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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Financial Independence: Methods, Mindsets and Cloth Diapers
 
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Evil Robot
May 20, 2001
Universally hated.
Grimey Drawer
How much money do you think it would take to make you FI living in Corvallis with your hobbies? Including the house :).

* # ¿ Jul 31, 2013 02:07
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# ¿ May 2, 2024 07:57
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Evil Robot
May 20, 2001
Universally hated.
Grimey Drawer
So $1m post-tax cash is what it takes to make it in a lowish cost of living part of America these days. No wonder a bunch of people live paycheck to paycheck - it can seem pretty depressing when you're up against that.

* # ¿ Jul 31, 2013 09:06
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Evil Robot
May 20, 2001
Universally hated.
Grimey Drawer

Mofabio posted:

Fast fact: your FI dick length conversion factor is (savings rate % / 10%) * inches. Someone did a study.

Well, now I know why I have to keep taking out loans to save more...

:smuggo:

* # ¿ Apr 10, 2015 19:08
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Evil Robot
May 20, 2001
Universally hated.
Grimey Drawer
I think many people ITT who are advocating against separate finances are missing the salient features of the percentage based approach. It has the same incentives as the joint model (maximize overall income to maximize couple budget) but also allows for some flexibility in terms of personal spending. Same as a fun budget but more formal.

* # ¿ Apr 16, 2015 23:36
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Evil Robot
May 20, 2001
Universally hated.
Grimey Drawer

Droo posted:

Except that in scenario 1, you've spent decades making large financial decisions from the perspective of it being "our money", and in scenario 2 you have spent decades spending "your" money on whatever you want. And clearly the person who saved the $2 million dollars in that scenario would have more input into the decision if you are splitting money, because if they didn't then in my opinion you aren't actually "splitting" money.

Since I kind of started the discussion, I'll summarize what I've gotten from it. I posted two lists of specific issues that I saw as negatives for the "splitting it" side, and asked what benefits people get that I'm not seeing. No one really disputed any of the things I listed, except to say that splitting the money by income % is somewhat more fair (although it clearly must be somewhat unfair in some categories of spending still, or else you aren't really "splitting" or you happen to have identical incomes right now).

In addition, people said they would abandon the system very quickly if any issues came up, such as a job loss or medical impairment.

The main reason that people seem to do it is because it's what they did when they dated, and it just kind of carried over into marriage. Many people have stated that "it works for them, so who cares?" which is certainly true. I guess my response to that would be "If something else works better for all the reasons listed previously, why wouldn't you be open to change?"

I think you misunderstand splitting by percentage. A percentage of all income that comes in is considered communal (your shared system is this with the percentage set at 100%) and this can be allocated towards emergencies, retirement, houses, savings, bills, etc.

Retirement can be a shared or split goal, depends on the couple. Emergency fund ("any issues came up") should probably be a shared goal and thus money should be flowing in from both partners.

A few good reasons to do split accounting for at least some money:
* Keep separate fun money for each partner
* Mental accounting for saving for individual goals (e.g. he keeps working to save for deposit, she pays for living expenses)
* Keep pre-marital assets separate so there are no arguments in the case of divorce
* Pre-nup because of large wealth/income disparity.

Evil Robot fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Apr 22, 2015

* # ¿ Apr 22, 2015 00:01
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Evil Robot
May 20, 2001
Universally hated.
Grimey Drawer
<nevermind>

* # ¿ Dec 2, 2016 09:38
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# ¿ May 2, 2024 07:57
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Evil Robot
May 20, 2001
Universally hated.
Grimey Drawer
Why dont you guys just bet on the value of VTSMX at the end of 2018?

* # ¿ Sep 5, 2017 02:31
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Financial Independence: Methods, Mindsets and Cloth Diapers