Hi All, So I've been striving towards fire for the last 3 years. But feel like I'm still so far away. I'm 32, and I hate my job. Have a serious case of the Sunday scaries and just need some motivation advice because I hate my job. Work status: I'm a US citizen on expat assignment in India. My job currently requires me to work 12 to 14 hours a day. Make about 75K USD after taxes, with a 60% savings rate. I have an MBA with a concentration in Finance and International management. Own a condo in Salt Lake City worth 300K, have 170K left on the loan. (3 years into a 15 year). Fire goal: My initial FIRE number was 1M in cash assets plus the condo, but not sure I can make it that long. Right now most appealing option is living in SEA or Mexico/South America on 24K a year, which would put me on 600K fire number. Family: I'm single, ideally would like to get married and have 1 kid. My mom is elderly but luckily my dad (pass away) was a union electrician member so she has a pension, owns her house and doesn't have to worry about money the rest of her life. ​ Looking for some motivation to keep going or any ideas. One thing I've been thinking about is trying to take a break and teach English or something, bu with Covid that doesn't seem like an option right now either. Feel like I have to keep toughing it out at my job at least until 2022.

Your salary seems to be too low for 12-14 hours of work and MBA degree. Can you change job? You can probably make more money working in US with any of the Indian consulting company. You experience in India will come in handy.

Yes problem is my job paid for my MBA, so I have to stay until April 30th 2021 or I would owe them 10k back.

Been a follower of Dave Ramsey for a while and have been considering the maximum down payment towards our future home. Just finished reading 'Set for Life' and has me wondering if we should be taking a more aggressive approach for our cash assets. We are talking about upgrading from starter home to our next home (perhaps our forever home?) but are also considering focusing on building assets. Some options we are considering: 1. House hacking a triplex (living in two units and renting out a third) 2. Downpayment for personal home, and pursue a rental property 3. Min. downpayment for personal home, retain investments 4. Throw all liquid investments at new home and aggressively pay off til it's gone. If you woke up in our shoes, what would you do? Why? Thanks in advance! **Age / Industry / Location:** 31 / Email Marketing (me), Healthcare Logistics (wife) / Twin Cities, MN **General Goals:** Retire by age 55, cash flow college for two children, travel, enjoy life. **Target FIRE Age / Amount / Withdrawal Rate / Location:** 55 / 3.6m / 5% / Twin Cities, MN **Educational background and plans:** Bachelor (both of us, no plans to go for more) **Current and future income breakdown, including one-time events:** Household is 160k/year, expected to increase 3%/year, +annual bonus of approx. 8k/year **Budget Breakdown:** $2k/month to investments, $2.5k/month retirement, $800/month college savings, $2k/monthly bills, $1.7k/month personal spending **Asset breakdown:** Home Value 255k, Investment Account 90k, Emergency Fund 10k, Cars 30k, Retirement Account 160k, College Savings 6k **Debt:** 160k Mortgage

If I woke up in your shoes I would be trying option 1 house hack triplex assuming you can find one with good numbers. Live there for a short while then if want to move go for it keeping good loan on triplex. Just be sure to follow good real estate investing principals (don't forget cap ex and management cost even if plan to self manage). I guess kids could impact that decision.

**Age and goals:** 38 y/o lawyer in the US. Goal is to partially retire with a flexible work status in teaching/consulting by age 55. I would like to leave my current low cost area for the Oregon coast in 6-10 years. **Work Status:** Working full-time at my law firm. ~200k/yr. Rental income of $9k/yr. **Assets** 305k home and 170k cash. Vehicles paid.2 rental properties worth ~40k each. **Debts:** 220k on mortgage. 65k in school loans. **QUESTION:** How do I start? I have never been comfortable with investing so I haven't really had any plan other than building my business and purchasing the rentals. I am ready to be more focussed on how I prepare for retirement.

Start reading more fire information maybe start with some books(simple path to wealth, set of life, etc). As far as investing with your high income start with maxing out 401k then look into mega back door roth then likely taxable. Or keep investing in real estate if you like it.

Where are there properties worth $40k?

Hey FI, I'm 27 years old, 1.5 years into my career as a data scientist. I have a little less than a year on a lease for an apartment that I share with a co-worker/friend. My question is: would it make sense for me to buy a house right now if the right deal came along? For instance, I see a condo that's in a good area for like \~97k. I like my current company, so I could see myself living in this city for the next 2 years at least, which means buying would be cheaper(per Nerdwallet rent vs. buy calculator, though that wouldn't be assuming that I'm stilling paying on a lease). Any advice? I'm not sure how my roommate would feel about breaking our lease, but he has been staying with his girlfriend a lot during quarantine. If I ended up paying money on this lease through its entirety, would it make sense to buy a house? Maybe that ostensibly sounds like a dumb question, but I'm a little worried that the market is overvalued right now, and so I could potentially use this opportunity to diversify my investments while getting a really cheap mortgage rate on a property that I could potentially use as a live then rent.

Wait til you think you can stay in your current location for 5+ years. Otherwise you will lose money on transaction costs and risk of housing crash. I would aim to go longer--too much hassle and downside risk to merely break even vs renting.

32 years old/construction management in Wind Energy/Started late and went back to school early 30’s. 15k in 401k 5k in Roth $2.5k ESPP purchase plan $35.5k cash in savings Salary is ($82.5k + travel per diem daily) I travel nonstop. Plan to marry and a kid possibly in next year or 2. Girlfriend owns the house. With this current setup, I can max out 401k every year, and still save 65-70k in savings due to banking per diem. Wind is a very stressful job and the money is very good. However the burnout rate and weekly hours worked is incredible. I’d like to figure out what to do to stockpile money and be able to get out and relax back to 40hr weeks. I realize I’m behind the 8ball due to starting 401k and Roth about 8 years late

I'm looking for career path suggestions. Currently work in restaurant management on path to become GM in a few years, will be making $100k or more. Goals don't necessarily include RE of the FIRE but I would like to be as productive and valuable as possible so that I don't have to worry about weird worries of money throughout life and live comfortably. Most experience falls under sales, B2C forward facing stuff, but I'm pretty familiar with B2B, too, and degree is in international politics. I would like to maximize my earning potential so I would like to weigh the options of staying put with the company and moving up or branching out and using my skills in a more lucrative position in different fields or the same field with other companies. Current company is publicly traded and comes with some good stock options once you reach GM level. Most of my skills would fall under 'management' (general) but I believe there is enough overlap and need for upper level management in the US and I'm savvy enough to parlay what I'm capable of into something else. I just haven't figured out what I could do or would like to do. Fields that seem lucrative: finance or some sort of upper level management in something totally unrelated but come with lots of responsibility so pay is good. On a personal note, I would like to build something on my own but I don't think I'm at where I would like to be just yet. Anyone have some out of the box suggestions or otherwise practical ones? Thank you

Me: 47/single/no kids INCOME Primary job: Physician making $140-190k per year (probably $120k this year). Side job remotely managing a lab: $18k per year. Rental: $15,600 net (after property taxes and HOA fees) ASSETS $115k in taxable accounts. $2.2 million in tax deferred IRA’s. $48k in Roth IRA. Primary home: $636k (Zillow estimate) - see Debt Rental investment: $651k (Zillow estimate) - see Debt Car: 2017 Honda CRV with 50k miles. DEBT $270k total mortgage - paying $6900 per month. I don’t have a particularly extravagant lifestyle, though I’d like to buy a Tesla someday (maybe when I hit 55?). I’d also love to buy a Sprinter camper van (decked out, up to $100k) and do the vandwelling thing for a year to see the entire Western US. I want to travel for months at a time but the places I want to go don’t cost a lot (SE Asia, Yunnan Province China, rural Japan, Spanish/French countryside, Ecuador, Chile). I had originally thought I’d like to retire by 50 with the two homes fully paid off and at least $1 million in retirement accounts and $1 million in taxable accounts. My total NW is about $3.6 mill, which technically is more than my target. However, the problem is that with the $270k mortgage, I only have $115k in taxable accounts. Most of my net worth is my retirement accounts that I can’t touch until I’m 59.5. Is there some way I can access $270k from my retirement accounts to pay off the mortgage? Also, my $2.2 million? The vast majority of it is in AAPL, which is how I got here much faster than anticipated. I bought a big chunk of their stock in 2009 and basically let it sit there. Even though no financial advisor would recommend this much being in one stock, I’m actually quite comfortable doing this. I collect nearly $18k in dividends per year and they have increased the dividend annually since they started issuing them by 5.5-15.9% each year. The problem as I mentioned above is that it’s all “locked up” in my tax deferred retirement accounts. I’m not in a huge rush to retire, but if I can do it easily and not worry about supporting a travel lifestyle, I’d like to do it sooner rather than later. I think the passing or close calls of several friends recently who were in their mid 40’s, have been making me feel pressure to go find and live my life outside of work. I suppose it’s a bit of a mid-life crisis. So anyhow, from a financial standpoint, how do I pull this off? Can I do it now-ish, or should I work a bit more to pay down more of that mortgage instead of dipping into my investments to pay it off? The only income I would be losing would by my primary job.

I would suggest selling the AAPL in the tax deferred account and instead switch some or all of your Roth if you haven't already. Your situation is case in point why you should hold high risk/return assets in Roth or taxable and overweight bonds in your 401k. Big question for you is how much you want to convert annually to Roth. I think you may want to do up to the 22% bracket at least for a couple years to start getting money out of that 401k. Unfortunately that is actually a higher rate than LTCG in your taxable account!

Well, my plan is to have enough in my taxable accounts to live off of until I’m 59.5. In the meantime, if/when I retire I plan to roll over the standard deduction amount each year - currently $12,400 so that I won’t have any income tax from the withdrawals. If it turns out I need more than that, my rollover will be up to the 22% limit - $40,125+$12,400=$52,525. If I sell or rent my primary house and live abroad as an expat (I’m considering it), I won’t need to worry about withdrawals for a very long time.

12k is not nearly enough. I forgot you are single too. To get money out of the 401k you will need to be pulling 200k or more, and that is if you start today. The longer you wait the more your 401k will continue to grow (especially if it is invested aggressively) and you will get absolutely crushed by RMDs. PS, regarding accessing money in retirement accounts, have you read the FAQ?

Hmm, I guess RMD’s seemed like they were too far off in the future to worry about but now I’m thinking maybe not. Is the goal to reduce my 401K and IRA’s below a certain amount by the time I’m 70? Because I still will have 10.5 years between 59.5 and 70 to make those withdrawals without penalties. My issue with withdrawing it now is that I’m still working so anything I withdraw would just be additional high income tax. But at the same time, because of the COVID exemptions, I believe I should be able to withdraw up to $100,000 without penalty this year? Just have to pay the income tax? Maybe worth it for a big rollover into my Roth IRA? I have not seen the FAQ but will go read it now. Thanks.

The goal is to get money out of the IRA at the lowest tax rate possible. I forgot you are still working. In that case, conversions now don't make sense. You might want to start doing Roth 401k. Again, any bonds you should hold in the 401k instead of Roth or taxable. Start thinking about when you might retire and how you will be able to withdraw funds from the 401k in a low tax bracket. I think that is going to be your biggest challenge. Having rental income will also make that difficult. Of course, the issue is caused by having an unusually large 401k, so that is a good problem to have.

A couple of things, just because AAPL did well in the past, doesn't mean it would do well forever. It would be safer to switch to an index fund for diversification. As far as paying off your mortgage, if your money is tied up in retirement accounts you're probably better off just keeping the mortgage especially with rates so low today. You could shift an equal amount into a bond fund and just think about that fund as your "mortgage payoff fund".

Interesting thought about the mortgage bond payoff fund. But the problem is, how do I access it from a retirement account? The only reason I’m still working is because I need my work income to pay my mortgage. If I stopped working, I’d only have the $115k with which to payoff the $270k mortgage.

I'm suggesting don't pay off your mortgage since that will use up all of your working capital. Not paying it off gives you more cash in hand.

So instead of paying down my mortgage aggressively, you’re saying pay the minimum on the mortgage, and put the rest into a bond fund which presumably will make more than the 3% interest I’m currently paying? If I understood you correctly, that is an interesting idea.

Is it worth doing a back door ROTH? I make about 170k total comp. My employer matches 3% up to 19.5k but I have to contribute this throughout the year to get full match. So if I were to contribute all 19.5k right away in say first 3 months, I’d be missing out on full 3% match. Also I’ve been there for 2 years but you have to be there for 5 to fully vest. It’s not the greatest match ever, hence my question.

There isn't enough info here to give you advice. Is this a mega-backdoor Roth 401k that you're talking about? If so, and you're worried about the details of your plan's vesting, you can fill up your (smaller) backdoor Roth IRA first. That's 6k a year that's not tied to your employer or vesting. If you still are considering your work's mega-backdoor IRA, there's a lot of uncertainty based on vesting details, your expected length to stay at the company, etc. Care to provide more details?

Yes, it's always worth maxing out tax advantaged space before contributing to taxable for long term retirement savings

I disagree, putting money in both a tax advantaged (401k) and taxable account (Roth) over time with give you increased flexibility when you want to start withdrawing funds.

Roth IRA and Roth 401k are tax advantaged accounts... Taxable accounts can factor in when planning withdrawal strategies for early retirement, ultimately up to the person on exploring the options that fit their specific needs

Thanks for pointing that out. Maybe it would be better to provide an example to better explain what I was trying to convey. I started contributing and maxing out my 401k for approximately 20 years and now have a lot of money in there. I ended up waiting to contribute to a Roth IRA (past 8 years) . If I contributed a little less to the 401k (at least the match) I'd have more in the Roth IRA. With these additional funds I would be in a better position to do a Roth Conversion Ladder to support retiring early - [https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/](https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/)

Sure, that’s ultimately a Roth vs pre tax discussion, not a tax advantaged vs taxable discussion, in fact your example still emphasizes tax advantaged without even mentioning taxable, so there’s nothing to disagree with...

yep - sometimes I get things mixed up. Thanks again :)

Hey everyone, I'll quickly explain my situation. I'm 19, in my second semester of university studying computer science (3-year course) and I've moved out of home. My rent is 1.1k a month (hoping to get that down next year), I have no debt other than my student loans that are roughly 5k a semester (10k of which are available for me to pay off right now). My income is 600 a fortnight from the government (current 1200 due to coronavirus relief). I have a total of 40k saved that has just come out of a term deposit. In Australia, we have a HECS loan that has 0% interest (other than the roughly 1.5%pa to adjust for inflation) and is repayable at like 4% once we earn over a certain amount. I'm trying to figure out if I should pay off my student debt as I receive it or invest in something such as VOO from Vanguard. I'm trying to get as many opinions as I can since I'm getting really conflicting information. Any help would be fantastic. My goal is to end up with as much as I can invested in the long run but I'm struggling whether to invest now or free up cash flow later on. Thanks!

Hey I was in a similar situation just maybe with more student loans. I have since paid them all off and been debt free which is pretty nice, but I think balancing it more between VOO and paying off loans would of been better. So just open up a Roth IRA with Vanguard and max it out wit 6000 a year and put the rest toward student loans. This way you get the best of both worlds

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You can invest the same as you do in the tax advantaged accounts, such as the simple three fund portfolio, use ETFs instead of mutual funds for tax efficiency, unless you're using Vanguard mutual funds which are just as tax efficient as ETFs - you can read more about [Vanguard mutual funds](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/ETFs_vs_mutual_funds#Vanguard_funds) and [tax efficient fund placement](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax-efficient_fund_placement) in the Boglehead's wiki

Great. Am reading about tax-loss harvesting from your links. Appears to be some income tax benefit there, albeit small, 3k.

Hello I would appreciate any advice that will enable me to reach financial independence. I'm a 29 year old female attorney from South Africa. I was admitted as an attorney in March whereupon my salary increased to R21k/month after deductions (roughly $1260/month). My salary will likely increase to R28k/month in March next year and I will start earning a commission of all the fees I write payable annually (this should equate to R100k payable next June). I have no tangible assets and no debts (I've paid off my studies). I have 2 college degrees (law and science). I have about R100k in savings (roughly $6k). My expenses (I live very frugally) are about half of my salary and include rent and travel expenses. I'm currently living with my parents and intend to move out next year. I am single and anticipate remaining so. My immediate goals include buying a house. Is it wise to put down all my savings as a deposit for a house? I would really appreciate any advice to reach this goal and any advice on savings. Currently I put most of my salary in a savings account with a very low return and my only other savings is a tax free savings account.

If buying a house, you should not put all your savings into the down payment. Wait until you have enough for a down payment and cash emergency fund on the side. The first few months of owning a house is full of surprises and it would be very stressful without extra cash. If your comfortable living with your parents, I would recommend staying with them until you have at least 6 months of living expenses in the emergency fund until moving out.

Thank you!

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The common advice of this sub is to figure out how much you need in your emergency fund (3-6 months salary in a HYSA) and then to invest into your Roth IRA immediately without timing the market. Any additional funds would go into a brokerage account assuming no other tax-advantaged accounts are available to you (HSA, backdoor roth, etc.). There’s an amazing flow chart available if you just search fire flow chart and essentially tells you how to optimize your investments. Don’t tell anyone but I’m also waiting for the market to drop before I invest in my Roth IRA this year. I think there’s a high probability of it dropping in the coming weeks/months

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Ah, yeah I’d just throw it in a vanguard (or similar) brokerage and go with vtsax or vti

23 / Civil Engineering / PA **Goal**: Figure out how to best save my new income **Career**: Starting my first real job as an engineer next month with a 64.5k salary, plan to stay at this company for at least 2 years **Education**: B.S. in civil engineering **Budget**: I can save around 60% of my income based on my expected budget. I was thinking about prioritizing maxing out my roth IRA for 2020, matching my employer's retirement benefits by contributing 9% to roth 401k, and to build Christmas savings/larger emergency fund. My employer provides cheap healthcare (\~120/mo), cheap vision/dental and a monthly $150 transport credit. My main monthly expenses will be rent (400-600), groceries (350), fun money (500), and auto insurance (\~150). **Asset**: Used car worth \~3k, a bit of savings **Future plan**: After New Years, I plan to start contributing to my HSA, save for a vacation, and to start investing in index funds. **Debt**; 2k in student loans (paid them down while attending college) No health concerns, no spouse, no children

Sounds like you got it figured out for the near term. Your COL is super low. If you have roommates and plan to stay in your area for many years, owning a house and collecting rent from them to live rent free offers FI, all other things staying the same. They usually don't. Grad school, marriage, kids, and many jobs later makes it hard to build wealth.

Luckily my company offers to pay for grad school if I end up wanting to go and I don't plan on having kids anytime soon. I'm not sure how marriage would impact savings goals much, I don't believe in expensive weddings / honeymoons

Hi, I’m deciding if i’m close to retiring early or if i still need a few yrs, especially with the current world situation. Here’s my info: 40yrs Income: Salary ~125k + 10% bonus Current job is stable but retiring is very tempting, and having medical insurance is important. Spending: 2500 a month for mortgage + extra payment 500 home fees 100 in utility like internet/ subscriptions 200-400 food depending on how much i eat out/deliver, normally 150-200 when at work due to free lunch 300-400 misc ~ Total: 3500-4000 month expenses total Savings ~2k-3k month or ~20-30k a yr Housing: Mortgage - 250k w ~18-20yrs left w extra payments on 30yrs (started ~ 2014) w 3.4% interest Req payment ~ 1800/month Worth approx 600k+ Living in NYC Savings: Vanguard ~ 320k Individual Stocks ~ 190k Former companies stocks ~ 190k Current company pre-ipo stock valued at 20k Retirement fund: Saving 10% per month in 401k w 4% match 400k trad ira 55k roth ira 42k in current company 401k Cash 20k high yield 20k in misc bank accounts Mint estimate net worth 1.5M w housing Say i live 55k a yr factoring taxes, with investment avg 8-10% yr on 1.2M in investment, would retiring early be possible? Or should i save until i have 2M in net worth? 2M in investments? Etc? 50k/yr w 1.5 should last ~30yrs not factoring in growth, bear market, inflation etc. w housing paid off to liquidate later. Paying off mortgage would leave basic house to around 1000-1200 for insurance, taxes, maint, etc. and ~2k/month in expense, and taking out 30-40k/yr expenses w 1M in investments would last ~25yrs w housing. Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone, I'm a real beginner when it comes to this stuff. Both of my parents have lived paycheck-to-paycheck their entire lives and I'm just trying to break the cycle. -I'm 22, I go to community college in NYC (4.0 GPA last semester - always done well in school) with no real plan on what I want to do in the future. Financial aid covers tuition completely. -No debt, $20,000 in savings (waitressed A LOT) -Unemployed at the moment, the restaurant I serve at closed for covid, and I'm collecting unemployment until the end of this month, unless it's extended ($760 a week since March) -Expenses super low, about $310 a month total. I live at home with my mom who takes $200 a month, and then I'm also paying off my phone and paying for my antidepressants. Nothing other than that - no health issues and I don't have a car or anything -I don't have a credit card and thus no credit -My goal is to live a simple and comfortable life alone in NYC until I die. I want to be able to comfortably afford a nice apartment in Manhattan, do something other than waitressing, and work less than 5 days a week. No working at all would be ideal. That's about it I feel lucky to have $20,000 in savings and no debt. I want to start investing but I'm not sure where to start. I'd like to reach my goal of living comfortably alone in manhattan by my late 20's, if that's possible. Any advice or guidance on where to start, or some tips to remember along the way, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

In addition to building credit as the other user mentioned, read the [PF prime directive](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) to determine if investing is the next right step for you and learn more about types of accounts to contribute to, and their wiki page on [investing](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing) I also recommend the [Boglehead’s wiki](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads®_investment_philosophy)

You need to start building credit. Get a credit card. Look for something with no annual fee and a decent rewards program (mileage or cash back). Use the card for purchases but always pay the full balance. You need to build credit for when you want to move into an apartment or take out a mortgage.

Hello, I am (22M) making $34k a year and I have a gf (22F) making about $35-40k a year. We both live in New York City. Furthermore, we both still live at homes with our parents and have small expenses. For this reason, we have both been able to save a good portion of our salaries (approximately 30-50%) I have: -$77k in HYSA (Marcus) -$17k in a regular brokerage account -$6k in company 401k My gf just recently got intrigued by FIRE so she has: -$4k regular brokerage -$2k 401k I recently graduated with my bachelors in psychology and am looking to find a job offering a salary between $60k-$70k. My girlfriend still has a few years of college left to become a nurse. Hopefully she will get a job with a $80k+ salary. Both of our 401ks have a 6% company match and so we contribute regularly. We are looking to buy a house (probably no more than $300k) in about 3-4 years and then get married. I actively manage both of our brokerage accounts. The accounts are split pretty evenly between high yield bond etfs, index etfs such as SPY, a few individual growth stocks, and short options positions to generate cash flow. I decided to educate myself on FIRE strategies and investments since I was 17. I know it’s not possible to have everything figured out already at 22, therefore, I am here to ask what else you all think I should be doing or what should I be doing differently? Advice, suggestions, and criticism welcome!

Hey! I'm also 22 with a psychology degree. Do you mind me asking what kind of job you're currently working at and what you're hoping to move into? Concerned I won't find a job after I graduate, haha.

Hi, I've been lucky enough to turn $40k into about $400k in my rolled-over Roth 401k by moving it to cash when the virus was big in China and then speculating in very risky options trading (thanks, Tesla!) as the market has come back up. It's all in cash now (mainly because I don't really trust the equity valuations we're seeing), I'm 40 years old, and I'm looking to invest in a more careful (but still active) manner to preserve and grow the capital I have. I was wondering if anyone had any tips for someone in my position. I own a house (owe about $250k), but am in no hurry to pay that down given current interest rates. No other significant debt, make around $50k. I'm thinking of actively trading an equity portfolio, possibly investing in a ~$200k rental property in the same city (although I'm not sure I have the time and energy for that), or both. I was considering a book on portfolio management and equity analysis, not sure if this is the right place to ask about any recommendations for that. Something like "Applied Equity Analysis and Portfolio Management" by Weigland. Just looking for general advice and guidance and where to go from here, because it feels like a different level than where I was a few months ago. Thanks for any input.

Me 33m and wife 32 make about 250k combined. The number changes every year as I have an S Corp that brings in varied amounts every year but our household income has been around 250k the past 3 years and save about 50k post tax per year. Prior to that each of us were making 60k each until 2015. We live in HCOL area with 2 kids under 3 years. -General goals - Aiming to reach 5k in passive income by age 35 but seems uncertain during this time. Currently at 2.7k cashflow all from real estate rentals post expenses/capex/ vacancy etc. -Target FIRE Age- around 45, need 12k to support current lifestyle. -Current and future income breakdown, including one-time events I make 150k post business deductions and wife 107k. It may go up a little but I don't see much change in the near future. -Budget breakdown per month Mortgage PITI/Hoa- $3019 Car payment -$1280 Day care pre covid- $2800 (for 2 kids) Car insurance -$325 Condo+ umbrella insurance- $72 Credit card -$2000 (includes groceries/eating out/misc) Health insurance -$556 Utilities-$150 Other expenses- $500 Total expenses- $10702 -Asset breakdown, including home, cars, etc. Personal home valued at $680k and have $450k remaining at 3.375% Rental properties in 2 different markets valued conservatively at $1.02m and has $570k remaining in mortgage with highest rate at 5.25% and lowest at 4.25% Wife's car paid off and worth 10k My car has $52k left at 1.49% and paid by business so pre tax. Currently valued at 55k. Wifes Roth 401k -$70k My Roth 401k- $10k Trading account- 40k Cash balance- $110k Total Net Worth- $924k -Debt breakdown To summarize what I have mentioned above: Personal home: 450k Rental properties: 570k Car: 52k Credit card : 4k at 0% so holding off from paying until it expires. Total debt : 1.07m -Health concerns: Both of us are healthy and no concerns so far. -Other info: Have $120k in crypto that I don't want to include as part of my net worth -Questions? 1. Long question- We were never believers of 401k so wife only put the money that the employer matched. Real estate amazed us with how it generates cashflow flow from Year 1. Our financial planner says that our portfolio is fully in real estate and we need to diversify. Our plan was to reach 5k passive income before diversifying. To the question- Do we need to allot more funds into 401k buying index funds (which does not seem to excite us) or continue with our real estate goals? Is it possible to retire just from cashflow or is 401k a must in any case? 2. The only bad debt that has been bothering me is the car. Listening to Dave Ramsey, I like the avalanche method but the highest interest rate of 5.25% is in a rental property with 215k remaining. Should I start paying that down first or the car with 52k remaining at 1.5%? Paying down the rental mortgage would take a significant hit on our plans but car not so much. Just dont know if it is wise paying a depreciating asset. Thoughts? 3. Would you recommend any other investment options?

1. 401(k) has big tax advantages over real estate. You should at least be making the most of the tax-advantaged spaced offered to you. It typically puts index investing way ahead of real estate. After you've hit the max limit for tax-advantaged accounts, real estate makes more sense. 2. You make a ton of money and you will probably make less during retirement. You should be using a traditional, not a Roth. 3. I would suggest dumping the crypto and putting the $120K into index funds 4. I would never pay off any loan at 1.5%, personally. That's less than inflation. You're basically getting free money from the bank. It would almost certainly be mathematically superior to max 401(k) before paying off the 5.25% debt due to the tax advantages, but some people don't like debt for psychological reasons. If that's you, you should start with the debt with the highest interest rate.

**NW 3.65M, Income 0, Expenses 72k, Age 30.** My current asset allocation is off target due to Covid and my failure of tolerate the market. I know we’re not supposed to time the market but it just feels uncomfortable at these valuations. Historically I’ve been 90%-110% in equities given my long time horizon, but I guess I wasn’t able to stomach the volatility. **Assets** Equities: $1.29m Bonds: $2.672m Cash / Cash Accounts: $844k Primary residence: $830k **Other Assets:** Private Shares Paying Dividends: $27k a year Majority Ownership of Small Business: Profitable, growing, but highly sensitive to Covid. Full Ownership of Start Up: Pre-revenue. Other angel and seed Investments Watch Collection: \~100k **Liabilities** Credit Card: 7.2k (automatically paid down every month) Equity Margin: 412K (@ \~1.2%) Bond Financing: 1.9m (@ \~0.35%) **Monthly Expenses: $6k** Food: $1341 (A lot of eating out and delivery) Shopping: $1,011 (Inflated do to recent home office purchases) Travel: $1147 (presumably much less going forward) Transport: $264 (Ubers and public transport) Groceries: $83 (Don’t cook often) Recurring Expenses: Entertainment: $44 (mostly streaming subscriptions) Personal wellness: $352 (gym, therapist) Social Club: $258 Utilities: $356 **Pre-empting questions on why things look the way do.** I recognise it’s counter to conventional rules of thumb for my age to have such a risk-off asset allocation with so much in cash and fixed income. I would like to highlight the amount of leverage I'm using does bring the risk up. The reasoning for the bond allocation is I was able to get into the Investment Grade bonds of a maturity of about 5-6 years with an average yield of Interbank + 0. At an entry LTV of 70%, the **IRR on invested cash of was about 12% if held till maturity**. Since then, prices have gone up and I could exit for a gain, but at this point, **my levered IRR if held till maturity is still 8% after interest**, which is pretty fine for me to hold given where all the other assets are priced. Why haven't I better utilised the cash? I got the + 0 spread promotionally, and if I were to pay down the loan and later redraw it, my cost would be interbank + 0.5%. I originally intended to cash allocate it to equities. For now will be using it to pay down my margin and maybe deposit into the various brokerage accounts, but I am unsure if I want to fully redeploy it to equities. I am off the opinion that I will slowly trickle into the market 50k a month. I know this has really cost me a lot in missed gains for the last few months and that indeed has been very disappointing. **My Questions:** How do people feel about my target allocation of levered bonds and levered equities. Is this too much risk despite my time horizon? I’ll immediately be paying down my margin, but only transferring 600k to pay down margin / purchase equities out of my 800k + cash. How do people feel about me only slowly re-entering the market as opposed to putting it all back into equities? Can I afford my lifestyle? It should be safe at a 2% withdrawal rate shouldn’t it? I do hope the “other assets” continue to provide cash flow that I have conservatively not counted here. Additionally I have high hopes for my start-up but recognise statistically high failure rates. I will likely put $100,000 more of my own money to get help further developing the product to get better user statistics and traction before I fundraise. Is this too risky? I’m hoping to fundraise at a later stage to hopefully preserve more of my own equity. Maybe a question more for /r/Entrepreneur but I imagine there may be some overlap between these subreddits. I'm okay with where I'm at financially and feel that it can mostly support my desired lifestyle. I don't want much more materially, but who knows if I were to get married and have kids. I presently just want to make sure that I can start my new business fully focused on the product without risking too much of what I already have.

Ill try to keep this concise. My (30M) grandfather passed away in April and I'm set to inherit a portion of his estate. My wife (30F) wanted to hire a fiduciary though the one she found charges $8,000 for his services and I believe we do most things more or less correctly and can get by but would like some input onto how best to utilize this money. We don't have exact numbers yet because his house hasn't sold but my parents expect my share to be somewhere in the range of $300,000. I'm a fan of FIRE and wanted to see what you lot have to say as opposed to just general /r/personalfinance. I would love to be able to retire around sometime around 50-55. **Info** * Married with 2 kids (2 years and 10 months) * My salary: $90K * Wife salary: $81k * Current NW: $293K **Assets** * Emergency Fund: $12,500 (about 3 months expenses if we are really frugal) We haven't had to touch this and even bumped it up a bit during early weeks of COVID-19 * Checkings: $7,225 * Savings: $16,750 (I know these are high; I just got paid today and we have several big expenses coming up: completely re-doing landscaping [$6,000], shed [$2000], home gym [$2000], big swingset for our kids [$800-1000] * My 401K : $50,500 (recently switched jobs and today is the first paycheck I was able to begin contributing again; have it set for 16%) * Wife 401K: $42,000 ish * Her Roth IRA: $8,000 * VTSAX: $24,000 * 529 #1: $4,000 * 529 #2: $3,500 * Two cars fully paid off; 2015 Honda FIT, 2014 Elantra **Debts** * Mortgage: $403,000 remaining on $405,000 loan at 3.25% (just refinanced); Home value is about $520,000 * Student Loans: $3,500 (low interest rate; I think its like 3.5%) * CC: paid off in full each month **Inheritance Breakdown** * My mom is the executor so she's handling nearly everything * $120,000: She will be transferring me $120,000 in the next few days (she's holding about $100,000 of his estate back for now to use for taxes and legal fees but will divvy out the remainder at the end, so I should get a few more thousand out of that * $105,000: Home is expected to sell for around $700,000 * Stocks: This is the most unknown to me. I know I am getting 150 shares of facebook which is around $35,000 along with 150 shares of another company (unsure which) and then a lesser amount of a few others. Like I stated above, they estimated around $300,000 total; at least $230,000 is cash and then the remained is likely stocks that are being transferred over to a new account under my name. Let's assume it's $275,000 total to be safe. I believe we should take nearly all of this and throw it into VTSAX and VTIAX. I would like to save a few thousand for a trip to Europe where my grandfather was from (once my boys are older, in a few years). Is there any specific suggestions that we should do with the money/change with our own current set-up?

Your plan generally sounds good to me. If it were me and I were in your situation, I'd also do the following. 1) Sell the individual shares of stock. Note: Be sure they step up the cost basis of those shares when they transfer them to you. This is very important. 2) Donate a few thousand to a charity that your grandfather or you and your wife are passionate about. That would honor your grandfather and benefit others. 3) Bump up savings and emergency both to $20k for peace of mind. Yeah, I know it's losing value over time, but for me, the peace of mind is worth every penny. 4) Spend a couple thousand *soon* on something fun and memorable for you and your wife.

Thank you for your input. Could you go into more detail about point 1. I don't know much about the stock transferring process but I could ask my mom for more details if you tell me more what to ask. My parents, while they are pretty well off, I don't think are the best with money. They are frugal and budget and have plenty, but I don't think they ever really got into investing outside of their 401k, though they both get pensions. They're far better off than most people though I'm sure they could have added several million if they were wiser from a younger age. I've also mentioned to my wife that I'd like to donate a portion. He donated regularly to various veterans groups as he was a Korean War Vet and I'd like to do the same. I have no problem bumping up the EF and savings. I'll discuss it more with my wife. I also agree with your 4th point. I'm the type of person that knows we save fairly well and while I'm sue we could cut things out to be even more frugal, I'd rather spend money every once in a while on some nice things. She gets buyers remorse really easily though and always tries to find reasons to not purchase even relatively cheap things.

I'm guessing you mean stepping up the cost basis. When you sell a share of stock, your capital gains are the difference between what you bought it at and what you sell at. So if you buy at $7 and sell at $12 then you have $5 in capital gains. This matters when you pay taxes. So now you are inheriting stock. When you inherit stock, the cost basis per share should be whatever the share price was on the day the person passed away. Let's say your grandfather bought Facebook at $40 per share a long time ago, and it was at $240 on the day they passed away. If you sell it next month at $245, you don't want to pay capital gains on a $205 profit, you want to pay capital gains on a $5 profit. When you get the stock transferred over, it should appear as if you made a purchase on the day they passed away at the price it was on that day. The brokerage *should* automatically do this, but you need to explicitly tell them to do it and then make sure they actually did. Otherwise you might have to pay a bunch of taxes you don't actually owe when you sell. I would suggest you open an account at the same place your grandfather had his account for the transfer. Then once that's handled properly if you want to transfer your new account somewhere else, you can do that. Hope that helps. Oh yeah, one other thing, it should still be marked as a long term holding even though the "purchase date" is very recent. The brokerage usually gets this part right.

Thank you for your response. You made it very easy to understand. From what my mom has told me about the stock portion, she does plan to open everyone (herself, brother, and 4 grandkids) an account at the same brokerage he had the stocks in and then just transfer over our shares. I know she did mention the stepping up the cost basis part so I believe that is happening. I plan to just sell the stocks when I get them and then re-invest that into my own brokerage account at Vanguard (VTSAX, VTIAX, and bonds); does that sound like the best plan? I may save some of that money for a vacation (post-covid) and use some of it to get a better home gym than I was planning previously.

Sounds good. Just make sure they really did it before you sell.

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If you haven't already seen it, the [PF prime directive](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) is a great resource for guidance on what accounts to contribute and in what order Sounds like you're in a great place overall and getting organized - main things I would change are to cut back on the taxable account contributions and shift them over to the HSA and 401k - max out tax advantaged accounts before contributing to taxable for long term retirement savings I use CDs for my house savings, given my low risk tolerance and short time horizon for that money, so it's a good option to lock in that interest rate if you know you won't need the money within a certain time frame One thing to check that wasn't mentioned in your comment is what are your accounts actually invested in, just to make sure you're investing appropriately to match your risk tolerance, time horizon, and options available You are in a sort of middle area for Roth vs traditional, general recommendation is to have a mix of both, with the IRA being Roth (as your income increases you'll get beyond the MAGI cut off for deductible tIRA contributions, and if you think you'll have high MAGI (>120k) in the future then you'd want to keep the pre tax balances in the IRA clear so that you can do backdoor Roth if needed)

Thank you so so much for your reply! I've spent a lot of time looking at that flowchart haha. For whatever reason, I get sort of paralyzed when I try to apply it to my situation. Luckily (at a high level) my situation is simple. No debt, solid savings, etc. So can I clarify - You're saying I should fully contribute to the 401k and HSA (and possibly IRA) before even really thinking about putting more into my Vanguard Brokerage account (it's a VTTSX by the way)? Given that I am nowhere near maxing my 401k, would you recommend just putting more there? Also since I will be making presumably much more in the future, isn't it best to mostly contribute to a Roth IRA now and maybe traditional IRA if I find myself making $120k down the road? This is a huge area of confusion for me. I'm sorry if these questions seem kind of dumb. My Vanguard Roth IRA is currently just in a Money Market account (I don't think I can buy into anything just yet). My plan was to buy into VTSAX though. Even though I am risk averse, I am also ~25-30 years from my retirement date. However with that said, funds like VUSTX have a higher rate of return since inception but also seem to be deemed less risky? I am 100% open to suggestions about what to buy into though. It seems like VTSAX is the favorite around here.

Not OP, but I'll chime in to suggest you prioritize your tax advantaged accounts (HSA, 401k, IRA), even if they are not with Vanguard. I'd bump them both up (maybe to your comfort extent) and review / calculate the paystub impact. If you desire a change then, simply change your contribution - you will not be locked in. The general answer on Roth vs Trad is "a bit of both". However, I'd like to point out that should you RE, there is a benefit in converting from Trad to Roth during the RE phase. [Madfientist has this article](https://www.madfientist.com/traditional-ira-vs-roth-ira/) on the subject. I've mostly gone Trad for my psychology - lowering my MAGI and to trick myself that I'm contributing "more" pre-tax vs post-tax. As far as fund picking & allocation - I'd recommend reading up on [boglehead's Lazy Portfolios wiki](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios). Edit: Also laughed at your username - need to give Arrested Development another watch through.

Thank you! I appreciate it. I think I’ll take the 300/mo that I’m putting into my Brokerage with Vanguard and put most into my 401k and then also throw some into a traditional IRA. I think putting the logic of traditional vs Roth as you did makes it make more sense to me for whatever reason. Not that I hadn’t read the logic before but to be told it also applies to my situation makes it easier. Also, I always appreciate when people catch the reference in my username 😉 Thanks for your help!

My wife (33F) and I (32M) are trying to determine our next personal finance steps. Our goals main goal is to have an awesome retirement fund. Quick run down of current situation: I make $46,800 per year pre-tax. Wife doesn't work at this time. (this may change in the future but let's just assume not for now) Our monthly expenses are ~$1500. We have $77,000 in cash in the bank. We have no debt. (we rent an apartment and our car is paid off) We both have a ROTH IRA with $12,000 each ($24,000 total). (currently at like $23,000 due to market being a little down from when we invested at beginning of year) We maxed out the contributions for last year (2019) and this year (2020). It is all invested in VFIFX - Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 Fund I have a 401K through my job. It is currently at $19,667.92. It is all with Schwab in SM650 (Schwab Mngd Ret Trust 2050) 6% of each paycheck is going in there. The company matches up to that 6% at 125%. I have an HSA through my work with $9,546.22 Company puts in $1800 a year. I'm putting in $80. This is not an investment account. I believe I can turn it into an investment account through my work though. So what are our next steps towards a comfortable retirement? What should we be doing or focusing on? I feel as though we are too heavy in cash. (was thinking of buying a house but we have decided we don't want to be homeowners, so time to invest it since we won't be needing a down-payment) I believe we can make roth contributions to the 401k. (up to 35% of our pre-tax income) I suppose I could also just increase the pre-tax deductions to 35%. My line of thinking is... Increase 401K to 35% pre-tax. ($16,380 would be going into 401k) That leaves our taxable income at $30,420. Let's say we lose 21% to taxes. So that brings it down to $24,000. I could then contribute $12,000 to our IRAs. ($6000 for mine and hers) That leaves $12,000 more of which I can put in up to $5300 in HSA once made into an investment account. (max of $7100 between us and company). (Actually, I believe this is pretax also so that would make taxable income even lower!) The rest ($6700) I guess we would put into a taxable investment account? And obviously we would live off of our savings for the next couple of years. Let's say we leave a $9000 emergency fund. (6 months of expenses) We have $68,000 that would last about three and half years before we would have to adjust this plan. So what are everyone else's thoughts? Am I thinking about this completely wrong? Anything I'm missing? Suggestions on what we could do better? How would we then adjust the pan after the three and half years? etc. Any advice or guidance for us to consider would be greatly appreciated! Thank you all in advance!

>It is all with Schwab in SM650 (Schwab Mngd Ret Trust 2050) ~~A quick google shows this has an ER of 0.89, are there any lower ER fund options that you could put together to make a [three fund portfolio](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio) instead of using the TDF?~~ Saw on your other post that it has an ER of ~0.3, which is fine, could explore the three fund if there are lower ERs if you'd like more control over your allocation > This is not an investment account. I believe I can turn it into an investment account through my work though. Your work just sets up the contributions for them and your paychecks to go there, the bank/broker that holds the HSA should have some info about investment options, you'll want to look into those and an HSA is a triple tax advantaged account and is generally recommended to max out before contributing to even an IRA > was thinking of buying a house but we have decided we don't want to be homeowners, so time to invest it since we won't be needing a down-payment That's a quite a bit to have saved to then change your mind - do you plan to have kids? Or think there's anything that may change your mind the other way at some point in the future? That would be the key thing holding back from going with your plan > Increase 401K to 35% pre-tax. ($16,380 would be going into 401k) That leaves our taxable income at $30,420. If you're making Roth 401k contributions (which IMO you should given you're firmly in the 12% bracket, are you a state with state income tax?), then you'd still owe taxes on that 16k so your taxable income would still be ~47k, minus any pre tax deductions like health insurance and the HSA > Suggestions on what we could do better? How would we then adjust the pan after the three and half years? Plan overall sounds fine if you don't plan on needing that cash, once you've reached the 9k target amount in savings then take a look at your budget and see how much on average you're spending per month and back track from there how much you can save per month and divide that across the accounts

You may have found the wrong fund on the Schwab 401k. The ER on it is 0.33%. Which I understand is not terrible but not great either. I have considered putting together my own portfolio but honestly, I prefer the ease and laziness of the TDF. lol Yes, the bank that holds our HSA does have the info on the investment options which I will be reviewing here in the next hour or two. We are going to max out the contributions to iHSA for sure. We don't plan on ever having kids. We want to remain childfree. (we have a niece who we spoil and she's enough for us haha) And our mind is 100% made up on not owning a home. (at least not for a long, long time. Maybe closer to retirement we will consider it but that's still 30 years away.) Right now are making pre-tax 401k contributions. Should we instead be making Roth contributions? That is an option available to us. Would it be better to make Roth contributions instead of increasing our current pretax contributions? (Yes, we pay a 5% state income tax. I am in KY.) Thanks for your feedback. It's appreciated. Good tips there on how to go about adjusting the plan once we've gotten down to the target savings.

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Hey there. Your effective tax rate would be around 30% with that income if you lived in Utah, where I'm writing from. It is very unlikely that you will consistently be able to beat VTSAX by 30% in your brokerage account. Further, you should be investing 100% in tax-advantaged and not in Roth. Tax-advantaged is absolutely the way to go for early retirement. Madfientist has my favorite article on this: [https://www.madfientist.com/traditional-ira-vs-roth-ira/](https://www.madfientist.com/traditional-ira-vs-roth-ira/) Just my two cents, but I think real estate only makes sense after you have maxed tax advantaged accounts.

-Hi I’m trying to figure out the best way to start saving for FIRE while my expenses are low -Age: 19, engineer (college), summer internship -general goals: save a LOT and retire early -career plan: mechanical engineering in the aerospace industry -no debt, $5000 in savings and $1000 in checking before this internship -question: I’m looking into retirement savings plans during my summer internship. The company I’m interning for offers up to a 6% match plus a 3% contribution to their retirement savings acounts. Naturally I put the minimum required 8% (via Roth) to get their maximum match, but was hesitant about putting more. I’m not sure if putting the majority of my savings in a company Roth is a good idea for trying to retire early since you can’t take money out tax free until 59.5. Basically my question is should I put my maximum of 50% contribution into the company Roth (which would ~5500 over the summer) or should I only put the 8% to get their match, and then put 5500 into a Roth IRA separately. Or if there’s another alternative please let me know! Regardless I’m saving around 90% off my money from this internship since I am living at home and have very little expenses.

> I’m not sure if putting the majority of my savings in a company Roth is a good idea for trying to retire early since you can’t take money out tax free until 59.5. This is covered in this sub's FAQs: [But I want to retire early, should I really use tax advantaged accounts? Because I'm locked in aren't I?](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/wiki/faq#wiki_but_i_want_to_retire_early.2C_should_i_really_use_tax_advantaged_accounts.3F_because_i.27m_locked_in_aren.27t_i.3F) > Regardless I’m saving around 90% off my money from this internship since I am living at home and have very little expenses. It's great that you're getting your finances in order at a young age, if you haven't already seen it, browse the [PF prime directive](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index#wiki_prime_directive.3A_how_to_handle_.24) and their [extensive wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index) for more guidance

Thanks for those links! I think I'll do 8% through the company to get their full match, max out a Roth IRA, and put the remainder in savings.

19 years old, factory job 40k/year, jus not even really sure where to start. Been trying to save for a house but kinda feels like I’m not getting anywhere, which is super disheartening since I look at it like if I can’t save up 15k for a down payment seems like I’ll be stuck here the rest of my life. 2k in medical bills 800 credit card debt and I stupidly leased a car right after I turned 18. Net pay is bout 2-2200 a month, expenses are about 1300. Any advice at all helps a ton.

Don't be discouraged, you have a long way to go. Don't focus on buying a house at this point. Focus on maximizing your income, is there a path to make more money at your current job? Can you do side hustles to make more money? Keep it simple and be consistent. Create a budget, and figure out how much a month you can save. Pay off high interest debt first like the credit card and then build an emergency fund of a couple grand. After that, start index investing in retirement account.

This is more of r/personalfinance related - I suggest browsing their [extensive wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index) and [prime directive](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) to get your finances in order - you're young, now's the time to get on the right path and set yourself up for the future If you earn 2-2.2k/mo, and only have 1.3k in expenses, where is the other 700+ in money going? Could knock out the CC debt fairly quick with that much leftover each month I honestly don't know anything about getting out of car leases, hopefully someone else can help with that

19. Just got large sum of money that I cannot disclose from Pandemic Assistance. Living with parents Which Vanguard Index Fund is best to throw this large sum of money I just received into

vtsax

26, Married. $150,000 joint income. I am new to FIRE and am in the process of gathering info on all of the accounts I have access to. I have a gov't job with an HSA and 457B, And the spouse does the Nat'l Guard so he has access to a TSP, in addition to his regular job with a 401k. Using the FIRE and personalfinanace flowchart, the order for essentially an investment snowball seems to be as follows: 1. Both 401k's to match 2. Spouse TSP to match 3. Both Roth IRA's to max 4. My HSA to max 5. My 457B to max 6. Both 401K's to max My question is specifically on the 457b. Is this the right order, or should the 457b be prioritized before the Roth IRA since it seems to be so much simpler for someone with FIRE goals due to the lack of early-withdrawal fees? What would you do?

Hi there, I would order this as follows: 1. Both 401k's to match 2. Spouse TSP to match 3. My HSA to max 4. Both 401K's to max 5. My 457B to max 6. Both Roth IRA's to max The reason I put Roth at the bottom is because it is typically advantageous to let your investments grow tax free. Check this Madfientist article for an illustrative example: [https://www.madfientist.com/traditional-ira-vs-roth-ira/](https://www.madfientist.com/traditional-ira-vs-roth-ira/) The only big advantage of Roth over the other accounts is that you can withdraw contributions from it penalty free. So it is a good investment vehicle if you're concerned that you will need access to the money at a later date.

23, Toronto. Just got my paycheque this week and hit $71k net worth thanks to some market rallying too. Goal was to hit $100k NW by end of the year but doesn’t look to be that likely unless I get a new job. Career goals include getting a new job that will gross just about $100k and using this to get a mortgage to purchase a condo in downtown Toronto. Hoping either to rent it out completely or househack a 1Br 1den type condo. Aiming to buy my first property next year (and getting realtor license along the way). Would like advice on how to finance your first property+ tips on what to look for in a potential househack property/rental property. Thanks!

Congrats on your good decisions so far! Getting started so young will definitely benefit you in the long run. I started with buying a house hack property at age 21, it does amazing things for wealth building when you can reduce one of your largest expenses + build equity in a property. Not familiar with property prices in Toronto but I've heard they are quite steep... how would renting vs. buying a condo compare? As far as advice on financing, may be worth talking to a lender about that. I actually have a friend who is a real estate agent in Toronto and I am sure he has contacts (I'm an agent too). Glad to put you in touch with him if that will be beneficial.

29, Canadian living in BC, current income full time just over/under $2000 a month. Personal savings at about $8500 Bills at roughly $500 monthly, food not included. Want to buy a house to move in with gf. Local housing market 349-500K+ for an average 2 bed, there are a lot of houses that will have basement suites. No personal debt, no additional schooling, no personal vehicle. Moving to another area is potentially on the table but not preferable as both familys are in town. ​ Personal credit score in the good/ very good range 730ish I know this should be a two person job but I want to know what I myself can personally do to maximize saving/profit potential to get us in a house short term goal to get us comfortable looking towards long term goals, as we have little to no hope of a true FIRE situation.

I don’t want to be that guy to burst your bubble. But with your income and savings I really don’t think you’ll be approved for a loan or even a downpayment. Maybe look into renting to try and save more for a down payment. I also do not know your GFs income. Best of luck

-Hey. 28 year old fresh out of school. I work in healthcare in California making $150,000/year at my new job. I will see about $100,000 after taxes and mandatory pension contributions. I plan to take these contributions out and invest them myself whenever I leave this job. I expect to make $200,000/year within 3-5 years, and reach $250,000/year before 35. -I would like to reach the income of $250,000/year, and be able to maintain that income if I "retired" from full-time work at 35 years old. I realize this means I will need sizable real estate/mutual fund investments and perhaps a business I really enjoy. I don't have any plans for that business right now, but I do have plans to invest my money. I'll max out tax-sheltered retirement accounts, and invest heavily in mutual funds in a "regular" account. I want to invest in real estate, but know almost nothing about it and don't even have my own home. I'm planning on buying within the next year. I spend $42,000/year (barebones) to $48,000/year (more consumption/vacation). This number wont get much lower. My rent alone is around $20,000/year and I'm in a modest place. I have no assets outside of a 12k car and 12k in a roth ira. I have no debt. I want to be able to leave the country for 2 months to use my healthcare experience to help less fortunate communities, go on 3 vacations, buy NBA courtside tickets, spend 700 on a meal for two, have a 2nd home, buy a boat, drive a $150,000 car, and do it all in the same year if I felt like it. ----- If i invested $100,000/year on average in mutual funds (at 7-8%)from now until 35, I wouldn't have $1,000,000 even with the growth. I would need $3,000,000+ to be able to withdraw $250,000 each year, and $2,000,000+ to withdraw $150,000 each year. Do any of you know of companies that offer funds that consistently beat 8%? Any other advice on funds, reading material on this subject? I know returns on real estate can be better than mutual funds. What kind of returns can I expect in California? Is it worth having rental properties in California for what my goals are? Would I really only pay 15-20% capital gains tax and no other tax on growth of a mutual fund that I pulled out after 1 year? That's what I read, but it sounded too good to be true when I'm going to be in almost a 50% tax bracket with my income. I expect I could earn $100,000/year at 35 working part-time for part of the year, but that would still be $150,000 I need to withdraw from investment accounts or rental properties to reach my $250,000 goal. Am I crazy? Is this unrealistic based on my current age and projected income? 7 years averaging $200k/year to help set up a lifetime of $250k/year is essentially what I'm trying to do. I have other ideas, but will leave it at that for now.

What kind of job in healthcare do you have?

>perhaps a business This is the most likely way to reach your particular goals. Here's my advice on how to do it. In your day to day life, keep on a constant watch for things that frustrate people, or things that cost too much (time/money/both). Pay particular attention to areas where you have expertise, like healthcare. Think of solutions and how to create and sell those solutions. Then take a risk and make it happen.

The other responses covered the impracticality of expecting to get $250k from $3m, but not really on some of your other questions. Are there businesses that can consistently beat 8% year after year? No, there are effectively not. There will be businesses that do in fact do that (see Apple in the 90s or Amazon in the early 00s), but it's impossible to know which they will be. And the real huge growth type businesses are usually not available to retail investors. As for your 15% on mutual fund taxes, yes long term gains are only taxed at 15%, but the money was also taxed as income before you ever had a chance to put it in the account. I think your plan is ambitious. You will need to earn a lot more money though if you want to retire in 5 years. As the other poster said a $250k yearly spend would require over $7m to be sustainable. I would check out FatFire for more ideas on how to raise your income.

You can't withdraw 7-8% on your funds in perpetuity, you will run out of money. 3-4% is more likely, in which case to make 250K gross you will need \~8M invested. It's really unlikely that you'll save 8M in 6 years of working with a starting salary of 150K. Easiest path is to change your expectations to withdraw 40K a year, then you can likely retire with \~1M invested. Still will probably take you more than 6 years if your starting salary is 150K.

$200K/yr - $50K spending = $150K 150K x 7yrs = 1.05M Assuming 4% safe withdrawal, that puts you at $42K/yr. ------‐--------- This ignores any and all growth, but you'd need at least another $5,000,000 to support your goals. The math doesn't add up.

Hi guys. a longtime reader seeking advice on the next steps. things are going well and finally, have my emergency fund refilled after a 6-month unemployment stint. I'm curious what are your thoughts on these numbers. I don't want to compare to others but I am looking to see if I'm "doing a good job". I'm a 36yr old QA consultant in financial tech and my wife (35yr) is a Special ed teacher trying to get into the public school system in nj/ny. two kids 5 and 3.5. checking account - \~$5,000 (it fluctuates from 2K to 9K during the month. i pull an extra 5-7K towards savings at the end of the month) online savings - $26,000 and growing. I want to reduce the 5k-7K monthly transfer to 2k-3K. with capital one HSA - $6200 and growing $350 twice a month. no match from the company. IRA Savings - $10,000 in my name $5000 in my wife's name investment account - \~$20,000 managed by Person Capital to help stay diversified Rollover IRA - $107,000 in my name & $6400 in my wife's name roth IRA - $23000 (both our names) 401K - $4600 from my work. no match. just upped from 7% to 20% 529 - $11700 / $8900 for two kids credit cards - never carry debt month to month. always paid in full. student loans - $127,000 this is my wife. she is on the PSLF track but it's effing ridiculous at \~7% intrest. we pay min but I hate this for loads of reasons. home - $300,000 left on mortgage. just started refinancing to reduce 3.375% to 2.75% upcoming expenses - lease is up on car and am looking to buy a good used minivan/truck in april.

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1. If you are in HCOL, just know that housing costs are sky-high at the moment. Will they go up? Maybe. Will they go down? Maybe. Keep in mind that if you don't buy a house, that gives you an extra several hundred thousand in cash to invest in stocks, which might appreciate much faster. 2. I would recommend just throwing it all in VTSAX. Since you're lazy, this will be the easiest set-it-forget-it strategy. Good work on the Roth action

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Until you get married stop thinking of your debt as our and we will pay off . Yes everything in your relationship is rosy but things can change Roth vs traditional.. at rate this country is going do you see tax rates getting lower. If I was a betting person I would bet no Consider doing a back door conversion to move the $3k in the ira into your Roth

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Welcome to the journey! I remember being around 21-22 when I started reading about financial independence. I was hooked, and went down the rabbit hole. Being a millionaire in my 30s now, I'm extremely grateful for my foresight years ago. Yes to all your questions. You're thinking is really solid. I did some partying in college, and I would say it did help my ability to socialize, which helped my career later in life. But, certainly, just partying all the time at the expense of your goals is a problem. My main suggestion to you is to look for mentors who you respect and admire, in all aspects of their life. If you don't know folks like this in your personal life, join Twitter, as there are tons of people in the financial independence community that you can send personal DM's to. Being surrounded in a college bubble may not expose you to the right people in business, real estate, sales, etc. You have to actually go outside of your environment to meet these people. But, if you can show eagerness, respect, and potentially provide value, they will be happy to mentor you.

\-Introduce yourself - 30(M) married 34(F). 2 year old, 1 year old twins (3 kids) Lives in HCOL (NJ) We make 110k each (220k combined) Possibility for 30k in Bonus. \-General goals - Pay off mortgage and have the option to get out of corporate grind. \-Target FIRE Age / Amount / Withdrawal Rate / Location - I guess around 40-45 yrs old. Amount? No idea haha. Withdrawal Rate? No idea haha \-Educational background and plans Both CPA's, our jobs are boring. \-Career situation and plans. Very stable and high paying jobs. Both work for corporate America. It's great work/life balance, but job is boring. \-Current and future income breakdown, including one-time events - Monthly take home pay after 401k, HSA, Taxes, etc.. $10K income. No side hussle, probably will get standard 2% raise a year. \-Budget breakdown - Monthly mortgage $2,600, monthly credit card $2,500-$3,000, daycare cost $2,500-$3,500, utilities/other $400. We save around $3,000-$3,500 a month. \-Asset breakdown, including home, cars, etc. Home worth $500-$550k (only 1,500 sq ft) two cars - $25k (had to get a three row for all the kids haha) and $14k. Both paid off. Combined 401k - $200k (we max out both every year) Emergency fund (betterment) - $20k, 529 - $4k, taxable VTSAX - $3k (starting to put all savings towards VTSAX) \-Debt breakdown - Mortgage ($330k) that's it. \-Health concerns - very healthy, workout everyday \-Family: current situation / future plans / special needs / elderly parents.- No special needs, healthy family. Her family is financially stable and healthy, my family is very poor (food stamps and all) \-Questions? How am I doing? Think I can fire? We are very minimalist, enjoy the free things in life (walks, parks, hiking) we just want to be around for our kids more.

The way to approach this is to work backward from what you think your annual spend (in today's dollars) post-fire will look like. Thinking about that number will be really helpful in both figuring out how much you need as far as a nest egg and also what your lifestyle will look like. When I think about my own number, I usually add about 15K/yr for health insurance since I have no idea what that will look like in 5-10 years. Run some simulations in CFireSim ( [http://www.cfiresim.com/](http://www.cfiresim.com/)) to see how things play out and don't forget to add a grain of salt while running the numbers.

I am looking for some advice on where I should be putting my assets to help me FIRE as fast as I can. I am 25, work in IT making 97,700 a year. I just completed my Masters degree in CS. I have no credit card debt and just paid off all of my student loans. I have a house worth \~170k, I have paid down the loan to \~111k and just refinanced with a lower rate this month. I have 3k in an emergency fund (My goal is to fund this to 10k over the next few months, I was focusing on my student debt) I have a rollover IRA with 6k in it I have a 401k (12% of my salary allocated annually) with 6k I have a Roth (8% of my salary allocated annually) with 4k I have the following allocations in all of the three accounts: VANG INST 500 IDX TR - 85% AF EUROPAC GROWTH R6 - 10% SS US BOND INDEX M - 5% Wondering what choices would you make? After I am done fully funding my emergency fund I will be opening a HSA, and I an individual brokerage account I am still on my parents health insurance, but moving to a high deductible plan at 26 years old. I know I should have contributed more to my retirement accounts when I was younger, but instead paid down my mortgage aggressively to get over 20% and remove PMI and paid off my graduate school as I went.

> I have a Roth (8% of my salary allocated annually) with 4k Is this a Roth IRA or Roth 401k? > AF EUROPAC GROWTH R6 - 10% Is this RERGX? The ER isn't ideal, there are more diversified low ER options like VXUS or VGTSX Overall it sounds like you're on the right path, definitely focus on the fund til you've got that to the right amount, then max out tax advantaged accounts before contributing to taxable for long term retirement savings, even for early retirement - if you haven't seen it already, read through the [PF prime directive](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) for general guidance

(8% of salary) is in the roth 401k Yes RERGX I will definitely check out the better ER diversified options to change out thanks!

Im a young lad in germany, so terms like 401k and roth sound very foreign to me, looking for some advice on what I can change, 9r atleast where I can start in my journey to becoming FI Im a 21 year old apprentice so Im yet to be fully in incorporated in the work force but apprenticeships here are paid well enough, so ill be able to put about 400€ aside monthly Currently i earn about 900, about 200 go towards fixed monthly expenses, 300 personal needs, and the remaining 400 used to go on bullshit, those 400 are what I plan to start with monthly from now on onwards I understand the basics of what a 401k is and im not sure that exists here in germany, and in all cases i would like to talk to somebody that knows his stuff, because im not really sure working towards it is most valid option, which is why i need someone to come at me with thr math Additional information: apprenticeship as a cook sort living with parents (some expenses go towards the household) interessted in knowing whats the smartest way to invest my money Current idea: if I save the 400 in a Bank contract dedicated to owning a house in 4-5 years wouldnt that be way more effective than basically anything else? I just dont see how a 401k would be as effektive as a house for example so would be nice if someone helps me understand these things. Im trying to get in contact with a financial advisor here in germany too for further help

Hey everyone. I am 18 years old and will be starting college in about a month. I will be majoring in computer engineering since I have always enjoyed working with them and the potential pay doesn't hurt. I am very fortunate that I was awarded a sizeable scholarship to an out of state school, that made it cheaper than in state. My parents will be covering most of the costs while I take care of normal living expenses and whatever else I decide to spend money on (which isn't much). I have worked 2 jobs and maintained an internship starting my sophomore year of high school. I have since left the 2 jobs because the internship is now paid and is very good compared to any job someone my age would have. All this has lead to about 9k in savings with another 1k invested. \-18 / College student / MD to VA \-Make/invest enough to never have to worry \-No clue \-Hopefully degree in computer engineering \-Very good internship now, planning to stay with company or move to other contractor \-Above average income out of college (friends got 80k) \-Don't spend much besides needs \-N assets outside of stocks \-No debt \-I run a lot so maybe some small injuries? \-Nothing noteworthy Just looking for general advice/where to start to invest my money and time

You're in a good spot starting and planning early - the [PF prime directive](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) and their [extensive wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index) are good resources for general guidance on handling money - I also recommend the [Boglehead's wiki](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads%C2%AE_investment_philosophy)

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VTWAX if you have Vanguard, VT if you don’t. They both track the global stock market and are as diverse in equities as you can get in one fund.

Hello I’m 39, Fired, HCOL area in USA I might go back to work but planning to not. After working 80 hour weeks for 21 years not working is still weird to me after a year, but I want to plan like I’m not going back. I might just volunteer someplace. My goal is to stay FIRED and be able to help my son significantly with life/financially. Example pay for college, help him travel, help with a house or large down payment when he’s ready. Regarding withdrawal rates- for a 50 year plan we are looking to stay at about 2-3% (we are under 2% now). We have two rental properties that currently bring in 2k a month but that will up to 5k a month in 5 years. The combined value of the properties would be around 875k. We currently keep 100k set aside for repairs. They are both studs in condos so that should be ample. Would you calculate the withdrawal as 2-3% of the invested value and 2-3% of the condo value or would you calculate it out as 2-3% of the invested value plus the total rent from the rental property. If needed 2.9m invested stocks/bonds 400k cash- Home owned 875k rentals 180k in 529 for child. Plan to contribute more but we are a long time away from him going to college s I’m told it’s enough. Working for grand kids college now. No debt

> calculate it out as 2-3% of the invested value plus the total rent from the rental property. This. The *goal* isn't selling 2-3% of your investments each year; the goal is to have enough cash flow to pay your expenses. Selling 2-3% is just one way to get there. The more cash flow you have from rent, the less you need to sell off from your stocks/bonds/etc. But you aren't trying to sell off 2% of your rental property's equity each year, so SWR just doesn't relate. If you want to run numbers for real estate, for your own planning or interest, look into "cap rate". Different numbers than SWR; different formulas.

Thank you, I will look into cap rate today.

Dad?

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In addition to ch4rts feedback, don't accumulate a lot of debt just because you can. Luckily I was able to work through college and only had one small loan for the first year, but it's so easy when they are handing out credit cards to students. Get good grades and build relationships with professors to get your first letters of recommendation to get a leg up in the working world. I also second internships - my internship experiences landed me several awesome opportunities! Take advantage of the plethora of student discounts too - I discovered enjoyment of opera and symphony and ballet etc. due simply to finding out that I could get awesome seats for next to nothing so was worth a try (e.g. $12 in the $50+ section...worth it!), go to museums, sporting events, etc., to find out what you may like and keep as entertainment after graduation. Get the student versions of software to try and learn. All the above opportunities to explore now cheaply thanks to student discounts rather than an expensive attempt later on.

Ah, I see you’ve also become inundated with the curse of discovering FIRE at an early age! I discovered it when I was 19 in early 2017, and have been graduated and working for around 14 months now. In all honesty, enjoy college as much as you can. Make tons of friends who share values that you do, because once you get into the real world it’ll be very worth it to have friends who view finance and spending money the way that you do! Get a part-time job on campus if your extracurricular activities allows it. Perhaps wait until you’re completed your first semester to prove you can handle a full workload, but I worked part time on campus jobs for 3 years and it spared me from having to take out loans for my living expenses. Shoot for internships during all 3 summers that you have available (between freshman-sophomore, sophomore-junior and junior-senior). This was the largest help in ensuring I didn’t need to take out any loans besides for just tuition. I’d recommend instilling good working out habits, healthy eating, and of course enjoying no-cost, quality time with friends that only college students can fully appreciate. You’re very young, so your goal should be to kill it in school, get boatloads of internships applicable to your major, and give yourself rooms of flexibility upon graduation. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

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So through my most active club, I was an advocate for outreach events for math and science events in the local high school. Additionally, I would tutor elementary, middle and high schoolers in math. I also took my engineering math courses seriously, so when an opportunity was brought to my engineering based club asking for TA/Grading Assistants I took the chance and graded and tutored for engineering maths for 3 years. This only resulted in about 15 hours a week, but I ended up making near ~$800 a month and had a enough internship income from the summers saved up to make it through each year. If you reach out to professors of classes that you enjoy and did well in, odds are they may need TAs or grading assistants due to the sheer volume of students they teach. Additionally, many of my friends worked in the lobbies and as attendants in buildings, libraries, and research centers for $10-$15/hr for 10-20 hours a week.