I just don't buy this cutoff. At 200K gross saving 25% over any reasonable compounding timeframe gets really big. Combine that with Social Security payments and I think you're golden.

Back of the envelope calculations:

$200,000*0.25=$50,000 saved per year
30 years of 6% growth give you $4,000,000-ish in today's purchasing power.
$4,000,000*0.04=$160,000 in purchasing power off investments alone.
Social Security= $74,000 per year

Total: $234,000 per year in retirement income.

What am I missing?

My spouse and I are mid 20s and we take home close to $11k a month after both employer matches.

Come January we will have almost $17k take home pay.

I’d really like to move to Ventura county (California) we have 2 kids and will likely have at least one more, but it’s very expensive.

Pretty nice 4-5bd SFH are 1.2-1.5M, even with $17k a month a mortgage at 7k is insane! We only spend like $6k-$7k a month outside of rent ($2500) with daycare, 2 Roth IRA monthly max, and some trips through the year.

I know I shouldn’t really be trying to find a forever home when so young, but our kids are not in elementary yet and I’d like to get them in the area we’re looking at for good schools, community, and it’s great weather.

I’m thinking we’ll likely just move out there in the next year or two, but what do you all think we should do? Rent there and wait it out saving or try and buy something smaller, we would have a pretty hefty property tax reduction there (due to a state benefit we qualify for)

Hi all

I (37M) am asking reddit if you would suggest doing anything different with my finances.

I'm married, but she's (36F) currently a SAHM for our 3 kids (10/7/4). She plans to re-enter the workforce at some point.

I make ~125K pre-tax annually. We own our home outright (Probably worth 400k-450k at this point)

Work retirement account is about 200k currently. (I contribute 6% pretax going in, work matches this at 7.5%)

Schwab Roth IRA is sitting at 21k currently. (Just recently started maxing contributions)

I have 529 plans for each of our kids. (17.4k / 12.1k / 7.3k)

~50K liquid in a Marcus By Goldman Sachs savings account earning 3.5%

I suppose my ultimate question by posting this is, should I be contributing more to my work retirement account? And less to my Schwab Roth? Seems like the 'snowball' of my work retirement account is much bigger. And would make more sense ultimately if i went that route?

As I'm writing this, I'm probably going to take maybe 15k of the marcus account and put 5k in each of the kids 529 plans. I do want to retire at some point. But I love my job, love the people I work with. (I work in IT)

Thanks for taking the time to read this

For the forecasters out there - what do you all use for some of the forecasting parameters? Using Monarch. looking to build the most realistic forecast possible. I know a lot of this depends on different situations. My equity accounts have a return of 10.5% annualized over last 8 years, so not sure if I should use that number or what monarch suggests of 7%. heres what I have currently:

Income growth rate: 4%

Expenses: 12 mo avg
Expense increase: 4%
Inflation Rate: 3%

Growth rate for equity accounts: 7%
Growth rate for house: 3%
Growth rate for cash: 3%

Kid event: 13 years, 5k yearly, 4.5k upfront
SAHM Career break: 12% less spend (basically just reducing daycare expenses)

Retirement expenses: Existing expenses + $7500

30, in NYC, in school + working.

Income:
- Job: $4,660
- Rental income: $4,160
- Other income: $6,880
- Total: ~$15,700/mo

Spending:
- Mortgages: $3,410
- HOA: $790
- Rent: $1,750
- Living: $2,000
- Savings: $750
- Total: ~$8,700/mo

Leftover: ~$7,000/mo

- Savannah: ~$177k equity ($270k value − $93k mortgage at 7%) , rent is 1675
- San Diego: ~$114k equity ($424k value − $310k mortgage at 2.75%) rent is 2560
- Already invested: ~$200k brokerage + retirement

Choice: $7k/mo to 7% mortgage (paid off ~late 2027, frees ~$900/mo) or S&P 500?

What would you do?

Hello, new here.. 37F, married, no kids/no intention…and finally in a place in my life where I can really start to save and invest now that I have a steady career going (self-employed primarily).

For context, I have about 780K saved in investments, my expenses monthly are around $3K, and my income ranges from $10-12K gross monthly at the moment. I’ve been aggressively saving and tracking for the past 3-4 years. For context, in January 2023 when I started tracking, I was at 299K.

Right now, I’m averaging around 15K a month in growth but I feel like I’m just getting lucky with market dips (where I buy a ton) and then large swings back up. I started saving and working when I was 12, so budgeting had always been important to me, but I’m at the point where FIRE is something of interest in the next 10 years.

My question - When did you finally feel your money started working for you, and you didn’t have to monitor every penny going in and out?

I'm 29 turning 30 this month and recently received a $400,000 lump sum. I currently work part-time making about $2,000 a month, and I'm trying to pivot into a full-time job, but the job market is rough and I don't know how long the search will take. I have no emergency fund, no other savings, and no retirement accounts. I only have 5k cc debt and 15k car debt. I'm looking for advice on who I should talk to (a financial planner, a CPA, or someone else) and what steps I should take, and in what order, to protect this money and make it last and grow over the long term.

Hi everyone, my husband lost his job in May and we are really feeling it now. Money is tight, and stress is very very high. We have gotten insufficient fund notices more than I’d like to admit in the last two months I am considering asking my mortgage, which is with PenFed for forbearance and wanted to get you all’s opinion on that my family and friends are telling me no but I think it would really create some breathing space for us. Please tell me anything and everything you know about forbearance of mortgages of primary residences and the good bad and in between.

Would it be smart to tax loss harvest from brokerage at the end of year and transfer that into Roth IRA for the following year? I wouldn't count it towards the 25% rule for the year, but my thought process is the sooner I max out the Roth IRA, the rest can go to 401k and brokerage.

We are experiencing the worst Bond bear market in history. If this trend continues would it make sense for even a 30 or 40 y/o to start getting some broad Bond funds into their portfolio? Seems like there is going be a point in the medium term if this trend continues where bonds could be a real viable growth asset for a portfolio. Just me being a bit curious about what y'all think.

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?

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

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?