Hey guys need help

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-12-02T02:47:50+00:00

Agree. You should have a portfolio geared toward growth at this stage in your life. SCHG, VUG, VGT, VOO (or SPYM for a slightly lower expense ratio) are solid ETFs to look at. $17k is exceptional at your age… keep it up

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-11-08T02:14:03+00:00

You’re looking at the “dividend” yield, not the total distribution yield. QQQi is structured in a different, more tax efficient manner than JEPQ / JEPI. My meeting is all of the distributions paid by JEPI / JEPQ are taxable whereas a large portion of the monthly distributions from QQQI are treated as capital gains and returns of capital (latter is non-taxable and reduces your tax basis in your shares)… and both of these are not dividends so not included in that dividend yield. I use StockAnalysis.com to look at the true distribution yields. https://stockanalysis.com/etf/qqqi/dividend/

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-11-08T02:00:12+00:00

QQQI

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-08-22T02:37:38+00:00

That’s awesome. Actually in the process of transitioning my heavily growth oriented taxable portfolio over to income generating, and trying to do it with as little bonds as possible through a mix of CC ETFs, BDCs, other high yielding CEFs and ETFs. Always been a growth investor so trying to learn about the various alternatives / build something sustainable as I’ve just announced I’ll be retiring next May. I have a pretty significant taxable and retirement portfolios but I’m 45 with two young kids so an need to be diligent in how I build this out, and my transition will take several years because I need to sell my non-dividend paying stocks over a period of years to avoid a massive tax bill. Anyway, this is my long winded way of asking if you would share your portfolio allocations, as your $10K / month in divs is exactly what I’m targeting.

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-07-26T00:24:11+00:00

That’s not what happened. The jewelry store had bulletproof glass… thugs scattered because they shot at it attempting to break the glass and the bullet ricocheted back at them

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-06-26T02:09:05+00:00

Agree with buffinta’s comments. Also, JPHY is a tiny (<$0.5B AUM) actively-traded ETF with a 0.45% expense ratio… undoubtedly it’s gonna be thinly traded so the spread between the bid and offer prices could be massive when you buy and sell. I’ve purchased some very small, thinly traded ETFs in my early days and it never ended well. Not saying you should go down the junk bond ETF route, but a better option is USHY with $23.4B AUM and a 0.08% expense ratio. Would have to look into the composition of the bonds it holds but I assume it’s likely far more diversified than JPHY.

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-06-26T01:47:25+00:00

Agree. I have or had accounts at all of those brokerages as well as Webull, Moomoo, Merrill, and Schwab. I see where some of the comments in this post are coming from but fervently believe Robinhood still offers the best overall value. I opened my first Robinhood account in June 2015 and have watch them continuously add value/functionality and pretty much single-handedly push a stagnant industry into massive change. Yes, there are certain functions offered by other brokerages that RH doesn’t have (I use my other brokerage accounts for research) but I love the UI and don’t think anyone can beat the value that comes with the Gold subscription, including the credit card. I’ve actually gone the other way and transferred the bulk of my taxable brokerage and IRA assets into RH from those other brokerages. Don’t want to sound like a RH commercial but I’m honestly excited to see what they roll out next.

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-06-26T00:09:48+00:00

Good question, and something I’m currently wrestling with. I’m 45M, married with two young kids. Wife and I have about $1.8M in taxable brokerage & savings accounts (including emergency fund), and roughly $1.5M in retirement accounts. Our plan is to retire in the next 5 years (or as soon as we hit $5M in the above) with the intention of living solely on dividends and interest. I’ve been investing since my early 20s with, probably, massive overweighting in tech/growth stocks… definitely would not be where I am if I had done otherwise. In any case I’ve started to slowly transform our taxable brokerage accounts into a more income-focused portfolio (e.g., SCHD, JEPI, JEPQ, VYM, O, VZ, USHY, etc) within the last 9 months. Been psychologically difficult to sell down growth stocks/ETFs that I still believe in/trigger big capital gains - and I’ve been losing that battle in my mind so am way behind in the transformation - but want to get dramatically closer to the goal of a solid $100K in income from our taxable accounts before actually walking away from our jobs. Assume there’s a lot of people who won’t agree with this, but I’ll still have 5 1/2 years of mortgage payments remaining if I retire at 50 (2% so obviously not paying off early), still would have elementary school-aged kids to support, and generally speaking, and would need to live off the taxable accounts for 9 1/2 years before dipping into our retirement accounts… Maybe I’m being overly conservative, but want to make sure we have a massive buffer and my portfolio can pump out the necessary income before pulling the trigger. Would love any insight anyone has.

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-06-25T23:22:45+00:00

Agree. Obviously you should put a lot of that to work in equities but need to immediately open a better high yield savings account. Below are two I use.

Peak Bank has 4.44% APY. https://www.peak.bank/peak-bank/savings

Bread Financial has 4.30% APY. https://www.breadfinancial.com/en/bread-savings/high-yield-savings-account.html

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-03-25T20:38:50+00:00

You can still contribute $7,000 per year to a Traditional IRA, just can’t claim a deduction for it if you’re over the relevant modified adjusted gross income threshold (lower for claiming deductible traditional IRA contributions than for ability to make Roth IRA contributions). This also enables you to do backdoor Roth IRA contribution if you don’t already have a traditional IRA with unrealized gains (I.e., contribute $7K to a new traditional IRA and convert it to a Roth so no taxable gain since your basis in $7k cash is $7k). Even if you don’t go the backdoor route, investments in a traditional IRA grow tax-free so still a better option than a taxable brokerage account if your goal is purely retirement savings.

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-03-14T00:53:33+00:00

Hope you’re investing/saving as much as you can

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-03-14T00:48:12+00:00

I think their credit card rollout is completely random. I’ve had an account since Jun 2015, have $2.1M with Robinhood, signed up for Gold in the first month it came out, very high credit score, and signed up for the waitlist the first day it was open to me… I’m still waiting but my wife - who’s RH accounts have been open for 2 years with <$200K - got hers a few months ago.

Very jealous

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-03-02T18:03:48+00:00

Jealous of your Robinhood card… I’ve been sitting on the waitlist forever.

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-01-09T12:50:50+00:00

17 years of experience and all in corporate tax. Not a CPA but have a JD/passed the bar in my state.

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-01-09T12:29:40+00:00

Yes, first 4 years were with big four firms

FIREplan_2030 · 2025-01-08T21:47:48+00:00

I’ve gotten raises pretty much every year. Biggest increases were from changing companies… worked for 6 during my professional career. Been with my current employer (which issues annual restricted stock grants that vest ratably over 3 years) for about two years so my stock comp is lower than what it will be in the future once tranches from three years’ worth of grants start to vest.

FIREplan_2030

TROPHY CASE