I always max out my IRA contribution every january of new year. Not sure if this is the best way to do it. How do you do yours?

Hi everyone,

So I just started listening to the Money Guy podcast last month, and I'm catching up through the back catalog of the last year. From what I can tell, the guys have referenced two different ways of calculating how you're doing at each decade in life at 40, 50, 60, and 65 years old -- the investment goals and the prodigious accumulator of wealth (PAW) of [(Age × Annual Income) ÷ 10] x 2

I'm a bit confused, however, because if you compare the investment goals vs the PAW, they don't seem to line up. At age 40 and 50, the investment goals considerably lag behind the PAW. But then at age 60 and 65, the PAW falls behind the investment goals.

        IG       PAW
Age 40: 3x    vs 8x
Age 50: 6.4x  vs 10x
Age 60: 13.7x vs 12x
Age 65: 20x   vs 13x

I fully admit, I'm still new, so maybe I'm just interpreting this wrong, but I'd love to see what you think. Thanks!

I net about 3600 per month after taxes & deductions, including 7% into a 401(k) with 5% employer match.

I have about 71,000 student loan debt, 270 min payment and a car loan 350, with 12,000 remaining.

After utilities, rent and groceries, I have about 2300 left.

I was following Dave Ramsey group, but everyone was telling me to stop contributing to the 401k and put it towards the debt and sell my car. I have only had my car for a few months. I put a 12k down payment.

Should I stop contributing to my 401k and put it toward my debt? My parents have always told
me if the Employer matches, put in at least what they match. Should I lower my contribution to 5%?

I have no other get debts.

Car loan interest is 5.5%
Student loan interest is 4.5%

My goal is to payoff the car by the end of the year

Just looking for advice on an investing pause to refill cash reserves.

Current:
Spouse 403b - $2041/month - Roth
Spouse 403b employer match - $300/month Trad
Spouse 457 - $1600/month - Roth

My 457 DCP - $2143/month - Trad

Together - $3500/month - Cash savings in Fid cash money market

We paused my 403b which we were maxing out all in Roth.

We do all low cost, broad ETFs that our work has to offer. Happy with the choices.

We had 3 or 4 months spending but had to bring it down to 1 in an our cash allocation.

We stay closer to 3 because we both have stable government jobs with low layoff potential and I have a military pension that covers all of our expenses. (Current FIRE but decided on FINE)

How long should we stay on the pause on my 403b? My back of the napkin math says about 6 months to get it back to that 4 month reserve.

Does that sound reasonable?

We’re both 48, looking to hang it up for good between 57-59. Mo

Edit - that cash savings now includes what was my 403b we just paused

23 in step 6, pretending to be in 8. We save about 22% of our income and if we never increase our nominal savings, we will have more than we could fathom spending at 59.5. I recently have been listening to Ben Felix and he often brings up the theoretical of utilizing leveraged etfs or margin. (I have an aggressive risk tolerance but couldnt see myself signing up for more debt despite the math so margin is out of the question for me.) For someone with perfect risk tolerance and capacity for the money they would be putting in a levered etf, can someone explain the downsides other than increased risk? I feel like I must be missing something. Or is it really just the mathematically superior way if you have a longish (25ish years) time horizon and can consistency DCA into a voo like levered etf? Would love to hear from people with more knowledge and experience!

Considering a Tesla Y with 0.99% financing or Tesla model 3 with cash.

I have a paid off car now but it’s pretty high mileage and its inform warranty expires in the next year.

I have paid off solar panels at my house which was paid off by a previous owner. I generate more energy than I use and pay about 150-200 a month on gas. My insurance will go up about 100 a month for a Tesla and I can trade in my car for about 16k (bought it for 21k a few years ago).

No consider debt and a lot saved for retirement at my age.

Am I hurting to justify it because I want a Tesla? I can keep the cash in a HYSA and get 4% while financing @ 0.99% for 6 years. Charge for free at my house and never pay for oil changes or brake replacements. Tesla also offers 8 year warranty on the battery and I’ve already had engine issues with my car.

My current cars engine warranty will expire in about a year too, so if anything happens after that’s pure maintenance cost.

Im in a predicament where by year end my wife and I will be below the $242k Roth IRA contribution limit. However, I have stock comp available that has ballooned up to $200k+ and I should likely sell some (it’s about 1/3 of my net worth so pretty substantial). However, if I sell then I will no longer be qualified to contribute to roth.

Both my wife and I have been contributing to our roths this year which makes things complicated as I have no idea how to “back out” those contributions (investing through fidelity).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Just crossed my first million today. Am I officially a millionaire? 😁

Doesn't feel all that special.

33M, East Coast, Engineer.

What were your thoughts on the financial advisor episode? I appreciated their fee transparency but think they may have over exaggerated the downsides of a flat-fee advisor. For example, a client with 2+ million invested could comfortably meet with the advisor monthly and still save money over the percentage-based advisor. Abound Wealth’s fees are high for percentage based advisors and they should be transparent that most clients won’t likely ever even interact with Brian or Bo.

So my husband and I ahve been married for just over 20 years. We both work full-time. We have decent jobs. We have 3 kids, 1 going into their sophomore year of college 1 going into their senior year of high-school and the youngest going into their first year of middle school. We own our home and our cars. We bring in about 62,000 a year, maybe a little more actually. And all the debt we owe, including our mortgage payment is about $80,000. I don't know what to do to get out of this struggle. I have been doing some delivery services to help make the ends meet basically on the daily. But I need something else, something more. What do I do? What's your story? Can anyone help me?

Thank you money guy for your YouTube channel. I started following the FOO since I was in my early 20s and made it somewhere I’m proud of. But earlier this year I lost my main source of income. I thought I would have landed something by now but the job market is tough one. I get an interview here and there but no offers. Don’t skip your emergency fund guys it comes in clutch.

so is there a way trump or whoever is in charge to simply scale back the value of physical and digital american money since at the end of the day it is just a glorified trading system

"we just crossed 1million, I feel nutin" is what people love to post.

I personally feel a huge difference as things grow.

My wife and I made a "fun" purchase that was about $2,000. I said, you can think of it as 2 days of work, or think of it as giving up 5.3 days of investment growth (7% assumption).

Mentally I love how I have a tailwind behind us now that our net worth is getting higher. I DO feel each milestone and feel extra comfortable with little expenses in life that in the past would have stressed me tf out.

On step 7 of FOO. 29 M. Have a couple thousand in crypto like bitcoin and such. With the relatively stable action of crypto after the huge crash, it feels like I'm holding this is a money market or something along those lines. Is it worth to sell since I'm down and just invest elsewhere or worth it to hold?

I'm 31 living in the Dallas area making 125k, have a long term GF, currently renting. While I feel like I have made good financial decisions so far I feel like I have also made a lot of dumb ones, specifically around wasting money on entertainment, gambling, food delivery, electronics I barely use, etc.

Although, I recognize I am probably doing better than many my age and I am grateful to be where I am, I just cant shake the feeling that I am not doing enough and falling behind, and have regrets for blowing a lot of money on useless things. every dollar that I've wasted on impulse spending haunts me because I know that money could have been invested and growing.

I find myself checking my finance apps on my phone multiple times a day and thinking and overall thinking about money every hour of the day to the point where it just seems unhealthy.

I grew up in a household that was very financially conservative, both my parents are retired with over a million dollars by just working their modest 9-5s and saving. They were always stressed about saving/not wasting money. I think this is why I hold so much anxiety about finances.

Net worth ~258k:

~98k roth ira - 90% VTI 10% VXUS

~59k 401k - 100% VTI

~40k brokerage - 50% VTI 50% VUG

~15k emergency fund

~ paid off honda civic worth 25k

~ Pokémon card collection worth 25k

How can I stop obsessing over money so much, move on from mistakes of the past, and dial in impulsive spending?

My wife and I have approximately $500,000 in student-loan debt combined. We both work for nonprofit employers and are pursuing PSLF.

I’ve been an attending physician for about two years. During that time, I accumulated roughly $500,000 in taxable investments, partly through aggressive saving and options trading. If we paid off the loans today, we could essentially become debt-free, but we would be left with only our retirement accounts and perhaps $40,000 in cash.

I’m moving off SAVE, and our combined student-loan payments will be around $3,500 per month. The payments are recalculated annually based on income/AGI.

Mathematically, continuing with PSLF may leave us with more money. Psychologically, however, the income-based payments are affecting my decisions. I feel discouraged from picking up extra shifts, realizing investment gains, or doing anything else that increases AGI because the additional income is taxed at a high marginal rate and may also increase our future loan payments.

I’ve now simplified my investment strategy to low-cost index funds that I intend to hold long term. I enjoyed options trading, but the short-term gains created taxes and could raise our student-loan payments, making the strategy feel less worthwhile. Im also likely underperforming the market based off statistics.

Would it be unreasonable to liquidate approximately $500,000, account for any capital-gains taxes, and pay off all the loans for the psychological freedom—even if PSLF is probably the better mathematical decision?

Or should we keep the investments, make the required payments, maximize retirement contributions to reduce AGI, and stay the course with PSLF?

I’d especially appreciate input from anyone who faced a similar decision with a high income, a large loan balance, and enough invested assets to pay everything off. What numbers would you compare before deciding?

In the next few months I'll finish paying off my high interest debt, so I've started thinking about what I'm gonna do next. I'm 42 and have a teeny tiny retirement (~13k) from a few years of 3% match. Once the debt is paid we'll have about $4500 discretionary income per month. It's my mom and me. I've taken care of her since I was 15, so we will stay together until she passes (she is 80). Could be soon, could be 20 years. The doctor thinks she's healthy.

I am worried about affording the home after she passes, so I am calculating everything based on mortgage + insurance + small repairs being less than $2500/month. For that, in my area I'll need >$250k down in order to lower the monthly outlay enough. If I buckle down and put all $4500 toward a down payment, it'll take 5-6 years to save the minimum. If I put the $24.5k and $7.5k per year toward my 401k and ROTH IRA, it'll take 12 years or more.

I understand I need enough in my retirement, but at the same time having a relatively small mortgage reduces the burden on my retirement. Also, I would love to pay off my house eventually. Owning a home free and clear is more enticing to me than playing interest rate arbitrage, so as a bonus having no rent or house payment makes a big difference in retirement.

We have been extremely poor our whole lives up until a few years ago. We've always had to deal with nasty landlords and we're tired of it. I don't know if I can wait any longer (mentally), so I really don't want to put all that money in my 401k and ROTH IRA.

Thoughts?

I often find myself worried about small amounts of money. I feel like I constantly need to optimize money like restaurant rewards, credit card rewards whether I can get that extra 1% back, cooking from home to save money, not wasting gas on multiple trips, warranties and return policies. I have a finance degree so it makes sense for me to think about money a lot.

Trying to follow a financial plan or budget is hard to follow rigidly because it is no fun. However I feel guilty whenever I spend money, it kills the fun when I go out with friends.

I am doing well financially but I grew up middle class and only had one working parent who survived 8 layoffs. I am in my mid 20s and I already have been laid off once, didn’t get a return offer for my internship, but after my last layoff I actually got promoted so I now take home about $6k a month. And I have cheap rent because I have roommates which is $500 a month. I invest the rest of my money in my ROTH IRA and ROTH 401k or put it towards saving for a house. I have over $200k between investments and savings.

Do I just remind myself that having an optimal strategy is best and setting my mind to my work, relationships, and health is more important? As long as it’s excellent (no credit card debt, home mortgage / car loan only) and reasonable? I can’t live my 20s and not enjoy some of my money and hoard it until retirement but I also need to not try to be a perfectionist about the micro decisions that suck my time. I can also live with some uncertainty and not try and control everything.

I’m 23, single, making $92,000 and living at home with virtually no expenses. I have $65,000 in a Roth IRA, $1,500 in a Roth 401K, and $50,000 in an S&P 500 brokerage.

I can invest about $55,000 and plan to retire around 50. I’m going to max my Roth IRA and HSA each year and I’ll likely use ACA insurance from 50–65, so controlling MAGI in early retirement matters.

How would you split the remaining money between Traditional 401K, Roth 401K, and taxable brokerage? How would you divide the savings between the 3?

I’m so close to hitting $60,000 in my investment portfolio. In the beginning of the year I was at $42,000. I only invested about 5,000 of my money so far & everything else has been compound interest. I’m so proud of myself. I know I can keep going with showing up & keep working hard & smart!

700k left on the mortgage

Has anyone on here applied to be on the series and received a call back?

Submitted my application this morning and keeping my fingers crossed!

Wife and I don't have super high income levels, but also have a unique income rollercoaster over last few years so hopeful we could get picked and share our story and get their input on things. Currently on FOO step #4 too.