Search found 58 matches

by fullplay2024
Sun Mar 03, 2024 8:20 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Real Stories of College Savings: what was your plan, and what happened?
Replies: 98
Views: 7601

Re: Real Stories of College Savings: what was your plan, and what happened?

Two children. Like OP, we chose to save $250K each but 50% in IL 529 plan and 50% in UGMA. The idea was to be able to fund any private college education. But if they went to state public school instead, they would only be using 529 funds, and save UGMA funds for grad school, or whatever they choose to do.

Child #1 went to out of state public school but it only costed him as much as in-state public school. He graduated last year and has over $200K invested in UGMA.
Child #2 is going to college this year. He may end up going out of state as well. He will be fine as he has over $400K between 529 and UGMA.
by fullplay2024
Sun Feb 25, 2024 11:55 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: FIRE-ing In, Quitting versus Getting FIRE-d - Talking to Boss Tomorrow
Replies: 148
Views: 23001

Re: FIRE-ing In, Quitting versus Getting FIRE-d - Talking to Boss Tomorrow

I may be wrong but you may only have two options based on what you've shared about your boss being new and her heavy handed approach. Either quit with no pay now or drag it out until you're able to quit on your own terms or be fired.

All the best tomorrow.
by fullplay2024
Wed Dec 20, 2023 9:17 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiring at age 40 with $2.4M
Replies: 210
Views: 144220

Re: Retiring at age 40 with $2.4M

A combination of several things (in no particular order) helped with a surprise NW growth: Proceeds from the sale of previous McMansion home Significant drop in expenses due to a smaller paid off home, one kid moved out, WFH job (no commute expenses), etc No drop in income due to a high paying consulting gig (20 hours/week) Growth in stock investments Growth in real estate investments This has been a very interesting thread to read. Two years ago, I semi-retired from a high stress corporate job into a part-time, work from home consulting role at 45. Best decision in my life. At that time, our household NW was $4.5M. Now, Wife (44) and I (47) have a NW of roughly $6.5M. One kid out of college and launched. One more kid entering college this ...
by fullplay2024
Mon Dec 18, 2023 2:21 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Retiring at age 40 with $2.4M
Replies: 210
Views: 144220

Re: Retiring at age 40 with $2.4M

This has been a very interesting thread to read.

Two years ago, I semi-retired from a high stress corporate job into a part-time, work from home consulting role at 45. Best decision in my life. At that time, our household NW was $4.5M. Now, Wife (44) and I (47) have a NW of roughly $6.5M. One kid out of college and launched. One more kid entering college this year. Wife likes to continue working full-time, and I like my part-time arrangement.
by fullplay2024
Thu Dec 14, 2023 11:00 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Share your net worth progression
Replies: 4288
Views: 1082101

Re: Share your net worth progression

Super inspiring to see net worth trajectories of fellow BHs on this thread. We will be empty nesters in 2024.

Here's been our NW growth progression. Cheers :beer

Image
by fullplay2024
Wed Dec 13, 2023 9:45 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: 50 year old.just got laid off-Need advise Bogleheads!
Replies: 94
Views: 13546

Re: 50 year old.just got laid off-Need advise Bogleheads!

This is the universe telling you to retire. Enjoy your early retirement. Retirement doesn't mean sit around and do nothing. Pick up new hobbies and projects to keep yourself busy.
by fullplay2024
Thu Feb 24, 2022 12:21 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: How do you backup your computer?
Replies: 159
Views: 13342

Re: How do you backup your computer?

I own 2 Macs and 2 Windows machines.

I backup everything from my Macbooks to my local network drive because it's so easy and automatic. On Windows machines, I use Dropbox, Google Photos, and OneDrive to selectively back up important folders including pictures, documents, emails, etc.
by fullplay2024
Sat Jan 29, 2022 10:21 am
Forum: US Chapters
Topic: Keeping up with the Bogleheads
Replies: 68
Views: 7532

Re: Keeping up with the Bogleheads

I come here for wisdom of Bogleheads. I've never been disappointed in the last 10+ years I've been here.
by fullplay2024
Wed Jan 12, 2022 8:21 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: The great FIRE resignation?
Replies: 235
Views: 31937

Re: The great FIRE resignation?

I quit a high stress tech executive job with nothing lined up. We can FIRE but I'm planning to take a sabbatical and reassess if I want to return to workforce at all. Wife wants to continue her healthcare management career. We're in 40s.

Cheers! :beer
by fullplay2024
Mon Nov 08, 2021 8:11 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Is it worth it to stay at this job?
Replies: 28
Views: 3158

Re: Is it worth it to stay at this job?

How close are you to your retirement goals? If you're already financially independent, I would look for an internal transfer while looking for an external opportunity. Or better yet, retire early and enjoy life.
by fullplay2024
Tue May 18, 2021 5:31 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

@FullPlay2024 Let me give you a different perspective. I am almost in your same situation but am 5 years older (I'm 50). A little bit more in stocks and retirement plans but about the same. I decided to stay on an extra 5 years to bolster my retirement and health plan coverage in retirement. Why? Because who knows what will happens in the future and in my career once you retire you can't come back very easily at all (huge bias against hiring older people). You'll need to draw at 3% of your $2.8M in savings to make it last longer so your looking at about $90K a year but after tax closer to your annual expense of $80K. A few reasons why I'd hang on a bit longer: a) $80K may sound like a lot now, but rememberyou are going to have much more ti...
by fullplay2024
Tue May 18, 2021 5:26 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

Maybe the hangup is that you think you are making a decision to "switch gears to early retirement life". Actually, the decision you are talking about is simply quitting your job after reassuring yourself that you have enough to not work for money in the future. Don't overcomplicate it by thinking you have to plan the rest of your life. You are young. You might find another startup, you might start a business, you might like to work part time as a consultant, maybe you will write a book. Don't pretend you know anything about the future, other than seeing that it looks good from a financial standpoint. You're right. I'm certainly overcomplicating the situation. I'll make the decision over the next few months. Thanks so much for you...
by fullplay2024
Sun May 16, 2021 12:03 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

I don't recall seeing what you plan to do with all the freedom early retirement will bring. You seem pretty organized, so have no reason to doubt you have a good handle on current spending. If you plan to live just the way are now then projecting that as future expenses is a reasonanle starting point. But, at your young ages, it seems possible you may have desire to do more things that may cost more money. You are obviously doing quite well, and can afford increased discretionary spending. I would just suggest you think about what you want to do with your time so associated expenses do not come as a surprise. Our expenses nearly doubled after we retired, but it is what we planned on doing, so it was not a shock to our portfolio. Good luck ...
by fullplay2024
Sat May 15, 2021 2:31 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: High-level early retirement plan - What do y'all think?
Replies: 53
Views: 8446

Re: High-level early retirement plan - What do y'all think?

Congratulations on being financially independent. You’re doing great.

We’re more or less in a similar spot although we’re a few years older, have older kids, and with a slightly larger portfolio.

Your numbers look solid. But, the biggest challenge for both of you will now be to figure out what you’ll do with all the “free” time. If you have a plan for that, you’re all set.

If for some reason, market tanks and things don’t go planned, one of you can always pick up a part time gig or cut down discretionary spending.

All in all, great job. All the best.
by fullplay2024
Sat May 15, 2021 1:54 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

I don't recall seeing what you plan to do with all the freedom early retirement will bring. You seem pretty organized, so have no reason to doubt you have a good handle on current spending. If you plan to live just the way are now then projecting that as future expenses is a reasonanle starting point. But, at your young ages, it seems possible you may have desire to do more things that may cost more money. You are obviously doing quite well, and can afford increased discretionary spending. I would just suggest you think about what you want to do with your time so associated expenses do not come as a surprise. Our expenses nearly doubled after we retired, but it is what we planned on doing, so it was not a shock to our portfolio. Good luck ...
by fullplay2024
Fri May 14, 2021 9:49 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

bltn wrote: Thu May 13, 2021 11:00 pm
The budget seems low for utilities and maintenance. I Less than 350.00 monthly for utilities, cable , yard care, house cleaning, and gathering funds for home repair (hvac,roof,painting,etc). Does gas and transportation funds include savings for your future car purchases? Also, what will your income taxes be?
Perhaps, you're right. But, we live in a fairly new townhouse with a $160.00 monthly HOA that includes all maintenance. Also, I feel there's enough room in other expense buckets such as child #2 expenses, vacations, etc that can be reallocated if necessary. We're not high spenders - so I feel confident that we won't go way over $80K per year. Of course, that doesn't include healthcare premiums/expenses.
by fullplay2024
Fri May 14, 2021 9:41 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: For those pondering early or even mid-life retirement
Replies: 54
Views: 9463

Re: For those pondering early or even mid-life retirement

Thanks for creating this thread. This is so timely as we're pondering early retirement in our 40s. I just posted this two days ago.

A lot of great ideas and a lot of food for thought. :sharebeer
by fullplay2024
Thu May 13, 2021 10:08 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

wannaretireearly covered the basics but with the additional information you provided you are in good shape. Both should do a backdoor Roth this year. Then do Roths for the next few years while your wife is working. Once she stops working you should be in a low tax bracket. You can withdraw 5 year old contributions from your Roth and then do a Roth conversion from your tax deferred account to replace the money in the Roth. Work out the tax implications so that you can withdraw from taxable and Roth while staying in a low tax bracket until age 59.5. Then add tax deferred to the mix with a eye on keeping your marginal tax rate relatively stable pre SS benefits, post SS benefits, and after RMDs begin. Thank you. I haven't thought much about ta...
by fullplay2024
Thu May 13, 2021 10:06 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

This is an insightful response. Not knowing what lies in your future is great, especially when the finances are sound (yours definitely are). On the other hand, being used to functioning at a high level in the hierarchy, you may want to maintain some connection to and human capital with the tech/business world. Not that it matters financially, but your home maintenance budget is likely low and I would suggest finding ways to increase your spend on health and fitness. In terms of managing your money, choices around taxation will make a difference in portfolio performance. As suggested, perform Roth conversions, especially if your wife eventually hangs up her work efforts. But also look at capital gains management. Tax loss harvest if/when y...
by fullplay2024
Thu May 13, 2021 11:15 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

I think either way, assuming your wife continues to work for a while, you're fine.. but I'd encourage you to use Quicken or Mint or something similar to track your expenses in detail over the next couple of years. That big "food/dining/grocery/etc" category seems low. Some categories I don't see: gifts/family support, other insurance (home/umbrella/etc), medical out of pocket expenses, sinking funds for cars or future large home expenses. Very similar situation for myself minus the kids - late 40s, I quit my job in January, wife continues to work, etc. And it is awesome. :) Congratulations on your early retirement. Thanks for sharing your experience. I use Mint extensively to keep an eye on our expenses. Last year has been an out...
by fullplay2024
Thu May 13, 2021 11:08 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

Nohbdy wrote: Wed May 12, 2021 10:36 pm It looks like you have plenty saved for college, but your post made me curious if you can claim the AOTC and use 529. You might be close to the income limit with wife working. Not sure, but it might be worth looking at.
I haven't thought that far out yet, but I'll have to run the numbers when we get there.
by fullplay2024
Thu May 13, 2021 11:06 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

gips wrote: Wed May 12, 2021 10:53 pm
i did just that, retired late 50s, two year non compete during which i obtained a couple of cloud certs and have been consulting 2-3 days per week, 6 months a year from home yielding a six figure income. pretty sweet: attend meetings, review docs and occasionally create an arch.
This is very encouraging to hear. I would love to be able to achieve something like what you're doing. I will take a 6 month sabbatical and brush up coding/arch skills and maybe even get AWS/Azure architect certifications.
by fullplay2024
Wed May 12, 2021 8:23 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

Unrelated to the finances, I’m curious how you plan to spend your time if wife is still working and a kid still in high school. Traveling will be tough with family schedules. Taking care of finances has always been our first priority. Now that the finances are in a fairly decent shape, we need to figure out the logistics of early retirement. Wife is a kind of a person who may never retire. She gets agitated if she's off from work for more than a couple of days. On the other hand, I'm is a laid-back techie although I've been in an exec role for a decade. I never worked from home until the pandemic happened. Having worked from home for a year, I never want to go back to the office now. I can always pick up an individual contributor tech cons...
by fullplay2024
Wed May 12, 2021 3:48 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

JoeRetire wrote: Wed May 12, 2021 3:24 pm
Have you estimated healthcare expenses?

If your estimates are correct, if you intend to continue with your low annual expenses, and if your healthcare expenses aren't onerous, you'll be fine.
We're in fairly good health now but that can change over next one to two decades. We're currently on a high-deductible HSA family plan through one of our employers. My estimate for decent health and dental insurance coverage today for a family of 4 is $25-30K per year.
by fullplay2024
Wed May 12, 2021 3:42 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

delamer wrote: Wed May 12, 2021 3:13 pm Assuming that the $80,000 doesn’t include health insurance premiums when neither of you is working, you’ll need to withdraw $60,000/year or so from your portfolio to cover expenses (taking into account your rental income).

That’s easily affordable indefinitely, given your level of liquid assets.
Thank you. Your assumption on health insurance premiums not included in $80K is correct. I included a rough breakdown of expenses in another response above.
by fullplay2024
Wed May 12, 2021 3:40 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

Peter Foley wrote: Wed May 12, 2021 3:24 pm This would be more easily done if some of your savings were in a Roth and you could withdraw contributions from the Roth rather than deplete your taxable account. Getting some money in a Roth now and over the next 5 years would allow you withdrawals of those amounts in future years.
Thank you for the suggestion. We currently have only about $100K in Roth IRA accounts. What are some recommended ways to get funds into Roth IRA accounts over the next 5 years? Any links or references for further reading would be appreciated.
by fullplay2024
Wed May 12, 2021 3:36 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Re: Please review early retirement plan

You are making a combined income of $400,000 and only spending $80,000 a year? Maybe enhancing your lifestyle a little bit so that no regrets in the future can be suggested. Good observation. But, I want to clarify that our expenses used to be roughly $200K mostly due to a McMansion and kids expenses until a year ago. But, we have scaled down to a smaller and one child has left for college last year. Roughly, our current expenses are broken down as following: Mortgage: None (0%) Property taxes: $11,000 (14%) Child #2 high school expenses 2021 thru 2023: $5,000 (6%) Food, dining, grocery, clothing and shopping: $15,000 (19%) Utilities and home maintenance: $4,000 (5%) Travel & vacations: $30,000 (38%) Gas and Transportation: $5,000 (6%)...
by fullplay2024
Wed May 12, 2021 3:03 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please review early retirement plan
Replies: 38
Views: 6547

Please review early retirement plan

Below is our rough financial plan. Any input on things we're overlooking would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Family: Husband 45 Wife 42 Child #1 attends college 2020-2024 Child #2 attends college 2024-2028 Current income: Husband W2 income: $250,000 Wife W2 income: $150,000 Net rental income after all expenses and taxes: $50,000 Annual expenses: $80,000 Net worth: Taxable accounts - stocks/bonds/cash: $1,200,000 Tax deferred retirement accounts - stocks/bonds: $1,600,000 Real estate: $1,500,000 Primary home (paid off): $350,000 Total NW:  $4,650,000 College Savings, not included in NW (529 + UTMA/UGMA):  $600,000 Note: Plan to fully fund remaining 7 years of undergrad education. Extra funds shall be used for children’s graduate...
by fullplay2024
Tue Jan 26, 2021 9:50 am
Forum: US Chapters
Topic: Happy 97th Birthday, Taylor Larimore
Replies: 146
Views: 12468

Re: Happy 97th Birthday, Taylor Larimore

Happy birthday Taylor. You're proving that age is a number and still continuing to make a difference on this forum at 97!
by fullplay2024
Wed Oct 28, 2020 10:24 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: What’s “your number” for each kid’s 529?
Replies: 439
Views: 36149

Re: What’s “your number” for each kid’s 529?

$250K per child in 529 + UTMA accounts.
They're 18 and 14 now. Child #1 is consuming full amount as an out-of-state student at UMich.
by fullplay2024
Tue Sep 15, 2020 12:37 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Coping with Megacorp rat race
Replies: 168
Views: 20185

Re: Coping with Megacorp rat race

I don't see anyone mentioning this. But, while you are still at Megacorp in a somewhat stable job, I strongly recommend you to hire a career coach. Start asking for referrals in your network for great coaches. You can also search for career coaches on LinkedIn. Talk to at least 3 of them. It will help you formulate and articulate your problems better and also help identify someone you can trust as a coach. It will be a good investment of your time and money to work with a coach who can help plan your transition to something more meaningful. I was in a similar boat a year ago. After having worked at a Megacorp for 10 years, I was ready for a change. Working with a coach really helped me refine my thought process and eventually zero in on wha...
by fullplay2024
Thu Sep 03, 2020 9:28 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: College financial advice for undecided rising high school senior
Replies: 71
Views: 5196

Re: College financial advice for undecided rising high school senior

Having been through the college application process for our DS who applied for top CS schools last year, I'll share a few thoughts: - DS had high test scores and high GPA, but know that college admission process at top 20 schools is a crap shoot. There will be surprises, positive and negative. - DS was originally going to ED at CMU, but after visiting the school he wasn't so sure. So he ended up not ED'ing anywhere. He was priority waitlisted at CMU, but didn't get off waitlist. - The best advice we received is to go into admission process with an open mind. Create a list of schools and place them into 1) REACH, 2) MATCH and 3) SAFETY categories - DS ended up attending CS Engineering at UMich - Make your final decision based on the admissio...
by fullplay2024
Tue Sep 01, 2020 8:10 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Shopping for college
Replies: 164
Views: 16519

Re: Shopping for college

TomatoTomahto wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2020 5:00 pm @Fullplay2024, that’s what my son did. Combined MS/BS in 4 years, for no additional expense. And, since by some reckoning he wasn’t “only” an undergrad, he was eligible for some paid TA work that he might not otherwise have gotten.
Thank you for sharing your son's experience at Yale.
by fullplay2024
Mon Aug 31, 2020 4:48 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Shopping for college
Replies: 164
Views: 16519

Re: Shopping for college

Unfortunate about UIUC, but my amateur prediction is that with the reduced (COVID) emphasis on big sports, Greek life, etc., that your son will do wonderfully at UMich. Great school, with perhaps a bit too much school spirit for its own good (anyone know a Mich grad that doesn’t LOVE the school? Me neither.). My son went to Yale and also applied to Michigan (Computer Science). His cost of attendance was made up in no time after graduation. ROI off the charts. @TomatoTomahto - This is great to hear. My son has enough AP credits to graduate with a CS degree in 3 years. However, he wants to get Masters course work completed in 4 years. Regarding UIUC, it was of course a very disappointing outcome. We knew UIUC CS program was highly competitiv...
by fullplay2024
Mon Aug 31, 2020 4:42 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Shopping for college
Replies: 164
Views: 16519

Re: Shopping for college

We live in Illinois and my son unfortunately got denied an admission to UIUC, our state flagship. He's currently a Computer Science freshman at UMich. Son was a National Merit finalist and had a full ride from a lower ranked school. Other than that, we received no funding from UMich or other public/private schools he got into. We're paying a full out-of-state sticker price of $65K per year. UMich is a great school, but $65K a year is a steep price to pay for a college education. "We're paying a full out-of-state sticker price of $65K per year." What do you estimate the full costs to be with travel, food, personal items, activities etc per year? I'm budgeting additional $5K for travel, and personal items. That may be an underestim...
by fullplay2024
Mon Aug 31, 2020 3:05 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Shopping for college
Replies: 164
Views: 16519

Re: Shopping for college

We live in Illinois and my son unfortunately got denied an admission to UIUC, our state flagship. He's currently a Computer Science freshman at UMich. Son was a National Merit finalist and had a full ride from a lower ranked school. Other than that, we received no funding from UMich or other public/private schools he got into. We're paying a full out-of-state sticker price of $65K per year. UMich is a great school, but $65K a year is a steep price to pay for a college education.
by fullplay2024
Thu Aug 13, 2020 4:03 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Financially Independent young - why not retire?
Replies: 42
Views: 6405

Re: Financially Independent young - why not retire?

You have my vote to retire. Cheers :beer
by fullplay2024
Sun Apr 12, 2020 11:34 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Executive pay cut request: How to respond?
Replies: 130
Views: 15662

Re: Executive pay cut request: How to respond?

I am an entrepreneur. I make a 7 figure annual income. I built my own successful company. I don’t enjoy going to the expensive lawyers and accountants all that much. I may get more interesting advice when I post on bogleheads or on a forum in my industry. Sure, I may then bring forward some of those ideas to the expensive professionals, but I still get good ideas and appreciate the discussion right here. I also like to think that I know how to spot good advice and how to ignore bad advice, but no matter what, I quite often benefit from the discussions on this forum. Please be polite and respect the OP for the question posed. Rich people have feelings too! Go ahead and present a thoughtful answer, or otherwise, you could simply opt to reser...
by fullplay2024
Wed Jun 12, 2019 1:58 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Careers that combine art/design and science?
Replies: 36
Views: 2429

Re: Careers that combine art/design and science?

Check out http://csrankings.org/#/index?all and choose interdisciplinary areas on the left. CSRankings is a metrics-based ranking of top computer science institutions around the world.
by fullplay2024
Fri Jun 07, 2019 2:26 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Costco or Sam's Club?
Replies: 134
Views: 13498

Re: Costco or Sam's Club?

Costco. Didn't shop at Sam's in last 10 years.
by fullplay2024
Wed Jun 05, 2019 1:21 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: For those who earn $500k+ per year. How'd you do that?
Replies: 369
Views: 60204

Re: For those who earn $500k+ per year. How'd you do that?

I’m surprised at how MD-heavy this thread became. I knew BH was skewed toward medical and tech, but the sheer lack of business owners piping up is surprising to me. Are there really only two of us? Entrepreneurs, wherefore art thou? I read through the whole thread and I'm also surprised there aren't more of us. I'm only at about $400k gross now (nearly $500k HHI), so I don't even qualify, but at least I'm close and could potentially get there. I'm a co-founder of a small internet company. We started 20 years ago when I was in my late 20s, and I took a big pay cut to do it. There were several lean years before it started paying off, and of course there was never a guarantee that it would, but now I'm earning a lot more than I would working ...
by fullplay2024
Sat Jun 01, 2019 2:25 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: For those who earn $500k+ per year. How'd you do that?
Replies: 369
Views: 60204

Re: For those who earn $500k+ per year. How'd you do that?

A few acquaintances who make >$500k:

1. Plumbers and HVAC techs who started out in 20s and worked his butt off for 20+ years. Hired and trained plumbers, and now pull in a large six figure passive income with minimal work.
2. An executive coach who works with CEOs and makes 500k to 1M+ a year.
3. A realtor who works long hours.. income fluctuates, but consistently broke 500k mark
4. Real estate investors who built a massive multi-family portfolio
5. Couples working in Tech companies in the bay area
6. Investment bankers
7. Tech entrepreneurs
8. Physicians
by fullplay2024
Sat Jun 01, 2019 2:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: For those who earn $500k+ per year. How'd you do that?
Replies: 369
Views: 60204

Re: For those who earn $500k+ per year. How'd you do that?

Household W2 income crossed 500k mark last year.

- MCOL area
- VP of Engineering & Pharmacy Manager at Megcorps
- 15-20 years of individual work experience
- no more than 40 hours per week, no travel.
- ages: high 30s to low 40s

We're FI and can retire now if we downsize to a smaller home. But, we will ride it out for as long as the gravy train lasts, and build a bigger cushion prior to pulling the plug.
by fullplay2024
Mon May 27, 2019 7:28 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: tankless water heater?
Replies: 37
Views: 5229

Re: tankless water heater?

I recently replaced two gas tanks with one gas tankless. Too early to say this, but I'm happy with the decision.
by fullplay2024
Wed May 15, 2019 1:28 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: If you are already wealthy, what keeps you motivated?
Replies: 102
Views: 15455

Re: If you are already wealthy, what keeps you motivated?

If money is no longer a factor, you can spend more time on your hobbies or anything else that makes you happy.
by fullplay2024
Wed May 15, 2019 11:40 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Leaving My CPA
Replies: 22
Views: 2898

Re: Leaving My CPA

I'm on my 3rd CPA in 25 years and in my experience most of them don't know half of what is commonly discussed on this forum. I find that I have to explain backdoor Roth's almost every year. My current CPA asked how I manage to put so much into my 401k every year (a solo 401k). Every year I comb through my returns and find several errors. This year her first attempt at my taxes gave me a $2,000 refund. When I was done going through it, it was a $31,000 refund (she missed a QBI deduction). This year was especially bad because of the new tax code. On several occasions involving complex real estate deals, I've asked two CPAs the same questions and gotten very different answers. All I can say it that nobody is ever going to care about your mone...
by fullplay2024
Mon May 06, 2019 4:49 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Can we retire by 40??
Replies: 22
Views: 4660

Re: Can we retire by 40??

If you reach your target of $3-4M over next 5 years, you can easily move to a LCOL or MCOL area and fully retire. However, here are some potential derailers you may want to keep in mind: 1. Speaking from experience, kids aren't inexpensive. You have to account for growing expenses for education, college savings, vacations, extracurriculars, etc. 2. Stability and growth of your salaries and rental income 3. A market recession can potentially slow your portfolio growth down 4. Health care expenses in an early retirement We are 43/40 with 2 teens and live in a MCOL area. We are financially independent today but can't retire yet since we don't want to re-organize our assets or scale back our expenses. Our best years in terms of net worth & ...
by fullplay2024
Wed Apr 24, 2019 6:53 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Please critique our plan
Replies: 18
Views: 1929

Re: Please critique our plan

I am not understanding still, but I don’t want to extend the argument. To each his own. Agree: I don't think it needs to be an argument either. Critique/Advice like asked, Yes! Give them some food for thought with varied opinions, Yes! But the argument should be saved for he and his wife down the road if they run out of cash too early in retirement, which honestly I don't see happening, unless their IP also includes leaving a major fortune to the kids. But that's a personal choice (to each his own). :D Side notes to the OP: we also spend at least $20k a year on all the same stuff your family does: food, dining, clothing, groceries, furniture, etc. But we also have a high 6-figure income to support that level of spending and zero debt to bo...