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"Olive Branch" posted:Financial planning with goons works. 
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Dec 24, 2019 20:21
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 05:38 |
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SlyFrog posted:As I've said before, I also think that young people way overestimate their ability to be out of the workplace for 5-10 years and then just come back and find a meaningful job, particularly when they are then 50+ years old. The world discriminates against 40+ year olds who actually have a solid employment history. It's not going to be kind to people who essentially tried to retire for 10 years and then realized they were going to run out of money, and now they need a decent job again. I mini retired a few years ago to have a kid. A couple years in, I decided I wanted to do a little work since we were pushing the 4% boundary and I actually enjoy working. Within a week I was hired as a math tutor, and I ended up taking on some extra SAT students at $250/hr. Republished some of my old novels on different platforms and got a couple hundred a month from that. Then I decided I wanted to try financial planning and quit my tutoring job, got hired a couple months after doing an informational interview with a local CFP - mind you, I have no experience in finance, I came in with the job title of "romance novelist" on my resume. Is it that hard to make a few hundred dollars a month to bolster your withdrawals? It sure doesn't seem like it, especially if you pick up skills during retirement. Most FIRE people are highly motivated anyway. Given a few years' runway, you could do anything, including beginning a new career if you wanted. I'm glad I didn't wait to take a break from work until I was 100% ready. Part time, flexible work is perfect for me, and the couple years' family leave was awesome. If you hate working and want to be completely sure you never work again, then go for that 2% withdrawal rate or whatever. But there are so many ways to make money, I'm not going to stress over it.
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Apr 29, 2020 22:27
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SlyFrog posted:Everything you said makes sense, I just think we are coming at it from different angles. I was high income, and I knew that I did not want to feel like I ever had to go work again at something like minimum wage, a warehouse job, etc. I should say that living in a HCOL area has this as one of its perks - tons of people make minimum wage-ish income doing random stuff because people here have money to spend on things like "children's fairy portraits in the redwoods" and "birthday party face painter" and "custom ceramic dog bowls". Making money becomes a lot easier when people around you have money to throw around. Something else to consider if your FIRE plans require you to move to a very LCOL area.
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Apr 30, 2020 01:35
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I went back to work after a couple of years because my brain was melting being a stay at home mom. Recently got to have a conversation with my kid when she asked "Why do mommies go to work and daddies don't?" Sorry, kid, I love you but it is so nice to drink hot coffee and talk about non kid stuff for a few hours and not have to have someone yelling "Mommy! Fart on me! Fart on my butt!!!"
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Mar 18, 2021 21:52
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SlyFrog posted:One thing I think is downplayed way too often in FIRE communities is how difficult it is to really come back at an older age when you have this 5+ year work gap, and your only real explanation for it is "uh, I retired for a while". Read the Kitces article "why most retirees will never draw down their retirement portfolio ", the data is interesting to see. LeanFIRE aside, most withdrawal strategies are very conservative. I think most people who can manage to earn and save enough to retire early are resourceful and skilled enough to figure out some income if portfolios dip. In modeling this, even an extra 10-20k a year could support a huge drop in portfolio assets in a market crash before the recovery. And with a year or two of expenses to rely on, I have what, a couple years of runway to find a minimum wage job? It's really not that hard. And I speak from a bit of experience here, since I took a few years off and came back into a completely different field after that hiatus. I think some people overestimate how hard it is, especially if you don't need a huge salary. The true worst case of health problems is disingenuous to me - this is something that would destroy anyone's finances, working or FIREd. Like has been said in this thread, you can't plan for every eventuality.
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Mar 19, 2021 22:43
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AreWeDrunkYet posted:I'd like this to be true, but would want to hear about some examples.
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May 3, 2021 17:14
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Well, I'm a big fan of working for tiny companies for that reason - they are always a lot more flexible on hours/etc when you're directly reporting to the owner. Here's how I got into the financial planning field: 1. Rewrote my resume so it told a story of how I had the right skills for a financial planning job. My teaching jobs I used as "being an educator, since planners have to educate people about their finances and make hard material easy to digest." My romance writing job I used as "I can write and edit anything, including articles and newsletters" and "I know some marketing." Basically, what skills do you have that transfer well? Play that up. 2. I did some informational interviews with the three fee-only CFPs in my town since I didn't want to work for Edward Jones or whatever. I actually turned out to know someone who worked at one of them from a FIRE meetup group, she is still a close friend. One other company was a solo RIA who is still solo. And the last one was a solo RIA with one associate on the path to becoming a CFP. I spoke with each of them for an hour or so, sent them thank you notes that said basically I'm interested in getting into the field, so let me know if you know if anyone was wanting to hire someone part-time. Two months later, the last firm reached out and gave me a part time role. For anyone else, I would say it's important to know what kind of job you want. If you like doing everything, becoming an independent RIA might be your thing (and it's certainly the most lucrative), but that's going to be your whole life for a few years. If you want to just be an employee in a single role, you might have to suck it up at a big firm for a while or try to get your foot in the door with one of the larger RIAs, but you might have to do full time for that. But working for a tiny rear end company means you get to do a little of everything and if your boss likes you, you're golden as far as work flexibility. There are a LOT of small RIAs who are not big enough to hire full time assistants and would jump at a part time assistant. If you're really interested in that sort of career, PM me and I'm happy to talk more about it. There are so many BFC posters who would be fantastic financial advisors.
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May 5, 2021 06:12
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Do you have to work the 50-60 hours or is it just expected of you? How long would you still have your job if you refused to work past 40 hours? Can you ask for a year sabbatical and go back to your job later? More squishy questions: Is this part of your kid's life one that you really enjoy? I found that I loving hate the baby stage but now that my kid this approaching 5 I love spending time with her. I know she won't always want to spend time with me like she does now.
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May 7, 2021 03:55
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Can someone kick me in the shins and help me decide whether to quit my job? I've been going back and forth on it. We are at a 2% withdrawal rate right now, would be at 4.5% if I quit. Reasons I feel bad about quitting: - My boss has paid for my whole CFP certification path and I would be stopping a year or so early of getting the certification; it would be nice to have the CFP marks to do pro bono work in schools - I only work 18 hours a week, it's totally chill, and I can take vacations anytime I want. Maybe I just need to take a month or two off. - I donate a lot of money to charity right now since I don't feel stressed about spending down my savings. - I like office perks, paid travel with my family, and getting out of the house regularly Reasons I want to quit: - I'm a little bored and not challenged anymore, and while my boss has told me I can basically pick and choose what parts of the job I want to do, I'm not sure I want to work at all. - My kid is turning 5 and I want to spend more time with her as we homeschool/unschool - I know I will want to teach math later on. I love teaching math. I can definitely get work teaching math if I need money This past year has been rough because I haven't had my normal time off - the year before, I think we traveled for 3 months or so out of the year, both for work and fun. I worry that this is a terrific, laid back job that I am giving up for no particularly good reason. I worry I'm an idiot who can't focus for more than a few years on a career. I worry that quitting won't fix my issues, maybe I'm just congenitally dissatisfied.
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Jun 13, 2021 05:27
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Motronic posted:I'm not super comfortable with that rate over a long period of time. quote:Let's tease this out. Is there not any work there you're interested in? How would this change if you had your cert? Is the problem the population you're working with (which would be replaced by schools) or the work itself? pokeyman posted:Are you surprised that you're feeling bored and unchallenged at this point of the job? I've never looked into the CFP certification process, is it pretty well mapped out or is there room for variation? I don't have an up-to-date goons.xls, did you start this job during the pandemic? Were you expecting too much of the job? quote:Not sure what "I haven't had my normal time off" means. No time off, less time off, smaller chunks of time off, fewer/more/no/different companions on time off? What was rough about it? quote:Maybe take a month off Thanks for making me reflect on these things, it seems much clearer now that I need a break at the very least.
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Jun 13, 2021 08:11
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drainpipe posted:I will say that classroom teaching is very different from 1 on 1 tutoring (probably even more so in the K-12 setting I would imagine). The former is way more stressful than the latter, since you'll have to manage a classroom of kids, all with different willingness and capacities to learn. I would carefully consider whether this is the right thing for you because I doubt it's the right thing for most people. Darkrenown posted:Having said that, not being able to take sick days due to covid scares is some weird bullshit - tell your work to chill out and take time off if you get sick. CubicalSucrose posted:Can you explain this mortgage bit? The way I've been modeling it is: Guest2553 posted:How strongly do you feel about doing pro bono CFP work down the road? Would having the cert open up any other fields that interest you, allow you to make more meaningful contribution to causes you believe in, or lead to more engaging opportunities to pick and choose from?
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Jun 13, 2021 17:50
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I would absolutely not pay off the mortgage early nor get a 15 rather than a 30 year. I think I've posted a lot about it in the home threads if you want to read more reasoning. Although you may want to slice and dice more in your taxable account. Having 4-5 funds in there makes it easier to tax loss harvest and manage taxes overall. And there's a small tax advantage to investing in international in your taxable account. Agreed about the 911, I have a yellow one* and I love it. *hot wheels edition
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Jun 21, 2021 14:13
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I tried to quit today, and my boss came back at me with "you can just work less! Work 2 hours a week! Work outside office hours! Work from home! Take some time off and just think about it!" and ugh, why does he have to be so nice, I feel bad and told him i would think about it over the weekend. Why is quitting always so HARD I did convince him he needs to hire a replacement and said I would be happy to train them.
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Jul 3, 2021 01:53
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There has been a lot of research on what women find attractive in men, there are the obvious traits, such as symmetrical face, waist to hip ratio, lots of skeletal muscle, youth, signs the man will be a good father etc. However for women the overwhelmingly most important trait is that the man must be culturally successful, or likely to become culturally successful.
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Aug 1, 2021 17:25
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I think this will depend on if you plan to leave anything to heirs. For this year, what is the downside to putting the money in the 457 for tax savings and withdrawing from the brokerage asap to your savings account (if you don't want the market swings)? Have you considered doing a cap gain harvest this year to reset your brokerage basis higher and use up some of that cap loss? Also make sure the brokerage is in the name of your trust. If you die, your heirs don't get the carryover losses. Why not max a Roth IRA as long as you still have income? You wouldn't be paying taxes on the brokerage withdrawals anyway, so it's essentially a transfer from the brokerage to a Roth (better tax wise and from an inheritance standpoint).
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Nov 5, 2021 20:29
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pig slut lisa posted:Help me out with this. If I understand correctly, I would realize as much LTCG as possible in 2021, which will be our highest earning year for the foreseeable future. This would accelerate the year in which we ultimately have taxable LTCG, but at that point we'd potentially be in the 0% LTCG tax bracket as opposed to the 15% bracket we're in now. Is that the thinking? If so, I think this makes sense. quote:I had thought about this. My concern is that we max the Roth IRAs with this new lower household income and end up needing to withdraw from the brokerage account in a year when it's flat or down. The "Can Touch" pile would be reduced when the reduction could have been avoided by using income to cover living expenses. It seems like you're overly focused on classifying these tax-advantaged accounts as "risky" accounts, but forgoing the tax benefits just because you are worried about market drops or whatever is a false dilemma - if you're worried about market drops, just invest in a MM fund within the tax-advantaged wrapper. Maybe I'm misunderstanding though.
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Nov 10, 2021 08:24
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I have a small child so there's always something to do. Apart from that, I read a lot, do tons of gardening, hiking, hanging with friends and neighbors. I have a couple of volunteer jobs at the library and park that I can walk to, and I've done some volunteer tutoring for low income students. Pandemic makes it hard, but I used to spend quite a bit of time at the gym. It's easier to help out other people since I have the time, and I love the relaxed pace of life, not having to wake up to an alarm clock, having whole days where I just tinker with garden projects. I definitely sometimes have the urge for a more rigid schedule, but usually just putting house projects on my calendar scratches that itch. Definitely would recommend dropping to part time and easing your way out of it. I don't do TV or video games, but I did have to limit my phone time at the beginning since I would drop into random scrolling when I had nothing to do. Make sure you don't just expand bad habits when you have more time for them.
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Nov 25, 2021 07:05
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During the day I hang out mostly with my husband, but also with my friends who are stay at home parents/freelancers/other retirees. I wouldn't want to retire without my spouse but ymmv, especially if your spouse enjoys their job. I think you're overworried about hanging with other people, unless you're a crazy extrovert. Like, go to the gym and there will be people there. Go hang out at a park and there will be people. Go make new friends who are on your new schedule. Or don't, and just do all of your errands during the day and hang out with friends in the evening. It's not super difficult to find other people unless you live in the sticks.
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Nov 28, 2021 02:16
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SlyFrog posted:I have no idea what you're trying to say, so I can't really respond to it, sorry. SlyFrog posted:I think people generally don't think through the ease of "I'd just go back to work." To me, that's a young person thing to think would be easy. it is dismissive and rude. We've had this conversation before, in this thread, and yet you are implying here that anyone who doesn't agree with your perspective hasn't thought about it enough or is too young and dumb to reach your conclusions. I generally enjoy your contributions to the thread, but these are areas where there is legitimate room for disagreement, where you are dismissing the other side in an unfair way. If you don't intend this, I would suggest rereading before you post, as it obviously comes off as aggressive to most readers in here.
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Nov 29, 2021 05:11
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"Everyone is telling me I'm being dismissive; it must be everyone else that is wrong." I'm telling you to cut it out with poo poo like calling the entirety of the leanfire crowd stupid and desperate, or saying people who disagree with you "haven't thought about it enough". You can argue your points without being aggressive or dismissive.
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Nov 29, 2021 16:32
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SlyFrog posted:I didn't do the former, you made that up as a strawman and are attacking me, and are frankly being incredibly hostile to me while claiming I am being rude. Or please show me where I said "the entirety of the leanfire crowd is stupid and desperate." SlyFrog posted:I cannot ever imagine doing "LeanFIRE", which is just a stupid way of saying retiring before you are able to securely do so.
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Nov 29, 2021 18:32
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Sequence of returns risk is the biggest issue facing any retiree, not just early retirees. The nice thing about early retirement is you have more time to fix issues due to SRR. When we talk about "having to go back to work", it's not like you have to find a new job that month, or even that year, or even in 5 years. Early retirees have a whole lot more runway. Anyone thinking of pulling the trigger on retiring early should really read through the early retirement now series on safe withdrawal rates for a detailed understanding of how and when these issues arise. I also like to look on the other side of things with Kitces: https://www.kitces.com/blog/the-problem-with-fireing-at-4-and-the-need-for-flexible-spending-rules/ The nice thing the leanfire crowd has going for them is that it's way, way easier to pick up work if you only need an extra $5-10k a year. You can be extremely part time and sporadic with your income if you don't need a lot to begin with. I've seen early retiree friends making that much just with their hobbies, doing things like music lessons, refurbishing Craigslist furniture, selling their art or garden overproduction (it's pretty amazing how much local honey goes for here), substitute teaching, etc. I personally have gotten more freelancing job offers than ever, just due to my volunteer work. That said, even if I had to work as a Walmart greeter, I would much rather do a poo poo job I hate in my sixties than in my thirties. My dad died at 45, and I am acutely aware that i might go at any time. Because of that, I do discount the costs of potentially having to work in the future simply because there is a probability that future won't be as long as I hope. I'm not going to say everyone should think that way, but it's worth weighing as a factor. If you are in a job you dislike just to get your retirement success probability from 95% to 99%, maybe it's worth taking the risk that you might need to go get a part time job 15 years from now.
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Dec 1, 2021 13:02
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shrike82 posted:and that's not a fair assessment of the discussion upthread when people were conflating SWR with an indefinite retirement
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Dec 1, 2021 14:13
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I personally would never leanfire, too much risk for me to do with kids and I like having the extra leeway to give lots to charity. But I don't think the main risk comes from SRR, but from life plans changing or other external circumstances like health events.
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Dec 1, 2021 14:39
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How many years until your 50s and potential retirement? Spouse/dependents? Do you already have an HSA?
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Jan 24, 2022 06:08
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 05:38 |
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Most of the big retirement derailers are healthcare (do you have a plan for coverage pre-medicare?) and disability (do you have own-occupation insurance?). Get an umbrella policy probably to cover liability risk. If you own a home, make sure it's insured. I wouldn't worry too much about fine tuning your investment/withdrawal strategies because laws change and what is good now may not be good in 20 years, who knows. It's good to have a mix of taxable, trad, and Roth investments for flexibility but I'd just try to max both 401k and 457 if you can for now. Remember you can access your 401k early through SEPP once you retire, so that's not a huge deal.
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Jan 25, 2022 07:25
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