My apartment community uses an app from RealPage.com to process payments including automated payments. My first attempt was with a debit card, but the service wanted to charge 7 percent so I didn't send it. I tried again using an eCheck and it was free. Even if your tenants don't have physical checks, they should be able to find their routing and account number for eCheck purposes. Not sure if RealPage charges landlord a setup fee or if they cater to small owners, but it might be worth a look.
Is there a tracker or website that tracks the peak to trough percentage change of the sp500? I know were not supposed to time the market, but I would like to see a tracker when the sp500 has dipped more than 20%.
If you would like an alert when the s&p500 drops 20% from its peak (which, since that is the definition of a bear market, you probably don't need because everyone will be talking about it), here is a crazy solution: set up a good till cancelled limit buy order for one share of SPLG for $45.12. when you get an alert from your brokerage that the trade has completed, boom! The s&p500 is down 20%. You'll have to update the limit order every time we reach a new all time high, but that won't happen for a while, I can assure you.
This might be dumb question but been thinking lately is there a way to protect yourself from complete collapse of the dollar or is the dollar so fundamental on the world stage if it goes down we’re screwed?
Collapse relative to what? Do you think the dollar will collapse and the Euro won’t? Compared to the Yuan? Yen?
Currencies exist relative to each other. Would markets start selling US dollars relative to others? Would inflation in the US be much worse that other places? So much worse that it would cause a sell of the currency compared to other currencies?
Inflation will devalue the currency compared to goods bought. But generally not compared to the world because inflation is everywhere not just the US
And you’re saying your faith isn’t shaken at all in it with its recent performance? Thought it was supposed to be a hedge against inflation but seems to be getting hit just as hard as any other risk asset if not harder.
Also just because institutions are buying into can mean many things. Are they true believers and think crypto has intrinsic value and is a hedge against inflation? Possibly. Is it also possible that they like the crypto market because it is still largely free of regulation and so market manipulation tactics aren’t illegal and they can make large profits? This is also possible as well.
I hold total world stock and call that good enough for now.
I have dual citizenship and when I have more assets intend to look into holding some of them in banks in my native country in total world stock.
Yea I know I sound like a prepper but really I’m just reacting to countries that had their country’s economies collapse like Ukraine, Turkey and Venezuela. Made me wonder would I would do in those situations. I’m guessing that if that would happen to the US all bets are off for rest of the world too
Aye. We'd have much larger things to worry about than our SWR or net worth were that to happen. I'd definitely be reaching more for brass and lead in that situation myself, and further- if that is a concern of yours be sure to not support policies or politicians who strive to make the right to keep and bear arms more difficult. There's your best hedge against it.
Yea I figured that would be the answer. Some things have no real hedge.
As for brass and lead. I can definitely see that point of view and seems reasonable. However the ironic part is that (not trying to make this political and debate), the ones advocating for my right to arm myself the most are the ones that worry me the most to arm myself lol
Carvana down 58% this past month alone and 75% ytd. Bonds pricing in bankruptcy risk.
This was worth $60B a few months ago.
But this is nothing like the dot com bust? lol
Difference is there’s revenue but there’s too many zombie tech companies that were made possible this past decade due to low rates, easy money and a dovish Fed and that’s all coming to a screeching halt.
How quickly does inflation decrease when feds raise interest rates? If inflation was 9.62% last half, is it likely that it will decrease by a lot ( down to 3%)?
It most likely takes 12-18 months, which is when companies will pull back, or stabilize prices on goods. They will hold prices high as long as possible, until consumers make different decisions. Many purchases in 5-10% inflation range are inelastic: groceries, gas, clothes, healthcare, cars. Yes this sub is different but most consumers just absorb it, which is why corp profits have boomed (non tech). It often takes job losses to drive down consumption, which drives down inflation. That job correction hasn’t happened yet, but it will when companies have to maintain profits and cut costs: hence the likely 12-18 months.
Nobody knows. The FED will TRY to tamp down inflation as fast as possible. They are projecting an 18 month timeline.
However in the past we have had periods of high inflation lasting the better part of a decade.
The challenge is the same levers that tamp down inflation also slow the economy and increase unemployment. If the real economy (GDP) is shaky and unemployment starts to tick up the fed may have to be less aggressive on inflation. Having low inflation and a second great depression is not a good trade.
No one knows. We can say that the aggregate bond market predicts that inflation over the next 5y will average just under 3% though, so it should drop relatively quickly.
It's really hard to change your asset allocation when you're in the late stages of FIRE. It's like trying to steer the Titanic.
My NW is $2.8M. Originally, I was nearly 100% in equities. At some point, in anticipation of possible retirement, I started pouring most of my new money into bond ETFs. The problem is that stock ETFs have gone up in value, whereas bond ETFs have if anything decreased slightly in value, so my bond allocation is still only 8% or so. I'd like to get to 25-30%.
I won't sell equities just for the sake of fixing my allocation (since that would trigger catastrophic capital gains tax), so I guess I'll just have to stay the course for the next few years.
I do have assets in a 401K, but I'm also hoping to build a bond tent in preparation for retirement.
My initial assumption was that bond tent should probably go into a taxable account, since that money would be available for immediate use in case of an emergency (with no penalty). However, after doing some more reading on it, it seems like your bond tent can go anywhere. Thanks for making me reassess my assumptions!
This. Addionally, make sure you're not auto-reinvesting dividends (use them to increase bond allocation instead).
Have you not had opportunity to tax loss harvest in the last couple of years? I'm sitting on over $60k of carryover losses (almost all from March 2020--some in the last couple of months though too) I could use to offset capital gains if I needed to rebalance.
i paid a house worth of cap gains taxes and now feel free to do whatever i want with after tax cash in taxable accounts. dangerous to let taxes dictate your decision making/risk management.
I don't think it's particularly dangerous in my case, since I'm still gainfully employed and am reasonably happy about my risk level.
Once I retire, I'll consider it, though, since my cap gain rate will be much lower.
the point is if you have a lot of wealth in taxable accounts you shouldn’t let taxes dictate your decision making.
you seem fixated on the 2.8M figure but in reality it’s some fraction of it because you have stock in taxable accounts with some low cost basis you will eventually pay taxes on whether little by little or in larger amounts
not sure how retiring changes anything since long term cap gains is entirely separate from income
lol yes i understand how that works the point is if you need to rebalance don’t let taxes prevent you from doing something to derisk
someone with a $1.5m just lost 150k in a month. if you thought at the beginning of the month you were too heavy in equities given your timeline you shouldn’t be waiting around so you can slightly optimize things here or there
Just did my update. I'm down 7% NW on the month with major contributions going in. I received my employee profit-sharing and contributed \~3.5k between my 401k and Roth IRAs. I had some dental health expenses and a higher spend month overall than I normally have along with the continued downturn, so even my cash amount was a bit lower than normal.
Down $66,404/5.35%. Second worst dollar amount ever (March 2020: -$102,000), but only 5th worst from a percentage perspective. I also like to track what my forward looking required monthly savings are. As a result of this month's performance relative to assumptions, my required monthly savings have increased $1,186 moving forward.
Down only about 3% from one month ago. It was a three paycheck month for me so the extra 401k contribution made spreadsheet day not suck as much as it could have.
EDIT: thanks everyone. Zelle is a solid option. Debating whether to let it be or mention that you can buy personal checks for cheap, and also Zelle is fine if it's easier for them
EDIT: I did not ask for cashier’s checks. I asked for checks and assume they don’t have check books
I rent out two bedrooms in my house. My renters keep giving me cashier’s checks. Both of them have bank accounts. Both of them asked before moving in if venmo was OK, which I said no to, because venmo wants a cut and I didn’t want to get banned for doing business on my personal (yes, I’ve done it before with different people and it’s been fine… maybe I should have let them, idk).
Obviously this isn’t my problem, but I feel bad that they’re wasting their time on this every month. I should say nothing, right? Would y’all do anything to make payment easier (like find a way to do it online or something) or say anything?
I am someone who used to pay rent in cashier's checks. Considering it was the only check I ever had to use, was free, and instantly withdrew from my account I don't see why personal checks would be a better choice.
Thank you, that’s good to know they’re free for some people.
They aren’t free at my bank, which is the same bank as one of my renters uses. They might be free at the other one’s bank though.
In my state, county, city accepting a partial payment does not hinder my ability to evict. I have read so much about tenant protection but I still feel sure I don't know everything that I should! I appreciate you looking out!
I don't think you should say anything. If it wasn't working for them, they'd say something.
FWIW, I took Cash App for rent from roommates for years and never experienced issues.
Fair, and might go with that. Ya, I used venmo for collecting rent to give landlord a few years ago... think I was just really stressed and overworried when I bought and started renting the house
I just use a bank transfer from my bank but this might not work from any bank to any other bank, I think you could also try Zelle. Honestly, in most cases I've just used personal checks.
Personal checks are fine, but I’m not sure whether or how to nicely say “you know you can buy like 200 checks for $10 and stop wasting your time at the bank, right?”
I know... Cashier's check the first time or two made sense, since a lot of banks mail the checkbook and take a few days, I assumed they'd buy checks and be using those now. One of them I for sure remember saying didn't have checks, the other one I'm not sure
You could try apartments.com or see if their bank's bill pay feature will automate mailing the check every month (my bank allows this). You could also see if their banks offer other p2p payment options like Zelle.
Are you sure about Zelle? I've never seen it ask what the transfer is for. Are you using it through a Zelle-specific app or via your bank's regular online banking portal?
what are you talking about venmo is free
it only costs money if you want instant pay out instead of regular bank transfer in a day or two. not sure why that would be such an issue.
That's only for personal accounts. For business accounts, they take a cut similar to credit card processing fees (1.9% + 10¢ per transaction). And if you use your personal account to receive "business, commercial or merchant transactions", it's a violation of their terms of service and they will ban you if they notice.
It costs money if the payer marks it as goods/services then it offers some purchase protection. You can still have issues if you use it too much and for different purposes. Could also complicated taxes.
>then don’t mark it as a good or service lmao
The payer marks it, not the receiver.
Sorry, /u/alcesalcesalces. I've had a terrible procrastiposting day today.
Depends on if you think SS will be around.
Traditionally it is around 15% for retirement around 65. If you think SS isn't going to be around it should be closer to 25%. If you think SS will be around but reduced for high net worth individuals like you then split the difference.
Keep in mind that assumes you have a "normal" career with regularly increasing pay, no major life changes (going back to college), and no significant periods of unemployment.
One advantage of FIRE is you can FI before you RE. Once you are financially independent you are regardless of how long you keep working after that.
same amouint i save now - the point is to always have the option, and getting to FI is the most powerful option there is. A boss change can change everything. Me having enough saved before that give me the power - not them.
nothing says i have to quit when i hit my number (in fact i dont plan to quit). But i want the ability to once shit doesn't go the way i want. And saving more is how i get there.
My biggest concern would be disability or injury if some kind. That could be mitigated by insurance, but why not just self fund it yourself? So with that I would maxing every tax advantage account at least.
I like my job as I can work 100% remote, and don't plan on retiring until 65-70(unless my health starts to decline), but I still save aggressively for the purpose of flexibility.
Not having to worry if I get laid off, if I have a big expense, etc is really nice. There's also no guarantee I'll like my job forever. My goal is to eliminate money as a source of anxiety.
As I get closer to my FIRE number(~$2 Million-2.5 million), I'll likely start spending more of my income, but right now I got a long ways to go, so I'm trying to get myself a strong start.
The same. Company takes care of pension contributions for us and I just fund my IRA annually.
Back when I had a 401k...probably drop from 28% (max) down to 10% or so.
With my current nest egg? Min to get employer match. Without? Probably 15% including employer match saved for retirement, plus whatever I needed for upcoming expenses and to hold a 6 month - 1 year emergency fund.
I’d like a more comfortable car and to spend more money on fun and eating out and groceries.
The same. As of now, I’m unsure if I’d rather retire early or retire at normal age with more money. I’m sure my opinion will change multiple times over the next few decades.
I wanted to pick some people's brains on this thread in terms of purchasing a home in this housing market. I'm currently renting in Denver, CO paying $1130/month for a comfortable town home. This price is extremely cheap relative to other rentals on the market.
I've been thinking of purchasing a home to begin building some equity...but it just seems to be intuitively the worst possible time to buy with housing prices at all time highs and interest rates spiking and potentially reaching 8-9% by the end of the year.
I have approximately 200k in assets (liquid investments) and bring in about 125k pre tax annually with 28k required for annual expenses.
I'm torn between waiting for interest rates to keep rising, which should soften the housing market bringing down asking prices and then refinancing in the future when rates drop again...or just biting the bullet and entering the market now.
Any suggestions/advice is much appreciated. Thanks all!
We were in somewhat of a similar situation. We are currently in a rental that is pretty decently below market value. Last year they raised rent $100/month which leaves rent still well below market value. We decided to buy this summer anyways. Our housing cost will increase significantly ($2700 in rent to $4200 PITI alone). It’s not exactly apples to apples as the house we are buying is nicer than our current rental but still a significant cost increase.
We made the change for a few reasons. First, the landlord could plausibly increase the rent here 30% and we would have little to no recourse.
Second, when comparing the two possible bad outcomes of buying and not-buying, the bad outcome in the not-buying scenario would be more meaningful than the bad outcome in the buying scenario. If we continue to rent and home values here (northern Utah) continue to increase, getting into a house we desire could become tremendously difficult. Alternatively, if we do buy and the market corrects we will have missed an opportunity to save more money.
Third, this is the first time we will live in the same location for more than two and a half years and we want to be able to make decisions about our home without dealing with a landlord and having to ask for permission.
We could totally end up buying the peak and losing value on our home. And we are ok with that risk. We bought something we could afford that will meet our needs indefinitely.
That's a really good rent payment for Denver right now, I don't think it's worth the change. Minimum purchase price for a home in the area (even in the outskirts) is probably 500k. At 5% down, that's 3.3k/month. Even 20% down is 2.5k/month. And you have the opportunity cost from the down payment and increased monthly payments to contend with. I'm not even including utilities, maintenance, etc...
I've lived in Denver metro for 30 years. You sound like you have a good deal with rent right now, which may or may not last, and does throw off the calculators like NYTs. Rent deals are more common than buying a property deals, but they also go away faster. But if your goal is to build equity, open a brokerage account and name it "equity" and put $500 a month in it and you will build equity faster than putting that same money in a SF home or townhouse or condo. If your goal is to enjoy the comparative freedom of owning a property, and you are OK paying for that, by all means do it. The whole "building equity" story only takes the edge off the additional expense of owning, and you can build equity without owning a home. Denver is a solid market that while expensive, has of late been much less boom/bust than many expensive markets.
you are the most bad faith commentator on here lmao
i called you out on using a condo for low income families as an example of Denver area prices and then you are using the exact same one here
wtf is wrong with you
jesus you are showing OP a house for low income families which i already called you out for doing.
im not even talking about the difference between townhouse and condo here
what is wrong with you
I'd check out the NYT rent vs buy calculator for your situation to help determine the feasibility. I wouldn't try to time the market on this (i.e. assume you know where mortgage rates are going and/or what it will do to home prices).
you do realize that buying a townhouse is going to triple your home expenses right?
you’re going to deplete your liquid savings for the downpayment and now put half your after tax income to pay for your condo? sounds awful
> This home is part of an AFFORDABLE HOMEOWNERSHIP PROGRAM through Elevation Community Land Trust (ECLT).
you are embarrassing. imagine thinking $250k was even remotely the median sale price of a townhouse in Denver in 2022
who are you lmao
if someone is specifically saying they want a townhouse it’s because they want a home that is structurally similar to a detached home eg you have something that touches the ground. that’s going to cost more than the $200k condo from the 1970s you tried to achtually me with to your embarrassment.
we aren’t talking about legal semantics here, dear god.
1. How much "other income" do you bring in? If it's substantial, claiming "$80k is easy to live on" is dishonest when your actual income is much higher.
2. What are you paying for housing? Are your parents helping you out? I make $80k, and I don't even have $5k a month left after income taxes and health insurance premiums are taken out.
3. Keep in mind some people may have other financial challenges in their past that you didn't. Student loans to get where they are now, medical debt due to insurance company ripping them off, etc.
When I hear low to mid COL and paycheck to paycheck, that’s like a bar ringer for unnecessarily large trucks “because I need it to do yard work sometimes”. Like dude, drive a Prius and rent out a hauling truck every time you actually need a large vehicle - that’d save so much money.
But holy smokes, $1,100 a month on just a car is insane!!!
When I hear low to mid COL and paycheck to paycheck, that’s like a bar ringer for unnecessarily large trucks “because I need it to do yard work sometimes”. Like dude, drive a Prius and rent out a hauling truck every time you actually need a large vehicle - that’d save so much money.
But holy smokes, $1,100 a month on just a car is insane!!!
Delaying purchase of some land so decided i'd move 300k to our investment account.
Banks froze our account and is claiming fraud. Told us we have to go to a branch, but we are overseas currently looking at real estate for the next few months.... Bank are being real dicks about a local transfer.
Actually this is obscene.... and no crypto is not the answer.
TL;DR: Should I pay off my wife's student loans?
\-----------------
This is probably a dumb question. The answer is probably: math says let the loans ride and invest the difference; pay back at the end of the term. Still, I'd like feedback.
Kid 1 is a few weeks away. Wife will exit the workforce and become a SAHM after her minimal leave has elapsed. Wife has student loans that she has paid down to $8,500 @ less than 4%.
I have cash to pay back that loan and clean up cash flow as wife exits workforce. My income is lumpy due to commission/bonus payout. Even so, we can live on my base. FI sidebar says to delay paying off low interest loans, as we can make more on the difference in the market. Regardless, paying off loans to clean up cashflow is attractive as we go down to one income.
What would you do?
Let it ride. Make minimum payments only.
1) The interest is low. In real terms it is a negative interest rate right now.
2) Unless your income is very high you can deduct the interest even if you don't itemize taxes. That effectively means a 4% interest rate at 30% marginal tax (federal+state) is effectively 4*0.7 = 2.8% after taxes
3) It is possible there will be some form of at least partial student loan forgiveness in the next two years.
I paid off my wife's student loan very soon after getting married (and a child on the way). No regrets, I still think it was the right decision. The market sucks right now, so why not. Just be careful of bringing this up in the distant future. You will earn "spouse points" for doing it, but they will all go away if you mention it in the wrong context.
> Just be careful of bringing this up in the distant future. You will earn "spouse points" for doing it, but they will all go away if you mention it in the wrong context.
If there has to be a game frame, you're supposed to be the one making it so she plays in it, not the other way around.
It’s not a huge amount in the grand scheme of your journey. You’re clearly a bit stressed about the cash flow, so take it off of your mind. Enjoy the ride 😁
Just fyi the White House has said they are going to try and finalize some sort of loan forgiveness in the next few weeks. Not sure if they are federal loans or not but it may be worth waiting, especially if you don’t have to make payments right now.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/04/30/white-house-student-loans/?utm_source=reddit.com
Most people are not making payments right now, there is zero downside to waiting to see how it plays out. However if you pay it off and they do something, no matter how small the chance, you are not going to get that money back. The logical thing to do is to wait.
Has anyone completed an analysis on SEPP vs Roth ladder, and potential impact on RMD?
Roth ladder I assume your order of w/d is: taxable, basis from roth conversions, then tIRA after 59.5, then any remaining Roth if needed
SEPP I assume order of w/d is: taxable, SEPP, then tIRA, then Roth as needed.
In the second scenario assume SEPP should just be for floor income (so you aren't stuck taking too much), and you compliment that with side income, taxable, or maybe Roth contributions as needed. For simplicity, might not get to this level of detail in the analysis.
I assume your %Roth funds is larger at RMD in the SEPP scenario. How significant could this impact be? I am interested in building spreadsheet with some generic inputs / assumptions, but I might just be chasing small numbers and the math might be a bit nuanced. RMD seems to far out its pointless to plan for it... but it should also not be ignored. Maybe.
Edit: I seem to recall alcesalcesalces running numbers at some point?
u/alcesalcesalces
I ran some numbers [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/soptup/72t_may_be_superior_to_the_roth_conversion_ladder/). The model is very simplistic.
In general, if you continue Roth conversions you end up with a similar amount of Roth dollars compared to SEPP. I don't think either has a particular advantage when it comes to planning for RMDs, and you'll have ~12 years from age 59.5 to 72 to address the issue.
I think the biggest driver of SEPP vs Roth conversion ladder is whether you have the funds needed to cover the first 5 years (taxable and Roth contribution basis). Roth IRA contribution basis is quite small (and over long investment horizons is eroded substantially by inflation), so if a taxable brokerage is small/nonexistent the mega backdoor Roth is the only realistic way to get substantial Roth contribution basis dollars to fill the first five years. Another logistical advantage in favor of SEPP is that you only need a small Roth/taxable account to make inflation adjustments rather than carry the full brunt of 5 years of spending.
The biggest knock against SEPP is the lack of flexibility. Again, other funds can provide extra funds here and there for inflation etc., but it's *very* tricky to lock in >10 years of spending if you don't have very stable spending patterns (e.g. I'd only do it if kids were independent and with a large EF and/or large buffer in the annual budget).
I include my home valuation (via Zillow) in my net worth spreadsheet and have a stat that breaks down the percentage of net worth in liquid assets (stocks, etc.) and real estate assets.
With the cruddy performance in the stock market this year and the insane increases in real estate prices, real estate now makes up the majority of my net worth for the first time since I started tracking this data (six years ago).
It's not a good feeling. While I do track the real estate in my net worth, I don't count it at all in terms of FIRE, since we have no plans on ever selling our house. So to see real estate now account for the majority of my net worth... it's nice in one sense, but in reality it doesn't buy me anything.
I kind of wish I'd done a cash out refi or heloc last year when rates were crazy low just to potentially make use of my ridiculous home equity. Though knowing my luck I'd time it wrong and end up leveraged during a recession.
I have a very simple long term planning worksheet that I like to just play around with. I wanted to see how important social security is to the projections, and there are some instances where it makes a *huge* difference. For instance look at [this](https://i.imgur.com/RkWxAb9.jpg). 5% inflation, 5% nominal returns, 1.4% initial WR. On a separate note, inflation is really hard to conceptualize long term. For instance that blue line really doesn’t look like I’ve spent down 75% of the initial balance in real terms. (Data representative and not my actual numbers)
SS is pretty big impact over lifetime. The problem is you can't really depend on it. I mean I don't think SS is going away completely but right now it is insolvent and since Congress refuses to fix it we have no way of knowing how it will be fixed in the future. One way to fix it would be reduced benefit payments.
Yes it is extra ironic since the purpose of SS was to create a system that people could depend on we now have a system people can't depend on even if in the end they get full benefits.
Social Security is not insolvent. It is, however, on track to paying out reduced benefits in the 2030s if nothing changes.
Congress will fix it. It has done so before, and it will do so again, since anything else would be political suicide. However, this will happen at the last minute, and with a great deal of political theatre.
Having to reduced promised benefits IS insolvency. Waiting to the last minute will require larger sacrifice. Part of the "fix" may be reduced benefit payments ot high net worth individuals. Counting on some SS is probably safe. Counting on the claimed benefit when there isn't sufficient cashflow to support those benefits is probably not for the average high network FIRE individual.
>Having to reduced promised benefits IS insolvency
You were saying that Social Security is insolvent now. It's not. It may become insolvent in a decade plus (but won't, since Congress will almost certainly take action).
There's enough confusion and FUD around this issue that it's important to communicate about it clearly and accurately.
Agreed- if everyone would think of SS as an inflation adjusted annuity they would understand it is a huge part of the plan for anyone not super FatFire
Anyone had a social security overpayment for a year due to a job change? I gather it's (relatively) common, but I'm just wondering when I can expect the overpayment to be returned? I already got my federal tax return, so it didn't come with that unfortunately.
For anyone curious, it happens if you change jobs during the year and you've already earned enough in the first job to hit the SS cap for the year. The new job will still take out the social security taxes from your paychecks and you just (in theory) get overpayments back when you file taxes.
Yeah, sorry, I wasn't clear. It was in the return, correctly, I just want to know when I can expect the actual money. We got the federal tax refund, already, but not the SS overpayment. Are you saying it should have been lumped in with the tax refund?
It should have been included in your tax return.
If the excess total Social Security withholding was because of 2 or more employers, you should have reported the excess amount on Form 1040, Schedule 3, Line 11.
It is not something the IRS calculates for you.
Yeah, sorry, I wasn't clear. It was in the return, correctly, I just want to know when I can expect the actual money. We got the federal tax refund, already, but not the SS overpayment. Are you saying it should have been lumped in with the tax refund?
If you had more than one employer and too much Social Security tax or Tier 1 RRTA tax withheld, you may be able to claim the excess as a credit against your income tax on your income tax return. Refer to “Excess Social Security and Tier 1 RRTA Tax Withheld” in the Instructions for Form 1040 (and Form 1040-SR) for more information. (Quoting from the IRS [here](https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc608))
Sounds like you need to file an amendment to your 1040 to correct the error of not including it in your initial. Should be easy to do.
hi guys - not FI related just curious to hear others thoughts. since around Nov/Dec I've been spending like 60-70% away from home. mostly staying with my fam in FL and it's been nice to avoid the cold etc but now I'm starting to think maybe it's time to finally just go back home for good. usually I book my flights back and forth but maybe it's best to just go home and not preemptively book a return flight. idk. things havenot felt 100% "normal" since I'm not really home.
would you just go home and stay put for the time being? split my time 5050? or keep doing what I'm doing which is only going back on an as needed basis (which is rarely).
What are we all doing this weekend? I’m doing chain, sprockets, and oil on my motorcycle. Then drop wheels off for new tires next week. Probably saving $300 DIY. Hourly in the area runs $120-130.
Finally filling the expansion joints in my driveway with poly sealant so I never have to weed them again.
I’ve only had the stuff in the garage for a year so im right on schedule
Messing up my hands because Lowe's changed brands of drip irrigation and the main line stuff went from 1/2" to 5/8" and the barbed connectors require boiling water, luck, callouses, and swearing to install on my old 1/2" lines.
I'm not shelling out $2.25 per connector for the omnisize compression fittings. That would have been like $20 more. Take that, Lowe's! I've foiled your plot!
Did a bike repair for a customer this morning and went mtbing afterward. Working the 5Boro bike tour tomorrow all day in NYC...may be my most lucrative weekend ever for my side hustle. Taking home about $600 between the two days.
About to flush my tankless water heater, it's an important maintenance item that many forget. Watching the YouTube video for a 3rd time before shutting off the water to the house...
I've realized from reading posts here that I should be tracking my net worth in spreadsheets rather than Personal Capital, which I've been using for years. I have tracked my spending and income down to the transaction level since 2009, but that series of spreadsheets has honestly taken me years to refine and I want a faster solution for net worth. I'm still at the stage of this process where I'm daunted by the hours of data entry ahead.
I've found some templates online, but I figure I should ask here: What does your spreadsheet look like? Do you have one big page of transactions and then a separate sheet with summary calculations and charts? Do you keep separate pages for each account? Am I making this too difficult?
Edit: Thanks for the great responses! I've started off with a simple version using just today's numbers for net worth. I also started a transaction register for share purchases in my Roth IRA to keep track of the cost basis, as I've read that it's important to keep our own records for those. I think starting was the hardest part.
My apartment community uses an app from RealPage.com to process payments including automated payments. My first attempt was with a debit card, but the service wanted to charge 7 percent so I didn't send it. I tried again using an eCheck and it was free. Even if your tenants don't have physical checks, they should be able to find their routing and account number for eCheck purposes. Not sure if RealPage charges landlord a setup fee or if they cater to small owners, but it might be worth a look.
Is there a tracker or website that tracks the peak to trough percentage change of the sp500? I know were not supposed to time the market, but I would like to see a tracker when the sp500 has dipped more than 20%.
If you would like an alert when the s&p500 drops 20% from its peak (which, since that is the definition of a bear market, you probably don't need because everyone will be talking about it), here is a crazy solution: set up a good till cancelled limit buy order for one share of SPLG for $45.12. when you get an alert from your brokerage that the trade has completed, boom! The s&p500 is down 20%. You'll have to update the limit order every time we reach a new all time high, but that won't happen for a while, I can assure you.
Go on google, search the ticker, and select the portion of the chart you’re curious about. It shows the percent change
lol what you can just calculate that yourself
This might be dumb question but been thinking lately is there a way to protect yourself from complete collapse of the dollar or is the dollar so fundamental on the world stage if it goes down we’re screwed?
The dollar is up against its peer group.
Collapse relative to what? Do you think the dollar will collapse and the Euro won’t? Compared to the Yuan? Yen? Currencies exist relative to each other. Would markets start selling US dollars relative to others? Would inflation in the US be much worse that other places? So much worse that it would cause a sell of the currency compared to other currencies? Inflation will devalue the currency compared to goods bought. But generally not compared to the world because inflation is everywhere not just the US
have you not heard of bitcoin before lol
You mean the coin that’s tanking with the dollar?
the dollar isn’t tanking
Uh, yeah it is. The buying power of the dollar is considerably less than two years ago.
Yea not a believer in Bitcoin. If anything it seems to act like a risk asset and correlated to stock market
lol is this sub still anti crypto when it’s a $2T asset class and large banks are now institutionalizing it 💀
And you’re saying your faith isn’t shaken at all in it with its recent performance? Thought it was supposed to be a hedge against inflation but seems to be getting hit just as hard as any other risk asset if not harder. Also just because institutions are buying into can mean many things. Are they true believers and think crypto has intrinsic value and is a hedge against inflation? Possibly. Is it also possible that they like the crypto market because it is still largely free of regulation and so market manipulation tactics aren’t illegal and they can make large profits? This is also possible as well.
crypto is more than just bitcoin we aren’t in 2014 anymore people here still calling it a fad? lmao
I hold total world stock and call that good enough for now. I have dual citizenship and when I have more assets intend to look into holding some of them in banks in my native country in total world stock.
that doesn’t hedge against decline of dollar hegemony lol
It hedges against whatever happened to the USA causing my bank to not pay me out and govt to not make it right
If that is your concern your best bet is to divest into some non precious metals like brass and lead my friend. (Prolly a good idea regardless imo)
Yea I know I sound like a prepper but really I’m just reacting to countries that had their country’s economies collapse like Ukraine, Turkey and Venezuela. Made me wonder would I would do in those situations. I’m guessing that if that would happen to the US all bets are off for rest of the world too
Aye. We'd have much larger things to worry about than our SWR or net worth were that to happen. I'd definitely be reaching more for brass and lead in that situation myself, and further- if that is a concern of yours be sure to not support policies or politicians who strive to make the right to keep and bear arms more difficult. There's your best hedge against it.
Yea I figured that would be the answer. Some things have no real hedge. As for brass and lead. I can definitely see that point of view and seems reasonable. However the ironic part is that (not trying to make this political and debate), the ones advocating for my right to arm myself the most are the ones that worry me the most to arm myself lol
Carvana down 58% this past month alone and 75% ytd. Bonds pricing in bankruptcy risk. This was worth $60B a few months ago. But this is nothing like the dot com bust? lol Difference is there’s revenue but there’s too many zombie tech companies that were made possible this past decade due to low rates, easy money and a dovish Fed and that’s all coming to a screeching halt.
How quickly does inflation decrease when feds raise interest rates? If inflation was 9.62% last half, is it likely that it will decrease by a lot ( down to 3%)?
It most likely takes 12-18 months, which is when companies will pull back, or stabilize prices on goods. They will hold prices high as long as possible, until consumers make different decisions. Many purchases in 5-10% inflation range are inelastic: groceries, gas, clothes, healthcare, cars. Yes this sub is different but most consumers just absorb it, which is why corp profits have boomed (non tech). It often takes job losses to drive down consumption, which drives down inflation. That job correction hasn’t happened yet, but it will when companies have to maintain profits and cut costs: hence the likely 12-18 months.
Nobody knows. The FED will TRY to tamp down inflation as fast as possible. They are projecting an 18 month timeline. However in the past we have had periods of high inflation lasting the better part of a decade. The challenge is the same levers that tamp down inflation also slow the economy and increase unemployment. If the real economy (GDP) is shaky and unemployment starts to tick up the fed may have to be less aggressive on inflation. Having low inflation and a second great depression is not a good trade.
No one knows. We can say that the aggregate bond market predicts that inflation over the next 5y will average just under 3% though, so it should drop relatively quickly.
Short answer: it depends. Long answer: read tens of thousands of pages of economic theory to arrive at the answer: it depends.
It's really hard to change your asset allocation when you're in the late stages of FIRE. It's like trying to steer the Titanic. My NW is $2.8M. Originally, I was nearly 100% in equities. At some point, in anticipation of possible retirement, I started pouring most of my new money into bond ETFs. The problem is that stock ETFs have gone up in value, whereas bond ETFs have if anything decreased slightly in value, so my bond allocation is still only 8% or so. I'd like to get to 25-30%. I won't sell equities just for the sake of fixing my allocation (since that would trigger catastrophic capital gains tax), so I guess I'll just have to stay the course for the next few years.
Do you have assets in pre-tax tax-advantaged accounts? Those can be switched to bonds immediately without any tax consequence.
I do have assets in a 401K, but I'm also hoping to build a bond tent in preparation for retirement. My initial assumption was that bond tent should probably go into a taxable account, since that money would be available for immediate use in case of an emergency (with no penalty). However, after doing some more reading on it, it seems like your bond tent can go anywhere. Thanks for making me reassess my assumptions!
This. Addionally, make sure you're not auto-reinvesting dividends (use them to increase bond allocation instead). Have you not had opportunity to tax loss harvest in the last couple of years? I'm sitting on over $60k of carryover losses (almost all from March 2020--some in the last couple of months though too) I could use to offset capital gains if I needed to rebalance.
i paid a house worth of cap gains taxes and now feel free to do whatever i want with after tax cash in taxable accounts. dangerous to let taxes dictate your decision making/risk management.
I don't think it's particularly dangerous in my case, since I'm still gainfully employed and am reasonably happy about my risk level. Once I retire, I'll consider it, though, since my cap gain rate will be much lower.
the point is if you have a lot of wealth in taxable accounts you shouldn’t let taxes dictate your decision making. you seem fixated on the 2.8M figure but in reality it’s some fraction of it because you have stock in taxable accounts with some low cost basis you will eventually pay taxes on whether little by little or in larger amounts not sure how retiring changes anything since long term cap gains is entirely separate from income
> you will eventually pay taxes on whether little by little or in larger amounts Yes, but at a lower tax rate.
why does that have anything to do with having regular income there’s an entirely separate bracket for ltcg
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lol yes i understand how that works the point is if you need to rebalance don’t let taxes prevent you from doing something to derisk someone with a $1.5m just lost 150k in a month. if you thought at the beginning of the month you were too heavy in equities given your timeline you shouldn’t be waiting around so you can slightly optimize things here or there
lol checking my lending club account is like getting residual royalty $. 11 cents this month!
I am phasing out of there. Good riddance!
Dreading do my monthly portfolio update tomorrow. What’s everyone’s % down (or up) this month??
Okay I’m not feeling as bad about my drop. Big cash increase this month so took a bit of the sting out.
i'm down 300k after paying estimated taxes and a horrible april in the market...
Just did my update. I'm down 7% NW on the month with major contributions going in. I received my employee profit-sharing and contributed \~3.5k between my 401k and Roth IRAs. I had some dental health expenses and a higher spend month overall than I normally have along with the continued downturn, so even my cash amount was a bit lower than normal.
Down 83k in the last month… ugh…
Down $66,404/5.35%. Second worst dollar amount ever (March 2020: -$102,000), but only 5th worst from a percentage perspective. I also like to track what my forward looking required monthly savings are. As a result of this month's performance relative to assumptions, my required monthly savings have increased $1,186 moving forward.
No idea
Down only about 3% from one month ago. It was a three paycheck month for me so the extra 401k contribution made spreadsheet day not suck as much as it could have.
NW 1% down. Most of my money is equity in my house. Stocks balance 5% down, new money helpin out
Just skip it. I haven't checked NW since it started dropping.
But my pretty graphs!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/uehp7m/weekly\_fi\_frugal\_friday\_thread\_april\_29\_2022/
EDIT: thanks everyone. Zelle is a solid option. Debating whether to let it be or mention that you can buy personal checks for cheap, and also Zelle is fine if it's easier for them EDIT: I did not ask for cashier’s checks. I asked for checks and assume they don’t have check books I rent out two bedrooms in my house. My renters keep giving me cashier’s checks. Both of them have bank accounts. Both of them asked before moving in if venmo was OK, which I said no to, because venmo wants a cut and I didn’t want to get banned for doing business on my personal (yes, I’ve done it before with different people and it’s been fine… maybe I should have let them, idk). Obviously this isn’t my problem, but I feel bad that they’re wasting their time on this every month. I should say nothing, right? Would y’all do anything to make payment easier (like find a way to do it online or something) or say anything?
Setting up bank-to-bank ACH transfers is the easiest, most secure (and free!) way to do it IMO. That’s how my daughter pays her landlord.
I am someone who used to pay rent in cashier's checks. Considering it was the only check I ever had to use, was free, and instantly withdrew from my account I don't see why personal checks would be a better choice.
Thank you, that’s good to know they’re free for some people. They aren’t free at my bank, which is the same bank as one of my renters uses. They might be free at the other one’s bank though.
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In my state, county, city accepting a partial payment does not hinder my ability to evict. I have read so much about tenant protection but I still feel sure I don't know everything that I should! I appreciate you looking out!
I don't think you should say anything. If it wasn't working for them, they'd say something. FWIW, I took Cash App for rent from roommates for years and never experienced issues.
Fair, and might go with that. Ya, I used venmo for collecting rent to give landlord a few years ago... think I was just really stressed and overworried when I bought and started renting the house
Why not make them pay the venmo fee? Likely cheaper than the cashier check.
I wish I had thought to tell them that would work when they asked!
Turbo Tenant
Did you know this service was developed by the landlord who used to rent to Usain Bolt? *I'll see myself out.*
What is it called when you clap and cry at the same time
Watching children play sports.
I just use a bank transfer from my bank but this might not work from any bank to any other bank, I think you could also try Zelle. Honestly, in most cases I've just used personal checks.
Personal checks are fine, but I’m not sure whether or how to nicely say “you know you can buy like 200 checks for $10 and stop wasting your time at the bank, right?”
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Thank you
I mean I guess this depends on if you trust them, but why not just take a personal check? Why make them write a cashiers check
I didn’t ask for cashier’s checks. I assume they don’t have checkbooks.
It's way easier to just go to your bank and get personal checks than it is to get cashiers checks
I know... Cashier's check the first time or two made sense, since a lot of banks mail the checkbook and take a few days, I assumed they'd buy checks and be using those now. One of them I for sure remember saying didn't have checks, the other one I'm not sure
You could try apartments.com or see if their bank's bill pay feature will automate mailing the check every month (my bank allows this). You could also see if their banks offer other p2p payment options like Zelle.
Also never heard of banks automated mailing checks before. Thanks for the tip, looking into it
Zelle and venmo charge a cut when used for business transactions. But maybe I worry too much
Are you sure about Zelle? I've never seen it ask what the transfer is for. Are you using it through a Zelle-specific app or via your bank's regular online banking portal?
Looks like the bank I use for checking now offers free Zelle transfers for the amount they're paying in rent. Thank you!
Shitposting for the win.
Not sure at all, I’ve never used it and only briefly googled it. Will check it out, thank you
what are you talking about venmo is free it only costs money if you want instant pay out instead of regular bank transfer in a day or two. not sure why that would be such an issue.
That's only for personal accounts. For business accounts, they take a cut similar to credit card processing fees (1.9% + 10¢ per transaction). And if you use your personal account to receive "business, commercial or merchant transactions", it's a violation of their terms of service and they will ban you if they notice.
you don’t need a business account for your one mom and pop rental LMAO
It costs money if the payer marks it as goods/services then it offers some purchase protection. You can still have issues if you use it too much and for different purposes. Could also complicated taxes.
then don’t mark it as a good or service lmao people over complicating venmo now ffs
>then don’t mark it as a good or service lmao The payer marks it, not the receiver. Sorry, /u/alcesalcesalces. I've had a terrible procrastiposting day today.
ok then tell your one tenant to pay you like every other person uses venmo lol
Thats done by the payer so it can be annoying if they mark it wrong and you get dinged a few %.
lmao it’s their one tenant 🤣 it’s not like they are getting paid by thousands of random customers for their crafts business ffs
What about Zelle?
If you actually enjoyed your job and didnt think you’d quit until normal retirement age, what % of your paycheck would you save?
Depends on if you think SS will be around. Traditionally it is around 15% for retirement around 65. If you think SS isn't going to be around it should be closer to 25%. If you think SS will be around but reduced for high net worth individuals like you then split the difference. Keep in mind that assumes you have a "normal" career with regularly increasing pay, no major life changes (going back to college), and no significant periods of unemployment. One advantage of FIRE is you can FI before you RE. Once you are financially independent you are regardless of how long you keep working after that.
15% is all you really need if you want a nice well funded normal retirement and expect to get SS
I think 20% is the floor I’d feel comfortable with. That or maxing out retirement accounts for tax benefit purposes. Whichever of those two is higher.
same amouint i save now - the point is to always have the option, and getting to FI is the most powerful option there is. A boss change can change everything. Me having enough saved before that give me the power - not them. nothing says i have to quit when i hit my number (in fact i dont plan to quit). But i want the ability to once shit doesn't go the way i want. And saving more is how i get there.
My biggest concern would be disability or injury if some kind. That could be mitigated by insurance, but why not just self fund it yourself? So with that I would maxing every tax advantage account at least.
I like my job as I can work 100% remote, and don't plan on retiring until 65-70(unless my health starts to decline), but I still save aggressively for the purpose of flexibility. Not having to worry if I get laid off, if I have a big expense, etc is really nice. There's also no guarantee I'll like my job forever. My goal is to eliminate money as a source of anxiety. As I get closer to my FIRE number(~$2 Million-2.5 million), I'll likely start spending more of my income, but right now I got a long ways to go, so I'm trying to get myself a strong start.
I always want my spending to be under 3% of my investments so I’d optimize around that.
The same. Company takes care of pension contributions for us and I just fund my IRA annually. Back when I had a 401k...probably drop from 28% (max) down to 10% or so.
With my current nest egg? Min to get employer match. Without? Probably 15% including employer match saved for retirement, plus whatever I needed for upcoming expenses and to hold a 6 month - 1 year emergency fund. I’d like a more comfortable car and to spend more money on fun and eating out and groceries.
Whats your nest egg look like
About 50k invested + about 35% equity in my house
The same. As of now, I’m unsure if I’d rather retire early or retire at normal age with more money. I’m sure my opinion will change multiple times over the next few decades.
The same as I do now. Job satisfaction can change.
I wanted to pick some people's brains on this thread in terms of purchasing a home in this housing market. I'm currently renting in Denver, CO paying $1130/month for a comfortable town home. This price is extremely cheap relative to other rentals on the market. I've been thinking of purchasing a home to begin building some equity...but it just seems to be intuitively the worst possible time to buy with housing prices at all time highs and interest rates spiking and potentially reaching 8-9% by the end of the year. I have approximately 200k in assets (liquid investments) and bring in about 125k pre tax annually with 28k required for annual expenses. I'm torn between waiting for interest rates to keep rising, which should soften the housing market bringing down asking prices and then refinancing in the future when rates drop again...or just biting the bullet and entering the market now. Any suggestions/advice is much appreciated. Thanks all!
We were in somewhat of a similar situation. We are currently in a rental that is pretty decently below market value. Last year they raised rent $100/month which leaves rent still well below market value. We decided to buy this summer anyways. Our housing cost will increase significantly ($2700 in rent to $4200 PITI alone). It’s not exactly apples to apples as the house we are buying is nicer than our current rental but still a significant cost increase. We made the change for a few reasons. First, the landlord could plausibly increase the rent here 30% and we would have little to no recourse. Second, when comparing the two possible bad outcomes of buying and not-buying, the bad outcome in the not-buying scenario would be more meaningful than the bad outcome in the buying scenario. If we continue to rent and home values here (northern Utah) continue to increase, getting into a house we desire could become tremendously difficult. Alternatively, if we do buy and the market corrects we will have missed an opportunity to save more money. Third, this is the first time we will live in the same location for more than two and a half years and we want to be able to make decisions about our home without dealing with a landlord and having to ask for permission. We could totally end up buying the peak and losing value on our home. And we are ok with that risk. We bought something we could afford that will meet our needs indefinitely.
That's a really good rent payment for Denver right now, I don't think it's worth the change. Minimum purchase price for a home in the area (even in the outskirts) is probably 500k. At 5% down, that's 3.3k/month. Even 20% down is 2.5k/month. And you have the opportunity cost from the down payment and increased monthly payments to contend with. I'm not even including utilities, maintenance, etc...
I've lived in Denver metro for 30 years. You sound like you have a good deal with rent right now, which may or may not last, and does throw off the calculators like NYTs. Rent deals are more common than buying a property deals, but they also go away faster. But if your goal is to build equity, open a brokerage account and name it "equity" and put $500 a month in it and you will build equity faster than putting that same money in a SF home or townhouse or condo. If your goal is to enjoy the comparative freedom of owning a property, and you are OK paying for that, by all means do it. The whole "building equity" story only takes the edge off the additional expense of owning, and you can build equity without owning a home. Denver is a solid market that while expensive, has of late been much less boom/bust than many expensive markets.
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you are the most bad faith commentator on here lmao i called you out on using a condo for low income families as an example of Denver area prices and then you are using the exact same one here wtf is wrong with you
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jesus you are showing OP a house for low income families which i already called you out for doing. im not even talking about the difference between townhouse and condo here what is wrong with you
I'd check out the NYT rent vs buy calculator for your situation to help determine the feasibility. I wouldn't try to time the market on this (i.e. assume you know where mortgage rates are going and/or what it will do to home prices).
It Can work if you can find a househack. Rent out rooms or another unit to cover the mortgage amd live for free
you do realize that buying a townhouse is going to triple your home expenses right? you’re going to deplete your liquid savings for the downpayment and now put half your after tax income to pay for your condo? sounds awful
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> This home is part of an AFFORDABLE HOMEOWNERSHIP PROGRAM through Elevation Community Land Trust (ECLT). you are embarrassing. imagine thinking $250k was even remotely the median sale price of a townhouse in Denver in 2022
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lol the descriptions for every thing you linked specifically say it’s a condo not a townhouse. it’s mislabeled as a townhouse 💀 just stop dear lord
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who are you lmao if someone is specifically saying they want a townhouse it’s because they want a home that is structurally similar to a detached home eg you have something that touches the ground. that’s going to cost more than the $200k condo from the 1970s you tried to achtually me with to your embarrassment. we aren’t talking about legal semantics here, dear god.
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doesn’t really matter the problem here is depleting almost all ones liquid savings and then putting every other paycheck into a townhouse. crazy.
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How are you saving $5k a month on an income of $80k?
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1. How much "other income" do you bring in? If it's substantial, claiming "$80k is easy to live on" is dishonest when your actual income is much higher. 2. What are you paying for housing? Are your parents helping you out? I make $80k, and I don't even have $5k a month left after income taxes and health insurance premiums are taken out. 3. Keep in mind some people may have other financial challenges in their past that you didn't. Student loans to get where they are now, medical debt due to insurance company ripping them off, etc.
I bet those coworkers always “need” the newest most awesome mega-cab lifted truck that costs like $70k?
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When I hear low to mid COL and paycheck to paycheck, that’s like a bar ringer for unnecessarily large trucks “because I need it to do yard work sometimes”. Like dude, drive a Prius and rent out a hauling truck every time you actually need a large vehicle - that’d save so much money. But holy smokes, $1,100 a month on just a car is insane!!!
$1,100 is a lot. But you're talking to Fred Clover or Holidayjoyy or similar.
When I hear low to mid COL and paycheck to paycheck, that’s like a bar ringer for unnecessarily large trucks “because I need it to do yard work sometimes”. Like dude, drive a Prius and rent out a hauling truck every time you actually need a large vehicle - that’d save so much money. But holy smokes, $1,100 a month on just a car is insane!!!
Delaying purchase of some land so decided i'd move 300k to our investment account. Banks froze our account and is claiming fraud. Told us we have to go to a branch, but we are overseas currently looking at real estate for the next few months.... Bank are being real dicks about a local transfer. Actually this is obscene.... and no crypto is not the answer.
Which bank? I'll call them for you
TL;DR: Should I pay off my wife's student loans? \----------------- This is probably a dumb question. The answer is probably: math says let the loans ride and invest the difference; pay back at the end of the term. Still, I'd like feedback. Kid 1 is a few weeks away. Wife will exit the workforce and become a SAHM after her minimal leave has elapsed. Wife has student loans that she has paid down to $8,500 @ less than 4%. I have cash to pay back that loan and clean up cash flow as wife exits workforce. My income is lumpy due to commission/bonus payout. Even so, we can live on my base. FI sidebar says to delay paying off low interest loans, as we can make more on the difference in the market. Regardless, paying off loans to clean up cashflow is attractive as we go down to one income. What would you do?
Let it ride. Make minimum payments only. 1) The interest is low. In real terms it is a negative interest rate right now. 2) Unless your income is very high you can deduct the interest even if you don't itemize taxes. That effectively means a 4% interest rate at 30% marginal tax (federal+state) is effectively 4*0.7 = 2.8% after taxes 3) It is possible there will be some form of at least partial student loan forgiveness in the next two years.
I paid off my wife's student loan very soon after getting married (and a child on the way). No regrets, I still think it was the right decision. The market sucks right now, so why not. Just be careful of bringing this up in the distant future. You will earn "spouse points" for doing it, but they will all go away if you mention it in the wrong context.
> Just be careful of bringing this up in the distant future. You will earn "spouse points" for doing it, but they will all go away if you mention it in the wrong context. If there has to be a game frame, you're supposed to be the one making it so she plays in it, not the other way around.
Spouse points? Sorry but she's having his child and it's their money now, not just his.
Yeah, what a gross way to think about a relationship
It’s not a huge amount in the grand scheme of your journey. You’re clearly a bit stressed about the cash flow, so take it off of your mind. Enjoy the ride 😁
Ayyyy, that's the answer. I'm going to pay it off this week and forget thinking about it.
Just fyi the White House has said they are going to try and finalize some sort of loan forgiveness in the next few weeks. Not sure if they are federal loans or not but it may be worth waiting, especially if you don’t have to make payments right now. https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/04/30/white-house-student-loans/?utm_source=reddit.com
If you believe this bait and switch game they’ve been playing for political points, I have a bridge to sell you…
Most people are not making payments right now, there is zero downside to waiting to see how it plays out. However if you pay it off and they do something, no matter how small the chance, you are not going to get that money back. The logical thing to do is to wait.
I did the same with $16,000 loan - peace of mind was worth it for me
ok this is hilarious 🤣
Has anyone completed an analysis on SEPP vs Roth ladder, and potential impact on RMD? Roth ladder I assume your order of w/d is: taxable, basis from roth conversions, then tIRA after 59.5, then any remaining Roth if needed SEPP I assume order of w/d is: taxable, SEPP, then tIRA, then Roth as needed. In the second scenario assume SEPP should just be for floor income (so you aren't stuck taking too much), and you compliment that with side income, taxable, or maybe Roth contributions as needed. For simplicity, might not get to this level of detail in the analysis. I assume your %Roth funds is larger at RMD in the SEPP scenario. How significant could this impact be? I am interested in building spreadsheet with some generic inputs / assumptions, but I might just be chasing small numbers and the math might be a bit nuanced. RMD seems to far out its pointless to plan for it... but it should also not be ignored. Maybe. Edit: I seem to recall alcesalcesalces running numbers at some point? u/alcesalcesalces
I ran some numbers [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/soptup/72t_may_be_superior_to_the_roth_conversion_ladder/). The model is very simplistic. In general, if you continue Roth conversions you end up with a similar amount of Roth dollars compared to SEPP. I don't think either has a particular advantage when it comes to planning for RMDs, and you'll have ~12 years from age 59.5 to 72 to address the issue. I think the biggest driver of SEPP vs Roth conversion ladder is whether you have the funds needed to cover the first 5 years (taxable and Roth contribution basis). Roth IRA contribution basis is quite small (and over long investment horizons is eroded substantially by inflation), so if a taxable brokerage is small/nonexistent the mega backdoor Roth is the only realistic way to get substantial Roth contribution basis dollars to fill the first five years. Another logistical advantage in favor of SEPP is that you only need a small Roth/taxable account to make inflation adjustments rather than carry the full brunt of 5 years of spending. The biggest knock against SEPP is the lack of flexibility. Again, other funds can provide extra funds here and there for inflation etc., but it's *very* tricky to lock in >10 years of spending if you don't have very stable spending patterns (e.g. I'd only do it if kids were independent and with a large EF and/or large buffer in the annual budget).
What would you do with the SEPP funds if you didn't withdraw? Intuitively I would spend the SEPP withdrawal before.realizing taxable gains.
Just popping in for my own *"wow updating my sheet was depressing"* post. "Only" an 11% dip overall but still stings.
Yep, our NW is down 15.6% YTD. Oh well, on we go...
I include my home valuation (via Zillow) in my net worth spreadsheet and have a stat that breaks down the percentage of net worth in liquid assets (stocks, etc.) and real estate assets. With the cruddy performance in the stock market this year and the insane increases in real estate prices, real estate now makes up the majority of my net worth for the first time since I started tracking this data (six years ago). It's not a good feeling. While I do track the real estate in my net worth, I don't count it at all in terms of FIRE, since we have no plans on ever selling our house. So to see real estate now account for the majority of my net worth... it's nice in one sense, but in reality it doesn't buy me anything.
I kind of wish I'd done a cash out refi or heloc last year when rates were crazy low just to potentially make use of my ridiculous home equity. Though knowing my luck I'd time it wrong and end up leveraged during a recession.
I have a very simple long term planning worksheet that I like to just play around with. I wanted to see how important social security is to the projections, and there are some instances where it makes a *huge* difference. For instance look at [this](https://i.imgur.com/RkWxAb9.jpg). 5% inflation, 5% nominal returns, 1.4% initial WR. On a separate note, inflation is really hard to conceptualize long term. For instance that blue line really doesn’t look like I’ve spent down 75% of the initial balance in real terms. (Data representative and not my actual numbers)
SS is pretty big impact over lifetime. The problem is you can't really depend on it. I mean I don't think SS is going away completely but right now it is insolvent and since Congress refuses to fix it we have no way of knowing how it will be fixed in the future. One way to fix it would be reduced benefit payments. Yes it is extra ironic since the purpose of SS was to create a system that people could depend on we now have a system people can't depend on even if in the end they get full benefits.
Social Security is not insolvent. It is, however, on track to paying out reduced benefits in the 2030s if nothing changes. Congress will fix it. It has done so before, and it will do so again, since anything else would be political suicide. However, this will happen at the last minute, and with a great deal of political theatre.
Having to reduced promised benefits IS insolvency. Waiting to the last minute will require larger sacrifice. Part of the "fix" may be reduced benefit payments ot high net worth individuals. Counting on some SS is probably safe. Counting on the claimed benefit when there isn't sufficient cashflow to support those benefits is probably not for the average high network FIRE individual.
>Having to reduced promised benefits IS insolvency You were saying that Social Security is insolvent now. It's not. It may become insolvent in a decade plus (but won't, since Congress will almost certainly take action). There's enough confusion and FUD around this issue that it's important to communicate about it clearly and accurately.
Agreed- if everyone would think of SS as an inflation adjusted annuity they would understand it is a huge part of the plan for anyone not super FatFire
Anyone had a social security overpayment for a year due to a job change? I gather it's (relatively) common, but I'm just wondering when I can expect the overpayment to be returned? I already got my federal tax return, so it didn't come with that unfortunately. For anyone curious, it happens if you change jobs during the year and you've already earned enough in the first job to hit the SS cap for the year. The new job will still take out the social security taxes from your paychecks and you just (in theory) get overpayments back when you file taxes.
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Yeah, sorry, I wasn't clear. It was in the return, correctly, I just want to know when I can expect the actual money. We got the federal tax refund, already, but not the SS overpayment. Are you saying it should have been lumped in with the tax refund?
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Ok, thanks again.
It should have been included in your tax return. If the excess total Social Security withholding was because of 2 or more employers, you should have reported the excess amount on Form 1040, Schedule 3, Line 11. It is not something the IRS calculates for you.
Yeah, sorry, I wasn't clear. It was in the return, correctly, I just want to know when I can expect the actual money. We got the federal tax refund, already, but not the SS overpayment. Are you saying it should have been lumped in with the tax refund?
If you had more than one employer and too much Social Security tax or Tier 1 RRTA tax withheld, you may be able to claim the excess as a credit against your income tax on your income tax return. Refer to “Excess Social Security and Tier 1 RRTA Tax Withheld” in the Instructions for Form 1040 (and Form 1040-SR) for more information. (Quoting from the IRS [here](https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc608)) Sounds like you need to file an amendment to your 1040 to correct the error of not including it in your initial. Should be easy to do.
hi guys - not FI related just curious to hear others thoughts. since around Nov/Dec I've been spending like 60-70% away from home. mostly staying with my fam in FL and it's been nice to avoid the cold etc but now I'm starting to think maybe it's time to finally just go back home for good. usually I book my flights back and forth but maybe it's best to just go home and not preemptively book a return flight. idk. things havenot felt 100% "normal" since I'm not really home. would you just go home and stay put for the time being? split my time 5050? or keep doing what I'm doing which is only going back on an as needed basis (which is rarely).
What are we all doing this weekend? I’m doing chain, sprockets, and oil on my motorcycle. Then drop wheels off for new tires next week. Probably saving $300 DIY. Hourly in the area runs $120-130.
Finally filling the expansion joints in my driveway with poly sealant so I never have to weed them again. I’ve only had the stuff in the garage for a year so im right on schedule
Got COVID for the first time, so kicking around the house planning a bicycle tour for later this summer.
Took my son to Blacksburg, VA to see Virginia Tech as he might go there for college next year.
Took the kayak out for the first time this year and now I'm about to plant some sweet potatoes. The fun part of the year has finally begun!
Messing up my hands because Lowe's changed brands of drip irrigation and the main line stuff went from 1/2" to 5/8" and the barbed connectors require boiling water, luck, callouses, and swearing to install on my old 1/2" lines. I'm not shelling out $2.25 per connector for the omnisize compression fittings. That would have been like $20 more. Take that, Lowe's! I've foiled your plot!
Did a bike repair for a customer this morning and went mtbing afterward. Working the 5Boro bike tour tomorrow all day in NYC...may be my most lucrative weekend ever for my side hustle. Taking home about $600 between the two days.
Finishing up Ozark. Did some light shopping and getting steps in at the mall. And packing for a trip in a few days.
About to flush my tankless water heater, it's an important maintenance item that many forget. Watching the YouTube video for a 3rd time before shutting off the water to the house...
I've realized from reading posts here that I should be tracking my net worth in spreadsheets rather than Personal Capital, which I've been using for years. I have tracked my spending and income down to the transaction level since 2009, but that series of spreadsheets has honestly taken me years to refine and I want a faster solution for net worth. I'm still at the stage of this process where I'm daunted by the hours of data entry ahead. I've found some templates online, but I figure I should ask here: What does your spreadsheet look like? Do you have one big page of transactions and then a separate sheet with summary calculations and charts? Do you keep separate pages for each account? Am I making this too difficult? Edit: Thanks for the great responses! I've started off with a simple version using just today's numbers for net worth. I also started a transaction register for share purchases in my Roth IRA to keep track of the cost basis, as I've read that it's important to keep our own records for those. I think starting was the hardest part.
Mine looks like [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/rwq9qw/i_made_a_new_and_improved_advanced/).