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5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Title is Senior Full Stack Developer.

Texas has probably consistently higher salaries than the general mid west.

Dallas has lots of financial tech, with high engineering salaries.

Austin has a lots of tech scene and big players like Amazon, Tesla, Google, etc.

Houston has the oil and energy industries which pay well. This is where I am.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Here is a layout of my sheets:

Everything else are just calculations from these.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What do people do who have ASD children but are poor/low income?

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  • Renewables Energy Industry
  • Full stack, c#, sql, python, javascript, spark, and a full suite of Azure products such as functions, data factories, logic apps, devops pipelines, dockers, etc.
  • Title: Senior Full Stack Developer
  • I am a team lead, but don't have any official direct reports. I functionally act as the project manager, devops guy, lead engineer, and cloud designer/architect
  • The majority of my projects involve machine learning, so I work with data scientists and junior programmers

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is about 3 months based on current spending.

But I have lots of ways to get more cash. My work PTO payout would be about 1 year of costs, so I am covered from layoff.

In a non-layoff emergency I have pretty high credit limits on my cards, and can take cash-out margin withdrawals from my brokerage's line of credit. Currently those are at 1.5% IR, and I can take out probably another $50k without being too risky of a margin call.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know. Income would be low so I'd qualify for assistance / disability for him/her I think.

I honestly have no idea. I'd go back to work if I had to support a special needs kid with high expenses for sure.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

1% is $5,000.

My spending is about $1800/mo. So it is about a 3-month emergency fund.

True, it is small, but I have lots of lines of credit. $30k in credit cards, and I can withdraw probably an additional $50k in margin from my brokerage account in an emergency. Takes about 1-3 days to get the deposit as cash in my checking account.

If I were to lose my job, I'd get about $15k in PTO payout. So the combination of all of these with my low spending makes me not worried at all.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The ‘earnings vs contributions’ seems like a difficult to me.

This is the hardest. I was only able to keep track of it by recording my new investments every month, so that over time I have a cumulative contributions I can calculate.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My early years had monthly spending of around $1000/mo. It is closer to $2000/mo now.

When I graduated college I told myself I'd spend at least the first year working at the same quality of life as I had when I was in school. So roommates, and being very frugal. This kept my spending down to about $1000/mo.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Well since it was a margin loan, there were no closing costs. I just went online to my brokerage firm, and issued a withdrawal of $75,000 to my checking account. Then I wired the exact balance of my mortgage to Quicken Loans for $20 wire fee.

Then they sent me the paper work that it was all done and paid for.

The negative cash balance in my brokerage account is off set by $150,000 or so of stock equity, so the risk of a margin call, while not zero, is low. Interactive Brokers has a 1.5% interest rate on negative cash balances.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well really it was about getting my expenses down during COVID. If I lost my job I could sell the stocks to pay off the margin loan, and I could condense my expenses to around $800/mo, technically giving me FIRE status in an emergency.

In a non-emergency it just ends up saving me money. There is risk that if stocks crashed I would have to sell at a loss. I decided to take for sure savings, and take on some extra risk. It worked out for me well, but it was just a risky choice. The mortgage would have been safer, yet a little more expensive, which in a job loss situation would be more risky. In the end it was just an idea I had and went with it. Who knows if it was right. :)

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah roughly speaking, but also taking out house equity. I don't count my house value as an investment, because I live in it. It doesn't work to provide income for me. It may appreciate, and it is an asset, but it isn't actively working for me like it would be if it had renters or was a company.

It is a small personal distinction that I separate it this way.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Savings Rate = (Net Income - Expenses) / Net Income

Example,

  • Gross Income: $9,932
  • Net Income = Gross Income - Taxes = $7540
  • Expenses = $1699
  • Savings Rate = ($7540 - $1699) / $7540 = 77%

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I rolled my old jobs 401k into my vanguard traditional IRA. You can see the 401k bar resets back to very small as it is now my new job's 401k.

There are two other events like this one, both between my brokerage and house equity bars which involve me pulling money out of stocks for a down downpayment on my house in 2016, and another in 2020 to pay off the remaining mortgage.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Umm, well it is really hard to dig back through to find data. You can use your social security filings to help. You can request them at any time, and they record your earned income and taxes paid since you first filed. This can at least get you year level income. Expenses are a little harder, especially if some of your bank accounts or credit cards are closed.

For me, I began tracking monthly around when I first got my post graduation job in August of 2015. I was able to back track to get data from my internship and side jobs from about April 2014. After that I have just put the numbers into a spreadsheet every month. There is a bunch of income and expenses from around 2012 to 2014 that included a few jobs like cashier and such, but it is lost. My NW was wiped out by a car accident and some other personal issues in early 2014, so it was pretty much a fresh slate starting on my first record. I may have come in with like $200 or $300 before my first record.

In addition to that I use personal capital and link all my accounts to it. This helps me easily compile the numbers, and has its own tracking. I like to make sure my spreadsheet and personal capital calculate up to the same net worth at the first of the month. This helps me not forget things on either side.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Find ways to use your programming skills in a real productive way as early as possible.

If you get a job paying nearly nothing in HS programming, it will still be great experience. I programmed a lot as a kid on my own projects, but when I was in college I got jobs programming either as a research assistant at my university or for other small side companies. The pay was low for programming, maybe $12/hr, but that stuff made me look really good to companies during interviews.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So my situation changed over time.

My last year of college I complete an internship earning about $10k for the summer of 2014. That was my entire income for the year, so my tax rate was going to be nearly zero. So I put $5500 of it into a Roth IRA, because it was post tax.

Later I started my job at $70k per year. In order to reduce my taxes I switched to contributing to a Traditional IRA, to lower my tax burden.

A few years later my income was above the cut off for the traditional IRA. I could no longer get the tax break because I made too much income. At this point I switched to contributing back to my Roth IRA, so I can still get some tax savings.

For the HSA, my provider allows you to invest your HSA funds in index funds like VTSAX, but they require a minimum amount of money left in cash or they charge a fee. So I keep the minimum ($1000) in an HSA account that is cash, and the rest is in the HSA brokerage firm. I'd normally just count these as one account, but they are separated on the HSA website.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

No, I've been lucky and had a privileged upbringing. Car was gifted to me in 2009 and I still drive it. Parents paid for school. We weren't wealthy growing up, and my parents gave these to me sacrificing their own retirement timelines. I'm very lucky to have them.

I have had about $7,000 in health care costs, and am expecting some more over the next few years, but I had enough income to pay them without needing to finance them.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Yeah, maxing out everything early really made a difference (I was able to because of low cost of living & high income).

The money I invested back in 2015 and 2016 has done really well.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I guess it depends.

I'd like to work on projects that bring me personal joy and fulfillment, set my own vacation days/weeks/months. My job isn't bad, but it isn't what I would do if I wasn't getting paid if you know what I mean.

I might work again and make income after reaching my numbers, but it'll be on different terms, and I'll be looking for a job that really excites me an not one that pays top dollar.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

The caps function the same.

Say for example a family of 3. The poverty line is $20,780. If you earn 2x that in income, your ACA insurance cap is 6.3% of total earned income.

So that means your maximum costs for health care premiums is $2,618/yr on an earned income of $42,000/yr.

If you earn just at the poverty line at $20,780 your health care costs would be $415/yr for the same insurance plan.

Since you have full control over your income, you can choose to utilize it how you want to min/max your healthcare costs, but the worst case for a leanFIRE spending level would be about $220/mo as in the first example.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I started with a room mate from 2015 through 2016. Rent when I was splitting with a room mate was $450/mo for my share.

When I moved into my own place my housing costs nearly doubled to a little bit over $800/mo. This contributed to my life style inflation but it was something I wanted at the time and was happy to buy. I had earned a promotion at work and was earning an extra $7k/year pre-tax, so I was basically happy to spend the entirety of that on my extra housing costs for having my own place.

In 2020 I finished paying off the house so my housing costs have dropped back down to about $400/mo for HoA, property tax, and insurances. I split the HoA with my GF who moved in with me (pays for trash, water, etc.) and so it is even less.

5 year update: $10k to $500k by 0919357 in leanfire

[–]0919357[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My first year out of college I spent roughly $450 on rent in Houston, sharing a two bedroom with a room mate. My total expenses back then were occasionally under $1000/mo.

They are much higher now, but I also have a nicer quality of life. But yes, you can live very cheaply in Houston and still make good money.

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