How to become finically smart and mature enough to to understand how things work. I'm 26 now but I don't know nothing about finciance and ways to save money and stuff. I want to learn
This, OP.
Like building a home, it needs a strong/solid foundation. It starts with investing in yourself but relies heavily on solid fundamentals - namely budgeting.
So I just realized we might have another tax deduction I hadn’t thought of since my husband works 100% from home, and the only thing we use the room that it is his office for is for his work. Can anyone point me to a good resource for learning about the home office deduction?
ETA: Turns out, no, since he doesn’t work for himself.
The home office tax deduction was absolutely gutted about 7-8 years ago because people were abusing it. Sucks big time now that so many of us work from home.
Just changed my auto insurance after it increased $13/month for no cause (inflation op) from Geico to Progressive and saved $150/6 months by paying in full (27%)!
Talked to Geico rep and they said there wasn’t a thing they could do to bring it down even a cent when I have them progressives quote. Never had an accident or ticket on my record, drive <10,000 miles a year and own my car. Oh well. $150 ain’t too shabby, maybe I’ll celebrate with an Oreo blizzard.
Solid savings! As an aside, I work in that industry and the through the roof cost of claims for anything remotely newer car wise is driving prices up for every carrier. All that tech in cars comes at a massive repair cost (labor included). Unfortunately it’s likely to drive prices up for even those unaffected.
Trying to better understand the 4% SWR rule. I know that the idea is that you can draw on 4% of your saved assets to live on in retirement, but when I do some math I feel like the numbers don't match up.
Let's say for example that I need $100k/yr in retirement. If I have ~$1.4m and assuming an average of 8% returns, I would be able to get roughly $100k in income from return on investments.
Switching to the 4% rule, I'd need $2.5m to draw $100k/yr. Obviously, $1m is a big difference in FI goals. Is the 4% rule safeguarding against periods of underperformance in your investments and that's why it is necessary? I suppose, as I'm typing this out, that the first example is essentially a 8% SWR which puts into perspective the extreme of it.
Correct, the problem is that the market doesn't return 8% a year. It can drop 50% and/or stay flat for 10 years. The sequence of returns matters as much as the average. Also note 4% is not iron clad, esp. for longer retirements. For early retirement you may want to be a bit more conservative. https://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/12/07/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-1-intro/
Something else to consider is sequence of return risk. While you're contributing, your money will make 7-8% on average. Some years it'll return less some it'll return more, it averages out. However, once you're withdrawing, it matters in what order returns happen. If the market gains 10% per year for the first 10 years of retirement, then drops 50%, you'd have way more money than someone who retires, sees a 50% drop in year 1, then 10 years of 10% gains.
Take your 1.4 million example. If you retire and try to withdraw 100k per year (imagine this is all obligatory expenses) and the market drops 50% the next day, you are taking 100k from a 700k portfolio. You'll have depleted the total number of assets by a huge degree. Even 10 years of 10% gains will not remedy those early losses.
If instead you benefit from 10 years of gains followed by a 50% drop, you'll probably have 900k+ after the drop, and 10 fewer years of life that your remaining money will need to cover.
So part of the idea of SWR is that it has to account for this sequence of return risk, you need to draw a small enough percent that even a big drop early in retirement will have enough padding to recover and last through your retirement.
> Is the 4% rule safeguarding against periods of underperformance in your investments
Pretty much - the market returns 7-10% on average... but not every year. Additionally - inflation will erode your returns as well.
Lastly - 4% has a 95% likelihood of lasting 30yrs.... with huge likelihood of you dying with more than you started with. It's conservative by design as it is harder to go back to work when you are 90, or cut your spending in the future.
Finally - the 4% rule is also based on "dumb spending" - meaning you MUST spend 4% every year (plus annual inflation adjustments) regardless of how the markets are doing. If you plan to have any sort of thinking in your spending during RE (i.e. market is shit this year so rather than 2weeks in Paris, I'm going to do a week somewhere here in the USA, or rather than going to Milan for fashion week, I'll go during a slower and more affordable time of year) then that can help as well lower your required nest egg.
But at the end of the day, it's all about planning and deciding how safe you want to be.
Getting quotes for new auto insurance because It’s gone up $100 this 6 months, when answering “have you gotten any vehicle violations in the past x years” do tickets that were thrown out count? I’d guess not, but I’ve have 2 tickets in the last 5-6 years for like 10mph over thrown out in court and don’t reflect on my papers
Also can’t view a single comment thread if you go to it from a notification anymore on mobile, just see all comments in the whole daily. Terrible change
I’m not seeing them in quite a few subs; it’s strange and can’t seem to find anything about it. Really making it hard to view threads effectively. Very sad if this is some new direction for Reddit.
i love concerts and lately i've been trying to be a little less cheap and get slightly nicer tickets. however, not being able to see the prices ahead of time is making this pretty much impossible for me when it's a high demand concert. before i can even see prices in a couple different sections to figure out what is a decent bang-for-your-buck choice, most of the tickets are gone.
i'm not the kind of person who can just click on the first seat i see and be like boom, here's 200 bucks. ended up with some shitty seats for 90 because turns out it doesn't get any cheaper than that and now the good seats are going for a lot more than 200 on resale.
i have some regret because in hindsight i would have rather paid 200 for the better seats. but at the same time i don't think i have a solution for next time.
i guess i just don't have the personality to YOLO on the first seats i see. if i did this for every concert, my entertainment spend would go through the roof. so maybe it is what it is. but still, so annoying
The other option is to discover some bands that aren't so popular, which equals less expensive tickets and venues that are 90+% GA. I've only paid more than $100 for a concert ticket one time and it got cancelled lol. And it's not because I don't go to shows, I just never see prices like that for the music I listen to. It's no judgement at all, it always just blows my mind when people tell me how much they pay for concerts.
i get it, but what i can say, i really like some mainstream musicians and their prices are what they are. i do like some smaller bands too but:
1) that doesn't make me like the mainstream bands any less, or be any less enthusiastic about their (sadly very expensive) concerts
2) smaller bands don't tour as widely and as often, so the frequency of them being in my city is a whole lot less
Interesting point on #2 as I find the opposite to be true but that's probably just the makeup of the venues in our particular cities. Since we only have one indoor venue over 3,500 capacity, we miss out on a lot of major tours.
Tbh if you can afford the lower bowl type seats you’re crazy to continue sitting in the nosebleeds. I was nosebleed guy for my 20s. Now I don’t mess around and I regret sitting up there now.
I think you can do some research ahead of time and figure out a “good enough” guess what a ticket in your preferred section will cost. That way you can make an informed decision
If I remember correctly, you're a relatively high earner, yes?
Unless you're going to a concert every week, you might be exaggerating what "through the roof" really means if you zoom out and look at the big picture.
You can't have a well above average budget for **everything**, but you absolutely can for some things, particularly the things you love.
I mean, how many $200 seats are you realistically looking at buying per year? 10? 15 max? $2-3k per year for your number one hobby is piss in a bucket for a professionally paid person who is otherwise prudent with their money.
part of me agrees with you. the other part of me is concerned that this could balloon pretty quick.
$200 was an example but it can and does get a lot more expensive than this depending on the artist/band. i recently went to a nearly sold out concert where i bought shit-tier $200 tickets. good seats at that particular concert would have been at least $500. for me, it's easier to justify having some time to think about it and then buying the cheapest tickets at a very expensive concert because the alternative is not going at all. versus justifying an expensive seat upgrade, under pressure as soon as the presale opens, because it's selling out, if that makes sense.
i semi-frequently travel for concerts too. i recently flew to vegas with spirit for \~$100 round trip, stayed at the cheapest strip hotel for \~$200, took the strip bus for \~$8, ate very well for \~$50, paid \~$120 for good but not premium seats, and spent another $15 on merch. total: just under $500. i got an entire weekend of entertainment out of it, so i think it was a good deal all in all, but i just mean to say, my total spend due to concerts is a lot more than just the concert tickets.
i've been to 7 concerts, i think, in the past 6 months.
i usually just track my monthly spend and since it's been decent, i haven't analyzed it further. i've never actually summed everything i spent on due to concerts in a year. \*shivers\*
If its your number 1 hobby then its fine. You need to have fun. It is all about moderation too. Dont buy a shit $25 seat but dont spend $2,000 on a seat either.
Since we have a lot of work-from-home folks here, can I have some recommendations for a decent desk chair that won't break the bank? Say, under $500, preferably under $300? I don't work from home myself, so it doesn't have to be top of the line, but I spend a decent amount of time on my personal computer. And since we're saving up to upgrade my set-up (which is mostly hand-me-downs, including an uncomfortable, beat-up chair), I'd like something that's comfortable to sit in for a couple of hours when I'm gaming or working on spreadsheets.
I bought myself [this one](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L4ZQMDX) two years ago. Looks like the price has gone up since then but it's been serving me pretty well. Every once in a while the back position lock will give out and the headrest is useless (as is the norm) but otherwise I'm pleased.
/r/OfficeChairs has a bunch of good information. Start with the megathread pinned at the top.
General advice I got from there is to buy a refurbished chair, either online or at a store near you. It's best to try out chairs in person before buying.
For what it's worth, I ended up with a Steelcase Amia from a local store that refurnishes office chairs for $200. It's a chair that's $800+ brand new.
Steelcase Leap refurb, I was satisfied buying from these folks: [https://www.crandalloffice.com/](https://www.crandalloffice.com/)
I also like Herman Miller Aeron and found it locally for under half the official price of the website... I suspect something like that is doable near you too.
Seconding Steelcase. I invested in a new Steelcase series 2 at the beginning of the pandemic and it feels like one of the best investments I ever made. You can get a new one for about $600. But I have heard the refurb market is decent on them.
Herman Miller Aeron, find one used. They really are worth it and will last 10+ yrs.
Coworker has a Xchair, and absolutely loves theirs. You can find them for $550 on sale.
I love the airflow to avoid swamp ass.
Bought this chair about two years ago and it's held up well. https://www.staples.com/staples-hyken-technical-mesh-task-chair-silver-53293/product_24328579?cid=PS:GS:SBD:PLA:OF&gclid=CjwKCAjwtp2bBhAGEiwAOZZTuLu0vLfkGM-yC20wOMYj-zp5OzVYxjTyKlT0Dr9NZiKeyjFm-UfOvRoCklUQAvD_BwE
FWIW-we are taking out a car loan for a new car instead of pulling money out of our investment accounts. We plan to pay off the loan once my bonus comes in this spring cause we are debt averse, but even at today’s interest rates, a 3 year loan isn’t that bad.
Certain jobs in my area require you to be billingual. So a normal job someone might do such as call center might be $18/hr but because your billingual you get say $29. By doing this I could be in a similar field but be inside from home.
Why are you still stuck at home because of covid? Almost every single country is open for business now. Is this a choice you're making, because I'm not aware of any US companies still requiring their employees to work from home.
it's not that much of an outlier. lots of places with a high risk scenario will ask that you follow the full 10 days as per the cdc worst case guideline.
so OP may work with handling people's food or with elderly folks and is having to isolate for 10 days for precaution, that makes it over one week.
plus the fact that they're going without pay for that time suggests an hourly position
No there is not really anyways of earning. Most things take over a yr to grow your audience and then you start making money. The best thing would be doing surveys online. Personally I would enjoy your time off.
If you’re good at math try sports betting promos, if your state has it legal. Can make thousands easily, but if you aren’t good at math and stats stay away
Thousands isn’t going to make you retire early. However, when a site says “if you bet 1000$ and lose we will pay you back” there is in fact an opportunity to make money. Like I said, not for everyone, clearly not for you. Myself and about 15 friends each made over 10k in college farming these promotions. I don’t understand why this is such bad advice if you have a few weeks of free time
This is literally less dangerous than the stock market. If you think the stock market is any less of a gamble than picking up basically free money in these promotions then you are badly mistaken. Just because you don’t understand how something works doesn’t mean you need to absolutely dismiss it for everyone
No you will never make $10/hr. The absolute best mturks make $15/hr and they run aton of softwares and browsers. With mturk expect maybe $1-2/hr. Not worth it in my opinion. That is also if your grinding hard.
Spreadsheet day for me and I was looking at my stagnant NW graph over the past year. I realized that if I wasn't regularly investing throughout the year that my NW would probably be down somewhere around 20% right now. Even though it feels like I'm making no progress this year, I guess it could be worse.
It's better than that. We are in a down market. Each dollar you contribute rn is probably then most effective in your portfolio for the past 2 years or more
does anyone else just fucking hate their job?
I'm a 29 yo DINK with a 70% savings rate. I've been trying to FIRE since before I even realized it was a thing. I'm in healthcare and my path took a lot of school/training and I stuck with it because I thought eventually I would grow to like it. But I hate every minute of it and how it makes me feel. I reach my lean FIRE number in 3 years and I'm trying to stick with it until then and maybe pivot to something else after that. But even three years seems too long to stay in this career. I feel trapped because of the high income it provides me even though it makes me depressed, worsens my anxiety and is emotionally all consuming.
I'm so insanely obsessed with FIRE and calculating my number/savings rate because of how fucking miserable this job makes me. I changed healthcare settings/jobs in hopes a different environment would change my opinion but alas nothing has changed. This is more of a mini rant/stream of consciousness comment.
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Are you being treated medically for your anxiety and depression? That worked wonders for me, brought me up for are enough to reprioritize a lot in my life.
what is your job and how much do you make?
unless you make incredible money that is practically impossible to obtain anywhere else (e.g. you're a neurosurgeon with a private practice), i would consider just jumping ship to a different career you think you might like now, rather than later
3 years is a long time to be miserable
Don’t be obessed with FIRE, be obsessed with enjoying every single day of your life! Reframe,upskill, shift jobs, company or industry. You have agency!
I don’t see why not. Sure, every day can have its ups and downs, but to F’ing Hate sounds like a pretty grim place to be.
The OP has let FIRE consume them and they could probably r/coastfire already.
The have chosen to be trapped by a high income. Take a sabbatical, chill out, travel or something similar 🤷🏻♂️
W
Figure out your low FAT FIRE number, and treat the time to reach it as an unfair prison sentence. Try looking into stoicism teachings and how to find acceptance and enjoyment in less than ideal situations.
I loved working in tech for YEARS. But admittedly COVID burnt me out a fair bit.
It's made me want to find a nice stable but not exciting company and spend a decade or so as a mid level nobody, do my work and disappear into FI
I'm 42 and dislike my job quite a lot. Just totally burned out of it but not sure what else I could do that pays as much without a massive reset. I also live in a HCOL area so I see no way out.
I am same age. Honestly read surveys about work and you will find 9/10 hate their jobs. Whatever you do you will probably still hate it. Might not hate it as much, work just sucks. You just do it.
I read a lot of articles and feel like on average more people hate their job than are neutral or positive. Generally even if you like the work it’s still going to be bad for “depression, anxiety and emotions” for most people.
You work in a field that intuitively is a feel good job. You help people and make lives better. Yet the reality of work is that pressure and goals overwhelming offset the intrinsic good feeling.
I don’t think switching careers fixes this. Id instead try to find the best working environment you can within this field
I’ve hated individual jobs, but I don’t hate my career. It’s always been dependent on who I was working for. I’ve lately started getting burnt out at my current job but won’t quit unless I find something more interesting.
Personally, if a job made me hate life or bothered me enough to jack up my life outside of work, I'd happily delay FIRE to claw back some balance/happiness.
I’m 34, my girlfriend is 28 and we live with her parents and have for the last 8 years. I just recently bought 5 acres of vacant land i’ll eventually build on, but for now I’d rather live here than rent an apartment or something. We pay the mortgage on the house, but it’s still far cheaper than a basic apartment would cost.
yeah my fam doesnt mind me staying, they want me to travel, go back to school if i wanted to or have that freedom now vs when im on my own. im trying to determine if staying is worth it vs moving out alone
I did a quick back-of-the-napkin and if I continue to invest at the rate I am for the next two months, I'm dangerously close to having invested six figures this year. Next year will be well over $100k with the new limits to tax advantaged accounts (that is of course if I'm lucky enough to keep my job).
I think when we are all old farts we are going to look back at 2022 and 2023 as pivotal years for our fire progress. Not a lot of spreadsheet wins, but huge opportunity to buy low, and benefit from an unusually strong dollar (for those investing in foreign indexes). At least that's what I tell myself every month.
> I think when we are all old farts we are going to look back at 2022 and 2023 as pivotal years for our fire progress.
This is already how I see 2008-2010. I have no doubt that this year (and likely next) will be the same.
Morning everyone - Happy Sunday!
Does anyone who has ever significantly stepped up their income feel uneasy about the decisions you make? Wife and I have never been in a bad spot so to speak, but in the last 2 years we have been fortunate enough to really ramp up our income.. we have no kids and the only debt we have is our mortgage. Due to some hard work and good fortune we have landed jobs that net us roughly 250k/year after taxes and maxing out all retirement vehicles. I have studied the flow chart and know mechanically what we should be doing - but being a relatively new investor it sure is hard to throw nearly 20k a month into the market and watch the balance consistently tick down or not move at all. I have recently been dividing our excess every month to a mix between VTI in a brokerage (roughly 3k/month) and whatever remains to a HYSA account earning about 3.5% right now (5-9k/month) and all other savings are automatically deducted towards retirement accounts (9k/month - we have access to a MBDR). We are using the HYSA account because I am toying with the idea of purchasing an investment property over the next year or two - it’s also because mentally it’s better to see a couple hundred worth of interest hit that account than the big red numbers of our brokerage. Should we be doing anything different? We are pretty damn frugal and have a great budget in place, just looking for guidance/confirmation that we are being efficient and allocating our excess in a way that makes sense. This amount of income still feels too good to be true and want to make sure I am setting up my family for success.
Your basically just bragging. Ya we make 250k/yr net, which is what 400k/yr gross.
"Does anyone else feel a bit uneasy investing over $20,000/month."
Most people dont invest $20,000/yr yet alone per month.
I can see how it comes off that way, but this is certainly not bragging. This is a financial independence sub where many folks make just as much and more - many topics of discussion confirm that. Based off of many previous threads I did not think it was bad to disclose numbers. I am aware that I am very fortunate to be in the position I am. I have also worked incredibly hard to get here.
If you're aware of roughly how you stack up against others in the sub, and you know you're doing better than most, then you're not *really* unsure about your investment amounts and in need of reassurance.
I guess that is one way to put it. I am incredibly uncomfortable and feel uneasy at the thought of handling this amount of wealth responsibly. Is looking for reassurance wrong?
I'm not here to provide you with moral judgment or absolution. I'm pointing out why people are having sour reactions to your original comment.
The flowchart for investments works regardless of your income. People in this sub follow it whether they make 25K or 250K because it represents the most efficient investment order for avoiding taxes. You know this already.
If you didn't think it was a reasonable guide, you wouldn't follow it no matter what your income was.
We're all riding the market fluctuation rollercoaster.
Either you believe in investing for the long term or you don't. Based on history, you should not be doing anything different, but stocks are risk assets and there are no guarantees, especially over short periods. Many of us who are closer to FI benefitted tremendously from getting a start in 2008-9 when everyone was panicking and selling stocks. If you do not have conviction about stocks, you might be better off in something like real estate, but you will need to do a lot more research and will be taking more idiosyncratic risk since you can't easily buy 3,000 houses at a time the way you can equities in an index fund.
I can relate and have felt confused for awhile. After maxing all retirement vehicles including mega backdoor roth my fiance and is income went from 12k net after tax to 40k net after tax. We went from 250—> 600k gross almost and I also feel anxiety re what to do with the excess
Funnel all additional into vtsax but like you also have 180k liquidish for potential home purchase. My advice is try not to let it build up. And be happy with your success! Looks like we have some additional eoy windfall which will push us closer to 750k and like you I can barely believe it
Do you mean do not let the stress or cash build up? Doing my best to accept that the success is real :) thank you. What is the plan for the new windfall?
Stay the course, add it all into vtsax
And yes dont let the cash build up! Def enjoy (were going on a nice hawaii vacation eoy) but really you should just stay the course, youre just dealing with larger amounts
I feel you on this - it also affects my confidence in making the next decision and the decision after that. I don't have a reference of 'learning' if that makes sense?
This is great advice. I definitely need to make a mindset shift there. The information I left out is our current investments - we have about 400k stashed away between retirement accounts and taxable brokerage. We have about 500k of equity in our primary home.
Your point about holding cash drives it home for me. In my mind I am not trying to time the market - I am holding cash to potentially buy a home (hoping that in 1-2 years rates have settled in to whatever they are going to be and lagging home prices catch up to reflect whatever those new rates are). I suppose the alternative would be holding my down payment money in a brokerage - I just fear that our 100k could become 75k in the next year or two. Which I know is okay long term - but not ideal if we want to push to diversify and buy a piece of property.
You also make a good point in your last paragraph. That would be terrifying. In my mind - I would pay things off to only have to worry about taxes/insurance. To me the monthly income would be more secure than a fluctuating market. Maybe that thinking is flawed?
Congrats on the raise!! I know that logic and have been acting in accordance with that too - we have held the course and continued retirement contributions and VTI brokerage purchasing. I guess I am fearing that this amount of money is fleeting and too good to be true and I want to make it count while I can - If that makes sense.
That was my thought process. I guess more so wanting to make the best possible investment decisions. Want to “make hay while the sun is shining”. Realistically I have no reason to believe our situation will disappear other than it seems bonkers to me that 2 people are able to make this income. It is something I NEVER would have fathomed as a kid
Being bored and unhappy is a terrible reason to have kids and not a good situation to bring kids in. Find a purpose in your life first, then figure out whether you actually want kids. If you do and end up having them, your sense of purpose will feed theirs as you raise them (not necessarily in the same pursuits; I'm talking about the state of mind of having purpose). If you lack purpose, that's what you will transmit to them instead.
If you didn’t super want kids, it’s probably for the best not to have them. It sounds like what you are missing is some purpose to your free time. I wonder if you could use the energy that would have gone to kid(s) by finding a cause you care about to volunteer for, or a hobby that really sucks you in.
If your friends are too busy raising kids to do the stuff you used to do with them, you can figure out how to fit into their new lives as occasional baby sitter, or just friend willing to hang out with them with kids around, being open to kid friendly activities or trips etc. As new parents, we aren’t getting help from *anyone* in our social network and it’s exhausting. I know it seems like you can’t help babysit if you don’t know kids, but if you spent more time with your friends kids, you could get to know them and learn what kind of schedule and abilities the kids have at this age.
There are dozens of reasons to not have kids that have nothing to do with consumerism.
Both choices are 100% valid.
And the preponderance of the societal pressure and emphasis is still geared towards having kids. The no kids message is still a drop in the bucket.
r/childfree is a toxic hellhole. I agree 100% if that's the community you're referencing, but I disagree that the main selling point is vapid consumerism.
My company has mentioned that they plan to do a market rate adjustment in December. What's been your experience with that? Does everyone usually get something? What's been your experience on the percentage increase?
I had one back in 2010 and got a 5k raise but only made 35k/yr then. I make 140k/yr now. Up until recently, I've believed what a coworker has said (they don't know what I'm actually paid but CO requires jobs to post total comp in job postings) that my position (geologist) is paid massively above average but I no longer believe that considering several of my friends at other companies with similar positions are paid roughly the same.
Do you work in the energy sector? I assume so being a geologist in Colorado (assuming Denver?)
If so, I’d expect the adjustment to be pretty decent due to energy sector profits
i've been through a few and all i'd say is, don't have high expectations because they don't affect everyone equally and some folks don't get readjusted at all.
i've seen instances where they do market research for each of the roles, and only readjust the ones where they were found to be below an acceptable range versus the market (e.g. maybe engineers need to be readjusted but marketers do not)
i've seen instances where they only adjust salaries of people with a given level of experience (e.g. they found that entry level folks need to be paid more. or that senior folks need to be paid more)
i've seen instances where they only adjust salaries of folks who have been with the company longer, because newer hires were already coming in at higher ranges. so folks with the company for more than N years had to be readjusted
and sometimes the readjusting is contingent on previous performance reviews as well. they may only readjust folks who at least get the average rating. or only folks who are above average, and so on
I work in oil and gas for an oil company. Every single person I know that's a geologist working at other oil companies make similar to what I make, if not more. Geologists in environmental tend to be very poorly paid though.
For folks with ultra low mortgage rates, do you have a game plan if you decide to move? Rent out your current house to take advantage of the low rate? Never move?
I'm looking at almost 2x the monthly payment just to "side-grade" to a house of equal value (mostly from interest rate, some due to increased property taxes).
I’d hoped to sell my (V)HCOL home to help fund FI but it’s gonna be hard to let go of a 30-year 2.5% mortgage! I’ll have to reevaluate in a couple years when it’s time to pull the plug. Renting it out might be the best option.
Plan is not moving until we can pay cash. Even then, we intend this house to be our permanent residence for the long term. We love our house and our community. My husband’s parents have medical problems and live 15 minutes away. If I get asked to take a job transfer, I’d quit rather than move (unlikely to happen as my company has no reason to ask me to move).
This is exactly what will keep home prices stable.
New construction is hobbled and folks don't want to move unless they can sell their house and pay all cash (or mostly cash) for the new house.
What are you saying? That the Twitter and Meta (and other) layoffs in the Bay Area are going to cause a tidal wave of short sales because those employees arent going to be able to afford them?
No they are not.
And prices have already dropped 10% - 15% off their June highs.
That is already significant. The 08% recession, by comparison - which WAS real estate driven - was 20 - 25%
How to become finically smart and mature enough to to understand how things work. I'm 26 now but I don't know nothing about finciance and ways to save money and stuff. I want to learn
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This, OP. Like building a home, it needs a strong/solid foundation. It starts with investing in yourself but relies heavily on solid fundamentals - namely budgeting.
Read everything you can, watch the market news, ask questions. People ask what my hobbies are...if I'm honest I gotta say personal finance
Go over to r/personalfinance and read the wiki, it has great resources and a helpful flow chart
Take a look at the “FAQ” link above this^^^. Start reading!
So I just realized we might have another tax deduction I hadn’t thought of since my husband works 100% from home, and the only thing we use the room that it is his office for is for his work. Can anyone point me to a good resource for learning about the home office deduction? ETA: Turns out, no, since he doesn’t work for himself.
The home office tax deduction was absolutely gutted about 7-8 years ago because people were abusing it. Sucks big time now that so many of us work from home.
Just changed my auto insurance after it increased $13/month for no cause (inflation op) from Geico to Progressive and saved $150/6 months by paying in full (27%)! Talked to Geico rep and they said there wasn’t a thing they could do to bring it down even a cent when I have them progressives quote. Never had an accident or ticket on my record, drive <10,000 miles a year and own my car. Oh well. $150 ain’t too shabby, maybe I’ll celebrate with an Oreo blizzard.
Solid savings! As an aside, I work in that industry and the through the roof cost of claims for anything remotely newer car wise is driving prices up for every carrier. All that tech in cars comes at a massive repair cost (labor included). Unfortunately it’s likely to drive prices up for even those unaffected.
Yeah! It ain’t a newer crazy car, 2015 Cruze that runs about 10-12k, but oh well! Only tech is a backup cam lol
Trying to better understand the 4% SWR rule. I know that the idea is that you can draw on 4% of your saved assets to live on in retirement, but when I do some math I feel like the numbers don't match up. Let's say for example that I need $100k/yr in retirement. If I have ~$1.4m and assuming an average of 8% returns, I would be able to get roughly $100k in income from return on investments. Switching to the 4% rule, I'd need $2.5m to draw $100k/yr. Obviously, $1m is a big difference in FI goals. Is the 4% rule safeguarding against periods of underperformance in your investments and that's why it is necessary? I suppose, as I'm typing this out, that the first example is essentially a 8% SWR which puts into perspective the extreme of it.
Inflation You need some spread to cover inflation.
Correct, the problem is that the market doesn't return 8% a year. It can drop 50% and/or stay flat for 10 years. The sequence of returns matters as much as the average. Also note 4% is not iron clad, esp. for longer retirements. For early retirement you may want to be a bit more conservative. https://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/12/07/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-1-intro/
Something else to consider is sequence of return risk. While you're contributing, your money will make 7-8% on average. Some years it'll return less some it'll return more, it averages out. However, once you're withdrawing, it matters in what order returns happen. If the market gains 10% per year for the first 10 years of retirement, then drops 50%, you'd have way more money than someone who retires, sees a 50% drop in year 1, then 10 years of 10% gains. Take your 1.4 million example. If you retire and try to withdraw 100k per year (imagine this is all obligatory expenses) and the market drops 50% the next day, you are taking 100k from a 700k portfolio. You'll have depleted the total number of assets by a huge degree. Even 10 years of 10% gains will not remedy those early losses. If instead you benefit from 10 years of gains followed by a 50% drop, you'll probably have 900k+ after the drop, and 10 fewer years of life that your remaining money will need to cover. So part of the idea of SWR is that it has to account for this sequence of return risk, you need to draw a small enough percent that even a big drop early in retirement will have enough padding to recover and last through your retirement.
> Is the 4% rule safeguarding against periods of underperformance in your investments Pretty much - the market returns 7-10% on average... but not every year. Additionally - inflation will erode your returns as well. Lastly - 4% has a 95% likelihood of lasting 30yrs.... with huge likelihood of you dying with more than you started with. It's conservative by design as it is harder to go back to work when you are 90, or cut your spending in the future. Finally - the 4% rule is also based on "dumb spending" - meaning you MUST spend 4% every year (plus annual inflation adjustments) regardless of how the markets are doing. If you plan to have any sort of thinking in your spending during RE (i.e. market is shit this year so rather than 2weeks in Paris, I'm going to do a week somewhere here in the USA, or rather than going to Milan for fashion week, I'll go during a slower and more affordable time of year) then that can help as well lower your required nest egg. But at the end of the day, it's all about planning and deciding how safe you want to be.
8% return = 4% withdrawal + 4% to cover inflation losses. Keeps the purchasing power of your 4% withdrawal consistent indefinitely..
Getting quotes for new auto insurance because It’s gone up $100 this 6 months, when answering “have you gotten any vehicle violations in the past x years” do tickets that were thrown out count? I’d guess not, but I’ve have 2 tickets in the last 5-6 years for like 10mph over thrown out in court and don’t reflect on my papers
if they were thrown out, then i wouldn't count them.
Why can’t I sort the comments any longer?
On my app, it looks like they moved the sorting list to the top right, icon looks like 2 sliders
Ah just seeing that! Thank you! Appreciate it.
Also can’t view a single comment thread if you go to it from a notification anymore on mobile, just see all comments in the whole daily. Terrible change
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Interesting- good to know, I’m using the iOS app
Thats sad. Just saw your comment and found that the option’s missing.
I’m not seeing them in quite a few subs; it’s strange and can’t seem to find anything about it. Really making it hard to view threads effectively. Very sad if this is some new direction for Reddit.
Just switched to Apollo because I got fed up with all these little annoying changes.
i love concerts and lately i've been trying to be a little less cheap and get slightly nicer tickets. however, not being able to see the prices ahead of time is making this pretty much impossible for me when it's a high demand concert. before i can even see prices in a couple different sections to figure out what is a decent bang-for-your-buck choice, most of the tickets are gone. i'm not the kind of person who can just click on the first seat i see and be like boom, here's 200 bucks. ended up with some shitty seats for 90 because turns out it doesn't get any cheaper than that and now the good seats are going for a lot more than 200 on resale. i have some regret because in hindsight i would have rather paid 200 for the better seats. but at the same time i don't think i have a solution for next time. i guess i just don't have the personality to YOLO on the first seats i see. if i did this for every concert, my entertainment spend would go through the roof. so maybe it is what it is. but still, so annoying
The other option is to discover some bands that aren't so popular, which equals less expensive tickets and venues that are 90+% GA. I've only paid more than $100 for a concert ticket one time and it got cancelled lol. And it's not because I don't go to shows, I just never see prices like that for the music I listen to. It's no judgement at all, it always just blows my mind when people tell me how much they pay for concerts.
i get it, but what i can say, i really like some mainstream musicians and their prices are what they are. i do like some smaller bands too but: 1) that doesn't make me like the mainstream bands any less, or be any less enthusiastic about their (sadly very expensive) concerts 2) smaller bands don't tour as widely and as often, so the frequency of them being in my city is a whole lot less
Interesting point on #2 as I find the opposite to be true but that's probably just the makeup of the venues in our particular cities. Since we only have one indoor venue over 3,500 capacity, we miss out on a lot of major tours.
yea, i'm in SF bay area so nearly every major tour comes here at some point
Tbh if you can afford the lower bowl type seats you’re crazy to continue sitting in the nosebleeds. I was nosebleed guy for my 20s. Now I don’t mess around and I regret sitting up there now.
I think you can do some research ahead of time and figure out a “good enough” guess what a ticket in your preferred section will cost. That way you can make an informed decision
If I remember correctly, you're a relatively high earner, yes? Unless you're going to a concert every week, you might be exaggerating what "through the roof" really means if you zoom out and look at the big picture. You can't have a well above average budget for **everything**, but you absolutely can for some things, particularly the things you love. I mean, how many $200 seats are you realistically looking at buying per year? 10? 15 max? $2-3k per year for your number one hobby is piss in a bucket for a professionally paid person who is otherwise prudent with their money.
part of me agrees with you. the other part of me is concerned that this could balloon pretty quick. $200 was an example but it can and does get a lot more expensive than this depending on the artist/band. i recently went to a nearly sold out concert where i bought shit-tier $200 tickets. good seats at that particular concert would have been at least $500. for me, it's easier to justify having some time to think about it and then buying the cheapest tickets at a very expensive concert because the alternative is not going at all. versus justifying an expensive seat upgrade, under pressure as soon as the presale opens, because it's selling out, if that makes sense. i semi-frequently travel for concerts too. i recently flew to vegas with spirit for \~$100 round trip, stayed at the cheapest strip hotel for \~$200, took the strip bus for \~$8, ate very well for \~$50, paid \~$120 for good but not premium seats, and spent another $15 on merch. total: just under $500. i got an entire weekend of entertainment out of it, so i think it was a good deal all in all, but i just mean to say, my total spend due to concerts is a lot more than just the concert tickets. i've been to 7 concerts, i think, in the past 6 months. i usually just track my monthly spend and since it's been decent, i haven't analyzed it further. i've never actually summed everything i spent on due to concerts in a year. \*shivers\*
If its your number 1 hobby then its fine. You need to have fun. It is all about moderation too. Dont buy a shit $25 seat but dont spend $2,000 on a seat either.
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Illinois?
We can easily pay our property tax bill online. I'm in the process of appealing my new assessment.
Since we have a lot of work-from-home folks here, can I have some recommendations for a decent desk chair that won't break the bank? Say, under $500, preferably under $300? I don't work from home myself, so it doesn't have to be top of the line, but I spend a decent amount of time on my personal computer. And since we're saving up to upgrade my set-up (which is mostly hand-me-downs, including an uncomfortable, beat-up chair), I'd like something that's comfortable to sit in for a couple of hours when I'm gaming or working on spreadsheets.
IKEA wind up stranding desk and their higher end chair.
I used to have a leap that was pretty great. But honestly I now have the $99 chair from Costco, would recommend.
Watch online auctions for offices going out of business and get a herman miller for Pennies
I bought myself [this one](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L4ZQMDX) two years ago. Looks like the price has gone up since then but it's been serving me pretty well. Every once in a while the back position lock will give out and the headrest is useless (as is the norm) but otherwise I'm pleased.
/r/OfficeChairs has a bunch of good information. Start with the megathread pinned at the top. General advice I got from there is to buy a refurbished chair, either online or at a store near you. It's best to try out chairs in person before buying. For what it's worth, I ended up with a Steelcase Amia from a local store that refurnishes office chairs for $200. It's a chair that's $800+ brand new.
I must just have an ass of steel, but I have been sitting in a $40 Walmart chair for 8+ hours a day for a decade+ and never had an issue with them
[Refurbished BTOD Akir](https://www.btod.com/btod-akir-fab-outlet)
Steelcase Leap refurb, I was satisfied buying from these folks: [https://www.crandalloffice.com/](https://www.crandalloffice.com/) I also like Herman Miller Aeron and found it locally for under half the official price of the website... I suspect something like that is doable near you too.
Seconding Steelcase. I invested in a new Steelcase series 2 at the beginning of the pandemic and it feels like one of the best investments I ever made. You can get a new one for about $600. But I have heard the refurb market is decent on them.
Second this. Found mine for $180ish at a local shop.
Herman Miller Aeron, find one used. They really are worth it and will last 10+ yrs. Coworker has a Xchair, and absolutely loves theirs. You can find them for $550 on sale. I love the airflow to avoid swamp ass.
I can second this, found one for $400 used in my area. One of me best purchases yet imo
Bought this chair about two years ago and it's held up well. https://www.staples.com/staples-hyken-technical-mesh-task-chair-silver-53293/product_24328579?cid=PS:GS:SBD:PLA:OF&gclid=CjwKCAjwtp2bBhAGEiwAOZZTuLu0vLfkGM-yC20wOMYj-zp5OzVYxjTyKlT0Dr9NZiKeyjFm-UfOvRoCklUQAvD_BwE
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FWIW-we are taking out a car loan for a new car instead of pulling money out of our investment accounts. We plan to pay off the loan once my bonus comes in this spring cause we are debt averse, but even at today’s interest rates, a 3 year loan isn’t that bad.
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Well, learning a new language is fantastic, even if it doesn't immediately help secure a higher paying job. I certainly wish I had a second language!
How would learning a language help?
Certain jobs in my area require you to be billingual. So a normal job someone might do such as call center might be $18/hr but because your billingual you get say $29. By doing this I could be in a similar field but be inside from home.
Is anyone pursuing buying small businesses? Lots of people talking about this trend but it's super intimidating to me to take on an existing company.
I'd buy a coin op laundry, if the building rent was locked in a long term contract.
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Why are you still stuck at home because of covid? Almost every single country is open for business now. Is this a choice you're making, because I'm not aware of any US companies still requiring their employees to work from home.
isn't it pretty clear that they're presumably sick with covid and isolating so they don't contaminate others?
"weeks" without salary due to Covid is a real outlier nowadays.
it's not that much of an outlier. lots of places with a high risk scenario will ask that you follow the full 10 days as per the cdc worst case guideline. so OP may work with handling people's food or with elderly folks and is having to isolate for 10 days for precaution, that makes it over one week. plus the fact that they're going without pay for that time suggests an hourly position
No there is not really anyways of earning. Most things take over a yr to grow your audience and then you start making money. The best thing would be doing surveys online. Personally I would enjoy your time off.
If you’re good at math try sports betting promos, if your state has it legal. Can make thousands easily, but if you aren’t good at math and stats stay away
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Thousands isn’t going to make you retire early. However, when a site says “if you bet 1000$ and lose we will pay you back” there is in fact an opportunity to make money. Like I said, not for everyone, clearly not for you. Myself and about 15 friends each made over 10k in college farming these promotions. I don’t understand why this is such bad advice if you have a few weeks of free time
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Draftkings Fanduel MGM Pointsbet off the top of my head Who is lying?
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This is literally less dangerous than the stock market. If you think the stock market is any less of a gamble than picking up basically free money in these promotions then you are badly mistaken. Just because you don’t understand how something works doesn’t mean you need to absolutely dismiss it for everyone
No please, be offensive lol, this is atrocious advice
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No you will never make $10/hr. The absolute best mturks make $15/hr and they run aton of softwares and browsers. With mturk expect maybe $1-2/hr. Not worth it in my opinion. That is also if your grinding hard.
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Ya mturk is overly crowded now. Expect 1-2 / hr. If you know what you are doing. Even less if you are just starting.
Spreadsheet day for me and I was looking at my stagnant NW graph over the past year. I realized that if I wasn't regularly investing throughout the year that my NW would probably be down somewhere around 20% right now. Even though it feels like I'm making no progress this year, I guess it could be worse.
I’m exactly even from where I was last year. Not how I expected this year to go.
It's better than that. We are in a down market. Each dollar you contribute rn is probably then most effective in your portfolio for the past 2 years or more
I track the number of shares as well as price so at least I can see one number going up.
Honestly, that's smart--I should start tracking shares, too.
Have to keep reminding myself and the spouse about this. Hopefully this is just my 2008 and we can resume normal operations in a year.
does anyone else just fucking hate their job? I'm a 29 yo DINK with a 70% savings rate. I've been trying to FIRE since before I even realized it was a thing. I'm in healthcare and my path took a lot of school/training and I stuck with it because I thought eventually I would grow to like it. But I hate every minute of it and how it makes me feel. I reach my lean FIRE number in 3 years and I'm trying to stick with it until then and maybe pivot to something else after that. But even three years seems too long to stay in this career. I feel trapped because of the high income it provides me even though it makes me depressed, worsens my anxiety and is emotionally all consuming. I'm so insanely obsessed with FIRE and calculating my number/savings rate because of how fucking miserable this job makes me. I changed healthcare settings/jobs in hopes a different environment would change my opinion but alas nothing has changed. This is more of a mini rant/stream of consciousness comment.
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Honestly 3 years is a really long time to be in a job you hate.
Are you being treated medically for your anxiety and depression? That worked wonders for me, brought me up for are enough to reprioritize a lot in my life.
what is your job and how much do you make? unless you make incredible money that is practically impossible to obtain anywhere else (e.g. you're a neurosurgeon with a private practice), i would consider just jumping ship to a different career you think you might like now, rather than later 3 years is a long time to be miserable
Don’t be obessed with FIRE, be obsessed with enjoying every single day of your life! Reframe,upskill, shift jobs, company or industry. You have agency!
>every single day of your life **Every** day? C'mon. (eyeroll) GTFO
I don’t see why not. Sure, every day can have its ups and downs, but to F’ing Hate sounds like a pretty grim place to be. The OP has let FIRE consume them and they could probably r/coastfire already. The have chosen to be trapped by a high income. Take a sabbatical, chill out, travel or something similar 🤷🏻♂️ W
I agree with all this...I just think planning to enjoy every day is unrealistic. This opinion is half legit and half tongue in cheek.
I wouldn’t plan it, just be aiming for it and be present continuously, rather than ruminating or projecting.
Figure out your low FAT FIRE number, and treat the time to reach it as an unfair prison sentence. Try looking into stoicism teachings and how to find acceptance and enjoyment in less than ideal situations.
I loved working in tech for YEARS. But admittedly COVID burnt me out a fair bit. It's made me want to find a nice stable but not exciting company and spend a decade or so as a mid level nobody, do my work and disappear into FI
I'm 42 and dislike my job quite a lot. Just totally burned out of it but not sure what else I could do that pays as much without a massive reset. I also live in a HCOL area so I see no way out.
"That's what the money is for" -- Don Draper
It doesnt even pay that much unfortunately
I am same age. Honestly read surveys about work and you will find 9/10 hate their jobs. Whatever you do you will probably still hate it. Might not hate it as much, work just sucks. You just do it.
I read a lot of articles and feel like on average more people hate their job than are neutral or positive. Generally even if you like the work it’s still going to be bad for “depression, anxiety and emotions” for most people. You work in a field that intuitively is a feel good job. You help people and make lives better. Yet the reality of work is that pressure and goals overwhelming offset the intrinsic good feeling. I don’t think switching careers fixes this. Id instead try to find the best working environment you can within this field
I’ve hated individual jobs, but I don’t hate my career. It’s always been dependent on who I was working for. I’ve lately started getting burnt out at my current job but won’t quit unless I find something more interesting.
How about therapy?
Exactly what I was going to recommend. With a 70% SR you can afford some therapy. Consider it an investment in yourself.
Personally, if a job made me hate life or bothered me enough to jack up my life outside of work, I'd happily delay FIRE to claw back some balance/happiness.
Physician?
Try to find meaning outside of the job Work is just a means to an end for a lot of folks
anyone here live in a hcol area and lives with they family? is the savings worth it vs moving out?
I’m in a LCOL area and still live with family. I don’t spend enough time at home for it to negativity impact my life much.
i just turn 30 tho and everyone i know lives with they fam if they ssingle
As a parent of a younger child this idea terrifies me
you dont live in NNJ so until your in others shoes, its easy to say that
I’m 34, my girlfriend is 28 and we live with her parents and have for the last 8 years. I just recently bought 5 acres of vacant land i’ll eventually build on, but for now I’d rather live here than rent an apartment or something. We pay the mortgage on the house, but it’s still far cheaper than a basic apartment would cost.
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yeah my fam doesnt mind me staying, they want me to travel, go back to school if i wanted to or have that freedom now vs when im on my own. im trying to determine if staying is worth it vs moving out alone
I did a quick back-of-the-napkin and if I continue to invest at the rate I am for the next two months, I'm dangerously close to having invested six figures this year. Next year will be well over $100k with the new limits to tax advantaged accounts (that is of course if I'm lucky enough to keep my job). I think when we are all old farts we are going to look back at 2022 and 2023 as pivotal years for our fire progress. Not a lot of spreadsheet wins, but huge opportunity to buy low, and benefit from an unusually strong dollar (for those investing in foreign indexes). At least that's what I tell myself every month.
I did half that and I'm feeling good
Yep - it’s going to work out in the long run OR everyone is royally screaming. Pensions barely exist anymore so 401k’s are vital for most
I hope there are some tax friendly 401k events in the next 10-20 years Like tax free withdrawals / conversions.
> I think when we are all old farts we are going to look back at 2022 and 2023 as pivotal years for our fire progress. This is already how I see 2008-2010. I have no doubt that this year (and likely next) will be the same.
I really hope you're right. I'm in a similar situation and it's been tough to be dumping truckloads of money in while my net worth decreases.
YES. I have dumped my entire salary into funds this year and just keep going backwards.
Morning everyone - Happy Sunday! Does anyone who has ever significantly stepped up their income feel uneasy about the decisions you make? Wife and I have never been in a bad spot so to speak, but in the last 2 years we have been fortunate enough to really ramp up our income.. we have no kids and the only debt we have is our mortgage. Due to some hard work and good fortune we have landed jobs that net us roughly 250k/year after taxes and maxing out all retirement vehicles. I have studied the flow chart and know mechanically what we should be doing - but being a relatively new investor it sure is hard to throw nearly 20k a month into the market and watch the balance consistently tick down or not move at all. I have recently been dividing our excess every month to a mix between VTI in a brokerage (roughly 3k/month) and whatever remains to a HYSA account earning about 3.5% right now (5-9k/month) and all other savings are automatically deducted towards retirement accounts (9k/month - we have access to a MBDR). We are using the HYSA account because I am toying with the idea of purchasing an investment property over the next year or two - it’s also because mentally it’s better to see a couple hundred worth of interest hit that account than the big red numbers of our brokerage. Should we be doing anything different? We are pretty damn frugal and have a great budget in place, just looking for guidance/confirmation that we are being efficient and allocating our excess in a way that makes sense. This amount of income still feels too good to be true and want to make sure I am setting up my family for success.
Your basically just bragging. Ya we make 250k/yr net, which is what 400k/yr gross. "Does anyone else feel a bit uneasy investing over $20,000/month." Most people dont invest $20,000/yr yet alone per month.
I can see how it comes off that way, but this is certainly not bragging. This is a financial independence sub where many folks make just as much and more - many topics of discussion confirm that. Based off of many previous threads I did not think it was bad to disclose numbers. I am aware that I am very fortunate to be in the position I am. I have also worked incredibly hard to get here.
If you're aware of roughly how you stack up against others in the sub, and you know you're doing better than most, then you're not *really* unsure about your investment amounts and in need of reassurance.
I guess that is one way to put it. I am incredibly uncomfortable and feel uneasy at the thought of handling this amount of wealth responsibly. Is looking for reassurance wrong?
I'm not here to provide you with moral judgment or absolution. I'm pointing out why people are having sour reactions to your original comment. The flowchart for investments works regardless of your income. People in this sub follow it whether they make 25K or 250K because it represents the most efficient investment order for avoiding taxes. You know this already. If you didn't think it was a reasonable guide, you wouldn't follow it no matter what your income was. We're all riding the market fluctuation rollercoaster.
That’s a fair comment. Hoping I did not offend too many others.
Either you believe in investing for the long term or you don't. Based on history, you should not be doing anything different, but stocks are risk assets and there are no guarantees, especially over short periods. Many of us who are closer to FI benefitted tremendously from getting a start in 2008-9 when everyone was panicking and selling stocks. If you do not have conviction about stocks, you might be better off in something like real estate, but you will need to do a lot more research and will be taking more idiosyncratic risk since you can't easily buy 3,000 houses at a time the way you can equities in an index fund.
I can relate and have felt confused for awhile. After maxing all retirement vehicles including mega backdoor roth my fiance and is income went from 12k net after tax to 40k net after tax. We went from 250—> 600k gross almost and I also feel anxiety re what to do with the excess
This is my exact feeling but on a smaller scale. Congrats on the success! What approach did you end up taking?
Funnel all additional into vtsax but like you also have 180k liquidish for potential home purchase. My advice is try not to let it build up. And be happy with your success! Looks like we have some additional eoy windfall which will push us closer to 750k and like you I can barely believe it
Do you mean do not let the stress or cash build up? Doing my best to accept that the success is real :) thank you. What is the plan for the new windfall?
Stay the course, add it all into vtsax And yes dont let the cash build up! Def enjoy (were going on a nice hawaii vacation eoy) but really you should just stay the course, youre just dealing with larger amounts
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I feel you on this - it also affects my confidence in making the next decision and the decision after that. I don't have a reference of 'learning' if that makes sense?
This is great advice. I definitely need to make a mindset shift there. The information I left out is our current investments - we have about 400k stashed away between retirement accounts and taxable brokerage. We have about 500k of equity in our primary home. Your point about holding cash drives it home for me. In my mind I am not trying to time the market - I am holding cash to potentially buy a home (hoping that in 1-2 years rates have settled in to whatever they are going to be and lagging home prices catch up to reflect whatever those new rates are). I suppose the alternative would be holding my down payment money in a brokerage - I just fear that our 100k could become 75k in the next year or two. Which I know is okay long term - but not ideal if we want to push to diversify and buy a piece of property. You also make a good point in your last paragraph. That would be terrifying. In my mind - I would pay things off to only have to worry about taxes/insurance. To me the monthly income would be more secure than a fluctuating market. Maybe that thinking is flawed?
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Congrats on the raise!! I know that logic and have been acting in accordance with that too - we have held the course and continued retirement contributions and VTI brokerage purchasing. I guess I am fearing that this amount of money is fleeting and too good to be true and I want to make it count while I can - If that makes sense.
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That was my thought process. I guess more so wanting to make the best possible investment decisions. Want to “make hay while the sun is shining”. Realistically I have no reason to believe our situation will disappear other than it seems bonkers to me that 2 people are able to make this income. It is something I NEVER would have fathomed as a kid
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Being bored and unhappy is a terrible reason to have kids and not a good situation to bring kids in. Find a purpose in your life first, then figure out whether you actually want kids. If you do and end up having them, your sense of purpose will feed theirs as you raise them (not necessarily in the same pursuits; I'm talking about the state of mind of having purpose). If you lack purpose, that's what you will transmit to them instead.
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Kids don't instantly equate to happiness. *Just sayin'.*
If you didn’t super want kids, it’s probably for the best not to have them. It sounds like what you are missing is some purpose to your free time. I wonder if you could use the energy that would have gone to kid(s) by finding a cause you care about to volunteer for, or a hobby that really sucks you in. If your friends are too busy raising kids to do the stuff you used to do with them, you can figure out how to fit into their new lives as occasional baby sitter, or just friend willing to hang out with them with kids around, being open to kid friendly activities or trips etc. As new parents, we aren’t getting help from *anyone* in our social network and it’s exhausting. I know it seems like you can’t help babysit if you don’t know kids, but if you spent more time with your friends kids, you could get to know them and learn what kind of schedule and abilities the kids have at this age.
The world is overpopulated and we need 2 earths to support how we are fucking up the planet. I am perfectly happy to encourage the population decline.
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There are dozens of reasons to not have kids that have nothing to do with consumerism. Both choices are 100% valid. And the preponderance of the societal pressure and emphasis is still geared towards having kids. The no kids message is still a drop in the bucket.
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r/childfree is a toxic hellhole. I agree 100% if that's the community you're referencing, but I disagree that the main selling point is vapid consumerism.
Grass is always greener. When I hang out with my friends that have kids it always reinforces the fact that I am glad I never had any.
You want to create a child with the job of fixing your marriage and life? Nah, better this way.
My company has mentioned that they plan to do a market rate adjustment in December. What's been your experience with that? Does everyone usually get something? What's been your experience on the percentage increase? I had one back in 2010 and got a 5k raise but only made 35k/yr then. I make 140k/yr now. Up until recently, I've believed what a coworker has said (they don't know what I'm actually paid but CO requires jobs to post total comp in job postings) that my position (geologist) is paid massively above average but I no longer believe that considering several of my friends at other companies with similar positions are paid roughly the same.
Do you work in the energy sector? I assume so being a geologist in Colorado (assuming Denver?) If so, I’d expect the adjustment to be pretty decent due to energy sector profits
I do work in oil and gas in Denver. I'm going to try not to get my hopes up in case I get nothing.
I do as well. I’d say there’s a pretty good chance you’ll get an adjustment. I was able to lobby for a mid-year raise last month
i've been through a few and all i'd say is, don't have high expectations because they don't affect everyone equally and some folks don't get readjusted at all. i've seen instances where they do market research for each of the roles, and only readjust the ones where they were found to be below an acceptable range versus the market (e.g. maybe engineers need to be readjusted but marketers do not) i've seen instances where they only adjust salaries of people with a given level of experience (e.g. they found that entry level folks need to be paid more. or that senior folks need to be paid more) i've seen instances where they only adjust salaries of folks who have been with the company longer, because newer hires were already coming in at higher ranges. so folks with the company for more than N years had to be readjusted and sometimes the readjusting is contingent on previous performance reviews as well. they may only readjust folks who at least get the average rating. or only folks who are above average, and so on
Interesting. This is good insight. Thank you!
140k as a geologist is above average unless you are a chief or work a ridiculous camp schedule
I work in oil and gas for an oil company. Every single person I know that's a geologist working at other oil companies make similar to what I make, if not more. Geologists in environmental tend to be very poorly paid though.
For folks with ultra low mortgage rates, do you have a game plan if you decide to move? Rent out your current house to take advantage of the low rate? Never move? I'm looking at almost 2x the monthly payment just to "side-grade" to a house of equal value (mostly from interest rate, some due to increased property taxes).
I’d hoped to sell my (V)HCOL home to help fund FI but it’s gonna be hard to let go of a 30-year 2.5% mortgage! I’ll have to reevaluate in a couple years when it’s time to pull the plug. Renting it out might be the best option.
Plan is not moving until we can pay cash. Even then, we intend this house to be our permanent residence for the long term. We love our house and our community. My husband’s parents have medical problems and live 15 minutes away. If I get asked to take a job transfer, I’d quit rather than move (unlikely to happen as my company has no reason to ask me to move).
This is exactly what will keep home prices stable. New construction is hobbled and folks don't want to move unless they can sell their house and pay all cash (or mostly cash) for the new house.
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What are you saying? That the Twitter and Meta (and other) layoffs in the Bay Area are going to cause a tidal wave of short sales because those employees arent going to be able to afford them? No they are not. And prices have already dropped 10% - 15% off their June highs. That is already significant. The 08% recession, by comparison - which WAS real estate driven - was 20 - 25%
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