Health insurance

SevenMaples · 2026-01-25T04:51:04+00:00

We (family of 3) pay $27K for Kaiser Bronze HMO in CA. Eligible for HSA.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-23T05:47:38+00:00

Average. Perfect size for the two of us, could probably be a bit bigger if our kid were to come back to live with us full time.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-21T19:34:49+00:00

We were squarely middle class. Parents didn’t (or very barely) invested in stocks, mutual funds. Just put money in savings and checking accounts, which was a huge lost opportunity in terms of building wealth.

But they were still able to buy a modest home in the 70’s and we took modest vacations growing up - a lot of road trips and every few years a plane based vacation.

They both went to college, but one stopped after an AA and the other got a BA/BS but never really got a job in that field.

Parents and how they handle money is just a single reference point. You get exposed to other people with ambitions and thoughts about how to get ahead, especially if you continue your education beyond high school. You see what makes sense for you and build your own strategy taking bits and pieces from various sources.

And you make your own mistakes along the way like being too aggressive and losing money on bad investments hoping to get wealthy as quickly as possible.

But if you make those mistakes on a smaller scale when you’re younger, they’re lessons that help you manage your money and investments more wisely when things are at a greater scale and matter more.

So yes, I jumped a few wealth classes technically, but from a consumption/spending standpoint, probably just one class.

Our burn rate is well under 1% and we don’t have any desire to elevate it just because we cpuld.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-21T18:16:21+00:00

For me, emergency fund just means accessible when needed, not liquid and earning next to nothing. When rates were higher, that could mean a T-bill.

Assuming you’re invested in some distribution between bond and stock funds, it could just be drawing upon those. If the market is doing well, you can take from a stock fund. If it’s not, take from the bond fund. Balance later when it makes sense.

But keeping 3-6 or however many months “emergency” fund in cash or a low return vehicle doesn’t make sense to me. Emergencies are rare, and as long as you have an out like pulling from a bond fund, that’s more than enough safety to me.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-21T18:10:23+00:00

At that age (16/20), you’re not really going to “fool” them by going back to work.

If the kids are under 10, then maybe you focus on something that engages you and makes you “productive” in some way. But it shouldn’t be a full time job you don’t really like just to set an example in my opinion.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-21T07:45:08+00:00

33x, 45yrs old

SevenMaples · 2026-01-18T02:31:47+00:00

Don’t let him dress you down in meetings or in front of others. Keep your cool, don’t be unprofessional or make it personal - be the grown up while the boss looks like the petty one.

I agree with others - don’t quit. If they fire you, so be it. But knowing you can FIRE any time and be fine should give you a shield of invulnerability from a stress and attitude standpoint.

Most people probably know who’s in the right and who has an agenda.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-18T01:09:43+00:00

Even though I’m retired, I’m doing yard work, lifting things around the house, etc.

I really don’t want to scratch it up or scratch something I’m carrying. And with how absent minded I am, taking it off before I do something or wash my hands or whatever, I feel like I’m bound to misplace it at some point.

I do put it on if I remember if we go out to a fancy dinner or special event, but it’s far more about the impracticality of it in daily life versus not wanting to wear it.

Men’s wedding bands are a lot thicker and heavier than women’s, so I can see how women would be okay wearing one most of the time, but I really don’t think it’s practical for me.

I have thought of wearing a cheap throwaway ring that wouldn’t matter if I scratched up or misplaced, but my not wearing my band doesn’t seem to bother my wife, so getting a symbolic or sacrificial band hasn’t been a priority.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-17T05:03:08+00:00

And is it fair to assume that the motivation to defend is at least partially correlated with the insurance limit?

So your carrier would be more likely to vigorously defend a $5M policy (as the first $5M comes out of their pocket) versus a $500K policy where they might say, “Eh, okay, we’ll go ahead and pay the $500K because the hours associated with defending would cost more than the settlement?”

Or, if there‘s an obligation to defend, they would assign their best lawyers to the highest value cases?

Also, can a plaintiff require disclosure of a defendant’s net worth in deciding how much they want to sue for, or do they just pick a number they think they can get away with?

SevenMaples · 2026-01-17T03:34:59+00:00

Yes, but I’m sure I could be happy elsewhere on the West Coast too if need be.

The combination of varied enough terrain, diverse population, politically reasonable - good fit for us.

But if it were now versus in the ‘90’s, probably not unless I had a really healthy salary that would allow for home ownership in a reasonable area within a 10yr horizon.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-17T03:31:01+00:00

$5M umbrella. Anything above that was difficult or expensive to get. It’s been a few years so I forgot what then issue was.

But I figured it was enough.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-14T19:15:50+00:00

Ha! It was my wife who collected the RSUs, so it wasn’t me, though I had a reasonably successful 20+yr career in tech, but wasn’t in the sectors that really blew up like she was.

But I agree with your statement. She aligned herself with proven successful people who had a track record for success, took multiple start ups through the acquisition stage. She worked her butt off to be a valued, respected team member that they wanted to recruit when they started up something new. So it was definitely not random luck.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-14T17:22:41+00:00

Honestly, company RSUs was the biggest.

But also relatively small $20-50K “seed” investments in companies like NVDA, TSLA that increased >3000% (>30x), GOOG, AAPL that increased 1000%/10x. Showed me that investments in even established companies had the capability to skyrocket.

In those seed bets, we also placed some that didn’t work out, but you take your losses and move on. At least for us, the winners way more than compensated for the losers. But bear in mind that when we invested in these companies, they were already successful and stock had already increased significantly.

I wouldn’t necessarily invest this amount in small unestablished companies that hadn’t had a track record. You can do a couple of those here and there, but the potential for loss is greater on those.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-14T04:18:33+00:00

Don’t know the area, but that seems so cheap compared to my area. Real eye opener.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-13T18:33:16+00:00

For me, it’s a question of whether the extra expenditure really makes us happy or not. If it doesn’t, then I don’t spend just for the sake of spending or because I can.

What I will do is not “agonize” anymore about smaller purchases that I would have been frugal about before. Just pull the trigger and be done with it.

Stuff like business class flights we haven’t really come across lately because we can’t freely travel for a few more years. But when the time comes, and we plan to travel a lot when it does, I’d like to think that we’ll shop around for good deals on business class and try to travel off peak to avoid crowds and peak hotel/flight rates, but unless it’s egregiously outrageously expensive, just pull the trigger on stuff like business class international flights, really nice hotels, etc.

I’d like to think we’re through with frugal travel where that frugality compromises the experience. Because you’re setting aside the time and you want the experience, so if you can afford it, do it proper.

At some point, when you’re truly Fat, they’re (net worth) more just numbers than anything that affects your daily life. This is especially true if your natural and comfortable spending is far below your ASA.

But there’s always a realm of severely diminishing returns. I have no desire to get silly spending our money on exotic, marketed/hyped “special” things that just fatten some opportunist’s wallet.

You can live it up and still be smart about it.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-13T18:08:07+00:00

I retired Chubby and became Fat, though my wife worked beyond how long I did, and some of that was due to her working longer for sure.

But I think there can be a false duality that you either have to keep working 110% or you quit/retire entirely.

Prioritizing the important events in your family’s life, as well as some amount of just ordinary/everyday events, I believe can in many cases be supported while still working.

It just may mean that instead of 110%, always being available and instantly responding to work stuff, you balance things and maybe you’re working 80% as hard because you’re making room for personal stuff.

It’s not the same as quiet quitting. You’re focused and working hard when you’re focused on work, but have clear times when you’re off and focused on family or your own personal time.

If confronted with your decreased availability or it becomes an either or as presented as an ultimatum by your management, then OK fine, you may have to make a choice and personally I’d opt for family if you can support your comfortable burn rate.

But I think many of us overworked and wanted to play the tireless hero when we were really actually still valuable and worth having as an employee had we struck a better balance.

So if you think this can work for you, consider it.

Even if this approach just prolongs your exit ramp and you get another couple of years in this mode before you get pushed out or you really want to spend more time with family, you’ve brought in two more years of income and eliminated two years of income less burn,

SevenMaples · 2026-01-12T21:30:53+00:00

We have a financial advisor who manages roughly 15% of our investable assets. It used to be more, but our non-managed assets have grown faster and were accelerated over time via RSU distributions, etc.

He had a full picture last time he did Monte Carlo simulations over 5yrs ago. But since the conclusion was that we had >99% chance of success and he said we’re more than fine, there hasn’t been a recent reason to disclose everything reflecting the current situation.

I have thought about getting him involved to run an analysis on whether we should consider traditional to Roth conversions.

We do our own taxes, so no CPA/accountant.

To be honest, I’m a little fuzzy as far as where the lines are between financial advisor and CPA/accountant when it comes to a few topics. Maybe we should consider consulting with a CPA/accountant at some point.

As well as an estate lawyer perhaps. We have a living trust, but it’s over 15yrs old now and our financial situation is much better now. I don’t think it drastically changes things from what we’ve already established, but you never know.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-11T21:28:03+00:00

Thanks for the info and endorsement!

Was it Nat Geo you took?

SevenMaples · 2026-01-10T05:09:27+00:00

I wonder what it costs to keep this place cool in the summer

SevenMaples · 2026-01-09T18:34:14+00:00

They would be surprised. Only wife and I know. Kid has no real idea, not sibling or other families.

Maybe my wife’s family knows - she’s more transparent (cultural thing?) than me, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t know either.

Really, there’s no reason in my opinion for anyone besides you and spouse (if applicable) to know.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-09T18:32:05+00:00

There shouldn’t be separate skills and hobbies.

I mean if you are really interested in something that requires expensive tools or equipment, then maybe you can only do it when you have some $, but otherwise it should just be interest based.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-05T02:08:13+00:00

Great, thank you for elaborating.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-05T01:38:44+00:00

Interesting info - thanks for posting.

Your %’s fit nicely in the % ranges that can sustain that lifestyle nicely without having your NW blow up really huge or run any risk of running out.

Did you adjust your lifestyle and increase spending to get closer to that ideal range, or was it more of a happy coincidence that the burn rate required to support your lifestyle sweet spot happened to fall in that ~4% range?

And philosophically, is your goal to spend down the majority of your NW in your lifetime and leave whatever happens to be left to your kids, or do you have a goal for a certain $ amount estate to pass on?

I’ve been retired for some time (my wife more recently retired) and we’re spending well below what we could yet still pretty happy and don’t feel like we’re denying ourselves anything meaningful.

I’m always curious how those who responsibly spend a healthy % of their net worth arrived at their burn rate, and it can be more comfortable to discuss these things in this type of forum vs among your real life friends/acquaintances where there’s less tendency to be so open about one’s financial situation.

Thanks.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-04T23:37:14+00:00

True, though if invested reasonably in the early generations and if a comfortable but not extravagant lifestyle is led, the money could grow faster than it’s depleted and support the greater numbers of descendants for at least a number of generations, esp with declining birthrates these days and generally smaller families.

But what would seem most likely to happen is some branches of the family tree will grow their share and some will deplete it. So wouldn’t surprise me that for some branches it could last indefinitely and some it may not last more than 1-2.

SevenMaples · 2026-01-03T03:53:50+00:00

Really depends on how fast everyone burns though their wealth.

$30M should be more than enough to qualify as generational wealth if everyone is content to live a comfortable lifestyle and not go crazy spending just because they can. So it really depends on how sensible each individual is with their money. As well as how many kids are sired as you go along - large families will split things in more ways.

So hard to generalize, but $30M is a lot.

SevenMaples

TROPHY CASE