Financial Independence Weekly “Help Me FIRE!” thread. Post your detailed information for highly specific advice. - March 25, 2019

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• Weekly “Help Me FIRE!” thread. Post your detailed information for highly specific advice. - March 25, 2019
• Finally reached 50% savings rate (on sub-100k income)
• How do you withdraw/manage dividends after you retired?
• My financial journey - a 33 year old rambles about his path to FIRE
• Daily FI discussion thread - March 25, 2019
• How has financial independence changed you?
• First post long time lurker, just seeing if there are other people who have the same thoughts
• Weekly FI Monday Milestone thread - March 25, 2019
• What is your asset allocation and how many years to FI?
• 5 on 2 off: Financial Independence
• Just landed a job paying $400k. FI/RE finally feels possible. Can you guys check my math/plan?
• Best way to FIRE as a reservist?
• FIRE - Where to live in Canada?
• Anyone else sick of this slow grind?
• Why is it so hard to practice Stealth Wealth?

Weekly “Help Me FIRE!” thread. Post your detailed information for highly specific advice. - March 25, 2019 Posted: 24 Mar 2019 11:09 PM PDT Need help applying broader FIRE principles to your own situation? We're here for you! Post your detailed personal "case study" and ask as many questions as you like, or help others who've done the same. Not sure if your questions pertain? Post them anyway…you might be surprised. It'll be helpful to use our suggested format. Simply copy/paste/fill in/etc. But since everybody's situation is different, feel free to tailor your layout to your needs. -Introduce yourself -Age / Industry / Location -General goals -Target FIRE Age / Amount / Withdrawal Rate / Location -Educational background and plans -Career situation and plans -Current and future income breakdown, including one-time events -Budget breakdown -Asset breakdown, including home, cars, etc. -Debt breakdown -Health concerns -Family: current situation / future plans / special needs / elderly parents -Other info -Questions? submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

Finally reached 50% savings rate (on sub-100k income) Posted: 25 Mar 2019 10:05 AM PDT I know I see a complaint that people who make under 100k can't achieve FI, so I thought I would provide our numbers. Income: My income: 4,000 Spouse: 3,640 VA Disability: 140 Bank Interest: 30 401(k) match: 50 Total gross income: 7,860 Income, SS, & Medicare taxes: 657 Monthly Net income: 7,203 Savings: HSA: 318 457(b): 1,583 401(k)s plus match: 1,372 Mortgage principal: 438 Total monthly savings: 3,711 Savings rate: 51.5% I know there is debate on whether or not mortgage principal should be included, but since the house appreciates, and the money can be pulled out in the future, we have chosen to include it. We are pushing close to a 100k income, but are currently a few thousand short of that. I am an accountant for the state government, and my wife is a teacher. Our income is split fairly evenly. However, now that I've completed the CPA exam, I will start looking for something that has better pay and is closer to home. Having a dual income and being able to rely on family for very cheap childcare has been very beneficial to us. We live in a wealthy county in middle TN, which I would qualify as being on the higher end of MCOL. Our house was $325k and is in a suburb of Nashville, which is just above median price in our county. Our sizable mortgage payment has certainly set us back a few years on the path to FI, but the house makes my wife happy. Sometimes, you have to make compromises. We don't live deprived lives by any means. We are season ticket holders for the local professional hockey team (go Preds), and we take a couple nice beach vacations per year (substituting one to go to 2020 NHL Winter Classic). We also enjoy hobbies such as weekly board game meetups, playing our Wii U, neighborhood socials, taking our newborn and spoiled dogs for walks, and watching Netflix (it turns out watching reruns of the Office never gets old). I think what is most important is figuring out what matters to you and finding ways to do more of that. In our case, very little of what matters most is expensive. At the very least, we can find ways to make what we love less expensive. For example, we sell tickets to weekday hockey games to recoup most of the cost of season tickets, and we use travel rewards to never pay for plane tickets. submitted by /u/ElJacinto [link] [comments]

How do you withdraw/manage dividends after you retired? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 05:32 AM PDT Hello people of FII, this morning I woke up wondering how it will look like when I reach FII - if everything goes as planned - in 5 years? More specifically, how will I "get" the money to go through the month & pay the bills? If you're using a B&H stocks approach, this means accumulating dividends on the brokerage account until you reach a high amount and withdrawing? Selling stocks you have and withdrawing? If you're using a long-term bonds approach, this means selling said bonds every month? submitted by /u/TiuTalk [link] [comments]

My financial journey - a 33 year old rambles about his path to FIRE Posted: 25 Mar 2019 08:53 AM PDT I wanted to write a post detailing my financial journey. This is largely for my own benefit but thought I would share if anyone had anything to gain from my experiences. I acknowledge that some of this would be hard to replicate. Also, apologies for the long post. ​ Childhood background, origin: Father has a PhD and mother has a masters. Both came from extremely poor upbringings. My mother didn't work and my father co-founded a technology company when I was very young. Lower-middle class in assets until I was around 10 or so. Father's company that he co-founded sold at this point and he a substantial windfall. Parents divorced when I was 12 and split assets. Parents prioritized my education and sent me to a good but not exceptional private school. I was a mediocre student but good athlete. I had a 3.0 GPA but was a nationally recognized athlete in a recruitable sport and had good but not exceptional standardized test scores (1400ish on the SATs). Was not really taught the value of money as I was growing up. I don't think my parents have ever sat down and had a discussion with me about budgeting, retirement, financial planning etc. Went to a top school that doesn't do scholarships but admitted me for athletic reasons and majored in a technical field. I had a 2.7 GPA my first two years but a 4.0 my final two years. I kind of figured out how to work hard in my last 2 years of school. I graduated with no debt thanks to generous parents. ​ FIRE target and plan: My wife and I would like to work until we are around 45. We would like to spend around 200k a year in retirement at a 3% withdrawal rate. This means we need about 6.5mm in investable assets. We would be willing to reduce the 200k a year in favor of prioritizing the 45 retirement age. We plan on spending our late 40s in the location our child is going to high-school before downsizing and moving to a lower cost of living area in the mountains. ​ Summary of job movement: After college I followed a GF overseas to east Asia and taught english among other things to make ends meet. I made approximately 20k a year and blew everything on food, booze and traveling. I returned home in 2008 with the economy in shambles. I was broke and living with my dad trying to think about next steps. I started applying for jobs across the spectrum and reaching out to various contacts I had from family, friends etc. At first I had grand aspirations but slowly lowered my expectations as I was embarrassed to not be self-sufficient. I probably applied to 200+ jobs during this time before landing a contract job with a family friend at his start-up answering phones during their busy season while I was looking for other stuff. I started working at said start-up in late 2008 and worked hard to take on responsibilities beyond what I was explicitly being asked to do. I ended up being offered a full time position as an "analyst" as one of the early employees at the company making 40k a year with good benefits. This allowed me to move into a modest apartment and begin living independently. I worked at this start-up for 8 years. Progressively moving up the ladder as the company grew. I moved from a general analyst into a more technical role gathering requirements for very specific integrations between our product and external entities before stepping into a more traditional product management role. The company was eventually acquired by a really big company. I spent a year working on integrating the start-up with the big company. This job really sucked and I ended up quitting and joining another start-up as an early member in a c-suite role. The start-up didn't work out and I was offered a new job at the company that acquired my first start-up through connections I had build there. The job was a significant step-up managing a large organization in a high-profile area. As part of this job new job I had to move my family right as our first child was born. My wife then began looking for work in our new city and landed a job that fit her background that was much higher paying then her previous gig as a fellow. My salary and title went as follows (along with some life events). Beginning on 2015 I started to include my wife's income and bonuses as the second number. 2009: 40k (analyst) Title: Analyst Net worth: 0 2010 50k (Integration Analyst) Title: Analyst Net worth: 10k 2011: 85k Title: Product Manager Net worth: 25k 2012: 100k Title: Director Net worth: 50k Met my wife Threatened to leave start-up job and was retained with an increase in title, salary and a bunch of RSUs. I accepted. 2013: 110k Title: VP Net worth: 90k Got a dog 2014: 1.2mm. Company was acquired and my RSUs were paid out in cash as W2 income. I was re-leveled to a director at the bigger company at this point Title: Director Net worth: 800k I also got married to my wife at this time. She was a physician beginning her fellowship training making 60k a year. Got interested in the FIRE movement for the first time. 2015: 140k/60k base + 50k bonus + 50k RSU + 200k retention bonus Title: Director Net worth: 1mm Bought a house around 700k Paid off my wife's med school 2016: 110k/60k base + 1% ownership in a start-up Title: Chief Product Officer Net worth: 1mm Left large corporation and joined small start-up for a reduced salary in a c-suite position 2017: 260k/30k base + 120k bonus + 100k RSU Title: VP Net worth: 1.2mm Had our first child Wife left training when child was born and spent the second half of the year on maternity leave/spending time with child Moved family to HCOL city where new job was Sold house bough in 2015 for 770k Bought two cars in cash due to move, child etc. 2018: 265k/200k base + 120k/60k bonus + 100k/80k RSU Title: VP Net worth: 1.4mm Bought a house for 1.3mm on a 15 year mortgage Wife started working and making a significant salary 2019 (projected): 275k/220k + 500k/70k bonus + 100k/80k RSU Title: VP Net worth: 1.8mm Have already achieved a yearly performance target which guarantees a 375k bonus to be paid out end of Q3 Working on having our second child Have had to spend more than anticipated on new house ​ Some observations: My ability to increase income was somewhat serendipitous. I did not take a traditional path and got somewhat lucky with my first start-up. That said I didn't job-hop beyond using another job offer to increase income, title and get some equity. This was important as connections I made during this time allowed me to land my current gig which has a very high ceiling based on current trajectory. I married well. My wife has become a high income earner, is an incredible mother and is generally a great life partner. We bought a really expensive house on a 15 year mortgage. The end result is we are very overweight on our primary residence right now. This was a calculated decision as we are in a good school district in a house we can grow into. We are banking on having a high-enough income to level this off in 2019 and 2020 to get to this asset class back into line. We are planning on downsizing in retirement significantly. We spend 225k or so between mortgage, caring for our child and general bills. About 75k of this is discretionary but is inclusive of some major home remodeling projects etc. We could certainly tighten the belt a good amount and do realize that a few windfalls and a transient high-incomes could put us in a bad state if one or both of us loses our jobs. That said, it is very hard to imagine a market where both of us would be unable to find work to cover our day to day expenses. ​ Sorry for the ramble. It was somewhat cathartic to get this on paper. If the mods don't think this helpful feel free to delete. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ submitted by /u/ThrowawayFIRE666 [link] [comments]

Daily FI discussion thread - March 25, 2019 Posted: 25 Mar 2019 01:10 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. submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

How has financial independence changed you? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 04:29 PM PDT I am eager to be financially independent without necessarily retiring early. I have read several posts about how people's outlooks regarding their job and income change significantly after becoming financially independent (typically for the better). How has your life changed knowing that you could lose your job tomorrow and not need to find more work? submitted by /u/itacorubi [link] [comments]

First post long time lurker, just seeing if there are other people who have the same thoughts Posted: 25 Mar 2019 06:30 AM PDT So, i am 33 just recently got to the 100k a year. I am married, and my wife is still going to school for nursing. I am doubtful i would retire early and not sure i am to concerned with it, I like my job. However the Financial Independence part is what keeps me coming back. I have seen my parents get laid off, and struggle financially my whole life. I want to have the ability to not worry about that. So, i am going at my own pace, (maxing out 401k, got a house that is in a high value market) and have a goal, to be FI, if along the road if I can retire early all the better. Anyone else taking a slower approach? submitted by /u/loki5485 [link] [comments]

Weekly FI Monday Milestone thread - March 25, 2019 Posted: 25 Mar 2019 01:10 AM PDT Please use this thread to post your milestones, humblebrags and status updates 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! Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

What is your asset allocation and how many years to FI? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 02:36 PM PDT I'm currently at 54% US Stock 36% International Stock and 10% Bond with 5-10 years to FI. Lately I have been considering dropping bonds all together. What is everyone else's allocation looking like? submitted by /u/Heretolurk07 [link] [comments]

5 on 2 off: Financial Independence Posted: 25 Mar 2019 06:47 AM PDT I am curious about the possibility of working a salaried position for five years at a time and accumulating savings to divert towards investments that would cover living expenses for the two year work hiatus. Does anyone have any ideas as to how to best develop a strategy for funding this particular lifestyle? Does anyone do anything remotely similar? ​ For numbers and napkin math, assume $90,000 yearly salary. Take home roughly 65k. Contribute $27,400 to 401k, IRA, and HSA. $37,600 to work with. $25,000 annual living expenses. $12,600 to divert into taxable income sources to cover the two non-working years. Assume non-working living expenses decrease and no appreciable income will be generated. submitted by /u/pookatooth [link] [comments]

Just landed a job paying $400k. FI/RE finally feels possible. Can you guys check my math/plan? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 02:15 PM PDT Current assets: 180k across retirement accounts (IRA and ROTH IRA). About 2k in a checking account (trying out a failed startup drained my resources). No debt. 32 years old. ​ I'm starting a job next month that's paying me a whopping 400k a year, more than double anything I've ever made before. I'm both nervous about avoiding lifestyle creep, and also excited at the prospect of having a real shot at FI/RE if I handle this opportunity right. Here's what I've calculated my potential savings to be: Gross: $400,000 Net after taxes, and maxing out 401k and IRA: $231,500 Monthly Rent: $1,600 - $2,300 (depending on how nice a place I want to stay in) Monthly Budget (excluding rent): $2,500 - $3,800 (depending on how much I want to spend) Monthly Savings: $13,200 - $15,200 Yearly Savings (compounded monthly at 7%): $164,500 - $189,000 Savings after 5 years (compounded monthly at 7%): $950,000 - $1,094,000 Savings after 10 years (compounded monthly at 7%): $2,300,000 - $2,600,000 Potential monthly passive income from nest egg after 10 years (4% of nest egg annually): $92,000 - $104,000 ​ I figure if I hit 100k/year of passive income, I'll retire. As I see it, it feels like I could accomplish this in 10-11 years, when I'm 42 or 43. Note that these calculations are NOT taking into account my retirement accounts. The nest-egg would purely be my non-retirement account assets. ​ Unknowns and Risk Factors. This is not taking into account several factors that are hard to anticipate, such as: [ASSET] Promotions and Bonuses, which if I'm there for 5-10 years, would almost assuredly happen. I'd try to take these windfalls and put them directly into savings. [LIABILITY] Children. I might not have kids, but I'll probably pump out a kid or 2 in the next 10 years. I'm assuming each kid is gonna be like $250,000 - $400,000 to raise and pay for their college. Its hard to think about, so if I have them I'm just gonna reevaluate my plan and it might mean I need to save more/work longer. [ASSET/LIABILITY?] Real Estate. I've calculated this all with the assumption of me renting a place the entire time. It very well may be worth it for me to invest in real-estate and live there instead of renting. I would probably get a place that I could AirBnB out a room or 2. This could also set me up for additional passive income later on top of my nest egg. I don't know anything about buying, owning or renting out a house though, and would want to invest a lot in learning before I factored this into my plan. [ASSET] Retirement accounts. By the end of 10 years, I'll have about $800,000 in my retirement accounts. I'll have approximately 16 years before I can withdraw from these. If I average a 6% annual rate of return, this will yield me about $2,000,000 more that I'll have access to upon reaching 59.5 years old. It's hard to factor this into my decision making on when to retire. It's a lot more money to play with, so it might be ok for me to withdraw more from my nest egg each year than 4% if I know I have access to this capital coming once I turn 59.5? ​ The numbers feel like they make sense, but it's kind of hard to wrap my head around. It feels like I'm missing something big that's gonna make me screw it up. Help me out here? Double check my math? Thanks in advance. ​ submitted by /u/ShowMeTheWayToGoBone [link] [comments]

Best way to FIRE as a reservist? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 06:39 AM PDT Currently a USMC reservist in NJ. No deployments, but a lot of opportunities have been coming down the pipe lately. Anybody here have any experience on how to FIRE as a reservist? I have a full-time salary job and may go back to school for an MBA. submitted by /u/bonsunbon [link] [comments]

FIRE - Where to live in Canada? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 03:29 AM PDT Hi all, We are about to semi-FIRE from London (UK). Moving to Canada for various reasons. Where in Canada can I get a nice 2500sft house for around $800k, safe, good schools and access to a decent IT job market? Toronto and Vancouver ruled out due to high house prices. Also, we would like to be with 15-30mins driving distance to work. We've narrowed down on Waterloo and Kanata (both in Ontario). Are there any other cities to consider ? Better weather is a plus, but we could compromise there is everything else is good. Thanks :) Edit: 1. we don't speak french unfortunately Edit2: More about our FIRE situation: We are ready to FIRE as we have a decent income coming in from investments. But sometimes it all seems daunting and "to soon" as we are both under 40. We need access to a small IT job market so we can slowly transition into FIRE. I've now retired to focus on kids and home, but I have the itch to go back to work at times. My husband isn't fully FIRE ready yet mentally. I think he just enjoys tech. submitted by /u/winterdiva [link] [comments]

Anyone else sick of this slow grind? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 06:05 AM PDT As a background, I am 31 M with a $72,000 income. Over the years I have grinded and amassed $600,000 via living super cheaply and saving/investing very aggressively (all stock + leverage). My take home income is $47,000 and I have saved $28,000 after tax last year. So just imagine my lifestyle being able to save that much on that income. In fact, I have been grinding for the last 8 years...living frugally, investing... however, I am getting sick of the grind. Meaning, I've done all the calculations...Even if I assume the best...the ABSOLUTE BEST..e.g. 10% rate of return over the next 10 years I would only have accumulated $2million-$2.5million. Personally, I have no problem dialing down my lifestyle even further to save money. I could potentially live on $800 per month if need be ($300 rent with 4 other roommates and $500 for everything else) to achieve goals for later in life... Honestly, I had more grandeur plans...at least fatFire by 40s but it looks like I won't ever achieve that unless I am making $250K+ per year I would love to be able to buy an annual worldwide ski pass and fly around and ski in those cool resorts, perhaps take first class flights around there, maybe train to climb Everest, stuff like that....at least before I am 50. Just wondering if anyone else is sick of this slow grind...? submitted by /u/tempuser9911 [link] [comments]

Why is it so hard to practice Stealth Wealth? Posted: 25 Mar 2019 05:33 AM PDT What do you tell people when they ask you what you do with your money when they know you make a lot of money but don't have a lot of expenses? I don't tell anyone my salary, but a lot of my friends have a general idea because they graduated as the same major as me, or work at the same company as me, so they know approximately how much I make, and also know I pay very little rent, and have very little expenses. ​ This weekend, for example, I told my friend how nice it was that my parents paid for a new couch for my apartment, and they turned to me and said, "Don't you make pretty decent money? Why don't you just buy it yourself?" ​ I didn't really know what to say, without divulging the whole FIRE journey. "I like to have a lot of savings?" "I want to be able to retire?" submitted by /u/UnusualPlantain [link] [comments]

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