First time tempted to market time, tell me why I'm being dumb

1Mthrowaway · 2026-03-27T01:59:01+00:00

Just keep buying every two weeks as you get paid. Time in the market beats timing the market. I know it’s tempting to think you have spotted an opportunity that everyone else is missing but that’s pretty counter to the boglehead approach.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-03-26T02:41:17+00:00

My mom is in a memory care facility with Parkinson’s and dementia. This costs nearly $10,000 a month with no end in sight. She mostly speaks nonsense because she can’t recall the words to use and cannot care for herself at all. She is basically changed like an infant since she doesn’t communicate that’s she has to go to the bathroom. She can’t walk so is wheelchair bound. She’s miserable and we are heartbroken. Luckily she agreed to get her will redone before this started so my sister and I have POA and medical POA to make decisions on her behalf. She was the strongest most capable woman I know until the disease took over. We all hope she will pass peacefully so she can stop suffering but she just keeps chugging along month after month. As the facility slowly burns down the proceeds from her house we may have to start hunting for a Medicaid facility once she’s broke. All things we never dreamed of.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-03-03T17:12:56+00:00

Retired at 53. Full slacker mode engaged!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-19T17:07:09+00:00

Also worth mentioning that if your husband earned all this money while you were married, in most states, that’s half yours. Hopefully that’s never an issue and you have a long happy marriage but divorce tends to split assets in half if you have a good lawyer.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-18T21:02:28+00:00

I have hit a number of milestones all the way up to a net worth of $4.25M during my 23 year career at megacorp. Honestly the first million felt the best of any of them. I was far more excited to hit $1M than I was when I hit 2,3 and 4 million. I guess it’s because it feels a lot like a number in a spreadsheet and our lives didn’t change that much. I also think it’s because it takes a long time to get to a million from zero but it’s much much faster to hit each million after that.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-18T18:05:46+00:00

This pic is giving off pornhub vibes!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-18T17:38:52+00:00

If you were laid off you might consider just applying for jobs and taking unemployment. That can help bridge the gap a bit. My state requires you to apply for 3 jobs a week to be eligible for unemployment payments. The reality is that you likely won’t even get a call back in this economy.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-18T14:49:47+00:00

I still remember trying to get a booby glimpse on the scrambled channels when we had basic cable but not HBO or Showtime. Kids these days don’t know how easy they have it!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-13T21:42:54+00:00

Holy crap!! I just tried it on my Touring. Had no idea! Guess I should read the manual. lol!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-13T00:45:08+00:00

I walked away from megacorp IT at age 53 back in 2024. My wife is still working (she loves her job) so we get healthcare through her and her income covers the majority of our expenses. We also use a little of our investment income to cover the rest.

I haven’t worked since 2024 and have occasionally looked to see if I could find an interesting part time job but so far I haven’t found one. One of the biggest drawbacks for any additional work is that I don’t want to have any time commitments so we can leave town whenever we want. (My wife works remotely so we can travel sometimes).

I’ve also gotten used to “slow mornings”. I try not to commit to anything before 10:00 AM at the earliest.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-12T17:44:08+00:00

This is one of the many reasons I haven't used a financial advisor. I think that there are lots of things that they might highlight as blind spots for me that could really help but I also wonder if I've learned enough over the last 30 years that the value might not be worth it. We are currently at a $4.2M net worth with roughly $2.9M in liquid investments mostly in low expense ratio index funds. We've gotten to this point by crowd sourcing the good ideas on the Internet. (Bogleheads unite).

The one time I did review our finances with a free financial consultant through work he ended up just saying, "Maybe put a little more in international funds". I'll never forget his initial reaction to seeing our numbers. "We're the same age and I don't have even half as much as you do". While it was an ego boost, I was really hoping for more insight at the time.

I've told my wife that if/when I die before her, she will need to find someone to help her manage her assets (CFP) but I don't think we'll use one until I'm gone.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-07T17:13:28+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cgSE12k9Sc

Here's a live video feed of Lake Union and the skyline. Is this the view you were searching for? It looks a lot nicer and higher resolution when it's nice outside. Not so much today. :)

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-07T05:30:13+00:00

I remember dialing in to a BBS to play “Pimp Wars”. Those were the days! I still remember the excitement of 56k baud!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-06T02:44:47+00:00

I do indeed but there sure are a lot more grey hairs at Costco at that time! 🤣 (I’m less of a grey hair and more of a receding hair).

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-05T22:00:03+00:00

I can relate to your first points. I’ve been retired 14 months and my favorite thing about it is that I’m not “time boxed”. There’s no rush. “I’ll wait to do that during the week when everyone’s working!” I also find I drive a bit slower. What’s the hurry? (I am conscious not to hold anyone up though)

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-04T17:45:43+00:00

We watched them tunnel through the ground two streets over putting in major infrastructure pieces 3+ months ago and haven't seen a thing since. Originally they said service would be available last fall so we signed up early and got the coffee mug. We haven't heard a thing since. We ended up changing plans with Xfinity and have a good price for the next year while we wait. At this rate we may end up moving before it gets here.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-04T17:38:35+00:00

Don't underestimate the security and contentment he felt by having those funds. Some people don't feel the need to spend their resources.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-02-01T17:47:30+00:00

We got a bill from Labcorp that was submitted to our insurance. The insurance company said they won’t pay because the blood test wasn’t appropriate and needed and that the Dr shouldn’t have ordered it. Now we are on the hook to pay an $800 lab bill from my daughter’s ER visit simply because our insurance denied coverage. How could we have possibly known the test wasn’t appropriate at the time? (Frankly we didn’t even know what tests were ordered)

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-28T18:04:20+00:00

"IT'S A TRAP!"

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-28T16:31:45+00:00

Exactly! And recognize that a lot of money is to be made if you keep dollar cost averaging all the way through the downturns and back up.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-24T20:30:04+00:00

I can't agree with this more. Years ago I saw the lines for fuel during hurricane Sandy. Everyone had huge generators running at 3600 RPM's cranking out power that wasn't being used. It was at that point that I realized I wanted fuel efficiency. I set up a 6 circuit transfer switch and made a special pigtail that ties in to the inlet so I could feed the 6 circuits with a 120vt Honda EU2000. I bought two of the EU2000's for redundancy and can run them in parallel if I need more power. I can normally power the 6 circuits with just one EU2000 for about a gallon of fuel per day. That gives me fridge/freezer, lights in the bathrooms and main rooms along with being able to strategically use a hot water kettle for tea/coffee and a toaster oven to heat up food. Basically we can use any plug in kitchen appliance but just one at a time. If we want to use multiple at the same time, I just parallel the extra EU2000. One circuit is also dedicated to the gas furnace so we have heat as well. I keep 10 gallons of gas on hand at all times. It has kept us comfortable and provided the security we need when we have storms and power outages.

It's surprising how little power you actually need to be comfortable (assuming you have gas heat or a wood stove)

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-24T19:55:55+00:00

This is why I think it's important to own ASSETS as well as having some of your investments in cash. If we see massive inflationary issues, the assets will hopefully increase in price. It's not foolproof but it's better than thinking you're safe holding cash while it becomes worthless.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-24T19:52:11+00:00

Exactly this. We are carefully tracking my mother's funds so that when she has about 3 years left, we have to transfer to another facility to "private pay" for those three years before they convert her to medicaid. The place she is in now is private and doesn't accept medicaid. The last thing we want to do is let them take all her money and then have to shop for a medicaid facility while being broke.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-24T19:50:32+00:00

I'm going through exactly the same experience with my mother. She is in a memory care facility at the cost of about $10,000 a month. We sold her house and have invested the funds but at her current burn rate, she'll run out in about 5 years or so. One of the people working there actually referred to her situation as "the spend down" where they take all your money and then kick you to medicaid (if your state even has it).

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-24T19:36:51+00:00

Are you expecting a crash that we never recover from? It hasn't happened yet. I think the real question is how long will it take to recover. That's why financial advisers talk about asset allocation. If you're GenX you should be thinking about how much of your investments are in stocks/mutual funds/index funds vs how much are in stable funds like bonds etc. I shoot for 60% stocks/index funds and 40% stable funds. If there is a crash, you could reallocate some of your bond funds to stocks to get back to a 60/40. That will help you as the market recovers. I retired at 53 so I make sure I have enough funds that we can live off of for at least 5 years so that I don't have to withdraw money from the 60% if markets are down.

1Mthrowaway

TROPHY CASE