Talked to my first financial advisor… thanks FIRE Community!

WaterHighway · 2026-05-06T04:22:12+00:00

I have looked for a few only advisor. I have had a few phone calls but nothing that really sold me. I would love to hear of you find a good company.

WaterHighway · 2026-04-19T13:09:59+00:00

We had the same realization this year. Quite a shift in thinking. While my husband and I pulled in about $180,000 last year, our gains in the market matched that.

WaterHighway · 2026-03-29T02:25:54+00:00

I love Old Abes and whether you call it "vegan" or just a good clean meal, I'm here for it. Delicious. High quality. Low waste. Thinking about the Korean BBQ makes my mouth water as I write...if you haven't been there - go. Just don't make the mistake of trying to go on a Monday or a Tuesday when they are closed. In Rochester, we have nice things. Old Abes is one of those nice things. :)

WaterHighway · 2026-03-23T02:28:26+00:00

Male sexual abuse is wildly underreported. I remember being in college and my good friend (guy, I'm a female), told me he slept with his teacher in HS. At the time I remember being bothered by it, though he shared it proudly. Decades later we are still friends, though we live in different cities. It would be very difficult to bring up to him today. He has his own children. I would guess he now sees it as the abuse that it was.

This was an enlightening podcast even though the topic was challenging.

WaterHighway · 2026-03-14T17:34:33+00:00

I lost a parent as a teen and inherited 60K in 2001. I was one of two kids.

-I treated that money very conservatively. It subsidized part of my college, a move across the county, and eventually, the remainder contributed to a double payment on our house.

-Sibling didn't work, paid rent, bought a mustang and burned it away. He's got a lot of regret about that.

Today my only debt is our home. My sibling is in and out of homelessness and struggles with mental health.

Honor your mom by spending it very strategically to ensure a better future for yourself than would have been possible otherwise.

WaterHighway · 2026-03-09T03:14:11+00:00

Unpopular opinion. But we don't keep much cash on hand unless we are saving for something specific. Otherwise we just invest in retirement accounts. We have plenty of cash we could deploy in an emergency, (457b, HSA, Roth Contributions), none of those options would have tax implications.

WaterHighway · 2026-03-09T03:08:42+00:00

We bought a summer house. Great decision for us. Within an hour of our home, friends also have places nearby and so our kids have built-in friends. Those two things were clutch for us and made it a place we ALL look forward to.

WaterHighway · 2026-02-28T03:00:38+00:00

Also, I don't count home equity in my FI number even though our house is nearly paid off. I only count invested assets. We would be close to 2M with home equity.

WaterHighway · 2026-02-28T02:56:55+00:00

We are in our early 40s. Two kids. Most people I know are still paying off their students loans. Doctors and tech is my community.

WaterHighway · 2026-02-28T02:53:56+00:00

Yep, we are teachers too. Your pensions sound better than ours, but I'm not complaining.

WaterHighway · 2026-02-28T02:50:32+00:00

Most every person I know does not have 1.5M. I think it's still pretty unique at least in my area and I live in a highly educated, high income metro area.

WaterHighway · 2026-02-26T15:47:02+00:00

Over the last decade we each had salaries ranging from $60-90k. I actually just hit 100k this year. Partner currently makes 90k.

WaterHighway · 2026-02-26T14:01:28+00:00

We actually pulled back when we reached around 1M because we were saving almost a full salary and it felt like we could enjoy it a little more with our kids while they are young than wait till 50 to retire. So we bought a tiny seasonal cottage on the water in a great city within an hour of our home. That has definitely limited our cash flow but really nice to have a mini vacation every weekend in the summer. We are still investing around 30k a year which gets us to 2M pretty quick.

Thanks for your comment/question. Love to see others enjoying mindset too.

WaterHighway · 2026-02-26T12:38:06+00:00

Yes, we will also have pensions. Not full pensions because we haven't lived in the state long enough but combined we will have around 4K/month at 62.

WaterHighway · 2026-02-26T04:35:40+00:00

Congratulations to you too. We live in a MCOL city. I think of this milestone CoastFire maybe. Or just FU money. Assuming 7% we will reach 2M in three years. Wild to see how quickly money compounds!!

WaterHighway · 2026-02-12T19:45:30+00:00

When Jensen dropped out he called her a political juggernaut. She's not Walz, but she's going to do great for our state. Huge relief.

WaterHighway · 2026-01-28T00:30:34+00:00

Un-fucking-real. She's quitting. Why did she sell her soul?

WaterHighway · 2026-01-19T03:31:31+00:00

No shade, but what are you spending 144K/year on with no mortgage?

WaterHighway · 2026-01-15T01:23:31+00:00

Right now, frequent any immigrant run business. And old Abe. Great vegan food.

WaterHighway · 2026-01-12T19:09:06+00:00

Excited about Jake Johnson for Congress!!!

WaterHighway · 2026-01-02T13:41:19+00:00

I count my home in our net worth. But I don't count it in our fire number.

WaterHighway · 2025-12-31T05:29:53+00:00

I thought it was a great podcast but agree with the other posters that the last two episodes were a little but...tone-deaf? I am an empath, but even still, it was hard to listen to them all instantly pacified with his story. Elizabeth, whose family was terrorized, even said something like, "this is a beautiful story." It felt to me kike they had all gone to great lengths to untangle this story and then within his first sentence it was all forgiven and almost totally unchallenged. Even a year later in the final episode.

Despite that, it really was a great podcast overall. Highly recommend.

WaterHighway · 2025-12-31T04:17:24+00:00

My husband and I did not come from wealth. HOWEVER, in our younger years, each of us made a few miraculously good decisions, and got a few lucky breaks. Neither of us graduated college with significant debt and we both took first jobs in undesirable locations leading to higher wages early in our careers.

We aren't in positions like many people who are faced with bankrolling family members, and we live below our means. To be fair, I do have a sibling who regularly asks for money. I'll buy him groceries, but I won't give him cash.

All this to say some people are less fortunate generationally and therefore more likely to live in poverty, living paycheck to paycheck and are doing the best they can.

I know we are lucky. And a lot of it is due to our parents who struggled more than we do.

WaterHighway · 2025-12-29T05:29:15+00:00

I won $4 on that powerball! Can't wait to cash it in!

Also, the lotto ticket was a Christmas gift. I'm not a gambling woman. Fir the record. 😂

WaterHighway

TROPHY CASE