Search found 11 matches
- Tue May 12, 2020 10:33 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Should you include home equity in Net Worth?
- Replies: 160
- Views: 11805
Re: Should you include home equity in Net Worth?
Should home equity be included in your Net Worth? Also, how would you calculate it - the amount of principal paid down from your original loan, the amount owed vs. estimated value of house, the amount owed vs. estimated value of house net selling expenses....? justsomeguy2018, If you have to ask this question, you are buying too much house. You have a bigger problem than whether you should count home equity as part of your net worth. KlangFool There are a couple of possibilities why the OP is not buying too much resulting in a bigger problem. One is based on a good friend of mine who is extremely risk adverse. He believes in paying off his house and investing in T-bills. He also makes a nice salary. Once he paid off his house, he was happy...
- Tue May 12, 2020 5:32 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Invest or Pay Down Mortgage?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1138
Re: Invest or Pay Down Mortgage?
As long as you are maxing out your 401k and Roth IRA, I would cast my vote to paying down the mortgage further. With your current schedule, you are on pace to extinguish the mortgage in 3 years. Additional payments into the mortgage is equivalent to buying a 3-year 3.3% CD. The equivalency to a 3.3% CD seems a little off if you itemize your tax return and write off the mortgage interest. Might be something more like a 2% CD because you would also likely have to pay taxes on the interest of the CD depending on your tax bracket. I could be wrong. To itemize, the mortgage interest + charitable deductions must exceed $14,400 for a married couple, for 2020. Given the financial situation described in the first post, the mortgage interest on a $1...
- Tue May 12, 2020 2:36 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Invest or Pay Down Mortgage?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1138
Re: Invest or Pay Down Mortgage?
The equivalency to a 3.3% CD seems a little off if you itemize your tax return and write off the mortgage interest. Might be something more like a 2% CD because you would also likely have to pay taxes on the interest of the CD depending on your tax bracket.lakpr wrote: ↑Tue May 12, 2020 12:59 pm As long as you are maxing out your 401k and Roth IRA, I would cast my vote to paying down the mortgage further. With your current schedule, you are on pace to extinguish the mortgage in 3 years. Additional payments into the mortgage is equivalent to buying a 3-year 3.3% CD.
I could be wrong.
- Thu May 07, 2020 10:27 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: My theory about FIRE
- Replies: 419
- Views: 39055
Re: My theory about FIRE
I'm not convinced there is now or ever was a STEM shortage. At least when I graduated with a Masters in electrical engineering in the 2000s, I had a very difficult finding an engineering job, any engineering job. Skyrocketing salaries in STEM should tell you all you need to know about the relative supply and demand of STEM professionals. I would like to see the data on skyrocketing salaries. There's a misconception all STEM majors get FAANG level compensation. According to this, the starting salary for engineering majors is about $70k, depending on the major. That's not terrible, but it's still peanuts compared to what a first year associate at big law can pull in. https://www.naceweb.org/job-market/compensation/projections-for-class-of-20...
- Mon Apr 27, 2020 6:44 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Will the index funds save us?
- Replies: 23
- Views: 2730
Re: Will the index funds save us?
Fifth Amendment:ARoseByAnyOtherName wrote: ↑Mon Apr 27, 2020 6:26 pmWhat? Where in the Constitution does it say "if there's a virus and the government takes the cure it has to pay the company a massive pile of hundos"?Independent George wrote: ↑Mon Apr 27, 2020 3:03 pm
At the very least, if the US government were to take it under eminent domain (I don't know if there's any precedent for claiming intellectual property rather than physical property under eminent domain), they would be obligated by the constitution to pay a presumably astronomical sum of money for it.
What if the government passes a law that basically says "give me the cure now"?
nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation
- Wed Apr 22, 2020 6:07 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Whole Life policy with LT care rider
- Replies: 22
- Views: 1448
Re: Whole Life policy with LT care rider
He has literally 6 different groups of letters after his name . CFP ChFc ChSnc CFBS CLU MBA . Don’t be fooled by the fancy letters behind the salesman’s name. He stands to make about $15k if he can sell you this turkey - that’s his motivation. An ex of mine once mentioned that in her line of work, anyone listing groups of letters after their name usually were not as competent as, and usually went to lesser educational institutions than, people with the same qualifications who did not list their groups of letters after their name. Possibly because the people who didn't list the groups of letters believed their actions spoke for themselves without having to justify their decisions by listing the groups of letters. Granted, in some industries...
- Sun Apr 05, 2020 6:41 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: What percentage of your paycheck do you invest?
- Replies: 268
- Views: 22201
Re: What percentage of your paycheck do you invest?
About 33% pre-tax, which is about 50% post-tax.
Caveats:
I don't receive regular paychecks, so that is based on an average of fluctuating income.
The 50% post-tax investments include 401k, index funds, mutual funds, individual stocks, mortgage principal payments. I had put more into the mortgage when the market was way up and the mortgage was newer. Right now, I'm shifting some of that towards index funds.
Caveats:
I don't receive regular paychecks, so that is based on an average of fluctuating income.
The 50% post-tax investments include 401k, index funds, mutual funds, individual stocks, mortgage principal payments. I had put more into the mortgage when the market was way up and the mortgage was newer. Right now, I'm shifting some of that towards index funds.
- Fri Feb 28, 2020 4:23 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Coronavirus and the market
- Replies: 4089
- Views: 392431
Re: Coronavirus and the market
calmaniac didn't say the S&P will be higher, but instead there is a high "probability" that it will be higher. calmaniac "knows" there is an exceedingly high "probability" it will be higher 5 years from now. That's a fair statement.
- Mon Feb 10, 2020 3:27 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: getting away from raymond james
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1027
Re: getting away from raymond james
Congrats on getting away from Raymond James. I used to have a 401k with them and made a my entire deposit for the year around April, 2009. I assumed my rep would allocate it to the current investment strategy (apparently dumb on my part), but they left it in cash and never asked me what to do with it. Around September 2009, after the recovery was well underway, I checked how it was doing, and that deposit was doing nothing because it was festering in cash. I checked on why and my rep admitted his mistake, but that did nothing to recover the lost $. Again, likely a mistake on my part, but that is why I had a rep to guide me on what to do. I have since transferred everything away from Raymond James.
- Thu Dec 05, 2019 7:56 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: I don’t think I am a good Boglehead
- Replies: 80
- Views: 7279
Re: I don’t think I am a good Boglehead
That part also didn't make sense to me. I'm guessing here, but the best sense I made of it is the OP meant that there's a decent chance you'll die before [traditional/official] retirement [age] or shortly after. At least that makes more sense to retire at age 50 if there's a decent chance you'll die around age 67.
- Wed Nov 06, 2019 7:13 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Weddings - The good? The bad?
- Replies: 47
- Views: 5473
Re: Weddings - The good? The bad?
Lots of good points and fun opinions so far. Four of my friends and I all got married (not to each other) at different dates over the past two years. One major good factor sticks out from all five weddings: Use establishments that are experienced with weddings/events and have good reputations. They know what to expect and everything will got much more smoothly. The good: All of the weddings were great. Different types of venues were used for each of the receptions: One was a restaurant area of a place that was more of a bar, one was an event area of a restaurant, one was an event area of a hotel, one was a dedicated event venue, and one was an event hall of a university. All were experienced in hosting events. Most were inclusive in includi...