Bogleheads.org

LeisureLee

We have a small number of broad categories. It's enough to help us be intentional about spending without being annoying to track. Our Categories: - Spending (day-to-day: groceries, household, clothes, meals out, small purchases) - "Pile" (irregular spending: car registration, tax prep, gif...

LeisureLee

I used TurboTax (the web version) today to do my taxes. It can import 1099 data from Vanguard directly, but it didn't import everything correctly for me. Since it did import some data, I thought it had worked correctly. The issue is that I (finally) converted my account to a brokerage account last y...

LeisureLee

It sounds to me like you know what you want. You want the fancier lifestyle in retirement and you're happy working longer. I would suggest making a forecast of how much you think the portfolio will grow each year on average (ex: 5%) and look at how much you expect to have in 9 years if you are drawi...

LeisureLee

I've been thinking about this, and I think maybe it comes from watching our portfolio. It's hard to think of $1,000 as a lot of money if your portfolio moves $10,000 up or down from month to month. I try to think of it in terms of my expenses (that bonus was four months of spending!) but it's still ...

LeisureLee

I was interested in being a Mechanical Engineer, chose to study "Engineering and Computer Science" (Electrical Engineering and Software), and ended up getting a job in pure software. If this student will care about income, software is sort of unavoidable as the most financially rewarding e...

LeisureLee

I learned that the markets are sometimes only open for half days when I tried to buy on December 24th just before 1pm Pacific time. :/ I also learned that I should take the tax hit to rebalance once in a while, and not just redirect new investments (been buying almost exclusively bonds this year try...

LeisureLee

I bought a cheaper laptop to be our home computer, connected to the TV. It only uses 7 watts when on but idle, so we can leave it on all the time and not have to wait when we want to use it for about $0.50 per month in electricity.

LeisureLee

I think I see what you're getting at. I'm trying to decide if savings rate or retirement age are the best variable here. If I've been saving for retirement and on the day I planned to retire my portfolio isn't as big as I'd planned, I would (try to) work longer. The younger I am, the safer I feel pl...

LeisureLee

I shifted what I bought (int'l and bonds this time), trying to shift to a slightly more conservative allocation and restore my int'l percentage without any taxable events. It's getting harder to do that, however, as the account grows. Certainly not a bad problem to have.

LeisureLee

I would guess you could take 5-6% if you could really return to work anytime. Basically, instead of a ~100% safe rate, you could aim for, say, a 75% safe rate, expecting a 25% chance of returning to work at some point. If you can choose to work exactly during market crashes, you'd avoid draws when t...

LeisureLee

I think I would divide the options in quarters. Sell one now, one in two years, one in four years, one in eight years. This would balance getting some value out and reducing risk soon with getting a big benefit if the company keeps growing quickly. Maybe making a spreadsheet for a few different scen...

LeisureLee

We haven't had to cut yet. Our plan is shorter and deeper - roughly, I'd like to keep our draw rate under 4.5% of current investment value, so I would try to cut above that. On the planned cut list: - Charitable Giving - Vacation Budget - Home Improvements (delay) - Car Replacement (delay) - Houseke...

LeisureLee

I use two 25" 2,560x1,440 monitors. I tried a 30" 4K monitor but the pixel size is too small. 1,920x1,080 isn't quite bit enough for windows which are side by side, but 2,550x1,440 works really well. =)

LeisureLee

We tried to budget but it was too much work. Instead, we have one debit card tied to a separate account for all day-to-day purchases (groceries, gas, meals out) and one credit card for irregular expenses (car maintenance, gifts, tax prep). We look at the spending account balance and the credit card ...

LeisureLee

When you are starting a new taxable account, it doesn't matter much and you can change the choice later, so you don't need to worry about it. Once you have enough invested that your new contributions aren't enough to let you fully rebalance, it's nice to set dividends to not reinvest so that you don...

LeisureLee

good example thanks. However in this analogy, if I invest using equal weight, I would put a little amount on every ticket (the same amount on each, because any of them may be the winning one for all I know). On the other hand, in market cap weighting, I would put more money on certain lottery ticke...

LeisureLee

But, the OP's point is, I think, that they still pay the same price for the ticket. So, yes, if you mean socialize the receipts for one or 5 or maybe 50 lotteries,sure. But if a lottery is held every minute of each day for 40 years (eg, the stock market -- random walk), they don't need to socialize...

LeisureLee

There are two kinds of "fair" at play here, with very subtle differences. When replies mention "getting the market return" or "being indifferent to market events", it's this difference which matters. I'm going to call the two types of fairness "fair before" an...

LeisureLee

Your situation looks very safe to me. First, from age 70 onward you look great. You have $31k of SS (and that assuming only 79% of benefits paid) and a $36k pension (worth something like $30-$32k for 2-3% inflation between now and age 62, when it starts being inflation adjusted). That means about $6...

LeisureLee

We budget a monthly amount for car replacement and keep it in a separate savings account. It's nice to be able to write a check for a car and not to have a depleted emergency fund right afterward. I am wondering if we should switch to just drawing the car cost from our portfolio when we decide to ge...

LeisureLee

I have one of the Philips ones and I love it. For me, the "sunset" feature (gradually dimming reading light) is more important than the sunrise wake up. It really helps me get to sleep more quickly after I go to bed.

LeisureLee

I would choose a monthly amount to save toward your next car so that you can write a check for it when the time comes. Think you'll need $24k in 8 years? Save about $250 per month. The rest I would start putting into a taxable investment account. It looks like you can retire well before age 60, so y...

LeisureLee

Then I stopped working, and the drop was a year of spending lost and no work income to replace it with. No "I get to buy the dip". That made me feel like going back to work until it recovered. Folks who exchanged out of bond funds to buy the equity dip also avoided a 1% drop in their bond...

LeisureLee

I think it's good you're paying attention and thinking about it. I'm amazed at how much each drop feels different than the previous ones to me. At first I had very little money invested, so my monthly contributions were more than the drops. I thought, "No problem, I can handle this." The n...

LeisureLee

When the market is at new highs and rising, I feel good about how my existing investments have grown and my safe withdrawal amount has increased. When the market is down I feel good that I'm getting future income at a discount and that I don't have to sell at reduced prices. I like my "glass ha...

LeisureLee

I'd like to set up a trust for my kids which would pay for college, match a house down payment, and match retirement account contributions they make. The idea is that they still need to work, but they should be able to get a house faster and retire about ten years earlier than normal (double the sav...

LeisureLee

What worked really well for me is having three main accounts - one for day-to-day costs (lunch out, gas, groceries), one for all regular monthly bills, and one for irregular things (vet, car registration, tax prep). Don't deposit your paycheck into any of these accounts. Your paycheck goes somewhere...

LeisureLee

Mathematically it's likely staying invested will work better. On the other hand, I can tell you I split my savings half and half between investments and mortgage payoff, and during 2008-2010 I felt very happy I did. It was nice knowing a big chunk of our savings was not going anywhere. Also, if you ...

LeisureLee

Not to hijack the thread but can some one point me to the articles or research indicate that buy and hold index investors are in the top 80-85% of investors over longer periods. I've seen analysis of actively managed funds vs index funds but i have found that relaying those statistics to individual...

LeisureLee

This detail of the tax rules confused me, too. The 0% tax rate on LTCG applies to all income in the 10 and 15% tax brackets. If you are married, that means you can have around $95k in completely LTCG income and pay no tax ($12k std deduction + $8k exemptions + $20k 10% bracket + $55k 15% bracket). A...

LeisureLee

Our budget was $68k for this year. We live in WA state. his excludes any mortgage payment (house paid off) and daycare costs for the kids (pre-saved for). Here's our rough monthly budget breakdown: $1,625 - Spending (day-to-day things: groceries, gas, household, meals out, gifts) $1,000 - Travel (ai...

LeisureLee

If you search for "TurboTax Web Discounts", you can find a Fidelity link offering $25 Basic, $40 Premier, and $70 Self-Employed, if you don't want to get the physical box. The Fidelity link claims you don't need to be a Fidelity customer to use it. It worked for me just now. https://www.fi...

LeisureLee

So your model assumes your life and spending will slow significantly at 70, and your extra savings is all for the time before that? If you assume all of the savings is going to just those few years, the raises you get from each working year are certainly dramatic. On the other hand, you are also con...

LeisureLee

Since the studies establish a minimum safe rate... Can't disagree with your argument. Can't disagree with what is the best and worst time to retire. But I think the studies established a maximum safe rate, not a minimum safe rate for the time periods studied. Fair point - my wording was unclear. To...

LeisureLee

My understanding is the same as yours. The issue is that the first year has not arrived yet. Two years from now I would start the process you describe above. To use round numbers. Let say I have $1M now. If I retired now, I could take out $30k a year using a 3% rule. I want to retire in 2 yrs and t...

LeisureLee

Thanks for the thoughtful replies. If you choose a strategy that is designed to be "safe" even in terrible starting years, you can design your initial withdrawal around the peak instead of the value on the date you happen to retire. This is along the lines of what i have been thinking. Ma...

LeisureLee

If you choose a strategy that is designed to be "safe" even in terrible starting years, you can design your initial withdrawal around the peak instead of the value on the date you happen to retire. Let me give an example. Suppose a 4% real WR was safe even if you retired on Jan 1, 2000 [at...

LeisureLee

I'm also a perennial worrier familiar with the feelings you describe. I second the idea that my worrying has helped get me to where I am today - I don't think I would've made the same choices, and so in a way I'm grateful to be this way. I also agree that once you've made the right choices, continui...

LeisureLee

We use Quick Wash on our dishwasher regularly. If we start the dishes after lunch and need them before dinner or start them after dinner and want to put them away before we go to bed, we need the quick cycle. According to the manual, it uses one extra gallon of water - not even 1% of our daily use.

LeisureLee

I would add a few early ones which were psychologically important to me: The first time we had six months of spending saved (enough for a real emergency!) The first time the investments grew more than we contributed (the portfolio is growing itself now!) The first time the investments lost more than...

LeisureLee

Don't mean to sidetrack the thread, but just curious those who will be retiring in 30's and 40's plan to do for the next 40-50 yrs. of their lives? I'm trying to figure out if these folks have a plan already or just going to wing it after retirement. Someone on a different thread had a great piece ...

LeisureLee

Yes, ((1 + Growth) / (1 + Inflation)) is what you want. The tricky part is picking the right guesses for growth and inflation. =)

LeisureLee

Seems to me that you are doing very, very well - as long as you all get sufficient nutrition - seems like you do. Thanks. Yes, I'm comfortable with how healthy our diet is. It's not perfect - we eat a fair amount of carbs - but it's a balance between things we like and things which keep us acceptab...

LeisureLee

If your current investments should grow to fully fund your retirement at your desired retirement age, you can consider retirement saving "done" and think about what you want to do with that new flexibility. Some people will decide to retire earlier, some to spend more, some to donate more,...

LeisureLee

We're another family of four, all get lunches at work/school, and spend around $400/mo on groceries. The biggest things which keep our grocery costs down: We plan a week of meals and shop once a week. We try not to buy things which aren't on the list. We use the weekly deals from our grocery store t...

LeisureLee

There are a few unknowns which are important in this scenario - how much of the Roth balance is contributions, and how much Social Security the couple will receive at age 70. Suppose: $300k of the Roth is contributions SS will provide $25k (half of spending) at 70 The couple waits to 70 to take SS (...

LeisureLee

all this means that Roth Conversions when at effective tax rates higher than 15% result a much smaller tax advantage, correct? [Edit - Math Corrections] Usually, but not always. It looks like there's a small window where you could be in the 25% bracket but reducing your income would reduce your Soc...

LeisureLee

When deciding whether a Roth conversion is worthwhile it's really important to compute taxes using your real tax brackets and figure out your Social Security taxation. I was blown away by how much tax a moderate amount of conversions could save me. I can convert in the 15% bracket each year and the ...

LeisureLee

While I'm here, one other comment on taxes. I wrote an estimate in an earlier reply to reduce my estimate for taxes (both in an "IRA and Roth" variant and an "all taxable" variant), but I think taxes might not be nearly as impactful for the long term retiree as those descriptions...

LeisureLee

Interesting thought process, LeisureLee. Thanks for sharing. I personally approach the problem from a different angle. Don't think like a retiree -- think like an endowment. So rather than calculate a series of SWRs that all go to zero, find one that perpetually maintains the original inflation-adj...

Search found 156 matches