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sapphire96

I had to insert in a new password as well, but strangely it took my old password.

sapphire96

GTBuzz wrote: ↑Tue Apr 13, 2021 7:31 am March CPI-U has been released as 264.877. That means a variable interest rate of 3.53% for six months!

A 3.53% (!) guaranteed rate is fantastic in this low rate environment - assuming you can lock up your money for one year.

sapphire96

Reported inflation may appear to spike in the coming months, not because of any sharp rise in prices but because inflation is often reported as a year-over-year comparison and prices fell about a year ago. Even if prices are unchanged over the next few months, year-over-year inflation will increase...

sapphire96

Can anyone care to take a look at my original LE and compare it to my most recent LE (Pre Disclosure LE 4/7/21)? I just noticed that the section regarding "Rate Locked" is checked "NO". Should that be a concern? My Loan representative said that "Everything is fine...calm do...

sapphire96

Of Dollars and Data article: Why You Shouldn’t Max Out Your 401(k) Phooey! What if You Always Maxed Out Your 401k? https://retireby40.org/what-if-always-maxed-401k/ Pick the year you started (or should have started for some) and see where you would be with the S&P 500 Index Fund (VOO): https://...

sapphire96

nedsaid wrote: ↑Sun Mar 21, 2021 10:54 am 88 years is not a bad sample.

I can top that with 150 years.

sapphire96

It would be great to see these same charts with the trend fixed by, say, a 1937 start date and 2009 end date as a robustness check that addresses JoMoney's point. How much does your qualitative assessment depend on the period chosen? So for giggles, I just created an all-time exponential average. I...

sapphire96

Why the 1933 start date? Seems odd to pick a year that's a known stock market low point as the start date for your growth line. Doesn't seem to be have been a point that was "average" relative to growth starting in other years. 1933 was picked as the starting point because before this, th...

sapphire96

There has been discussion of the dramatic rise in the US stock market and how a bubble is forming. I would like to make the proposal that evaluations are not that far from normal historical deviations and should not influence a person's asset allocation. Chart A is the S&P 500 since 1933 (exclud...

sapphire96

So it's been about a month since I made this move. CAPE 10 at the time I made the Tactical AA change: 35.83 Current CAPE 10: 35.20 We'll see how this continues to pan out if interest rates continue to rise over the next few months. Just curious, from when you made the 10% adjustment to now, what wo...

sapphire96

Ramsey's $1,000 emergency fund is not nearly enough, especially for a single-income household. I've never understood that piece of advice. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it's that there are no guarantees and you need to be financially prepared. People who thought they had secure jobs all ...

sapphire96

The Dave Ramsey "Baby Steps", that have been quite successful for many people, 1. Save $1,000 as your 'starter' emergency fund 2. Pay off all debt (accept the house) using the debt snowball.* 3. Save 3-6 months expenses as a fully-funded emergency fund ... (then start investing, children'...

sapphire96

However, with various income tax credits available (Earned Income Credit, Savers Credit, etc.), is it ever worth it to go with a Traditional 401(k)/IRA route to reduce your taxable income enough to get theses credits? Is there a mathematical break-even point or does the math ever work out (calling ...

sapphire96

Hey everyone! Curiosity question... I understand generally speaking it is better to do Traditional instead of Roth when you will be in a lower tax bracket in the future. However, with various income tax credits available (Earned Income Credit, Savers Credit, etc.), is it ever worth it to go with a T...

sapphire96

Very detailed report. My only critique of it are it’s comments on the 4% withdrawal rule. They used 40% Stock/60% Bonds to show the rule as no longer applicable, when the Trinity’s study had a 95% success rate using 60/40.

sapphire96

You will pay it off in 5-10 years, but want a 30 year loan? I honestly would recommend looking at a 15 year loan. But with a 30 you may be able to shave off a little bit and get to 2.875-ish. A 15 may get you down to 2.25-ish. Will take a peek at the 15, I have OCD risk aversion so I love that flex...

sapphire96

I think what we are witnessing is going to have profound, long-term changes to the financial industry. This is a once-a-quarter-century historical event, one that may end up in the history books. We already had the GFC in 2008, and the dotcom bust (both of which, especially the 2nd, had much larger...

sapphire96

I think what we are witnessing is going to have profound, long-term changes to the financial industry. This is a once-a-quarter-century historical event, one that may end up in the history books.

sapphire96

For giggles, I imported your portfolio into Portfolio Visualizer. Unfortunately, Portfolio Visualizer has a cap in the number of tickers for its free version, so I took your portfolio and removed every other symbol to it get down to about 20 securities. The only available time period was 2015 to the...

sapphire96

If the choice is between a 5 year CD or an Ibond, I would choose the Ibond. +1. I Bonds are paying significantly better interest right now (current composite rate of 1.68%, it changes every 6 months, but that rate is guaranteed for 6 months). Since the rates dropped last year I have been moving the...

sapphire96

From the beginning of 2020 until now, Wellesley has produced a gain of about 8%, despite the Corona Crash. #StayTheCourse https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&timePeriod=4&startYear=2020&firstMonth=1&endYear=2021&lastMonth=12&calendarAligned=true&in...

sapphire96

From the beginning of 2020 until now, Wellesley has produced a gain of about 8%, despite the Corona Crash. #StayTheCourse https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&timePeriod=4&startYear=2020&firstMonth=1&endYear=2021&lastMonth=12&calendarAligned=true&inc...

sapphire96

While you have most things are lined up with a fair assessment, I would take a step back and revisit this next year. I think you should focus on: getting the 20% down + adequate liquid emergency fund + eliminate auto loan Do the above while you are getting a taste of childcare costs, while your spo...

sapphire96

Wanted to add a data point from my brother, who pulled off something I hadn't heard of yet. He was paying 3.4% and called his lender and asked what they could do. They said they could drop the rate to 2.9% for a one-time fee, without actually going through a refinance or changing any of the other d...

sapphire96

Wanted to add a data point from my brother, who pulled off something I hadn't heard of yet. He was paying 3.4% and called his lender and asked what they could do. They said they could drop the rate to 2.9% for a one-time fee, without actually going through a refinance or changing any of the other d...

sapphire96

Lowlim wrote: ↑Tue Jan 12, 2021 8:29 pm To be blunt [... I] just don't want to do it anymore. In the past 2.5 years, since initially retiring, I've been the happiest and most stress free I've ever been.

There is your answer.

sapphire96

One thing to consider is research indicates lower inflation leads to low, possibly negative, Value premiums. This correlates well with growth’s outperformance over the last decade+, and over performance in the 1980s-2000s. But, I don’t know what future inflation will be and therefore I do not tilt t...

sapphire96

I agree with others that instead of contributing $20,000 to the ESPP, I would redirect a portion of that to max your 401(k) (limit is $19,500 for 2021); whatever is leftover should then go to ESPP (or your HSA if it has good investments and you have a high-deductible health insurance plan). Given yo...

sapphire96

Mathematically, assuming you invest only in stocks, you would come out ahead. But the question is will that extra savings/growth mean much relative to your overall wealth? How much are you saving for retirement today? What are your current assets?

sapphire96

I would check out Provident funding. I just ran your numbers and got rates all below 3%. As others have mentioned, because your mortgage balance is low, the amount of negative points you need to cover the closing costs is high. I was in a similar boat. https://www.provident.com/QuickRatesCalculator

sapphire96

To answer your questions above....on equities I am largely on the sidelines, but I did dip into other asset classes this year that I thought had better prospects at the time. Those have done well. All in all my total NW is about 4% lower than Jan 1st 2020. I track it least once per year. Bad, but n...

sapphire96

3855.27

sapphire96

In reading between the lines of the posts and responses here, I think this is something OP might perceive as an acceptable response: Do whatever you want with it because historically, you are likely (not guaranteed) to outperform 2.25% annually with a portfolio over 15 years. But be aware that putt...

sapphire96

Btw, does the IRS ever actually check up on this? I contribute money to my Roth IRA every year, but Turbotax never has me send in a Form 8606, except for any year I took a distribution. So how does the IRS ever know? Does Vanguard/etc themself notify the IRS of Roth contributions, and then the IRS ...

sapphire96

We are not too interested in shoveling more than $80k into pretax accounts that then have 30+ years to grow and create an RMD problem in retirement. At your age you are WISE to understand the RMD ramifications down the road. Why that is true? Globally, the income tax rates are dropping across the W...

sapphire96

A person with enough motivation to come to this site no longer has much, if any, need for DR's advice. Agreed. Dave Ramsey is good for debt and for those just getting their feet wet with finance. For investing and maximizing your finances, the Money Guy Show has excellent content in alignment with ...

sapphire96

Since you aren't likely to keep the house for more than 15 years, you give up an important advantage of the 30-year loan: the right to lock in the low mortgage rate for the full 30 years. (If you stayed, and muni yields in 2025 happened to be 4%, you could buy bonds yielding 4% and pay 2.375% in yo...

sapphire96

@sapphire96 , you express a similar sentiment: "Get the mortgage paid off before the kiddos leave the nest!" Curious your thinking there. My initial instinct was the same (avoid debt). But... if I zoom out, given our limited timeframe in this home (3-12 years, likely toward the 9-12 year ...

sapphire96

@sapphire96, Good questions. Zero closing costs for the new loan. As far as retirement, yes, maxing out all tax shelters and saving a couple hundred thousand per year. On track for retirement goals overall. If you're maxing retirement accounts already, then how will you "take the 2.375% 30 yea...

sapphire96

Since your current mortgage is a 15 year already, you might as well go with the 15 year at 2% and reduce the interest cost. What are you closings costs for the 15 year refinance? Have you looked into a no-cost refinance? If you plan on moving in 10 years, then you will have a lot of built up equity ...

sapphire96

A separate consideration is inflation. Let’s say I have $5,000 in medical bills this year. I can get reimbursed for that via my HSA today tax free. However, let’s say I save the reciept so that I withdraw the funds 10 years later tax free... the problem is $5,000 in today’s money would be worth les...

sapphire96

A separate consideration is inflation. Let’s say I have $5,000 in medical bills this year. I can get reimbursed for that via my HSA today tax free. However, let’s say I save the reciept so that I withdraw the funds 10 years later tax free... the problem is $5,000 in today’s money would be worth less...

sapphire96

Why am I not getting nearly the amazing offers you guys are posting? Our stats: Home value: 330k Remaining mortgage balance: 138k Credit score: ~820 It’s been posted here a few times. Location is a big part but so is loan amount. It is likely too low. Also, most lower balance loans can get great of...

sapphire96

Could you? Sure.

Should you? I wouldn't.

Knowing that the roof over your head is fully yours is something that should not be taken for granted, especially in today's current environment.

sapphire96

Past results are not a guarantee of future performance.

sapphire96

Have not seen the fixed rate announced yet, do they normally wait until the first business day after November 1st? I imagine we are looking at 1.68% variable and probably zero fixed. I suspect they will announce at 10 AM today... it’s when they announced the new rate last time. https://www.treasury...

sapphire96

If you can find a new mortgage with low or no closing costs there would be no downside to refinancing if you can get the same or lower interest rate. What is the interest rate on your current mortgage? Current rate is 3.5%. My current 15-year mortgage has six years to go, and my original plan was t...

sapphire96

I do have a follow up question... does anyone keep some cash with their HSA for actual medical costs and invest the rest? If so, how much do you keep in cash, if any?

sapphire96

Thanks everyone for the replies!

I will look into the Fidelity HSA program... sounds like it is highly reputable. I will also consider reducing my 401(k) contribution in order to max out HSA and Roth IRA.

sapphire96

Hi everyone, My company’s HSA has an option to invest HSA dollars into low-cost Vanguard index funds. The current balance in the account is $2,200 and I am considering maxing it out beginning next year. I am already maxing out my traditional 401(k). The caveat is the HSA charges $2.9 a month ($34.8 ...

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