Recent content by thaidyed

5% 12 mo CD from Wamu was there yesterday, gone now (down to 3%!)

Exactly true. Without exception, all of my friends who went into teaching (I don't have slacker friends) worked much much harder at the beginning of their careers than their classmates who went into business, non-profits, etc. They spend their own money on neccessary materials, work unpaid...

Dang it! Just tell us! ...i don't handle suspense well...

My aunt was in real estate for a long time and ended up working at a brokerage in SoCal at the end of her career. She got a ringside seat for the beginings of this nice little situation we've found ourselves in. In the end, she had to retire because of the nasty office bullying she got for...

I've been reading as much as I can but I'm still a little iffy on tax implications, so if you'll bear with me as I ask a stupid question: Due to ability to exclude almost all my foreign earned income, I currently, and for the next 3-4 years at least, have a low AGI ($6000 this year, be up to...

VERY curious, as I recently was off playing nice with forms 2555 and 1116... How do you get the foreign tax credit by keeping your international equity investments in a straight-up taxes paid account?

If you run FIRECalc with 2.2m in your portfolio and 84,000$/yr spending, you'll see you already can retire 'at any moment'.

Is there really any reason someone in this situation would want to have both a Traditional and a Roth IRA?

Remodeling and expanding the house should come with a flashing warning label IMHO We were engaged when we bought and started work. I had many a conversation during the process explaining that "at least we can't get divorced since we're not married"... Thank god that's over! Especially since...

awesome website that. and yes $200 is a bucket load. I have skilled staff who are computer literate, speak a little English and work 50 hrs weeks who make $200/month. And that's not *take home pay* mind you!

I second the "work anthropology"--one of the things that helps me keep my highly odd world in perspective. I think. Not that I'm find fault (after all, *I* am a 30 year old contemplating FIRE at 40 :coolsmiley: ) but how many careers have you had at age 30? Can I ask how many years you've had...

Indeed the water is plentiful and fast in the wet season (tropical monsoons!) but I could be wrong about dimensions (1 year old memory). My staff (who has a better memory) confirms that's the most popular size and it can run 3 flouro bulbs! But that they also make smaller and bigger sizes. Yee...

they *make* power caulking guns!?!?!? geesh, now I feel deprived living in my backwards 3rd world country...

I looked for a pic but no luck, try to remember to take a snap next time... These Vietnamese rigs look a lot like a big (1.5ft) wide mouth funnel of tin that someone stuck out in the river, just on top of the water somehow, and then ran a string to. Took me a triple take to realize what they...

I think the root of what we're getting to is if you are FI, you get to chose to RE. For many, many people its a no brainer choice because they do not like their work and can't wait to do the things work keeps interrupting. However, some people hit FI and realize they really really like what they...