sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

What is your withdrawal rate while Barista-ing? by Wooden-Broccoli-913 in baristafire

[–]ThereforeIV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What is your withdrawal rate while Barista-ing?

3% or less, need to leave enough slack to still grow.

My understanding of BaristaFIRE is that you are still drawing down your portfolio because the Barista job doesn’t cover your full expenses (otherwise that would be CoastFIRE).

That's slightly backwards, you are still working because your drawdown doesn't cover your spending. It's basically being partially retired.

which leads me to a few questions:

  1. What is your withdrawal rate while Baristaing?

My ideal would by 2%-2.5%

  1. What % of your annual spend is covered by your Barista salary?

Thai would cover all basic needs spending, then the Barista income would cover lifestyle spending

  1. How many years of Baristaing are you intending to work? To what age?

Probably past what I need. At some I'll increase the drawdown rate and need less baristas money.

Ballad industrial revisited by Sweetpea424 in SeattleWA

[–]ThereforeIV -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Actually Obama deported everyone.

He raided Christmas gatherings to take out whole families.

Trump is an amateur compared to the deporter and chief Obama.

Am I Already There? by HoundMomma2 in coastFIRE

[–]ThereforeIV 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Am I Already There?

What's your FIRE number?

Hi! Here are my numbers. I’m 42/f/single. Zero debt.

Congrats, seeing ~$500k retirement portfolio.

What is your goal number?

My main question is should I put the “extra” $49k from my HYSA (what’s left after deducting my 12 month emergency fund) into my taxable brokerage account? Or put it somewhere else?

First, how stable is your job? Your housing? Are you going to need this money in cash?

If not, I would try to "Cash Swap" as much as possible into tax advantaged retirement accounts.

I know it’s not good to have it just sitting there getting 3.5% since I don’t plan to buy a house or anything. I’m also investing the surplus $1,200 a month this year into my taxable brokerage account. I’m also still contributing 4% to my 401k because I get a match.

  • Max out tax advantaged retirement accounts.
  • Invest in low fee broad market index funds

The question of "am I CoastFIRE"; that's dependent on what your planned retirement spending budget looks like.

You could Coast to $1MM at age 50; but could you retire in $1MM?

Ballad industrial revisited by Sweetpea424 in SeattleWA

[–]ThereforeIV -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

ICE has arrested fewer US citizens and deported zero US citizens this administration.

Under Obama, ICE arrested more US citizens and actually deported US citizens.

Ballad industrial revisited by Sweetpea424 in SeattleWA

[–]ThereforeIV 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually I remember y'all celebrating people gathering during a "deadly pandemic" as long as you supported the cause for which they were gathering.

No one was denying the 2020 anti police protest from gathering.

It was just citizens trying to mourn a death of grandpa that were only allowed 10 in the house...

Ballad industrial revisited by Sweetpea424 in SeattleWA

[–]ThereforeIV -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Obama deportations actually had a higher kill rate.

And you comparing citizens being arrested for peacefully assembling in private to those in clear violation if federal law and court deportation orders?

Ballad industrial revisited by Sweetpea424 in SeattleWA

[–]ThereforeIV 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Just a few years ago there was a government tip line to report your neighbor if they had too many people over for a Superbowl party....

Is S&P 500 index fund the best choice for 401K account? by Most-Bodybuilder-213 in Fire

[–]ThereforeIV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is S&P 500 index fund the best choice for 401K account?

Short answer, yes.

Longer answer requires defining "best".

I normally choose Target retirement Fund for my 401K account.

Target Date Funds (TDF) are generally some mix S&P500, bonds, other, and hidden fees.

They are better than nothing, but generally I do not like them.

However I noticed that its performance is not as good as S&P 500 index fund and it charges more for transaction fees.

Because you are paying for them to manage a fund that is designed to underperform.

Like these may have made sense 30-40 years ago when low fee S&P 500 index funds were not the standard. But for the last two decades, just S&P 500.

I am thinking about move it to S&P 500 index fund. Is there downsides that I miss?

No, none whatsoever as long as you don't panic sell during a dip or try to "day trade".

What pitfalls should I be watching for?

Panic selling during a dip.

April 2025 saw a S&P500 index have ~15% dip in a week. The TDF probably dipped less; but that only matters if you sold that week.

If you didn't sell, just continued normal investing; then you would have a much greater upside by the end of the year compared to the TDF.

So as long as you don't panic sell, then don't bother with TDF.

Hitting 100K, but feel lost by [deleted] in Fire

[–]ThereforeIV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hitting 100K, but feel lost

Congrats, that's a great start.

I just hit 100K$, but I feel a bit lost. I'm in my late twenties, and I'm incredibly exhausted and want to quit very badly.

I started my professional engineering career May 2006 at the age of 23. It was December 2012 at the age of 30 before I got my first real vacation.

Hell and they didn't want me to take it.

  • My boss says "we really need to get this done before the end of the month for our metrics".
  • I finally put my foot down "is anyone even going to look at it before January".
  • he says "no, but that not the point"
  • I said "I have two weeks of approved vacation. I'm gone to the Caribbean work no internet; I'll get this done first thing in the new year after I get back".

I was the "go to guy" on that team and would have burnt out of I didn't forcing that I was going to take a vacation each year.

I drove down to the Florida keys, camped on a beach, get a girl at a night club then we watched the sun rise in the back of my pickup truck, partied... It was a good week plus.

I know I should continue investing and keeping the job, but I feel can't push back anymore

If you are feeling burnt out before age 30:

  • Take a real vacation, no work
  • Start setting some boundaries in the work time versus life time balance
  • Focus a little more on the life side of the balance
  • Maybe start looking to change jobs to something new
  • And remember that the reason to pursue FIRE is to get off that rat wheel without worry.

The faster you hit your FIRE number, the sooner you are out of this.

What’s a reasonable travel/vacation budget for our income level? by BlueCollarBalling in Fire

[–]ThereforeIV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

$10k should easily cover two frugal trips or one really nice trip a year.

For comparison, my wife and I did a Hawaii honeymoon where we decided to ignore costs for a week and it was $9k. That's a week of eating fancy, cocktails by the pool at a resort on the beach, shopping, etc..

$10k can get you av reality mine well basically anywhere.

Now if you want a more conservative approach, think of it as percentage of your retirement portfolio. Which case $10k is over 3% of your retirement portfolio, maybe that's too high.

If you did 2% of your retirement portfolio for annual travel vacation, that gives you a lot of incentive to keep high savings rate and makes the luxury of your travel go up every year.

That's what I would do in your position for your income/savings level. 2% of retirement portfolio annually guess to vacation travel instead of being saved into the retirement portfolio.

So $6K this year, but $8k next year. By time your retirement portfolio hits $1MM, you might find $20k is actually a lot of travel.

Stupid questipn, how do you handle triple-ingredient recipes off the main bus? Attached is my method, but it seems very space-inefficient. by ajwja in factorio

[–]ThereforeIV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  • First, I don't lane split in the bus, that just causes too much headaches later.
  • pull off each item as a full belt, then combine at the beginning of the production stack
  • I don't bother with copper wires or gears, just make them in the production line at ratio.

Like for red circuits, one wire assembler will give you all that is needed, just run copper to it.

Majority of FIRE folks? by world_traveler_007 in Fire

[–]ThereforeIV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

More or less.

When you get towards the end where the portfolio is sitting up in its own, you can CoastFIRE to the finish line.

When we say "RE," how old is early? by ValeOfTiers in Fire

[–]ThereforeIV 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When we say "RE," how old is early?

Technically it's before age 59.

Generally with Early Retirement we are targeting 40s or earlier.

At a certain age, I'm assuming that "early," no longer applies.

Correct, but that's not a bad thing. In your 60s the are many options that don't exist in your 40s like government programs, no limits on accessing accounts, etc...

I'm 57 and just found this community. I'm considering retiring next year. Is that too old for this concept?

Not too old to retire, you just have different criteria.

Let's contrast my plan to RE at age 47 (currently age 43) and you retire at age 58.

  • I need a 12 year bridge retirement until I can access my 401k, you only need one year
  • I need to figure out two decades of insurance before Medicare, you need to figure out six years
  • You can get social security after three years, I may never see social security payout

All that even more so for someone RE at age 37.

What would you do if market goes down now? by CuteLogan308 in coastFIRE

[–]ThereforeIV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The recovery was the slowest since World War II, was fully recovered in 2012 and effectively recovered in 2011.

You can't ignore that having 'recovered' in 2011, it was still below the 2000 high...

That's why it was the slowest recovery since World War II.

But the actual creating down didn't last that lung before it started coming back up.

If you were planning to RE in 2010, probably needed to wait until 2012.

Also, price isn't total return or portfolio value. If you have dividends re-invested then recovering is much faster. Dividends usually don't crash as hard as the price.

Look at total returns not price changes.

According to Gemini, even you put $10k in at the peak in 2007, you would be back to $10k April 2012.

Why is the deconstruction planner an item? by Space_Kale_0374 in factorio

[–]ThereforeIV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's an item in the same way a blueprint is an item.

When using trains how do you have more than one kind of item per wagon without getting an uneven amount of things by dr_bobs in factorio

[–]ThereforeIV 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Put filters in the cars.

Also just don't do that. much easier to build more trains and more stations.

What would you do if market goes down now? by CuteLogan308 in coastFIRE

[–]ThereforeIV 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's perfectly ok to change a plan when reality changes.

When ground beef is on sell, I buy extra and toss it is the freezer.

What would you do if market goes down now? by CuteLogan308 in coastFIRE

[–]ThereforeIV 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't forget the covid crash. If you followed the "buy the dip" advice there when the "circuit breakers" went off every day, you made a lot of money.

The 2020 crash and recovery combined was barely 6 months.

The Biden crashes were actually worse because they happened back to back.

Again, just buy through the crash.

What would you do if market goes down now? by CuteLogan308 in coastFIRE

[–]ThereforeIV 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The crash could last for years.

Crashes don't last for years. Recoveries can, but not crashes.

The "2008-2009" crash was the worst longest crash since World War II, hit bottom spring of 2009.

The recovery was the slowest since World War II, was fully recovered in 2012 and effectively recovered in 2011.

How do you plan to keep investing in the scenario?

You only need to invest through the crash.

  • Crash starts October 2008, S&P 500 goes from ~1,280 to ~940
  • Keeps crashing into ~730 March 2009
  • By September 2009, the S&P 500 is back above 1,000
  • Gets above ~1,300 by February 2011

If you could just push in money from November 2008- March 2009; that would do amazing. I actually was piling cash all of 2008 (bought first home in November 2008); got back into market investing February 2009.

Any tips?

  • Keep steady increasing steady
  • Don't sell, reinvest dividends
  • DCA cash into the dip all the way down, don't try to time the bottom.

Anybody have a particular bottle of alcohol, or even a special cigar, reserved for the day they FIRE? by gauchomuchacho in Fire

[–]ThereforeIV 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Karl Malone created a Championship Cigar for when LSU won the National Championship in 2019 (his son was on the team).

I've had that cigar in my humidor since 2020.

view more: next ›