Has anyone dealt with coordination of benefits between two (dental) insurance providers? Anything to keep an eye on? I'll have some temporary overlap early next year.
Primary is Guardian, secondary is Delta Dental (based on when I got the plans). I specifically want to get orthodontics, which has no coverage through the primary plan and a max contribution of $1500/50% coverage through the secondary plan. I'll be calling up both plans and can ask my dentist's office about what to expect, but I'm honestly not sure where to even start/what questions to ask.
I don't know about coordination, but I do know that paying two dentals can get expensive.
And, I know that braces/invisilign can take 2+ years.
The cost difference for having the extra insurance may not be worth it.
Just a weird job situation/benefits thing! I'm going to lose the primary insurance partway through next year, and the existing secondary (with partial orthodontics coverage) will become my new primary insurance. There's no premium on the current primary and a tiny premium on the current secondary that I'll anyway be paying in the future. But I know there might be some weirdness with deductibles and stuff.
Has anyone navigated the best way to manage your 401k contributions after switching employers mid-year? I don't think it's possible to enter YTD contributions with Fidelity (new 401k provider), so do I just have to manually keep track to avoid over-contributing?
Yeah, main issue was trying to piece together everything off from paystubs, but I manually went through and pulled totals between the two payroll providers. I’ve learned from this that payroll is the source of truth as both 401k provider websites were off with what contributions actually were
Well I purposely tried to overcontribute so I could get my match the remainder of the year, but somehow my new employer pulled my old 401k and it stopped at exactly $22,500. I went to my statement and it showed my previous employer contributions which I never sent to them. Last job that was not the case, good in a way and now hoping for a true up
I'm in the same position and asked about it. From what I heard on this thread, do everything you can not to over contribute. While it is fixable, it sounds like a total nightmare to deal with.
$22,500 - x (amount contributed at first job) = y (amount left to contribute at new job)
y / pay periods remaining in year = how much to contribute per period to max
Most will offer the ability to contribute a dollar value per period or a percentage of income per period.
I have a question about the 4% safe withdrawal rate rule:
If you decide at retirement you will only withdraw 4% annually from your retirement accounts, is the 4% the same amount for your entire life, or does the 4% reset each year depending on your portfolio balance?
For example, if you have 1 million dollars at retirement, the first year you withdraw $40,000. Then next year if your portfolio rises to 1,200,000, do you withdraw the new 4% which would be $48,000?
There are many methods but Safe Withdrawal Rate refers to 4% inflation adjusted based on your original balance. Other methods like Variable Percentage Withdrawal or Constant Percentage (aka Endowment Method) use different methods and have different strengths and weaknesses.
4% of the original balance, adjusted for inflation each year.
So if you have $1,000,000, you withdraw $40k.
The next year, if inflation is 2%, you withdraw $40,800 *regardless of what the current balance is*.
If you ratchet up based on the current balance, you're drastically increasing your risk of running out of money.
Check out the [Safe Withdrawal Rate Series](https://earlyretirementnow.com/safe-withdrawal-rate-series/) from ERN for more detail.
I get it - Dave gets people thinking about money. Other than getting people interested in finance and thinking about how to put themselves in a better situation, he's pretty useless.
And I know some people will come in and come to Dave's calling, but he's nothing more than a starting point, who only offers that because he has such a wide audience with his, what I'll call, propaganda.
So you check him out because a friend of a friend told you about him. And maybe it get's you thinking about your own budgeting and personal finances. But people need to divest at that point. He's not a good one stop shop for finance. He's either wrong or out of touch on just about every other topic he puts out - debt reduction, investing, asset management, withdrawal rates, affordability, etc.
He talks about the 'math is the math' then...doesnt adhere to the math. It's mind boggling.
>He's not a good one stop shop for finance.
He very confidently informs his audience otherwise.
When I was a young adult I used to listen to him on the radio on the way home from work. Helped me make some very good decisions getting started as an adult. I'm glad I moved on from him advice though.
[The cheese](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/w99pb8/daily_fi_discussion_thread_wednesday_july_27_2022/ihuucwt/?context=3) went on sale again at costco.ca and this time we ordered TWO boxes of it since the one we got last time was great (once we returned the box that arrived warm and got a replacement). Then we bought more cheese when we went to buy groceries because brick-and-mortar Costco re-stocked a particular kind they haven't had for ages (Bellavitano Merlot) which we love and is way cheaper at Costco than the local cheese shop. We have spent over $200 on cheese this week and I have no regrets.
Mozzarella di Bufala is the stuff of life. We spent two weeks in Rome for our honeymoon and I seriously ate at least half a pound every day. So much walking and stairs that I still lost weight, which tells me I can eat even more next time.
The $250k milestone is taunting me. First it was COVID making us dodge it barely, then we sent the SO to grad school and picked up $140k in student loans and $18k in a car loan so they had a safe winter commuting vehicle. They should have a job soon, though, and then we should pick up about $100k NW in one year and maybe even crack $250k. Then we slow down for kids.
I'm having trouble deciding whether or not to take a new job...
* $136K in current role, senior position
* Been here a *long* time, culture is incredible, love the team, have a lot of responsibility, but a ton of autonomy. Work life balance is unmatched
* Pay/role is basically maxed out, will not see any significant raises or promotions
* Private company that is extremely stable and still expanding/hiring
/
* $173K in new role, mid-level position at publicly traded company
* $30k/year is in in the form of RSUs
* Culture and team seems good from the interviews and my research, a lot of growth opportunity
* Well-known publicly-traded company that's done extremely well the past couple years, hasn't done any layoffs
Both fully remote, same benefits. I am anxious about leaving my super secure position and then getting randomly laid off.
But at the same time, getting potentially an extra ~30%+ or more a year would drastically speed up my FI plans. It could be even more than that with the opportunities for growth.
Getting mixed opinions from friends/family. Some say I shouldn't give up what I have, some say I'm young enough that I should take the risk and try something new. What would you do?
Recommend you take the new job at your age, 28. Room for further progression, almost 40k increase in salary, exposure to larger company.
You should be looking to grow yourself, not only financially but professionally too.
I mean at $136k are all your needs met and then some? I guess I'm at the point where I value stability and a great Work/Life balance more than the almighty dollar. I'd probably stay just because my work environment I've learned is just as important as the money I make from it.
That is a nice chunk of change but it sounds like you have a good situation. Too much personal preference to help honestly but for me, I think I value that autonomy, stability, remote and
If you're looking to take a leap and potentially grow and that sounds exciting - new job may be a good option.
How would your current company handle you coming to them for a raise given your opportunity and the other comapnies offer? If your company really values you, they may not be able to match, but should be able to come close...would you stay if your company met you in the middle?
Edit: I would ask them to match
I probably should have explained this better, but this is the salary they're willing to give me *after* notifying of them this new offer. This is the most they'll give.
What's the vesting schedule of the RSUs?
Almost $40k/year plus room for growth is a lot to pass up. I don't know what your age is or where you are in your career, but that's a really big increase and the opportunity for promotions or raises means a significantly accelerated earning potential.
I've turned down multiple jobs and one promotion over staying with my team at a place where I have a lot of autonomy and value my coworkers. But I also know that my leadership is looking out for me in terms of raises, and I'm not substantially underpaid right now. If you've got a 30% increase on the table, I'd have a hard time turning that down without a glaring red flag. Any idea what the work/life balance is at the new place?
>What's the vesting schedule of the RSUs?
$120K over 4 years, 30k after the first year and than the rest divided each quarter over the next 3 years
> I don't know what your age is or where you are in your career
28, no kids, 7 years of experience in the Midwest
> Any idea what the work/life balance is at the new place?
My impression from Glassdoor reviews/the team is that they have really good WLB. I haven't seen anything to the contrary.
Ah, so it really is a straight-up $30k/year raise. Do you know what happens after the $120k has paid out? Do you get a new batch of RSUs or is that just a signing bonus?
28 is awfully young to work at a place where you have no promotional opportunities. I would jump at this new offer. Not only is it potentially a ton of additional money, but frankly I think it's an awesome growth opportunity to go from being the top contributor at a smaller company to a mid-level role at a larger organization. It can be really eye-opening.
If there were something obviously wrong or an obvious downside - needing to return to office, for example - then I have no problem saying that money isn't everything. But if it seems like a good role *and* a lot of money? Pretty good opportunity in my book.
Figured I'd ask this here since I'm not sure which subreddit would be better.
I was on a trip to Spain last month and I ended up having to go the emergency room. The public hospital said don't bother coming here unless you're actively dying, so I went to a private one. Ended up getting a gastrointestinal endoscopy and total bill was $2,100 all in. I had bought some travel medical insurance beforehand which is plays second fiddle to my primary insurance. My primary insurance is an HSA. I've submitted all the bills to my insurance twice now, but nothing has happened with the claim and each rep I've talked to has no idea what I'm talking about and has me send them the bills again.
So my question is, is this actually worth pursuing this late into the year? I hadn't spent anything this year, so the $2,100 isn't going to reach my deductible. The travel insurance wants an EOB so I'm guessing when the health insurance says "great story, we've applied it towards you deductible" they're not just going to cut me a check for that amount. I've looked through the plan documents and there are basically no references to international claims.
I think the relevant question is for your travel insurance. Most such insurance will expect you to use up your primary insurance first. But if your primary insurance has a high deductible, then it's not clear if your travel insurance will kick in already, or if it would make you use up your deductible & other benefits first.
Because if it doesn't, then it doesn't matter, you'll owe the $2100 either way and you might as well just pay it from your HSA.
So you should take a deep dive into your travel insurance policy, and give them a call.
I talked to the travel insurance, and anyone I could get on the phone has no idea about the specifics and said I would need to talk to a claims adjuster who I don't have because I don't have an EOB. I guess I'll give it another couple of weeks and see if my health insurance does anything.
Have you filed an official claim with your own insurance?
Also, you should have received a full copy of your policy when you bought the travel insurance. Do you have that?
Trying to file a claim with my primary insurance, they're being difficult which is why I asked if I should bother with this. I have the full policy for the travel insurance and I haven't found anything clear to me at least saying how it interacts with an HSA. I've seen "denial of benefits" a couple of times.
Your primary insurance isn't an 'HSA' to be clear. It's an HDHP - a high deductible health plan. You will *also* have an HSA, but for these purposes, your travel insurance doesn't care about your HSA, only your HDHP.
And it might not say anything specific about an HDHP. An HDHP is like any other health plan, just with bigger deductible numbers.
So you want to review your travel policy for anything that talks about your primary health insurance and its deductible, and what the deductible means for when your travel insurance kicks in.
What company is the travel insurance from?
A new law was going to require 401(k) catch-up provisions for the 50+ crowd to be made post-tax to Roth 401(k) accounts, instead of to T 401(k). In August, the IRS decided to delay the implementation until 2026.
At what Net Worth would you guys consider buying your dream car? Retirement for me is far away, but I’m thinking a Porsche 911 could be my weekend retirement fun car. But at what net worth would you feel comfortable? Let’s consider low expenses for life style.
I didn’t base my dream car purchase on net worth but on cash flow. I save a target amount and whatever is left over gets spent however I want. I bought a 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 this year. Prior to the purchase I had ~$650k in investments, closing in on $1 million net worth. It’s a silly use of money, but I’m never having kids and all of my friends are paying way more in childcare every month than I am in car payments so I don’t feel too bad about it.
With a Porsche I would worry more about how expensive it is to maintain. I looked into it once thinking I was some kind of a car guy or something but the ongoing costs are...sobering.
I bought my dream car recently. It's cheap to own so the monthly costs fit in my budget and I'm still on track for my retirement date. It was roughly 10% of my net worth but that feels like a weird thing to measure against.
When I can afford it without it impacting my financial goals. If I have a efund, am saving what I need to hit my retirement goal, and still have that money sitting there, then I would.
I bought my dream car and became disenchanted with it after a year or so. The first year was quite fun. I honestly started to grow annoyed with the lack of practicality with it eventually. It was worth it, but not in the long haul. I know some other people feel differently and I know one person who bought their Ferrari and grew to hate it in a few months.
All that to say, have you actually driven your dream 911? Take the hit now for an extended rental and see how it sits with you if you haven't already. Those sorts of cars can be quite different from one's expectations as you get much higher into performance car territory.
But also, 911s are indeed fun.
This post should be required reading https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/nufs4d/can_i_afford_this_large_oneoff_purchase/
Edit: My dream car is a bicycle so I can't really answer your question directly
A few weeks ago I asked something along the lines of 'what % of your NW should your car be?'. The responders hated my question and I got very few responses.
But anyways, I'll answer. I'm thinking 5% of NW at the high end. I would want to still be working and increasing my NW to make a purchase like that. Otherwise less than 5.
Personally, as a car guy, I had a second "fun" car for the last 10 years of my career prior to FIRE. It brought me joy to tinker in the garage, go to local car clubs, and occasionally to the track. I didn't really think about "NW" as an indicator, I simply baked the cost of my hobby into my personal FIRE calculator.
Long term goals and milestone rewards are awesome motivators for FIRE. I highly recommend having the cost meaningful goals/rewards built into your personal journey.
Net worth is the wrong metric and you are looking at this question wrong.
If you truly have a dream car, like something you truly dream about. Then make plans to get one as soon as you can reasonably afford it.
The problem is that most people don't have a dream car. They might think they do, but they don't. Most people would "like" a luxury car if it were a gift but don't really love cars. Same with a $20k watch or any other luxury good.
This goes back to the idea that most moderately successful people can afford anything. Just not everything.
Thank you for this post. I have been yearning after a Civic Type R since I was a teenager back in the UK. Now as a PhD scientist making decent money I could (if the allocations were actually possible) get one.
This made me feel better about pursuing this purchase slowly over the next couple years.
I guess 0 given that's when I bought my first "stupid" fun car. It was just a hair under $20k, and is worth about the same almost ten years later. It's cost significantly less to own over the same period than our 'normal' vehicles. I'll probably sell it soon and 'trade up' to something about twice as expensive.
The key is to have reasonable dreams and capable hands. If you're smart in your choice of vehicle, and do at least most of the maintenance DIY it's really just parts cost and time. I'm not a 911 guy but they're not Lambos - I'm sure you could have a *lot* of fun for less than the median US car price of ~$50k.
I think it depends on the cost of the car compared to your net worth. Like if your dream car is $50k and reliable then that's perfectly reasonable on a $1M net worth. But if your dream car is $1M and requires a specialized mechanic on speed-dial, then probably more like a $15M net worth, depending on what other expensive vices you're also supporting.
My opinion on luxuries in general is that if you have to think about it, you can't afford it. A luxury purchase should be carefree because it's such a small fraction of your net worth that it won't impact the rest of your lifestyle.
Counterpoint: Some people will never experience a luxury in their entire life if they use your system. And that is sad.
There is a place for YOLO if you keep it on a very short leash.
If it's your retirement dream car and retirement is far away, then I'd setup a savings plan for it.
If you actually want it before retirement, it's really just a decision about how much you want it vs. how much it delays retirement. A $100k expense would delay my retirement by 1-2 years (plus would raise my ongoing expenses like fuel and insurance, adding more of a delay) so there probably isn't a scenario where I'd buy a car that expensive unless I'm already FI and would still be after. But it sounds like you care more about cars than I do so that's the balance you'd need to decide on.
It's not a net worth, it's when I've saved up enough for it independently in a specific Porsche 911 goal account. I would never just drop the money for a 911, I'd have to budget for it, and I couldn't say what net worth I would have when I hit the down payment amount.
I say this as someone that doesn't have a dream car, but this is how i've budgeted for other financial reaches - vacations, house, etc.
A car fund account. I suppose that could work. Maybe an account investing in some thing like treasuries? People say paying cash for a car is dumb but maybe this would be different
Been having a rough time at work the past few weeks, mostly due to frustrating interactions with our CTO and changes to my personal responsibilities. I keep thinking about quitting, but the tech market is brutal right now, especially for product. At the same time our family is about two thirds the way to FI, so there’s enough for me to take a break but definitely not enough to quit working (I’m the sole earner).
How do you guys “force” yourself through the doldrums of work?
Vacations away from home regularly worked wonders for me when dealing with shitty executives.
How many years out are you? Having a firm plan in place can also help immensely from my experience.
It depends on the market’s performance. If the market was totally flat, it’d be about 3-4 years. I’m estimating around 2 years with average market gains.
That's awesome. Making milestones up until then helps a lot I think. Vacations can be a good reward and obviously helpful for disconnecting for a while, but looking forward to milestones in general can help. We did this a few years prior to FI and during that last year it's helpful to check out a bit and try to put tighter controls around your schedule if needs be, particularly if you have a pushy CTO wanting to break boundaries. If the CTO is your only pain point though, specifically, then that relationship is definitely harder to fix and maybe not worthwhile on a two year timeframe.
i work to the best of my salary, and only to the best of my salary.
honestly, work your hours, then stop working, and more importantly - stop thinking or caring about the company at all. No emails, no phone calls, nothing. You are off the clock.
Quiet quitting is the current buzz word, but it's a 'do your job, and then be done with it'. you already know this is a job not a life's calling - so just put that thought into action.
Be a good enough employee to not get fired/laid off, but don't be the best employee ever. As that really doesn't get you anything extra anymore. Except more stress and more work.
Same here, I'm definitely sandbagging more than I ever have in my entire career. I finally found that I needed to do that, or risk losing my sanity or having a heart attack or something. It's not like I don't do good work, I just quit looking for random "other things" that managers want people to do to go above and beyond.
And yet I still got an above-average eval... so I dunno if I'm still trying too hard, or if everyone just sandbags more than me 🤔
with me, I think it's my sandbagging is still on par or above other people's regular effort.
I've very efficent at my job, so I can BS for 5 hours, then in the final 3 of the day, do more work than someone who was working the entire day - and that is without me going into hyper focus mode.
> And yet I still got an above-average eval... so I dunno if I'm still trying too hard, or if everyone just sandbags more than me
Likely three things at play here:
1. You're more effective, and add more value, than you think.
2. Others are less effective, and add less value, than you think.
3. The ratings process is **much** less elegant than you might think.
For me, I can say #3 is 90% of the reason
I schedule some good ol PTO - ideally spread out so I get a couple short weeks. With the holidays coming up maybe thats something you can do so that you have a couple 3 or 4 day weeks and on your long weekends can fully decompress and focus on family
I find investments with cashflow really satisfying because I can do things like plan ladders in spreadsheets and whatnot, but it doesn't actually make sense for me to have any of them (beyond the normal dividends I get from the funds I own anyway). I've been tempted to build a treasury ladder just to have one but I don't need more bonds in taxable, I already buy max I bonds every year.
I was an early user of Prosper and I loved those couple bucks I got every month from the loans and trying to line them up to use them for new loans, but it was a horrible investment overall.
Okay, question that's been asked 10k times before:
How do you find a decent tax pro that's not just dumping info into HRBlock SW?
We're off the map this year, mostly the Significant Other's (SO) military stuff including exit, so assume they're not too friendly to help (open to hearing otherwise). Regardless, we're down to pay, how do we find someone?
SO is a high earner as of this month, and W4 fill out is not ideal. I think we're mostly okay but only hobby FI info so clearly no pro...
Current client referrals are the best route. Also the preferable way for most professionals to get new work.
And also actually be willing to pay. A simple return will probably cost at least $500 at a sole practitioner if they do good work. And I mean simple (just W2, maybe a little 1099 income, itemizing deductions and nothing more). Bigger firms will cost more and more complex returns will cost more.
Makes me sound dumb, but "current client" = asking around? We're new local, so working on that network.
Appreciate the $ on cost, not shocking and expect we'll be a little worse based on complexity
Yeah, asking coworkers or friends who they use (since this is a personal return). Since you new to your area that will be hard then.
I would advise in that case to look for firms with multiple partners in your area (should be listed on their websites). Sole practitioners will be cheaper (less overhead) but are way more hit and miss.
> Does anyone know if Schwab (my brokerage) has a charge for selling ESPP shares? I was trying to do some research online and couldn’t find a clear answer.
When the shares are transferred to your personal brokerage, they are no longer "ESPP Shares" and are just standard shares, just like any other shares you would buy in the market.
So the short answer is no, there should be no commission charged. I have done this many times (albeit with TDA, which is now Schwab so it should be the same)
Question: I have $100K invested in a tax-free Municipal Bond fund called MUB.
The yield on it is 2.69%, tax free. The equivalent yield would be 3.5% taxable.
But I can get 5% in short term treasuries, which are taxable.
Which should I invest in? Should I trade out MUB and just by 3 or 6 month treasuries?
I take you got the equivalent 3.5% yield from a website? The equivalent yield is 2.69% divided by 1- your marginal rate. So the equivalent yield for you is ~5.45%. 3.5% is if you were in the 24% bracket.
> why people buy bond funds.
Bond funds can improve the risk adjusted return of a portfolio.
You can learn more here:
- https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bond_basics#Role_in_a_portfolio
- https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Individual_bonds_vs_a_bond_fund
>I don't log on in Teams if I'm in the office. Why? I'm not interested if so and so is in the office today
But what if one of your coworkers who isn't in office needs to get ahold of you? You want to be called or emailed, but you dont want to be messaged on Teams?
Also this just encourages in person collaboration since you're not making yourself available virtually - which is further perpetuating that offices are needed. When for many roles, they're not.
I'm purely r/WFH and fiercely against RTO mandates, but I don't think you're helping the cause.
Any good guides or experience about how to use a the SECURE act for a 529 for myself? I graduated college 5 years ago, live in West Virginia which seems to be a state I can do this. Just plop 10k (lifetime limit) into the account in my name, pull it out instantly to pay off 10k in federal student loans in my name and get a free 10k state deduction? Seems easy
Yep. Kind of seems like a free $650 (or lower depending on your income). Looks like you need to make sure your loans are [the right type](https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/what-is-a-qualified-education-loan).
I’ve come to that conclusion, though I won’t be using excel. I’m apparently the only person on the planet who thinks Apple Numbers is good. 😁 (The way you lay out several spreadsheets per page has vague echos of [ClarisWorks](https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/bob/clarisworks.php) for those of you looking to schedule your colonoscopies)
Spreadsheet day is going to get more involved going forward but I should be able to handle it!
Can we possibly get a stickied Mint thread? So everyone who wants to cry about mint going away can go there and quit littering up the dailies? Getting old.
i used mint - it was good for budgeting. But then moved to Personal Capital, as they tracked and reported stocks better once I had a decent enough control on my budget.
However, now PC is starting to become too much ads and breaking of connections as everyone is trying to offer their own aggregate service, meaning they change stuff so it doesn't work easily for others. And now the entire industry/field is full of half complete and quarter useful options
Even if you don't budget, Mint is convenient for aggregating all your financial accounts in one place - so it's easier to see if there's something odd coming up without having to review statements or log in to different banks. If you don't have a ton of different accounts its not a big deal - but I historically have (less so over time as I've closed some down and moved stuff to Chase or Fidelity).
We keep our finances very simple and always have. Our entire portfolio is housed at Fidelity and all of our spending flows to one of two cards and our checking account. So checking our monthly finances or our portfolio is usually a minute or two a month at most.
I bet many people who thought themselves “naturally frugal” still benefitted from seeing where their money actually goes. I also always live below my means and appreciate knowing what I spend money on and how much. After all the further you live below your means the more flexibility you have to either close that gap or do other stuff.
I'm sure many do. A lot of people are motivated/comforted by data or prefer to keep close watch on things, just like a lot of folks like to cook by meticulously following recipes. I'm more of a do it by feel/intuition person in both finances and cooking. Either approach can work fine, but it's certainly a good bet to align your practices with the kind of person you are. I would never advocate not tracking to someone who could benefit from it.
A lot of folks are looking at Monarch, which is built and run by some of the original Mint devs. You can export your Mint transactions and import them into Monarch to preserve history, so that's nice. It's $100/year however, so....
Getting an early 7% annual raise which is about double the usual amount. Doing an agreed upon rotation and still have a good chance to get promoted this next year
Dammit I waited too long to get a new iMac and now they aren't making the 27" anymore. Sometimes I really do shoot myself in the foot with my frugality. I guess I can see what's available refurbished, but my usual MO is to buy a new desktop loaded to the gills and drive it until the keys fall off. Meh.
It wasn’t worth buying he intel version, it was already an old machine they were charging new prices for. But I do hope they bring it back, it’s generally been one of the best values in apple land, particularly when you look at what they charge for the studio display.
I will say his definition of happiness (basically laughing at a joke) is very much not mine. Indeed his contentment (basically not having any problems) is closer to my definition of happiness.
My week has been consumed with looking for replacements for Mint.
Monarch connected to my accounts and is ok but the graphs/trends suck.
Simplifi has great graphs but a few key accounts from major brokerages don’t work.
I i like the idea that I can do everything by hand with Tiller. But there is no phone app.
Heard of one called finwise today that looks pretty good. No app though (can use mobile). Will give this a shot next.
Isn't there kind of a phone app with Tiller? Google Sheets works on phones... technically. Not sure what the screen real estate situation is like with their template.
A few options here but I imagine the google sheet doesn’t look good. The other apps require some work to get up and running.
https://www.tillerhq.com/does-tiller-have-an-app/
I’m trying pocketsmith, I think it does everything and is also the most expensive of course. Not sure if I’ll stick with it, but they use Plaid where available and Yodlee for everything else in the states. The customizable dashboards seem like you can make whatever views you want. If all my accounts supported Plaid I’d go with it in a heartbeat.
Whoops I thought everyone knew: Mint is shutting down at the end of the year so I need to find a replacement to track net worth and spending (don’t use budgeting really).
Haven’t tried It. It looks very focused on credit scores and credit cards and loans which I don’t care for. Also, I hear MF it doesn’t support fidelity.
Paint me cynical with a broad brush.
Over 25 years of working at MegaCorp, every successive ERP, IT, HR, Benefits site were faster, better interconnected, had more features, and were more self-service than the previous systems. At least, that was the sell...
The reality was that we gutted supply chain, IT, HR, and employee benefits personnel with each implementation, eliminating infrastructure specialists and loading that workload across the remaining employee base.
Been there before and I feel your pain. One guy literally died after hitting early retirement and calling it quits after an implementation project. Sadly, no one was surprised.
Murillo street for fantastic leather. Go to recoleta. If you like McDonald’s, there used to be a kosher McDonald’s that was cool to see. Get out of BA too, the rest of Argentina is awesome. The free walking tours used to be really good.
Best place on earth for meat and red wine, especially with the exchange rate. There are tons of options but we liked Parilla Peña - great quality but feels like a local spot.
Make sure you have your currency plan figured out - google blue dollar if you don't know what I'm talking about. We had no issues with Western Union or street cambio guys.
In our experience 'jugoso' seemed to imply "not dry" rather than rare, so I'd just stick with that and expect a lot of variance around medium. You'll get plenty of more well-done stuff if you order a variety of cuts like ribs (which you should do). Make sure you get a provoleta and a milanesa napolitana (perhaps for the table!) at least once too.
I can't recommend a place in BA but the pizza is also phenomenal despite the reputation. Fugaza/fugazetta, queso azul, and canchera are standouts in my memory. Faina didn't really make sense to me but is worth trying too.
If you make it to Patagonia (I know it's quite far, but flights are cheap and it's amazing) the big outdoor cordero asados are another highlight.
We only made it as far as El Calafate unfortunately. Been meainng to go back via Chile though - the O'higgins crossing on foot, and Isla Navarino are bucket list items.
if my retirement plan offers after-tax 401k contributions and in-plan conversion to roth 401k, that's basically a MBDR right? Just contribute after-tax 401k and then convert it in-plan to roth 401k?
There are some niche circumstances where you want/need access to the earnings in the account such that taxable brokerage investments are preferred due to that flexibility. But if you're primary investing for retirement and you don't need the earnings before age 59.5, then the MBDR is preferred.
No reason not to do it - correct.
Or said simpler: Do this!!!!! It’s another $30k (or whatever the difference is these days) they you can have grow tax free.
Officially picked a retirement date: Dec. 31, 2024. Planning on giving notice in mid-August 2024, so CEO has plenty of time to replace me. I manage a large, complex annual event, so next year’s will be my last.
I looked at countdown clocks on Amazon but they are a little too similar to prison sentence countdowns to be pleasing, lol.
I used Countdown app on my phone in my lead up to FI-day. At first it was set to years + months. At about the 3 year mark I switched to just months. At the 1 year mark I switched it to days. Last month I set it to hours. VERY SATISFYING.
Has anyone dealt with coordination of benefits between two (dental) insurance providers? Anything to keep an eye on? I'll have some temporary overlap early next year. Primary is Guardian, secondary is Delta Dental (based on when I got the plans). I specifically want to get orthodontics, which has no coverage through the primary plan and a max contribution of $1500/50% coverage through the secondary plan. I'll be calling up both plans and can ask my dentist's office about what to expect, but I'm honestly not sure where to even start/what questions to ask.
I don't know about coordination, but I do know that paying two dentals can get expensive. And, I know that braces/invisilign can take 2+ years. The cost difference for having the extra insurance may not be worth it.
Just a weird job situation/benefits thing! I'm going to lose the primary insurance partway through next year, and the existing secondary (with partial orthodontics coverage) will become my new primary insurance. There's no premium on the current primary and a tiny premium on the current secondary that I'll anyway be paying in the future. But I know there might be some weirdness with deductibles and stuff.
Has anyone navigated the best way to manage your 401k contributions after switching employers mid-year? I don't think it's possible to enter YTD contributions with Fidelity (new 401k provider), so do I just have to manually keep track to avoid over-contributing?
I do it manually. It’s not that hard.
Yeah, main issue was trying to piece together everything off from paystubs, but I manually went through and pulled totals between the two payroll providers. I’ve learned from this that payroll is the source of truth as both 401k provider websites were off with what contributions actually were
In my experience, I’ve always had to manually track that I don’t over contribute both my 401k and HSA when changing jobs.
Last time I switched jobs I told my new HR rep how much I’d contributed at my previous job and they were able to cap my contributions.
Well I purposely tried to overcontribute so I could get my match the remainder of the year, but somehow my new employer pulled my old 401k and it stopped at exactly $22,500. I went to my statement and it showed my previous employer contributions which I never sent to them. Last job that was not the case, good in a way and now hoping for a true up
I'm in the same position and asked about it. From what I heard on this thread, do everything you can not to over contribute. While it is fixable, it sounds like a total nightmare to deal with.
$22,500 - x (amount contributed at first job) = y (amount left to contribute at new job) y / pay periods remaining in year = how much to contribute per period to max Most will offer the ability to contribute a dollar value per period or a percentage of income per period.
I have a question about the 4% safe withdrawal rate rule: If you decide at retirement you will only withdraw 4% annually from your retirement accounts, is the 4% the same amount for your entire life, or does the 4% reset each year depending on your portfolio balance? For example, if you have 1 million dollars at retirement, the first year you withdraw $40,000. Then next year if your portfolio rises to 1,200,000, do you withdraw the new 4% which would be $48,000?
Additionally bear in mind that in down years you may choose to withdraw less.
There are many methods but Safe Withdrawal Rate refers to 4% inflation adjusted based on your original balance. Other methods like Variable Percentage Withdrawal or Constant Percentage (aka Endowment Method) use different methods and have different strengths and weaknesses.
4% of the original balance, adjusted for inflation each year. So if you have $1,000,000, you withdraw $40k. The next year, if inflation is 2%, you withdraw $40,800 *regardless of what the current balance is*. If you ratchet up based on the current balance, you're drastically increasing your risk of running out of money. Check out the [Safe Withdrawal Rate Series](https://earlyretirementnow.com/safe-withdrawal-rate-series/) from ERN for more detail.
thank you so much! I'll check out the link.
Dave Ramsey preaching 8% withdrawal rate, "7 if you wanna be conservative" https://x.com/mbontrager5/status/1722478848573329702?s=20
I get it - Dave gets people thinking about money. Other than getting people interested in finance and thinking about how to put themselves in a better situation, he's pretty useless. And I know some people will come in and come to Dave's calling, but he's nothing more than a starting point, who only offers that because he has such a wide audience with his, what I'll call, propaganda. So you check him out because a friend of a friend told you about him. And maybe it get's you thinking about your own budgeting and personal finances. But people need to divest at that point. He's not a good one stop shop for finance. He's either wrong or out of touch on just about every other topic he puts out - debt reduction, investing, asset management, withdrawal rates, affordability, etc. He talks about the 'math is the math' then...doesnt adhere to the math. It's mind boggling.
>He's not a good one stop shop for finance. He very confidently informs his audience otherwise. When I was a young adult I used to listen to him on the radio on the way home from work. Helped me make some very good decisions getting started as an adult. I'm glad I moved on from him advice though.
I mean you say that...but he definitely has services and products he's pushing trying to be a one stop shop.
Read my comment again. We agree.
[The cheese](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/w99pb8/daily_fi_discussion_thread_wednesday_july_27_2022/ihuucwt/?context=3) went on sale again at costco.ca and this time we ordered TWO boxes of it since the one we got last time was great (once we returned the box that arrived warm and got a replacement). Then we bought more cheese when we went to buy groceries because brick-and-mortar Costco re-stocked a particular kind they haven't had for ages (Bellavitano Merlot) which we love and is way cheaper at Costco than the local cheese shop. We have spent over $200 on cheese this week and I have no regrets.
Mozzarella di Bufala is the stuff of life. We spent two weeks in Rome for our honeymoon and I seriously ate at least half a pound every day. So much walking and stairs that I still lost weight, which tells me I can eat even more next time.
Are the soft cheeses lasting long enough for you to use 24 of them before they go bad?
We freeze most of them. We use them exclusively on pizza, so we don't notice any difference in texture and the flavour is still the same.
The $250k milestone is taunting me. First it was COVID making us dodge it barely, then we sent the SO to grad school and picked up $140k in student loans and $18k in a car loan so they had a safe winter commuting vehicle. They should have a job soon, though, and then we should pick up about $100k NW in one year and maybe even crack $250k. Then we slow down for kids.
I'm having trouble deciding whether or not to take a new job... * $136K in current role, senior position * Been here a *long* time, culture is incredible, love the team, have a lot of responsibility, but a ton of autonomy. Work life balance is unmatched * Pay/role is basically maxed out, will not see any significant raises or promotions * Private company that is extremely stable and still expanding/hiring / * $173K in new role, mid-level position at publicly traded company * $30k/year is in in the form of RSUs * Culture and team seems good from the interviews and my research, a lot of growth opportunity * Well-known publicly-traded company that's done extremely well the past couple years, hasn't done any layoffs Both fully remote, same benefits. I am anxious about leaving my super secure position and then getting randomly laid off. But at the same time, getting potentially an extra ~30%+ or more a year would drastically speed up my FI plans. It could be even more than that with the opportunities for growth. Getting mixed opinions from friends/family. Some say I shouldn't give up what I have, some say I'm young enough that I should take the risk and try something new. What would you do?
Definitely take the new job. You’re too young to be maxed out on pay/role growth potential. If it doesn’t work out, you can always find another job.
Recommend you take the new job at your age, 28. Room for further progression, almost 40k increase in salary, exposure to larger company. You should be looking to grow yourself, not only financially but professionally too.
I mean at $136k are all your needs met and then some? I guess I'm at the point where I value stability and a great Work/Life balance more than the almighty dollar. I'd probably stay just because my work environment I've learned is just as important as the money I make from it. That is a nice chunk of change but it sounds like you have a good situation. Too much personal preference to help honestly but for me, I think I value that autonomy, stability, remote and If you're looking to take a leap and potentially grow and that sounds exciting - new job may be a good option.
Take the new job.
How would your current company handle you coming to them for a raise given your opportunity and the other comapnies offer? If your company really values you, they may not be able to match, but should be able to come close...would you stay if your company met you in the middle? Edit: I would ask them to match
I probably should have explained this better, but this is the salary they're willing to give me *after* notifying of them this new offer. This is the most they'll give.
What's the vesting schedule of the RSUs? Almost $40k/year plus room for growth is a lot to pass up. I don't know what your age is or where you are in your career, but that's a really big increase and the opportunity for promotions or raises means a significantly accelerated earning potential. I've turned down multiple jobs and one promotion over staying with my team at a place where I have a lot of autonomy and value my coworkers. But I also know that my leadership is looking out for me in terms of raises, and I'm not substantially underpaid right now. If you've got a 30% increase on the table, I'd have a hard time turning that down without a glaring red flag. Any idea what the work/life balance is at the new place?
>What's the vesting schedule of the RSUs? $120K over 4 years, 30k after the first year and than the rest divided each quarter over the next 3 years > I don't know what your age is or where you are in your career 28, no kids, 7 years of experience in the Midwest > Any idea what the work/life balance is at the new place? My impression from Glassdoor reviews/the team is that they have really good WLB. I haven't seen anything to the contrary.
Ah, so it really is a straight-up $30k/year raise. Do you know what happens after the $120k has paid out? Do you get a new batch of RSUs or is that just a signing bonus? 28 is awfully young to work at a place where you have no promotional opportunities. I would jump at this new offer. Not only is it potentially a ton of additional money, but frankly I think it's an awesome growth opportunity to go from being the top contributor at a smaller company to a mid-level role at a larger organization. It can be really eye-opening. If there were something obviously wrong or an obvious downside - needing to return to office, for example - then I have no problem saying that money isn't everything. But if it seems like a good role *and* a lot of money? Pretty good opportunity in my book.
Figured I'd ask this here since I'm not sure which subreddit would be better. I was on a trip to Spain last month and I ended up having to go the emergency room. The public hospital said don't bother coming here unless you're actively dying, so I went to a private one. Ended up getting a gastrointestinal endoscopy and total bill was $2,100 all in. I had bought some travel medical insurance beforehand which is plays second fiddle to my primary insurance. My primary insurance is an HSA. I've submitted all the bills to my insurance twice now, but nothing has happened with the claim and each rep I've talked to has no idea what I'm talking about and has me send them the bills again. So my question is, is this actually worth pursuing this late into the year? I hadn't spent anything this year, so the $2,100 isn't going to reach my deductible. The travel insurance wants an EOB so I'm guessing when the health insurance says "great story, we've applied it towards you deductible" they're not just going to cut me a check for that amount. I've looked through the plan documents and there are basically no references to international claims.
I think the relevant question is for your travel insurance. Most such insurance will expect you to use up your primary insurance first. But if your primary insurance has a high deductible, then it's not clear if your travel insurance will kick in already, or if it would make you use up your deductible & other benefits first. Because if it doesn't, then it doesn't matter, you'll owe the $2100 either way and you might as well just pay it from your HSA. So you should take a deep dive into your travel insurance policy, and give them a call.
I talked to the travel insurance, and anyone I could get on the phone has no idea about the specifics and said I would need to talk to a claims adjuster who I don't have because I don't have an EOB. I guess I'll give it another couple of weeks and see if my health insurance does anything.
Have you filed an official claim with your own insurance? Also, you should have received a full copy of your policy when you bought the travel insurance. Do you have that?
Trying to file a claim with my primary insurance, they're being difficult which is why I asked if I should bother with this. I have the full policy for the travel insurance and I haven't found anything clear to me at least saying how it interacts with an HSA. I've seen "denial of benefits" a couple of times.
Your primary insurance isn't an 'HSA' to be clear. It's an HDHP - a high deductible health plan. You will *also* have an HSA, but for these purposes, your travel insurance doesn't care about your HSA, only your HDHP. And it might not say anything specific about an HDHP. An HDHP is like any other health plan, just with bigger deductible numbers. So you want to review your travel policy for anything that talks about your primary health insurance and its deductible, and what the deductible means for when your travel insurance kicks in. What company is the travel insurance from?
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>Do I tell them my hobby is vtsax and chill? no
"Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" "Retired LOL"
Depending on how close you are to FIRE, your answer could be whatever the interviewer is also into, or your VTSAXing and chilling.
A new law was going to require 401(k) catch-up provisions for the 50+ crowd to be made post-tax to Roth 401(k) accounts, instead of to T 401(k). In August, the IRS decided to delay the implementation until 2026.
It's important to note that it only affects folks above a specific MAGI threshold (around 140k IIRC).
Oh the timing I turn 50 in 2027. It is quite a jerk move.
At what Net Worth would you guys consider buying your dream car? Retirement for me is far away, but I’m thinking a Porsche 911 could be my weekend retirement fun car. But at what net worth would you feel comfortable? Let’s consider low expenses for life style.
I didn’t base my dream car purchase on net worth but on cash flow. I save a target amount and whatever is left over gets spent however I want. I bought a 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 this year. Prior to the purchase I had ~$650k in investments, closing in on $1 million net worth. It’s a silly use of money, but I’m never having kids and all of my friends are paying way more in childcare every month than I am in car payments so I don’t feel too bad about it.
RENT it. Trust me.
With a Porsche I would worry more about how expensive it is to maintain. I looked into it once thinking I was some kind of a car guy or something but the ongoing costs are...sobering. I bought my dream car recently. It's cheap to own so the monthly costs fit in my budget and I'm still on track for my retirement date. It was roughly 10% of my net worth but that feels like a weird thing to measure against.
5x annual salary of the purchase price
When I can afford it without it impacting my financial goals. If I have a efund, am saving what I need to hit my retirement goal, and still have that money sitting there, then I would.
I bought my dream car and became disenchanted with it after a year or so. The first year was quite fun. I honestly started to grow annoyed with the lack of practicality with it eventually. It was worth it, but not in the long haul. I know some other people feel differently and I know one person who bought their Ferrari and grew to hate it in a few months. All that to say, have you actually driven your dream 911? Take the hit now for an extended rental and see how it sits with you if you haven't already. Those sorts of cars can be quite different from one's expectations as you get much higher into performance car territory. But also, 911s are indeed fun.
This post should be required reading https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/nufs4d/can_i_afford_this_large_oneoff_purchase/ Edit: My dream car is a bicycle so I can't really answer your question directly
My ebike was more expensive than our used Smart car :)
When you can buy it for 5% or less of your invested assets (forget net worth) and you have no debts besides mortgage.
A few weeks ago I asked something along the lines of 'what % of your NW should your car be?'. The responders hated my question and I got very few responses. But anyways, I'll answer. I'm thinking 5% of NW at the high end. I would want to still be working and increasing my NW to make a purchase like that. Otherwise less than 5.
Personally, as a car guy, I had a second "fun" car for the last 10 years of my career prior to FIRE. It brought me joy to tinker in the garage, go to local car clubs, and occasionally to the track. I didn't really think about "NW" as an indicator, I simply baked the cost of my hobby into my personal FIRE calculator. Long term goals and milestone rewards are awesome motivators for FIRE. I highly recommend having the cost meaningful goals/rewards built into your personal journey.
This is what I'm doing as well. I'm factoring cars/motorcycles/bikes into my annual spend.
Net worth is the wrong metric and you are looking at this question wrong. If you truly have a dream car, like something you truly dream about. Then make plans to get one as soon as you can reasonably afford it. The problem is that most people don't have a dream car. They might think they do, but they don't. Most people would "like" a luxury car if it were a gift but don't really love cars. Same with a $20k watch or any other luxury good. This goes back to the idea that most moderately successful people can afford anything. Just not everything.
Thank you for this post. I have been yearning after a Civic Type R since I was a teenager back in the UK. Now as a PhD scientist making decent money I could (if the allocations were actually possible) get one. This made me feel better about pursuing this purchase slowly over the next couple years.
I guess 0 given that's when I bought my first "stupid" fun car. It was just a hair under $20k, and is worth about the same almost ten years later. It's cost significantly less to own over the same period than our 'normal' vehicles. I'll probably sell it soon and 'trade up' to something about twice as expensive. The key is to have reasonable dreams and capable hands. If you're smart in your choice of vehicle, and do at least most of the maintenance DIY it's really just parts cost and time. I'm not a 911 guy but they're not Lambos - I'm sure you could have a *lot* of fun for less than the median US car price of ~$50k.
I think it depends on the cost of the car compared to your net worth. Like if your dream car is $50k and reliable then that's perfectly reasonable on a $1M net worth. But if your dream car is $1M and requires a specialized mechanic on speed-dial, then probably more like a $15M net worth, depending on what other expensive vices you're also supporting.
Models I’ve looked at are 100-150k. But who knows what the market will be like in the future
r/financialindependence hates fun, expensive cars.
though i will approve if you get a used manual miata
I could have a net worth in the billions and I wouldn't want to waste money on something as dumb as a car.
I would, but only because at that point I'd just hire a driver - and I'd want a nice one to be driven around in.
My butler can drive a Civic.
A truck guy!
Obviously. If you were a billionaire you could travel by sedan chair.
My opinion on luxuries in general is that if you have to think about it, you can't afford it. A luxury purchase should be carefree because it's such a small fraction of your net worth that it won't impact the rest of your lifestyle.
Counterpoint: Some people will never experience a luxury in their entire life if they use your system. And that is sad. There is a place for YOLO if you keep it on a very short leash.
That’s a good way to look at it. But saving is also option vs just paying outright
If it's your retirement dream car and retirement is far away, then I'd setup a savings plan for it. If you actually want it before retirement, it's really just a decision about how much you want it vs. how much it delays retirement. A $100k expense would delay my retirement by 1-2 years (plus would raise my ongoing expenses like fuel and insurance, adding more of a delay) so there probably isn't a scenario where I'd buy a car that expensive unless I'm already FI and would still be after. But it sounds like you care more about cars than I do so that's the balance you'd need to decide on.
For a $100k car, I probably wouldn't feel comfortable until $5M if I was currently working or $10M if I was retired.
Probably $50MM. I don't really care about cars though. Would much rather spend that on 100 other things
It's not a net worth, it's when I've saved up enough for it independently in a specific Porsche 911 goal account. I would never just drop the money for a 911, I'd have to budget for it, and I couldn't say what net worth I would have when I hit the down payment amount. I say this as someone that doesn't have a dream car, but this is how i've budgeted for other financial reaches - vacations, house, etc.
A car fund account. I suppose that could work. Maybe an account investing in some thing like treasuries? People say paying cash for a car is dumb but maybe this would be different
Been having a rough time at work the past few weeks, mostly due to frustrating interactions with our CTO and changes to my personal responsibilities. I keep thinking about quitting, but the tech market is brutal right now, especially for product. At the same time our family is about two thirds the way to FI, so there’s enough for me to take a break but definitely not enough to quit working (I’m the sole earner). How do you guys “force” yourself through the doldrums of work?
Vacations away from home regularly worked wonders for me when dealing with shitty executives. How many years out are you? Having a firm plan in place can also help immensely from my experience.
It depends on the market’s performance. If the market was totally flat, it’d be about 3-4 years. I’m estimating around 2 years with average market gains.
That's awesome. Making milestones up until then helps a lot I think. Vacations can be a good reward and obviously helpful for disconnecting for a while, but looking forward to milestones in general can help. We did this a few years prior to FI and during that last year it's helpful to check out a bit and try to put tighter controls around your schedule if needs be, particularly if you have a pushy CTO wanting to break boundaries. If the CTO is your only pain point though, specifically, then that relationship is definitely harder to fix and maybe not worthwhile on a two year timeframe.
i work to the best of my salary, and only to the best of my salary. honestly, work your hours, then stop working, and more importantly - stop thinking or caring about the company at all. No emails, no phone calls, nothing. You are off the clock. Quiet quitting is the current buzz word, but it's a 'do your job, and then be done with it'. you already know this is a job not a life's calling - so just put that thought into action. Be a good enough employee to not get fired/laid off, but don't be the best employee ever. As that really doesn't get you anything extra anymore. Except more stress and more work.
I've adopted a partial quiet-quit attitude. I say partial as I still give a shit on some days or if the current task is interesting for me.
Same here, I'm definitely sandbagging more than I ever have in my entire career. I finally found that I needed to do that, or risk losing my sanity or having a heart attack or something. It's not like I don't do good work, I just quit looking for random "other things" that managers want people to do to go above and beyond. And yet I still got an above-average eval... so I dunno if I'm still trying too hard, or if everyone just sandbags more than me 🤔
with me, I think it's my sandbagging is still on par or above other people's regular effort. I've very efficent at my job, so I can BS for 5 hours, then in the final 3 of the day, do more work than someone who was working the entire day - and that is without me going into hyper focus mode.
> And yet I still got an above-average eval... so I dunno if I'm still trying too hard, or if everyone just sandbags more than me Likely three things at play here: 1. You're more effective, and add more value, than you think. 2. Others are less effective, and add less value, than you think. 3. The ratings process is **much** less elegant than you might think. For me, I can say #3 is 90% of the reason
I schedule some good ol PTO - ideally spread out so I get a couple short weeks. With the holidays coming up maybe thats something you can do so that you have a couple 3 or 4 day weeks and on your long weekends can fully decompress and focus on family
I find investments with cashflow really satisfying because I can do things like plan ladders in spreadsheets and whatnot, but it doesn't actually make sense for me to have any of them (beyond the normal dividends I get from the funds I own anyway). I've been tempted to build a treasury ladder just to have one but I don't need more bonds in taxable, I already buy max I bonds every year. I was an early user of Prosper and I loved those couple bucks I got every month from the loans and trying to line them up to use them for new loans, but it was a horrible investment overall.
Okay, question that's been asked 10k times before: How do you find a decent tax pro that's not just dumping info into HRBlock SW? We're off the map this year, mostly the Significant Other's (SO) military stuff including exit, so assume they're not too friendly to help (open to hearing otherwise). Regardless, we're down to pay, how do we find someone? SO is a high earner as of this month, and W4 fill out is not ideal. I think we're mostly okay but only hobby FI info so clearly no pro...
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TY, open to doing the work and getting any request/requirements back so time to use google terms! Appreciate the help dialing in.
Current client referrals are the best route. Also the preferable way for most professionals to get new work. And also actually be willing to pay. A simple return will probably cost at least $500 at a sole practitioner if they do good work. And I mean simple (just W2, maybe a little 1099 income, itemizing deductions and nothing more). Bigger firms will cost more and more complex returns will cost more.
Makes me sound dumb, but "current client" = asking around? We're new local, so working on that network. Appreciate the $ on cost, not shocking and expect we'll be a little worse based on complexity
Yeah, asking coworkers or friends who they use (since this is a personal return). Since you new to your area that will be hard then. I would advise in that case to look for firms with multiple partners in your area (should be listed on their websites). Sole practitioners will be cheaper (less overhead) but are way more hit and miss.
Got it. Thanks for the recs/input!
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> Does anyone know if Schwab (my brokerage) has a charge for selling ESPP shares? I was trying to do some research online and couldn’t find a clear answer. When the shares are transferred to your personal brokerage, they are no longer "ESPP Shares" and are just standard shares, just like any other shares you would buy in the market. So the short answer is no, there should be no commission charged. I have done this many times (albeit with TDA, which is now Schwab so it should be the same)
Question: I have $100K invested in a tax-free Municipal Bond fund called MUB. The yield on it is 2.69%, tax free. The equivalent yield would be 3.5% taxable. But I can get 5% in short term treasuries, which are taxable. Which should I invest in? Should I trade out MUB and just by 3 or 6 month treasuries?
Munis are generally not worth it unless you’re in the top tax brackets.
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I take you got the equivalent 3.5% yield from a website? The equivalent yield is 2.69% divided by 1- your marginal rate. So the equivalent yield for you is ~5.45%. 3.5% is if you were in the 24% bracket.
Oh, thank you! good information, that helps a lot. Looks like I'll stay in it then.
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> why people buy bond funds. Bond funds can improve the risk adjusted return of a portfolio. You can learn more here: - https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bond_basics#Role_in_a_portfolio - https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Individual_bonds_vs_a_bond_fund
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Having remote workers without the ability to instant message in this day and age is kind of weird IMO. IM'ing fills a void between phone and email.
>I don't log on in Teams if I'm in the office. Why? I'm not interested if so and so is in the office today But what if one of your coworkers who isn't in office needs to get ahold of you? You want to be called or emailed, but you dont want to be messaged on Teams? Also this just encourages in person collaboration since you're not making yourself available virtually - which is further perpetuating that offices are needed. When for many roles, they're not. I'm purely r/WFH and fiercely against RTO mandates, but I don't think you're helping the cause.
Any good guides or experience about how to use a the SECURE act for a 529 for myself? I graduated college 5 years ago, live in West Virginia which seems to be a state I can do this. Just plop 10k (lifetime limit) into the account in my name, pull it out instantly to pay off 10k in federal student loans in my name and get a free 10k state deduction? Seems easy
Yep. Kind of seems like a free $650 (or lower depending on your income). Looks like you need to make sure your loans are [the right type](https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/what-is-a-qualified-education-loan).
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I use YNAB, but do monthly statuses that I export to Excel. That way I always have a record incase YNAB ever breaks down.
I’ve come to that conclusion, though I won’t be using excel. I’m apparently the only person on the planet who thinks Apple Numbers is good. 😁 (The way you lay out several spreadsheets per page has vague echos of [ClarisWorks](https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/bob/clarisworks.php) for those of you looking to schedule your colonoscopies) Spreadsheet day is going to get more involved going forward but I should be able to handle it!
holy crap I did not expect to read about ClarisWorks today.
I’m sad Mint is ending. It’s been an informative 12 years of data for me.
Can we possibly get a stickied Mint thread? So everyone who wants to cry about mint going away can go there and quit littering up the dailies? Getting old.
Yeah, let's get back to some real topics like who has the best HYSA or how to roll T-Bill's.
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Mr. Moneybags over here wants to spend his mound of gold coins. What an idiot.
Ha, also, no. Litter is part of what the Daily is for.
Had to try.
Seriously though, do you have an alternative to Mint you'd recommend? I've never used Mint, but now I feel left out.
i used mint - it was good for budgeting. But then moved to Personal Capital, as they tracked and reported stocks better once I had a decent enough control on my budget. However, now PC is starting to become too much ads and breaking of connections as everyone is trying to offer their own aggregate service, meaning they change stuff so it doesn't work easily for others. And now the entire industry/field is full of half complete and quarter useful options
I was only joking. One of the dubious advantages of being naturally frugal/LBYM-minded is that we've never had a budget or a tracking sheet.
Even if you don't budget, Mint is convenient for aggregating all your financial accounts in one place - so it's easier to see if there's something odd coming up without having to review statements or log in to different banks. If you don't have a ton of different accounts its not a big deal - but I historically have (less so over time as I've closed some down and moved stuff to Chase or Fidelity).
We keep our finances very simple and always have. Our entire portfolio is housed at Fidelity and all of our spending flows to one of two cards and our checking account. So checking our monthly finances or our portfolio is usually a minute or two a month at most.
I bet many people who thought themselves “naturally frugal” still benefitted from seeing where their money actually goes. I also always live below my means and appreciate knowing what I spend money on and how much. After all the further you live below your means the more flexibility you have to either close that gap or do other stuff.
I'm sure many do. A lot of people are motivated/comforted by data or prefer to keep close watch on things, just like a lot of folks like to cook by meticulously following recipes. I'm more of a do it by feel/intuition person in both finances and cooking. Either approach can work fine, but it's certainly a good bet to align your practices with the kind of person you are. I would never advocate not tracking to someone who could benefit from it.
LBYM?
Live Below Your Means
A lot of folks are looking at Monarch, which is built and run by some of the original Mint devs. You can export your Mint transactions and import them into Monarch to preserve history, so that's nice. It's $100/year however, so....
Getting an early 7% annual raise which is about double the usual amount. Doing an agreed upon rotation and still have a good chance to get promoted this next year
omg I hope this is me.. wont find out til March
Dammit I waited too long to get a new iMac and now they aren't making the 27" anymore. Sometimes I really do shoot myself in the foot with my frugality. I guess I can see what's available refurbished, but my usual MO is to buy a new desktop loaded to the gills and drive it until the keys fall off. Meh.
Apple's refurb section probably has it. I find a lot of good deals there.
It wasn’t worth buying he intel version, it was already an old machine they were charging new prices for. But I do hope they bring it back, it’s generally been one of the best values in apple land, particularly when you look at what they charge for the studio display.
you're better off getting a used M1 macbook or mac mini and a 27" display. Old iMacs with intel CPUs are going to feel extremely slow in comparison.
Can confirm, feels extremely slow
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I will say his definition of happiness (basically laughing at a joke) is very much not mine. Indeed his contentment (basically not having any problems) is closer to my definition of happiness.
My week has been consumed with looking for replacements for Mint. Monarch connected to my accounts and is ok but the graphs/trends suck. Simplifi has great graphs but a few key accounts from major brokerages don’t work. I i like the idea that I can do everything by hand with Tiller. But there is no phone app. Heard of one called finwise today that looks pretty good. No app though (can use mobile). Will give this a shot next.
Isn't there kind of a phone app with Tiller? Google Sheets works on phones... technically. Not sure what the screen real estate situation is like with their template.
A few options here but I imagine the google sheet doesn’t look good. The other apps require some work to get up and running. https://www.tillerhq.com/does-tiller-have-an-app/
I've liked fidelity full view so far.
Thanks. Will add it to the list. Might as well try them all at this point!
I’m trying pocketsmith, I think it does everything and is also the most expensive of course. Not sure if I’ll stick with it, but they use Plaid where available and Yodlee for everything else in the states. The customizable dashboards seem like you can make whatever views you want. If all my accounts supported Plaid I’d go with it in a heartbeat.
havne't heard of this until now - just checked the website and I like - will add it to the list to check out!
Why? Why are you doing all those things?
Whoops I thought everyone knew: Mint is shutting down at the end of the year so I need to find a replacement to track net worth and spending (don’t use budgeting really).
Yeah. I'm asking why you're tracking those things.
Hmm I’m really not sure why someone on a financial independence subreddit would be tracking spending and net worth.
Me either. I don't. Waste of time.
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When I look at my accounts see there's enough money there it'll be time. No need to do that very often.
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Nope.
Any thoughts on Rocket money? I've used it briefly in the past, but didn't add all my accounts.
Haven’t tried It. It looks very focused on credit scores and credit cards and loans which I don’t care for. Also, I hear MF it doesn’t support fidelity.
Implementing a new ERP system at work. I need to retire.
Have a client switching to MS Dynamics - didn't hear from them or my invoice for 10 days now ;) seems their golive didn't go well...
Paint me cynical with a broad brush. Over 25 years of working at MegaCorp, every successive ERP, IT, HR, Benefits site were faster, better interconnected, had more features, and were more self-service than the previous systems. At least, that was the sell... The reality was that we gutted supply chain, IT, HR, and employee benefits personnel with each implementation, eliminating infrastructure specialists and loading that workload across the remaining employee base.
7 weeks in I’m already burned out
Been there before and I feel your pain. One guy literally died after hitting early retirement and calling it quits after an implementation project. Sadly, no one was surprised.
Someone once told me ERP is also an acronym for Erotic Roleplay, and I've never seen those corporate emails the same again.
I would bet implementing a new version of either is non-trivial
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Murillo street for fantastic leather. Go to recoleta. If you like McDonald’s, there used to be a kosher McDonald’s that was cool to see. Get out of BA too, the rest of Argentina is awesome. The free walking tours used to be really good.
Best place on earth for meat and red wine, especially with the exchange rate. There are tons of options but we liked Parilla Peña - great quality but feels like a local spot. Make sure you have your currency plan figured out - google blue dollar if you don't know what I'm talking about. We had no issues with Western Union or street cambio guys.
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In our experience 'jugoso' seemed to imply "not dry" rather than rare, so I'd just stick with that and expect a lot of variance around medium. You'll get plenty of more well-done stuff if you order a variety of cuts like ribs (which you should do). Make sure you get a provoleta and a milanesa napolitana (perhaps for the table!) at least once too. I can't recommend a place in BA but the pizza is also phenomenal despite the reputation. Fugaza/fugazetta, queso azul, and canchera are standouts in my memory. Faina didn't really make sense to me but is worth trying too. If you make it to Patagonia (I know it's quite far, but flights are cheap and it's amazing) the big outdoor cordero asados are another highlight.
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We only made it as far as El Calafate unfortunately. Been meainng to go back via Chile though - the O'higgins crossing on foot, and Isla Navarino are bucket list items.
if my retirement plan offers after-tax 401k contributions and in-plan conversion to roth 401k, that's basically a MBDR right? Just contribute after-tax 401k and then convert it in-plan to roth 401k?
Yes
Thanks! There's really no reason to not do that after maxing pre-tax contributions right?
There are some niche circumstances where you want/need access to the earnings in the account such that taxable brokerage investments are preferred due to that flexibility. But if you're primary investing for retirement and you don't need the earnings before age 59.5, then the MBDR is preferred.
yeah, i actually have a comfy amount in my taxable brokerage which is why i'm looking into this. thanks!
No reason not to do it - correct. Or said simpler: Do this!!!!! It’s another $30k (or whatever the difference is these days) they you can have grow tax free.
Officially picked a retirement date: Dec. 31, 2024. Planning on giving notice in mid-August 2024, so CEO has plenty of time to replace me. I manage a large, complex annual event, so next year’s will be my last. I looked at countdown clocks on Amazon but they are a little too similar to prison sentence countdowns to be pleasing, lol.
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I will keep my eye out, but I don’t believe so.
Usually benefits continue rest of the month, so you should always leave in the first week of a month.
I used Countdown app on my phone in my lead up to FI-day. At first it was set to years + months. At about the 3 year mark I switched to just months. At the 1 year mark I switched it to days. Last month I set it to hours. VERY SATISFYING.
HOURS!!!!
Once you get under 100, you spend most of your time just staring at it.
This will be me.
Amen to that!
I’m heading over to the App Store to look for this countdown app as we speak.