a family of 4, which as I see it frees up more money to save and invest in our budget and also happens to reduce our taxable income for a lower total tax. I feel like I'd be throwing that 15k+ away if we didn't do things this way. This year in going through the Marketplace, however, I found that anytime I moved our MAGI below $75,300 (300% Federal Poverty Level) it said that our 2 children should be eligible for our state's CHIP. When I spoke to our state agency in past years, they told me that their eligibility determinations were based on your total income (1040 line 22) not your AGI / MAGI, but looking through their current documentation it looks as though they're (now) using MAGI just like the Federal Marketplace does. Perhaps it's a recent change as Medicaid / CHIP programs are expanded state-by-state. In any case, I'm not thrilled at the idea of our children being on CHIP, as I've found things run through our state's agency extremely slow-moving and confused, and as such I take the next step and question the quality of care and potential headaches I'd have to deal with. As I thought about it, though, I thought about the possibility of making contributions such that we move our MAGI just below 100% FPL ($25,100 for 2019). It turns out that CHIP and our state's Medicaid plans include dental and other coverages that our Marketplace plan does not. So, with that in mind, I have a few questions:
Thanks much. [link] [comments]  |
| Daily FI discussion thread - November 04, 2018 Posted: 04 Nov 2018 03:07 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]  |
| Question about Roth 401k -> Roth IRA rollover into early withdrawals Posted: 04 Nov 2018 09:28 AM PST One thing I can't seem to find online or on this subreddit is how early withdrawals work after converting from a Roth 401k to a Roth IRA post employment. I've read that with a Traditional 401k -> traditional IRA-> Roth IRA, after 5 years you can access these conversions as "contributions" tax and penalty free, but not the earnings on them. So you accumulate a huge traditional 401k balance, and convert a bit each year and pay taxes on it, and that's what you'll withdraw from the roth ira 5 years later. What I don't know is if that 5 year rule applies if you go directly from a Roth 401k to a Roth IRA. The idea would be that upon retiring early, I would transfer the entire balance to a Roth IRA, as the Roth IRA has lower fees and less restrictions. The hope would be that I could live off of the "contribution" amount that is untaxed until I reach 59.5 years old and the entire account opens up. Thing is, I don't know what is considered contributions eligible for tax-free withdrawal, or what is considered earnings. Suppose, for the sake of easy math, that starting at age 25, I contribute exactly $5000 to a Roth IRA and $15,000 to a Roth 401k each year, for 25 years. That amounts to $500,000 total in contributions. Suppose the Roth IRA is now at $500,000 and the Roth 401k is at $1,500,000. I then retire, and transfer the entire $1,500,000 to the Roth IRA at age 50. At that point, how much is withdraw-able without paying penalties OR income taxes? Some possibilities:
Which of these is correct? [link] [comments]  |
| How likely is it that FI/RE is a bubble phenomenon? Posted: 04 Nov 2018 10:00 AM PST Not trying to troll here; I would like to RE myself and hope to do so in about five years. But I was thinking about how good the economy has been to some of us in the past decade and whether we are being overly optimistic. Yes, the 4% rule is due to historic averages, but we (in the u.s. and elsewhere) also have very high deficits, and there are murmurs of stagflation on the horizon. Stagflation seems exactly to be the enemy of FI/RE. And so I am wondering whether FI/RE, while a viable approach, has been getting way more press lately because of the bubble. In practice what I think this means is that we maybe should invest in certain inflation-resistant asset classes (real estate with fixed-rate loans) or be more conservative and live by, e.g., a 3% rule. Not saying FI/RE can't be done, but curious what others think about recent economy vs. historical trends vs. future trends. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2018 10:39 AM PST Has anyone noticed almost none of these FIRE blogs originated before the financial crisis? At least the ones I've come across have all been created afterwards except Get Rich Slowly. Do you think these people are going to end up having to go back to work once another bear market comes? I thought there's a good chance they grossly underestimated how much they'll need for retirement, especially if it's literally a 50+ year retirement. I was always curious about that and wanted to hear what others thought. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2018 01:11 PM PST So I know most of us on this sub have a high savings rate and eschew materialism. As do I. But when I look at actual rich people, say for instance the family in Crazy Rich Asians, I wonder about what else you can do with money. Some people collect antique cars, some people collect art, the Medicis sponsored artists.... Having some disposable income seems like a great way to make the world more beautiful and to surround yourself with things you enjoy. It also seems like owning things that have stood the test of time, or commissioning works of art helps in terms of cementing your legacy and leaving your mark on the world. What beautiful things do you guys spend your money on? [link] [comments]  |
| Careers for Financial Independence Posted: 04 Nov 2018 11:47 AM PST If I work in government, am I missing out on private sector benefits that will allow me to be financially independent such as generous bonuses that are often doled out in the private sector? In the private sector, I'm aware the pay options are much wider. For example, stock options, bonuses and promotions are much more available in the private sector than in the public sector. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Nov 2018 12:08 PM PST This is my 2nd year RE, and I'm looking closer at ACA plans during the current open enrollment. I'm a healthy person with minimal (no) care costs, so in the past I've just taken the cheap plan and forgotten about it. This year, I've looked closer at the HSA option. On one hand, HSA allows you to extract tax-deferred income without a tax hit; on the other it allows to reduce AGI and increase ACA tax credits. These aren't my numbers, but they seem reasonable for someone living from taxable savings - Annual spending of $40k, made up from $17k interest/dividend distributions and $23k share sales, of which 50% is capital gains. This gives a nominal income of $28.5k, puts the single taxpayer at 2.35x Federal Poverty Level and gives him a "Taxpayer Contribution" of $2177/year. In my area, for my age, I found these two plans: Plan| Premium| Deductible| Out-of-pocket-max -| -| -| -| 2nd Lowest Silver| 7044| 2625| 6300 2nd Lowest Bronze| 5196| 6700| 6700 A taxpayer on the Silver plan would be eligible for (7044-2177)=$4867 tax credit for net premium cost of $2177/year. A taxpayer on the Bronze plan would also be eligible for $4867 tax credit for net premium cost of $329. He is also eligible to contribute $3500 to a HSA, which is fully tax deductible. In order to make that contribution, he sells $3500 of VTSAX. This forces recognition of $1750 income, but allows deduction of the full $3500 from AGI. With income reduced to $26750, his "Taxpayer Contribution" is reduced to $1910, further reducing his net premium cost to $62 for the full year. If you need care, the Silver plan has 40% co-insurance after deductible, so you would pay 100% of costs to $2625, then 40% to $11,800 before hitting the out-of pocket max. On the Bronze plan, you pay 100% of costs to $6700. So, very low cost (<2625), there's no benefit to the Silver plan. Up to $7900 of care cost, the higher premium for the Silver outweighs the higher benefit, but the Bronze plan begins to pick up the full cost of care at $6700. That is, say you need $9000 of care. On the Bronze plan, you pay the $62 premiums and $6700 deductible, for a total of $6762, and insurance pays $2300. On the Silver plan, you pay $2177 premiums, $2625 deductible and 40% of $6375 = $2550, for a total of $7352, and insurance pays $3825. If you're not eligible for tax credits, the same situation results in the Bronze plan paying $5196+6700=11,896 and the Silver plan paying $7044+2625+2550 = $12,219. This seems really broken and makes me think I must be missing something. Maybe it's just that any meaningful health event would be far more than $10,000. [link] [comments]  |
| Other ways of investing in yourself Posted: 04 Nov 2018 01:29 PM PST What are some investments that you can do that does not direcly means any monetary gain, but can help you in other ways towards FI? A lot of focus is about money on this sub, but I would be interested in other ways of investing in yourself. One way could be eating healthy, as it will be beneficial to how you will live when you are retired. [link] [comments]  |
| Are there people in your life that serve as motivators for your frugal/FIRE lifestyle and goals? Posted: 04 Nov 2018 11:26 AM PST Hi all, new to this sub. My goal is not FIRE, but to be able to live both frugally and comfortably. That said, I was wondering if I was the only one who used actual people as sort of mental motivators for my chosen lifestyle? I have a family member who is front and center in my mind: I love this person to death, but they led an extremely consumerist lifestyle they could not afford and eventually had to file bankruptcy. Watching them make poor financial decisions really keeps me motivated. Anybody else? [link] [comments]  |
| Question: TSP Roth / Non / Both? Posted: 04 Nov 2018 11:03 AM PST TSP now matches 5% of all contributions. I've been splitting my paycheck to invest 6% of my earnings in to both a Roth / Traditional TSP. Is this a smart thing to do or should I just say screw it and put 12% in to one account? [link] [comments]  |
| How do you count rental real estate for FI purposes? Posted: 03 Nov 2018 04:53 PM PDT I'm interested to hear how others account for their rental real estate (or your residence). For net worth do you track equity and the loan balance? What about cash flow? Do you project your cash flow out to when the loan is paid off? Anything else? [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