Search results

While few of us admire the possession of such a property, or care to shoulder the burden of maintaining it, or paying its taxes, there is an appeal of $15M in land, vast and private - assuming that the taxes somehow stay modest. I have long desired to be truly distant from neighbors, to be...

With sincere respect.... I've arrived at opposite conclusion, from evidently similar results. Dividends from equity index funds in my taxable portfolio have grown to be... of a certain size. That generates a tax bill. The tax bill remained after I lost my job and backed into Barista Fire...

I'd feel absolutely awful, but what's to be done? Suppose that I had a 50/50 allocation, so that a 50% drop in stocks (assuming that bonds held up) meant only a 25% cumulative drop. Would I feel any less bad? No, absolutely not! What is decidedly bad, is to be losing more than others, or...

The standard retirement literature assumes an annual withdrawal rate of around 4%, maybe 3%. For this, we have copious studies on asset allocation. The answer is a matter of statistics. For much lower withdrawal rates, essentially "any" allocation - within reason - will work. This thrusts us...

This one is essentially impossible - and not because of work/retirement, health or money. I'd like to see the principal ruins of the ancient Near East... what's left of the Fertile Crescent... Babylon, Nineveh, Ur, Lagash, Assur and so on. These are mostly archeological heaps of rocks, but...

A big problem is that partaking of a deep, venerable cultural tradition, generally only works if one happens to be ethno-socially part of that tradition already. For instance, Japan is replete with such traditions, yes? But a non-Japanese person would... struggle. So, for a person who values...

That has not been my experience. If folks have extra money, they upgrade their lifestyle, rather than retiring early. Most will work into their 70s, "retiring" from life outside of work (hiring gardeners, maids etc.) rather than ceasing full-time remunerative labor. And if they do quit a W2...

That's a highly personal decision. For some, the exact and entire measure of financial security, is to have enough, where within reason, all of one's foreseeable expenses are covered. Everything is beyond the point of diminishing return. For others, accumulation is itself an objective. The...

An important difference, isn't how hard the plurality of people actually work, but to what extent, "hard work" as an abstract concept is lionized as the ultimate lifestyle of the responsible person. I am actually not persuaded that Americans as a people work especially hard, relative say to the...

Discussion of the S&P 500 should not omit the other indices... namely midcap, small-cap and international (ex-US). All three have lagged the S&P, in some cases badly. So whereas it is heartwarming to congratulate ourselves about buying-and-holding the S&P, any effort at diversification would...

Assiduous work on average has useful benefits. There is doubtless a correlation between input and output. But examples of hard-working failures aren’t exactly pathological rarities. Or cases where concentrated and sincere efforts nevertheless result in dissatisfaction, self-questioning and...

Going "really hard" is a smarmy Americanism. Fine for those of that particular mindset, or cultural baggage; excessive or even counterproductive, for others. As I grow older, I more admire the laid-back cultures, where promptness isn't highly expected, and labor is more of a necessity than a...

Financial independence is not numerical! It's a state of mind. The best part of a state-of-mind, is serenity and self-actualization. One is no longer buffeted by this-and-that. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, fall harmlessly upon the armor of independence. While some amount...

Not in the least to challenge your perspective, but... could you please note some big-picture examples of things that you could have done in your late 40s or early 50s, if you were already then retired... but were unable to do, because full-time work impeded? My own view is a bit contrary. I...

Spending has slightly increased in "barista" FIRE because I no longer have employer-subsidized health insurance. Taxes are still high, because of dividend distributions from taxable accounts. Spending on discretionary things - eating-out, travel, entertainment - has dwindled, in effort to...

Most of the acronyms or brand-names in this thread are alien to me. There was copious mention of Apple products. To me, "Apple" is a quirky desktop computer with small black and white screen, with monitor and central processing unit integrated into one monolithic plastic box. I am unware of...

In "barista FIRE" mode, my "fun" expenses are... zero. Zilch. Aim is to pay my taxes (sorry, had to reiterate), cover unsubsidized health insurance (taxable dividends too high for ACA subsidies), figure out what to do for housing, and hope that my adjunct academic job can go to higher hours...

You're quite right, that we're just cogs. But to illustrate the personal element, consider an example. Rufus is a mechanical engineer at Boeing. He started at Boeing as a college intern, ending up in the fuselage structural design section. At Boeing, he learned finite-elements analysis...

Much as I applaud anyone (within reason) getting off of the hamster wheel, it takes more than bravery. It takes a deep conviction that one is doing the right thing... that one's efforts as an employee have reached a proper conclusion, so that going-forward, it would be more honorable and...

A number of folks have mentioned taxes as their foremost expense. That tracks - especially after RMDs kick in. For a FIRE-type of person, I would imagine that taxes are #1, unless somehow the portfolio is cleverly structured to avoid them.

Revisiting this [somewhat] older thread, my emerging belief, is that "one's number" is more about age, than dollars. If one accumulates $1M, all fine and impressive, but the goalposts move. Plausible expenses can be increased, meaning, the FI amount increases too. Why not push onwards, to...

That is a positive spin on the oft-maligned "One More Year" (OMY) syndrome. OMY is panned, because it feels self-limiting. It's a sign of dissatisfaction, that enough isn't quite enough... so that one yearns for more, and more, and more. It feels like unbridled consumption, except that...

Exactly! One might be strategically ready for retirement, but still be tactically surprised. To leave on one's own terms, at one's own timetable, is a soothing and satisfying feeling... even if there linger questions, about safe withdrawal rate or health insurance. To be pushed out, forced to...

Brain, your saga applies, in generalities, to many of us: * Hit a major financial milestone in early or mid 40s. Ambivalent about working, but through confluence of factors, chose to persevere. * Now in early 50s, reassessing. Portfolio has done very well, but career growth (salary...

Exactly. Shiller is always on the lookout for more data, more interpretations and more sources. He'd be the first to welcome new information. Why not write to him? If the letter is succinct and well-argued, he might even answer.