Financial Independence Weekly “Help Me FIRE!” thread. Post your detailed information for highly specific advice. - June 03, 2019 |
- Weekly “Help Me FIRE!” thread. Post your detailed information for highly specific advice. - June 03, 2019
- Daily FI discussion thread - June 03, 2019
- Two Years Into Early Retirement
- Those who have FIRE'd, are you doing things now that you think/wish you started before retiring?
- Getting over the fear of market crashing right before/after FIRE?
- Gaining net worth as a college student.
- Looking to FIRE, difficulty selecting traditional vs ROTH Ira
- What % of monthly profit do you invest?
- Weekly FI Monday Milestone thread - June 03, 2019
- How to buy time
- Value your time!!
- Tools and other details about ETF and equivalent
- Public servant looking for tips
| Posted: 02 Jun 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? [link] [comments]  |
| Daily FI discussion thread - June 03, 2019 Posted: 03 Jun 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]  |
| Two Years Into Early Retirement Posted: 03 Jun 2019 04:16 AM PDT BACKGROUND Introduction: This post is part of an early-retirement series. Biennial updates will be made around June 1 (near retirement anniversary) and January 1 (end of year finances). As these posts have become increasingly popular based on the number of views and comments, and as my desire to spend nearly an entire day on reddit has significantly waned, my responses might be limited. I'll try my best to stick around for a bit, but please check comments and posts from previous posts to find answers to potential questions. I genuinely appreciate all of the positive comments, even though I might no longer take the time to say so individually. I apologize if I don't remember you individually. The usernames and stories run together. Please remind me of a discussion we had or provide a link if it's relevant to something you want to know. Model: I wish to maintain a portfolio that began in June 2017 at $1,025,772. My maximum withdrawal rate is 3% of each year's starting balance, provided that the portfolio remains above $1M. My maximum spending rate is the maximum withdrawal plus income earned outside of employment for the sake of income. Should the portfolio drop below $1M, I will lock back into a maximum $2500/mo ($30k/yr) guardrail withdrawal until the market recovers. I realize that this is not the holy Trinity method, but consider these three factors that give us flexibility: a 3% withdrawal rate is below the 100% historically safe mark of 3.2% for fifty-year portfolio survival, the extended bull market has peaked us more than 20% above our $1M target (meaning that $36k annually is actually a 3% withdrawal rate if restarting from the peak); and our actual withdrawal rate is much less than 3% due to earning additional income and an unexpected $30k windfall in 2018 (placing our actual withdrawal rate well below 1%). The budgeted withdrawal amount for 2019 is $2638/mo or $31,656/yr. In 2017, it was $2564/mo ($2676/mo adjusted for inflation). In 2018, it was $2773/mo ($2834/mo adjusted for inflation). Career: I am a former retail pharmacist who hated both his job and profession for the following reasons: unacceptable amounts of stress, lack of civility from the general public, capitalism gone amok, fundamental disagreement with the overuse of pharmacotherapy as an answer for underlying health issues, and a severe opiate crisis that few have yet to appreciate. I attended college for eight years to earn a bachelors (1997-2001) and a doctorate (2001-2005) before joining the workforce for nearly twelve years (2005-2017, entirely with CVS). $150k in education costs were covered by academic scholarships ($25k), employment during college ($20k), prior savings from high school employment ($5k), revenue from an eBay business while in college ($10k), and massive help from my parents ($90k). My salary plus compensation went from $115k in 2005 to $150k in 2017. Our savings rate was about 70% on average. Finances: I retired at the age of 38 on June 6, 2017, the day before the twentieth anniversary of my high school graduation. I am married with no kids and generated over 95% of the family income while employed. We live in LCOL rural TN. Our asset allocation is approximately 60% VTSAX (total US stock market) / 20% VFWAX (total INTL stock market) / 20% VWLUX (US municipal bonds). We also hold roughly $400k in house, land, and belongings not included in the portfolio. My spending model places no dependence upon possible future employment (outside pharmacy?), social security ($10k/yr?), inheritance ($500k?), house equity (reverse mortgage with no heirs?), universal health care (probable?), or universal basic income (possible?). The final balance will be left to charities and worthy causes. YEAR TWO RECAP Spending: Living expenses for the year came to $39,954. This is $7,353 over the targeted amount of $32,601. Our spending was 22.6% over budget for the year and 18.8% over since retirement. We generated $13,263 of income this year mainly from my wife wanting to work part time (not for money). Our investment withdrawal was $26,691 this year, thus our pro-rated, annually-adjusted withdrawal rate was 2.37% for the year, and 0.81% since retirement. Without the additional income stream, our annually-adjusted withdrawal rate would have been 3.68% for the year, and 3.56% since retirement. Investments: The portfolio went from $1,025,772 (year zero) to $1,146,164 (year one) to $1,138,092 (year two). This is a 0.99% decrease for the year, but a 10.95% increase from the start. Dividends included, VTSAX (60% AA) went up 1.48% this year; VFWAX (20% AA) went down 6.18% this year; VWLUX (20% AA) went up 6.58% this year. Overall, investments went up 0.97% this year. Reflections: A wild year for the market, but everything seems to be going as planned. We entered year two of early retirement at $1.146M on 6/1, peaked at $1.199M on 9/20, bottomed at $1.008M on 12/24, peaked again at $1.202M on 5/3, and finished back down at $1.138M. I can't say that I ever gave serious thought to converting stocks to a more stable form of investment, but it did often cross my mind. Sure, I wish I had temporarily jumped out near the market peak, but I'm also glad I didn't jump out in 2008/2010/2011/2015 when dart throwing monkeys were howling just as loud as ever. I don't know how this imbecilic and unnecessary trade war nonsense is going to work itself out, but Wall Street definitely views it as imbecilic and entirely unnecessary. What I view as entirely unnecessary is the existence of a representative democracy that allows imbeciles to have an equal say with intellectuals. What I view as intriguing is the thought of wearing an infinity gauntlet, but that's another story for another day. On the other hand (literally), this whole process doesn't work without imbeciles, so maybe everyone can stay and report to rehabilitation camps instead. Experiences: I consider these to be the highlights of my second year in early retirement: ran over 2000 miles, broke three hours in a marathon for the third and fourth time (third one is my current PR at 2:48:30, fourth one was on the toughest road course in the southeast at 2:57:56 which is the course record by over 36 minutes), lowered my half-marathon PR (from 1:25:04 to 1:21:06 in October, then 1:19:57 in February, then 1:19:43 in April which was enough to win the state championship), set a personal record in the 1500m swim (finally getting under 2:00/100yd pace with the help of a wetsuit), took my first solo vacation in many years (went to New Orleans for a day and was bored to tears), played disc golf for the first time in over thirty years (better at this than normal golf), continued to write in my daily journal every single day since retirement without exception (focusing on weird dreams), took up the occasional evisceration of intellectually handicapped people who say stupid things in local facebook groups (no shortage of idiots in this part of the country), tackled all of my CE requirements (including 15 hours of article examinations in 45 minutes – broken system), became a certified volunteer ESL teacher for a semester with a nonprofit program (teaching intermediate level classes in English), volunteered in a voter registration drive at a small library branch (no one showed up), volunteered as a 1:30 pacer in a charity half marathon (always great to offer comedic relief when running at a pace that most people can only dream of), squandered hundreds of hours playing PS4 games (Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age, Final Fantasy XV, Dragon Quest XI, Ni No Kuni 2, Spider-Man, Fallout 4, Dragon Age: Inquisition, GTA V, and Persona 5 – I didn't care much for Red Dead Redemption 2 or God of War – there were others that were quicker plays), increased my count to 650+ movies on TSPDT 1000 (including 430+ of the top 500), collected some more vintage sports cards (pictures of men with moustaches), completed and self-published my sci-fi novella (Remember I Was Vapour), interviewed for and dealt with the fallout from five media articles (more on this below), participated in an apparently abandoned 60-second doc on financial independence (not sure why it was ditched), participated in an apparently abandoned financial pharmacist podcast (perhaps I spent too much time degrading the profession instead of talking about the topic of the show – early retirement, if I recall the topic correctly), applied for and turned down a non-retail pharmacy job offer (applied on a whim and got an offer fifteen minutes later, plus a bad commute and onset of panic), helped my parents do repairs (roof, gutters, tractor, etc.), built a new mailbox (for UPS packages and such), did a lot of litter pickup (before this trendy but wonderful trashtag thing started), made preliminary but detailed itineraries for several future vacations (Japan #2, Japan #3, Denmark/Sweden/Norway, California #2, Portugal/Spain/Morocco, Uganda/Tanzania, Australia/NZ, Egypt/Greece, Finland/Russia, UK, Latin America, SE Asia), dealt with the brief emotional impact of having my best friend from ninth grade commit suicide (I'm fine, but seriously, don't ask), and celebrated my 40th birthday by doing a blitzkrieg of stuff that I loved growing up. Media: I was featured in two NYT articles, two Business Insider articles, and one Big Think article. I even created a blog for the sole purpose of getting some amazon click-thru revenue from those NYT articles. Three of my real-life friends saw the first NYT article (style section) without me mentioning it to anyone I know. However those articles failed to include a proper link to my blog because some idiotic web designer didn't know what the hell he/she was doing. You would not believe the amount of incompetence and the explanations I was getting from that end. Sorry, I don't feel like reliving it in detail. They eventually fixed their mess, but it was far too late to make a difference for traffic flow. Still, this didn't stop a legion of people from stalking me on strava and facebook. I had to politely turn away most of the people who wanted to meet up, but I made time for most fellow marathoners, pharmacists, and redditors. Hopefully my fifteen minutes have passed. I might shut down the blog because I don't really do anything with it. I refused pictures, and I'm glad I did since they successfully made the participants look like total douchebags. And coming from me, that's saying something. Routine: Comparing my daily habits in year two compared to pre-retirement, I increased my swimming (currently on hiatus), weightlifting (on hiatus), volunteering (on hiatus), hiking (several treks), movie watching, puzzle solving, family time, housework, yardwork, cooking, kayaking, stargazing, socializing, painting, bowling, videogame playing, reading (20-30 books), writing, studying astronomy, napping, and watching television (Game of Thrones, Arrested Development [new seasons], Cosmos [fifth time], Parts Unknown). Things I failed to make much progress on were learning to play an instrument (lack of talent and interest), improving my Spanish and Japanese (other than ESL class – and I pushed the second three-week Japan vacation back again to 2021), being able to bench press my body weight (tough hill to climb, and running takes all of my energy), helping fight the opiate epidemic in online discussions (dealing with imbecilic addicts who know nothing beyond anecdotes, personal attacks, and fallacious logic is wearisome), reducing internet time (tough to turn away when a particular group is responsible for the moral and intellectual erosion of the country), and deconverting religious adherents (taking a long break). Upcoming: What lies ahead in year three? I plan on running 3000+ miles and participating in a few more races before leaving competition (including a return to the 10-miler that I placed 50th in four years ago, now with hopes of an overall victory and a nearly certain 40+ category victory). I hope to help a friend of mine earn his first sub-three marathon and subsequently accompany him to Boston in 2020 as my final competitive race, but that's mostly up to him. I would like to break five minutes for the mile (probably will not happen) and 2:45 for the marathon (should be in the bag on the next attempt). I have indefinitely postponed plans for a triathlon due to a total lack of interest in competitive cycling and swimming (and a lack of preparedness by the guy I was going to participate with). A two week trip to Alaska/Washington/Victoria including an overnight backpack in Denali is coming up very soon. Perhaps there will be another trip somewhere in the spring. I'd like to expand the novella to a novel or convert it to a movie script. I'd like to hit 700 on TSPDT 1000. I'd like to bowl a 600 three-game series. I'd like to solve Rubik's cube in less than one minute. I'd like to expand my understanding of relativity and quantum theories. I need to find some new things to do because it kinda feels like I'm running out of ideas. I need to get out of the house more. I need to worry about volunteering less and focus more on doing things for myself. I need to worry less in general, but I also want to continue making small improvements to the world. I want to enjoy life. I want to do whatever the fuck I want. And I shall. Right after I finish answering some idiotic questions. [link] [comments]  |
| Those who have FIRE'd, are you doing things now that you think/wish you started before retiring? Posted: 03 Jun 2019 01:33 PM PDT Maybe a question that has been asked before. With you new freedom, surely many of you have picked up new hobbies or daily routines as a result of retiring. Have any of wished you started doing those things long before retiring? What are they? [link] [comments]  |
| Getting over the fear of market crashing right before/after FIRE? Posted: 02 Jun 2019 05:33 PM PDT I'm sure some of you (or most of you) fear the market crashing either right before or after you FIRE. I am an extremely chill person, so worrying about the future or the past almost never gets to me. But regarding FIRE it inevitably does. How can I set aside my worries of a $3M portfolio dropping 30% that took us 20-25 years to build? [link] [comments]  |
| Gaining net worth as a college student. Posted: 03 Jun 2019 03:26 PM PDT Hello! I am a 21yo college student. I started towards my 4-year degree kinda late so I have 3 more years of school lined up with financial aid. My parents are both unemployed - not really looking to get into that much except that they are poor financial models. My older siblings however are on the FI/RE track and should be there in their 30s/40s. They turned me onto Mr. Money Mustache and JL Collins and it has since changed my thinking and preferred lifestyle. Anywho, poor parents = more financial aid, so after cutting unnecessary university expenses (new textbooks, yikes!) I have a $5k/year surplus of money that I receive as tuition reimbursement (taxable income). I decline all student loans and only accept grants and scholarships, so I don't have to pay anything back. I also work part time during school, full-time during the summer, and donate plasma (grocery and yummy beer money). Next year I am strongly considering living in a van instead of off-campus rent to save even more. I am great at living lean and am adept at finding life-satisfaction in non-material/non-spendy hobbies and relationships. I actually find the process of living with less fun and get a sort of monk-like zen from having less material possessions. I have been putting the net in my Roth IRA, all in VTSAX. I would love to hear advice from FI/RE veterans and enthusiasts for how to step up my savings game even more! Also, for funzies, any cost-effective fun activity recommendations would be delightful! I like to try new things, so feel free to be creative and esoteric! Currently I like to dance, hike, rock climb, and meditate semi-frequently. :) tl;dr I have more financial aid than expenses and want advice on how to save even more while going to school. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking to FIRE, difficulty selecting traditional vs ROTH Ira Posted: 03 Jun 2019 03:17 PM PDT
My monthly budget (11800/monthly) will start this soon. Was paying off debt and stuff. I'm in the clear starting July.
Questions: 1) should I do Roth or traditional? After I work for a few years, I want to be a UPS driver or a mailman. This being said, I thought traditional makes more sense. 2) when can I retire? Maybe 80k annual salary for the rest of my life is ok. My job is stressful for some people but I like it. I think if you are calm under pressure it's cool. Edit: format. Also someone doesn't like me as apparent from their PM. Ok I'm sorry. I'm aware of my fortunate situation but I worked hard and earned it. I am grateful for the position that I am in.. I'm just looking for advice. Not your personal opinion of how terrible I am. [link] [comments]  |
| What % of monthly profit do you invest? Posted: 03 Jun 2019 03:14 PM PDT After paying your expenses, what percent of your remaining income do you invest into stocks, IRAs, etc. each month? Also: Do you have a cap on what you place in the bank for emergencies and invest any extra money that comes in? [link] [comments]  |
| Weekly FI Monday Milestone thread - June 03, 2019 Posted: 03 Jun 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. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Jun 2019 12:52 PM PDT The usual suggestions - housecleaner, accountant, etc - seem like great ideas. What are other ways you "buy time?" [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Jun 2019 12:31 PM PDT For my portfolio of $3.2m, if I earn an after tax return of say, 7% then I get $224k a year from my investments. Assuming I sleep 8 hours a day, that means I earn about $38 per hour I am awake, no matter if I am working or eating or doing whatever. This is so important to remember, because it means that if I am considering whether to do something or whether to hire someone to do it for me, I have a metric which I can use to decide. The key is that it is essentially a waste of time for me to, for example clean my bathroom or drive myself to work, if I can have those services done for me for less than $38 an hour. I see a lot of people on this sub and also people I talk to in real life who are so aggressively focused on saving the most dollars possible that they act inefficiently with their time, most commonly in the pursuit of extreme frugality. It's a good idea to calculate the value of your raw time (and also your working time) in order to make smarter decisions about what sort of services or goods to buy based on how they will give or take away your time. You may find that things that seem on the surface to be excessive luxuries are actually worth it for the saved time. To clarify: Yes, doing the chores and banking the $38 would earn me more money, but now that I know that I have the $38, I can spend $30 to hire someone to do chores and enjoy my time still knowing that I am making $8. In other words it frees me to spend my time how I want, without feeling guilty that I am spending money on services, because I am still profiting each hour (just less than before) [link] [comments]  |
| Tools and other details about ETF and equivalent Posted: 02 Jun 2019 11:42 PM PDT I am an Italian investor and I usually invest in P2P platforms of every type (personal loans, business and real estate) and in Real Estate while I am trying to reach FI. But as I can see and for what I can understand it should be better to diversify more and put some money also in Bonds or ETF but they both are fields where I am not confident in. Can you suggest some platforms and tools and for instance some specific ETF funds where an European can invest in (that means that all American funds are all basically excluded) and where is possible to have an IRR more or less about 5-6% (or more) and something relatively safe and secure (I know that every investment is intrinsically risky). I don't know if it's a good strategy and if is so where to start and platform use. I want to use bonds and etfs for long term investment but something that is simple to understand and to verify how it is going Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Public servant looking for tips Posted: 02 Jun 2019 08:25 PM PDT So, I've recently learned of FIRE and am looking for some suggestions. My current financial situation is not dire, but I am no where near where most posters appear to be. Basically my question is, how do I get to the million mark and beyond. Current stats; married, two kids 11 and 9 Income - state job 3k a month. Sketchy real estate deal - 600 a month Acorns account with 900 in it Robin hood account bleeding out at 250 now 401k with 11k on it 1200 in a 1% rate saving account 3k in a mutual fund Empty city lot Bills Rent 250/month Truck 325/month Medical 12k total... currently being ignored Internet 120/ month Cells / 150 Insurance on rigs 150/month Vices 600/month Streaming services 40/month Its obvious my income exceeds my month bills pretty well. Some obvious starting points for me are sell the truck and buy something used, develop the empty lot into a rental. Axe all the vices and get my wife a job. I don't really have the confidence to do the stock market stuff. It feels like a gamble. But what should I be doing with the excess money. Right now it goes to Starbucks and similarly useless stuff. Unfortunately my cell is dying, so I will come back to this but definitely interested in ideas. [link] [comments]  |
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