|
SlyFrog posted:Here's the advice: stop tying money to things. Money is just money. It doesn't matter if you borrowed money for a house, if you get money from your tax returns, etc. It's all money. The source doesn't matter. The use doesn't matter. It's money. Make your decisions based on the numbers.
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2020 17:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 08:39 |
|
|
SlyFrog posted:First, people who think they can spend their tax returns for funsies because it's a tax return. You don't spend a tax return; a tax return is the set of documents you file with the IRS each year! 
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2020 18:48
|
|
|
 FSPSX just barfed out a pile of Ordinary Dividends in my taxable brokerage account.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 00:12
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:
Vanguard's don't post until tomorrow Christmas is 9 days away and I am still not done with presents who decided to have Jesus born a week before the end of the tax year, this is so inconvenient
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 02:19
|
|
|
moana posted:
I got news about Jesus for you.....
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 02:24
|
|
|
if it's the Good News about Jesus, thanks but we're satanists
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 02:26
|
|
|
moana posted:if it's the Good News about Jesus, thanks but we're satanists Jesus would have been a big index guy.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 11:24
|
|
|
Jesus wouldn't hold a position for more than 3 days
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 18:08
|
|
|
Is there a recommended investment route for 529 plans? I have a beautiful new poop monster that I want to send to college one day. I can’t remember any research I did because I’m sleep deprived due to said beautiful new poop monster.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 18:36
|
|
|
Democratic Pirate posted:Is there a recommended investment route for 529 plans? I have a beautiful new poop monster that I want to send to college one day. I can’t remember any research I did because I’m sleep deprived due to said beautiful new poop monster. Does your poop monster have a social yet? If not, you're waiting on that regardless. Short answer: Pick a vanguard or fidelity index based one. I use new hampshire. This is the most flexible. If your state offers tax breaks or you don't care about sending them out of state / to a private school then you can look at your specific states.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 18:47
|
|
|
Hey all, not sure where to ask this. I'm 34 and I'm thinking of doing some post-graduate studies during 2021. I'm basically a freelancer and decide my own hours so the plan is to do an online program and keep working full-time. Tuition is around 30k and I have the money to pay it up front, but with rates being so low I was wondering if there's any sort of long-term, low interest loans I could apply for where I can just keep the money in a conservative index funds and pay the loan off income. E-fund and retirement are covered, so the 30k are coming out of money earmarked for projects such as these.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 19:40
|
|
|
Sounds like a bad idea top to bottom but you're only looking for feedback on the debt servicing strategy. Any vehicle appropriate for a sub 10 year horizon is going to suffer from the same low rates that would benefit your loan terms. It will cost you more money to finance it than to pay it upfront.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 19:51
|
|
|
Student loans are surprisingly expensive, or they were when my wife and I were looking three years ago. Your best bet is probably something like a Lightstream personal loan but I'm not sure what rates look like on those these days.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 19:54
|
|
|
Ur Getting Fatter posted:Hey all, not sure where to ask this. Is there a way to tank your income for 2021 by holding it in a LLC? 
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 19:54
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:Is there a way to tank your income for 2021 by holding it in a LLC? Well, my best friend from college keeps insisting we buy a house together and rent it out... GoGoGadgetChris posted:Sounds like a bad idea top to bottom but you're only looking for feedback on the debt servicing strategy. Any vehicle appropriate for a sub 10 year horizon is going to suffer from the same low rates that would benefit your loan terms. It will cost you more money to finance it than to pay it upfront. I'm legitimately interested on why you think it's a terrible idea but it might be out of scope for the thread.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 20:04
|
|
|
Ur Getting Fatter posted:I'm legitimately interested on why you think it's a terrible idea but it might be out of scope for the thread. If you are paying for postgraduate studies chances are good they are not going to benefit you financially. Any postgraduate work that has value will be paid for by your employer or, at the very least, you won't be paying the school to be in their department and should probably be getting a stipend on top of it. Those types of programs are the minority by far. Schools are revenue producing businesses and the other ones are great moneymakers for them.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2020 22:47
|
|
|
My new job gives me access to the mega backdoor Roth with automatic daily conversion which is like a goddamn tax loophole-exploiting robot. I think I can max it out too, so I'm maybe finally on the path to feeling caught on up my retirement savings. Now I just need to figure out how to convince my girlfriend to save anything at all for retirement...
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 00:13
|
|
|
Motronic posted:If you are paying for postgraduate studies chances are good they are not going to benefit you financially. Any postgraduate work that has value will be paid for by your employer or, at the very least, you won't be paying the school to be in their department and should probably be getting a stipend on top of it. In principle I agree with you but I think my circumstances are "unique" enough that generalizations don't quite cover it. I'm sure there's a grad school thread where goons will disabuse me of that notion, so I'll go find that.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 03:32
|
|
|
Ur Getting Fatter posted:In principle I agree with you but I think my circumstances are "unique" enough that generalizations don't quite cover it. I had no doubt this would be your answer. It's everyone's answer.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 03:42
|
|
|
Ur Getting Fatter posted:In principle I agree with you but I think my circumstances are "unique" enough that generalizations don't quite cover it. I'm sure there's a grad school thread where goons will disabuse me of that notion, so I'll go find that. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3478841&pagenumber=741&perpage=40 join us
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 03:43
|
|
|
Democratic Pirate posted:Is there a recommended investment route for 529 plans? I have a beautiful new poop monster that I want to send to college one day. I can’t remember any research I did because I’m sleep deprived due to said beautiful new poop monster. Use NY or NV's plan unless you get a state tax deduction for using your own state's plan since they have the lowest fees and access to Vanguard index funds. I think 529 funds should be invested very aggressively (i.e. mostly or all in stocks) since your risk tolerance should be very high. If they don't have as much as they need by the time they go off to college, they can make up the difference in student loans, or you may be in a position to cash flow some of the cost too. The thing I struggle with is whether to do all their college savings in a 529, or to divide it between that and a UTMA account, since if they don't end up going to college/using it all, they'll take a pretty decent penalty for withdrawing it from the 529 to use for other purposes.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 13:23
|
|
|
When calculating my finances and how much I should contribute to 401ks and stuff, should I be including non-salary compensation like RSUs and ISOs? I’m staring at a bunch of ADP statements trying to figure out what my real yearly compensation + salary is, and how it figures into my finances and plans. My head hurts 
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 16:30
|
|
|
Pollyanna posted:When calculating my finances and how much I should contribute to 401ks and stuff, should I be including non-salary compensation like RSUs and ISOs? I’m staring at a bunch of ADP statements trying to figure out what my real yearly compensation + salary is, and how it figures into my finances and plans. My head hurts * RSU: I include them, because they vest quarterly and I sell them right away, so not a lot of volatility in any given quarter or year. * ESPP: I expect a 15% ROI (since that’s the discount I get) but don’t calculate more than that until it’s sold * I don’t get ISOs * Variable Comp: I project that I’m going to get 80% of my variable comp (over the last three years, I’ve gotten 100%). But I think it all comes down to your risk tolerance and your past experience with your company, your market, etc. etc.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 16:32
|
|
|
You should base your retirement contributions on how much you want to have in retirement. For a lot of people this is replacing their current salary, or some high percentage of it. This is what leads to save X% of your salary. You may want to include RSUs if you use use them to support your lifestyle, as opposed to saving them. ISOs, and the like, generally aren't liquid so likely not for the same reason.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 17:09
|
|
|
RSUs tend to get sold immediately and put into my savings account, where they're later used to fill up my Roth IRA or general retirement savings.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 17:41
|
|
|
Pollyanna posted:When calculating my finances and how much I should contribute to 401ks and stuff, should I be including non-salary compensation like RSUs and ISOs? I’m staring at a bunch of ADP statements trying to figure out what my real yearly compensation + salary is, and how it figures into my finances and plans. My head hurts Jam in as much as you can afford. Treat non-salary compensation like bonus, budget based on base salary. My suggestion? Save as much of your non-salary as you can into a huge emergency fund buffer without giving up tax advantaged space. Then the next year max out everything as soon as possible, and draw down your non-salary cash float where necessary to accomplish that. Run the math on your budget vs float less emergency fund, then deduct as much of our paycheck as is necessary to hit that. Max out what you can in the next 1-2 paychecks for 2020 as well. I'm coming up on the $0 net months here in a few weeks. ESPP started back up late november which carves $21,500/10 = $2,150/check out post tax. 401k, fica, and CA-SDI will kick in Jan 1 which will push me to $0 net. I can do this because I saved a ton of money as cash (through luck on stock price) 2 years ago and have been rolling it through. If you are in a position to do this, you should.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 17:44
|
|
|
What's the benefit of doing that vs equal contributions each paycheck throughout the year?
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 17:48
|
|
|
SamDabbers posted:What's the benefit of doing that vs equal contributions each paycheck throughout the year? For the ESPP it locks me in at a lower price in May, for the 401k it gets me past the $19,500 barrier so I can start on the Mega Backdoor Roth 401k with automatic in-service rollover stuff which I do slow down a bit to go over the course of the year. I choose to believe the hype around "Time in the market" is the best method of earning more money. Doing it as equal payments is the other option most people do and is also fine - squabbling in this thread aside.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 17:52
|
|
|
H110Hawk posted:My suggestion? Save as much of your non-salary as you can into a huge emergency fund buffer without giving up tax advantaged space. Then the next year max out everything as soon as possible, and draw down your non-salary cash float where necessary to accomplish that. Run the math on your budget vs float less emergency fund, then deduct as much of our paycheck as is necessary to hit that. Max out what you can in the next 1-2 paychecks for 2020 as well. Sorry, I think I got a little confused reading this. Just to make sure I understand what this is advising, the idea is:
I kinda fell apart at step 3 But it sounds like "contribute early and prioritize maxing tax-advantaged accounts", which is basically what I've been doing by moving stuff that I don't immediately need into my HYSA.EDIT: I think I see what's going on, I don't have a Mega Backdoor Roth 401k, just a traditional 401k. Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Dec 18, 2020 |
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 18:59
|
|
|
Pollyanna posted:Sorry, I think I got a little confused reading this. Just to make sure I understand what this is advising, the idea is: tl;dr budget as usual for our expenses using your base salary alone. Look at your excess cash flow from all sources, jam it into savings. If you have no unfunded short or medium term goals, you're into just jamming it in a taxable brokerage account and sitting around on your pile of money.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 19:21
|
|
|
Got it! Okay, that’s basically what I’ve been doing so far, so I’ll focus on that. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 19:53
|
|
|
My work is switching to retirement matching each paycheck, which is nice because we get paid weekly. Love to watch number go up.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 19:56
|
|
|
Pollyanna posted:Got it! Okay, that’s basically what I’ve been doing so far, so I’ll focus on that. Thanks! 1. If it’s near the end of the year, I make sure my e-fund is up by $6k for Roth contributions on Jan 1 2. If it’s near the end of the year, I make sure my e-fund is up by about $5k for charity contributions end of year / beginning of next 3. Any extra cash that isn’t spent gets put into my brokerage account. I plan on buying a house *someday* but don’t know when, or where or how much, so I just let all that ride in the market making $$$. As soon as I flesh out the details of the house buying, I’ll start moving some out of the brokerage into a savings account so it doesn’t lose value.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2020 20:00
|
|
|
I was drat certain the SP500 would skyrocket today because of the stimulus but it just proves that I don't know jack poo poo and to stay the course.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2020 20:30
|
|
|
Stock market is not the economy. Also if everyone assumed a stimulus was coming then prices would already reflect that assumption.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2020 20:38
|
|
|
What kind of strategies do people in this thread take with more mid-term savings? My partner and I are lucky to be paying well below market rent in our current place which we like but can't expect to live in forever. (Some day the landlord will die and his kids will cash out) I want to build up savings to put towards a home ~10 years from now. Should I treat that chunk of money as someone would if they were planning to retire in 10 years, i.e. crib a fund balance from a Vanguard Target 2030 fund? Or are there other considerations here?
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2020 20:45
|
|
|
bawfuls posted:What kind of strategies do people in this thread take with more mid-term savings? My partner and I are lucky to be paying well below market rent in our current place which we like but can't expect to live in forever. (Some day the landlord will die and his kids will cash out) I want to build up savings to put towards a home ~10 years from now. Should I treat that chunk of money as someone would if they were planning to retire in 10 years, i.e. crib a fund balance from a Vanguard Target 2030 fund? Or are there other considerations here? Decent odds the market's down exactly 10 years down now. If I was ok with potentially delaying my home purchase by 1-10 years depending on where the market's at, I would consider investing the down payment. If my timeline was less flexible, I'd just find the highest-earning CD or HISA and be ready to move it if a better deal pops up. Maybe mixing in some bonds lets you tighten that range to e.g. 1-7 years compared to just stocks, I dunno. I haven't run the numbers.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2020 21:36
|
|
|
Explaining the stock market is easy. If news you are looking at comes out and the market goes in the direction you expect, you say you saw the correlation ahead of time, and naturally forecasted it correctly. If it goes in the opposite direction, you just say it was already priced in. Thank you, and please subscribe to my investment newsletter.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2020 22:02
|
|
|
bawfuls posted:What kind of strategies do people in this thread take with more mid-term savings? My partner and I are lucky to be paying well below market rent in our current place which we like but can't expect to live in forever. (Some day the landlord will die and his kids will cash out) I want to build up savings to put towards a home ~10 years from now. Should I treat that chunk of money as someone would if they were planning to retire in 10 years, i.e. crib a fund balance from a Vanguard Target 2030 fund? Or are there other considerations here? Similarly interested in this. We have a funded emergency fund, but there are large expenses that I save/budget for (new roof, car, etc) using the same HYSA. I wonder if I should be saving that money in a brokerage account and keeping it invested. On another topic, I completed my yearly rebalancing today and also decided to become smarter about my brokerage account for purposes of TLH. I now have it set to invest in VTSAX, VTI, and VGTSX on a rotating basis, so that money is going in to one of those every 3 months. This way, I should avoid the 30 day look back/forward rule, correct?
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2020 22:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 08:39 |
|
|
Residency Evil posted:On another topic, I completed my yearly rebalancing today and also decided to become smarter about my brokerage account for purposes of TLH. I now have it set to invest in VTSAX, VTI, and VGTSX on a rotating basis, so that money is going in to one of those every 3 months. This way, I should avoid the 30 day look back/forward rule, correct?
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2020 23:13
|
|