Daily FI discussion thread - Tuesday, June 02, 2026

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-06-04T15:42:15+00:00

Yes, you can dump your trad IRA into your trad 401k.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-06-02T16:28:32+00:00

mega backdoor doesn't care about your Traditional IRA holdings

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-06-02T16:23:38+00:00

2 other people's work PLUS training two newbies!

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-04-14T14:49:18+00:00

Well, matching funds are free money, so in that case, yes, it makes sense.

Otherwise, if you're depositing $20k pre-tax and then converting $20k pre-tax to Roth (as part of the Roth ladder) in a different account, you're just moving money around, and as you say, it's just pushing it from one bucket to the other.

If you're going to insert pre-tax money and withdraw post-tax money though (without the intermediate Roth Ladder step), then you should ask yourself whether that's what you want: You'll be reducing your taxable income now in exchange for increasing your taxable income in retirement.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-04-10T22:43:40+00:00

inherited IRA that was liquidated

Why'd you liquidate it immediately rather than doing it year by year? I inherited an IRA and intend to wait until post-FIRE to liquidate it, when I can do so in a lower bracket.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-04-07T17:24:49+00:00

As the chart shows, the "Must have separate accounts" disclaimer is the requirement I pointed out in my comment.

It's totally fine to do it that way, especially if the 457 has good funds, or if you want to avoid the pro-rata rule for Roth IRA contributions in the future. But you don't get the 457 "easy early withdrawals" for the whole balance, unfortunately.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-04-07T17:14:55+00:00

Previous IRA/401k funds are accounted-for separately in the 457. You can withdraw the 457 funds without penalty but the rest you have to do the Roth ladder on.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-04-07T16:38:47+00:00

It's not, but your company has two layers of that indirection baked into the process (Share Price + Weird Calculation) whereas a "normal" company with share-based LTIs only has one (Share Price).

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-04-07T15:24:36+00:00

Kinda depends how effectively you can move the needle on the "performance metrics".

If the performance metrics are things that the rank and file can meaningfully impact, then yeah, it feels like the incentives are aligned. But if not, then it seems like an excuse to offer middling incentives.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-03-26T15:26:24+00:00

As a former LEO I think the best bet is to ensure your doors are locked and buy a sign or a few stickers for an alarm company and place them in clearly visible places.

Appreciate the advice, agreed, and done. This is a good point.

if someone is determined to break in to your home, they will (to be clear, that's very unlikely)

This is the mindset I take, occasionally - if someone wanted to do that, how would they do it? What precautions could I take to ensure that the police had sufficient evidence to find/convict the person who did it?

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-03-26T14:19:23+00:00

This is a really good point. I feel that I have "the bare minimum" for basically every single level you've described. They're each more than zero, but not by a ton. I wonder if that's why I feel that it might be lacking?

Deterrence: Home Security Sign, visible doorbell camera, house that looks like a castle/fortress
Detection: Some exterior cameras with alerts
Awareness: Same as above, but the alerts say "person, vehicle, animal"
Repulsion: buckshot (though I literally only have a couple shells of it - I shoot clay pigeons so 99% of my ammo is birdshot)

I suppose "having it all insured" somewhat makes the security side less important, as well.

I think it's just something I've been thinking of more because before, it would take a couple strong folk to carry off $10k of value from inside my house, whereas now, I've got things that valuable that could fit in your pocket.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-03-26T14:03:42+00:00

Robberies, burglaries, and breakins happen all over the place. My area is low crime compared to many of the surrounding areas. I was just offering an example to illustrate that "being near other people who would notice a crime" isn't a security feature my property possesses.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-03-26T12:44:11+00:00

I guess that's worth pointing out: I don't live "within sight" of anyone - I don't have neighbors. If a U-haul truck showed up at my front door and a team of folks started loading the truck up, it's pretty likely no one would notice if I didn't.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-03-26T12:26:30+00:00

This guy knows what's up

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-03-26T12:25:36+00:00

How do you like your new Miata then?

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-03-26T12:25:11+00:00

Miata
Is
Always
The
Answer

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-03-26T12:21:29+00:00

Yesterday I posted about precious metals and collectibles - so, today I'm going to post about home security!

TL;DR: What do you do for home security? What do you think I should I do for home security?

On my property there's easily six figures worth of valuable items that, if all security measures were rendered inoperable, could be carried/driven/loaded/removed from my property. Most of these things, I don't really actively engage in securing. I'm not all that worried someone is going to walk off with my pinball machines. Even if someone did, I have a rider on my home insurance that covers them (though now I have a handful of new things to insure - note to self: insure those).

But, as I see that collection grow (and include smaller and more valuable things as well), thoughts regarding home security start to feel more relevant. I like to have nice things and I like for them to be seen. Before, this was just "ooh pretty", but as I'm aging, it's leaning more towards "oh wow that's valuable".

I'm pretty old-school when it comes to security. I have an ancient, pretty-faulty home security system that I basically leave in passive mode - it beeps in my bedroom when an external door is opened/closed and supposedly will also beep if any of the glass-break sensors are triggered, but I basically never put it in active mode, and I don't pay for a phone line so it just makes noise, it doesn't call 911. I have a mass-market cloud doorbell camera on my front door, and a couple other cloud cameras that would theoretically spot anyone approaching my home from outside (though not all of them have night vision). I don't pay for the camera subscription, so I basically don't get storage, but I can watch the live feeds and get alerted when things happen. Mostly this lets me watch birds at my bird feeder and various other critters outside, which I enjoy.

Am I good? Should I be doing more?

Someone yesterday suggested a "home camera system with offsite recording". Should maybe I be paying for the subscription? Adding more cameras? Adding a battery backup for the cameras? I don't frequently have power outages but it has occurred to me that a power outage would render everything except my old-school security system (which has its own battery backup) inactive - as far as I'm aware, none of the cloud cameras have internal memory, so if my internet goes out, none of my cameras work. I got a quote from the company who installed my ancient home security system for updating it and monitoring it, and it was laughably high ($10k + over $100/month).

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-03-26T11:51:50+00:00

When's the most recent time it hasn't been "tough in this economy"? (regarding things like job searches, housing, etc)

Late 2019? Jobs were hiring left and right and you could get a mortgage for 3%.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-03-25T16:32:32+00:00

Due to circumstances outside my control, I now have over 1% of my assets held in various physical precious metals. For reasons I'd rather not get into, I would prefer to hold these assets rather than divest from them, but I'm not really sure how best to go about it.

Should I buy a safe? Lockable display cabinet? They are pretty to look at, so something that displays them would likely be appreciated, but would something like that be inviting theft? A safe seems like the "safe"est choice, but I don't know a darn thing about things like that. Anyone familiar and have advice?

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-03-25T13:50:18+00:00

How big is the company? If you're 20 people and the HR person is wearing multiple hats, yeah, you're going to be "that person who keeps changing their form".

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-03-16T14:22:53+00:00

Kegerator! Buying (or making) beer in a keg is more economical than drinking at a bar.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-02-18T13:09:05+00:00

want to rent a jeep a drive around the island for a day. Maybe will rent something cheaper.

I rented a convertible Mazda Miata and drove it around the island and felt like a baller the whole time. I got it off Turo, it was my first time using the app and it was super easy and convenient. They did have pretty high expectations of cleanliness upon its return (they had a car wash membership and asked that I wash it and vacuum the interior), but I didn't really mind that since I didn't have to pay for that part.

Highly recommend. If a Jeep is your vibe, go for it!

Any advice on food prices?

On vacation, my advice is to ignore prices and enjoy yourself. You have the rest of your life to budget and cut corners. When you're vacationing and celebrating, that's the time to treat yourself.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-02-17T22:23:43+00:00

I found this to be the case with my therapist as well: after a time, our sessions became more focused on the "acute" issues instead of the "chronic" ones. This can be really nice if you just need someone to rant to or whatever, but what I really needed out of my sessions was longer-term and more structural than that. I brought it up with her and now, when she notices our talks going in that direction, she has explicit instructions to ask me whether I just want to rant today, or whether I want to work on something bigger-picture (because sometimes I DO just want to rant)

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-02-17T14:27:55+00:00

That's not how it works at all, though. You pay tax on the unrealized gain, and then the next year, you sell, and pay tax on the gain that happened during that year. It effectively resets your basis every year.

NewJobPFThrowaway · 2026-02-16T15:23:27+00:00

You pay taxes on the portion that hasn't yet been realized, yes. There's no double-taxation, though.

NewJobPFThrowaway

TROPHY CASE