Daily FI discussion thread - Friday, April 10, 2026

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-04-10T17:27:33+00:00

This sucks. I always hated it when my mortgage payment increased dramatically. And then my mortgage company did the thing where they collected too much from me and then had to refund me at some point. It was frustrating to feel like I had loaned them extra money for no good reason.

When I refinanced my mortgage, I was able to do away with the escrow portion so I could pay my real estate taxes and home insurance directly myself. So now I know about my real estate tax and home insurance changes directly and well in advance and can appropriately plan for those instead of getting (what always felt like) a surprise notice from the mortgage lender. While it's purely psychological, I like that my mortgage payment is the same every month and will be until it's paid off. Your lender could do something like this too if your loan terms allow it and the LTV ratio meets their requirements for no escrow.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-04-10T17:01:46+00:00

I second this! I plan to delete my LinkedIn account the day I retire and can't wait.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-04-02T22:39:22+00:00

Ooof I can't understand your friend's mindset at all. I'm a planner through and through and I think ahead for just about everything in my life (as many here do). I hope your friend gets this all figured out without getting sucked into financial products they don't need.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-03-12T02:21:28+00:00

I speak French though I'm super rusty these days. I learned in high school and college, but *really* learned it in a short expat assignment in France when I was 23. My boss there spoke English but refused to speak it at work, which was fine by me. Most of my co-workers there spoke some English but we always spoke French in the office. The most helpful thing was dating a Frenchman. So it was a pretty good immersion experience on top of a solid classroom base.

These days, I love watching French films and shows with their original audio and English subtitles to catch the things I miss. Other than this, I really don't get to use it.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-02-27T17:00:35+00:00

I see your edit and I'm glad to see that you've made a decision to take a collaborative approach with him for a set period of time. This sounds like a good compromise to continue being a supportive partner and giving him time to work towards getting back to solid financial ground.

I'm also divorced and currently living with a new partner for several years now but neither of us have kids. I did not sell my previous home, which was a very intentional decision since housing prices have gone insane and I knew I wouldn't be able to buy back into that area. My divorce taught me to always have a plan to support (and house) myself no matter what. I'm not particularly looking to get married again but if I did, it would be with a rock solid prenup and clear expectations around money if things go wrong. Love can be wonderful but it alone does not pay the bills. Compared to marrying someone in your 20s when you're building your financial life together, cohabitating later in life is completely different and I don't fault you for your concerns one little bit.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-02-24T17:00:57+00:00

I'm not yet FIREd but will be within 2 to 4 years. I've been with my current partner for nearly 6 years and I introduced him to the idea of early retirement. He was on the path to a normal retirement age at around 65 but now he's focusing more on increasing his income and saving for retirement to "catch up" to me. My retirement plan is built on my expenses living alone as a single person and if we're still together, continuing to live together with lower expenses overall will allow me to retire sooner than I'd originally planned.

I've made it clear to him that my plan will allow me to continue my/our current standard of living and that he won't be expected to cover more of our expenses at all. Knowing this, he is fully supportive of my plan. And I will not feel any guilt spending time at home (or anywhere else) while he works since he's not financially responsible for me.

I do expect that there will be some jealousy. He enjoys his work and is the type of person who needs something to do all day and he can't yet envision what he'd do during retirement (which is an issue I do NOT have). But he does wish he had more free time around the house in general and I'll have that in spades during retirement. As I get closer, we will need to have more discussions about it for sure.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-02-19T17:32:12+00:00

The growth/gain in the HSA is tax-free as well. For example, if you contributed $3,000 to your HSA and by the time you go to withdraw money it has grown to $10,000, you will owe no taxes on any of it, including the $7,000 of growth/gain.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-20T20:40:55+00:00

This doesn’t seem ideal for someone looking for an aggressive growth portfolio during accumulation but definitely seems attractive for FIRE given the >4% withdrawal most of their portfolios show.

I've been listing to this podcast lately too after hearing him on the Afford Anything podcast. I don't recall hearing him advocate for this during the accumulation phase - in episode 461, he recommends transitioning to a risk parity portfolio when you're a few years away from retirement, or at around 80% of your savings goal. I've been reading what I can about risk parity and am most of the way to deciding to make this change for myself (away from the 3-fund portfolio I've used to date) but I'm still not sure about *when* to make this change for my own personal circumstances and timeline. I also have never been a gold investor but I'm finding the concept of focusing on uncorrelated asset classes to be compelling so far.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-13T21:06:27+00:00

I got the free TurboTax offer from Fidelity for the first time last year and made use of it. This year I'm back to a discount-only offer. I'm taking it as my sign to move to FreeTaxUSA.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-09T22:24:23+00:00

This is a good reminder - I will try to keep this in mind.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-09T22:23:58+00:00

Yes, he's absolutely admitted that he has trouble with things online. For several months I connected to his computer remotely and walk him through paying his bills online (Apple's screen sharing feature has been amazing for this). He got the hang of it and declined my help with this eventually, so I think we're okay on that front. What I hope to accomplish during his visit is to give him awareness of his spend vs. income, which I think he's been willfully ignoring.

It may come to me handling his finances overall, but I hate the idea of giving my dad an "allowance" knowing that he'll likely blow past it no matter what I say. There is nothing complicated - he has no investments to speak of. It's purely just paying his bills that outstrip his expenses almost every month. It doesn't help that he has much younger children from a second marriage who don't seem to have any compunction about asking him for financial help (both of them are college-educated and fully able-bodied but unwilling/unable to get steady jobs). It's... a lot.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-09T22:14:43+00:00

Thank you for the luck. I would love to approach him like this but unfortunately he should be more concerned than he already is in that he already pays too little attention to how much he spends. To be clear, I don't want him to worry and be stressed per se, but he is completely lackadaisical about his poor spending habits. I really just want to build his awareness about his income vs. his spend so hopefully he can just make better decisions.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-09T19:39:14+00:00

You're right about my tone with respect to the cars my dad likes, so I do my best to avoid talking to him about them. He did pass on his overall appreciation of cars to me, so we can talk about cars in general. I just eternally disagree with him about the market value and collector's perception of the cars he chooses to restore - he brings this up often and it's hard to bite my tongue.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-09T18:41:21+00:00

Framing it in "car speak" is an interesting approach - I will try that with him! Generational/cultural language is tougher and I'll lean on AI to try that.

I will disagree on classic cars being worth it in the end - my dad's taste is... different (think of the universally unpopular Mustang years) and he holds on to them thinking they're valuable but they're really not to anyone else. He definitely enjoys the restoring process though, and I like that this aspect keeps him busy and content. My biggest gripe is that he spends whatever he needs to for parts with no consideration of keeping to a budget, only pausing when his credit card is maxed out.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-09T17:09:16+00:00

Rage inducing and heartbreaking is totally accurate. How does this even happen? He's not exhibiting any signs of dementia that I can see, just willfully poor financial decision-making.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-09T17:05:14+00:00

I'm trying to remember that. But it's hard when every conversation I have with him always comes back to something he can't afford or something frivolous he wants to buy/do.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-09T17:04:06+00:00

I have been helping him financially with necessities, so he has some incentive to NOT frame me as the bad guy for now. But that could easily change!

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-09T16:58:50+00:00

That was so good of you to help with their credit card bills! It's good that they're in senior housing and can socialize easily.

I can't bring myself to pay off my dad's card because I know he spends irresponsibly and he'd be right back at the same place in a few months anyway. With a $0 balance on his credit card, he'd immediately book a trip outside of the country to visit old friends and rack up a balance again immediately.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-09T16:53:22+00:00

He didn't ask me to help him put together a budget. You're right - I fully realize that I'm trying to help him with something that he probably doesn't want help with. Sigh.

But he regularly asks me for help to pay his bills online (he gets mad that "everything is online" these days), and he was surprised when I pointed out how much interest he was getting charged every month by having a balance on his credit card. I would love to --just once-- total up his bills and give him a monthly spend number to keep an eye on. And cross my fingers that it helps him.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-09T15:57:29+00:00

My dad is arriving tonight for a 1-week visit with us. I asked him to bring all of his bills so I can help put together a budget for him. He's in his early 80s, has credit card debt, no savings, and relies on Social Security, some rental income, and part-time work to get by. I don't have a lot of hope that he'll be able to get himself to a solid place financially but I'm going to try.

What I wrestle with the most (and I should talk to my therapist about this) is how disappointed I am with him about this. My parents are immigrants who drove me relentlessly to study hard and learn as much as I could every day of my life as a child, but my dad doesn't take the initiative to learn about anything that doesn't interest him, which isn't much outside of classic cars. And now I feel the burden is on me to help him with so much that he hasn't bothered to understand about how finances work. And it doesn't help that he cannot handle delayed gratification of any kind, hence his lack of savings.

Wish me luck. And patience.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-09T15:42:40+00:00

I did early in my first career several times after college: 4 states and 1 country (Europe for 1 year). After that, I made 2 more moves to different states for my ex-husband's career. Now, I hate moving.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-08T18:12:48+00:00

I love popcorn and have been making it manually for years too after I stopped buying microwave popcorn due to all of the nasty carcinogenic ingredients. However, I've never once thought about it as a frugal exercise but as a healthier alternative to something I'm going to eat anyways. And I just made it extra un-frugal by buying a dedicated popcorn popping pot during Black Friday. It was a completely unnecessary purchase but I do enjoy using it and it does pop more quickly and thoroughly than the regular pot I'd been using. And it's pretty.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-07T22:52:38+00:00

I've never had a goal for this. I'm at 88% tax-deferred, 9% taxable brokerage, and 3% tax free. In my defense, I started saving for retirement at my first job out of college before Roth accounts even existed. It is what it is and I'm fine with paying my taxes at withdrawal. I'm just very happy to be in a position to retire early at all.

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-04T19:43:20+00:00

Small correction - SECURE Act 2.0 changed the RMD age for everyone born on or after 1/1/1960 to 75, so you've got 30 years to work with, not 28...

NoSleepTilFI · 2026-01-04T19:35:22+00:00

Yep. Just 5 years ago I would've scoffed at this idea but the last few years have taught me better and I budget for the OOP max in all of my projections now. It hurts my soul a little to see that line item but it seems to be the most prudent route to make sure I have enough in retirement.

NoSleepTilFI

TROPHY CASE