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Posted

Here's to hoping everyone paid themself first for paycheck #2 of the year, and got closer to their goals.
-Knocked another $500 off the loan, going to have around $2700 left and will knock that out in 2 weeks to cross first item off the list.

 

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Posted
7 hours ago, StassneyHorn said:

Here's to hoping everyone paid themself first for paycheck #2 of the year, and got closer to their goals.
-Knocked another $500 off the loan, going to have around $2700 left and will knock that out in 2 weeks to cross first item off the list.

 

Still in the Early Year Dead Zone here. Two shows coming up next weekend. Still laying on supplies and gear. Probably get in the black by May, which isn't bad if it happens. Took til November in 2024.

Posted
8 hours ago, StassneyHorn said:

Here's to hoping everyone paid themself first for paycheck #2 of the year, and got closer to their goals.
-Knocked another $500 off the loan, going to have around $2700 left and will knock that out in 2 weeks to cross first item off the list.

 

Broke my mountain bike and it costed a few hundred dollars to get it fixed.  Not happy.

Posted
4 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

Still in the Early Year Dead Zone here. Two shows coming up next weekend. Still laying on supplies and gear. Probably get in the black by May, which isn't bad if it happens. Took til November in 2024.

Chocolate inspired art for Valentine’s?

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Posted
1 hour ago, StassneyHorn said:

Chocolate inspired art for Valentine’s?

3 years in of making special Valentine's art for Valentine's, there is no real reason to.

Oh, I'll sell some. Say I make a couple dozen prints. I'll sell 2 or 3 on the holiday. Then if I sling the rest in the mix of unsold art, I might sell one or two every month after, or a random person might buy 12 in August. So they do sell, but there's barely any connection to the holiday.

Same thing goes with most other holidays. I don't think my customers get my work for greeting card reasons. Probably for the best, as I swan through the year completely detached from whatever my non-existent marketing department would tell me to do.

Posted

Finish home remodel somewhat in budget (fucking tariffs may fuck me)

Reduce expenses, particularly discretionary spending and food. We used to have a very strict budget.  Money isn't a huge concern anymore, so the spending has gotten a bit out of control. Also, turns out, 3 kids over 4 is significantly more expensive than 1. 

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Posted

Never, never, never good to get divorced and lose half your shit late in life.  As an old guy working longer than I envisioned post-full Social Security retirement age, my goals are to continue to not have a single dime in credit card or auto loan debt, keep pumping at less 50 K in my solo 401(k), every year (separate from savings and investments) and to keep reminding myself there is no reason to pay off my small mortgage when the interest rate begins with a “2”.     

One small benefit at keeping working is that Social Security takes your 30 best earnings years every year and re-calculates the figures.  it ain’t much, but I’m making about $600 a month more than I would have had I retired at 66.     I have the perfect old guy job right now, making six figures but not having any real responsibility - which means I don’t have any stress or anything I can fuck up.   I’m trying to make myself as invaluable as possible, because my goal next year is to either retire or preferably tell my employer I will work Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and have a four days weekend every week, in return for 60% of my current compensation.   That arrangement would keep me busy and my mind still intellectually stimulated, while allowing me four days a week to woo the wommins du jure  on mini Vacays.  

And I like the idea of continuing to add to my assets before I have to dig into them to live.   Plus, I want to have a bigger estate to leave to my two sons.   They are gonna have to live in this shit show world after I pass, and I don’t think it’s gonna be as enjoyable as my 30s and 40s were for them.

 

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Posted
4 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

Never, never, never good to get divorced and lose half your shit late in life.  As an old guy working longer than I envisioned post-full Social Security retirement age, my goals are to continue to not have a single dime in credit card or auto loan debt, keep pumping at less 50 K in my solo 401(k), every year (separate from savings and investments) and to keep reminding myself there is no reason to pay off my small mortgage when the interest rate begins with a “2”.     

One small benefit at keeping working is that Social Security takes your 30 best earnings years every year and re-calculates the figures.  it ain’t much, but I’m making about $600 a month more than I would have had I retired at 66.     I have the perfect old guy job right now, making six figures but not having any real responsibility - which means I don’t have any stress or anything I can fuck up.   I’m trying to make myself as invaluable as possible, because my goal next year is to either retire or preferably tell my employer I will work Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and have a four days weekend every week, in return for 60% of my current compensation.   That arrangement would keep me busy and my mind still intellectually stimulated, while allowing me four days a week to woo the wommins du jure  on mini Vacays.  

And I like the idea of continuing to add to my assets before I have to dig into them to live.   Plus, I want to have a bigger estate to leave to my two sons.   They are gonna have to live in this shit show world after I pass, and I don’t think it’s gonna be as enjoyable as my 30s and 40s were for them.

 

I agree about not paying off a <3% mortgage except when moving into retirement. Even if manageable in retirement, I can see it better that someone’s primary home is paid off. 

Posted
2 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I agree about not paying off a <3% mortgage except when moving into retirement. Even if manageable in retirement, I can see it better that someone’s primary home is paid off. 

Well, my five bedroom home’s monthly mortgage is less than the cost of the average apartment in New Orleans. 

As long as I can make more than 2.7% on my money, I can see no reason to pay my mortgage off.  By not doing that (paying off home) I was able to grab some juicy fed i-bonds at almost 7%.   

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Posted
14 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

Well, my five bedroom home’s monthly mortgage is less than the cost of the average apartment in New Orleans. 

As long as I can make more than 2.7% on my money, I can see no reason to pay my mortgage off.  By not doing that (paying off home) I was able to grab some juicy fed i-bonds at almost 7%.   

I hear you. I'm getting to the point that my mortgage balance is ~$100,000, and it's at 2.6%.  The spread between what I can earn from that 100K versus what I pay in mortgage interest is becoming less and less material. Focusing on the small amounts can distract you from the larger amounts. Now if someone has a 800K mortgage @ 2.6% that is different. I'm rapidly saving to pay it off but not making early payments yet.

Some personal finance videos have shown me that worrying about the small amounts isn't worth it. For example someone who earns >$250K and they talk about financing their new $2K sofa because the furniture store offers them 18 months no interest. Even assuming they make all of their payments on time, why deal with the hassle. In that scenario who cares about what you can earn from that $2K.

To be clear, I'm not some Dave Ramsey anti-debt person but I can understand that as you get older, there are fewer reasons to carry debt. But I understand reasons others do, and I have zero problem with that.

 

Posted
Just now, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I hear you. I'm getting to the point that my mortgage balance is ~$100,000, and it's at 2.6%.  The spread between what I can earn from that 100K versus what I pay in mortgage interest is becoming less and less material. Focusing on the small amounts can distract you from the larger amounts. Now if someone has a 800K mortgage @ 2.6% that is different. I'm rapidly saving to pay it off but not making early payments yet.

Some personal finance videos have shown me that worrying about the small amounts isn't worth it. For example someone who earns >$250K and they talk about financing their new $2K sofa because the furniture store offers them 18 months no interest. Even assuming they make all of their payments on time, why deal with the hassle. In that scenario who cares about what you can earn from that $2K.

To be clear, I'm not some Dave Ramsey anti-debt person but I can understand that as you get older, there are fewer reasons to carry debt. But I understand reasons others do, and I have zero problem with that.

 

And then there is this:  if my current State Farm homeowners insurer ever pulls out of the state or drops me, I will pay the house off just so I won’t have to have some ridiculously overpriced homeowners insurance of last resort to placate my mortgage lender. 

I will look around and buy some relatively cheap fire insurance.  I have fixed my attic to Miami Dade code and put on a new roof with cat 3 shingles and extra nails per shingle.  I paid surprisingly little to have them put that waterproof membrane across the entirety of the roof and not just the valleys. So if I no longer have insurance for hurricanes, I can put 3 or 4K in CDs every year so that if I do get hit by a hurricane that causes some damage, I will pay for it myself.    i’m willing to risk the tornado threat, which is not nonexistent, but pretty damn close.

i’m not sure how bad it is in Texas, but getting affordable homeowners insurance is an extreme problem in Louisiana now that the last legislature repealed the law that said your insurer could not drop you after three years.

mine is up for renewal in July, and as I sued them over hurricane Ida, and recovered far more than State Farm said I owed, I am expecting to be dropped.  

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Posted

Wife and I are doing max contributions on everything we can, we had a couple trips in January where each trip came in a couple thousand under budget (my wife over budgets because we sometimes just say fuck it and go big) and both are getting bigger bonuses and commission checks bigger than budgeted for.

January has been a hot start to the year and got us significantly ahead of where we budgeted when we did our 2025 planning in early December.

We did a massive backyard renovation (pool, built in kitchen, etc) in 2023 and had a year to pay it off on our 1 year interest free construction loan.

We paid it off early and are still pretending we have that payment and saving that money as well. Reason we’re still “pretending” is to keep that aggressive savings to hit our target savings for 2025 earlier. We’ll probably keep this up to get a second place somewhere to escape the Texas heat in 2-3 years.

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Posted

Paycheck #3 of the year and a 3 day weekend. Got a fat dividend landing in the account but will reinvest. Personal loan is finally getting all paid off.

How are YOU paying yourself? 

 

Posted

I was able to wrap up my 2025 goal of saving for a new car with the paycheck this week. To be clear, I didn’t start the year at zero. The car purchase will be in 26 or 27. I also have seen an attorney and my first will should be completed within a month. Both of these were two financial goals line items for me.

i might pause the extra savings/investing for a month or two to have fun with it. Then hit the non-401k investment goals and start pinpointing the numbers I need to retire in 4-5 years.

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Posted
1 hour ago, StassneyHorn said:

Paycheck #3 of the year and a 3 day weekend. Got a fat dividend landing in the account but will reinvest. Personal loan is finally getting all paid off.

How are YOU paying yourself? 

 

I bought name-brand pop tarts.

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Posted

How could I forget, you spend 1/3 of your life on a mattress. It’s Presidents Day on Monday, biggest mattress sales of the year. This is a 10 year buy fellas. Invest in YOURself

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Posted

If NIL deals are kinda bullshit, could I hire my daughter to endorse some shit and then fund a Roth for her "earnings"? Or like, set up Cameo to pay her to talk to Grandma? I want to fully fund her Roth for the first 10 or so years, in hopes that sets her up with a good retirement nest egg.

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Posted
12 hours ago, CleverNickname said:

If NIL deals are kinda bullshit, could I hire my daughter to endorse some shit and then fund a Roth for her "earnings"? Or like, set up Cameo to pay her to talk to Grandma? I want to fully fund her Roth for the first 10 or so years, in hopes that sets her up with a good retirement nest egg.

This isn't legal or tax advice but your should be careful with gray area tax avoidance like paying family members for no show jobs and expensing it from a company. It can be seen as a gift instead of payment for work. Not saying you can't or that other people have done this and not been caught but it is a risk.

Posted

I think one way to go about that would be to fund a 529 and then any unused funds after a certain period of time you could roll into a Roth later? Granted, there are limits on investments and amount you could transfer, but might be something to look at. 

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Posted

Congrats to all of you on the two quickest paychecks you will get all year (not fact checking that).

How are you paying yourself? Big drop in BTC and stocks this month, are you discount shopping or keeping tabs? Spring Break is here in 2 weeks, you got a trip planned?

Posted
On 2/27/2025 at 10:21 PM, StassneyHorn said:

Big drop in BTC and stocks this month, are you discount shopping or keeping tabs? 

This fucking guy. 84k to 94k from Thursday night to Sunday noon.

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Posted (edited)

Just got the HR message for annual Bonus payments one week from today. Earlier than usual so that's nice.
Gonna park that baby in a Money Market for a month until I decide how to split Roth or dividend Individual account.

Edited by StassneyHorn
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Posted

Set up family trust, wills, etc. Legal fees are expensive for what we are doing (e.g. QSBS).

Selling part of the company so we can take some cash out of the business ($10m-$30m). Hopefully, buy a new permanent home but wife just said she wants to live in NYC this fall.

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Posted
On 3/9/2025 at 5:34 PM, wackawacka said:

Set up family trust, wills, etc. Legal fees are expensive for what we are doing (e.g. QSBS).

Selling part of the company so we can take some cash out of the business ($10m-$30m). Hopefully, buy a new permanent home but wife just said she wants to live in NYC this fall.

Not a realtOr but i think $20m can buy a home in NYC too. 

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Posted
2 hours ago, 52-80 said:

Not a realtOr but i think $20m can buy a home in NYC too. 

hahaa. our family advisor on trust, etc said we should budget about $20m for a home in Atherton...I was not happy he said that.

Posted

Did she say anything about not wanting you in the NYC home?  /horselaugh

Friday's paycheck will put me at 2 out of 5 on financial goals from first post. Will draw a fat line through max out Roth IRA for 2024, next to the completed paid off loan. After that it's a layup with max out HSA and use rest of year to chip away at Roth 401K limit. Will start adding to my dividend account heavily and fund 2025 Roth contributions from dividends.

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Posted

I made a similar post a while back but have some more concrete numbers to work with now that my wife got a raise. We are early 40s DINKs that have a household income about 3.5x higher than 5 years ago but basically the same expenses. 

This is leaving us with about 5k a month to figure out how to invest. This is after tax advantaged accounts maxed, a healthy emergency fund, and enough to pay for the next car in cash. I also have 15 years paid into TRS, which will pay me about 2k/month when I’m in my late 60s.

These are the options I see but would love others opinions:

1. Brokerage account - dollar cost averaging. Don’t have much in this account because we weren’t making enough to fund anything beyond retirement accounts until very recently. I was a poor teacher for 10 years and my wife wasn’t making much.

2. Pay extra towards current rental property. Owe 130k at 7%. Somewhat recent purchase. House pays for itself plus a little currently.

3. Save for another rental. Currently have about 35k put away for that.

4. Pay extra on our own mortgage. Owe 130k at around 3%. House is probably worth 600k.

5. Hookers and blow.

Additional info. I’m in sales and get a few commission checks a year. Anywhere from 10k to 100k, but usually on the lower end of that range. Need to start planning for that as well. 

Posted
39 minutes ago, Larry T. Spider said:

I made a similar post a while back but have some more concrete numbers to work with now that my wife got a raise. We are early 40s DINKs that have a household income about 3.5x higher than 5 years ago but basically the same expenses. 

This is leaving us with about 5k a month to figure out how to invest. This is after tax advantaged accounts maxed, a healthy emergency fund, and enough to pay for the next car in cash. I also have 15 years paid into TRS, which will pay me about 2k/month when I’m in my late 60s.

These are the options I see but would love others opinions:

1. Brokerage account - dollar cost averaging. Don’t have much in this account because we weren’t making enough to fund anything beyond retirement accounts until very recently. I was a poor teacher for 10 years and my wife wasn’t making much.

2. Pay extra towards current rental property. Owe 130k at 7%. Somewhat recent purchase. House pays for itself plus a little currently.

3. Save for another rental. Currently have about 35k put away for that.

4. Pay extra on our own mortgage. Owe 130k at around 3%. House is probably worth 600k.

5. Hookers and blow.

Additional info. I’m in sales and get a few commission checks a year. Anywhere from 10k to 100k, but usually on the lower end of that range. Need to start planning for that as well. 

If the house pays for itself at 7%, I'm not sure I'd sweat that. It would depend if it were a 15 or 30 year fixed, and whether or not you intended on jettisoning the asset as soon as you retired, IMO.

Since your current home is at 3%, again, not sure when the note is up otherwise, but you're not going to get cheaper money than 3% any time soon. You can make more than that in the market, even as it is now. 

Your wife into hookers and blow too? Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

It sounds like you have a lot of free cash flow, with some big bumps. I'd say you should further diversify your investments in your brokerage account, but of course I say that not knowing what your other retirement funds are invested in, etc. But if you're looking at an extra 100-200k a year of free cash flow that you need to invest, son, that's a lot of money and you need a plan for it. 

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Posted
4 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

 

This is leaving us with about 5k a month to figure out how to invest. This is after tax advantaged accounts maxed, a healthy emergency fund, and enough to pay for the next car in cash. I also have 15 years paid into TRS, which will pay me about 2k/month when I’m in my late 60s.

 

Assume you are already maxing something like a mega back door Roth (assuming you/spouse have all the requirements)?

Posted
34 minutes ago, Reynolds Woodcock said:

Assume you are already maxing something like a mega back door Roth (assuming you/spouse have all the requirements)?

It’s not an option for my wife, but it might be for me. I need to see if my company’s plan allows it. This will be the first year that it’s mattered.

Posted (edited)
5 hours ago, Firemans4Horn said:

Brokerage accounts are underrated

It’s crazy how every job you get pushes you to 401k retirement choices and nobody ever mentions dividend/income investments. I hit my first month making 3k in monthly dividends and I’ve jokingly referred to it as job replacement surgery.

Edited by StassneyHorn
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Posted
26 minutes ago, StassneyHorn said:

It’s crazy how every job you get pushes you to 401k retirement choices and nobody ever mentions dividend/income investments. I hit my first month making 3k in monthly dividends and I’ve jokingly referred to it as job replacement surgery.

My primary screener in my trading accounts (unless you are BRK) right now is dividend yield. I am not really interested in hodling unless you are kickoff off cash to reinvest. 

Also hammering the 529s for the roth rollover to beneficiary. My kids will thank me when they bring their kids to visit the gravesite.  

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Posted
14 hours ago, Reynolds Woodcock said:

Assume you are already maxing something like a mega back door Roth (assuming you/spouse have all the requirements)?

 

14 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

It’s not an option for my wife, but it might be for me. I need to see if my company’s plan allows it. This will be the first year that it’s mattered.

My company offers the ability to save up to $10K in after tax dollars in a Roth 401k, above and beyond other 401k savings. I don't know how common that is. The funding comes out of my paycheck for as much or little as I want up to that $10K.

Posted
20 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

I made a similar post a while back but have some more concrete numbers to work with now that my wife got a raise. We are early 40s DINKs that have a household income about 3.5x higher than 5 years ago but basically the same expenses. 

This is leaving us with about 5k a month to figure out how to invest. This is after tax advantaged accounts maxed, a healthy emergency fund, and enough to pay for the next car in cash. I also have 15 years paid into TRS, which will pay me about 2k/month when I’m in my late 60s.

These are the options I see but would love others opinions:

1. Brokerage account - dollar cost averaging. Don’t have much in this account because we weren’t making enough to fund anything beyond retirement accounts until very recently. I was a poor teacher for 10 years and my wife wasn’t making much.

2. Pay extra towards current rental property. Owe 130k at 7%. Somewhat recent purchase. House pays for itself plus a little currently.

3. Save for another rental. Currently have about 35k put away for that.

4. Pay extra on our own mortgage. Owe 130k at around 3%. House is probably worth 600k.

5. Hookers and blow.

Additional info. I’m in sales and get a few commission checks a year. Anywhere from 10k to 100k, but usually on the lower end of that range. Need to start planning for that as well. 

I need investors for the upcoming year of tailgates, not kidding also not a con. 

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Posted

I’m a big fan of my brokerage account, I’m funneling all of my bonuses and extra cash at the end of the month into mine with a blend of total market and dividend focus (VYM/HDEF). Dividends are close to providing half of a survival budget now and can fully cover our taxes, insurance and utilities. It also provides a big slush fund for emergencies. 
 

If I was going to pay off a house I’d create a sinking fund to put the funds into until I had enough for a lump sum payoff. Ignoring a recast, paying down a mortgage doesn’t change the monthly payment but does reduce the amount of cash you have available to make the payments in an emergency. I aggressively paid down a 2.5% mortgage from 2020-2023 and half regret it now, I would be in a better place if I would have invested all of that cash and then paid off the mortgage when I had enough. 

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Posted

I've been consolidating accounts and just rolled over a couple of 401ks from old jobs into an IRA. Now I'm on the fence about whether to just reinvest everything in VTSAX now, wait on the market to tank more and then reinvest, or do it in chunks of 10% at a time. I know that timing the market is normally a fools errand, but this seems like a bad time drop a bunch of money into an index fund. Thoughts?

Posted
35 minutes ago, Seger78 said:

I've been consolidating accounts and just rolled over a couple of 401ks from old jobs into an IRA. Now I'm on the fence about whether to just reinvest everything in VTSAX now, wait on the market to tank more and then reinvest, or do it in chunks of 10% at a time. I know that timing the market is normally a fools errand, but this seems like a bad time drop a bunch of money into an index fund. Thoughts?

10% a week for the next 10 weeks is probably the smartest. But for me, Im gonna try and time this sucker. Why live life if you dont try and time the market.

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Posted
4 hours ago, Seger78 said:

I've been consolidating accounts and just rolled over a couple of 401ks from old jobs into an IRA. Now I'm on the fence about whether to just reinvest everything in VTSAX now, wait on the market to tank more and then reinvest, or do it in chunks of 10% at a time. I know that timing the market is normally a fools errand, but this seems like a bad time drop a bunch of money into an index fund. Thoughts?

All on red.

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