Tag: make money from web scraping

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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In the first 10 years of my career, I've worked at the same company and contributed to the 401(k) plan. I didn't know whether to do Roth or traditional for the 401(k), so I did a mix of both thinking that would get me the best of both worlds. I'm fortunate enough to be married and that the two of us make over the Roth IRA contribution limit, so I have to use the backdoor Roth tactic, which has worked fine so far because I have a 0 balance in my traditional IRA and don't need to use the pro-rata rule. Now that I'm leaving the company, I want to rollover the 401(k) into an IRA because the 401(k) charges plan fees that are WAY higher than the IRA, and over time those fees make a big difference. Here is where I run into trouble: If I was 100% Roth in my 401(k), I would be able to just roll it into a 100% Roth IRA and be done, but since I have some balance in the traditional, my only options are: Roll the traditional 401(k) balance into a Roth IRA and pay the tax bill (would be somewhere around $50k, so no thank you) Roll the traditional 401(k) balance into a traditional IRA, but not be able to do the backdoor Roth anymore (since I'll have to pay taxes on the conversion part of the backdoor due to the pro-rata rule) Leave the traditional balance in the 401(k) and keep eating the fees for it (almost 1% per year) I wish I had thought this through ahead of time and gone 100% Roth for my 401(k). submitted by /u/tubadammit69 [link] [comments]

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My parents will depend mostly on a state pension and SS. They have a meager amount of savings (100k-ish) that they have been keeping in cash for decades because idk they invested in some stock in the 80s and it tanked so they never touched the market again. They just called me saying they were about to put it into some CDs (again because those were... good? in the 80s) I am about to just pay for them to have a consultation with a CFP because I don't know how else to help them. I can tell them to put it in a normal retirement-like allocation (60/40 stock bond or something) but they do not have the luxury of time to ride out market fluctuations, and the amount is not large. I suppose if they can just avoid dipping into it for as long as possible it would be ideal. But I am not a professional, so I'm interested this subreddit's take on what to actually do with the money and similar experiences and how you may have helped your parents. I feel like if I give them any investing advice and it goes bad at the wrong time I'll be to blame, their fears will be realized, etc etc. I probably can't fix this. If i get them to invest it, it'll be me secretly underwriting it if it goes bad, otherwise, I'll just be supporting them directly once they run out of money, either way it probably all comes out in the wash, so to speak. The money is across a few different types of accounts, including some IRAs, I have no problem helping them with tax efficient allocation to different account types and withdrawal strategies, its mostly the asset allocation question. They are planning to retire in 1-2 years The pension and SS will cover regular living expenses, the 100k is just padding/emergency stuff but it is not a lot for one-offs like replacing a roof... or a hip. they are going to have to re-adjust their lifestyle because the pension and SS does not offer a lot of margin. tough pill to swallow, that's more of a personal problem than financial. they have a gigantic, ancient country house with massive upkeep and maintenance costs and not a lot of resale value compared to other homes in the area due to its age. submitted by /u/mhinimal [link] [comments]

Hi! Long time lurker, first time poster. I (34F) moved to Massachusetts from abroad. Unless something massively unexpected happens, I'm going to be in the state for the next 30+ years. I am likely to be taking a state job soon, with a pay range $60-65k and topping out at $75k. Married filing jointly household income under $150k. If you were in my shoes, would you enroll in pension (so MSERS, but ORP an option too), or would you go private (something else)? My thinking for pension: - automates saving for retirement, making it not optional - psychological premium of having an annuity would be valuable to me - 80% of 60 highest consecutive months of pay would probably be comfortable for me, even if I never change jobs and always stay at this general pay rate (lifestyle, likely to move back to country of origin in sunset years; lower cost of living, different health insurance system there etc.) My thinking against pension: - huge % penalty for early retirement (if I start tomorrow, I'd have to work until 67 to get 80%) - stretches of years in which it would be effectively stupid to leave a state job (e.g. in year 6 of service, it would be "only 4 years until I'm vested", and similar) likely to lead to suboptimal professional choices - both the ORP and MSERS impact Social Security benefits under the federal Windfall Elimination Provision, which would probably suck if I, say, worked as a public employee for 10 years and worked other places for the rest of the time - entering into the system after 2012, even with my limited understanding of the US retirement landscape, makes other options potentially more attractive math-wise (roth IRA as non-income is particularly awesome when considering international taxation issues later on, and I'm not going to be able to put much into it if mandatory retirement contributions eat away 9/11% of my salary) So anyway. What would you do? Thanks for any and all pointers. submitted by /u/passerby_vibes [link] [comments]

Watching IPL (Indian Premier League) alone may not make you rich. However, there are several ways you can potentially make money from IPL:Continue reading on ILLUMINATION »

Where did this go?!?! I'll start, got an espresso maker on my local buy nothing group and got some whole beans on sale. So plenty of espresso coming my way for a very low price! submitted by /u/dpalmade [link] [comments]

Working Remotely is becoming increasingly popular, and with the advent of technology and the internet, it has become easier than ever to…Continue reading on Medium »

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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]

Short term money goes in HYSA, T-bills, etc. Long Term VTSAX (or your asset allocation) and chill. But what about money you might need in 3-5 years? longer bonds? or are there ETFs that would offer some protection but some upside? How do you do your intermediate money? submitted by /u/viking2fi [link] [comments]

Just wanted to see what everyone’s thoughts are on this! Wife wants me to go back to school, but I’m not convinced that the cost of school is worth it over time. Some background, currently about 30 years old making approximately 70k without much room for growth (maybe 100k in the next 10 years). Graduate degree will bump salary up to approximately 165k, however the cost of the program will be 175k over 4 years. Additionally during the last 3 years, I would only be able to manage maybe working 16 hours weekly which would also be a factor. All in all, it feels the cost would be closer to 300k, while during this time I could easily manage picking up a 2nd job and invest an additional 750/month. Currently close, but this would put me a little beyond maxing both 401 and Roth. What does everyone think about this; has anyone been in this situation before and how has it affected you. Thanks everyone in advance! submitted by /u/Rude-Efficiency-964 [link] [comments]

I recently moved from a salaried position to a single member S-Corp. I'm trying to max out all retirement in roth accounts and hsa and would like to be able to invest in crypto with a cold storage wallet. Please rate, comment, or correct my flow chart. https://imgur.com/a/Pqdw7us submitted by /u/Fantastic-Cat-5357 [link] [comments]

First off, big apologies if folks find FI to be the wrong subreddit for this post. I wasn’t quite sure where this would belong; but thought best to try it in my old camp here at r/financialindependence, considering the generally high quality of advice & relatively lack of trolling. Happy to move the post elsewhere! —— I’m a long time practitioner of FIRE but due to my age and risk appetite have very limited knowledge on financial instruments on the conservative end, therefore I’m specifically seeking advice around how to manage 550 Euros for one of my grandmothers. Below is the situation: she is in France and the money is in Euros she’s a widow in her 80s with late stage Alzheimer’s which requires constant medical attention and professional care. Therefore she is hosted at a care home specialized in providing such services she receives a pension of €4000 a month the cost of the care home per month is €6000 all inclusive additionally, she has €550k from the sell proceeds of her house, which supplies the €2000/month difference between the pension and the care home cost Currently the cash sits in a regular savings account collecting basis points while inflation in EU remains high if everything stays where it is, her life expectancy would be anywhere between a few years to 20 years (highly unlikely given her age). Her savings will be able to cover exactly 20 years of cost for the care home, assuming no other costs come into the picture her estate is co-managed by her children, mostly by my MIL who sought my advice on how to best sustain the estate Constraints: - zero risk appetite - would like to generate returns to somewhat offset inflation (currently government sponsored investment programs in France return 3% i.e. livret A for those who knows of it) Questions: - is there any point at all in trying to invest this money? - if so what would be some potentially viable options? I can only think of fixed term deposits. Potentially money market funds? But unsure how gains on these would be taxes in France. Any food for thought would be appreciated. Thank you! submitted by /u/RoastedPork15 [link] [comments]

Hi, I thought with the wealth of knowledge here I could ask others their suggestions for my nephew. My brother(his dad) passed before he was born. My parents get my nephew a lot given that his mom has extreme anxiety. She has a history of drug abuse as well which is why it concerns me for his future. I am trying to set myself up for financial security as well. I live with my parents right now although they are getting divorced but I plan on just staying with whomever occassionally and they enjoy the company. Most of the assets they had, I was hoping to give to my nephew once my parents passed will most likely not be there. I can hope for good things but I'm a realist and I want to develop strategies so he has financial support. Especially given his circumstances. I want to do the following for him but I would appreciate any advice or strategies that others have used for providing financial support for their family. Use my deceased brothers business which was for construction and do a construction POD t-shirt business that profits will be used for taxes and a savings/investment account for my nephew. He is 3 so I can't really pay him as an employer yet until he is a little bit older. But I like this idea as I am hoping to have him branch off the business in his teenage years doing lawn care items so he can save for a car. I want to teach him the importance of earning money before I hand off the buisness to him when he is older for him to keep or sale. Buy a duplex in the coming years for his mom and him to live in. Have them pay a cheaper rent in case she gets better and can afford a house on her own. Once the mortgage is paid, I would gift the house to him and in the meantime use any leftover profits from the other units rents to save for him. I want to start an investment account like a Roth IRA when he starts working for lawn care as he gets older. But I also want to put in some investments now or at least a HYSA since he is so young. My dad has a brokerage in which he pays the taxes on for him to have when he turns 18 as well. My parents are a huge support system for my nephew right now and my other brother who is 10 years older than me who is 37 has no retirement, no assets, and is making 16 an hour with no health benefits. I am halfway to reaching 100k in investments and plan on househacking in the next couple years to build up a real estate portfolio. I have a good degree in engineering and a good paying job. Only student loan debt but I plan on making the minimum payments as it's only 30 grand in total with interest. I also am being a little selfish for the remaining of my 20s to focus on traveling but I know I can do online things for my nephew like put away some money and start an online business for him. I will most likely be the caregiver for most of my family so travel and maxing out my tax advantaged investment accounts are what is taking top priority in my life right now since I know that this probably won't be an option for me in the coming years with my circumstances. This is a lot but I appreciate any advice. submitted by /u/reduce333 [link] [comments]

Discover the top 5 ways for artists to make money online! Sell your art, create courses, merchandise & crowdfund your projects.Continue reading on Medium »

Are you looking for a way to make fast money online? Have you ever wanted to start your own business and make money from the comfort of…Continue reading on Medium »

So on the road to FI; but been knocked back with loans and cramped with obligations and not enough income. But I really wanted to ask the group as what was the hardest obstacle and how did you solve it? When did you think that maybe a break would be a wise decision? Thanks 🙏 need some inspiration or insight submitted by /u/JudgmentKey6718 [link] [comments]

EDIT: Here's a video by an MD, MBA physician at Dartmouth that breaks this down much more elegantly - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ub8Up-wJPA. I've seen a bunch of posts on multiple medicine-related subreddits about the lifetime earnings of a physician compared to high level white collar professions. Here are a few examples: (87) Is the grass really greener? A career earnings comparison : medicalschool (reddit.com) (87) “Becoming a doctor is no longer financially smart” : premed (reddit.com) (87) No Financial Incentive to Becoming a Doctor vs. Engineer? : financialindependence (reddit.com) In an attempt to definitively answer this question once and for all, here is a spreadsheet made by a financial analyst that compares the four most high-earning white collar professions: IB, Medicine, BigLaw, and Consulting and how they compare across a 10 year career trajectory straight out of undergrad. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1h1N6rrvLRmapN2fwreSBL45I89azg2tsrwoQ1iEN8f0/edit#gid=0 Now, (1) why make this post and (2) why post it in this subreddit? I made this post because it clearly shows that money should never be the sole motivating factor for pursuing medicine. In the end, you should always remember that you will have a top 1% salary for the rest of your life, you will solidly be in the upper middle-class in your lifetime, and your job is immune to layoffs or corporate restructuring (barring any malpractice). But comparing your earnings to other professions is futile and will only lead you staring down the barrel of existentialism. If you are trying to maximize financial independence and minimize years spent, healthcare is probably not the best way to do this. As the spreadsheet suggests, there are clearly faster and more lucrative options available. But doctors are healers and hold a special position within society and will always command respect. If you went into medicine because you have a deep passion for it and cannot see yourself doing anything else, this post isn't for you and keep being awesome :). So for any future medical students lurking this sub, do NOT go into medicine solely for the money. Do it because you love learning biochemical pathways, A&P, clinical diagnostics, and most importantly, do it for your future patients who are counting on you! Thanks for reading. submitted by /u/platoschild [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’ve been reading lots of posts and articles saying companies are now mandating coming into the office. Curious to hear from you guys. Please add what industry you work in! submitted by /u/proudplantfather [link] [comments]

I'm not quite there yet. Although I might be - the situation is unusual enough that I figured I'd write about it. There's me [31] and my wife [32], and our one kid. We started off seven years ago in 2016. I'd discovered FIRE completely by accident in college trying to find the r/personalfinance subreddit, and instead typing in r/financialindependence. Ooops? It sounded like a neat idea though, and my wife was on board with the idea. Retired by 40 as a goal! A difficult one, but possibly doable. We graduated college (BS in Accounting for me, MD for her) with a combined 30,000 in debt, and a residency position offered for her. There's something of a silver spoon right there, with her graduating medical school with no debt, but as you see the numbers, I think you'll realize the medicine income was never that large of a factor. Just the lack of an anchor allowed us to pivot. We moved across the country, and medical residency started. For those not in the know, it pays SHIT. $56k/year if I remember correctly, with enough hours demanded that it pays less than minimum wage. Fun stuff. Since I hadn't know where my wife's residency was going to be, I couldn't take any advantage of college campus recruiting, so I moved 3,000+ miles with a degree and some minor work history. I bounced from job to job, not quite finding my niche. First job was a temp tax position. Better than nothing, yeah? $18/hour. Only a few months. Second job the owner was embezzling from the investors. Yay. $16/hour. Third job was at a bank, solid $20/hour, decent work. I got shuffled to a team that was struggling, then they shuffled my entire department back across the country. Hopped to another job paying $25/hour, where I left when they kept asking me to forge documents and lie to the department of revenue. Started trying to work for myself a bit, doing freelance Excel and VBA work for people. I knew everyone needed me, I just didn't know how to get my information to people. Managed to get a temporary job at an insurance company building them some very fancy spreadsheets - $35/hour. Then I got a job at the State, $45/hour. Alright! Things were looking up! Bit of a checkered employment history, to say the least. All the while my wife's working crazy hours, but we pulled through residency in three years, having paid off the combined student loans and socked away a modest $50k or so. Roughly. And my wife hated clinical medicine. HATED it. Couldn't wait to get out. So we pivoted. No fancy attending salary, instead another residency with almost no clinical medicine in a field that would be a little doxxy to reveal. Pay was a bit better, now she's at $72k... and moving across the country. RIP my nice little state job, I hardly knew ye. She took a little sabbatical, hair-raising due to the lack of insurance. I managed to land another job that was only an hour and a half of driving... each way... but for a nice $47/hour. Moving along nicely! Money is being socked away, and we start thinking about kids. Then COVID hit, and the story goes from typical and boring to somewhat interesting. At first work tells me to work from home. Props to my manager who called it a week before the company did, and 2-3 weeks before the government did. Basically "This meeting never happened, but we're all working from home until further notice." Little did I know that was the last real day I'd ever work in that office. We all got sent home, and covid got bad. Real bad. I was working for a healthcare company, and our budgets exploded. Everyone was working twice as much as before... and the decree came from above. Reduce Hours. I was a 'luxury' role in my department, and I wasn't surprised to get the axe. I was literally making the reports every day that said we were way over budget, I wasn't surprised that management did something about it. So here I am, laid off, a kid on the way, and with plans for me to be the stay at home parent. I'd also run out of stories to read on the internet - I was big into web serials - and I said 'you know what? Everyone always says they're going to write a book one day. I'm going to ACTUALLY DO IT. Also all these other stories suck, I know I can write something better than THAT." Spite's a powerful motivator to start. Thus was born Beneath the Dragoneye Moons. I sat down, and spent a month plotting, planning, and researching, all while looking for another job (yeah, with COVID raging and my particular niche not having any work in the city my wife was in, fat chance), while also collecting unemployment. Then my book was ready, right as UI stopped, and I launched the first 20 chapters on Royal Road. I'd written 40 chapters by then, kept another 10 for Patreon, and 10 more for my backlog. I wouldn't say I exploded or anything so dramatic - but I got my first patron the first day I posted. Literally made me cry - months of hard work was starting to pay off, $4 and change at a time. And I slowly rolled the snowball. The first year I made $2k - I only launched in October, and various payment holdups delayed things. Our kid was born at the end of the year, and juggling both writing and full-time child care has been my biggest challenge by far. Wouldn't trade her for anything though! The second year I made $125k, and my wife moved onto a government job, finally making $100k. A little less, due to a huge snafu on HR's part, but it ended up there once it was all fixed. Last year I made $200k, and the amount of money was starting to become Very Real. We started to discuss various plans. How would we move forward? Did we swap who the primary breadwinner was? How sustainable was it all? Books are very interesting in some respects. It's hard to write a book, then sell and market it. But in another, they have some magic words attached to them - no income cap. My income comes from a few different revenue streams. Patreon's the big one. People pay $5/$10 a month to read 25 chapters ahead, on top of bonus material and other incentives. Amazon's the other big one. The genre I write in, litRPG, is basically purely on Amazon, no point in being wide. I get a little bit of income from Audiobooks, but at this stage, they're almost a rounding error. Books also have a crazy long tail. The rest of my life, I'll be getting little trickles of income from the books I'm writing today, even if the check is likely to be small. This year, we decided that we were going to fully swap to me being the primary breadwinner. I switched some mental tracks - Amazon has a program called Kindle Unlimited, which is like Netflix for books, but not bad. I enroll my book there - exclusivity is demanded - and get paid every time someone reads a page. And I get paid well. This year I'm looking at roughly $500k total income on the extremely conservative side, closer to $600k if I'm a little more aggressive with my estimates. Patreon's about half of that, with Amazon being the other half. Within Amazon, KU is 70% of my income. We're treating this somewhat as a lucky winning lottery ticket. We're not going insane with the money. We're keeping our heads down, buying a cheap but well-built home outright, and socking the rest away in hopefully-safe investments. My wife can retire if she'd like to, and I'm not quite in a position to do the same, but financially, I'm getting quite close. Ethically, I have to finish the book series first - the people who made this possible are relying on me. And, lastly, it's a ton of fun. So in a sense, I'm already RE without being FI. When I retire, I'm probably just going to... keep writing books that I love. That's the story! submitted by /u/Selkie_Love [link] [comments]

Myself 40 years old -140k-160k per year (film production) likely at earnings ceiling Partner 37- 150k per year (ad tech career) potentially making more over next ten years although not a ladder climber or job hopper No kids Current expenses - 8000-8500 a month (HCOL City Los Angeles) includes $ 3700 mortgage After tax yearly income 180k (15k a month plus/minus) Current combined savings = 7k-7500 per month No debt other than mortgage and $340 car payment for next two years. Current Equity on home = 250k (625k left on mortgage, currently valued at 875k) purchased two years ago. Plan is to rent this home out after next home purchase later this year hopefully. Home is brand new and warrantied so likely little maintenance over next ten years for a rental home. Cash in high yield savings account (for next house purchase) = 210k Checking = 25k which we normally keep at this level Stocks = 45k My IRA = 50k Partner 401k = 130k My pension calculated at 50 = $1500 per month (can’t take until 60) Goal is to use current cash to get into next house this year and rent our first home out. No problem renting our current home for more than our mortgage costs. Next mortgage will be considerably higher with interest rates (refi later) which will knock down our savings rate to likely $$4000per month from $7000 currently. All savings after next house purchase go into dividend funds For next ten years. Plan is to rent current home out for ten years and sell when I’m 50 and put those profits into dividend funds. With estimated savings rate after next home purchase being 48k a year the hope is to have at least 500k compounded in dividend funds at 50 before eventual rental house sale. I figure after selling first house and with addition of monthly savings money in dividend funds we should at least be around $1 million in ten years when I am 50 and partner is 47. Retire at 50 and live off dividends until pension, IRA and 401k withdrawals begin. Also social security if it’s still around in 22 years when I’m 62 Does this sound like a feasible plan? Do we seem to be in good shape at 40 and 37 to retire in ten years with where we are at? We are looking to retire out of country, Mexico if lean fire or Australia if we are in good shape with our real estate investments(partner is Australian) and rent second home out. It’s a lot of info. Any help is appreciated. We have a long time to go but just seeing if our plan makes sense or if we are naive. Feel free to shit all over it if it sounds dumb. Thanks for reading submitted by /u/mikesfsu [link] [comments]

I have enjoyed others posting their situations over the many years of reading here, so I guess it is my turn to post one back for consideration. Myself M(50) and my lovely wife F(43). ~2M in the FIRE pool: \~1M in various retirement accounts (Roth, various 401k. vast majority mutual funds/ETFs ) \~$750k in taxable investments (vast majority mutual funds/ETFs) \~100k HYSA \~50k in I bonds \~40K in invested HSA plans \~25k in CDs 0k in bitcoin 0k in rental real estate No debt. We run everything through credit cards for the benefits, pay off in full every month. House: No mortgage, worth approx 300-500k. I don’t include this in any of our calculations, assuming it will always be spent on some sort of housing - a smaller place somewhere new, rent, moving etc. 4 children: Child 1: finishing 2nd year of college, military academy appointment, totally covered. Child 2: graduating HS, college currently > 50% covered by 529 Child 3: finishing second year HS, college 100% covered by 529 Child 4: finishing last year of middle school, college currently \~30% covered by 529 (Second marriage for us both, 3 households involved in raising our kids. College financing gets complicated. We are committed to financing the equiv of an in-state public college education for each. Beyond that they can help finance. Other households in general agreement, but you can’t really know beyond the 529s that exist now.) If we take SS when we I hit 70, we get 60k a year in today dollars. I am old enough that I feel confident it will be there for us. This year will be my 35th year of working/paying SS taxes. Current expenses: ~85k/yr: \~46.5k/yr in general essentials (food, prop tax, maint costs, utils, medical, internet, cell, etc) \~4.5k/yr in child support payments that will end in 2 years \~13k/yr in travel/vaca \~20k/y in other fun or optional things (meals out, donations, gifts/kid splurges, light mental wellness) With our kids being in HS and College, we expect to be at about peak expenses, with most costs going down over the next 2-6 years. We assume more medical costs and fun/travel will replace what will free up from going to empty nesting, leaving our costs roughly the same over time. We feel confident we can trim 10-20k of expenses and still live a very fun life for many consecutive years should the markets require it. 50k/year would not be poverty, though limiting for sure. A couple kids are not fully funded yet for college, but we have a plan to get them there and will sacrifice some vacations and fun stuff as worst case to get there in budget. Other: Fully paid off RV and pontoon boat 800 sq/ft woodworking detached shop filled from a lifetime of auctions, craigslist, etc. Currently live on 11+ acres, large garden, trees, river and lots to do. MCOL, flyover state. Plan to live somewhere else MCOL or lower after the kids are fully out of the nest. 400-500k airline and the same in hotel points from years of work related travel. Everyone currently in good heath, no known significant medical worries. All of our parents and siblings have their finances well in hand. We feel no need to leave anything to our kids. Great if it happens to come to pass, but getting our kids to the other side of college with little to no debt is our real gift. Short bio/how we got here: I have been lucky and privileged enough to be in tech since the 90’s. Never one of the 300k+ FAANG crowd, but lucky enough to be paid well and to live well below my means. My first 401k was from my college job at Burger King, with me stuffing my investments every job for the following 35 years. My wife has worked various jobs, taken a lot of burden of raising kids, and also lead a debt free lifestyle. We don’t care much about the cars we drive and drive them forever. I am about done with my 20 year old jeep, we have a 13 year old Prius that will leave with a kid, and a 5 year old truck we bought well used. My wife quit the rat race maybe a year ago. I could easily keep working and stuffing another 50-100k/yr into investments, but I am really tired of it and have “been there, done that” with my career. I am not interested in it anymore. I started getting tired maybe 8-10 years ago and now with my kids launching into their own lives, I feel ready to be done and do something else with my days. I am well past my career defining my life – I won’t be bored or needing to go back to work to “keep myself busy”. Rough plan: With our large variety of investment accounts containing a large variety of taxable and non taxable assets, I am confident we can generate the right taxable income to take advantage of the ACA and pay only some nominal amount for medical insurance. I also feel comfortable that something ACA-ish will be around for quite a while now that it is here. The ACA is not perfect, but I think it is a step in the right direction and a step hard to take back. We stay put in our paid off house, living fairly conservatively, until all our kids are off to college. If I assume an ugly case of bad economic times and flat returns for the next 20 years and we end up blowing all 2M to get to 70(64) years old, we have the 60k SS from age 70 onward to limp by. I don’t find that likely, but it is not a terrifying case for a 65-70+ lifestyle either. I think our more realistic plan of spending fairly frugally over the next 4 years while kids launch, keeping spending in the 70-80k/yr and then doing something VPW-ish after year 4 has a very good chance of 70-100k+ for the rest of our lives, assuming “ok”/conservative market returns. The kinda ugly: The various calculators tell me I roughly have a 1 in 10 chance of being dead at 60, a 1 in 5 chance of being dead at 70 and a 50% chance of being dead at 80. Nothing is guaranteed in this life but death. It is fine to be ready to live to be 90+, but it is crazy for me to expect to do everything I could be doing now as well. We saved and sacrificed lifestyle creep to get here and for me the feeling of OMY gets pretty dulled out by life’s realities. The summary: I believe we have won the game. We could keep playing and running up the score, but the risks I believe now outweigh the rewards. I am intending to give notice next week and be done working sometime to be negotiated, between end of the month and the end of this summer, leaving a well paying job to do whatever the heck we want to do. I won’t be holding out longer for a 1M house on the beach lifestyle in our 60s, trading it in on a few more years of independence in my 50s. If you would keep working a few more years in my place, I would love to hear why. Any other comments welcome too. If I don’t get another chance, thanks for all of the information shared here over the years. submitted by /u/JinND [link] [comments]

I’m (34M) in the boring middle for the FI journey but have some key life events coming up. We have a 3 yr old and another coming in a few weeks, and I have this immense urge to take 12ish months off from working to spend time with the baby & family. Here’s my thinking: Reasons to take time off: With a newborn coming and my older kid 1-2 years away from school, this seems like a unique time to do something like this & maximize family time at a crucial life stage I think I’m right in saying there’s 0 people that will regret time spent with children at this age when they’re old I have the after tax $s to easily fund this. Along the lines of regret minimization, I think I can easily pick up some part time contract work 3-6 months down the line (if I feel the urge to add some work, supplement some income) Reasons to not do this: This will certainly involve quitting a high paying, fully remote gig. I can imagine my father (who didn’t have much money) face punching me for the stupidity. Delays FIRE plans certainly. If I carried on at the current pace, we’ll likely get to full FIRE in 4-5 years (vs likely to be longer) There’s a legitimate risk that I won’t be able to work back into this income upon return, which may further delay FI plans I’ve also never had any extended time off since I began work post-college. With that, I think there’s a non-zero chance that I’ll hate the lack of a schedule, routine and experience major regret. Has anybody here on the FI journey taken extended time off after a child’s birth? What was your experience like, negatives and positives? Did you return back to your prior careers or did it change force more broader changes in work/money approach? Appreciate the feedback! submitted by /u/dilemmings [link] [comments]

TLDR: My grandma died, but with the money I've saved from being frugal and owning my own business, I've had the time I need to grieve. This isn't possible for most Americans. I recently I lost my grandmother. It's been a really hard time and it's really sad. But today, I don't want to talk about her. I actually want to talk about how my pursuit of financial independence and frugal living has impacted my ability to grieve. We don't make space for grief In the United States. There is no federal law that guarantees paid time off for bereavement, including funeral time. Right now it's a sad time, nationally speaking. 1,117,054 Americans have died from COVID. And 72% of Americans say they either know someone who died from COVID or was hospitalized because of COVID. Several of our peer nations, including France, Japan, and New Zealand all do have guaranteed paid time off for grieving. But here in the United States, only three states guarantee that same thing. The Fair Labor Standards Act, the foundation of US labor policy, does not require employers to provide paid leave, including vacation time, to convalesce or time to plan or attend a funeral. In the United States, just three states have passed their own policies. Oregon requires employers to provide 12 unpaid weeks of leave, two of which can be used for bereavement after the death of a family member. Illinois offers two weeks of unpaid bereavement leave, but only after the death of a child. Maryland recently extended its flexible leave act to require that employers who offer paid leave allow it to be used for bereavement. So even the states that do offer this don't really offer it right. It's under very specific circumstances that you are allowed to have mostly unpaid time off to feel sad after the loss of a family member or a loved one. Since I worked for myself, I took four days completely off work after my grandma passed. And that's a luxury that most Americans do not have. It's a luxury that I have only because of the fact that I do work for myself and the specific ways that I've structured my business. I’m also a very frugal person. I have designed my lifestyle so that I don't need very much money month to month to pay all of my bills. And I'm not someone who gets a lot of joy out of shopping. So spending money is not one of my primary hobbies. This is not a judgment on anyone who does like shopping, I'm just expressing it's not really my jam. Frugality is my preferred way of living. I like having clothing swaps and getting my clothes for free. I like calling companies to negotiate annual fees and to negotiate down my bills. This is just the way that I want to live a simpler approach to our kind of modern hectic world. Frugality also means that since paying off my debt, I have been able to sock away money in my savings and investments at a faster rate than your average American. For example, last month alone, I made over $375 in interest just from my cash savings. This nest egg that I have built for myself means that if I need to take four days off to grieve, I can take four days off to grieve and I don't have to worry about becoming homeless, not being able to pay a monthly bill or my business collapsing around me. It also means I can spend money with a level of freedom that a lot of people can't. This is a huge privilege and I acknowledge it. I was able to spend over $200 last minute to buy a flight home to attend my grandmother's funeral. And that flight did not in any way compromise my financial health. It didn't put me into debt. It didn't mean that I couldn't pay another bill this month. And it didn't make a huge dent into my cash savings in my life. My personal preference for frugality and my entrepreneurship have allowed me a greater level of personal living flexibility and when it comes to grieving it has allowed me the time and space to be able to sit in my sadness. This is something that every American should have access to. And honestly, it's a national embarrassment that we don't we are the richest country in the world. We should be allowed to take time off from our grind and to be able to feel our very human feelings. I plan to continue working towards financial freedom. I am so happy with the way my life looks now as opposed to my life at 24 and 25. When I did have debt when I was low income when something like a $200 flight would have absolutely broken my budget for the month. I enjoy the security that financial freedom or at least pursuing financial freedom right now affords me, but it's something that I wish that every American and frankly every person could have access to. submitted by /u/BravelyGo [link] [comments]

I apologize if this is the wrong place to post, but I can’t seem to find another location to ask, and I have not yet found the answer. My question is: Am I allowed to be reimbursed for old dependent medical expenses after they have aged out? For example, if I pay for my kid’s braces now, and save all proper documentation, can I get reimbursed for it when he’s 35? He will have aged out of my being able to use my HSA on him, however, the funds were there, and the expense was incurred when he was still eligible. Thanks! submitted by /u/MaineSnowangel [link] [comments]

Just curious if anyone in the construction industry, specifically speciality trades, are after or have achieved FI? I am in plumbing/HVAC and like to invest in ETFs. I can’t retire yet but I do have enough should I need to take a temporary retirement. Just curious if anyone similar has some stories. Business owners or employees, and just how you’re getting to FI is what I thought would be interesting. I also think about buying (or partnering) on a larger plumbing company, as this is where the most potential is. I could use a big chunk of my investments to fund this. submitted by /u/austin12756 [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]

Creating narratives that tell our life story is a natural thing. I worked hard, I came from nothing, I made it! The narratives tend to go through some sort of self-aggrandizing filter, putting us in a light we think is heroic. Some of it is true I'm sure, and like the Mariah song, "the hero" is truly in me. But the role fortune plays towards the making of fortunes is ridiculously, though understandably, underrated. Just feeling a lot of gratitude tonight. I'm in my early 40s, and don't have to work a day again and still provide me and my family with a fantastic life and opportunities. Am an immigrant raised by a hard working woman and we lived on a couple hundred dollars a month. But you know what, my mother was educated, and that amount of money in the part of the world I come from was middle class in the 80s. Yes I worked extremely hard. Any "hardworking immigrant" trope you've heard, I've probably lived some version of it. But you know what, I was lucky to have AMAZING champions along the way that advocated for me and lifted me up. I guess my point is, many people work hard and are insanely talented, but don't get to have financial independence for any number of reasons, some of which surely outside their control. I'll never claim that I deserve the life I have. I'm extremely fortunate to have it, and hope I make good use of it. submitted by /u/firechoice85 [link] [comments]

In response to this post, how old were you when you joined the two comma club? I was 52. submitted by /u/FIREful_symmetry [link] [comments]

Unfortunately I was not in any position to have bought a house, dump tons into stocks etc and missed out on potentially once in a lifetime gains. I see a lot of realistic people here say how the 2010-2020ish frame was a once in a lifetime opportunity due to low rates, cheap prices etc; it was a doubly whammy if not even more factors. I was talking to a old coworker that was convinced the stock market would continue to give 10%+ gains every year for perpetuity, despite the last year actually being a decline, and not much reason to think the stock market will go to say 70,000 in another 10 years. So yes, those that got apple, uhg, amazon, google etc 10 years ago are sitting on huge gains, someone looking at those prices now won't get those gains if ever. Same with housing, I knew a literal bag boy who bought a house in 2010 and now its worth half a million because of the town became desirable and general house prices blowing up. Now to afford that exact house at current rates you would need to be making over 100k a year at least, probably closer to 120,140. Anyway, I am finally in position to be pursuing FIRE, but now it feels like I missed the boat huge. It will be at least 5-10 years minimum before any chance like that might happen again, if ever. Feels sad to be honest. submitted by /u/BigKyle23 [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]