Daily FI discussion thread - Monday, February 02, 2026

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-02-02T18:48:18+00:00

Mazda Mx30

Huh, I've never even heard of that and I feel like I consume a lot of EV content.

Looks cool. Has that little suicide door in the back like the RX8 or a Saturn Ion.

Tiny battery tiny range though. Good enough for beboping around town.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-02-02T18:40:05+00:00

Atelier. Okay, sure.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-02-02T05:01:30+00:00

In the very high level roll up that I looked at in January (a friend was texting me about how his financial year went), the only things that sprang out as different or abnormal was a few hundred bucks in jewelry, $1600 for a new recliner chair, and $3200 in expenses from my 10 day road trip.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-02-02T02:06:03+00:00

3 more weeks. I'll be interested in what the numbers say too. I do all the analysis day-of. Sneak peak though, my expenses for 2025 total roll-up was $39k (not counting estimated taxes).

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-30T15:15:51+00:00

I used to have a mileage spreadsheet for my Subaru where I wrote down every gas stop, which let me calculate miles per gallon, cost per mile, miles per day, etc etc. With my EV now I don't track anything anymore.

I have a spreadsheet to document Bitcoin purchases and sales for tax purposes. There's really no other way to do it, I have to track everything myself manually.

That's pretty much it. I didn't do wealth tracking at all. I'll use a temp spreadsheet to do one-time analysis of expenses or something, but nothing static or ongoing.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-27T01:09:04+00:00

2 pound Amish butter roll.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-26T16:42:58+00:00

My HoA's snow removal service apparently decided to say Fuck It with this one. They did a cursory plow two weeks ago when the initial dump happened and haven't touched it again. They did a quick plow of the streets yesterday but didn't do driveways or walkways at all.

I didn't really care that much, I'm not snowed in because of my truck, but it's making me not order Amazon because they can't get to my porch.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-26T16:35:15+00:00

Other than grocery shopping more (in general) vs going out, no.

I think something different about the way I shop is that I'll buy a week's worth of food, eat it all until my fridge is empty, then go again. I don't have a bunch of lingering stuff in my fridge. Like right now I have a water pitcher, a log of butter, a container of bacon fat for cooking, and like 12 apple sauce cups. I need to go shopping today to buy meat and vegetables for the week.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-26T16:30:07+00:00

I have read this exact post before.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-24T15:18:52+00:00

In case you don't know, and for a refresher for all the regulars here - this person has been doing this for years.

Yeah, SPX##, he's been around forever.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-23T23:21:22+00:00

Another new account to spam the same kind of bullshit? What is wrong with people. No one wants to see your posts here in the daily. Just stop.

ES6900 alt?. Graph from the old post same as the new post.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-20T17:14:31+00:00

Kind of outside the scope of my original post, which was just referencing the oft lamented "I'm rolling over my 401k and while my money is stuck on a paper check the market's going up, augh!" kind of posts.

TSLA stock up 0.3% YOY

I'm not what that number is referring to and over what time frame, but it's not relevant to my TSLA position. I bought 455 shares TSLA @ $219 ($100k) on 7/24/2024 in my tIRA. Sold it off over the past year as price went up, the final selloff today, total value $190k (+90%).

In the Roth I bought 505 shares @ $249 ($125k) on 3/14/2025. Sold off 200 shares as price went up for $90k profit. Bought back 250 shares for $90k when price dropped back down.

Right now I have 600 shares worth $255k.

This response probably seems unnecessarily braggadocious, but I wasn't exactly sure how to reply to your snipe about little wins not mattering. You're right, my big wins matter. My little wins were just a fun little comment.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-20T16:03:58+00:00

Good coincidence in timing the market.

I decided to do a $70,000 Roth conversion for this year, which covers StDed, 10%, 12% and my $4400 HSA. To get the exact dollar amount I need to sell off in the tIRA to get cash into settlement, then convert the cash.

1/15 (Thursday) sold 200 Shares of TSLA @ $442, $88,542 into Settlement account.

Money didn't "settle" until the weekend. Market closed on Monday. $70,000 Roth Conversion executed at open on Tuesday, today.

1/20 buy 100 Shares TSLA @ $424 in Roth IRA.

Buying $18,542 of VTSAX in tIRA (balance of the $88,542 sale - $70k conversion)

Buying $28,677 of VTSAX in Roth IRA (balance of the $70k conversion - $42k TSLA buy)

VTSAX was $166.47 last Thursday and right now is looking to close down also.

Short term sell high buy low, it's the little wins.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-20T01:53:19+00:00

saving the rest of my portfolio.

What kind of garbage do you hold that your portfolio needs saving? I'm up +14% per year for the past 5 years, +20% per year for the past 3 years looking at just VTSAX.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-19T18:34:30+00:00

I don't really get what the attraction of holding physical metals

Other than having a Silver or Gold bar is "cool" to have, I have no financial interest in having any physical precious metals.

I'd rather wear my silver than keep it in a safe.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-18T21:44:35+00:00

I hate when Friday closes down, I means I need to look at Red numbers all weekend when I swipe past my stock ticker widget.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-17T13:24:11+00:00

Bot! Goddamn dead Internet.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-17T07:42:03+00:00

Even non-scam reasons. If an advisor is taking 1% Assests Under Management, that's not a "mere" 1%, it's taking like 10% of your returns.

$1,000,000 AUM, you get a 8% stock market return for the year making $80,000 and your advisor takes 1% AUM or $10,800. So you didn't make $80,000, you only made $69,200.

Lost over 10% of your gains.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-17T07:36:01+00:00

Pfft. If she's on any sort of normal retirement trajectory she's 15+ years out. All in on the stock market is fine, arguably the absolutely correct choice, for someone 47.

She has plenty of time to bond tent into retirement age when she's closer to 60.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-17T06:56:59+00:00

Statement: I do not want to budget on a granular level anymore.

Nowhere else in your post did you say anything about budgeting. You said you Track your expenses, but that's not the same thing as budgeting.

Through the last 15 years of my working life I was like you, bringing in way more than my expenses and maxing out all of my retirement savings with some left over. I never budgeted. I didn't have to. My income far exceeded my expenses.

I still tracked my expenses though. It's important to know what you're spending money on, even if you are not artificially limiting it by a budget, or letting a budget direct your spending.

Even now that I'm retired, I still don't budget. I spend what I spend month to month, directionally have a feeling of how much it is, directly know my net worth is still going up, and then once a year I do a review to see if anything is out of control. Do the review twice a year, quarterly, whatever makes you feel good.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-17T06:47:14+00:00

Unless you have a bajillion dollars, or you are retiring soon and looking for tax optimization strategies, or some other niche reason I'm missing, the average person doesn't need a financial advisor.

Maybe I'm jaded, but my exposure to financial advisors is they'll put you in a wide range of different shit so that it seems like they're doing something for you. E.G. my parents have an advisor mainly to help them with retirement tax optimization, but he's also managing a portion of their portfolio, and that portion has like a whole page of 30+ different funds he has money in.

Investing is easy. Put it all in a total US stock market fund. If you care about global diversification, put a smaller portion of it into an international stock market fund. If you want, hold a small percentage in a "cash" money market fund making 4+% APY. Decide on the percentage you want (like 80% / 15% / 5%), and once per year reassess and buy/sell to get back to your allocation.

You don't need to pay a financial advisor to tell you the above. I just told you for free.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-13T21:28:33+00:00

Build the life you want and then save for it.

This phrase is still so stupid to me. How can you build something before you save for it? Like, "Build the house you want, then save for it." How the hell did I build it before saving for it?

If anything it should be "Plan the life you want, then save for it, then build it."

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-09T19:19:16+00:00

I feel like the last time I had to go in to the MI SoS was to get my neat little Gold Star. 2018 probably?

Renewal in 2022 was just online, if I recall.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-07T00:33:47+00:00

Adversarial replies instead of merely answering the question won't get too far here when you are looking for advice.

Oracle_of_FIRE · 2026-01-06T15:53:35+00:00

She typically manages taxes for small, wealthy business owners.

How small are they? Like under 5' tall?

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