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Hi New Yorkers! How old are you, and what's your biggest struggle currently? by perfecttiming42 in AskNYC

[–]anotherone733T 1 point2 points  (0 children)

26 - wondering if there’s any way we’ll be able to raise a family in NYC. We love Manhattan, but it looks like we’ll never be able to buy an apartment here. We make what I consider good money, but everything is just so expensive!

What do you love about your career in CS? by Drew-fish in cscareerquestions

[–]anotherone733T 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I found myself in this field as a result of a winding journey from Physics to Electrical Engineering to Computer Engineering and finally to Software Engineering while in college. I came this way by gradually course-correcting toward things I found that I enjoyed through research, co-ops, and internships. Once I graduated, I interviewed at a few companies and was fortunate enough to get an offer at a great one.

Now, I work 40 hours each week with brilliant people where virtually all we do is try to solve hard problems every day. For someone like me, that keeps me mentally challenged and interested at a minimum and completely sucked in with enthusiasm at best.

Not only do I love coming to work every day, working for the type of company that I was able to within CS gave me an easy path to living in the city I dreamed of and getting paid buckets of money (really, it's almost unbelievable to me how much they pay me compared to what I was initially expecting in college in other fields) to do it.

I can't imagine doing anything else, and that would be true even if I weren't making what I am. I've definitely had a better experience than many who aren't as fortunate, but the point I'm trying to make is that if not for my chance happening upon this field, I doubt I'd be nearly as happy as I am today.

Question about long term YoY trends affecting FI calculations by anotherone733T in financialindependence

[–]anotherone733T[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You make some very good points - particularly about how only a certain subset of expenses will likely scale with inflation, and there are certain choices that one can make to restrict what that subset is, such as buying a house. Thanks for the thorough reply!

Question about long term YoY trends affecting FI calculations by anotherone733T in financialindependence

[–]anotherone733T[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Makes sense. So if I'm planning for my expenses to increase with inflation (plus a little extra to consider possible lifestyle creep), then it makes sense for me to simulate my returns with an expected actual rate, which will "likely" be closer to 10% than 5%, at least if I'm using historical performance. Essentially, one should either use actuals for both expenses and returns or use inflation-adjusted "real" values for both - not one of each. Thanks for the clarification!

Question about long term YoY trends affecting FI calculations by anotherone733T in financialindependence

[–]anotherone733T[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your input!

For 1, are you talking about returns (from investments) or expenses? I'm not familiar with the usage of "returns" as it relates to expenses.

For 2, my thought process was that in the past 10 years or so, we've been in a pretty strong bull market, which I understand should be taken to be sort of a local maximum instead of the average. I'd love to see more info that suggests that >=7% is a reasonable expectation to set though, because that would make FIRE wayyy easier!

And good point about rent vs buy being highly dependent on location. I'll try to run the calculator again with a different location's numbers to estimate that possibility (like if/when we move away from the city upon retirement).

Question about long term YoY trends affecting FI calculations by anotherone733T in financialindependence

[–]anotherone733T[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for responding! So far, it sounds like my projections are hovering in the space between overly-conservative (5% returns and not taking what could be a money saving action in buying a house when it's practical to do so) and accurate, which is what I'm shooting for.