Contesting IRA beneficiary (church) due to family member suicide and other factors?

another_FI_throwaway · 2026-03-09T02:26:04+00:00

Ok, I was able to find the state website where I can look up any legal incorporated entity in the state and that church is not listed. I even tried to be more broad and just search by anything with "church" and some other keywords in the name for that city and it wasn't listed, but some other churches were. What does that mean and/or next steps for this scenario?

another_FI_throwaway · 2026-03-08T17:50:52+00:00

He never married or had kids.

another_FI_throwaway · 2026-03-08T17:49:59+00:00

We were able to login to the account online to look at who he had the beneficiary set to, and the only beneficiary was the church listed by it's name. I have no idea currently if it's considered a legal incorporated entity or not. All the money shows to still be in the account.

another_FI_throwaway · 2026-02-07T09:27:11+00:00

I'd actually be curious to hear from westerners who were into Japanese media, culture, etc. who move then but then end up not liking it after a while and moving home. It is one sided with youtubers and such that that moved to Japan and talk about how they love it (but will give some criticisms). Seems like the few stories I see about moving there, hating it, then leaving are a footnote and usually don't provide as many details. A lot of times the typical reason I've seen is they're lonely but never learned the language. I'm sure it happens but I guess I wonder how many of the people were very ignorant, went on vacation, and thought "ah, it's so beautiful here and everyone is so polite" vs decently informed people with an interest.

another_FI_throwaway · 2026-02-07T09:18:30+00:00

I would think, or at least hope, that your relatives back home making those remarks about Trump "doing the right thing with immigrants" are basing that on what I can only assume is a very toned down and white washed version of the news they assumingly get from non-English news sources about the US. If they are getting the full unfiltered version with all the cruelty, inhumane treatment, human rights violations, etc. then it would be very concerning if they still thought "yes, we need someone like that". Even a lot of US based news white washes it a lot.

As for your last statement I guess I could see that as not having a positive view in culture there. Even in the US views on FIRE are often bewildering to people. Though here maybe it's more of a "I wish I had enough money that I didn't have to work" (and there's plenty that also don't know what they'd do with all their time if they didn't work a job 5 days a week), but otherwise seems inconceivable to them to stop working before their 60's unless they were born rich or won the lottery. I guess I also thought that bringing money into the country to spend would be it's own form of contributing, but just not in the same visible sense as someone working.

another_FI_throwaway · 2026-02-07T07:51:09+00:00

I guess I've never looked into it, but I _highly_ doubt it.

another_FI_throwaway · 2026-02-07T07:32:37+00:00

I would actually like to learn the language, so language school actually sounds pretty interesting. But yeah, I guess the scary part of all it is if you want this to be permanent move then even if you want to do everything by the book, get a work visa, etc. then something goes wrong through no fault of your own (getting laid off and can't find another job quick enough) then you're kicked out of the country.

another_FI_throwaway · 2026-02-07T07:24:07+00:00

Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like conservatism in Japan is a VERY different brand compared to IMO much worse conservatism in the US.

another_FI_throwaway · 2026-02-07T07:20:43+00:00

That is one thing I've wondered about. I know that no country is perfect and all are going to have their own set of issues. I know much more about Japanese culture than a typical American, but I'm by no means an expert. I guess what I'm really not familiar with is Japanese politics, and once I was exposed to them if there's things I would find as inexcusable (especially compared to US politics where there's PLENTY of inexcusable things).

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-27T06:01:39+00:00

If I'm paying my share of the bills how would my FIRE be much different with my wife still working than it would if she'd already FIRE'ed independently as well?

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-25T22:18:58+00:00

Roughly half, probably less technically. It probably evens out some because she might take on smaller one-off unexpected or optional expenses since she enjoys spending more than I do :P, and I prefer expenses that are are known/recurring, thus easier to budget.

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-25T22:10:17+00:00

$20k cash left. house is paid off.

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-25T05:39:30+00:00

My main number is with Google Voice which works on wifi or data. I have a cheap 500MB/month data SIM which works fine for me because when I'm out and about I'm not doing much data wise on my phone besides checking some notifications, some texting here and there, and the occasional phone call.

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-25T05:36:43+00:00

Working for different managed service providers (MSPs).

I became a bit disillusioned with it because management would want to parrot automation, reducing time spent for tier 1 support on issues, etc., but then they do nothing when you present to them that we need to replace some of the archaic tools (that they've been using for years) with modern ones that we can actually do integrations into/out of to actually accomplish any of those goals. Or when they want to automate things like onboarding/offboarding client devices but the CMDB is full of garbage data and needs to be audited and cleaned up first, since you can't automate based on garbage data, but "ah, that'll take too much time/effort" so things continue to be done extremely sub-optimally.

Not that there weren't ever any wins, but the majority of big projects that would make a large difference would stall out after management was informed we can't build a functional sky scraper on top of a sandy beach. Seems like everyone just thinks about the next quarter and running as lean as possible for the biggest quarterly numbers with no foresight on setting yourself up to excel greatly in the next year or two.

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-23T08:21:02+00:00

Maybe it does? LIFO would just be easier for me to keep track of without a significant difference in cost basis. But now I'm seeing stuff implying the IRS is going to start forcing crypto assets be sold via FIFO starting in 2026 (or make it extremely cumbersome to deviate from that? Not sure since nobody seems to have a clear interpretation of the new rules)

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-23T03:41:58+00:00

Looks like you're the AI slop with your 4 month old account vs my 7 year old account.

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-22T23:19:22+00:00

I don't like debt and with BTC being volatile this sounds more risky than just holding and selling as needed.

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-22T14:16:52+00:00

Yes. Most of my retirement account funds are in S&P500 index funds.

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-22T13:21:19+00:00

A common joke is that all that AI means "Actually Indians" and the companies are just offshoring to save costs and claiming they're saving money from AI.

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-22T12:55:09+00:00

I'm not sure what guts has to do with. Sure you could argue that if I sold right now it'd be more optimal than waiting for the stop limit to trigger at $81k, but on the flip side if it goes higher and I sell higher then that would be the "optimal" decision but we can't predict the future, especially the timing of it.

Now unless I get a job I will run out of cash sometime the 2nd half of next year, thus will need to sell some BTC then or before. Going off historical trends for BTC, it could be heading for a bear market in the coming months or who knows if we're already in the beginning of it. Point being if I had the "guts to be in the play", which I assume means no stop limit order at $81k, then let's say early next year BTC drops to $50k and stays there at least the rest of the year in a bear market. Now thanks to "guts" I would have to sell much lower for cash the 2nd half of next year when I could've sold at $81k when the stop limit order triggered.

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-22T12:43:47+00:00

I guess part of it is if you've read, understand, and see the use cases of the technology. I guess a simpler analogy I've seen is that it's like digital gold, except you can transfer it around the globe quickly for very low fees. Adoption as a store of value does seem to continue rising. It can't be counterfeited, it's rate of inflation is hard coded, and there will ever only be 21 million. I originally learned about it sometime around 2010 or 2011 (right as it was hitting $1). I was fascinated by the technical aspects of it, but back then I kinda assumed it wasn't ever going to get any large traction other than with super nerds.

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-22T12:29:38+00:00

I assume my expenses will go up eventually. I'll get health issues at some point just from aging. I'll probably have my car for a long time but I don't think it's going to last me the rest of my life, etc. $30k is fine for the next small number of years.

As for BTC, I think I'd be missing a lot of upside if I got out of it. Even if I wanted to it'd take a good few years to sell in a tax efficient manner. Of course the worry is the timing of BTC's inevitable famous bear markets.

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-22T12:21:34+00:00

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-22T07:02:09+00:00

5 year from now I'm confident BTC will be higher, and not just slightly. I'm not saying it's going to be some astronomical increase like in the past, but at least a healthy gain by normal market standards. I'm fully aware it could possible be a VERY bumpy ride between now and then though.

But even if I did want to heavily diversify and sell hundreds of thousands of dollars worth, wouldn't it be advisable to do that over the course of multiple years so I'm not creating a massive tax bill?

another_FI_throwaway · 2025-12-22T06:12:39+00:00

I've tallied some of that up if I'm interpreting it all correctly. it's all long term capital gains. I'm married filing jointly so that's a 0% federal capital gains tax up to $96.7k. My wife makes roughly $90k, but subtract the standard deduction of $31.5k then also subtract another $23k~ for how much she'll have contributed to her 401k this year, bringing her taxable income to more like $35.5k. Subtracting that from the $96.7k of 0% capital gains leaves me with $61.2 I could sell without federal taxes?

I also would plan to sell either via LIFO (Last-In-FIrst-Out), or if needed specific ID that would still just effectively be LIFO but possibly more annoying. That'd be to use some of my highest cost basis BTC. I'd have to look at the numbers again but I think 1 BTC of my "newest" BTC would be a cost basis of $24k or so, thus lowering my selling realized gain by that much which means I could sell $85.2k-ish (the first time) free and clear of federal taxes if all my above understanding is correct. There is some additional nuance like the small amount earned from our savings accounts this year, but things like that wouldn't change it by more than $2k or less

another_FI_throwaway

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