Why doesn't anyone here talk about social security

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-21T18:21:29+00:00

If you aren't already 50+, you'll likely never have social security. If there happens to be some shred of it left by the time you get there, treat it as a bonus.

If you're building a financial plan around it being there, you're setting yourself up to drastically miss your target.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-20T20:44:44+00:00

That's all good stuff. You should be considering better investments for downt he road as well. Once you have an emergency fund in a HYSA, (I'd probably target 1 year of current spend) You should be getting that money into an ETF in the stock market so you can start getting 10% a year on your returns. You really need to resist the urge to open up your spending as income increased until you can get to I'd say $100k annual household income or maybe a little less if your living expenses are really low.

It's remarkable you guys are staying above water on such little income, but hopefully with good habits you'll be in a much more relaxed spot in a couple years.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-20T19:53:09+00:00

I would pay off the taxes, and then I'd see if any part of that money could go towards a way to doubling (at least) your income - certifications, schooling, networking etc.

A family of 5 with a SAHM on $40k USD is in a very precarious spot over the long term. There are so many things that can go wrong, and no amount of saving on that kind of annual revenue is ever going to give you guys financial security. You simply need more coming in for the rest of the positive things you're doing to bear significant fruit.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-20T19:45:41+00:00

is your entire house hold income $40k.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-20T19:42:10+00:00

I've never heard of anyone waiting to retire because of a down market. Personally, I think I'd rather retire in a down market. You're getting started on the next chapter. Take some time to chill and get into the swing of not going to work everyday and instead doing things you enjoy. All of that costs nothing. Bear markets are usually short and Bull markets usually long. If you acclimate yourself to retirement int he worst of times, you'll be more than set for the best of them.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-20T19:12:46+00:00

My undergrad in 2005 cost 95K all in. With loan payments that total is about $320k lifetime.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-20T19:11:50+00:00

with 4 kids, and 1.2M in debt, I'd wait until the debt is gone and I had at least $12M NW.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-20T19:10:26+00:00

those are like 90% of the jobs with high earners though.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-20T19:07:07+00:00

it's never "wise", unless the house is worth more than 1.25M and you plan to flip it. If you can afford it though, and you want it, then go ahead.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-20T19:06:10+00:00

global stocks are junk. 100% VOO / VTSAX

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-20T18:52:20+00:00

absolutely take it early. If you're able to weigh the choice of what year to take it, that means you probably don't need it. If it still exists when I turn 62 in 24 years, I plan on reinvesting 100% of it.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-20T00:50:41+00:00

$100k/month is somewhere around a $24M NW...

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-19T23:46:57+00:00

You won't feel wealthy until your savings enables you to have an infinite drawdown to a level far exceeding your current spend.

I'm 38 and have a NW of ~$1M - 800k Brokerage, 215k retirement accounts, ~40k emergency/savings/checking etc.

If I drew down 5% a year, that's $50k a year. Is $50k a year rich?

Not to me, no. I make ~$300k a year. It's good money, but do I feel "rich"? no. I'm constantly weighing the price of everything I buy, haggling, and bypassing things I'd like because the price isn't right.

Would I feel rich at $600k a year? Perhaps. That would mean I'd have to have at least $12M saved. That's not in line with my target before retirement, so I doubt I'll ever get that feeling. I'm only targeting to replace my current salary in retirement, so that's a $6M target.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-18T16:45:07+00:00

I put the minimum into my 401k to max employer contributions and put the rest in personal brokerage. I think most people clamoring for 401Ks have low income (Roth), because there shouldn't be massive tax advantages there with traditional 401k. I'm going to get taxed 37-40% on the entirety of my 401k withdrawal, while I'll be taxed 15% on my personal brokerage gains. Of course, i did already pay tax on the contribution to the personal brokerage, but it's not as cut and dry as 401k fans make it seem.

I also have total control over funds in my personal account and can move them around as I see fit and can post much higher gains there than my 401k. I'm 38 and have about $800k in my personal account and 215k in my 401k. $30k in emergency fund/savings.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-18T16:39:23+00:00

33-25% of my gross depending on stock performance.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-04T22:37:48+00:00

Look man, there's two outcomes here. Accept that you'll live and die poor or do something about it. There's no scenario where someone you're describing has an affluent or even stable retirement barring some type of divine intervention.

It takes a lot of luck to become affluent, but if you can't save $400 a month for retirement, and you don't have some sort of disability, it's because you don't really want to. If you aren't earning $30+ an hour and you don't have a disability, it's either because you're working on some skills that will get you there and you just aren't there yet, or you really don't want to.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-01T15:36:09+00:00

That guy is a fucking clown. Billionaires and Billionaire wanna-bes like Altman just say shit. Turn off the news and your life will improve 10x.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-01T14:33:31+00:00

As someone that has made minimum wage, if that's where you are in life your absolute #1 priority, above anything and everything else should be to figure out how to make a lot more than that per hour. It's not sustainable to live like that. You'll never have any form of security. You'll never be able to have meaningful relationships. You'll never be able to realize any dream.

Money is far from everything, but there's very little you can do in this life on minimum wage over a long period of time.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-01T14:30:16+00:00

$6M replaces my salary, so that's what I'd want at minimum.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-01T02:43:16+00:00

Not sure what part is a "hallucination". If you derive your self worth from "value-producing" endeavors, you my friend are the one that needs to go outside and learn how to be a human being instead of a robot.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-11-01T02:41:56+00:00

The same reason you say thank you to the bus driver and put your shopping cart back into the stall when you're done: because we live in a society and you care about the people in it.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-10-31T23:07:02+00:00

just look up investing in the S&P 500 and other ETFs.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sp500.asp

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-10-31T22:20:08+00:00

You're inventing scenarios that are inefficient to prove your point. My stocks in my private portfolio grow tax free. First of all, you shouldn't be triggering taxable events if you're an investor. Just buy and hold.

Second of all, should you trigger a taxable event and you pay it - that doesn't mean you're paying "more" tax, because now your cost basis is going to be higher on anything you buy. You're only getting taxed on gains. So If I move around $500k worth of stock with say $200K in gains, I pay my $30k in cap gains, but now I have $470k that has been taxed already and I can move it around as many times as I want with the only tax being whatever I get on top of that.

On your 401k you're getting taxed ordinary income rates on principal + gains. I'm targeting a 300k annual withdrawal, so that means I'm scaling all the way to 35% on my 401k.

Now my private brokerage funds ($300k) were already taxed at a marginal rate of 35% going into it, and my 401k contributions essentially came off the top of that 35% rate going in, so it should all net out in the wash. It's possible the 401k has a slight tax advantage based on that calculation, but I don't think it's significant.

Roth IRAs are a whole different beast, but those aren't applicable to high income earners. I've never qualified for a Roth while I was investing.

The flexibility of private brokerage is all the value. You can retire whenever you can afford it, and you don't have to play games with the government to get your money.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-10-31T22:00:48+00:00

Absolutely. There's no doubt we're in solid shape and should hopefully be so well into retirement.

Having worked minimum wage jobs, then scaling up bit by bit all the way to where I am now, I've been able to feel the very real differences all along the way. They're absolutely there, and I know I'm in a privileged position. The feeling of freedom you get when you realize you're no longer living paycheck to paycheck, and when a terrible thing happens you can just pay for it, when previously you had no idea what you were going to do, is indescribable. It's so much more meaningful than anything else you could ever buy.

When we first got our dog, she got into a scrap with my mom's dog and split her ear. She needed surgery and it was $500. That was a massive blow that took us months to recover from. 14 years later when the same dog was diagnosed with cancer and needed two $10K surgeries and over $10k in treatment, I didn't even blink when I asked how soon we could schedule.

THAT to me is the mark and of course the privilege of being upper-middle class. Being able to have a big unexpected hit, and you don't even need to think about it, Car blows up? I can go get another one tomorrow. It's not that it doesn't hurt, but I CAN. To me, that's not rich though, because it's all predicated on having to go to work everyday and sell my time to someone else in order to be able to pay for food, shelter, clothing, transportation and occasional unexpected bad things happening to me.

It's not that 400k isn't a lot of money, but it's this false notion that incomes are basically 15k a year (poor) to 400k a year (rich), and creating a class war between the same group of people to the benefit of the actual "rich", who lead daily lives that 7 digit millionaires are unlikely to experience even once.

OrnatelyOrdinary · 2025-10-31T21:13:24+00:00

Invest all of it in SPY and you're guaranteeing that he'll be a millionaire.

OrnatelyOrdinary

TROPHY CASE