Financial Independence ABC News did a piece on FIRE! |
- ABC News did a piece on FIRE!
- How to meet a potential partner while FI/REing?
- I think I'm experiencing burnout and I'm unsure of what to do next.
- Nomad with a home base
- Balancing Taxable and Retirement Accounts
- Daily FI discussion thread - April 07, 2019
- Forbes: Why Most Index Funds and ETFs are Not Good Investments
- Help with protecting FI accounts from fraud?
- Looking for individuals who have FIREd for 15-30 minute skype interviews
- ROTH vs Traditional 401K - sorry to bring this up again
- Converting Traditional IRA to Roth IRA
- FIRE Wannabe --> Questions on allocations
- New tax laws and exemption - seems like a good thing for FIRE
- How to properly track dividends specifically DRP on personal net worth spreadsheet
- Why you should get a BA II Plus calculator
- Struggling and Wondering
- Tangerine Index Funds vs Wealth Simple - when is a good time to switch
- Graduate student stuck in a rut
- How many of you grew up in poverty, dropped out of college, was deemed "worthless" by peers, and/or had a different life event occur that impacted your success? How did you climb out of the pit?
- Have opportunity to help manage $500,000 in cash for my father. Does my plan look ok?
| Posted: 07 Apr 2019 06:32 AM PDT Just thought I'd share it. It's definitely a growing movement and gaining more attention. The comment section is a cesspool though... [link] [comments]  |
| How to meet a potential partner while FI/REing? Posted: 07 Apr 2019 01:45 PM PDT I am a 24-year-old female with a $50k net worth (half in cash, half in index funds) and will be finishing my master's degree in the coming months. I have a somewhat high income potential that should yield me a starting $100k+ salary at many companies in my field in HCOL areas. My current budget estimates have me retire between 35-40 with $1.5-2million, excluding any windfalls or catastrophes. My current dream is to retire from this high-stress industry and move to a M/LCOL area (Portland? Athens? Louisville? Walla Walla? Something cute, walkable, and charming.) where around ~$35-40k of safe withdrawal will yield me a nice quality of life. I'd like to buy a small house, get a cat, teach Pilates classes 2-3x a week, travel a few times a year, and maybe get a social work or education certificate at a community college to do some really rewarding part-time work. I want to be able to do things I love with no stress and no 40+ hour a week commitment. My biggest concern is that I am going to have to do this alone. I don't want children or luxury items (nice cars, boats, big houses), which most guys find alarming. I'd like to have someone to share life with and to stand by me on this FIRE journey and to share this passion with, but I fear that I am so odd and particular with my dreams that finding a partner will be impossible. I'm also scared to death of the stories I read here about divorce destroying FIRE plans. I don't know how I would even bring up FIRE to anyone I date. Does anyone have any suggestions on how they met a partner who was also passionate about FIRE? [link] [comments]  |
| I think I'm experiencing burnout and I'm unsure of what to do next. Posted: 06 Apr 2019 05:55 PM PDT Hey guys, I've always had a strong work ethic. I haven't had a day off sick in 8+ years. The company I work for has given me great recognition and progression over the years. My investments are strong, my FI is exactly where I need it to be in a plan that has been in the making for nearly 5 years. I work really damn hard but what I get back in return feels like a cheat code to life. Sensible decisions and good income has me feeling really good about where I am. However, family have talked about burnout and their concerns surrounding it for years. I never listened, no such thing, I thought, just something that unmotivated people spout as an excuse to not have to work hard. I'm beginning to feel like I was wrong and I don't know what comes next. I am finding myself constantly tired but constantly wired. For a while now I've found myself questioning reality (if I go food shopping with my wife and we get separated I begin to wonder if she even ever existed, if I do anything out of routine I don't know if I've imagined it or if it's actually happened, crazy shit like that). No amount of sleep is enough. Here's the rub though, If I hold out another month or so I will hit the next peak in my career and start getting a true slice of the pie, if I hold out another 5 months my mortgage is paid off. I am so close but I'm starting to become concerned. I don't know what advice I'm really looking for to be honest, I've worked too hard to pump the brakes at the finish line but at the same time, I'm really starting to have a new understanding for the term burnout. Advice, criticism, whatever welcome. Cheers [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2019 12:12 PM PDT In the initial year(s) of RE, I imagine there is a lot of traveling. At the same time, a permanent home base feels important to me. What are your plans/experience in optimizing the double cost of a local and remote home? We've already talked about relocating to LCOL area. We are open to anywhere USA. Anywhere in the world is more me than my wife. I can also see ourselves doing the rounds of camping at national parks, extended stays at expat destination around the world. Can't fight the feeling that a low utilization home base is redundant. Looking for ideas and different point of views of a nomad home base [link] [comments]  |
| Balancing Taxable and Retirement Accounts Posted: 07 Apr 2019 10:13 AM PDT This MMM blog post got me thinking about how my net worth divides between my taxable and retirement accounts, and focusing on the amount in my taxable accounts that I'll be tapping into in my first years of early retirement. Backing up a bit, over the course of my career, I've been strictly adhering the mindset that I should shovel as much cash into my 401(k) and Roth IRA as possible, then drop whatever's left over after hitting the ceiling on both of those into a taxable investment account. (That taxable investment account for me is VTMFX, though I'm suddenly worried that may not be a great choice…maybe a topic for another post another day.) As a result, I've got roughly twice as much in retirement accounts as in taxable accounts:
With my current income and spending, and with pushing the max contribution amounts into my 401(k) and Roth IRA, I only have a few $K left over to put into that VTMFX account every year. I'm looking to pull the trigger and FIRE in 5-ish years, and following MMM's logic in that post, I'll live off the taxable accounts first – and blow through them pretty quickly at an annual budget of around $55K, based on current-year dollars and spending habits. I'm 39 now, so assuming I do retire in 5 years, I'll be 44, and will have to wait 15 years to hit age 59 ½, when I can tap into my IRAs and 401(k) the "normal" way without penalty. What seems like a smarter approach: cutting back on 401(k) contributions significantly (though still contributing enough to get the max employer match) so I can plow more cash into my taxable accounts, or keep doing what I'm doing and pursue one of the strategies in this other MMM blog post to tap into my retirement accounts earlier than the traditional age 59 ½? The former seems cleaner and easier, though it also seems like that way I'd be paying more in taxes: first more in income tax, and then later, more in capital gains tax. Thanks in advance for reading this. I don't participate much here but do love browsing and learning from you all. [link] [comments]  |
| Daily FI discussion thread - April 07, 2019 Posted: 07 Apr 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. [link] [comments]  |
| Forbes: Why Most Index Funds and ETFs are Not Good Investments Posted: 07 Apr 2019 03:23 PM PDT |
| Help with protecting FI accounts from fraud? Posted: 07 Apr 2019 03:17 PM PDT I recently made the mistake of throwing out a hard drive with all kinds of personal ID info on it -- birthday, SSN, you name it. I later learned that just "deleting" files from the drive doesn't actually delete them, and also that hard drives shouldn't be thrown into the household trash anyway. Lesson learned for the future, but... Now I'm feeling paranoid -- should I assume that my info is compromised? As someone with most assets in investment accounts heading for FI (rather than physical assets like real estate), I'm very concerned about losing everything. What protections can I take to prevent people from breaking into my brokerage and savings accounts who have my identifying information? Anyone have any RL experiences with this? Would really appreciate your advice. Kindly, WR [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for individuals who have FIREd for 15-30 minute skype interviews Posted: 07 Apr 2019 02:41 PM PDT I have to do a sociology survey for a class I'm in, technically I could use the data from the initial survey that was done a year ago, however that data has no measure of happiness, and my personal area of interest is in how FIRE contributes to happiness. I'm therefore looking to interview at minimum five people who have FIREd, especially paying attention to their subjective feelings of happiness during the transition from saving for FIRE, to actually FIREing. This will take very little time out of your day and will help me on a final project in my sociology class. The interviews will last no longer than 30 minutes and will in most likelihood be closer to 15-20 minutes. There will be no more than 20 questions and most will be true/false or pick a number questions, with a few open ended questions. The only criteria is that you have already hit your FIRE number. The interviews will take place at least 2 weeks from now, (4/21/2019) preferably from 12:00 noon to 6:00 PM Central Standard Time, on skype. However if anyone would like to interview at any other time, or through a different medium (perhaps a phone call), message me and I'm sure I can make it work. The interviews will be recorded with some software and and I will make transcripts from these recordings, changing names to pseudonyms then do sociological "coding" on the transcripts, assigning your lived experiences to sociological concepts. This survey is in compliance with IRB guidelines. Please give me 48 hours to respond to messages to this account (I have other classes too!) thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| ROTH vs Traditional 401K - sorry to bring this up again Posted: 07 Apr 2019 09:55 AM PDT Been reading voraciously on all the arguments for both, but can't seem to understand which is a better choice. https://thefinancebuff.com/case-against-roth-401k.html https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/ https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/2r3mbh/traditional_vs_roth_ira_for_fi/ https://www.madfientist.com/traditional-ira-vs-roth-ira/
Now I can't seem to figure out which one is the better choice. I do hope to RE and not work until the normal retirement age. Also, worried about the RMD rule at 70.5 years old, where as ROTH does not have such rules. Please help guide me. [link] [comments]  |
| Converting Traditional IRA to Roth IRA Posted: 06 Apr 2019 09:44 PM PDT I was reading the FAQ and ran across this article: The Case Against Roth 401(k). Point 3 reads:
Can someone explain why it's advantageous to convert at the times listed? Once you convert, are you paying tax based on your current tax rate? I left a high-paying job last year and got married to a lower-income spouse. We anticipate our income rising again (party because she will start making more), but this may take a few years. I know those facts are limited, but would it make sense to convert in our situation? [link] [comments]  |
| FIRE Wannabe --> Questions on allocations Posted: 07 Apr 2019 12:50 PM PDT Hi FIRE Community. Long time lurker and have learned a lot from this community. What an amazing resource! I have a quick question regarding my allocations and wanted to get your thoughts. I'm 32 just starting my FIRE goals since I finished a PhD which took some time. A few key elements: No debt; stable academic job; live in Washington state. Take home salary: 115k Current investments outside retirement: - 32k emergency fund in VBTLX - 24k in VTSMX outside of retirement - 10k in VMFXX for checking Current investments retirement: - 111k in VTSMX in 403(b) - 39k in VTSMX in Roth IRA Investment plans 2019: - Max 19k voluntary 403(b) contributions 2019 - Work also legally allows 5% of "required" salary distributions which also receive 5% match so total 403(b) contributions will be 30,500. - Max 6k Roth IRA Question for FIRE group: - Since paying off my car I have an additional ~$31,200 to save per year with my current budget. - I just found out Washington State has an additional 457(b) deferred compensation plan that allows ANOTHER $19k to be invested in tax-deferred plans. --> Do I also max the 457(b) to take advantage of tax benefits, or do I continue to put $31.2k in outside of retirement savings to enable FIRE goals of retiring early. --> My plan would be to retire early and do Roth ladder, but would need $$ to live on for ~5+ years to finalize Roth ladder and allow conversion from 403(b) and 457(b) to Roth IRA. Any suggestions on my overall plans? Should I max the 457(b) at 19k and then just put the remaining ~12.2 into taxable investments? Or should I start saving outside of retirement to have flexibility and allow FIRE? One consideration is whether the Roth ladder will exist forever. If not, could I be trapped with too much $$ in retirement accounts with large penalties for early withdrawal? Thanks for any advice! [link] [comments]  |
| New tax laws and exemption - seems like a good thing for FIRE Posted: 07 Apr 2019 11:41 AM PDT Sorry if this is a rehash... Now that the 2018 taxes are understood and paid, it seems to me that the new tax laws and the $24,000 exemption is a boon for FIRE looking at a 12% tax bracket (under $72k) in income. Eliminating the mortgage interest deduction also seems like a no brained as (most?) FIRE will not have a mortgage to begin with. Do other FIREs agree or am I missing something? Note 1:of course I could beef up my donations as I did in 2010 to 2017 and itemize to get near a $24k standard deduction, but in this scheme I don't necessarily have to donate to charities to get there. Note 2: I know what I just said isn't at all altruistic or nice. [link] [comments]  |
| How to properly track dividends specifically DRP on personal net worth spreadsheet Posted: 07 Apr 2019 08:07 AM PDT Quick question, how should DRP be recorded as part of your income tracking? I'm logging straight up dividend cash payouts ok but stocks I have signed up for DRP I'm currently recording the total increased share value under investments. I'm not sure this gives me the correct picture of how things are allocated. [link] [comments]  |
| Why you should get a BA II Plus calculator Posted: 07 Apr 2019 11:53 AM PDT Longtime lurker who never posts but I have a suggestion! I am supposed to be studying for my CFA exam this afternoon, but I have been procrastinating by checking off some personal finance to-do items. I have been using the BA II Plus calculator that is required for the CFA exam, and it occurred to me that this would be a really handy tool for non-finance people to have on hand while working out their FIRE goals. It's about $30 on Amazon. The most useful function allows you to quickly compute your investments:
You can input all of the other variables and solve for the one you're trying to figure out. For example: (1) Let's say you want to know how much you need to save annually in order to have $1.5mm in 20 years, assuming you can earn a 7% annual return and haven't started saving yet:
(2) Or let's say that you're planning to save $25,000 annually and you want to know if that will be enough:
I know there are online tools that you can use to do this kind of stuff, but I get a lot of satisfaction from sitting down with a pen and paper and playing around with the numbers on my own. There is a ton of other things the calculator can do if you're into it, but I think it's worth the $30 just for this one function alone. Just remember that you won't actually earn a level 7% return over the life of your investments, and the timing of returns can have a big impact on the results, so this is really just a tool for making estimates and it pays to be a little conservative with your assumptions. Anyway, back to lurking … happy FIRE'ing all! Thanks for the inspiration. I'm in finance in NYC so I mostly come here to remind myself that it's okay that I don't live like all my colleagues. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2019 10:27 AM PDT Hi, everyone. I'm Dennis. This is the first time I'm actually posting here, but I discovered the community a while ago. The past few months have been a struggle and I'm having a sort of existential financial crisis. I'm 26 and in January I lost my job as a pharmacy technician at a hospital, losing with it health insurance and access to a 401(k). It's the second job I lost in two years, so there are obviously some underlying issues. But that's another post... I was lucky enough to be hired by an independent RIA, even when he knew I had no background in the industry. I got a BS in Immunology and a minor in Philosophy from Penn State, along with $33,000 in student loan debt. I graduated four years ago and the balance has pretty much not budged and has even gone up by a few thousand dollars. But I'm committed to studying for the series 65 and then going for my CFP certification. I've never made more than $14.71 an hour and I've never been able to be completely financially independent. My family has helped me more financially than I'll ever be able to re-pay. My mom paid my rent and car insurance literally for years. And now I'm moving back in with her because my new job is only a few miles from her house when it would be an hour each way if I were to have stayed where I was. So I understand that my story may come across as "boo hoo, poor me" when it really isn't warranted. I acknowledge that and acknowledge that many of you probably have no sympathy. I get it. I get that many of you have struggled without help to get to where you are, and that is both commendable and inspiring. But I can only tell my story from my perspective. Crucify me if you want. But because of the help from my family, in the past few years I've been able to save about $19,000 and earn another $900 in unrealized capital gains. That's split between a Roth IRA (~$14,000), a traditional/rollover IRA (~$4,000), and a taxable brokerage account (~$1,960, which is about 32% cash just waiting to be moved over to my Roth). However, I'm worried that isn't enough. I save as much as I possibly can. Hundreds of dollars every month. The closer to $1,000, the better. But I think I missed the special enrollment period for medical coverage through the state, so I'm gonna have to figure that out. That's more money I won't be able to save and invest. And I'm the kind of guy who compulsively does it. So it causes me distress to lose money to things like health coverage when I could have had it for free or dirt cheap if I had applied soon enough with the state and gotten it subsidized. My goal is to retire by age 63 with $2M or more in assets and I feel like I'm doing all I can. I guess a goal of retiring at 63 isn't really FI/RE, but I feel it's the best I can hope for right now with the amount I can save and projecting a conservative return of 6.78% on a 100% equity portfolio. But right now it's a struggle and I'm having a hard time even seeing that happening. I guess part of me is looking for validation. Even if I don't deserve it. Maybe a little encouragement... I'm in some stock and investing groups on Facebook, but it's not really FI/RE related. I can't really talk about it there and I don't really have anyone else to talk to about this. So... Crucify me if you want to for whining. Say what you like. At this point, any contribution to the conversation is welcome. [link] [comments]  |
| Tangerine Index Funds vs Wealth Simple - when is a good time to switch Posted: 07 Apr 2019 07:40 AM PDT Hey guys, so I opened up my first index fund account after reading this book "Millionaire Teacher" since I realized that as a musician, a retirement was actually somewhat possible. Following this sub, I became aware of how much less the fees are, and all my friends are raving about Wealthsimple. I wanted to know when would be a good time to switch. I've made a decent amount since I started investing when everything was low. If I transfer, am I losing out on all those funds I bought low, and will I technically be rebuying them high? Is it better for me to transfer when it's low? Any help/advice is appreciated!! Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Graduate student stuck in a rut Posted: 07 Apr 2019 09:59 AM PDT I am a graduate student in Chemistry with a few more years of a barely livable stipend. As a graduate student, I work/study for 60+ hours a week, including being a TA. Because of this, I cannot work other jobs. On top of that, in my contract I sign as a graduate student, I am not allowed to have any other jobs. Clearly, this puts a little bit of strain on my situation from the usual 'where do I start' (which would get my post taken down). I have a Roth IRA that I created when I was 16 and put $5500 in it when I had a really good summer job (had no expenses, so my dad suggested I park it in an IRA) and haven't been able to put any money into for years. I also have about $2000 in a ETFs that I haven't touched in years. Currently I am saving about $100 a month (give or take depending on my electric bill) and that is going into a savings account with over 2% interest, which is currently building up for emergencies. I feel like there is nothing I can do until I graduate in a few years to start my path toward FIRE. Am I right to just wait and get by until I make more than a barely livable wage? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 07 Apr 2019 01:06 PM PDT I dropped out of college and have been working minimum wage jobs ever since. To be fair, college was the most miserable time of my life. And yes, I am still a virgin in my mid-30s who lives with their parents (never moved out). [link] [comments]  |
| Have opportunity to help manage $500,000 in cash for my father. Does my plan look ok? Posted: 07 Apr 2019 01:21 AM PDT Hi guys! Long time lurker here. Using a throwaway for obvious reasons. My father has been holding this amount in cash, in a dormant bank account for over 20 years. He has not touched this sum of money aside from occasionally going to the bank every 4-5 years to reactivate the account and check on the balances. Recently as I've been doing a lot to manage my own assets (about $200,000 in index ETF following the Bogleheads 3-Fund portfolio) - so he's made me joint owner of this account so that I can help manage this money. All the money is post-tax and we don't have to pay any additional taxes on this. Personally I feel that it's unfortunate that this amount of cash has been sitting idle in a low interest account for decades as we've been sitting through the longest bull run for over a decade. As a boomer who grew up in the post WWII and seen Black Monday in 1987, Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, the Dot Com bubble of 2001 and the Housing Crisis of 2008, he's never been trusting of the stock market so that explains why his assets are mainly in cash. He also has other portions of his assets in gold and silver, although I'm not completely sure how much he is holding there. Anyway, that's backstory out of the way. Here's his current situation: Father's Age: 70 years old next birthday. Other liquid asset: $50,000 Non-liquid assets: $1,000,000 in properties (net after mortgages) His current monthly expenses: about $3,000 He has property purchased under my name. He's paid down-payment (20%) for and I have been servicing the mortgage. Each month, I'm sending him roughly $3,000 to pay him back for the down payment he's paid for the property. Eventually the property will become fully mine. He has been using the $3,000 per month to cover his living expenses so he did not need other sources of income. He has also been "semi-retired" for almost 10 years, but he enjoys working so has been doing some side-gigs and consulting on the side to make some extra money that's why he hasn't needed to access these funds for so long. We are not American and not living in America so Vanguard index funds are not available to us. I've been investing in IWDA and EIMI in London Stock Exchange to build my 3-Fund Portfolio. So here's my plan on how to manage this money: Split out about $40,000 out in cash for his emergency fund. That should more than enough to cover 1 year of his living expenses if anything were to happen.Lump sum invest the rest into the market at 70% equities (probably a global index ETF) and 30% bonds fund. If it was for myself I would have put 100% equities (which is what my portfolio is at the moment.)The goal would be to keep the assets invested for a long term and provide him with a steady stream of cash via a Safe Withdrawal Rate. As I am providing him with his current living expenses of $3,000 per month, he won't need this money for regular spending unless his living expenses increase. If his living expenses does increase, I can ramp up the money that I send to him in exchange for a quicker pay-off of the property downpayment. (I currently make about $220,000 a year and save about 80% of that - so I have a bit of a margin here.) When he starts making withdrawals, the portfolio should be able to provide him with at least an additional $16,500 a year based on a 3.3% SWR. However, since he won't be drawing on this, hopefully, for some time to come - this portfolio should have appreciated and can provide slightly more to withdraw. Another idea I have is that, if he wishes to withdraw from the portfolio, I can also essentially "buy the shares" from him instead of selling it out to the open market. This way this fund starts getting exposure from the economy and starts growing rather than sit idle to depreciate due to inflation. I believe this is quite a safe approach, but I'd like to get an idea of how others in this sub (which I've been lurking for a long time) think about this plan. Thank you in advance for your inputs! [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