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Not sure I understand.the 145k threshold is based on your prior year tax return.

Actually I disagree. Most blanket advice, while mostly likely wrong for a specific individual is still actually useful in the sense it informs your thinking and planning. Just like all models are wrong, but some are useful.

Understood, not meant to be advice. but you won’t know if you were foolish until years/decades later. Only you can decide the value of paying a tax now and getting it out of the way vs later. Having said that, my personal opinion is more people than not who make under 145k will be better served...

This is based on you earned in the prior calendar year.

Agreed. For me I don’t mind paying taxes now as long as I can find ways to keep our marginal tax bracket out of the 32%. I am married and file jointly and so far we’ve been able to find ways to stay out of the 32% bracket. Look at deferred comp plans if you’re lucky enough to have one offered...

Thing is if you make under $145k a year you should be doing all Roth anyway. Heck I say do all Roth unless your marginal tax bracket is in the 30s. This is targeted at highly compensated individuals in their peak earnings years socking away as much as possible right before retirement.

I have found I really had to take FIRE into my own hands. Listening to podcasts, reading blogs, YouTube videos, and most of all, for years now projecting out our finances in excel over the rest of our lives. So projecting income, asset growth, withdrawals, expenses and taxes year over year...

Couple of thoughts as I skimmed this thread… Pension lump sum, the IRS discount rates are tied to current interest rates and are updated once a year. So the time to take the lump sum was 2022 cause the discount rates spiked in 2023. I took my pension lump sum this past Dec because come Jan it...

Your annual household cash flow (money flowing in the door minus money flowing out the door) for the rest of your life is impacted by what your assets are invested in over time and the value of those assets over time. So the question is how buying and selling real estate over time ends up...

Most of our retirement expenses will be covered by pre-tax retirement accounts, deferred comp and social security. I assume we don’t touch our Roths, life insurance cash value or home equity. Those are there for the big what-ifs, such as big medical expenses, LTC, or some other oh crap life...

I am all about letting people do things for themselves and run their own affairs, and gaining their own identity, independence and experiences. So I would probably be inclined to let DS buy his own house and just gift him money for down payment and then mortgage payments going forward.

Absolutely i include my house and mortgage in my NW calculation. NW is a mostly cut and dry calculation. But I don’t assume my house produces/raises any cash in my retirement cash flow analysis. Which could happen if one were to sell, rent, or utilize a HELOC or reverse mortgage as examples.

My parents have gov and private pensions and social security so their 401(k) is their “fun” money. I hope they spend it all before shedding their mortal coil.

Interesting article. As someone who would be happy to make it to 85 (no man in my family has made it to their 80s, and the women have passed by 85), the case to delay to 70 seems very weak. Seems like collecting early and saving it is a strong contender. Of course no decision will be made...

Seems like you pretty much know your numbers inside and out, and they you are ready to retire. A couple things for us all to keep in mind. 1. With that much wealth you should see financial ruin coming a long time before it hits, giving you a very long time to adapt. 2. What’s your absolute...

I can appreciate this point of view. Congress could with a stroke of a pen end social security. It’s nearly impossible to plan for future potential political outcomes, so all we can collectively do is plan with the best information we have at any moment. I could see social security becoming...

As an actuary who has priced SPIA annuities, the mortality assumption becomes much more important, and is more volatile, esp over 75. Interest return impact only matters early on. So I would put more emphasis on how much are you willing to self insure your longevity risk when deciding when to...

From a technology perspective I would think it’s on a matter of time before the traditional box approach to providing cable is dead, and it’s all provided via apps on a smart device. So I feel like this question is going to fade into the sunset. But cable isn’t going away in the sense some...

I sure wish I had started a brokerage account when I was young. Good advice. But who knows if I would have been more tempted to touch it. Part of the reason I have so much saved today is more behavioral. I just maxed out all employer retirement account and deferred comp and it was much much...

Agreed, unless she is someone who has the opportunity to super save half her income and wants to aggressively shove as much as possible into a Roth while she is young (still living at home?). And there a behavioral component of the automatic, out is sight out of mind to the 401(k). But beyond...

Def Roth. But they key will be for her to know if and when traditional might make sense in the future. If she starts making enough money to throw her into the high marginal tax brackets. Or if she were to marry and their combined income is very high. But at this stage in life I’d be shoving as...

It’s not a bad idea to have some decent level of cash in the house, say $1000 in 20’s and less, in case there is a large scale electricity outage for an extended period of time. Just ask New Yorkers during the black out they had about 20 years ago. I shunned crypto the past couple of years, but...

US will pay its bills, and will continue to slowly default the way it always has, via inflation. Unless I should start investing in guns, ammo, medicine and vodka I’ll say the course.

We bought a new build in 2020 and the developers put in a fridge that wasn’t truly counter top depth. It quickly became apparent that it was way to crowded to the island. So we replaced a perfectly nice new fridge with a true counter depth and it makes a total difference on ease of accessing the...

Copies are in our: Safe at home Lawyer who drafted the docs Electronic copy with Financial advisor My one drive Electronic copies to key people identified in the documents