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First time financial goals poster  A major change happened this past year, and another major change is coming up in the next year or two, so my main strategy is save save save so that I'm ready for anything.Current/background: 28, Pittsburgh, scientist I finished my PhD in August 2015. I am very very lucky to have zero debt. I also live very cheaply. No car, cheap 5-person shared house in a cheap city, cook most of my own food. As a result, I managed to save about half of my stipend consistently. So as a result I have 4 years of full contributions to my Roth IRA plus plenty of cash savings Now I have a job as a postdoc and I'm making a lot more now, and I haven't changed my living costs, so all the extra is going into savings  I make between 50 and 70k at this new job (I don't feel comfortable giving an exact amount). My current savings from my PhD and the first few months of this job are in the neighborhood of 30k, + 20k in the roth IRA.  Upcoming Life Change In exactly 3 days I find out where my girlfriend matches for residency. She's definitely taking me with her (we talk about it). So that's a big life change coming up. However, because of the program she's in, she has 1 extra year that will probably be here in Pittsburgh, so we won't be going to wherever until summer 2017.Goals 2016: Goal 1: Migrate my etrade roth IRA and taxable brokerage to Vanguard (already underway), and figure out a good allocation for me to stick with for retirement investment + low-risk assets for the money needed for goal 3 Goal 2: Buy an engagement ring  It's going to cost a little less than my current monthly salary. Luckily I have the cash for it without dipping into my long-term savings, but it's worth listing as a financial goal because it's a significant, unusual expense. Lucky for us, she and I both prefer a city hall wedding, so there's no wedding savings to worry about  Goal 3: Put aside $20k in low-risk assets for a housing/moving fund. If my gf matches here in Pittsburgh, we might buy a house and it'll go towards a down payment. If she matches in a different place, a little bit will go towards moving, and if I don't have a job lined up when we move there, it'll go towards our housing/living expenses wherever we move to, for the possibly several months it takes to find a job. Especially because if we get sent somewhere pricey like San Francisco (which is a strong possibility), her resident salary might not be enough for both of our housing  I guess think of this as an emergency fund, but where the emergency is kind of anticipated as happening in summer 2017. Goal 4: Save 40% of my salary and put it in whatever asset allocation I figure out in goal 1, including maxing my 2016 Roth contribution. Stretch goal: save 60% of my salary. Given what my living costs were during my PhD, and considering what taxes will cost me, I think this is the max I could save. The ring is going to eat into this a little though. The housing/moving fund can come out of my existing cash savings. I think my goals seems a little un-focused. But I have no debt and I'm saving a lot so maybe a lack of focus is okay while I figure out post-PhD life for the first time?
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Jan 10, 2016 02:18
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:48 |
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pig slut lisa posted:
I've been owned... 
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Jan 10, 2016 04:15
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alnilam posted:First time financial goals poster She matched in Pixburgh Going to buy a haus!
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Jan 16, 2016 20:10
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IllegallySober posted:Congrats! Future-you will be so happy you did Future me never sends thank you cards 
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Jan 22, 2016 23:36
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alnilam posted:Goals 2016:
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Feb 1, 2016 21:28
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IllegallySober posted:Hopefully March will be a much better month. I haven't made much progress at all in February but on the positive side I haven't put a dime on a credit card and have adjusted my expenses to deal with the situation as much as possible. That's the best you can do in such times, and better than most might manage in a similar situation. Good job and I hope it gets better.
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Feb 26, 2016 03:04
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spinst posted:My (5 year old) laptop is starting to act interesting, so this money may get rerouted if it completely craps out.[/b] Consider replacing the hard drive instead! Oftentimes when old computers start acting crappy it's just a failing HD. Unless you really just want a new laptop (which is fine). alnilam fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Feb 27, 2016 |
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Feb 27, 2016 19:23
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End of Feb Update: Goal 1: All etrade accounts totally closed. Vanguard Roth IRA opened, and my new asset allocation is 10% total bond fund, 51% US stocks, 30% intl stocks, and 9% REIT. Once the house-buying headache is done, I will open a Vanguard taxable account for the rest of my savings, and I may revisit my allocation strategy at that point. Goal 2: It's going to cost a little less than my current monthly salary. Luckily I have the cash for it without dipping into my long-term savings, but it's worth listing as a financial goal because it's a significant, unusual expense. Lucky for us, she and I both prefer a city hall wedding, so there's no wedding savings to worry about She said yes  Goal 3: I'm still excited about the house itself, and we're supposed to close on Apr 5th, and I have 24k (includes some extra just in case) set aside for closing cash. But ughh gently caress the house-buying process. We're going to get work done on it (re-wiring because it's got old-rear end wiring that is fire hazard as gently caress, new roof) and the work is rolled into the mortgage, which means we have to have a contractor work plan before closing, and I am having a hell of a time getting contractors organized on this. The first contractor flaked on me 3 times for a simple walk-through before I fired him. Like, do you want this $15k job or not?? Goal 4: Stretch goal: save 60% of my salary. Given what my living costs were during my PhD, and considering what taxes will cost me, I think this is the max I could save. The ring is going to eat into this a little though. The housing/moving fund can come out of my existing cash savings. Still sort of on hold for a few months until i finish buying a house. Probably on track to save 40%, because of buying the house the stretch goal probably won't happen.
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Mar 5, 2016 20:06
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I put this update off so that I could officially say that I bought a house. Well, I bought a house!! Q1 update: Goal 1: All etrade accounts totally closed. Vanguard Roth IRA opened, and my new asset allocation is 10% total bond fund, 51% US stocks, 30% intl stocks, and 9% REIT. I was avoiding moving lots of money until I bought the house, so now that that's done, I believe next month I should be in a position to open a taxable account at Vanguard too. Goal 2: It's going to cost a little less than my current monthly salary. Luckily I have the cash for it without dipping into my long-term savings, but it's worth listing as a financial goal because it's a significant, unusual expense. Lucky for us, she and I both prefer a city hall wedding, so there's no wedding savings to worry aboutStill engaged  Goal 3: I bought a friggin house! It's wonderful and I can't wait to tear up the big ol backyard and make a huge veggie garden and get some hens. The monthly payment is affordable enough that I'll be able to make extra payments pretty regularly. House re-wiring, some roof work, and bathroom work begin tomorrow. The cost of these was rolled into the loan which I highly recommend if you ever see a house that looks almost perfect but e.g. the original 1920s wiring is a huge liability and you don't want to put up $10k cash up front to re-wire it. Many banks seem to offer renovation/construction mortgages where you buy + renovate/build. I get the impression that they're usually geared towards much bigger projects than the $15k one I'm doing, but nobody had a problem with it and here I am getting some nice work done while only marginally increasing my monthly payment. Goal 4: Stretch goal: save 60% of my salary. Given what my living costs were during my PhD, and considering what taxes will cost me, I think this is the max I could save. The ring is going to eat into this a little though. The housing/moving fund can come out of my existing cash savings. I was holding off on moving much money until after the house was bought, but I'm maxing my 2016 Roth IRA contribution today. Other than that, I'm going to re-figure out my savings plan this month, now that the house is done.
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Apr 7, 2016 15:25
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Q2 update: Things going well Goal 1: Migration was already done by March. At end of Q1, I had my Roth IRA allocated as 10% total bond fund, 51% US stocks, 30% intl stocks, and 9% REIT. Now that house-buying craziness is over, I have a taxable account opened at Vanguard and have been steadily saving in it. Need to re-figure out my overall allocation (and how to split between roth and regular accounts) for tax efficiency. Going to ask long-term investing thread for lazy-man suggestions about this. Goal 2: Still engaged Probably getting married at city hall later this year and throwing a small party in the backyard of our new house to celebrate. We don't want a big thing. Goal 3: Achieved since Q1 and we love the h*ck out of our house  Goal 4: Save 40% of my salary invested as long-term savings. Stretch goal: save 60% of my salary. At end of Q1, I was at about 8.5%. Things got slightly delayed from house-buying madness. I'm currently at 20% even in spite of house-buying, so I'm pretty much on track for 40%, as for the stretch goal I'll feel more comfortable waiting til later in the year to see if I can throw a little more in there and reach 60
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Jul 7, 2016 19:43
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pig slut lisa posted:What's the best thing about your new house? Probably that despite being in a great location in the city, it is backyard as hell, and we love to garden. Also the first floor is very open-plan and good for hanging out. It will be a very good house to host our cheapo post-elopement friend party.
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Jul 8, 2016 17:52
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Wait I meant to say "the people inside it  "
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Jul 8, 2016 17:54
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Sorry about your gf / congrats about your gf
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Sep 7, 2016 15:24
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^^^ sorry about your troubles bud   Spooky Halloween / Belated Q3 update Goal 1:Now fully complete! Allocation looks like dis: pre:
| % in rIRA | % in taxable
Bonds | | 9.7%
US | 63.0% |
Intl | | 22.6%
REIT | 4.7% |
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Total | 67.7% | 32.3%
and will look more or less similar moving forward except for some US being added to the taxable account as necessary, since my tax-sheltered space maxes out very quickly. Goal 2: I officially got scarried and it's great! Did you know that in PA you don't need an officiant, you can marry ya own drat self? Thanks Quakers! We performed our dark ritual in the middle of the woods in Sept, standing in a stream, with almost nobody else around... we are forest-loving hippies and she doesn't like drawing a ton of attention to herself either so it was absolutely perfect for us. Then we went and visited some family to celebrate. Suffice to say no wedding debt was incurred  Goal 3: Achieved since Q1 and we still love the h*ck out of our house Goal 4: Save 40% of my salary invested as long-term savings.Stretch goal: save 60% of my salary. Fully on track for 40% and see no reason I won't hit it, probably not going to hit 60% but w/e
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Oct 25, 2016 20:56
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alnilam posted:^^^ sorry about your troubles bud Final update I guess: as of payday 11/30, Goal 4 is complete which means all goals are complete! Total amount that I put away in Vanguard (maxed roth IRA and the rest in a taxable acct) ended up being about 44% of my post-tax pay for the year.
alnilam fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Dec 3, 2016 |
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Dec 3, 2016 16:09
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:48 |
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and they all lived happily ever after
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Feb 11, 2017 02:53
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