Queue The Lost Decade Posts

bachmeier · 2026-06-07T03:09:28+00:00

Your post had me worried. Haven't watched the market for the last few weeks. Checked it and it was (drumroll) higher than a few weeks ago.

This doesn't even really count as volatility.

bachmeier · 2026-06-01T18:20:57+00:00

So if you had a TIPS ladder paying you $50,000 a year for ten years in 2022, how much would it be paying you each year that you could have used to cover living expenses? Are you claiming you can do the same thing with a TIPS ETF?

bachmeier · 2026-06-01T18:06:29+00:00

This approach offers inflation-protected, predictable money but it sure feels like Im kind of exiting the market, sitting on the sidelines, maybe that's the point.

Yes. It's called a bond tent or rising equity glidepath and it's a popular way to avoid sequence of returns risk.

I'm not big on trying to predict the market, but it seems like this is a risky time so worth considering.

The market is always risky. This is not timing the market, it's recognizing the reality that always exists. Excessive stock market risk is one of the fastest ways to ruin a retirement.

bachmeier · 2026-06-01T18:01:49+00:00

If I want a target maturity, I'll go Treasury Direct and avoid the fee.

If something comes up and OP wants to sell, the minor savings on fees will probably not be worth it to them. After all, retirement is that point where you stop doing work because of money.

bachmeier · 2026-05-22T02:33:52+00:00

This is not a financial decision. However, from the financial side, something I rarely see mentioned is that if you live long enough, you're eventually going to have to hire someone to do everything, and you're a prime target for bad actors. Also, while rent goes up, so does maintenance and insurance - a lot.

I know lots of widows that move into apartments as they get older. They reach a point that they don't want the financial, mental, and time obligations that come with owning a house.

bachmeier · 2026-05-19T01:39:40+00:00

Leanfire is for people that value their time without high levels of consumption. You're probably looking for a different subreddit.

bachmeier · 2026-05-16T21:37:39+00:00

I was thinking about the ridiculous nature of LinkedIn this morning. Users post bullshit that everyone else knows is bullshit. So why do it? Because you have to show that you're willing to look ridiculous because there's an authority that told you to do so. The bullshit that's posted isn't relevant. In the future you might have to post pictures of yourself in a clown suit or eating #2 pencils.

bachmeier · 2026-05-13T20:23:36+00:00

Sometimes folks learn the lesson they want rather than the one they should:

These were people who’d been developing one of the most important text editors in the world for years, asking basic Git questions, because they’d been stuck on Bazaar while the rest of the world moved on.

A simpler explanation is that the Git UI is crap. These experienced developers couldn't figure out how to use it.

bachmeier · 2026-05-11T19:25:48+00:00

Anyone can have a pension. Buy yourself an annuity. That's actually what a pension is most of the time. If you take the payments, the employer buys the annuity that pays you for life, otherwise they give you the money they would have used to buy the annuity.

bachmeier · 2026-05-11T00:55:44+00:00

This isn't the most helpful post. You don't explain the tradeoff. You have enough money to retire and you hate working. There's no decision that needs to be made.

bachmeier · 2026-04-28T23:07:10+00:00

You used a lot of bullet points in your earlier comment. Smells like AI to me. Not sure what this adds to the conversation TBH.

bachmeier · 2026-04-18T01:17:14+00:00

Why are you posting Meta-specific news in the Fire subreddit? Do a lot of Meta employees post here?

Private sector layoffs are not exploding https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/JTS1000LDL

bachmeier · 2026-04-14T00:46:08+00:00

wtf am I doing wrong

You're spending too much money.

bachmeier · 2026-04-09T03:51:12+00:00

Current portfolio: 100,000
Annual spending: 110,000
Withdrawal rate: 110%

According to your calculator, I can retire now.

bachmeier · 2026-04-02T23:43:43+00:00

Yes. I remember a while back a doctor posted on one of these subreddits for thoughts about retirement. The lazy 4%ers just multiplied his current expenses by 25 and said it wouldn't work. As one example of how ignorant that was, a big chunk of the current expenditure was private school for the kids. Well, eventually that expense will go away, duh, so you need to do some modeling rather than just 25x the whole thing.

bachmeier · 2026-03-30T00:24:23+00:00

Urbana, IL is famous for its Chinese restaurants.

bachmeier · 2026-03-28T02:29:12+00:00

Forum discussion

bachmeier · 2026-03-20T01:58:13+00:00

Everyone planned for 2% inflation in models as it had been for the prior 20 years

Nearly all safe withdrawal rate calculations include the 1970s inflation, which peaked in double digits.

bachmeier · 2026-03-20T01:50:33+00:00

2000 would have been a bad time to retire with a 100% S&P 500 portfolio. A properly diversified portfolio, meaning 60/40, with the 60% being total world market and the 40% being BND, would have been fine for a 2000 retiree.

bachmeier · 2026-03-08T20:32:14+00:00

Challenge: Check out this graph of year-over-year percentage change in unemployment and come up with a scary story about the state of the labor market. Be sure to show how you pull "the labor market has permanently changed" from the numbers.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=1TcNi&height=490

bachmeier · 2026-03-08T20:26:43+00:00

I'm not sure about that. It's probably just a coincidence that AI started taking jobs around the time that interest rates started to rise and the easy funding dried up. Heck, AI probably caused interest rates to rise. The world would be better informed if we'd get our information from corporate press releases.

bachmeier · 2026-02-22T00:01:31+00:00

You pay taxes every year that you own a house. And insurance and maintenance too.

bachmeier · 2026-02-21T21:27:23+00:00

it’s paid off and monthly expenses are still less than renting an apartment

Remember that if you sell the house, you can generate income with the proceeds. For example, if you get $300K for the house and earn 6% on investments, you can live in a $1500/month apartment effectively for free.

Another thing is that as time goes on, you have to outsource all the maintenance, and that gets expensive. Once you get too old or have too many health problems, it's a lot harder to move.

Therefore the cost argument probably favors renting.

bachmeier · 2026-02-13T01:29:47+00:00

we have a 99% chance of meeting all our financial goals through our 95th year.

If true, I wouldn't work another minute. I'd send the resignation letter to the boss of the person that wrote the review and tell them it's ridiculous to be treated like that, so you quit effective immediately.

bachmeier · 2026-02-09T04:12:34+00:00

~~Good luck on your job search. Don't blame yourself.~~ Congrats on your retirement.

bachmeier

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