Financial Independence and Legit Side Money Ideas For Techies and Geeks

Okay so I know saving your investment money through the year and loading up accounts at the end of the year goes against conventional wisdom… The reason being you potentially miss out on maximally exploiting years where the market is up 20% or more… However, I find that putting money into accounts frequently just makes me think about this journey too often. I don’t mind seeing ups and downs. But seeing my accounts frequently and especially seeing the number increase frequently just makes me want to review everything and run totals, calculations, and projections and such. It’s been fun and at times very gratifying but I’m so far in my journey that sometimes I think it’s really unhealthy and the number of years left is a little daunting as well. I use sofi so I can make a vault for my investing money and I think just putting it away until the end of quarters or year and doing a check/analysis 1-4x a year would be good for my mental state. A small side benefit here is that I can at least make 4% apy on it in the meantime so it’s not just doing NOTHING. A second small benefit is I’m sure I’d feel a little more secure floating a larger bank balance. I JUST WANT TO REPEAT… this is for mental health primarily… those last couple things I mentioned are just small perks. Edit: I use fidelity and so to my knowledge my money can be auto drafted into my account but I have to personally spread my funds among my index funds/etfs. Also I’m self employed and my income is highly variable from month to month and week to week which makes auto draft tougher. submitted by /u/Banana_rocket_time [link] [comments]

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I projected my retirement expenses and wanted to see if it’s a realistic figure or if I am off. Spend Amount $24,000 Mortgage $12,000 Car $36,000 Food $24,000 Entertainment $20,000 Travel $12,000 Miscellaneous $128,000 Total Annual Spend If I include an effective tax rate of 12%, I’m projecting total annual at around $140,000 (PV). I refinanced our house a few years ago at 2.5% interest so I don’t plan to pay more than the monthly minimum. I’m currently 42 and plan to retire at 57. Current investment portfolio is at $600,000. I will have 2 pensions at retirement which will cover a bulk of my annual expenses. I calculated I’ll need to withdraw about $25,000 a year from my 401k until I collect SS at age 70 (my spouse will collect at 62). Do my estimates look about right? Our plan is to travel internationally 1-2x a year and will eat out more often. We live in a HCOL so I factored in more costs to food and entertainment. Appreciate the feedback. submitted by /u/DifficultResponse88 [link] [comments]

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This still isn't Denzel Washington's burner account, but three-ish years have passed since my original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/gxz5g4/black_man_on_fire/ and I've learned, grown and experienced a few new things that I hope some of you will find encouraging. As my post history communicates, I'm still very much a reddit posting noob but have come to appreciate the value of a TLDR so here is my attempt to save those of you in a hurry a bit of time. TLDR: Underrepresented tech business owner shares his journey to financial independence with the hope of inspiring others. The plan 2.0 update. Much has happened in the last three years, however I think it is fair to say that a global pandemic was not a part of anyone's plan. It will come as no surprise to anyone reading a subreddit on independence that perseverance and resilience are often underestimated contributors to success. The pandemic challenged me in ways that I'm still coming to terms with. Here are some of the lessons that I learned. "Slow is fast." Like many minority founders, my inability to secure capital in our early days forced me to be exceptionally mindful of every expense and to truly differentiate wants from needs. At our founding, we didn't have office space because I couldn't afford office space, so we have always been a remote-first company. It is my belief that had I been able to secure access to capital, I would have been faced with a more complex set of pandemic related challenges. We entered the pandemic debt-free(thanks FI) and were able to continue working when others shut down. My sense is that we remain on firm footing and have grown a bit over the last 18 months. I think the lesson I continue to learn here is to focus on what you have. In my case I have the privilege of having a great team to work with. We try to leave our egos on the shelves and focus on what really matters. Our growth has been measured, steady and sustainable. "If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together." The consulting market is fiercely competitive and many leaders operate from a position of scarcity. From my perspective, the addressable market is far greater than all of the businesses combined so it simply makes sense for us to band together. Thankfully there are a few others that share this perspective and last year we created a community of partnership. We actively seek opportunities to work together and we share our resources. Collectively we've all experienced growth and are in it for the long-haul. Having this community of like minded people continues to be invaluable. This community has helped me grow the business just shy of 30%. "Representation matters" The 4 min mile barrier remained in place until Roger Bannister broke it in 1954 and as of April of 2021 1,664 runners have broken the 4 min mark. The measure is now the standard for professional middle distance runners. I hope that we will all agree that confidence is a significant determinant of success and that self-doubt is self-limiting. Roger Bannister removed all doubt associated with human performance potential in running the mile. Regrettably there remains doubt, in some circles, about the uniformity of performance potential of humans: independent of socioeconomic or gender background. Thankfully the opportunity landscape for full participation in all things nerd continues to expand. Please take comfort in the absolute fact, that if I can do it, you can do it. "Failure only happens when you quit." Without question owning a business is the hardest thing that I have ever done professionally. It also happens to be the most rewarding thing that I have ever done professionally. The lesson I continue to learn(and hope to share) is: hard work + opportunity = luck. It has been my experience that far too many of us give up too soon or worse yet don't start out of fear of failure. I've learned more from my mistakes that I have from my successes. We are all striving for a measure of independence but that independence comes with a cost. Commit to doing the thing that YOU love and do it with all that you have. I know that this perspective isn't popular, but it has been my experience and those of my peers. We all have seen or heard the anecdotes, but for most of us there are no shortcuts to financial independence. Speaking of independence what about retirement? I still haven't figured out what retirement looks like for me and I guess that is ok for now. I'm working much more now than I was three years ago and that isn't awesome but I think it's OK given the growth opportunities we have. Life continues to be good! My wife(I married the love of my life during the pandemic) don't travel as much as we'd like but we are working on that. My goal is to structure the company in a way that allows me to work on the business that I love instead of working in it. I'll end this the way that I began with the hope that someone finds some part of my journey helpful. We are much stronger together than we will ever be rivals. submitted by /u/tapatinerd [link] [comments]

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Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply! Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked. Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

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The mid career years are so important for compounding. In my first decade of career, I switched 3 jobs rather quickly (4.5 years the max time spent in one company). Combined starting salary of spouse and I was $150k, of which my salary was $75k. After 10 years, my salary reached $130k. Had just started at my 4th company, hoping for a hop after quick 2-3 years to climb the proverbial corporate ladder. Our combined net worth was ~ $250k. Then, various life events overtook us and it became clear that climbing the ladder should no longer be my main focus. So, I just sort of gave up and started putting in some reasonable effort at work. But stopped trying to interview around, ask for promotions etc. Decided to just stay put as long as company kept paying me. Fast forward: it’s been 12 years since then. I am still with the same company. This year my salary reached the milestone of $200k. It has risen about 50% in 12 years - I mostly get 3-4% annual raises. Spouse is likewise with same employer, and our combined salary is $380k. I have not asked for a promotion and have not got one. I have moved around in different lateral roles as an individual contributor and hopefully earned some respect along the way from my colleagues. During these 12 years, our combined net worth also steadily went up thanks to the magic of compounding- about 12x - to $3M today. $1.8M investment portfolio and $1.2M home equity. So, guess moral of my story is: just go about your day-to-day work and things will sort of work out, financially at least … submitted by /u/Ok_Art_2874 [link] [comments]

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Hey Everyone, I'm a little lost as to what I should do with some money I have coming in and was wondering if anyone could offer some guidance for how I should proceed. For some background: I'm a 21 year old college student I currently have no credit card or student load debt I have a decent amount of savings I've built up so far as I've been working since the beginning of highschool (~$40k range) In a few days I'm going to receive around $220k due to my share of an estate being paid out. My main goal is to safely store away the money in a way that it grows nicely overtime. I was thinking something like mutual funds or investing in ETFs, but I wasn't sure how I'd like to break it down by sector if doing the investing myself. If possible I'd like to receive some form of benefits for storing at a certain place (for example a friend mentioned that storing at some places might give me access to better than normal credit cards with the firm), given I don't have to trade off good growth to do so. I don't expect to touch the money much if at all moving forward; I work while in school, over the summer I do software engineering internships to support myself, and next year I'll be graduating and starting software engineering full-time. In the meantime I was going to park it in my Sofi Savings Account - I thought the 4% APY that pays out monthly would be a good way to hold the money until I had finalized my plans. Thank you for any advice you're able to give! I'm really confused as to the best to proceed and really appreciate it. submitted by /u/Fatherly_Spy_08 [link] [comments]

Let's say that you screw up with your initial retirement plan. You're able to be retired for 5 years, but you realize that you must re-enter the workforce and do full-time work again, because you jumped the gun a bit. Is this really the end of the world? I know it might be weird to approach employers with a 5 year gap in employment, but you could just tell them the truth. You tried an early retirement plan and it didn't quite work. You'll be 5 years older, and probably not thrilled to be returning to work full time, but I don't see it as this catastrophic failure. Can somebody explain all the other downsides that I'm not considering? submitted by /u/IHadTacosYesterday [link] [comments]

The jump from GPT-3.5 to GPT-4 in a few months has seriously blown my mind with its capabilities, especially code writing. There are numerous demos online showing all the things it can do. The Sparks paper on GPT-4 shows some incredible capabilities: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.12712 Good video on the paper: https://youtu.be/Mqg3aTGNxZ0 While I don’t necessarily think we’re coming at the singularity any time soon, I do think this technology is just at the beginning and will only get larger, more complex, and more multi-modal and as such will displace a decent amount of knowledge work. I do think this technology will be useful as a tool with humans in the loop, but the point being we won’t need as many people doing such work. Anyone thinking about how this may impact their current careers and FIRE plans? Is it time to get familiar with these tools? Think of a career switch? Invest more aggressively now in case your skills become irrelevant? submitted by /u/SapiosexualYogurt [link] [comments]

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I’ve been interesting in buying myself a nice used car, a car ive been wanting for a long time which is a 2013 Porsche 911 in manual. This is about a $60k purchase and I’d ideally keep it forever and pass it down to my daughter when she’s older. Background: 34M married in Los Angeles $286k yearly income ($451k combined household with me and wife) Individual take home pay per month is $10,266 NW is my individual net worth. My biggest monthly expenses right now: I pay mortgage of $1800/mo Existing car lease + insurance of $790/mo Family grocery/dinner/fun fund of $900/mo Day care for daughter $1300/mo Credit card payment of $450/mo (all my bills are charged on my credit card and I pay I full each month) 401k and backdoor Roth IRA and HSA maxed every year. And I add $1000/mo to a brokerage account for I don’t even know what. There is currently $115k in there. It was supposed to be used as additional house down payment for when we sell our current home and move but my wife and I decided we will be staying here long term because we love the house and neighborhood. Also worth nothing we put $100k into a brokerage account for my daughter (she’s 2 now) that’s all 100% hers when she grows up, so not counting that in my net worth. Everything left over is savings or disposal income I guess. My plan was to put $15-$20k down and finance the rest for the car. But not sure if I should even if it’s something I really really want. I grew up actually poor so I still feel like I can’t afford things and shouldn’t treat myself to anything. Tbh, it’s a really miserable feeling because I absolutely work my ass off to earn my living and don’t plan to stop or coast at my career, but because of fear that I’m not doing as much as I should to retire comfortably or saving as much as I should, I’ve never actually felt like I’ve enjoyed the fruits of my labor. It’s being increasingly frustrating. Does anyone else deal with this or is it just me? Has anyone bought themselves a nice big one time impractical purchase and still hit their savings goals and are comfortable? Should I just keep working and saving and then die without ever using any of this money for silly fun impractical stuff? (Jk on this last question) Thanks all. submitted by /u/pleasesolvefory [link] [comments]

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply! Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked. Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

I want to bring this subject up because I don't see anyone really talking about Americans working in the Middle East (Safer locations only: Kuwait, Qatar, Dubai, Oman, Turkey) as an option to accelerate your FIRE goals. It has really worked great for me. I am currently working in Qatar. Clean, safe, nice people, things to do, bars that serve alcohol, can also buy alcohol at the state run liquor store, superb brand new underground Metro, cheap Uber rides, home to the outstanding Qatar Airways and direct flights to most all of the cool places in the world, cheap food and grocery delivery. Qatar is much smaller than Dubai, but is moving in a similar direction to Dubai and encouraging tourism. Nothing to do in Qatar on the level of Dubai yet though. ​ The perks of Middle East (Kuwait, Qatar, Dubai, Oman) FIRE acceleration - Good money, but long hours. Typically 12 hour shifts with two days off per week Housing provided free - The quality of the housing is generally great but differs per company. i am living in a really nice 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment in walking distance to food and the Metro. No bills other than the ones you create for yourself - A cell phone bill is typically the only bill and mine is $20 per month for 4g 8 gigs of data and unlimited calls and txts. 5G is available here too. No insurances if you don't own a car - I hate insurance companies Lowered US federal tax liability - You can typically add 25% to your take home vs. same pay in America. The first $122'ish thousand of pay is not federally taxed. This number changes every year. Also no state taxes depending on how your state is setup for overseas work. Side note: Could be beneficial to change your state of residence before going overseas to avoid paying state taxes in states that still tax you even if you are overseas. This can be done easily if you do your research - even without doing an actualy state to state move. World travel experience - Being on this side of the world is great for travel. Get a travel credit card for travel perks. Cheap and excellent health care - Low monthly cost for a world healthcare plan and no copays or out of pocket costs at all for anything as long as you stay out of the US. You read that right. Go to the doctor, pay $0. Go to the hospital, pay 0$. If you need health care while in the US on vacation or something, expect deductibles and the typical BS that we live with in the US. For example: I went to the local Turkish Hospital here in Qatar (which is super new, clean and amazing) for an ear infection and had no appointment. We typically go to what they call hospitals for a doctor visit, as they are fully featured hospitals that take walk-ins as their normal operation. I saw a real doctor and was in and out of the hospital in 15 minutes INCLUDING getting my prescription. Try that in America at any establishment. I paid $0. If I had some exotic health problem then maybe I would consider going to America for treatment, but for most everything it is far better here. They generally like Americans in the above Middle East countries ​ How to find work: I have experience with and can recommend looking for a US company doing contract work for the US government on US military bases in these countries. These include Vectrus, General Dynamics, Leidos, Ratheon, CACI and other government contract companies. These jobs are not typically well advertised on job boards such as Indeed and can sometimes take some inside info to find. (like knowing somebody working there already) The DoD contracts change all the time, and some listings for jobs are advertised even before a government contract is awarded to a company. This is frustrating, but it is the game. This just means to expect to apply for overseas jobs and expect to hear nothing for most applications. ​ Here is the strategy that worked for me: Get a DoD contracting job at your local (or any) military base in the US and then use that as a springboard for your overseas adventure. This will get you the required DoD experience and security clearance stuff. Then you are an easy pickup for any overseas contract. You can then talk to your coworkers at the US military base that have experience overseas and they can discuss their experience with you before you commit to an overseas contract job. ​ Best bet is to google top 20 US government contract companies, then go directly to each company's web site and search their job listings from their site. This sucks, but it is what it is. You can typically search by physical location, which will get you some listings quick if you know where you want to live. Additionally, I recommend you do a resume overhaul by someone that does it professionally on Fiver or other sites. For 75'ish bucks, one of these guys will clean up your resume and get it looking good plus make it standards complaint. Standards complaince is the key. This will make it super easy to apply on these company sites and will automatically fill in their information gathering fields for you based on what is on your resume. If your resume is not standards complaint, these fields will not auto populate for you and applying on company sites will be a lengthy and miserable effort. ​ Also, there are options for working for local companies in the host countries directly. This could be doing things like working for the oil companies or being a teacher at the local private schools or doing IT stuff. This option comes with lots of unknowns. Be sure to do your research as much as possible before committing to one of these positions including speaking to a currently employed American there that can guide you with any questions you may have. You will likely be working with lots of other nationalities, so be ready to learn about other cultures and deal with some language barriers. ​ Family: Some countries are friendlier than others about bringing your family members. Your employer should help with this, but be ready for it to test your patience. Kids that need school will likely need a private school and this will have some cost. A spouse could find work also, but I don't know much about this. I am single and don't have any of these experiences to provide valid info on this subject. ​ Freedom and privacy: Nope. If you are a gun totin' freedom of everything type person, this is not the life for you. You will give blood to be here. Literally. They test the blood for who knows what and use it for who knows what. You will also give fingerprints to be here. They have video surveillance everywhere and some places require an App on your phone for this or that, which also tracks you. If this is a problem for you, don't come to these places. It is that simple. ​ Safety: Do your research, but these countries are all significantly safer than America. In some cases, the entire country is safer than the typical American small town. Let that sink in. I don't lock my apartment door unless I am sleeping. This includes while going out of the country for week(s) long vacations. ​ Attitude: Always remember that you are a guest in any country you go. Leave your attitude at home, be patient and smile. You don't need to learn a language, but learning a few words will be helpful. Everywhere you go outside of the US will allow you to get by just speaking English. Speak slowly, use few words and talk like a caveman and you can get by with English most anywhere. ​ Overseas Saving Strategy: You are not going to be taxed like in the US, so contributing to a 401k may or may not be beneficial. Depends if your company matches or not. Obviously go for the match if they have one as that is free money. If not, then consider your time to FIRE and whether you wanna max out 401k if you are not getting the tax benefits as well as the timing of your FIRE. If you are 40 and want to FIRE before 59 and 1/2, then pumping your 401k without the tax perks is not going to benefit you and could hurt you if you want to withdraw early. Instead, pump money into a standard investment account so that you can access this money when you are 45 or 48 without penalty. For me, I am not currently putting anything into a 401k. I am taking 75+% of my income and putting it into a low cost set of index funds. The rest, I am taking awesome vacations in Asian countries scoping out what my FIRE life will look like. I don't plan on returning to America. Ever. ​ Pay: You can expect that you will get a similar pay per hour as you may get in the US for the same job. The difference is the guaranteed and required overtime as well as the perks of paid living expenses and reduced or 0 income tax. The days of guys getting massive pay for working in a war zone are generally gone, but we are not entertaining working in a warzone in this post. I have never considered war zone work even though it has been presented to me. ​ I also like to play with this fire calculator to see where I am and check on my goals and progress: https://engaging-data.com/fire-calculator/ submitted by /u/chuck1011212 [link] [comments]

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Disclaimer: This is related to tax optimization and not tax avoidance, which are two very different things. I think this post will spur good discussion on the topic. Given that tax is (likely) by far the biggest expense of someone throughout their life, I wanted to check how many people have actively made a complete geographical career move on the basis of optimizing (lowering) their taxes? Of course this is much easier said that done and isn't an option for everyone, but am curious who has done this. For myself, I had moved from Canada (Alberta) to Singapore in Q4/20 due to a very lucrative job opportunity that should remain for the foreseeable future. The tax bill came in today at ~58k on ~384k, which is about 15% and will flatline at these rates. In addition, there is 0% tax on dividends, interest or capital gains. Just for comparison I put this same income in the EY Canada tax calculator for my province and this would have been ~149k of tax (~39%), with the additional kicker of 24% on capital gains and 34% on dividends.. Eventually I am going to go back, but honestly it just seems like such a financial burden in doing so and can't imagine how it's possible to reach that "next level" with taxes like this, unless you're genuinely making mountains of cash. I know there are deductions available to not take the whole 48% right in the face, but still.. submitted by /u/Shoddy_Equivalent_16 [link] [comments]

Too young to retire. Too little to retire on. So what you doing? submitted by /u/dondraperlivingstone [link] [comments]

We are nearing our FI journey. With the current trajectory, within two to three years we will be FI. The closer I get the more difficult it becomes to stay motivated. I have fuck you money, but also have golden handcuffs that (due to circumstances beyond my control) I cannot replicate elsewhere. So effectively, I can take my leave and retire early now with a drop in our lifestyle or change how I approach and feel about my situation and keep working for a while. For context, our expected expenses at retirement are between 4% and 5% withdrawal rate today (4% for the most frugal budget we’d be comfortable with in long term and 5% for the the maximum budget we can imagine spending without wasting money). I’d like to have a 3.5% — 4.5% WR, and getting there will take a few years more. I am trying to focus on things I can control and be more articulate about what is it that is causing the burn out at work and widen my perspective. Thinking about the situation as an immediate tradeoff helped a bit. For example: I could retire today. That would mean a change in our expected lifestyle going forward. Is is worth the extra time I will gain? What am planning to do in that extra time that I can’t in the future (spend more time with parents / kids while they are still around / small). Any insights folks who went through a similar situation could offer? submitted by /u/toperato [link] [comments]

Back here again for a 2 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. Prices have roughly doubled and stayed there even after the rate increases. Was about 2.5 times the original at peak of market, which I think was May 2022. So after almost 3 years, soaring real estate prices (atleast for primary) did not have a material effect on my FIRE plans. If anything I feel our plans have been delayed. The cost to maintain a house is something I grossly underestimated. For e.g. since moving in, I have had to replace 2 of our 3 , 18 year old 75 gallon water heaters. Plumbing companies wanted ~$4000 for each of these replacements. Furthermore I have been hit with increased tax assessments and insurance premiums. A surprising observation for me at least has been how prices have held up and recently picked up again, at least where I am. So TLDR after 2 years: If anything, soaring real estate prices in the USA have delayed, but not significantly, my FIRE plans. 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/ submitted by /u/azfanboy [link] [comments]

Hey there, So given the stories about people's journey through to FIRE and I've noticed a lot regarding when kids came around, but what did you guys, that successfully FIREd, do when it came to optimizing costs for life events like a wedding/buying house together/1st kid costs? In short was it a combination of purchase and hold off investing for a certain time, or allocate a new "budget" piece that factored in down payment/big life purchase expenses or some other mixture I'm not seeing? submitted by /u/slayerabc [link] [comments]

Well, I have made the big step. Decision. After attending Tony Robbins UPW 2022 in Florida, I finally have the momentum I was hoping for to make this major life change. As I learned from UPW, "it's in your moments of Decision that your Destiny is shaped" (TR quote). I have made the decision to pull the plug from the 40 hour a week grind one year from now. About March 2024. THE MATH I have spent months obsessing on the numbers, something I am actually skilled at and enjoy. I have finely combed over the revenue and expense side of the financials. Both of these are equally important as part of the FI/RE feasibility test. As I write this, I am also calling out for help from those that have taken this plunge and have any insight the share. Let me start by sharing the details. I have a cost of living (without too much sacrifice) of $150,000. This includes $30,000 a year for an 11 year old (my only child) to remain in private school. His college should be covered by a 529 so I should only have this expense for 7 more years. Here is what I have in my arsenal: -A beach vacation rental that spins off $125,000 net after all expenses (but before tax) [$3,300,000 home value with $1,500,000 in debt] -An industrial building that is rented out that spins off $60,000 net after expenses (before tax) [$1,000,000 value with no debt] -$2,500,000 invested in the markets -primary residence worth $1,400,000 with $310,000 left on the note -about $750,000 in cash In total about $7,000,000 net worth The vacation rental and the industrial building, after tax, amount to roughly the $150,000 needed - since there is much tax efficiency in rental properties. I almost meet the 4% rule by the cash (if the cash is put in the market) and the investments alone. So, I have what I feel is 2x's what I actually need to pull this off. Keeping in mind that my future likely will involve some type of money making operation that is done at my own speed. ​ THE REASONING I was fortune enough to be born into a family that owns a manufacturing business that dates back to the early 1930's. My brothers and I have been running it for the last 20 years. I have recently turned 50 - which is really what has gotten in my head. I have been in the family business for the last 23 years. While the opportunity to gross $400,000 a year is wonderful, the golden handcuffs present a problem that nobody has yet to fully understand. There is something too finite about knowing where you are going to work until the day you retire. You drive to the same office every day. You spend 8 hours in the same office every day. You cut your vacations short all the time so that you can get back to the grind. A true slave to a never ending email stream. Now, while I understand that this is a typical work life for most people, the circumstance changes once you develop the means to live without needing fresh income. I could continue working every day for 10 more years (until I turn 60) for an additional $2,500,000 net, or I can cut out now and begin a new adventurous chapter of my life. I can be more present for my 11 year old son. I can be more present for my wife of 17 years. I can be open to developing hobbies that I so desperately need to have for my older years. I can fire off the last good 10 years of entrepreneurial missiles in hopes that one of them hits the target. ​ Please feel free to comment, weigh in, share your similar adventures, correct my math. submitted by /u/CountdowntoFIRE_321 [link] [comments]

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I'm 39. NW is ~$350k. I have about $200k in brokerage accounts and ~$150k in home equity. I zeroed out in the '08 recession when my business failed, so I'm playing catch up and taking risks. I bought a historic house the VA had declared uninhabitable in a "gentrifying" neighborhood. In the first few months I had to chase a few junkies out of my enclosed porch at gunpoint, and deal with one of those zombies in my kitchen late at night. 6 years later, Gentrification successful. I am walkable to a popular brewery, yoga studio, and smoothie bar. No more gunplay with junkies. The house has been mostly restored, and I now have an $1100/month mortgage/tax/insurance payment for a 3br place with oversized 3 car garage and 1800s old money construction. I can also be in Manhattan in under 2 hours. Early last year I uncovered evidence of widespread fraud at my employer, and quit my high-paying job to go whistleblower. It was scary. 6 months of job interviews and nobody wanted to touch me. I had a feeling this would happen, and had my backup plan. I used this opportunity to go back to school full time for a physics degree, while I was doing some consulting work for ~15-20 hrs/week. Six (hard) college classes plus solving really hard engineering problems on the side was too much. First thing I did this morning was transfer $35k out of my brokerage to wipe out the HELOC I took out for home renovations. This gets my total spend below $2k/month. Conveniently, I also have ~$2500/month coming in from the VA for the next 4 years. I made the decision to just suck it up and be poor for a few years. I don't have to work anymore. It feels liberating after years and years of 60 plus hour work weeks and constant stress. I don't have to work anymore. Not for a few years at least. I don't think I'll ever go back to full-time. I don't care if this set my retirement goals back a few years. I know it's the right choice. For the first time in my adult life I don't feel any stress about anything. I'm probably adding years to my life by cruising into middle age with no stress. Without my little nest egg, I would probably still be trapped in a soul-sucking job getting further and further down the rabbit hole of doing illegal stuff to cover for things in the past. It's been a lot of sacrifice and hardship to get here, but today is the first day that it really feels like it's all been worth it. Time to go hop in the car and head up North for a day of impromptu snowboarding, because fuck it, I'm independent now. submitted by /u/No-Coast-Punk [link] [comments]

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply! Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked. Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

Interest rates are higher now, meaning both bank account interest is higher and housing loans are more expensive. If you think you may want to buy a property in the next 2-4 years but are not sure, how would you change your budgeting and investing plan in the short term? Does it make sense to minimize unplanned and major expenses and put all your savings into high yielding deposits or money market funds until you have saved up for the possible down payment? This positions you for options if property prices decline and there is a recession, so you should save up as quickly as possible. Or do you continue investing some portion of savings because you can't know when the market is at a bottom? I know to stick to the plan, but am not sure how to modify the plan given short term goals. submitted by /u/josemartinlopez [link] [comments]

In today’s world, earning money online has become a popular way for people to make a living. With the rise of technology and the internet…Continue reading on Medium »

“The Essays of Warren Buffett” is a collection of letters and essays written by Warren Buffett, one of the world’s most successful…Continue reading on Medium »

Been putting a bit aside in a HYSA and No penalty CD from Ally, up to 100k now, for a down payment on a house. I'm feeling like perhaps that money should be in the market hoping for a bull run. I'm not sure how to feel about either. Houses are way too expensive and the market is in the crapper. What would you do? submitted by /u/FImilestones [link] [comments]

Hello, I am 29 years old, married with two kids. I work as a CAD Designer at a Civil Engineering firm and am living in a househack we bought last year. My commute is small, my family is happy, but I am struggling with what I consider a financial decision. ​ I just transferred to a nearby university with the intention to get a civil engineering degree to further my career. The issue is, school is taking me a lot of time (possibly 5 more years) and I am at the point where (with the more expensive school) Either student loans or dipping into what we have saved for our next house hack is likely. A degree was just the logical progression for me, but house hacking has been so big for us and we are both totally on board to do it again that I think in a five year period financially we would be better off if I just stopped going. ​ tldr: how do you decide between further education for more pay, or house-hacking when you have already had success there? 5 more years of school and possible student debt, or two or three more properties cash-flowing in the same period. submitted by /u/boombang621 [link] [comments]

Please use this thread to have discussions which you don't feel warrant a new post to the sub. While the Rules for posting questions on the basics of personal finance/investing topics are relaxed a little bit here, the rules against memes/spam/self-promotion/excessive rudeness/politics still apply! Have a look at the FAQ for this subreddit before posting to see if your question is frequently asked. Since this post does tend to get busy, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

Like ok, I got this. I'm not going to end up a hobo. I don't care if someone else has more than me. I'm comfortable. Compounding is going to run for another few decades and I'll be better than just Ok. ​ Or your version of that. submitted by /u/wc1048 [link] [comments]

Received the below email, I've never heard of this. We make too much to be able to contribute to an IRA, but we aren't allowed to max out this 401k either? What are my options to contribute to a tax advantaged retirement account? Do I have any options for something to do with this 5 digit check? So because lower income co-workers don't contribute to their 401k, I can't contribute what I want to? ​ ​ Each year the XXXXXX 401(k) Plan is required to perform an annual test to ensure our plan does not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees (HCE). This test is required by the IRS and all traditional employer-sponsored 401(k) plans are required to perform a similar test on an annual basis after the plan year ends. This test compares the average deferral percentage of the HCEs to the average deferral percentage of the non-highly compensated employees (NHCE). Please note both 401k and 401k Roth Contributions are to be considered for the test. The IRS believes if the HCEs, on average, are contributing more than 2% of the NHCEs, on average, the plan is favoring the HCEs. A traditional 401(k) plan, per the IRS, is not allowed to favor the HCEs. Instead, the plan is required to treat all employees equally. If the average deferral percentage of the HCEs is more than the average deferral percentage of the NHCE by 2% or more, the plan sponsor is required to return a portion of the contributions to the HCEs in order to be in compliance with the IRS, referred to as a refund. As in past years, the test failed for 2022, and a refund will be provided to you. This refund is considered taxable income for the 2023 tax year and you will receive a 1099-R in January/February 2024 for tax filing purposes. This refund does NOT impact your 2022 taxable income nor requires the re-issuance of your 2022 W2 forms. · You will receive a refund of $XXXX.XX plus attributable earnings/loss and less applicable federal and state taxes by March 31, 2023. This will be delivered to you in the form of a check from Empower Retirement via USPS mail. · For those HCEs who were age 50 and older during 2022, their refund is less, as they were allowed to keep a portion of their refund in the plan as a catch-up contribution. · For 2022, it was determined the maximum allowed 401k and 401k Roth contribution for the HCEs was $13,XXX. · In addition, the employer match contributions have a similar test, and a portion of the match contributions could be refunded as well. This match associated with the refund of the contribution will either be refunded to you if you are vested in the match contribution or, removed from your account if you are not vested in the match. This will be delivered to you in the form of an additional check from Empower Retirement via USPS mail. · The refunds of the Roth/401k contributions are referred to as ADP refunds and the match refunds are referred to as ACP refunds. If you do not want to receive a refund for 2023, you could limit your contributions to the 2022 limit of $13,000. However, we will not be able to determine the exact amount of the contributions that will be allowed to stay in the plan for 2023 until the test is prepared for 2023, which is during the first quarter of 2024. submitted by /u/jeffrey4848 [link] [comments]

I like to post about my parents b/c they've been a lab for the knowledge I've gained over the years and applied to their situation. I also think it can be illustrative for this sub. A couple of key points; mother stay at home mostly; Dad worked till he was 71. My dad's always done well just skipped the financial market success from 1980 till basically late 2000's. Parents dislike risk in general don't understand the market. My parents are NOT great planners and about 15 years ago I noticed my dad was saving less than I was dollar for dollar but he made 5x what I did. I am a CPA by trade and did taxes for the wealthy for a time and learned what success CAN look like. The Plan: Started by maxxing dad's accounts and he did this for about 15 years. Paid off their house. Started investing in after tax brokerage accounts; mostly bond funds. Getting cash flowing as he was more than happy to just give banks interest free loans at 0%. Pushed really hard for about 5 years and with their almost zero cost lifestyle I was able to leverage them into investing $10k or more after tax per month for that timeframe. in that span his 401k ended being worth about 1.2M w/ company match. bond funds about $850k CD's about $800k He's hit the Social security cap for 40 years and waited to pull until he was 70. He currently receives the max you can from SS ~$4300/mo after M'Care and my mother gets something like $1600. All in they're close to $70k/yr. in SS. Their bond funds and CD's yield close to $5k/mo. their RMD's yield another $4k a mo. At the end of the month they're taking in $15k+ in cash and their expenses are maybe $4.5k This last part is a warning as they aren't all that interested in doing much different than before. They've had a couple of health scares, but at the end of the day they've won the race but don't know what to do now that they've caught their tail.... I know I've benefitted greatly from getting firsthand experience of what is possible. It also tells the story that it's never too late and having a big "shovel" makes a difference. I know they are grateful for the work we did together but they also would have been perfectly happy to just sit it out and let the wind take them where it may... Be diligent, be focused, set a plan and care for yourselves! submitted by /u/clutchied [link] [comments]

Hello FI friends and family! Today we are rolling out an updated set of subreddit rules and operations based on our January low-mod experiment, your feedback, and our internal review of the sub over the past few months. Our goal with these changes is to make this community a welcoming place for all FI-minded people, but to also maintain a higher level of moderation and relevancy than is expected in more general or less moderated financial subreddits. We have no intention of becoming another version of /r/fire or /r/personalfinance, but we do intend on being more openly structured than in recent years. This is so that we can be both more welcoming to new members, but also so that there is a larger and more diverse set of relevant top-level discussions for community members to enjoy and participate in. We will be opening a moderation survey for the community in the coming months for feedback after we’ve all had some time living in the new framework. With all of that in mind, here is a summary of the new rules and operational changes. A modest level of positive subreddit karma will be required to submit top-level posts, but everyone is free to comment. All post submissions that do not pass the subkarma requirement will be placed in queue to be reviewed manually by the modteam - a change from the previous “straight removal” of posts that did not meet this requirement. Additionally, we are keeping the rule that any submission which gets three user reports will be temporarily removed pending manual review by the modteam. There is now a singular rule for top-level topical moderation, which is that top-level posts are expected to be relevant in some way to the FI community and demonstrate some minimal level of effort on the part of the OP. Authors should review the FAQ/wiki/sidebar before posting and also consider whether their post would be better suited for FI-adjacent communities like /r/personalfinance, /r/investing, /r/entrepreneur, and so forth. Commonly asked questions/topics and lower effort submissions may be allowed periodically as top-level posts in order to foster community discussion and provide a space for new users to discover core FI topics, but will more likely be removed and be redirected as needed to the FAQ, daily thread, or more appropriate subreddits. Personalized, in-depth content will no longer be actively pushed into Weekly threads, which have been removed moving forward. The sole exception to this is self-promo content, which will continue to only be allowed within the designated Weekly Self-Promotion thread. Anything that previously went within one of the Weeklies should now be posted within either the Daily or as a top-level post, depending on how substantial the material is. Civility is required of everyone at all times. We have expanded the “No gender” rule to be more universally applicable to all of the routine demographic characteristics many of us are familiar with from the workplace. Speaking of your own personal experience is fine, but weaponizing such against others is not. Politics remains off-limits, but policy itself remains fine as a discussion topic. We have reworded things a bit to make it clear that neutral passing mentions of political parties or politicians are okay. A good general rule to remember - if you need to bring up a certain party or person, then you likely aren’t trying to focus on the policy itself. For the most part, the sub has already been operating under similar conditions for a few weeks now and things appear to be stable. We want to thank all of you for your regular participation in our happy community and, as always, we are only a modmail away if you feel like reaching out. -FI ModTeam PS - For those of you who prefer a visual presentation, here is a completely accurate summary of our current mod practices. https://i.imgur.com/jaOI4TC.mp4 submitted by /u/Zphr [link] [comments]