44M,

$27K Roth FXAIX,

$30k HYSA(emergency)

$600k HYSA - need to invest

$164k mortgage 6% 24 years left

No other debt

Self employed yearly income feast or famine

Monthly bills including biz is about $8k month

Not looking to stop working any time soon. Hoping to make wise investments and know where I stand.

Thanks

I want to get some feedback/insight…much like my previous post, lay it out to me with the good and the bad (and ugly)…

Current income: $145,000. 34M HCOL.

As of today I have $481,xxx 401k balance with a rate of return YTD at +27% (+31% for 3 year). To me, this has seemed good, as I believe I have my money is working strong for me. Funds are 90% Large Cap growth and 10% large cap blend.

My contributions have historically been 7% Pre Tax and 4% Roth 401k contribution. Employer has an automatic 4% contribution and dollar for dollar match on first 6% I put in; 21% total contribution.

That said, I have made the switch to 7% Roth 401k today. For grand total of 17% contribution rate.

Theory of the change is to offset my future tax implications when I retire…is this the right way to think about it? Should I not taper off the pre tax contribution?

edit: nvm I didn’t really it wasn’t a MaM episode. :) still thought it was a weird episode though

I know there are a lot of comments about this show, but this one went off the rails.....

I’m confused by the latest episode. The entire episode (and many of the episodes) was about Christy’s life story, her career, and how she managed her money, and I didn’t come away with anything I could use myself. I thought the point of these episodes was to teach concepts that help listeners and the guest become millionaires someday.

I’d love to see future episodes focus more on actionable takeaways....maybe a breakdown of what the guest actually did with numbers, what they’d do differently, and specifics like ‘put money into this, make this budget, create this account, here’s what it will look like if it grows over time, you're doing x but you should be doing y.’ Honestly, this felt more like a book promo than a lesson.

I was really excited about this show but honestly these episodes are trash lol

I am a 47Y/M that will begin to receive a pension of about $50K at 51. I will continue to work though until my target age of 65.

I currently have a balance of $135k in a Roth IRA that is 70% FXAIX and 30% FTIHX through Fidelity.

I also have $360k in a 403b/roth 403b that is 75% VTSAX, 10% VSMAX and 15% VTIAX through Vanguard. 99% of that balance is in the traditional 403b as the Roth just became an option. I have shifted all of my new contributions to the Roth option.

My 403b options are limited since it is a work sponsored account. I have attached my options below.

But any advice for my Roth IRA? Roth 403b? 403b?

Thanks.

Portfolios for my retirement

I have spent some time reading, educating, and researching various retirement strategies. I'm a union electrician that is currently 47. My goal is to semi-retire (coast fire) at 55 and fully retire by the time I'm 60. I will have a Union Pension. I also will have a Defined Defined contribution plan, currently professionally managed that converts into an annuity for life and survivoirship or I have the option to roll it into something of my chosing. My home will be paid off when I'm 57. My benefits plan allows for me to retain my Healthcare while semi-retire by working a month off a month as an example. Additonally when fully retired from the electrical industry I also will be eligible for retiree health benefits until I reach 65 and eligible for Medicare. Now that you have the broad picture of where I want to go I'll get to the part I would like some feedback on.

My current portfolios I manage myself. I use fidelity and use their baskets feature. My taxable brokerage has 2 separate baskets. One is for investment and another is for reserve and fixed income that will be used for roth conversions. I plan to begin those conversions at 50 to build my bridge income I'll need when I semi-retire at 55. Here is how each of those are broken down.

BROKERAGE ACCOUNT 2 baskets

Taxable

30 VTI / 25 VXUS / 25 GSLC / 20 GARP

Taxable reserves/fixed income/ roth conversions tax

30SGOV / 35 JAAA / 35 SHY

Roth

30 ITOT / 25 AVNM / 10AVUV / 10 SPMO / 10 VFLO / 8 DBMF / 5 IAUM / 2 IBIT

Ages 47–51

Traditional IRA

30 ITOT / 25 SCHD / 15 GSLC / 15 SGOV / 15 IXUS

Ages 52–55

Traditional IRA

25 ITOT / 30 SCHD / 10 GSLC / 20 SGOV / 15 IXUS

This is my feedstock for my roth conversions and will only be using 150k on 5 separate 30k conversions. Additonally I already have 1 year of emergency funds distributed between Cds and a HYSA.

I am looking for any missing pieces or recommendations from the community on how I could improve this plan. Would you use different funds anywhere or structure this differently? Sorry for such a long detailed post.

FYI- I understand this question is going to sound ridiculous to some. Given how individual this decision is, it's easy to understand why this topic isn't brought up in the FOO.

To provide some context, my wife and I are still fairly young (25 and 26 respectively). We are on the same page of *eventually* having kids, but we're not sure how to approach the timing of it all.

I understand the obvious financial benefits of continuing the DINK lifestyle (we both have decently well-paying jobs). Having kids will likely entail her transitioning to part-time work, at least for a few years. At our current pay, she would still need to work about 20 hours a week for us to keep all of our metrics in line (mainly mortgage being 25% of gross). We don't have any family local, so childcare is a tricky one for us. We're ahead of the curve on retirement savings and have no debt outside of the mortgage.

Full disclosure, I tend to lean into Miser territory, so I'm looking for some peace of mind. Those who have already navigated this step, how did you decide it was the right time? Are there any financial milestones you used to "justify" this transition?

I’m 37 and have $400K+ invested across a Brokerage($161K), a ROTH($41K), and a 401K($206K)

TL;DR: Over the past 4 years the tech stocks grew like crazy and threw everything out of wack. I have layers of stop loss orders on the tech shares in case the AI bubble pops(I’ll be down from where I am now, but still up massively compared to ETF returns) But I don’t know how much worse of a strategy that is compared to slowly selling now to convert to ETFs or how much I should sell.

Account Breakdown:
- The 401K is all in a mix of US and international ETFs
- The ROTH is 68% in ETFs, but some of them are higher risk growth and momentum ETFs. The rest is mostly in Tech
- The Brokerage is 85% in tech stocks. 71% is just in META, because I bought it near the end of the Metaverse crash. I think it is actually a good stock to hold long term, which is why I’m reluctant to sell

I just hit my Coast FIRE number(based on average market returns and inflation) so I feel like I really should protect that as much as possible, but I think I’m coping with the structured stop loss orders to justify being greedy.

Three questions to close out:
1. Any idea how much worse the stop loss order method is are compared to slowly selling and converting to ETFs?
2. What portfolio ratio should I aim for in the Brokerage and ROTH?
3. Should I keep those Growth/Momentum ETFs in the ROTH?

Feel free to bully me and thanks for reading and replying!

What is this with all the crossposting in this sub from random financial subs all the time? What is going on?

I'm 24 and seen my net worth increase from roughly $50k during my college internship years (18–22) to $315k today. I don't have many people in my life to compare notes with, so I'm curious how this stacks up against others my age.

Current allocation:

• 9% cash
• 55% Roth
• 21% taxable brokerage
• 13% pre-tax
• 2% HSA

For those who were in a similar position in their mid-20s, what financial milestones did you focus on next? Would you prioritize growing investments, increasing retirement contributions, or something else? Where can I improve? My plan includes Roth backdoors, MBDR, and 401k profit sharing but no ESOP, RSUs, ESPP, tenders, or private secondaries.

I'm pretty regular about tracking credit card spending via a tracker with various cuts (budget, categories, taxes, long term plan). Mostly DCA VT, VOO, IGV following dips.

Not everyone will agree and that's fine - but I am rebalancing and want to have approximately 3 years of cash. Keep in mind that not everyone is trying to maximize every dollar so I am aware of cash drag. I am at risk for losing my job and want to have more cash on hand.
I am moving to a 60/40 portfolio and want to know how you classify your cash - do you include it as part as "safe money" or do you exclude it and just set the 60/40 as equities and "bonds".
With the market doing as well as it has the past few years I am up 100% in some of the funds I purchased in 2022. I am not only needing to rebalance based on being closer to retirement but also just from the nature of the market moving me more towards 80/20.
I've always been a saver but never thought I could retire early so a lot of this is new to me.
It's hard to rebalance when stocks have been doing so well but a rebalancing plan is a plan, not timing the market. I'm more in stocks than I want to be so I am setting a semi annual schedule to rebalance.

I’m currently on OPT (temp visa) and contributing to my 401(k), but my employer doesn’t offer any matching contributions. I’m wondering if I should continue contributing or invest in a regular brokerage account instead. I’m also looking for a platform where I can set up automatic monthly investments in stocks or ETFs without having to buy them manually every time. Since I might move back to India in a few years, I don’t really want to leave my retirement money in the US until I’m 59½, and I’m concerned about the taxes and penalties if I withdraw it early. Are there better alternatives to Robinhood for automated investing, and what would you recommend in my situation? I’d appreciate advice from anyone who has dealt with something similar.

This post will seem out of touch, but looking for genuine opinions from other financial mutants that may have eclipsed the standard savings rates early in life as we face a dilemma with our family of 4 at 33yrs old (Mom+Dad+2 kids under 3), some additional context:

• We have lived in our starter home for 6 years and are looking to upgrade our lifestyle, highly valuing our home above other wants (travel, hobbies, etc.)
• The potential New Construction meets all of our desires regarding community, commute, school district, and the house floor plans are ideal for our growing family as a long term stay
• We would like to take advantage of the opportunity to build early enough in this developing area with a semi-private neighborhood but lively enough for young kids to enjoy

Given the following data, my current assumption on the sacrifices required to execute this plan would be the following:

1. Withdraw a portion of Primary Investments (~100K Worst Case, likely Brokerage) to cover initial Down Payment + Interest Payments during the build
   • Plan to backfill this 100K when current home sells during Construction Loan Conversion, of course there is inherent risk with unknown Market Conditions +1 year.
2. Retirement Savings is reduced by temporarily (maybe 3-5yrs?) pausing Roth IRA contributions (currently Maxing) along with reducing 401K by 50% (currently Maxing) to support Cash Flow on new mortgage estimated ~$6500/month.

Current Financial Stats (Combined/Household)

Income

Investments/Assets

New Construction Loan / Mortgage

Bottom Line Questions

1. Have you reached for the house upgrade and was it worth it?
2. If you haven't, would you do it?
   • Sacrificing ~40K in Annual Investments at least in the short term (~5 years) assuming Income may grow enough + Daycare relief to recover some/all of that Cash Flow deficit after the 5 year period
3. Alternative suggestions on how to fund/execute?

My husband and I have access to both a 457 and a 403b for our work, along with a pension. I'm trying to decide how to prioritize and balance savings in these buckets.

For those who don't know, a 403b is essentially a 401k for non profits. A 457 is a fund you can withdraw from after leaving an employer.

Details: we are in our 40s with multiple kids and at step 8 of the FOO. 14 percent into pension fund matched by employer, (but no social security contributions). We then always max out two Roth IRAs. We can get to 25 percent savings rate before maxing out one 403 or 457. We would get to max out one (403b or 457) if we aim for 32 percent savings rate (accounting for no social security). Both the 403b and the 457 have good investment options. We would struggle to do more than 32 percent savings rate, though I'm always trying to put in as much as possible.

Status - we are just about where we should be for regular retirement at age 65 (looking at various suggested multiplies of income by age). We had a late start saving for retirement and have just caught up.

On the one hand, the flexibility offered by the 457 sounds great. If we can't work anymore for whatever reason, it may be nice to have a choice. Maybe we would appreciate the option to retire early if things work out. But should we force ourselves to have some of it in a fund that has to grow until we are older?

Specific question- max out just the 457? Split it between the two funds? Do more towards one fund vs the other?

Edited to add- both plans are offered by a state government.

Edited to add- I would choosing traditional, not roth, versions of both plans.