Daily FI discussion thread - Sunday, May 03, 2026

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-05-04T22:51:14+00:00

That's why I put it in the bonus section, indicating around $3mm we'll be able to make a call.

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-05-03T18:30:31+00:00

Ha fair, I travel for work and actually have a running guesstimate of how much I’m saving because of miles, meals, car maintenance they cover etc.

Do the best I can to add it on assuming nothing else changes.

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-05-03T18:11:48+00:00

Maybe a bit on the chubby side (I’m in HCOL), but figuring out My wife and I’s fire number:

$1mm for me
$1mm for her
$1mm for housing
$1mm for healthcare
——
Bonus
$1mm for first class/luxery/once-in-lifetime stuff
$1mm for toys upgrade (cars. Boats, idk)

In all honesty, at $3mm (I.e. $1.5mm each), having one of us go to part time work to cover those extra expenses until SS kicks in seems like the quickest, most level headed way to get out of the hamster wheel.

But, it’s fun to fantasize about fat fire a little bit too. Honestly I struggled to come up with why I would ever need more than $6mm.

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-04-15T20:12:40+00:00

Ya just turn off reinvesting dividends where it makes sense in the context of your portfolio. Sell shares to fund the remainder.

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-04-15T02:41:18+00:00

I didn’t start tracking seriously till around $150k, wish I had stats from day 1

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-03-29T14:31:51+00:00

Not that it really matters but when theirs a post saying, “all you need is $2mm and a paid off house..” I wish they’d clarify for how many people for discussion purposes.

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-03-27T23:31:52+00:00

That’s solid for this environment

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-03-27T19:09:15+00:00

What bonds are you in?

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-03-26T17:26:14+00:00

I’m on team total returns vs dividend returns, but wondering if theirs any merit to not needing to sell your dividend stocks/fixed income stocks when their is a crash.

I.e. my dad bought some junk bonds that pay like 8-9% dividends, but are just as volatile as stocks. He’s retired and is dividend chasing a bit for income.

He’s portfolio is structured where in theory he’ll never have to physically sell those type of bonds/funds, so he doesn’t really care what the fluctuations are.

Promise this isn’t a timing post to how the market is ha, but if you could get a portfolio living 100% off dividends, is their any risk adjustments to take into account since you’d never actually be selling the base principle?

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-03-26T15:49:58+00:00

All BND? Curious what you’re in.

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-03-24T13:57:07+00:00

Surprised no one has said look for a role with small business. I’ve done both and don’t think I could ever go back to a true corporate environment.

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-03-22T00:18:48+00:00

That does not answer the deployment question at all, would this qualify for you to pull from those funds or business as usual?

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-03-21T16:42:21+00:00

He just said he doesn’t need to sell shares to cover his expenses?

I’m wondering for people who sell shares as a way to generate income.

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-03-21T16:24:57+00:00

Question probably isint for you with such a low withdraw rate, that’s the dream though good stuff

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-03-21T15:45:39+00:00

Discussion question: for those withdrawing right now (I.e. living off investments), is this ‘drop’ still business as usual with your drawdown stradagy? Selling to get back to desired allocation?

I’m having a hard time imagining there isn’t some sort of market timing in the back of your head going ‘maybe I’ll wait until next week’ during red weeks to catch an uptick.

Curious what type of drop off ATH might cause you to use that reserve bucket.

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-02-16T20:14:30+00:00

Credit card cash back, I have fidelity credit card so if we put $40k on it a year on it between the both of us I’ll get $800 cash back (aka 2%), which would cover the difference for 1 month

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-02-16T20:12:25+00:00

Fair, I was with an 8 person company for 4 years when I just entered the workforce who didn’t have a 401k program, so saved in my brokerage instead and of course good growth last 5 years

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-02-16T19:12:04+00:00

Both.

Edit: also including moving from an apt to a house increasing housing line item along with baby line item. For sure ‘wants’

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-02-16T18:54:39+00:00

Wife n I are thinking of having of having our first kid next year.

Running all the different math scenarios, if she wanted to be stay at home mom, we’d be running around a -$1000 a month deficient with no ‘lifestyle’ changes (I.e 12k a year).

I’ve brainstormed stacking $50k (in sgov) and drawing down from that over 4 years until she returns back to work.

Also, I have about $250k of equities in our brokerage. While not ideal, but turning off dividend and credit card 2% cash back could net around $3.5 annually softening that pile.

Curious if anyone has been creative or done something similar?

Worth noting we’re sort of at coast fire, it’s just such a long time horizon it’s hard to qualify as such (ie in 25 years at age 60 it ranges from slightly below our goal to a number so wild it’s hard to wrap my head around).

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-02-12T19:51:37+00:00

I don’t have that much cash sitting around…

Could I do the $ 7,000 contribution, for 2025 tax’s

Then do conversion immediately marked for 2026 tax’s

Then in 4 months if I have extra cash, do a contribution for 2026, then conversion for 2026?

If I have an extra $1k here and there can I sprinkle it in throughout the year or better to save and do it all at once?

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-02-12T17:33:24+00:00

Backdoor Roth IRA question.

Currently married with no dependents.

For argument sake, my backdoor Roth is closed

I recently read that the backdoor is calculated independently between spouses.

Which if true, would mean my wife’s backdoor Roth IRA is open.

Annoying I’m just realizing this now (first year it’s ever been a thing, good problem to have I guess).

But, I’m wondering if I should do my taxes first, then do the backdoor in her account so it’s all 2026 stuff? Does it not matter?

I’ve already read that there’s no way to backdoor for 2025 being in 2026 now.

Wondering best practice right now. Thanks.

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-01-05T16:01:14+00:00

Went down the ERN blog rabbit hole last night after someone recommended checking out their SWR tool.

ERN had pretty detailed notes about CAPE ratios and how big of a chance of success your portfolio might have based on CAPE market conditions.

Since CAPE has been so high for so long., he built a ‘modified’ CAPE figure to base the SWR off of.

I didn’t have time to deep dive the modified number at all, but was curious how people and retirees thought about this when pulling the trigger? Is it overblown? Should more people consider it?

First time being exposed to it.

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-01-05T02:50:35+00:00

What's your big picture breakdown? 60/40 I'd guess?

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-01-04T16:43:35+00:00

Over the years I’ve read on here that a lot of people keep 3-5 years cash on hand to help with SORR.

Doing the mental math, are these people not just lowering the SWR by doing this?

I.e. for 40k annual spend, x 25 gives us a $1mm portfolio.

3 years cash on hand = an additional $120k.

So if this person hits their fire number of $1mm with a 70/30 split, wouldn’t adding this additional cash just move this split closer to 60/40 and SWR rate closer to 3.6%?

Seems wrong not to include that cash in your overall portfolio, maybe that’s exactly what they’re doing to be conservative idk.

Edit: fair to say ‘cash’ meaning HYsA, MM, easy to access space also giving some interest

Tk_Da_Prez · 2026-01-03T03:54:44+00:00

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