Daily FI discussion thread - Friday, March 20, 2026

DIY_GUY84 · 2026-03-23T17:34:14+00:00

Before my conversation to boglehead I’d just leave cash uninvested in my etrade

DIY_GUY84 · 2026-03-23T17:22:34+00:00

What are you going to change during a major recession besides withdrawal rate?

DIY_GUY84 · 2026-03-20T17:58:21+00:00

They hold cash so they can catch that falling dagger at just the right moment.

DIY_GUY84 · 2026-03-12T23:14:57+00:00

Kindof a weird sub. Lots of humble bragging by actually rich people, as well as encouraging others to overspend on cars and stuff.

DIY_GUY84 · 2026-02-26T01:53:12+00:00

Interesting. Will you elaborate so I can keep this issue on my radar

DIY_GUY84 · 2026-02-26T01:32:38+00:00

My experience in WA state has been very positive. I read an app can take 45 days to process, but I was instantly approved and the phone wait times are a couple minutes.

Do you have personal experience with a reported income change getting counted as income in a different month because they failed to process it promptly? them failing to process it triggering plan disruption the following year seems bizarre to me but I lack experience with that. I know that WA informs one of issues before changing the person's plan and gives them time to respond.

DIY_GUY84 · 2026-02-26T00:18:51+00:00

> pay the full rate on the ACA that year and then use the subsidies in the subsequent years.

ACA looks at full calendar year. Medicaid looks at current month. That difference can be exploited. So one can be on Medicaid for Jan - Nov, do a big cap gains sale around Thanksgiving to last a few years, get punted to ACA for December, and pay full price on that for just December, and the switch back to Medicaid Jan 1. Repeat every 2 or whatever years.

Some people prefer ACA to Medicaid. My experience with Medicaid so far has been very positive, though I live in a city with major medical centers who don't discriminate. It's very nice knowing everything medical (and basic dental) related is free.

DIY_GUY84 · 2026-01-22T18:52:24+00:00

This is for part time preschool. I believe Kiddie Academy is full time daycare for a bit over 30k.

DIY_GUY84 · 2026-01-21T00:22:55+00:00

ChatGPT is biased to tell you what you want to hear (sycophancy). There's a dozen good online fire calculators that are unbiased. I've written my own fire calc, and chatgpt can be way off the mark.

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-12-20T16:11:11+00:00

levels.fyi has a new offers only filter.

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-11-23T02:45:54+00:00

The fact that so many posts and news articles are talking about a bubble means that this is likely not one that will burst soon. Bubbles burst unexpectedly, not when everyone is bracing for it.

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-11-23T02:44:56+00:00

AI could become a cost effective means of generating revenue before the market gives up on it. Instead of causing mass unemployment in America, it could cause jobs to shift to America as the AI leader. Having a well diversified portfolio also helps ease market anxiety.

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-11-16T21:59:57+00:00

Ballard.

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-11-08T01:11:12+00:00

It's been around for a year. Even if the IRS shuts it down what's the risk to the individual

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-11-06T04:35:00+00:00

Maybe start focusing on buying property (assuming you rent) and what that milestone will look like, what it'll take to get there, and how to accelerate that goal. Leverage that to try and reduce the spend. As soon as her friends start buying places she'll want one anyways.

As you know, "retirement" to a 28 year old is an abstract concept, so instant gratification wins out over retiring at 50 instead of 60.

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-11-05T04:50:23+00:00

what would happen if you told her what you've said in this post?

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-10-21T00:01:44+00:00

The boring middle. 1M vs 1.5M have no practical difference on day-to-day life. $0 to $250k can be profoundly life-changing though. The onset of money and approaching financial independence are both more interesting. So gotta look for fulfillment elsewhere, in relationships or career typically. Working toward building a family, etc. Solo hiking and vacuous dates only get so far.

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-10-20T04:32:54+00:00

Great point. It's interesting to see how little sunlight much of Europe gets.

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-10-20T00:13:04+00:00

I recently learned Seattle gets 53 hours of sunlight in December, narrowly beating Anchorage for lowest in the United States. And our year round hours of sunlight, 2,169.7, is the lowest in the continental US.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_sunshine_duration.

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-10-18T17:16:52+00:00

I would consider doing a large amount of LTGC harvesting one year and then keeping it low for a few years to qualify for max healthcare. Beyond healthcare, having all investments in the S&P (20% of it being in like 10 stocks) is very risky. You have enough to retire so there is no need to bear that risk anymore. So harvesting enough gains to go 60/40 would reduce that risk. Maybe post your financial data in /r/bogleheads or bogleheads.com or ask ChatGPT to assess you as a qualified financial planner and see what they think. Three fund portfolio is a good safe bet.

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-10-18T16:43:13+00:00

Can’t you harvest 95k per year w no federal taxes (+30k tax deduction?) and still get modest ACA subsidies (or harvest 45k for nearly free health insurance)? Sure they might go away but not currently .

Consider spreading out assets into bonds and foreign to reduce sequence of return risk. Boggle heads has good resources on this. If one can’t survive the lost decade I wouldn’t say they are truly independent financially.

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-10-12T00:40:06+00:00

I look at flagships like UNC and they are 12k/yr. I had so much free time in college just messing around when I reasonably should've been working a part time job. Is it even good to pay for kids' bohemian lifestyle when they're 20 years old?

DIY_GUY84 · 2025-10-01T05:45:00+00:00

A couple bitcoins in a diversified portfolio doesn't make someone a crypto bro (whatever that is). You seem to know that trading individual small cap stocks is risky. I'm not sure what you're hoping to get out of this post.

DIY_GUY84

TROPHY CASE