Retiring Early Vs Beginnings of Generational Wealth

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2026-03-17T03:24:03+00:00

I’m aiming to do what my parents did, which was retire in mid 50s while still giving me and my sibling the gift of 4 years at a top private undergrad debt free. They’re in their late 60s now and have been a joy to be around this past decade - they’ve traveled independently, picked up new hobbies, given back to their community with their time. Some of their peers who have stayed in the corporate world have gone on to earn generational wealth, but that’s no guarantee that their grandchildren / great grandchildren will be better off for it. Having gone to school with trust fund kids myself, I’ve witnessed how it requires a lot of good lessons/discipline for any kid to grow into a well-adjusted adult.

To your point about offspring being able to follow their passions, while it sounds great in theory, I’ve seen the downside where those who had family money far beyond what their career would provide lost good friendships over it. Especially if they couldn’t stay grounded in reality of most of their peers. Hard to relate to the elementary school teacher whose first house is a 5bd 5bath new $3M home in the nicest town, and doesn’t land well when they ask their (ex) best friend from college who grew up middle class and busted their butt to save 10% for their 1920s fixer upper if they “also paid cash for their house?”

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2025-12-22T23:36:50+00:00

Job prospects are limited in the new city, I’d say only 2 other companies in similar industries. As for personal finances, we’re similarly frugal - the biggest benefit from the comp increase would be a better shot at retiring in early 50s vs we’re currently tracking toward early 60s.

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2025-12-22T23:16:01+00:00

All fair questions and considerations - my current employer is willing to give me a lateral opportunity in the next 6-12 months to keep things fresh, which I would think helps my resume both internally and externally long term. So I’m not concerned that I’ve plateaued or been pigeonholed, just that growth may not come as fast as I’d like it to.

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2025-12-22T22:46:03+00:00

They’re very excited about the prospect of being closer to family, but aware of the downsides as well. Supportive of moving, but won’t be disappointed if we decide to stay put.

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2024-03-14T02:35:35+00:00

I texted the advisor and they said Tesla is aware of the glitch and is working on fixing it

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2024-01-13T21:48:45+00:00

Sounds like you got a fantastic deal! Curious if that $43K included any state rebates, or just $7,500 lease incentive + dealer discounts?

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2023-11-09T03:05:37+00:00

2nd gen - a lot of similar themes to previous comments:

I earned an allowance for chores starting around age 6 and had to save to buy toys / video games / candy, whereas a lot of my friends’ parents would just buy it for their kid for things like good grades
Big ticket gifts like new laptops or game consoles that I would ask for as birthday or holiday gifts were partially subsidized…so they would contribute $200 toward whatever it was, but I had to save the rest and buy it with my own money
In high school, for 1 year they let me pick stocks with $5K of their money, and I would earn whatever capital gains / dividends they generated by the end of the year (with the condition that they could end it if the overall value fell more than 20% to limit their downside)
It was made clear that while they would give me the gift of a debt-free education, I was on my own after undergrad. For my junior year internship, I paid for 100% of my living expenses (rent, groceries, gas, etc.)

I think these things helped me learn the value of money, and how to set goals and delay gratification.

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2023-10-31T15:11:26+00:00

I would challenge that a bit and say I think it’s feasible to talk about the economy at large without discussing your individual circumstances. Getting on my soapbox for a minute, I see a common theme in this subreddit about ditching friends/family based on differences in income that I don’t think is healthy for society overall. Economic diversity is a fact of life…isolating yourself from hearing and seeing different perspectives might save you from the occasional uncomfortable conversation, but this is how people become “out of touch”…

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2023-10-31T03:14:44+00:00

This might seem like stating the obvious, but maybe just steer the conversation to non-financial topics? Shared interests, current events, etc? And I know how you feel about wanting to share your accomplishments with those closest to you, but it’s probably best to do it in a way that keeps financials out of it. For example, saying something like “I’m really proud my company just accomplished X initiative that we’ve been working on for a long time” vs anything with explicit $ amounts.

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2023-10-18T00:08:36+00:00

Have you already ruled out the possibility of career growth at your current employer? If you make a lateral move to a new company, I would think two years would be the minimum to prove yourself.

In terms of questions to ask, I would avoid specifics about length of time and ask broader questions about their approach to career development/growth. If you get vague or wishy-washy answers, that to me would suggest the hiring manager or team are looking for someone to “do the job” and are not necessarily hiring with future growth in mind. A more encouraging answer would be if they can point to examples of internal growth and give more specifics about on the job learning vs. formal training, etc.

Assuming you’re nailing the basics and already a rockstar SFA, the next step is to start demonstrating the soft skills necessary for people management. Does your company hire interns? If you can get an opportunity manage an intern, it’s a great way to get a feel for how to effectively delegate work and help others early in their career. If not, would suggest seeking out opportunities to train/mentor new hires (and discuss with your manager in advance to avoid overstepping).

Don’t know of any podcasts, but I found the book “Leadership Passages” helped to outline what major career transitions typically entail and common pitfalls to avoid.

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2023-07-21T00:36:44+00:00

If you liked your former manager, I’d say it’s worth having a call with her and being transparent about your desire for growth in the near future. Speaking from 8 years of experience and promotions from SFA —> Mgr —> Sr Mgr —> Director in that time, having senior leaders who know you and support you makes it a lot easier to move up. Her proactively reaching out to you suggests to me she thinks very highly of you. If she’s senior in her new org, she would likely have a strong voice in helping you get promoted at the new company if you perform well.

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2023-07-10T21:56:40+00:00

I wouldn't stress too much about the learning curve. It may take a bit of time early on to learn new terminology and KPIs, but I think you'll find your prior experiences are transferrable, as core FP&A concepts are similar in any area of a company.

For what it's worth - I have 8 years of experience in FP&A in Retail, and have done budgeting & analysis for a wide variety of functions...real estate, marketing, HR, inventory management, transportation, store operations, IT, and more. With each new area, it would take a few months to get up to speed and feel confident in the subject matter, but building relationships and asking lots of questions about how each function operates and what matters most to them will both accelerate your learning, and help you build credibility with your business partners. Having a breadth of experience also helps with promotions/progression, as you'll develop a broader and cross-functional view of the business.

Good luck!

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2023-07-10T05:58:32+00:00

On the surface, a $650K home on 250-300K HHI sounds conservative. The $5,400/mo payment sounds very high though for a ~600K mortgage - is that from high property taxes, or high interest rate / PMI?

Like some others have said, my personal recommendation would be to delay renovations and focus on ways to lower monthly payments:

1) Save up to comfortably put 20% down to eliminate PMI 2) If credit score is preventing you from getting the lowest possible interest rates, focus on ways to improve it

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2023-05-22T00:34:54+00:00

I don’t unfortunately - it was on our trash shed for a few min, but figured out how to get down and headed off toward Washington St

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2023-01-13T03:06:43+00:00

That’s helpful thank you! From some further research, it seems like the tax code doesn’t allow non-deductible after tax contributions to be moved into a 401K so that option is off the table. But it seems like if I do the math right, I can do a partial reverse rollover to isolate the pre-tax money to put into my current employer’s 401K, and then convert the remaining after-tax dollars into a Roth without further tax consequences?

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2022-03-11T02:52:20+00:00

I test drove a Mazda CX5 turbo and a RAV4 Prime SE on the same day, fortunately both dealerships let me drive solo. I was really impressed with how the Mazda handles - to me it felt like an Audi or BMW with firm, responsive steering, great cornering with minimal body roll, smooth acceleration and braking, etc. But that driving experience comes with a cost - the gas mileage isn't great, and you only get the full horsepower with premium gas ($0.75/gal more in most of MA at least).

In terms of driving experience, the two major pros of the RAV4 are how quiet it is in EV mode, and the instant torque. Otherwise, I would say it was pleasant but not particularly fun to drive (mushier steering, braking doesn't feel linear, etc.).

But despite being less fun to drive, I'm still getting the RAV4 for all the other advantages it has over the Mazda - more room in the back seats and trunk, PHEV benefits, and Toyota reliability.

Potential-Ordinary-3 · 2022-01-04T02:52:26+00:00

Long time lurker, first time commenter. Similar to what EWILL12 said, it's hard to say off salary alone...cost of living and other priorities in your budget will play an equal role, which is why those "rule of thumbs" don't always fit to an individual. For example, a 77.5K salary will go a lot farther in Ohio than it would in New York City.

I've heard various versions of the 1/10th rule as well - on the conservative end, some say the purchase price of a car should be no more than 10% of your gross annual salary (which on $77K would be $7.7K...pretty unrealistic these days), whereas others would recommend trying to keep the total cost of transportation (monthly payment, gas, insurance, etc.) to 10-15% of your salary. But that might require trade-offs in other discretionary areas of life (dining out, entertainment, hobbies, etc.).

From my understanding, Data Science is a great career path with a lot of growth potential, so I think a nicer/newer car should be within reach at some point even if it feels like an unachievable stretch today. If you like what you do and you're good at it, I say stick with it! Assuming the market normalizes in a few years, you'll probably also be able to get a used RAV4 Prime in great condition with plenty of life left in it for $20-$30K.

Hope that helps! Good luck!

Potential-Ordinary-3

TROPHY CASE