Financial Independence and Legit Side Money Ideas For Techies and Geeks

Hey all, I am looking for a comprehensive calc that will help plan for retirement. I am looking to input current earnings, savings, retirement accounts, expenses, school/college for children etc. to gain an understanding of when I can comfortably retire; and how much would I need to retire. I used a few calcs available online and mentioned here and at /fire; but none take into account expenses; or allow me to play around with scenarios. I tried https://smartasset.com/retirement/retirement-calculator; https://ficalc.app/ and similar tools. The FIRE calcs are mainly focused on testing whether your savings are enough to retire comfortably by using monte carlo etc. What do you guys use? submitted by /u/Illustrious__Sign [link] [comments]

Hello, I am maxing out Roth 401k, HSA, SEP ( few thousand from side gig) and $20,000 for brokerage Wife works part time. , she does $8,000 traditional 403b and Backdoor Roth We are debating changing things up and maxing her traditional 403b with , what would have been , the brokerage money. This would allow me to do all/some of a Roth IRA and we should go under the AGI We have only $100,000 out side of our retirement accounts and 1.8 mil In those various accounts Ok to stay brokerage poor? We are 9-12 years from retirement Hope I included enough info Ty in advance submitted by /u/PisanoPA [link] [comments]

A person may attain financial objectives, manage their money wisely, and take charge of their financial destiny by practicing budgeting…Continue reading on Medium »

Mike you can stop asking because… The data for the 2023 survey is now available. Woot woot. There are multiple tabs on the sheet: • Responses: The survey results after I did some minimal clean up work. • Summary Report – All: Summary that the survey software automatically kicks out (this is what folks were seeing after taking the survey). • Statistics – All: Statistics that the survey software automatically kicks out (this is what folks were seeing after taking the survey). • Removed: Responses that I removed as either suspected duplicates or because they were almost entirely blank. • Change Log: My notes on the clean-up work I did. And if you want some history, here are the prior results. I’m also linking the old Reddit posts when I released the data, you can see the old visualizations linked in those if you’re so inclined. 2022 Survey Results/ 2022 Response Post 2021 Survey Results/ 2021 Response Post 2020 Survey Results / 2020 Response Post 2018 Survey Results / 2017 Survey Results / 2017 Response Post 2016 Survey Results / 2016 Response Post Note: The 2016 - 2018 results are partial - all respondents were able to opt in or out of being in the spreadsheet, so only those who opted in are included. 2016 also suffered from a lack of clarity in the time period responses should cover, which was corrected in later versions. And if you really want to see a blast from the past… Here’s the very first survey that was ever posted And here’s how I wound up in charge of it… And here’s what we originally all wanted to get out of this thing. Reporters/Writers: Email redditfisurvey@gmail.com or send this account a private message (not a chat) with any inquiries. submitted by /u/Melonbalon [link] [comments]

The quest for financial success often leads individuals to seek the best way to make money. With the rise of the gig economy, online…Continue reading on Medium »

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Spouse and I are late 20’s, we have 125k in our 401ks and 170k in home equity between our primary residence and rental property. Typically we have about another revolving 7k in our checking account that we use to pay living expenses. When we started working about 5 years ago, we made 120k combined and now we make 200k combined. We are new to FIRE, so we are a little bit behind saving for retirement. We have always had a hard time not spending our extra money, so we chose to invest mostly pretax into our 401ks. We previously had a 25k emergency fund, which we recently drained down to 10k due to emergency expenses. Now that we have drained down our savings, I’m starting to feel regretful and stressed that we have saved mostly in our 401ks and have so much home equity. With owning a home, a rental and a dog there are many expenses that can come up. I feel like we would have been better off saving up more in cash and investing less. As you know 401ks and home equity are very difficult to access. We had a family meeting today and determined that in order to replenish our emergency fund without backing off of investing we will have to buckle down quite a bit, for the next year. During this period we will have very minimal spending money and no extra money to visit family for the holidays. I’m feeling a little demoralized by the consequences of this set back and where it’s leaving us. It’s a very bizarre feeling to have a 300k NW and to feel super stressed about money. I just didn’t imagine feeling this way when we got here. Does anyone have experience with this and how you came out of a period like this? submitted by /u/Current-Pen-7686 [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]

I am 46 years old with 35% home equity. I am wondering how old everyone was when they paid off their house. Or if you still have a mortgage how old are you and what percent equity do you have? submitted by /u/RevolutionaryMap4745 [link] [comments]

How much weight do you give to your state's tax method in your decision about whether to allocate funds to a Roth IRA or Roth 401K (and other versions)? Consider the case of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania does not allow pre-tax deduction of either IRA or 401K contributions. The state, however, does not tax any withdrawals from traditional IRA or 401K accounts. So for those taxpayers who live in PA throughout their worklife and retirement, there isn't much of a decision. However, there is a significant risk for those who work in PA but retire in a state that does tax those pre-tax withdrawals. It's likely those individuals will be taxed twice (when contributing in PA, and then when withdrawing) by the state. On the other hand, there is an opportunity for individuals who work in a state like Virginia which allows pre-tax contributions, and then move to Pennsylvania which does not tax those withdrawals. This situation is also true for individuals who move to a state with no income tax at all, but worked in a state with an income tax that allows pre-tax contributions. Secure 2.0 impacts this strategy a little by limiting the amount of contributions in a 401K that can be made pre-tax. submitted by /u/MikesGoldenDream [link] [comments]

It's hard to realize that it's happened. My company was acquired, and I chose to take a severance package. My last day was in January. The last couple of months I've taken up new hobbies and am slow traveling. It's been amazing. I've lost already a bunch of weight and am exercising regularly and eating better. I am 45, single, no kids. My portfolio ended up currently around $6M... of which $250K~ is in HYSA, $250K~ is in real estate, and $5.5M~ is in equities split across a number of ETFs between tax-advantaged and brokerage accounts. Most of the surge in my portfolio happened in the last two years via promotion and acquisition at work. The market upswinging fairly consistently from 2008 didn't suck either. My spending in southeast Asia is currently around $25-$30K a year. I decided this would be the most fun way to handle sequence of returns risks. I was averaging spending about $60-70K a year back in the US. I expect that to go up some with paying out for the ACA, traveling, and hobbies but probably not to exceed $100K. I did not come from money, but I grew up money adjacent. I'm the youngest of five, although we lived lean, we never had to go to bed hungry or anything like that. I am grateful for the start my parents were able to give my siblings and I. Yes, I did it through working in technology. First in engineering/development, then in engineering management before transitioning to product management and finally general management. I had an equal split of time in large corporations and startups and was very blessed to have some successful exits and to have kept working to be promoted. My career spanned 27 years basically continuously. I was also very lucky initially in my career: friends introduced me to a great startup in 2000, which I was able to hold onto my job (75% cuts in 2001, ouch) through the dotbomb. I continued to accrue equity, and the company was able to pull itself out of the tech death spiral and is a household name today. This opened up other doors and snowballed into a career with more ups than downs. Of course, I lived frugally like all of us do here in this community, it was bred into me by my family. I've never spent more than 4-figures on anything in my life, amazingly enough. The real estate was an inheritance and I've always rented apartments and have never bought a car. I paid for college class by class in night/extension schools, but I never graduated mostly because I didn't want to retain debt and the dotcom gold rush was on, and I was obsessed with technology. My first goal is to completely recompose my body to as close to my peak shape as possible. Health was finally the lever that allowed me to let go of working. Thankfully not due to some acute event--just being overweight and weak and tired of feeling unattractive. Not so surprisingly, my number one irrational fear is being destitute, so stopping work was a large mental struggle my whole life. Health was the only thing that could trump it. My second goal is to maintain & rekindle friendships and establish more deeply in my post-work community. I have been lucky to have practiced a whole crapton of hobbies over my life and some of those have led to lifelong friendships. Ideally, I'd also like to find a partner, but I know that will take time. My third goal is to establish some form of faux-homestead with enough space for friends and family to live there if they wish. My fourth goal is to improve myself through some of the aforementioned hobbies. Anyways, thanks for reading my book if you made it this far. I'll try to do updates if people show interest on some interval. This community has been a balm through rough years, the boring middle, and otherwise. Hopefully my story can give a little bit of wind in everyones sails that this can happen. Comparison is the thief of joy, but I hope examples of success can buoy our spirits. submitted by /u/fireaaahthrowaway [link] [comments]

Hello, everyone; I'm considering a scenario involving property investment and early inheritance, and I'd love to get your insights. FIRE is my primary financial goal, and I see this scenario as generally positive or worst-case neutral. I would like my internet friends to tell me differently if needed. Note: I would love feedback both for me AND my parents. The goal is a good/neutral deal for me and for them. Scenario: My 70 YO parents currently own a property in the USA. They are retired and would now like to move home to the UK. I also live in the USA and, coincidentally, have been interested in purchasing a property in the UK to rent out. While they planned to buy a place themselves, we have recently discussed an idea in which I buy the property using some early inheritance gifted from their existing house sale. I found some threads with this scenario, but no threads that had the added factor of early inheritance. Financial Commentary: I have no debt, 1M NW, no property, ~320k Annual Income. (GF makes similar). Outgoings around ~90k Early inheritance would be around 150K USD used for downpayment House would be around 450K USD On initial research, the early inheritance would not need to be taxed if parents fill a form in and use it as part of their total lifetime gift, allowance Estate Commentary: Their estate is to go 4 other places. The plan would modify their will to share anything they have with the remaining 3 people, and I would only get any variance left after the $150k early inheritance. (I.e., the house would not need to be sold as this would be 100% mine). Family Dynamics: My parents have good financial literacy (Bogleheads etc., helped me form good habits) They have never asked for any $, nor did they propose this My conclusions as Someone who has never bought a house before: Pro: I diversify some of my NW away from the stock market. Pro: I own a house (which I would like), and have reliable "tenants", no property management company Pro: I like the idea of potentially living in the UK again or moving back, and so this is an asset in an area I like for the future (it's my home village) Pro: Parents get more liquidity from their existing home sale and more liquidity by paying a lower monthly payment. This means they get more money to do more fun things (travel, etc.) Pro: Parents, as they are on fixed income, have to worry less about major repairs Pro: Parents may be able to afford a little bit more home than without me in on the deal Cons: I will have to pay a premium (Expat Mortgage for UK as a US resident, Buy to Let Mortgage Premium, Forex Costs, etc.) Cons: If they want to move house after X years or return to the USA, this would complicate things (my biggest concern). Cons: Foreign asset likely complicates my US Tax. Cons: If something happens to me, it could be of risk to them. (I would plan to modify my own will) Cons: I could potentially generate more income over the life of the mortgage with other tenants and keep rental prices in line with market trends. (To me, this is an acceptable con because if my parents get a happier last years, it is worth it, and I see it as me paying them back (partially) for the support I got growing up) I have no explicit plans for my life right now. My girlfriend and I assume we would want to buy in the USA in the next few years, but with our current incomes plus this new concept of early inheritance, we think we could accomplish both. Am I missing anything? My parents and I think this can help all parties achieve our general goals. As this is a 500k decision, hoping to get some more opinions! submitted by /u/itslioneltribbey [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 was on a beautiful beach on Thailand not long ago after a stressful year at work. I think it was 2-3 days into a week long holiday before I felt like I needed to go back to work. I just kept thinking about it and how I could get so much better at it. It's mad because I've spent close to the last 10 years working towards FIRE, have close to £200k invested not including home equity and now realise I have my best earning years ahead of me, and my planned retirement age of 50 was probably really silly. I don't know if I'm in the boring middle or if I've realised that FIRE isn't really for me. I'm in my early 30s, and work as a surgeon, so half arsing the job really isn't good for patients or personal satisfaction. Working in the UK will make fat fire nigh impossible, but with the benefit of working a 4-5 day week and having 8 weeks paid leave every year. Also an annuity type pension in retirement which is more than enough to thrive on without saving. I am completely hardwired to save a minimum of £20k a year tax free (ISA) which is about 25% of my take home pay, but am really questioning the point of it when my current invested amount will be more than enough already left untouched. I have a partner, she has about the same amount, not including her familial land in Europe. The idea of saving lots, saving early and saving efficiently really interest me, that's why I'm here with you guys, but I'm not sure what the end goal is or if I'm holding back unnecessarily - have you guys been here? What do? I see my older brother with a networth of triple mine pulling 80hr weeks trying to become FAT and he seems pretty happy, he's also in healthcare, albeit in a fair-paying country. What gives? submitted by /u/throwawaynewc [link] [comments]

Note: all numbers below are using an inflation adjusted 7% annual return. Before you comment the obvious answer is to take the tax free money and max the 401k, let me lay out the only reason I’m considering otherwise. I like in a VHCOL city and I really love it here. If it’s possible, I would love to buy an apartment here and stay for the long haul. I’m early in my career but jobs in my industry should be based out of my region for the foreseeable future so I think staying here long term is doable. The problem lies in building up a down payment. I’m currently 25, about the turn 26. I’ve been maxing my 401k so far this year, maxed my Roth for the year, and have some cash going through an ESPP for an instant 11% return. The problem is at my current cash savings rate + the ESPP money I’ll only have about $85k in brokerage accounts by the time I’m 32, meanwhile my retirement accounts should be above $300k in that same time period. Of course I could come into a large bonus or get a new job with some big stock payout but I’m not the type to bank on something that isn’t guaranteed. $85k is not even close to 20% of a down payment on an apartment around here so I’m worried that I won’t have enough liquid cash to buy a property but I’ll have more than enough in my retirement accounts. By my math, assuming home prices stop skyrocketing and track with inflation (which is a bad assumption to begin with, I know) I will only get a 20% down payment by the time I’m 2/3 the way to my FIRE number… I’m not the type to think you need to own property to make it, I think investing in the market instead of real estate is probably safer overall, but I do like the idea of owning MY apartment. Maybe this in itself is flawed and I should keep renting until it makes more sense to do otherwise, maybe retiring at 40 and having enough money to pay a rent/mortgage through a Roth conversion ladder isn’t a bad way to FIRE. I’m not sure. Any advice on this type of situation is appreciated. submitted by /u/TheChadmania [link] [comments]

I’m in quite a different situation and wanted to see if I could get some input from you all. I’ve been lurking this sub since I was a 20 something in my first job and now 10 years later I feel so fortunate that I’ve put myself and my family in a good situation given that I was diagnosed with a stage IV cancer with not the greatest prognosis late last year. Long story short I’m doing “ok” now.. no evidence of disease but with stage 4 you never know when it’s going to come back. And still dealing with side effects of treatment and drugs that I’m currently on. Anyway for the stats and financials: I’m in my early 30s with a 2 year old and a partner. Salary - recently moved to part time making 100k gross. Full time position was at 145k Partner - contributes about $1100/mo to household/shared bills which I pay. The rest of their income is theirs for car and personal. Assets: HYSA - $24k Rollover IRA - $150k 401k - $2k House ~ $420k Investment property equity ~ $31k Debts: Mortgage - $167k Student loans (cancer deferment so probably never paying these back?) - $17k Monthly spend - $5700 I think I would like to work until the end of the year OR when my insurance resets early 2025 for the following reasons: I went to part time to focus on my mental and physical health BUT I still stress about work. I work in a field where people can’t really just take over for me for the day. If stop work I would qualify for the SSDI compassionate allowance list which would get me $4800 for myself and my child per the social security website. It would only go up if I have more income in 2024. Id like to spend more time with my family and doing things for me while I’m around! That’s the whole reason for FIRE right? I never want to be one of those people who work until the day I died, that’s my nightmare. I believe you can withdraw from retirement accounts penalty free if you are on SSDI. Here’s the challenges as I see them: 1. I could be here 5 more years or 10 or die tomorrow. So it’s hard to use any SWR in my situation. 2. Health insurance. You cannot get Medicare until 24 months of qualifying for SSDI. So that’ll be another big added expense I haven’t factored it. My current monthly spend does include my OOP max for my current insurance plan. 3. I want to leave my family in a good position financially. They shouldn’t have to worry about a place to live on top of losing me when the time comes. So anyway, I guess I’m asking for advice. What am I missing? What would you do in my situation? submitted by /u/PartyUmpire2368 [link] [comments]

Long-time member, but using my throwaway account. I retired back in May of 2021 as a software engineer at a large tech company. My NW was about 1.3m through a combination of ridiculous tech salaries, getting lucky with a few investments, and general frugality and simple tastes. Almost three years later, I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I'm doing. I've done some traveling, worked on a few personal projects, got in better shape, bought a house, spent a lot of time and money fixing things with the house, researched stocks, went to shows / music festivals, read a bunch of books, hiked, visited a few national parks, watched a good deal of TV / Movies, volunteered, hung out with family and friends a lot, etc. but there are a lot of hours in the day, and I often still find myself unsure of what I "should" be doing, especially during the work week when most other people are busy. I realized that teaching people about FI and helping them achieve their financial goals is one of the things I'm always interested in doing. I created a simplified version of the spreadsheet I use to track my own FI journey to share with family and friends who are interested. Feel free to make a copy and input your own info, and please let me know if you find any issues. Some of the calculations are simplified a bit (the tax code is crazy), but generally they try to err on the side of producing more conservative estimates if they are. It doesn't have every possible scenario covered, but should hopefully at least provide a general indication of your FI progress. I can answer questions people have about my path to FIRE if that'd be interesting to anyone, but I totally get that "get paid stupid amounts of money and save most of it" isn't very useful advice for most people. Also happy to talk more "nuts and bolts" of my situation (e.g. i don't really stick to a budget, so just using the 4% rule isn't quite as easy as I thought it would be pre FIRE) or I could talk more about the qualitative side of things if people are interested. I'm also interested in finding people who would be interested in discussing shared interests, as most of my friends aren't as interested in FI/RE or some of my other nerdier interests like autonomous vehicles, AI, semiconductor fabrication, renewable energy, electric vehicles, robotics, science & technology, etc. Anyway, hopefully at least the spreadsheet is useful to some people, and please let me know of any ways you think it could be improved. submitted by /u/ThrowingMyWayAway [link] [comments]

Does anyone recall one event/moment/reason that caused you to seek out Financial Independence that you would like to share? Mine was not being smart and thus afraid of being fired. Through middle school, high school, 4 years of college I would honestly say my GPA was a solid 2.2. I studies for a C, prayed for a B. An A? --- Gotta be kidding. This was hard for me especially since several older siblings were straight A's, Valedictorian, Class President, college graduates, etc. I exaggerated my resume/GPA and interviewed on campus with EVERY/ANY company willing to interview me. My focus was System Analyst jobs. Well, I got ONE SINGLE job offer out of all those interviews with a company 3 hours away in a different state. I didn't research these companies much, and really didn't know much about this company, but I obviously accept the job....again my only job offer. So May year 2000, First day at orientation I selected 15% maximum (at the time this was the max for the company) for my 401k contribution.....I could tap this money and pay penalties and survive if I was let go. Turns out this was a huge well known Corporation and they hired me for their Software Engineering group. Before starting the job, mentally I was fearing being let go for performance reasons and having to pay back relocation expenses -- this was always on my mind. I managed to save $1,000 per month after all bills with a very frugal life. NGL, I struggled my first 2 years at this job and asked for a position more suitable for my abilities. They moved me to a much easier position. 9/11 in 2001 happened.....this event really affected me...my employer was in Aerospace....30% reduction in force announced. 2005, more than half of this site was sold to an outside company. Could we survive as a smaller site? 2008 Great Recession happened....again, travel demand went down. The site was getting less work, and people were let go for several years during this timeframe... people I knew and worked with. 2011 announcement that the entire site was being shut down and moved to another state as a way to lower cost. Not many local jobs for my skillset, so I packed up my family and followed the company to the new state. I actually lasted 19 years with this company. Even with the help of some really nice and smart coworkers, I was constantly fearing because of my abilities, I'd be let go. Back to my savings, 15% became 20%, which became 30% whenever the company increased the 401k maximum percentage. BTW, I got married early at age 26 had kids house, etc.....wife had a good career and we saved the entire time for doom and gloom during all those bumps. Saving was on auto pilot this entire time. So Financial Independence came to me right after college....I consider my entire career revolved around Imposter Syndrome feelings....working under fear and a very low self esteem. The next paycheck wasn't guaranteed. Sorry for the long story.... submitted by /u/Formal-Blueberry-203 [link] [comments]

I’m (26M) getting married this Fall to a wonderful woman (23F) who is very aligned with me in terms of spending habits, paying down debt, etc. She was pretty uncertain about making money decisions beyond socking it away in a savings account, so I’ve been able to convince her to do some simple things like open a HYSA and contribute more aggressively with her retirement while she’s in her 20s. She’s a public school teacher which will limit her earning potential (pay the teachers, btw), but she does have decent retirement benefits through our State’s teacher retirement system. She plans to put in 30-35 years. For some context, we live in a LCOL area. I’ve gotten serious about in the past couple years about FIRE, encouraged by the growth I’ve seen in my investment portfolio and savings. I had a corporate job that gave me a great financial foundation and now work a non-profit job I truly enjoy and am well compensated for (~$92K/year) given the nature of the work. Fiancé wasn’t really familiar with FIRE, but as I mentioned essentially lives the lifestyle already — and she is fully on board with chasing down an early retirement. Right now, we live together and split almost everything 50/50. We plan to combine finances once we get married and will have a HH income of about $130K. We will both head into marriage 100% debt free. Question #1: What are the best FIRE moves we can make once married? Some things I already plan on doing: Open a Roth IRA for her and max out each year (I already do this for my Roth) Bump up each of our retirement contributions by 3-5% Some kind of life insurance policy Some rough numbers for once we’re married: HH Income — $130K Annual spending — $40K Annual saving/investments — $45K Total NW once combined — $220K, with about $140K of that being in investment accounts (401K, Roth IRA, IRA, Taxable Brokerage, HSA, 529) Based on some basic calculators I’ve used, I believe a good FIRE number for us would be in the neighborhood of $3.5M, which appears to be achievable by the time we reach our late 40s/early 50s based on existing conditions. I’d say it’s likely that we’ll have at least one child, which obviously would knock the ages back several years. Question #2: Do you agree that we’re on track for FIRE based on this information? What adjustments would you make? Thanks, I’ll hang up and listen. submitted by /u/con-tin-uum [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]

https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/retirement/blackrock-lifepath-paycheck-retirement-plan-9a3c9c96 With LifePath Paycheck, the twist is that the funds begin investing in annuity contracts at age 55. That allocation grows to roughly 30% of the portfolio by age 65. An employee has from age 59.5 until the year they turn 72 to buy an annuity with that allocation, locking in a monthly paycheck for life. The remaining 70% can remain invested in stocks and bonds or be redeemed for cash. An interesting alternative to traditional TDF’s. Not sure that this changes my opinion on annuities writ large, but good to see players innovate in the retirement space. Thoughts? submitted by /u/jsttob [link] [comments]

I've been with E-Trade for over 20 years and getting closer to the time when I am ready to check out of the game and retire early. I've been aware of rule 72t for many years and that has been my plan to tap into my rollover IRAs and pay the bills. I decide to call E-Trade to make sure I am understanding everything correctly, and the person who answers lets me know that Morgan Stanley which took over E-Trade does not do 72t distributions but I can self-report them to the IRS. This is not something I am familiar with, so two questions 1) What is involved with self-reporting and where can I earn more? 2) Are there other brokerage companies which do the 72t distributions? submitted by /u/EricTheNerd2 [link] [comments]

Please bare with me while I try and put into words my thoughts. Not trying to offend anyone here. In my local city and state subreddit each time I make a comment about income/wage increase, 90% of the time I get down votes or bashed based on my comment that I am out of touch with reality. I am NOT putting down a class or humble brag, mearly a comment for example: "I am not sure how a family could pay bills and save below a $75k a year household income." And I live in a very low cost state. I guess the income and saved word are offending. I know that many families survived on multiple minimum wage jobs, and life is much harder if you are poorer. Most Americans are in debt and barely making payments. Though I am shocked how the majority of the comments are from that perspective versus I guess the other side. Financial related subreddit for sure have a different audience...like night and day to me. I love this subreddit and anything FIRE related. People are simply smart about money. Is it because my family of four lives in our little middle class bubble in the suburbs....our fantasy world. So is this the same experience for you in your local subreddits? Sorry if this comment does not belong in this subreddit. Edit: my only experience with wage increases: 2020 Son got a grocery job $9/hr, 2022 daughter got same job at same store $12/hr. Son got job in 2023 pushing carts at Costco $19/hr. submitted by /u/Formal-Blueberry-203 [link] [comments]

I'm traveling for work this week, so you all get a couple bonus days to take the survey. I'll leave it up til about 8am pacific time on Sunday. https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/1bru9pm/the\_official\_2023\_fi\_survey\_is\_here/ submitted by /u/Melonbalon [link] [comments]

Would feel great to hear from other people choosing to work more years because you have a bigger FI number because of the money you plan to give away. Also how are you mathing it? My plan includes donating 25%, but it doesn’t raise my FI number by a full 25%, because I can cut this for emergencies or during a major downturn, I don’t pay taxes on it, and I can donate appreciated stock instead of paying taxes on money I would be withdrawing for expenses. Because I don’t know the exact mathing, I’m currently going with back-of-envelope 5 extra years of work. Makes a difference for my mindset at work that I’m showing up as a public service. (Also btw yes I already donate, not waiting.) submitted by /u/Suspicious-Cakes [link] [comments]

Hi all, Stumbled upon this community and eager to receive feedback on this. I’m currently married with two young kids (7 and 3). I’m looking to accelerate our investments and path to FI as soon as possible. I’m very fortunate to have a good paying position for the time being. I currently have access to a MBDR through my 401k so have contributed 30k total to my 401k is so far this year. I’ve also already maxed out my TIRA and converted it to Roth via back door. We are contributing to my wife’s 401k 2.5k/mo as well. We’re completely focusing on tax sheltered investments right now so not contributing anything to brokerage account currently until all of those are maxed out. We live in the northeast and have been contemplating relocating to somewhere warmer with a LCOL. We have an area we like and are considering potentially selling our current home, using the proceeds to buy the new house cash to expedite our path to FI and give us more options. Our current home is assessed at 975k and we owe 360k on the mortgage still. We have a very low 2.75% interest rate and the loan matures in 21 years. Since we’re maxing out our tax sheltered options, does this seem like a potential smart play? Especially with current mortgage rates around 7%? Or is this dumb to even consider since we have such a low interest rate? Property taxes are very high where we live as well so quick calculations would bring us from 2.9k/mo in mortgage+ property tax to roughly $300-$400/mo in just property tax in the area we are looking if we bought cash. Our plan would be to reinvest the surplus monthly (~2.5k) into a low cost index fund brokerage account since we already max out retirement accounts with the ability to take less stressful jobs and easily cover bills in the next 5 years. We imagine this would greatly expedite our process to FI whereas our current situation may extend our path to FI. Any feedback is great. Thanks! submitted by /u/Tiny_Cup_6268 [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’m successful in my career but not super satisfied even tho the work aligns with my values and pays top of market for my skill set. I’m pretty senior for an individual contributor (less than 10% will achieve this level), but am also an introvert and feel like that might be becoming limiting so I started reading Never Eat Alone and the first few chapters ask you to set a goal to create a relationship action plan. This has put me in a bit of spin. I don’t really have a goal outside of saving for FIRE to buy time for slow travel. I could try to goal to get to the next level but I’m at a big company and there are like 3 people at that level. Moreover, I just don’t see a ton of intrinsic value in that goal beyond potentially speeding up FIRE. And every level I’ve climbed has involved taking on a lot more stress to justify my impact as level appropriate. I guess what I’m curious about is whether this is just what the boring middle feels like? Other personal goals I could focus on would be fitness but I’m focused on recovery from a life changing injury (PT 2x a week; relearning to walk; potential life long limited ankle function). I know we talk a lot about building the life you love before FIRE. But said injury also has been a blocker for my hobbies. I’m not back to climbing or hiking yet. I’m on a business trip in DC and visited the National Museum of African American history and could only engage with half the exhibits due to long bouts of standing flaring my injury. So feeling really aimless and stuck with our typical advice. Curious if others have gone through periods like this? Obviously your specifics may be different. But curious about how you found meaning at this stage of your professional development when the job was mainly a means to FIRE. submitted by /u/WrongImpressionOnly [link] [comments]

Reading my brokerage services agreement update for Vanguard this morning I saw this: Account closure and transfer fee: A $100 processing fee may be charged for account closure or transfer of account assets to another firm. The change takes effect July 1, 2024. This is a change from their $0 cost now. https://investor.vanguard.com/account-transfer/other-transfer-questions#:~:text=Vanguard%20doesn't%20charge%20fees,transfers%2C%20but%20other%20companies%20might. This seems pretty predatory to me, and I have been frustrated with a number of policies vanguard has adopted lately, so I may try to exit my accounts in advance of the change. submitted by /u/ThebocaJ [link] [comments]

TL DR: FIREd in May 2022 with $885k, current NW is $1M. Last year’s expenses totaled $28k. I slowly road tripped along the west coast of US and spent two months in Canada. Recently sold my car, downsized material possessions, and moved to Japan. I am now attending a Japanese language school for a year. This is a great way to explore a new country, challenge my brain, and gain access to social networks. Background: Click here for the link to my first year update. Life Update: In 2023, I slowly road tripped along the west coast of US and spent two months in Canada. I started from Seattle and drove up north to Vancouver and Calgary. Spent a month in each city. Joined the local hiking Meetup groups and explored the numerous hiking trails around the cities. Among one of my best experiences in Vancouver was training with a local dragon boat team. After Canada, I drove down south all the way to San Diego. I picked up my best friend at San Fran, and we toured around CA for two weeks before stopping in San Diego. I stayed in San Diego for a month after my friend left, and then flew to the east coast to spend a few weeks with family. Recently I’ve sold my car, downsized my material possessions, and moved to Japan. In my update last year, I had mentioned two issues post-FIRE. The first issue is the lack of social interactions and the second is the lack of brain stimulation. Moving to Japan and studying Japanese is my solution to both of them. I just started attending a Japanese language school and will be here for a year. This is a great way to explore a new country, utilize my intellect, and meet new people in a community environment. Finances: I FIREd two years ago with $885k. NW is currently hovering around $1M. Hurray!! And a big pat to myself for joining the two-comma club! My 2023 expenses totaled $28k. I aim to spend below the 4% SWR, but it’s not a strict rule. Other than having about two years’ worth of expenses (~$70k) in cash, the rest of my assets are in index funds, VTSAX. The funds are held in a mix of tax efficient retirement and taxable brokerage accounts. People often ask how I manage to keep my expenses so low. My largest expenses are housing, transportation, and food. I find that as long as I keep these three categories under control the rest of my budget is easy. 1) For housing, I try to spend on average $1,500 or less each month on hotels and Airbnbs. Airbnb hosts will often give a large discount to monthly renters. In Japan, I am renting a bedroom in a shared house for $600 per month. The house is located in the heart of the city and within walking distance of my school. I’m enjoying it so far. 2) Transportation-wise, last year I had my little Honda fit and drove it all around the US and into Canada. It was a fully paid off car so I only had to pay for gas, maintenance, and insurance. That averaged around $200 per month. I sold the car for $10k prior to my move and am solely relying on public transit in Japan. 3) Food costs were about $300 per month last year. I mostly bought groceries and cooked rather than eating out. I try to eat out with friends and when I find a restaurant that I want to try. My food costs will likely go up in Japan since there are so many good restaurants. Generally restaurants in Japan are much cheaper than the US due to the strong dollar and lack of tipping culture. Rather than focusing on saving, I’m trying to flex my spending muscle in order to spend more on food experiences. Instead of having a spending limit, I’m going to force myself to use up $500 or more each month on food. This will be an interesting social/financial experiment. Shout out to Ramit Sethi, the Mad Finentist, and the guys at MileHighFI podcast for the inspiration to initiate this spending change. Since the cost of living in Japan is much lower compared to the US, I’ll be using the remainder of my budget to explore the nearby cities and countries. Health Insurance: I understand that this topic is a big concern. Here’s my situation. In the US, I am relying on Medicaid for health insurance. The state that I am based out of has expended Medicaid, which just requires a low income. My only source of income is dividends from my taxable brokerage accounts and interest income from HYSA. Added up they are usually around the Federal Poverty Level. Additionally, unless you are a senior citizen, there are no maximums for financial assets. Medicaid rules vary from state to state so YMMV. Upon arriving in Japan with a long-term student visa, I’ve gained access to the National Health insurance. Overall, Japan’s healthcare costs are much lower than that of the US. The national insurance gives me 70% off all medical and pharmaceutical expenses while in Japan. As an example of how cheap medical services are here, I recently went to a clinic for allergies and paid $7 for the doctor visit and $5 for the medication he prescribed. It was such a relief to not feel like I’m being robbed after seeing a medical professional. Plans for the near future: After spending a year in Japan, I will continue to slowly travel around Asia, Australia, and Europe. I am aiming to spend weeks to months in each place. I find that slow traveling is much more enjoyable and affordable since you can get weekly/monthly discounts on hotels and short-term rentals. Reflections and Random thoughts: FIREing feels like the Trust Fall game that you play in team-building exercises, where one person falls backward and relies on others to catch them. Although you know that the other team members will catch your fall nearly 100% of the time, when you’re standing there and starting to lean backwards it is still scary. Even the thought of leaning backwards to initiate the fall is intimidating. No wonder many people in the community catch the One More Year Syndrome as they near their FIRE date. FIRE has allowed me to live more intentionally. I am aiming to live in line with my own values and goals instead of blindly following the mainstream narrative. I enjoy trying new things and taking time to get to know who I am as a person. Here are some of the questions that I often ask myself. What do I truly like and dislike? What kind of lifestyle feels comfortable and what kind of lifestyle do I aspire to? Are my motivations coming from internal or external sources? Am I doing something because I truly like it or is it for the benefit of those around me? We only get one shot at life, live a life that you won’t regret. Things that leads to happiness: Opportunities to explore learn and grow. Change balanced with a sense of control. Having good relationships, good health and wealth. Being the master of your time. Being grateful for the things that you have. Thank you for reading my long rambling update. It feels nice to organize my thoughts on paper. Hopefully my experiences can be of help to some of you or at least entertain you. Given the 13hr+ time difference, I’ll try my best to answer any questions before going to bed and will pick it up again tomorrow morning. Edit: The language school I'm attending in Japan costs $6000 for the year, so about $500 per month. submitted by /u/jellybean83087 [link] [comments]