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JDCarpenter

We retired 7/31/17, at 57 and 56. As planned since our twenties, we retired to travel, as our two jobs didn't play well together for vacation trips. (So major YMMV) We don't really budget much, so these are retrospective, hard numbers. In the last 5 months of 2017, we did a month and a half of domes...

JDCarpenter

First full year of retirement, we were home for less than 11 weeks (healthy, 58 and 57). Spending for travel, even with free business class across the pacific, was 50% greater than our entire non-tax spending in our last full year of work. Of course, when SHTF and we slash spending, it will be a LOT...

JDCarpenter

Since mid-90s, all weekdays when home (use quicken to download transactions/prices for all of our accounts). Now we often have gaps of months when we aren't home and I don't check when traveling. In any event as noted by others, I don't catch house/land value changes with this approach. To me, not w...

JDCarpenter

In an attempt to be more succinct, let me restate my actionable question: As a high income earner, the current breakdown of our spending is 20% on living expenses and 80% on income taxes. I’m having a hard time understanding the above. Federal tax rate on joint income above $612k is 37%. Even if yo...

JDCarpenter

Not yet, that's for sure. We are 59/58 and retired ~18 months on our portfolio. Highly unlikely that we have enough to spend the way we are now as long as we'd like (sequence of returns and percentage withdrawal rate). OTOH, very strong likelihood that we will always be able to spend at least as muc...

JDCarpenter

If we had the assets to spend $120k+ we probably would. Travel, eating out, vacation home, nice cars. It all adds up. As it is, our housing, car, and eating out costs are all low, but we’re spending $30k on a single trip this year. And it’s not our only trip. I don’t know that we could spend $200k,...

JDCarpenter

Retired mid-2017 (ages 57/56) to travel. As others have noted, that is an easy way to spend however much you are willing to let go. Last year's travel expenditures came in at $149,000--we were home for 12 weeks total, and among our international trips was 3 months diving the south pacific. The other...

JDCarpenter

Don't most studies show that people spend LESS in retirement than they thought they would? I think you're trying to say that you are planning on spending MORE in retirement, just so that you can justify staying at work longer and letting your balances rise. (ergo One More Year) Wait until the next ...

JDCarpenter

It is in net worth.

It is not in liquid net worth, which is what we base our withdrawal/spending rate on.

Whenever we fall over from an unsolicited offer and sell it, we will include the proceeds (less the cost of the new house/condo) in the liquid net worth.

JDCarpenter

Tanelorn wrote: ↑
Wed Dec 20, 2017 1:48 pm
This is a good personal summary of tax changes for individuals.

https://www.kitces.com/blog/final-gop-t ... trategies/

+ gazillions. Thanks for that link--I hadn't made it to his site yet today.

JDCarpenter

Meaty wrote: ↑
Wed Dec 20, 2017 2:25 pm
Any impact to back door Roth availability?

According to Kitces' excellent summary, no impact except barring later recharacterization. Here is the link again: https://www.kitces.com/blog/final-gop-t ... trategies/

JDCarpenter

Here's the language of the Roth IRA recharacterization clause: Subpart B—Retirement Plans SEC. 13611. REPEAL OF SPECIAL RULE PERMITTING RECHARACTERIZATION OF ROTH CONVERSIONS. (a) In General.—Section 408A(d)(6)(B) is amended by adding at the end the following new clause: “(iii) CONVERSIONS.—Subpara...

JDCarpenter

Does this affect Roth conversion strategy or timing? I'd think the only issues would be that (1) the changes in tax brackets may change the amounts converted in 2018, etc. at the margins and (2) the elimination of Roth re-characterization may limit some cleverness, but am wondering if there are oth...

JDCarpenter

1. Recharacterization of Roth IRA Conversions will be gone as of 1/1/18. Think you may still be able to undo a 2017 conversion next year until October, but don't take my word for it. No more doing multiple conversions and undoing the least profitable. I didn't think that was widespread and I'm surp...

JDCarpenter

I never buy yearly maintenance. BUT if equivalent units and companies, I would have considered going with one year membership and then cancelled at earliest opportunity. then again, that would only save me $46....

JDCarpenter

I don't think Cobra qualifies as a HDHP plan for HSA contributions. You can pay your Cobra premiums from the HSA though. Sounds like you can afford to pay out of pocket. COBRA isn't a health plan. It is merely a means of getting the plan. HDHP paid for as result of COBRA is eligible for HSA. We did...

JDCarpenter

Congrats, Earl!

We exited at end of July (at 57/56), so still in newlywed phase ourselves.

Given the amount of planning/thinking you seem to have done (from my remembrance of prior posts), you should be good to go.

Enjoy!

JDCarpenter

I am in the early 30s and I received around 1.5 million after-tax through IPO. I stay in SV. I do not have any debt. I am yet to decide what i will do with this money. I might return to my home country in a year but mostly I will get residency here and stay. It will be clear in a year what I will b...

JDCarpenter

Retired 10 yrs ago, we are now 70 and decided to splurge, bought a Corvette and went on a big road trip, were home 2 weeks then took a month cruise through the cannal and around the horn. Still trying to catch up and rest up. Loved it but would not do it again-travel is for the younger. Thank you f...

JDCarpenter

I would leave the money in the account and invest it in something other than a money market fund. The big advantage that those funds have is the tax shelter offered by being in a qualified account. Once you lose that tax-advantaged space, you don't get it back. Without knowing more about your finan...

JDCarpenter

Let your wife bring home the bacon for you to fry. Have a kid, quit your job, stay home to raise the child and keep house. Problem solved! :beer This worked well for us and cut out a lot of expenses (from nanny to electricians/plumbers). Delayed retirement for a few years, probably--but I had a nic...

JDCarpenter

How old were you when your investments Grew more in a year than your households 'Gross' income. It might have happened somewhere in the past once or twice but I can't see it happening again until at least one of us retires. Using Gross sets a high bar. +1. This is what allowed us to hit it the one ...

JDCarpenter

Boy, it is going to vary a lot... And we never really tracked unrealized or deferred-account gains in that manner. In our dual income (MD/JD) case, using miamivice's 8% return to filter out boom years, maybe at ages 46/45 when we had lowest nominal income for our post-schooling years due to job chan...

JDCarpenter

When in higher education, our sons used DW's netflix account. If hulu is a streaming service, DW doesn't share that. She uses "my" Amazon Prime account for everything, including streaming movies and their tv shows. P.S.--our one son and his wife still use our netflix account and they each meet hight...

JDCarpenter

You are now ready to read this series of articles: https://earlyretirementnow.com/2016/12/07/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-1-intro/ Your quest for knowledge will continue. + more than 1. ERN's dissection of the SWR is well worth devoting some study to. Livesoft justifiably refers...

JDCarpenter

Thanks everyone for the replies. Normally, I would just reinvest immediately, but I've got reason right now to be more conservative that I didn't get into in my first post - I expect to leave my current job to do something new without income for a year or so ; i.e. I want to reduce risk in one area...

JDCarpenter

If a tree were to fall on your car and total it, would you be able to easily replace it? That's been our rule of thumb. My last/first new car has never had anything other than liability and UM ...

JDCarpenter

It definitely all depends. We were pleasantly surprised during a lengthy trip to Peru. We found every airport, including those with just a handful of flights a day, had priority pass lounges. Granted, with the exception of the international departure lounge in Lima, they weren't real fancy, but we s...

JDCarpenter

My expenses have gone up. We save a bit on food, clothing and car expenses. But my wife and I travel a lot more than before, and those trips are super expensive. Worth every penny, though. Once we retired, this is definitely true (travel will be over half of all spending in this first retirement ye...

JDCarpenter

we had three fly away to distant colleges--but only one year involved simultaneous enrollment for all three. I went back to work after being SAH, which almost covered those bills. Finances changed drastically when they started graduating and we could divert the tuition_Etc. payments to savings. We r...

JDCarpenter

DW, as is her wont, just snagged a B&B for 10 days in first two months of '18. Price was reasonable and nice location.

Not planning to dive there, but we'll have our gear and could be persuaded! (Undercurrent reports are mehh.)

JDCarpenter

... I know this is chump change to many of you on this forum, but it is an important stepping stone for me as I started from scratch at 23 with no retirement savings. ... 27 years old with 100K? I sure won't sneer at that! We were negative net worth at that age. Congrats!! :happy As CnC noted, the ...

JDCarpenter

The ability to retire early as well as the propensity to burnout appears to be dependent on the age and number of dependents in the household. Physicians usually start families later thus have college age children well into their late 50s and 60s. Would have retired years ago if not for dependent (...

JDCarpenter

I, for one, don't disagree one bit!

But is there any reason to think that Mr. Bogle's opinion will impact anyone's decisionmaking on this one way or the other?

E.T.A.--I'm guessing that the Venn diagram of Bogle-believers/indexers and bitcoin aficionados probably has little overlap...

JDCarpenter

Edit - For people who carry on their bags (and fly coach): Are you really able to stay strictly within airlines' weight limits for carry-ons? Easily. Light travel is an obsession of mine, and if I really keep things to a minimum, I can fit everything I need into a small pack and still have half the...

JDCarpenter

Yes, will be careful re 30 day rule ("later of ...") You said that "We are going to take the same approach. Just converted 2017 after getting ballpark, but will convert 2018 in Jan--before recharacterizing part of 2017." What is your thinking behind this order of events. Does converting before you ...

JDCarpenter

... ... I use my Red Oxx Air Boss (I also use it when I am taking my full scuba gear and between it and my backpack I can carry on the plane two full scuba outfits including wetsuits/fins and all my personal needs for a couple weeks). Are either of you underwater photographers? If so, how does that...

JDCarpenter

... I've also found that in many foreign countries, the price of just hiring someone to do laundry for you is quite reasonable and allows me to focus on other things. +1. We did far less laundry than we expected on our trip because the prices were so low in those locations at which it was available...

JDCarpenter

I'm going to do a Roth IRA conversion in December, but I don't want to go to the time/expense of doing a tax analysis in advance to hit a specific bracket - too complicated. Rather, I'll convert a "safe" amount that I know is more than I will ultimately end up doing. Then, when I prepare my return ...

JDCarpenter

I'm planning to up the amount of travel I do in the next couple of years and would appreciate suggestions for upgrading my worn- out luggage. I am thinking of getting a zippered tote as a carry on/under the seat in front of me. A smallish (not sure in inches) rolling bag that will fit in an overhea...

JDCarpenter

It helps to live in Nashville--even for those of us who aren't country music fans. (Probably similar options in many locations though) Local adult alt. radio station focuses on new music, and particularly on "local" music--which covers a broad selection given the musicians who move here. Now that we...

JDCarpenter

I say to wait. Financial stress can cause havoc in personal relationships around the house and with tour current nest egg, I say you need to buckle down for a few more years. I am in a similar situation and doing my best to enjoy our undersized house as long as possible to be able to loan <2x incom...

JDCarpenter

looking to find out what retirement looks like for retired/retiring doctors today. Currently 53 and looking at options for the immediate and distant future. Locum tenen stories, early retirement, part time, consulting. Any stories appreciated. Too soon for DW to really be substantive on this, but w...

JDCarpenter

Between early middle age and middle old age, travel seems to be the most common bucket list item. Any others? What else do they want to do, when they have both money and time? Although I am one of the "challenging travel" people in this thread, we also still have all of the things we loved to do be...

JDCarpenter

68yr old married with 4.4 million in IRA Any suggestions on doing some Roth Conversions Ouch. We are in similar situation, but 10 years younger--and still worrying that we have insufficient time to do the conversions that we presently project to wanting.... (Still, you gotta admit that this is trul...

JDCarpenter

.... There is a huge difference between $10k travel budget and blowing [diligently researching for the proper destinations and journeys to spend only] $150k a year in luxury [to] travel [for most of your days to all the places that your job kept you from seeing properly] . .... Fixed that for my DW...

JDCarpenter

It all depends upon when you retire, your pension-type income (if any), the weights of your deferred/roth/regular accounts.... We will exhaust the taxable accounts in the first three years of retirement. But grossly skewed to deferred accounts, and no pension-type income. We will use the taxable acc...

JDCarpenter

Also, to the poster who asked why you have to verify the car, ... I always verify the make/model, license plate number, AND name/picture of the driver and ensure it matches the assigned ride on my Uber app. In addition to the safety issues, if you get into the wrong car, you will be heading to the ...

JDCarpenter

... I might use it more overseas. We used uber a few times in Peru when in larger cities, no collectivos that we were familiar with, and too far to walk. Good results with it--although the cars weren't necessarily as new as those in the US, they were fine. Given our abysmal non-mastery of spanish, ...

JDCarpenter

... I am right behind you. Booked our first tour trip to Peru in May, after my solo trip in February to China, Thailand, and Vietnam. A two week trip to Europe is planned in July or August. We still have not figured out where to go in the first week of 2018. We will do as much travel as we could, r...

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