Financial Independence Weekly “Help Me FIRE!” thread. Post your detailed information for highly specific advice. - September 28, 2020 |
- Weekly “Help Me FIRE!” thread. Post your detailed information for highly specific advice. - September 28, 2020
- Daily FI discussion thread - September 28, 2020
- I immigrated by myself 2 years ago - recently reached 100k NW at almost 30
- Who are the best financial teachers you have found on YT to aid you on your journey to financial independence?
- Canadians seeking FIRE
- Early retirement (30’s) Max out Roth IRA or put that money into index fund like VOO?
- Weekly FI Monday Milestone thread - September 28, 2020
- Understanding accessing funds before "normal" retirement age
| Posted: 27 Sep 2020 11:08 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 - September 28, 2020 Posted: 28 Sep 2020 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]  |
| I immigrated by myself 2 years ago - recently reached 100k NW at almost 30 Posted: 28 Sep 2020 12:51 AM PDT Thought I'd share my story here, since a lot of the first gen immigration stories I've seen in the sub were about people who immigrated with their parents as kids/teens, and my path was a bit different. I lived in a third world country in south america. Classic middle class upbringing, didn't face any financial issues, but country is unsafe, getting robbed at gunpoint is a real possibility, city infrastructure falling apart, corrupt governments, etc. I'm splitting this in topics so you can skip to the end if you don't care about the background details = ) Bachelors in home country: I would have loved to do my bachelors abroad, specially in the US, but it wasn't possible. In my country, public universities are very competitive to get in, because they have no tuition, while the private ones do. I wouldn't call it "free" because the amount of taxes we pay in my country, for pretty much nothing in return, zero tuition in college is about the only thing we ever get back. Universities have way less resources in my country, but the schooling itself is good. I did well in the entrance exam, got into one of the top schools in latam and studied electrical engineering, which meant no school debt, which was fortunate. Experiences abroad During my studies, I spent a year studying abroad in Europe on a scholarship, which gave me a taste of what living in a 1st word country was like. I also did a work-abroad program, working in the US for about 3 months during our school break. I got paid minimum wage, which was 7.25/hr at the time, working an unskilled job that was customer facing. I lived with roommates and kept expenses low, but what I could afford on that minimum wage in the US was so much more than what many skilled jobs would afford in my country. It was a very comfortable life for me in comparison, even though my american coworkers often complained about the pay. This helps put into perspective that it really depends on what a person's baseline is for comfort. Both of those experiences abroad were also very competitive in school, and took a lot of preparing and keeping good grades to achieve. First job in home country I graduated 5 years later (engineering takes 5 yrs there) in a recession, where junior engineer jobs were impossible to find, while our alumni from only a couple years prior had much better luck in finding a first job and getting offers from their internships. New-grad 'accelerated career' programs had become popular, were paying above market rate (which was crap at this point due to the economy), and were very hard to get in. It took preparing and going through long interview processes with many, until I finally got one. Mine had over 10,000 applicants for under 20 job openings. I hoped to join an American company because everyone I had ever met who immigrated to the US in the last few years, had done so by being transferred by their company. So I joined this US company, stayed for almost 4 years, got promoted twice, and realized that getting transferred was never going to happen, despite the fact that I kept being told it could be a possibility. The last person to get transferred in that company had done so the year before I joined... and they apparently got very restrictive with it afterwards due to US visas getting harder to obtain (is what I heard, but who knows). This made me feel very unlucky tbh, like if I had just joined a couple years earlier I could have had a chance. Masters in home country Anyways, I became interested in Machine Learning and started doing a masters of science in the same university, part time, while working my full time job. This had no tuition cost, as I was doing research work, and I would've been eligible for a stipend for this work without the full time job. This was kind of a bummer, but my job salary was much higher and wasn't worth giving up for the stipend. This masters took about 3 years. My schedule was insane. I was saving money aggressively, so I lived in a tiny studio reasonably close to school (cheap rent, mostly college students) and didn't have a car. Nearly all my former classmates and all my coworkers had cars at this point, because public transportation sucks in my country. I took a bus from home to work and walked (over 30min each way) from home to school. Because my classes (and later on, research meetings), were mostly at night, this often meant my class ended at 11pm, and I still had to walk home, eat dinner, then be up at around 6am the next day to be able to catch the bus and get to work by 8am. All my actual research work had to be done in the evenings (the nights I didn't have classes) and weekends, as well as any homework or studying for the exams. This schedule was brutal but it allowed me to save a lot of money. I did make a few spending compromises: I nearly always bought premade food for dinner, usually from the grocery store. In my country, the extra cost between raw food and ready to eat is not as large as in the US, but either way, I did not have the energy to cook for myself with this schedule. I had a budget for 'fun money' so I could still do some things I wanted, but I was very aggressive in saving. Career change to ML: When my masters was almost finished, I started applying for ML jobs. They are (or were, at the time) extremely rare in my country. I realized I had to widen my search, and applied for a job in a bigger city, with much higher cost of living. I got the job and moved there, trading my decent studio for a super crappy suite in a shared building. Despite the housing downgrade, I was actually paying more in rent than before. The transportation situation got much worse as well without a car, I had to take a bus and then the subway, then walk in a sketchy part of town to get to the office. This was an European company with a US presence, but it was clear that getting transferred was very unlikely as well. But the salary was much higher, and getting the work experience in ML was also worth it. Studying in the US: At this point I decided to move to the US for a masters. I considered multiple options (fully funded Phd would take 5+yrs of living with a low wage; another research masters, perhaps partially funded) and settled on applying for 1-yr professional masters. These programs cost more in tuition, but after doing some math, I realized the extra living costs of staying in school longer, plus the opportunity cost of being away from the industry would offset that in my case. I checked what my savings would let me afford, when converted to USD, and realized this would wipe out most of my savings, but I could swing it for programs with reasonable tuition (some were almost 6 figures, I didn't bother applying to those). I applied to a few, and got a partial merit scholarship in one of my preferred locations. The scholarship was conditional on keeping a high GPA. So at this point, I mapped my worst and best case scenarios. Worst case scenario would be I can't keep my GPA high enough and lose the scholarship and end up having to pay full price on the tuition, then don't land a job in the US and have to move back to my country. I noted in this scenario, most of my savings would have been wiped and I would be back where I started but with nearly 0 NW, and a US diploma (which would not make my salary any higher in my home country since I already had a local masters). Btw, flunking the program was not a worst case scenario I considered as I had always been a good student and had faith in my ability to complete it without any issues. The best case scenario would be I keep the scholarship, pay reduced tuition, land a high paying job in a HCOL city and save most of my income, and "pay off" myself for all the tuition+living costs of the masters in about 1.5 years on my projections, then stay for another 1.5 years (maximum duration of a student visa post graduation is 3 years for STEM majors). It would still be unknown how long I would be able to remain in the US afterwards, as that depends on a bunch of visa variables that wouldn't depend just on me, such as getting selected in the H-1B work visa lottery). But at this point, the extra 1.5yrs of savings in dollars would make the whole thing a clear financial win, when compared to wages in my country. When I put in my notice at my job, they offered me a raise and a promotion, and it was hard to turn it down, but I knew it had to be done, so I left. During my masters, I lived in a make-shift "room" in a living room, so I saved a lot of rent, at the cost of my sanity, because my roommates really didn't make it easy. Someone cooking in the middle of the night (literally, like 2am) with the lights on (and kitchen/living room were combined..) was at least a weekly occurrence, dirty dishes in the sink all the time, having multiple visitors in the super tiny 2-bedroom frequently, sometimes sleeping in the kitchen (seriously, wtf). Anyways, I can't say I regret it because I truly saved a lot of money, but there were many times I felt "I'm too old for this s****". I did one internship during the program, at one of my favorite startups, which was a great experience, and allowed me to have a little bit of income, plus they had free lunch and dinner, so the days I were there were the days I ate best during that year. I quickly learned that eating take out everyday was not going to fly in this city like it did in my home country, because prices were insane. So I learned to cook cheap stuff with quick recipes, lots of quick baked potatoes in the toaster oven and rice in the rice cooker, fried eggs, and a fair share of ramen in the nights prior to exams, etc. Full time job in the US: I applied to over a hundred job postings, and I as admittedly very picky at first, which some of my professors disagreed with. I wanted to give myself a couple months where I only tried for jobs I truly wanted, and gave myself a deadline, where I would start applying to "anything within reason" if I didn't get it by then. I couldn't take too long to get a job, otherwise I would not be eligible for a visa extension. The jobs I wanted were very technical, and usually required things like leetcoding and solving ML things live on a whiteboard or over the phone, so I practiced for those quite a bit. I felt I should have practiced even more, but after all those years of full time job + masters, plus the 1yr intensive program in a new country, I was getting very tired at this point, and was mindful not to burn myself out. After too many applications with no responses, I landed 3 offers. One of them was a big N company, which was precisely what I wanted, so that's the one I took. At this point some friends and I started going to movies / restaurants / short weekend trips more frequently. Those expenses went up but not by too much. I also stopped eating ramen and frozen food so frequently, and started buying better, but still cheap stuff. I finally moved out to my own tiny studio in an old building in a cheap part of town early this year, and despite the rent hike, I don't regret it at all, and is the best "splurge" I could make. I spent over a decade living like a broke college student, and I feel like I can finally get some of the things I want now. Such as I had wanted a 4k TV since forever, and I finally bought one this year (still wanted for it to go on sale, and got one for 500, so nothing nuts) Now: I've been with my company for about a year now, and I got promoted last month. So things are good. I reached my goal of saving up the same amount I spent during my masters in less than a year, in part due to the signing bonus, which I did not account for, and my initial salary was also higher than what I had projected. So I'm actually doing a bit better than my "best case scenario" I mapped out before coming to the US. These last few years have not been easy for immigrants, and I don't want to get political, just saying the uncertainty and stress surrounding added visa restrictions have been significant, so I am very grateful that things have worked out for me so far. So yeah, this has been my path so far. I was very fortunate in many aspects (growing up middle class, no family/health issues, no disabilities), but also, compared to others, there were times when I felt others had it so much easier (being born in a 1st world country; getting a visa through family; immigrating years ago when the process was easier; having a rich uncle who sends you to undergrad abroad; getting employed/transferred because you know people in high places; graduating when engineer jobs were peaking, etc). I figured all I could do was work with the situation I was in, there's always someone who has it better or worse, and through hard work, I took a few leaps of faith, and it all ended up working out. I know many people in similar jobs to mine were able to reach this same milestone in their early 20s, but also many aren't even nearly there yet despite years of 6 figure salaries, due to higher spending. so it's all relative. To me FI is much more of a goal then RE, because I like my field of work, but I want RE to be a possibility, because I may feel differently in 10 or 20 years. I have met many people who had a similar immigration path to mine (although from latam to the US is relatively rare, most I've met are through family immigration), but got the feeling it wasn't very common in this sub, so wanted to share. And if anyone is a fellow immigrant, I hope you found this encouraging. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Sep 2020 05:46 PM PDT I'm looking for the lesser-known, very intelligent, hidden gems. My personal favorites are George Gammon & Sam Ovens, but I know there's a lot more out there that I don't know. Can also be more general business like Sam Ovens, but applies in a financial aspect, of course. Who are the brightest minds you have found? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Sep 2020 03:46 PM PDT My wife(32F) and I(34M) are both Canadian citizens who moved to California in October 2019 and now working in the bay area as Registered Nurses in a big teaching hospital under TN visas. We move to earn more thus will be able to save faster. We work alternative schedule 3x a week each and have 1 day off together in a week. Because of this, we do not have any child minding expenses so far. We have a 4 and 2 y.o kids. Our goal is to be FIRE by the time we are in our early 50s and would like advice from anybody that might be in our situation or has been in our situation. We are thinking of working in the states for 10 years then returning to Canada to utilize the social/medical benefits? USA Numbers: USD$ -Make gross 250k USD combined -We each contribute 12% to our 403b (company matches 4-5%) -Renting in Santa Clara, CA $3400 -65k savings since October 2019 -No debt no car payments -we expect to save $90-100k per year Canada numbers: CAD$ -House in Ontario $510k mortgage, paying monthly $2200 but is renting the house for $2200. With the property taxes about $6500 a year. -both max on our RRSP + some LIRA after cashing out our hospital defined benefit pension last year...300k combined RESP&LIRA for both of us invested in the stock market -no tfsa as I heard USA will come after money (LOL. Not sure if this is true) -both kids have RESP (planning on contributing max per kid per year) Questions: 1. What is the best way to do our taxes? 2. Should we consider applying for green card? 3. How can we invest our yearly savings to achieve FIRE the fastest? Any suggestions or comments please. Anyone who would like to be a mentor is absolutely welcome! I myself love learning and think would be a great mentee. [link] [comments]  |
| Early retirement (30’s) Max out Roth IRA or put that money into index fund like VOO? Posted: 28 Sep 2020 03:37 PM PDT Ok please go easy on me. New to this sub, new to investing. I'm 22 and the only person in my family with a Roth IRA. I'm hoping to "retire" very early, 30's/40's, basically as early as possible with aggressive saving+investment. Background: I'm a freelancer with a survival job which I contribute the Max to my 401k with, but I don't work there much, so my Roth IRA is important. I opened it when I was 21 and I haven't contributed the max for this year yet. For someone like me with a non traditional job/goals/life path, does it make more sense to max my Roth IRA and then put what's left into an index fund (could be little to nothing), or just go for it and put as much as I can into something like VOO? Which strategy helps me retire earlier? [link] [comments]  |
| Weekly FI Monday Milestone thread - September 28, 2020 Posted: 28 Sep 2020 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]  |
| Understanding accessing funds before "normal" retirement age Posted: 28 Sep 2020 01:41 PM PDT I've been doing a fair bit of research recently on Roth conversions, what kind of withdrawals are penalizable when, etc. I've tried to sum it up into a "here's exactly what to do" sort of chart - could someone have a look and tell me if I've understood everything correctly, and if my overall strategy is a good one? I understand all of these options (such as Roth 401(k)s) are not available to everyone, but I'm basing my personal plan on the particular accounts that I have / have the option to create. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
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