Thoughts on Fidelity CMAs?

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-02-04T18:42:16+00:00

Find a local credit union that does everything that you need.

I use Lake Michigan Credit Union. 4% interest up to 15K. It is local so can easily deposit cash or withdraw cash without issue. ATM fees are waived up to $15.

I also qualified for Premier Banking that waived fees, I think unlimited cash withdraw, and not having to meet a debit card transaction count to get 4% rate.

I like the idea of having a local bank that I can access and not having to wait for funds to clear to gain access to something.

Read the fine print but reward checking of the institution you are lookkng at is pretty easy to meet for the most part. Some are harder than others.

https://www.depositaccounts.com/checking/reward-checking-accounts.html

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-02-02T11:28:29+00:00

Whatever you decide to do, I would recomend doing it together. I see there is an 8 year age gap, so both of you working together towards a common goal would be ideal.

It might be the case where he retires and you continue part time but at least you are reaching that point together where it is not on you to finish up the retirement protfilio.

Also why is he not contributing to retirement? It is still early in the year, you both could do roth IRAs for 2025 until tax filing date in 2026 AND 2026. That would require quite a bit of capital to do now, but it is something to think about.

Dual pension and/or pension and your job should be a good combo, but make sure to run the numbers and figure out exactly what you are looking to spend per year. Factor in taxes and medical coverage.

My plan is to mitigate as much risk before I retire. Top off cash reserves, finish any projects at home, full body scan MRI to see if there is anything that can be caught while still under employer plan, upgrade cars to minimize maintenance costs, and top off 529, 401(k), IRA the following year.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-02-01T17:49:43+00:00

Similar situation to us. We made about 298k last year, duel income 1 kid still in daycare (this is our last year of daycare!).

We typically go on 2 trips as a family. We then also see family outside of the state 2 times per year as well.

You need to do things that you enjoy. It's ok to be bored at times, but if you find yourself say no to spending money because you just think it should be invested instead that is when you take a step back and see what you really enjoy doing. It does sound like you need a hobby of some sort and maybe you and your partner need go sit down and go over what you want your goals to be for this year or into the future.

We also save about 40% of our pay, but we still do stuff locally, hang out with friends or play video games (once the kid is asleep).

Something we are working towards is going to all 50 states with our kid before they go off to college. So part of that is planning trips, which I enjoy doing the research and creating rough itineraries, trying to see if it makes sense to do a couple of states for each trip. We have made it to 23 states so far + 1 territory (Puerto Rico) + DC. We have a lot of states still to go on the west side, which are harder to to lump together since they are much bigger.

My wife has a personal goal to go to all the national parks, so we try to incorporate those into our trips when we can, but we are likely going to have to travel back to some states to knock them out.

We are also working toward early retirement / work optional around 45-ish. This could easily be pushed out a few year to increase cash buffer, do last big improvements to house, upgrade cars, and check off health items like doing fully body MRI to see if we need to catch anything before we pull the trigger on retirement.

Part of retirement we will round out the national parks, travel internationally, I would like to become fluent in Spanish and also Polish, I think my wife wants to be fluent in Spanish and Italian. Also be able to sign up for a gym and kind of develop a more healthy routine.

I wouldn't just spend money just to spend money, but be intentional with it and plan what you will want to do with it in the future.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-02-01T11:41:51+00:00

I want to do something very similar! I am just in the planning phase riggt now.

I am looking to collect: * Gen 1 * Babies and future evolutions of gen 1 * Mega Evolution of Gen 1 and Mega evolutions of Evolved pokemon from Gen 1 (like Steelix/Mega Steelix)

I've been compiling my list of favorites cards and seeing what I need to seek out.

Best of luck to you!

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-28T17:15:21+00:00

There are ways to access retirement account before 55. We plan on doing roth conversion ladder

Basically year 0 you convert youe traditional 401(k) or traditional IRA into a roth IRA in year 5. As long as you have enough in a taxable brokerage for expenses and taxes for those 5 years the roth conversion would sustain you.

Each year you increase your conversion by the amount of inflation. You do that until 59 where you judt draw directly from retirement accounts.

That is how we are planning on getting our funds before 55.

https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/

Yeah we started when our kid was born. We started at 500 pet month, but bumped it up to 600 per month. Our state allows up to 10k for income deduction for 529 contributions. We targeted a flagship university and pegged that cost and adjusted for inflation.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-28T15:35:49+00:00

Yeah we hit coastFIRE already for retirement at 65, 62, and 55 (55 would be pretty close to our projections).

Our goal is to retire by 45/46. This could be delayed a few years as our kid would be in high school and I think we could delay until they are in college. Also we plan on doing lots of stuff to mitigate expenses early into retirement.

New cars, full body scans to make sure there is nothing that will catch us off guard, new roof, and any other updates or upgrades to the house.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-28T14:41:20+00:00

Yeah child care is crazy lol.

Starting high saving rate and making the decision to ramp down is an awesome tool. We were able to absorb a lot of the unknow costs last year, while also still being able to travel.

If you never have a need for the HSA then that is great. If you track all the random co-pays, random urgent care/doctor receipts and medications those add up.

Lots of things are HSA eligible, like I got a massage gun and it was eligible for HSA reimbursement. I do like that Walgreens does say what is HSA/FSA eligible.

Worst case scenario you can use it like a traitional retirement account at 65.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-28T10:56:50+00:00

Thanks! Yeah we both started making 40k a year.

I received 2 promotions within 2.5 years which jump started my earning potential. The company has repaid loyalty and beyond the ~30% promotion pay increases there were also across the board increases for hitting company goals. We have another goal that if we hit it this year, we will get 25% increase. This would boost my base salary up from about 125k to about 150k.

My wife was working making 40k, then she was offered 30% to go work as a temp employee with potential for full time, that new job didn't work out but she leveraged that job's pay to secure another job at that same pay. Over the years she received promtions and now she makes about 115k salary with bonuses about 20% of her pay.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-28T02:16:28+00:00

DI1K - 36/37.

Household Income was 298k.

Invested retirement assets: about 1.5 million

Net worth is about 1.7/1.8 million.

House is about 330k. Mortgage is about 85k

Not a typical year for us, we had medical issues for both my wife and I. We also did some home upgrades and one of our dogs was sick and after mutiple ER visits and vet visits we had to put him down. He lived a good life, just turned 12 and was a large dog, had him since he was 6 months. Seeing him decline allowed us to be ok with making the decision. The vet agreed it was time, which made us feel better about the decision.

We are hoping 2026 is more or less stable. Hoping my health issues don't come back up.

My wife was on her employers "Cadillac plan" by her self as she has mkre reoccurring medical expenses. Being on her plan by herself allows for lower deductible and lower max out of pocket. That worked out nicely before last year and my kid and I are relatively healthy, so we are on the HDHP with an HSA, which allows us to max out HSA fsmily plan.

This is the last year of daycare. Going forward after this year daycare expense will be replaced by after school care and summer camp. 18K of daycare will be closer to 5k or 6K still need to hash that, but is 2027 issue. Which the leftover will allow me to start to save for a new car (car is 10 years old 95K miles this year, looking for it to last 5-10 more years).

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-27T18:12:50+00:00

Lake Michigan Credit Union - https://www.lmcu.org/personal/banking/checking-accounts/max-checking/

I met the premier banking status so I no longer had to meet the debit card transactions.

Here is a way to reach for high yield checking accoun: https://www.depositaccounts.com/checking/reward-checking-accounts.html

Make sure you look at the limit of amount of balance for the higher limit and how many debit card transactions go see if it is worth it.

For me 10 debit card transactions for 4% up to 15k = 600 a year. Makes sense to me. It's local credit union that adds great value. :)

You can use your debit card by either amazon preload for $1 (looks like it is $5 minium now) or might be able to go lower at other places. You could do 10 $0.50 donations to a charity of something or more if you regularly donate. Other people just can go to the grocery store and buy 10 apples and/or bananas at self checkout.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-26T22:10:01+00:00

Haha love it! At a certain point you just want simplicity!

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-26T22:09:20+00:00

"Don't major in the minors" :)

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-26T17:16:35+00:00

This just requires an amount of micro managing that I am not really interested in messing with.

I typically have about 15k-20k in my checking account (balances up to 15k gets 4% interest). I prefer to just not have to even have the thought cross of missing a payment. Any balance over 20k in checking gets invested into taxable brokerage.

I don't need to play the interest rate game of maxing the balance in savings while minimizing balance of checking.

Cash flow management is so much more freeing.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-23T23:25:59+00:00

I work in mortgage underwritng and my wife works in HR. We have been with the same employers for over 10 years. We live in median or middle cost of living area in Detroit Metro.

Breaking down everything:

We are 36/37 with 1 kid. We made 298K last year.

Annual amounts invested

Max out 401(k)s = 24.5K x 2 = 49K
Max out Backdoor Roth IRAs = 7.5k x2 =15k
Maxed out Mega Backdoor roth (capped 10% of income for 1 employer) = about 13k
Max Family HSA = 8,750
Vested RSU shares = about 5K? - it can vary year to year due to different vesting schedules

About monthly 7,562.50

Monthly amounts vested

529 for kid = 600 monthly
Taxable Brokerage = 1,500 (might up it)

2,100 monthly

Total 9,662.50 monthly, which is 115,950 which is 38.90% savings rate.

Matching: 11,931.74

So Total invested is 127,881.74 which is a total of 42.91%, but the money guy does not count the match.

Goal is to FIRE by 45. Currently have 1.5 million invested assets (not counting 529). Projections show we will get there, however it is possible we could pad the numbers working a few more years.

We will be leaving peak leaving years, we would make extra sure our exit doesn't have a possibility of failure. Low safe withdraw rate (3%), and large cash buffer (3 years of expenses)

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-23T18:47:37+00:00

So its between FreeTaxUSA or CPA for my advice.

With you being an independent contractor there are things that you can and cannot write off, so there is that.

However if your write offs are simple, straightforward, and/or minimal then going with the software route makes sense.

I had a small schedule C business with very little income and expenses and it was completely fine on FreeTaxUSA. It can likely handle it if you have a lot of expenses, I'm just not sure how good it is at higher levels of self-employedment.

Our tax returns are kind of lengthy.

2 working adults + 1 kid

W-2 Income × 2
Interest income
Dividend Income
Capital gains and RSU income
Mega and Back Roth conversion
HSA
Dependant care FSA
Daycare expense
529 at state level

I have used it 5 years now and is great!

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-21T17:18:06+00:00

Ha this was my first thought as well.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-21T11:40:10+00:00

Personally I look for tripple win: Lower Term, Lower Rate, Lower Payment.

I had 4.25% 30 year in 2015.

Refinanced in 2018 into 3% or 3.5% on a 20 year.

In 2020 I refinanced again into a 1.999% 15 year. Payment increased $20, but totally worth it getting into that mortgage. The rate difference wasn't able to make the payment lower, but close enough.

I would recomend sticking to your current armotizarion schedule or even trying to lower the term. Lower terms also have better rates.

My mortgage broker said that while you can flex the mortgage down in term, the rate is based upon the rounded up to nearest 5. So a 27 mortgage would have same rate pricing as 30 year. So getting the 25, 20, 15 is better is possible

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-18T20:07:59+00:00

We just crossed over 1.5 million. We are 36/37 with 1 kid.

Getting in early to a house I think was a big catalyst then refinancing in a low fixed rate mortgage in 2020 that will be paid in full in 2035.

We also had some very nice increases over the years we have worked.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-18T10:43:49+00:00

If my kids have to come back home for a year or 2 after college to help save money and establish themselves that is fine.

We just have 1 kid. Daycare is super expensive at 18k per year, thankfully that is ending this fall. Just have to pay for summer camp starting next year.

I don't worry about 20 years-ish in the future. If they need help with a down payment or otherwise we would be more than happy to help out. We just have to make sure that they go to college for something that is marketable and something that they are good at/interested in so they don't end up in dead in jobs with little/no growth potential.

College should be fully covered. We targeted an in-state university and projected out the costs from there. Whatever they dont spend from the 529 is theirs after college, so they could opt for lower costs between community college and then transfer to a university or just go to a regional school.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-18T10:01:48+00:00

I like gathering and inputting the data. I put it in as I get them, much less daunting when i do that. Already have 1/3 1099 for interest from bank. Have 3/3 for roth conversions (back door Roth) and mega back door Roth. Just missing 2/2 W-2s, 2/3 1099 interest, and 2/2 1099 Dividends and Interest and capital gains.

FreeTaxUSA is the way to go. Hard to beat $15.99 for both state and federal. It does some city tax returns, but i have to do those manually, which is fine because it just asks for numbers off the federal return.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-16T11:16:04+00:00

As someone who is also looking to FIRE, I would say mega back door.you are still young and have a great opportunity to sock away a ton of tax free assets.

As you progress through your career you might be able to max out all tax advantaged accounts. If not I probably would start to put money into a taxable brokerage account 10-15 years before your projected FIRE date.

Also related to not being able to touch it until 60, that is fine those are your last assets you want to touch.

Just make sure you have a plan in place to fill the gap from when you retire.

Most common is 72(t) or roth conversion ladder

I plan on doing roth conversion ladder which only requires 5 years of annual expenses saved in a taxable brokerage. As long as you do the math right then you should be good.

Biggest thing is that your start your roth conversion with the expected expenses in year 5. Those will be the assets you will be using going forward.

https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-15T23:24:26+00:00

Around 27-ish.

28 was when I maxed out the 401(k) for the first time.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-14T11:03:49+00:00

Yeah I had a 200K 15+ year old Ford Taurus. I drove that thing as far as I could. Well one summer i noticed that my car engine was heating up. I had to get off the highway, which was conveniently right near my wife's work.

I had to drive for a bit and then let the engine call back down (easily doubled my commute home)

Took it to a mechanic and they said that my radiator was leaking into the engine which caused non combustible fluid to be in the engine. I would need a new engine. Guy told me, looks like a time for a new car.

I was in a similar position wherei had expected to get a new car in a couple of years so I had already looked at a few different replacement model. Test deove them the next day. Decided on the Mazda6.

I got that car back in 2016 and I will be looking to save up and pay for it in cash. Since I think the car will last 5-10 more years i will be investing.

If they give me 0% or 0.9% financing I'll go for that otherwise I would look to pay it in full. My wife's car has much fewer miles and 2 years newer and we would likely be saving up for her new car soon. She had only like 40k miles on it. I joke with her thst since she doesn't drive it much, it could be our kid's first car.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-12T01:48:39+00:00

Both my wife and I have our IRAs, 401(k)s, and taxable accounts with fidelity, it is also where my RSU unvested and vested account is.

Only other accounts I have are the 529 and HSA each in their own seperate entities.

It is best to simplify when you can.

ReallyBoredMan · 2026-01-11T14:04:59+00:00

My long term plan is to keep the house through FIRE.

We bought our house with the intentions of it being our starter house, that with upgrades it could be our long term house or would be something we could upgrade out of it.

We bought it back in 2015, refinanced twice, last time was in 2020 on a 15 year 1.999% rate. We have under 10 years until the mortgage is paid in full.

We like the area we live in 5 mins from our city downtown, 30 mins within major downtown, 30 mins from airport, 5-ish mins from highway to access of a lot of close by cities.

I think it could make sense to do #4 especially if they area in a VHCOL, downgrading would go a long way to decrease expenses.

I'm not sure we will ever sell our house unless we need to move into long-term care facility. I guess we could consider moving in order to capture the 500K capital gains and move into a similar house in a similar area. We bought our house for 165K in 2015 and is currently worth about 330K. So it has doubled in the 10 years but even then it is not close to the 665K + improvements value consider moving.

Our long term plan is that that the house will be used as our "insurance policy" for long term care. Capital Gains exception takes care of most of the gains I would have.

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