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!

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I'm trying to decide whether to stay in Georgia or move to Seattle or LA. Some people say that the higher rents are worth it because you'll make more, which is what made me consider Seattle and LA. Even then though, I've found most of the jobs still pay similarly, or not that much of a pay boost for how high the rents are. There's a couple outlier jobs that pay 120 to 150k, but those require tons of experience. And it's not a given that you'll get a job that pays that much.

I've even seen some tech jobs in Seattle and LA that only pay 60 to 70k. Which, in most cities isn't too bad of a salary. But, in Seattle and LA where the homes are 650 to 850k, it would take forever to save for a house. Or, I'd be spending all of my salary on rent. They had some 200 to 450 sq foot apartments in Seattle that were 1500 to 700. But, idk how realistic it is to live in a 400 sq ft apartment?

My other option was to stay in Augusta with family. While homes here are cheaper at 250 to 400k. A lot of the jobs only pay 40 to 50k. So, that low of a pay is what made me consider LA or Seattle. Also, the fact that dating is tough here, not many things to do, and it's hard to meet people. My family says moving to the city isn't worth it for the crime and costs though.

Do you think that Atlanta or Charlotte could be a good middleground? Instead of going all in and moving all the way across the country to some of the most expensive cities?

Long time lurker first time poster. Sharing my journey thus far partially for myself to reflect on my misguidedness and to update periodically, and partly for anyone who may resonate with my situation. TLDR and graphs at the bottom.

For some background - I’m 31M and live in Toronto with my partner. I grew up in a small town and was the first person in my family to go to university. My parents struggled with work and likely instilled many bad money habits in me that I’ve been working to break (more on that later). At my lowest point only a couple years ago I had a NW of -212k mostly in a high interest LOC, and I was sure I would never turn things around and dig myself out of this hole. Now I’m sitting quite happily at just shy of +$15k and hoping to now make up for lost time. Onto the story…

The Student Years

I’m a pharmacist by training, and currently work in the pharmaceutical industry. I took quite an extended path to get here, and all of my schooling was payed for by myself since my family could barely afford to keep themselves afloat let alone fund my schooling. I guess I never really knew what I wanted to do for work - in fact I didn’t like the idea of working at all and had a vague idea that I’d love to retire early. I loved being a student, and was happy to meander my way through various programs semi-aimlessly simply because I enjoyed learning. And I felt (naively) that since I was studying something in STEM, everything would magically work itself out - no worries.

So from 2011-2015 I worked on my bachelor’s degree. During my time in this program I lived at home. This was perhaps one of the few wise financial choices at the time, although sometimes I do still wish from a life experience perspective that I had chosen to live in residence to get the full experience. And I sometimes wonder if having to be responsible for my own cost of living would have lit more of a fire under me (maybe? maybe? probably not.)

By the end of this degree I only owed roughly $20k in government provided student loans - thanks to lower tuition up north combined with a few thousand in grants and bursaries because I was low income.

Next, I decided to complete a Master’s degree from 2015-2017, essentially to kill time and delay making any real decisions because I hadn’t the slightest clue what I wanted to do. During these years I lived with an ex-partner, and had a modest stipend that I used to pay the bills. By the end of this degree, I now owed around $35k and still didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I ultimately decided that working in a lab was boring as shit and I wanted more human interaction, so I wrote my PCAT and went to pharmacy school in the fall of 2017.

At the time I thought this was a smart decision, since at least going to pharmacy school would end in a professional degree and it would lead to a defined job - right?. Turns out the joke was on me - I never actually stepped foot in a pharmacy to get a sense of what the job was really like. Turns out it SUCKS. Now’s not really the time or place to get into how soulcrushing the job is (/r/pharmacy is that way) but at least in the US they pay pharmacists quite well - up here in Toronto by the time I was graduating, there were job postings for <$40 CAD an hour and declining due to oversaturation.

Anyway, I digress. I did my 4 years of pharmacy school from 2017-2021 while living on my own in Toronto. The bank gave me a professional LOC of $175k to pay for tuition and living expenses. Someone with better financial sense than me would have treaded carefully with that amount of cash available knowing that it accumulates interest and it would need to eventually be paid back. I was not that person. I took this as a blank cheque to spend $175k and buy whatever dumb shit I wanted. My schooling during these years cost around $90k in tuition - about half of this was covered by government student loans, partially as loans and partially as grants. The other $45k came from my LOC, as did my roughly $20k/yr in living costs. This was already pushing my LOC dangerously high, but during COVID I made the highly regarded decision to take a bunch of money out of my LOC thinking I could make a shit ton of money on memestocks and crypto. Obviously, I did not succeed.

My net worth at this time was around -210k. And in case you were wondering, to add the cherry on top of all of the above nonsense, I was not in fact working at all during my schooling.

Transitioning to work life

Flash forward to 2021. I decided pharmacy sucks, and decided to work in the pharmaceutical industry instead. This was the first actual good decision I made - not just for my own day to day QOL, but I came to realize this would make for a better life down the road as well. Pharmacists often make around $100k, sometimes a bit more or less, and often do not have perks, full benefits, or a fair amount of vacation time.

The first step to make this transition was to complete an internship. I made ~55k during this year with no benefits. Enough to live and not much else. Thankfully my government and bank loans still counted this internship as schooling so they weren’t coming to collect on my debt just yet - but I was starting to feel the weight of what was coming my way. I was 29 and felt like I was just starting my life but with a small mortgage hanging over my head with very little to show for it.

Once my internship was done, I landed my first gig in pharma. Got a salary bump up to 120k, and shortly after received a COL adjustment to 124k. This job also came with a company car, good benefits, RRSP (401k - i think?) matching, and a 13% bonus. I felt really great when signing the offer letter, but soon enough the debt repayments came around and I felt like I was drowning and didn’t know how I’d ever build myself towards retiring early.

My cashflow looked something like this:

• Gross income: 124k.
• Take home income (after all taxes and deductions): 72k/yr or 6k/mo

Monthly expenses:

• Government loan repayment: $500
• Bank loan repayment: $1450 towards principal on a 10 year payback period + $1000 interest = $2450/mo
• Rent: 1900 (quite low for 1 bdrm in Toronto now)

After these expenses, this left me ~$1100/month to cover utilities, food, home items/toiletries, public transportation, and health costs that my work plan didn’t cover.

At this point I saw what my future would look like at it was not at all what I’d been envisioning for myself. I thought when I started working I would be finally free to do all the things I had been postponing through my education - saving for retirement, travelling, going to restaurants. Just living a solid middle class life. Instead, I realized that for the next 10 years, until I was 40, I would be just skating by with $1100/mo to cover my expenses due to the heavy burden of my loan repayments. I was extremely anxious that I wouldn’t be able to retire at all, let alone retire early.

Consumer proposal and the recovery

If you’re still with me - thank you. I know it’s been a lot but personally it’s been cathartic to write this all out.

Based on the situation I described above, in 2023 a few things happened which have been monumental to turning things around.

The first is that I decided to file a consumer proposal - which is basically a bankruptcy-lite. It’s specific to certain lenders (in this case, the bank with which I had my private LOC), and the insolvency trustee works to find a middleground debt repayment amount to the lender at the expense of tanking your credit score for a maximum of 6 years, depending how quickly you pay it off. We landed on a repayment total of $70k (out of my almost $175k LOC) which would be paid back over 5 years interest free. This gave me a lot of room to breathe due to lower monthly payments and not throwing $1000/mo into the interest black hole. My focus has been to pay it off as quickly as possible.

The second, is that after filing my proposal - I’ve been focusing on increasing my income. I managed to job hop to another company and am now getting paid $141k (up from $124k) and with better benefits.

The last, and most important, is that I met my current partner who has been amazing and beyond selfless in helping me recover. We connected very strongly and were aligned on working to build a life together. She entered the relationship coming from a more financially secure position than myself (not a high bar lol), and partway through the year she offered to have me move into her condo that she owns rent free (while still contributing to all our other shared expenses). I initially felt quite guilty about this, but after many conversations, her position was that the sooner I can clear myself of my debt - the better it would be for us as a family. I cannot describe how lucky I am.

With that, I’ve been taking all the money I was saving on not paying interest on my loans together with the money I was saving on rent, and have been relentlessly piling on to my debts. As of tomorrow, my consumer proposal will be paid off in full. I now have roughly ~45k left in government student loans that are interest free, so I am in no rush to pay those. Now my focus is on building my wealth through index funds and investing large portions of my income, as well paying back my SO. And so begins my true journey towards financial independence.

Bonus: Here’s a chart of my net worth as tracked since I started using YNAB in 2021.

TLDR; Came from poor family, made poor choices with schooling and student loans, hit rock bottom at ~212k, filed consumer proposal, got good job, met dream partner, feeling optimistic about the future.

My wife is currently facing the following predicament as she can’t afford to max both her Employee Stock Purchase Plan and the traditional 401(k) on her current income. Her ESOP gives her a 10% discount on the lower of the beginning stock price and the ending stock price during the purchase period (every quarter). Her 401(k) match is capped at 6% of her salary + bonus, which she is getting the full amount of. We are in the 24% tax bracket. Which account should we prioritize maxing out?

Married, 36 and spouse is 27. Our combined networth sits at 3m. We plan to retire early within the next 3 years.

I am a self employed w variable income, spouse is a gov employee. Each of us makes roughly 120k, for a combined income of 240k

My accounts:

Taxable 2.4m (large capital gains)

SEP IRA 60k

ROTH IRA 60k

HYSA 150k

Spouse's accounts:

Taxable 100k

457b 25k

403b 25k

ROTH 60k

DCP (tax deferred) 60k

HSA 15k

We are looking to buy a house in VHCOL to possibly MCOL (depending on financial picture and housing market) in the near future (2 years), and retire. My question relates to my spouse. What is the optimal account for my spouse to invest in first, given our financial situation? Keep in mind, my spouse has the option to backdoor the ROTH IRA, up to 69k. I think my spouse should take advantage of the backdoor roth, and then the 457b, and then the 403b.

My spouse disagrees, citing our somewhat large age gap, desire to be able to support family abroad if needed, and liquidity (without large cap gains) to buy a home. Because of that, my spouse wants to focus on building the taxable account further and not lock up funds into retirement, when I could already be near the end of my life, or worse, already gone.

I can see my spouse's arguments, esp considering that we want to FIRE so early, but I also think its silly to not take advantage of all this government allowed tax advantaged space that I never had access to. I also want to make sure she is set for life in case the worst does indeed happen to me. Looking for feedback, any and all appreciated.

Hey everyone! I’m a 31-year-old male military pilot with no spouse or children who just surpassed $1 million in net worth.

My purposes for posting are to:

1. Brag.

2. Provide a data point for other military officers on the path to FIRE.

3. Show that the military can be a very lucrative profession, contrary to the general public opinion.

How I got here

I was raised in an upper middle-class family in a major metropolitan area of the U.S. My father was born in a politically unstable country and fled to the U.S. as a young child. From his upbringing in a refugee family, he developed strong values of saving, work ethic, and independence which have since been instilled in me.

I’ve always been naturally frugal and forward-thinking. In 2015 I graduated from a U.S. military service academy with a STEM degree. Service academies are completely free and actually pay students a small salary to attend. While in college I took out a $35k “Career Starter Loan” from USAA at 0.75% interest and put about $30k directly into the S&P 500 (this was 2013). In 2016 I heard about Mr. Money Mustache and started listening to FIRE podcasts with the goal of simply optimizing my long-term wealth. In 2021 I purchased a house that has grown nicely in value. I currently work as a military pilot with an annual income of $151,000 (will increase to $163,000 by the end of this year). 41% of my income is non-taxable, and I pay no state income taxes.

Assets

House: $622,000

Brokerage: $314,000

TSP: $251,000

IRA: $161,000

Checking: $9,000

Debt

Mortgage: $342,000

NET Worth

$1,015,000

Strategy

My strategy is simple: I have been persistently frugal in the categories that matter most (housing, car, dining, and insurance IMO) and have aggressively invested 100% of my extra income into boring index funds starting at a young age.

I’ve always had roommates, drive a 14 year-old sedan with 100k+ miles, and rarely go out to eat. I don’t particularly enjoy owning expensive things—I like to spend my money on experiences like snowboarding, backpacking trips, and international travel.

I try to keep $5,000 in my checking account, and any time I see more than that I’ll throw the remainder into either VTSAX or VFIAX. The “remainder” generally adds up to about $40k annually in recent years.

I calculate my net worth on the 1st of every month and keep serial-killer-level spreadsheets of my financial records. I own 8 credit cards, all of which have zero annual fees for military, and I’m currently sitting on over $10k worth of rewards points. I max out my TSP and Roth IRA every year.

Future

I was recently assigned to a new unit in a HCOL area, and during that process I happened to read “Die With Zero” by Bill Perkins which has seriously changed my spending outlook as I’ve loosened my grip quite a bit.

In 2.5 years I’ll be eligible to leave the military and I’ll likely pursue a career as a pilot in a major commercial airline. I have no plans to retire early since I believe my job gives me a sense of purpose and access to the majority of my social groups, but I could see myself working part-time and/or starting a business on the side.

I’m extremely grateful to have come across the FIRE movement, and posts like these have motivated me to join the double comma club—I hope it does the same for you!

Self-promotion (ie posting about projects/businesses that you operate and can profit from) is typically a practice that is discouraged in /r/financialindependence, and these posts are removed through moderation. This is a thread where those rules do not apply. However, please do not post referral links in this thread.

Use this thread to talk about your blog, talk about your business, ask for feedback, etc. If the self-promotion starts to leak outside of this thread, we will once again return to a time where 100% of self-promotion posts are banned. Please use this space wisely.

Link-only posts will be removed. Put some effort into it.

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!

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Gov employee w access to the following accounts.

DCP (7% EE 8% ER match) (pretax and tax deferred) Any funds contributed beyond 7% are considered post tax, with the additional benefit of being able to rollover to my ROTH IRA. Maximum allowed contribution for 2024 is 69k. This amount includes the pretax, employer match, and posttax contributions.

457b. Max of 23k. Can contribute pretax OR ROTH contributions.

403b Max of 23k. Can contribute pretax OR ROTH contributions.

What should I be focused on maxing first? Currently I'm doing the obvious employer match 7/8%, and then stuffing all extra income into the DCP as posttax contributions. Then once a month I call fidelity and tell them to roll the posttax contributions into my ROTH IRA.

Should I be taking advantage of the 457b and 403b at all? Or should I wait until I max the 69k in the DCP? If I should be doing the 457/403b, which one should I focus on first, and should I do pretax or ROTH contributions? If I do ROTH, does that mean it is also posttax, and I can roll it over into my Roth account?

(Posted this on FICan, then realized it has a wider than national focus / broader appeal)

So I was forwarded this:

https://www.richmondquant.com/news/2019/11/21/static-vs-dynamic-why-your-buy-amp-hold-portfolio-could-be-missing-its-mark

...by somebody who I think was well-intentioned.

Essentially, this is a criticism of a "buy and hold" strategy with a fixed percentage portfolio strategy (e.g. a 60/40 portfolio that you balance every 6 or 12 months).

The author of the article claims that one can look back 60 days to what is happening in the market, and then "dynamically rebalance" one's portfolio (doesn't say how frequently, using what technique / algorithm, or describe fees, tax complexity or anything else) in such a way so as to reduce volatility ... essentially to achieve a higher expected return for a given level of risk.

Actually, it seems that it is being claimed that by using said techniques, one would have a portfolio (gross of fees, I am assuming) that is roughly 50 % greater over the period in question (in this case, 1994 to 2018).

This looks like some version of "technical analysis" to me. It appears to be a pleading toward "secret knowledge" and "fancy techniques" for which one can presumably pay "a money genius" (probably via an AUM model) and have him buy and sell within the portfolio according to the above.

I am clearly not smart enough to directly argue against the above or explain why I don't believe it. Other than to ask ... "If this is true, and this article was written 6 years ago ... why isn't everyone doing this?" (And why hasn't Ben Felix talked about it?!)

To those of you who are more educated on such topics than I, your feedback is appreciated.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day.

Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone has expertise to share on bond funds. I'm conservative with my money and so I'm diverse, approximately according to Boglehead portfolio, so some bonds in there.

But it feels like no matter what happens, my Vanguard bond funds go down. That must not be true, but the annual returns are ridiculous--VBTLX is down on the year, up 1.7% for 1 year, down for 3 years, and giving 3% yields since inception 23 years ago. VCOBX is down on the year, up 1.7% for 1 year, down for 3 years, up 1.5% since inception 8 years ago.

My point isn't that I expect everything to do well in a 20 year window, or that I expect bonds to do as well as stock (I don't!). I just don't understand how I hear "bonds are looking good" every now and then (just read a story today! but my bond funds are, of course, down), but whenever I check (and seemingly over the last 23 years) the broad bond index funds at Vanguard suck. Is it just not a long enough window, or are these bond index funds trash?

Even though our plan is to retire next year, we don’t anticipate needing to withdraw for the next 5-7 years at least. Go moderately aggressive or focus on CD, TBills, Bonds?

Hi everyone,

I'm very early in my career but interested in the concept FI/RE and what I can do to achieve it. I'm currently working as a software engineer in a low-medium COL area; my day-to-day financial situation is secure, and now I want to take it a step further and start maxing investments and all that. I recently received a large life insurance payout (approx. $400k) from the loss of a parent, which gives me a huge head start on a potential FIRE journey.

However... outside of my spouse and I, a lot of other family close to me (specifically, my siblings-in-law) are struggling. Like, struggling to keep up with rent/mortgage and utilities struggling. I feel a certain amount of guilt knowing they are struggling to keep their homes while I'm very financially stable and living quite comfortably at such an early age. I've considered the idea of giving them each a one time give of around $5000. It would be a small drop in the bucket for me, but could make a huge impact on each of them. I would make it clear that this is a one time event because it is coming from part of my parent's life insurance payout, and I wouldn't be able to afford supporting them like this in any way in the future. I care a lot about my family and want to take care of them, but I don't want to wind up enabling anyone or making things worse for myself.

Have you provided any sort of financial support for your family while on the path to FI? What were the consequences? If I shouldn't just give them money directly, are there any other smarter ways I can support them?

Edit: Hey all, thank you for the replies. I really appreciate it. I will have to go through in spurts to reply to all the responses, but I've been enjoying this discussion. It's an idea I've been thinking of for a while without anyone to bounce it off of, so it's helping me think of what other options may be out there.

I’m a single 30 yo male living in a MCOL American city. I do marketing/advertising for a company in the industrial engineering space. Compared to many here, I’d likely be considered a slightly late bloomer but my goal is FIRE. I’ve lived on my own or with roommates for the past 6 years.

24 - Land first full time job in marketing making just over 42k. Covid happens, get laid off and brought back a bunch of times due to the nature of my workplace. Making 50k by the end, two years later.

26 - Land a new job. Now making 65k, fully remote. Turns out to be pretty toxic and some out of the blue things happen along the way.

29 - Laid off and spent 6 tough months searching for a job. Drained my entire emergency fund just to be able to pay my rent and such. Finally land one paying the same 65k as the previous. My bonus this year brings my income to a potential 75k.

Now I’ve turned 30 and have a few months under my belt at the new job. It’s going well, but I want to be making more money. I live alone at the moment, which has gotten outrageously expensive for the money I’m making.

Income per month = $3700

Monthly expenses are as follows:

Rent/utilities = $1475 Car payment = $283 Insurance = $150 Gas = $150

My savings look like this:

38k in Roth/rollover IRA 1100 in new job 401k (contributing just the match currently as I get back on my feet) 400 in HSA 2.5k in cash 11k vehicle equity

My current apartment lease is coming to an end and the option of moving home is there, but moving back home wouldn’t be easy mentally. Especially after 6 years on my own.

I know this is pretty unimpressive, and my income needs to go up substantially within the next couple of years, but I figured I’d share in hopes of getting some advice on how I should be handling things.

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!

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Back here again for a 3 year update to this thread.

To recap, I bought a house at the very start of the pandemic, put an offer May 2020, and closed August 2020.

So after almost 4 years, the biggest thing that stands out to me is how costs for owning a house have simply exploded. Home prices have also been hitting all tiem highs recently but there is no easy and cost effective way to extract the equity from the house.

I don't even see an exit at this point, as I am "stuck" in this interst rate and buying anything else seems out of the question. Rents on the other hand look like a good option.

Insurance premiums have more than doubled since 2020, without any claims and living in a low risk area. While costs for parts have stabilized a bit, the cost for labor for any home improvement and reapir services remain quite high. Just as an example, recently received a quote for replacing a 3.5 ton HVAC unit for almost $13k. This is one of 4 older units that will need reaplcement soon.

So TLDR after 3 years: Amazed that higher interest rates have not dented prices at all, but costs of home ownership have absolutely exploded. While the house price reflects nicely in my NW value, it will be difficlut to manage cashflow if costs keep increasing. In the aggregate, renting is looking like an increasingly good option to FIRE.

2 Year Update:

https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/120ud1e/2\_year\_update\_to\_have\_soaring\_real\_estate\_prices/

1 Year Update:

https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/s9cwcx/update\_to\_have\_soaring\_real\_estate\_prices\_changed/

Original:

https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/llacl2/have\_soaring\_real\_estate\_prices\_changed\_your\_fire/

I was planning to use a 3% SWR and withdraw monthly, making it a 0.25% withdrawal per month; however, this comment caught my attention in another topic: "Many choose to do quarterly draws. The reason is that most or at least many securities provide quarterly dividends. Doing a draw after a dividend is paid decreases the amount of security that is needed to be sold and it makes little sense to invest the dividend while selling others." If I do a quarterly withdrawal, this would be a 0.75% withdrawal per quarter (this withdrawal would consist of the dividend payout as well as liquidating some shares to bring up the withdrawal rate to 0.75%" Mathematically, which would be better? Monthly or quarter? My goal is to maximize time spent in the market and minimize how many shares I have to liquidate.

I was poking around on the SAI index calculators and it seems you need to get under around $60k AGI to get your parents’ assets excluded. There is also something about not filing a dividend schedule as well? I’m curious what peoples levels of spend/withdrawals are compared to their actual AGI if they are RE and under 59.5. Specifically if HSA withdrawals, Roth contribution withdrawls, early 401k withdrawls, or 72t’s impact their AGI. There is also the question of untaxed retirement distributions, and if that is in addition to the AGI?

They also ask about cash in checking and savings…at time of application? Expected for the year? Could I have 6 years of expenses in a HYSA and essentially have zero AGI other than the interest each year?

Where is there a ranking of the ideal spots to pull your income from? Having almost everything in retirement accounts essentially shields all your money, but you’ll eventually need to get living expenses out.

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!

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About a year back, I had posted on here asking for help with my situation and how to move towards FI. This is the old post. The folks on here were very encouraging and extremely helpful. A year later, looking back, there has been so much progress, but there is still so much to do. So here is Part-2.

I am currently making a base salary of 180K USD, something which I mentioned in my previous post, but it arrived a bit late. I thought it would be the summer of 2023, but I finally got to there in March 2024. Ah well, better late than never. I do have a minimum yearly bonus of 13000 USD, but I won't count that until it comes in.

With that being said, I would like some guidance on how to move forward, and some additional questions about my 401K contributions.

Lifestyle:

I still live well below my means, don't have any extravagant spending, and will continue this lifestyle for the foreseeable future. I am lucky that I live in a LCOL in addition to this. My prior take home was 7200 USD (after taxes and everything), so what I have done with the increased pay is tried to keep my take home about the same, so that it eliminates or prevents any lifestyle creep. My current take home is about 7000 USD. My fixed costs come to 4300 USD per month (and this includes the interest-bearing debt payments). Of the remaining 2700 USD, 1500 USD goes towards my HYSA @ 5.20%, 750 USD towards my friend's loan repayment and I have some fun money left over. I don't have credit card debt, and whatever expenses go on there are paid off in full every month.

Debt:

1. One personal, family loan remaining (7250 USD, same as in the previous post) @ 0% being returned to bit by bit on a monthly basis (I could not get to this loan sooner, so now I am returning it at 750 USD per month, so should be done in 10 months or so).
2. 20000 USD personal loan @ 7.44% taken out for family that is being repaid at 620 USD per month, 6564 USD principal remains (although I am paying this, this is money that is being put aside in my home country for my dad's well-being). It makes no sense paying this off at the moment because most of the interest is gone, and even though I have a year to pay it off, the interest remaining on the entire thing is about 300 USD. The opportunity cost of investing it in the market and making way more returns is what makes sense to me. So another 12 months for this to be paid off.
3. My only guilty pleasure was buying a new car, something that I am willing to admit that I wanted. I bought an Ioniq 5 EV and my rationale for doing so is that I keep my vehicles for 10+ years, so there is no losing out on depreciation and whatnot there, and my interest rate is 1.99% for 55000 USD for 72 months. My monthly payment is 843 USD. Will I be able to pay it off sooner? Most definitely. Would I want to at 1.99%? Most definitely not. I am going to use that money to make money on the market. So that stays. :) Before someone gets on my case about this, it was a fully calculated decision after running the numbers, my potential move to Colorado at some point in the next year or so, and a few other factors. Have I had mixed thoughts about it? Yes, I am not going to lie and say no. But at the end of the day, it is something I wanted to do and I did it.

Accounts:

1. I had a 403(b) from a previous employer that has around 19000 USD in stable, not very risky funds parked at TIAA. This has now been rolled over into a Fidelity Rollover IRA and is invested aggressively. Current value is about 21000 USD.
2. I have a Roth IRA who's current balance is around 20000 USD. I cannot do a direct Roth IRA contribution for 2024 onwards because I am way over the limit. If I end up hitting all my savings and debt-payoff goals before the end of the year, I am planning to make a non-deductible contribution of 7000 USD to an IRA and roll it over into my Roth. So far, it is only a plan. I want to have enough cash flow.
3. I have access to an HSA only from October of 2022, which has been promptly maxed out and will again be this year and going forward. Current balance is 10000 USD.
4. My current employer matches up to 4% in my 401K. I am currently contributing 25.25%. I have 11.25% going into the Roth 401K portion (to max out my 23000 USD contribution limit) and my employer offers an in-plan conversion for an additional 23000 USD. So there is 14% going towards that to try and max it out. The current balance is 17000 USD, plus 5500 USD in the linked brokerage account. All in all, I think a majority of this year's 401K contributions will be with after-tax money. The after-tax in-plan conversion is immediately swept into the Roth 401K portion, so it is growing tax free. Additionally, 90% of the contributions are moved to a BrokerageLink account where they are invested in mutual funds and ETFs. The remaining 10% stays in a US Large Cap mutual fund in the 401K itself.
5. My crypto investments from 2020 are currently at 17000 USD. Haven't made any more. I have invested a few thousand more in Crypto.com (the company's coin itself, not on the exchange). I have about 45000 tokens there. This is more like a crypto-play money I put in back in 2020. Current value of 6750 USD in the profit, but if the CDC token goes up, I am going to liquidate and invest it into ETFs and mutual funds.
6. I have 8000 USD put away in emergency funds with a monthly contribution of 1500 USD. I want to reach 24000 USD by the end of the year, which will be about 6 months of a buffer for me. Currently sitting in a HYSA@5.20%.
7. I had around 25000 USD invested back in my home country and is being managed by a knowledgeable person whom I trust implicitly. That has now grown to around 35000 USD. That is something that is not going to be touched and will continue to be re-invested.
8. I have a small balance in a taxed brokerage account with about 3000 USD invested in it.

Questions:

1. I have been worried about taxes this year, especially since I don't have too many pre-tax deductions to lower my taxable income. I expect to be earning more closer to retirement (whenever that is) and that is the primary reason why I switched all of my 401K contributions over to after-tax contributions. Now I am having second thoughts. I would like some advice on what a good way would be to approach this. I am still going to max out the 401K, but would a split between pre-tax and Roth be better, or should I stick to my plan?
2. Does anyone have suggestions to make this better? I am asking genuinely and this is not about showing off. I have developed this fear of not having enough, due to starting late out of grad school, and the divorce legitimately decimating my finances. I want to make up for lost time. If you think of any tweaks or changes to make this better, please do tell me. I am all ears.
3. I still need to save for a downpayment on a house, but I think I will have to put that on hold for the next 10 months, till the debt payments and emergency fund are filled, so that I can free up some cash flow. If I get a bonus, that is going into the down-payment fund definitely. But if someone has a different perspective that will allow me to save for a downpayment right now, I am open to considering it.

Hello, thanks for checking this out. I was recently diagnosed in September of 2023 with Ring of Fire ADHD at 49 and have been breaking down since 2013. ADHD, GAD, complex PTSD.

I was diagnosed with ADHD in September after years of doctors thinking it was just depression or complex PTSD from a toxic workplace of 16 years.

But while at that toxic workplace, and despite the PTSD, I thrived and made it to a VP level in an 8 billion company… I had plenty of staff to address the details and minutia while I was the idea and strategy guy. Generating strategy and determining every potential risk or option was perfect for my undiagnosed ADHD - ring of fire.

The environment was tough and gave me twice diagnosed complex PTSD. As they gave me more fired directors' workloads, it surfaced what I now know is/was ADHD - burnout, avoidance, and not being able to send the most straightforward email or even just forward one.

Thinking it was PTSD, I was recruited out of the company for a VP role in a new, smaller company. A smaller company means less stress, right? It meant I had fewer reports and had to do more detailed work—continued troubles with my undiagnosed adhd despite being in a non-toxic work culture. I was shutting down in my new role at a new company. For better or worse, the Pandemic and my parent's illness forced me to return to my home and start a new job as a CMO at another company. Toxic to cruel triggered all of my PTSD. I was also in even more detailed work than before, causing my undiagnosed ADHD to kill my mental health. I was failing at the role, shutting down. I used my Mother’s death as a reason to reason to resign without another job lined up. Still undiagnosed with ADHD.

I took some time and talked to my wife about what would be an excellent job for me and my general anxiety disorder and PTSD. Still undiagnosed with ADHD, we felt it best that I take a more minor role with a smaller company. There should be less stress, less responsibility, and a chance for me to return to my previous “normal working condition.”

As you can imagine, this was the absolute worst choice for someone with ADHD. In this role, I have to do the strategy AND all the detail work as a team of one. This is not going well; I shut down almost every day, in constant fight or flight, working 6 am to 7 pm to keep up. Wake up to an immediate panic attack followed by dry heaving. Finally, a doctor saw the ADHD gave me the correct or additional diagnosis. But now I have a resume of 18 impressive years with one employer, followed by three jobs (VP, CMO, Sr Director) in four years. This seems to be a no-go for hiring managers.

I am two months on Wellbutrin and seeing some benefits with tasks, but the ADHD, GAD, and PTSD still come at me all day, sometimes all at once. Their next step is to add more meds of course.

During this troubling career path, I did manage to save $930k, primarily liquid split between 401k and investment account. 22k left on house mortgage. I live in western PA. In the last two years, I returned to a passion of mine, swing - trading equities and options. I have been able to trade for $70k-$80k annually realized gains after taxes.

In the last two weeks, I have considered resigning from my current job and leaving the workforce. People tell me I can financially do it. I didn’t come from money, so I always feared not having money. My brain tells me I can’t do it.

My brain also tells me I am lucky to have a 255k job and I should suck it up and live with the misery a few years longer. This is hard since I have been living in fight, flight, or freeze, and deep sadness since 2013. I’ve not lived a life since then. No joy.

Has anyone ever hit this point and decided to walk away from traditional work? Am I being stupid and not seeng i am financially able to save myself from traditional work turmoil with my condition?

Sorry if i misplaced this post. You seem to be the group with the right perspective, and I am getting pretty desperate and dark. Thank you for your time, I appreciate it.

I am checking if this is good enough or if there is something more I should be doing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. My more immediate goal is to be financially independent and not have to worry about losing my job and not working if SHTF. My long-term plan is to live off of 1-2% of my portfolio when I'm 65 and leave everything to my kids when I die.

Right now, I have a reasonably safe job making ~$150,000, and that can go up to ~$200,000+ in the next 5 years (technically I could make this next month), but I'm also very lazy and like to keep a consistent income, and I'm enjoying the Home-work-life balance, so I can spend a lot of time with my kids.

My accounts are as follows:

ROTH IRA: $70k

ROTH 401K: $100K

Other brokerage accounts: $140K

HSA: 20K

Kids College fund: 17K

Bank account: 30K

NET worth with house equity: ~600K

----

I'm currently 30 y/o with 3 boys and a wife who is not legally married to me under the state. My monthly expenses are ~$3,000-$3,500, and I have locked in a very low mortgage rate of around 3%. I save about $4,500-$5,500 every month into the different accounts through income from my job and splitting bills with my wife.

I know this is good for the average person, but my brothers are both very well off, one making ~$750k+ a year with a net worth well over 2M, and the other is retired with his wife, and who knows how much money they have. I feel like I'm a failure but I know what I've accomplished is a lot to the average American. I am mostly looking for advice on what I should do or anything I should start looking into, like getting a trust now or waiting for the worth to be over 2M.

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.

34M, Single, No Kids. HCLA but no guarantee to stay.

Investments: 500k (Managed by FA), 100k (ROTH/Trad), 150k (Self-Managed), 400k (Treasuries), 1.3M in CDs/HYSA, 25k (529). Emergency about 50k.

Liabilities: Own a Multi-Unit house, Mortgage and Property Tax is pretty much paid for by rented out units. I live in one of the units to get the tax benefits. Owe about 900k in Mortgage @ 3%/30Yr EST 2051. Equity is about 1.7M. No CC debt, student loans, car payments.

Edit to include: Expenses Currently; Health (2k/month), Car Insurance ($450/month), Mortgage (4.4k/month), Property tax (2.8k/month), Utilities (500/month). But all of theses are paid through company or covered by rental income. So monthly expenses are about $11000, but my rental units generates about $7500/month.

Owned a Small Business since 2012, currently going through DD for a buy-out, 1M closing with sellers note for 100k @ 5% Interest for 3 Years before lump sum payout. Assuming post sale numbers on existing assets (Bank account, AR, and closing sum) @ 2.5M pre tax. I am expected to stay for 1-2 months to train the new incoming management while getting an consultant fee if they need to extend. Majority of my expenses was paid off by the company (Health insurance, car registration/insurance, utilities, and etc...). I also have a 5 year non-compete post sale that I cannot start a business in the same industry within 100 Miles.

I was/am pretty burned out, I have been blessed with a great life with the support of family and friends and clients/vendors. I have missed out on a lot of life in my 20s and early 30s, and have a lot of regrets because I felt I couldn't imagine sacrificing the business nor trust others to run it day to day. I think once I am out, I want to just enjoy the rest of my life while I can still eat/walk and pick up hobbies I wouldn't otherwise have the time or energy for. My work-life balance was awful, took a long time with therapy and self realization to change. I started going on oversea trips when I feel burned out and started looking after my own mental/physical health. So when this buyout opportunity presented itself, I took it ASAP.

I do want to start a family in the near future as well. I do have back-up plans, a few companies and vendors that know about the impeding sale have said if I ever wanted to come back into the industry that they will open me with open arms with my expertise in the field as a sales or consultant role (I would consider only a WFH role).

With that said, once my contract runs out, I wonder if I can just settle down and enjoy life while pulling 3% to cover my yearly personal expenses. Maybe even split my time in another country and be an expat somewhere else. I do not expect SS benefits to help much when I'm 62+ (calculator said I would be getting about $1500/month at 62). I wonder if I can live off this current situation and future cash flow for a while, could I be a stay at home dad and enjoy the time with the kids, could I travel the world and experience life? Anyone with expertise in such situations with valuable insight on how to travel this new path?

Edit: Answer some questions. The CD/HYSA was moved out for potential real estate investment opportunities that have stalled so will be kept liquid for the time-being if opportunity present itself again. The business itself was profitable, almost 400k in yearly cashflow before expenses. There is an industry wide economic downturn and the highly knowledgeable employees have all reached retirement age. New replacement employees do not put up similar production, I am also awful at training and lost my passion for the industry itself. The proceeds from the sale would most likely be moved into an self managed account with index funds to self sustain for a bit.

Hi I'm 31f. New to FIRE. I make approximately $130,000/year but this should increase to $150,000 within the next 2-3 years (gross income). I live in a VHCL area and do not plan to relocate in the foreseeable future as I am locked into a low interest mortgage. I am hoping to retire at 52 but want to have money to travel and have fun. Currently using up entire paycheck to make retirement, savings, mortgage, etc happen and then I do overtime to pay for trips etc., so I don't factor that into my income listed above because OT is strictly fun money.

Current retirement account balances:

457- 4,518.09 ROTH (target date fund 2055)

401k- 21,961.34 (target date fund 2055)

ROTH is 6,940.69 and Pre-Tax is 15,020.65

I only put about $300-500 in every month for last 6 years but...Starting in May 2024 contributions will change to: 457 $700/month ROTH and 401k Pre-Tax $100 and ROTH $200.

In 2025 will add another $1,000 a month to this (I stupidly signed up for voluntary personal leave program that takes off 2 days a month from pay but get 2 extra days off, can't stop this until 2025)

Pension:

If I start drawing from my pension at 52 (27 years of service and the earliest I can draw) I will receive: 42.93% of final compensation which should be approximately $18,917 so $8121.07/month if I ONLY receive a 2% raise per year after 2026.

  VS.

If I stay at work until I am 57 ( 32 years of service and the minimum age for my full 2%) I will receive: 54% of final compensation which I would guess would be about $20,000 (haven’t done the exact math since I don’t plan on staying until 57) so approximately $10,800/month

My health insurance will be completely covered as well but only if I start drawing from pension within 120 days of retiring (this is why I can’t just leave pension to sit and draw only from 457).

Home:

I owe $485,000 on my mortgage at 2.75% and it is currently estimated at $700,000 (bought in 2020). Mortgage is approximately $2,700/month but I pay $3,000/month and hope to increase this a little bit to have mortgage paid off within 20 years instead of 30 for peace of mind.

Rental:

I have a small rental at back of property bringing in $1,300/month (minus utilities which for both them and myself equal ~$500/month) so I just look at it as about $800 income and don’t worry about utilities (I could charge about $1,500 easily and assume it will be worth at least $2,000/month by the time I retire but it is not permitted so I don’t count on that income)

I currently have $2,100 in emergency savings and adding $700/month until I have $8,000 then saving a down payment on a used car (current car is at 170,000 miles) and then saving another $8,000 towards emergency fund.

Current debt: Mortgage left $485,000 @ 2.75% Solar: about $27,000 @ 1% Student Loans: under $5,000 @ 4.5%

Possibly having one kid in about 3-4 years but not sure yet. Boyfriend makes about $60,000 a year and would probably be a SAHD or work part time if we did get married and have a kid. (I am not SAHM material)

Using a throwaway for obvious reasons

I'm a 51yo (wife and 2 kids) looking for advice on how to plan hopefully the last stage of my career. Here's my situation:

• VHCOL, annual household income: $700-800K; yearly expenses: $150K (12-13K/year)
• 2 kids, 1 in college (paid for). $110K for the second kid that is 7 years away from college
• NW (excluding primary residence); $3M. In addition, have $2M in equity in primary residence. However, only $1.1M is in non-retirement equity, most is in retirement accounts
• Medical issues in the family, so will probably need to look into some additional insurance etc
• Concerns about kids settling down early, think this is at least 15 years away and they will need "help" Also want to keep living in my pr
• Have expensive life insurance for myself and spouse

My questions are:

1. Should I be concerned about the heavy weightage in retirement accounts? Or rather I am concerned but don't know if I should be
2. firecalc seems to suggest I may run out of money in 30 years (90% probability). Not sure how I should be thinking of income supplementing
3. Any strategies to minimize health costs in retirement?

Thanks for reading this far

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.

For anyone using these retirement calculators, I noticed the following - please correct me if you know otherwise (I pinged Smartasset and we'll see if I get a reply):

Both calculators are inaccurate for early retirement users as they compare apples to oranges when it comes to retirement savings vs. total spending.

In the calculators, one would assume the balances shown under “You will need savings of $XXXX” (Smartasset terminology) and “You will have $XXX” should be comparable, to illustrate a shortfall in retirement savings. However, the amount shown as “You will need…” appears to be the undiscounted sum of all future annual spending throughout retirement minus SS or pension income.

Over a long retirement time horizon, say 40 years at 2.5% inflation, the effect of this lack of present valuing results in the user being shown a dramatically overstated savings need (in other words, they appear to be undersaving for retirement). The amount under “You will have,” for an early retiree who will only work a couple more years, is essentially in today’s dollars and not comparable to the undiscounted future value described above.

To make this calculator more useful, you can take the “You will need” number that results and present value it in Excel, then compare the resulting PV to the “You will have” number (which would also need to be present valued if your retirement date is many years in the future).

Maybe this calculator works given “normal” retirement ages and periods, but appears to break for long retirement periods with a near-term retirement date. This was a nice reminder to me to make sure all my inputs and outputs are in PV or FV, in real dollars or nominal, etc. for comparability. Happy to hear anything I have incorrect, cheers.

Been following this sub since I was 22, I'm now 29 and just this month reached a NW > $100k (105k specifically). I've invested pretty aggressively during this time and had substantial increases in income from switching jobs once, and was lucky enough to buy a condo during the interest rate lows and the cost of living has been pretty steady. I live near a big city in the midwest.

Here's a rundown of how I got here:

• Graduated college in 2018 at 23 w/ $7500 debt, got a job right out of school making $52k while living with mom and dad. I put everything I could into the debt and wiped it out before summer was over (1/3 of it was from graduation money from relatives and friends). Was lucky enough to get my dad's 2015 Camry after he got himself a new car which I still drive and is fully paid off.
• Fall 2019 on my 25th birthday I open my first Roth IRA and max it out each year. All in on VTI + SCHD (60/40 split), and an individual brokerage for stocks. Other than this I've just been saving where I can and spending money on fun and vacations here and there.
• March 2020 I move out into a studio apartment paying $1000/month in rent + $250 in other bills. Covid hits which helped me prevent spending on weekends, my biggest expenses were food and gas since I was still commuting.
• December 2020 with interest rates being low I find a condo for sale for $170,000 and put $40k down, took a $129k loan with a 2.875% IR (fixed). For the first 3 years my monthly payment + bills was around $1100. Taxes have gone up and now paying closer to $1400.
• February 2021 I get a new job and my income goes from $54k to $85k. Spent the next few months getting things for my new place so savings/investing rate was pretty low. Plus things were opening up again and I started going out and traveling more so I was spending much more than the previous years.
• February 2022 I get a raise from $85k to $110k, crossing the six figure mark!
• August 2022 I get a new job offer for $140k, but get a matching counter offer from my current employer at the time, so I stay. Lifestyle creep definitely happened during this year with the big jumps, and with the market crashing from 2021 highs I was hesitant to invest as much as before (which ended up being my biggest regret given where we are now).
• August 2023 I get promoted and a raise to $154k.
• 2023 was also where I started contributing to my company's 401k and maxed it out for 2023, and looking to do the same going forward. Doing this with my HSA as well. Still had a god bit of lifestyle creep though which I'm not proud of.
• 2024 I'm making investing a priority again, and building my savings for emergencies and a down payment in the future. Being a lot more disciplined going forward.

Today's numbers:

Monthly income: $8,936

Bills: $1500

Individual Brokerage: $76,332

Roth IRA: $41,246 (was $18k before I did a conversion from a traditional)

HSA: $4,926

401k: $37,369

Home equity: $48,367

Cash: $4,600 (working on this to have a proper emergency fund)

Car trade-in: $11,000

Home loan: $119,000

So you can probably guess that the 3x increase in income plus not worrying about rent increases nationwide helped me get here. It's not lost on me that a lot of this comes from luck and privilege, but I've always enjoyed reading stories on here of people reaching milestones at all ages and am excited to share my first.

For those wondering, the initial big income increase in job hopping came from switching from a lab job to software engineering in fintech, which tends to pay pretty well. The jump from $85k to $110k was supposed to actually be to $90k, but I made a strong case for myself and got the boost.

TLDR: Graduated college with relatively little debt, job hopped once to a different field and tripled my income, and purchased a condo at really low interest rates and sale price, all while making investing and saving a priority where I could. Regret not investing more in 2022 when the market was crashing but hey that's life.

My next milestone goal is $200k, which I hope I can get to by the end of 2025 if all goes well! May look for a new job in the near future to further increase income, but the tech market hasn't been great lately so that may take some time.

Hi! I'm 30 and my partner is 48. I want to be able to retire as early as possible to enjoy as much life with him as possible. That being said, I never considered retiring early before meeting my partner. I'd like to "retire" in 12-15 years and ideally only a couple of years after my partner. He can retire as early as 55 but as of now plans to retire closer to 60.

I'm aiming to "barista fire" where I have a comfortable part-time job. I am adjunct faculty at a university in the area and so I plan to continue adjunct instruction in retirement. I say this recognizing I have absolutely nothing started as of now in terms of funds to retire and so I feel a part-time job will be absolutely necessary for me. And I have no clue where to begin and what I should be doing to try and make this a reality!!!!!

Here is my current financial situation:

I make $130,000 per year and live in a HCOL area. I am a state employee with a pension. I contribute 6% of my salary into my pension system. After taxes and health insurance, and after rent car groceries etc. I have approximately $2000 remaining to save/invest per month. I currently do not contribute into a 403b (which is available to me through my employer and I can begin at any time).

I have $75,000 in a traditional savings account. Aside from that, I have nothing in any Roth/403/invest accounts nor do I own any assets (ie real estate). On the bright side, I have absolutely no debt. I am not really counting my pension because I will only have 12-17 years in the system with the retirement window I am looking at, and therefore I will only receive partial benefits. I'm thinking of it really being a source of beer money/fun money/travel money.

My partner is also a state employee and will retire with full benefits including health insurance (which I will be able to receive)--but the benefits will pass with him. And sadly due to our age difference I cannot consider this as a factor for my finances anticipating that I outlive him (but with life, we never really know and I am grateful for every day I get to love him). So I know I will need to consider health insurance in my later years. For the purposes of making sure I am prepared for this barista fire life, I rather plan on truly being financially independent with no significant other/additional income involved in the finances. Just a reality of the age differences, and if anything I feel it will help me be more prepared for life on my own with this mindset.

Aside from saving for retirement, I also need to plan to save for a home. My partner and I are hoping to purchase a home next year, so I am looking to consider having funds available for this as well. I'm not sure what, if any, of my current savings of $75,000 should remain towards house funds vs. retirement.

Also--no children.

Any and all advice is so greatly appreciated!