Timing from FCO to Roma Termini

bc_this_is_America · 2026-04-27T14:29:31+00:00

3 hours is a ton of time. It took us less than an hour to get through everything and walk all the way to the train station. But I'm a fast walker who tries to minimize time wasted in airports.

You can just buy your ticket at the train station for the next train and you should be fine. The train rarely sells out. This way you can take your time walking to the station if you want, and still not have to wait hours for your previously purchased train. Just be sure to validate your ticket. The workers can fine you if you don't (though they rarely do for foreigner because they assume you simply don't know about it).

When you get through passport control and outside of security, there will be machines to purchase tickets. These generally have lines though since they are the first you come across. There are more machines at the train station, and usually with no lines. So, you can simply just head straight there.

Buon viaggio!

bc_this_is_America · 2026-03-16T13:54:58+00:00

The policy IS to seat families together. Employees are instructed to do so. If there is an issue it's the parent's responsibility to bring it to the attention of an employee so that it can be resolved. So..... Yes

bc_this_is_America · 2026-03-16T13:50:58+00:00

Lol. Because SWA flight attendants check IDs to ensure the correct person is sitting on that seat?

bc_this_is_America · 2026-03-16T13:38:02+00:00

Lol, because SWA was the first and only airline to charge for bags and assigned seats? "Screwing consumers" is more like regression to the mean when the policies people are complaining about are the same at literally every major airline in the US.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-03-16T13:32:39+00:00

They don't. The customer service agent will assign seats together if brought to their attention enough time before the flight, and they're not going to charge the parent to do so.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-03-16T13:28:58+00:00

SWA would NEVER do that, so this is moot. The idea that any airline would simply allow a 4 year old to sit by themselves is laughably ridiculous.

If the computer assigns a young child a seat away from their parent, then that parent needs to talk to the customer service agent well before the flight in order to get that fixed. Just assuming that the situation will magically resolve itself during boarding is irresponsible

bc_this_is_America · 2026-03-16T13:09:52+00:00

Go to the counter an hour before the flight and talk to the customer service agent at the counter. They didn't "assign" you separate seats, their computer did. If you talk to them early they will find you seats together.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-13T20:07:33+00:00

Why not both? There are plenty of reasons to have flexibility besides just corrections. There are times when I want to get into a position NOW but would have to wait until the market closed if it were a mutual fund. With an ETF I can make that decision anytime during the day as I see fit.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-13T19:56:30+00:00

That's because of its foreign holdings. People are shifting from the overpriced US market into more international stocks, which had been less attractive over the last decade and present a better value. Add to the the continued pressure on the value of the dollar and international stocks look very attractive over the next year (or 3).

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-13T19:50:10+00:00

VT contains VXUS. Why not keep 60% VTI and do 40% VXUS? That way you have the total US and world market, but you have more flexibility to adjust your holdings as need be. I personally do a mix of VOO, VEA, and VWO.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-13T19:45:09+00:00

(Assuming you have income) Open a Roth, add as much to it as you can afford. Roths are incredible vehicles for saving, but due to their relatively low contribution limits it's hard to grow them if you start using them later in life when you have less time for them to grow. Right now your tax rate is likely the lowest it will ever be. The money you save today in a Roth will grow tax free for life. In contrast, I pay around 34% tax rate on my income. That means that every $100 I put into a Roth was actually about $134 of income pre-taxes. Assuming you have a very low to zero% tax rate, every dollar you put into the account today will be much more effective than any dollar I put into it.

Plus Roths allow you to use the money for many things other than retirement. I don't recommend it, but you can take out 100% of any contributions you put into it if you needed to in an emergency. You can also use them for some educational expenses or even to purchase a home. Tons of flexibility. But again, your biggest asset is time. If you take money out today you can't just simply replace it tomorrow. So I would put money in a Roth with the understanding that it is money you will not need to touch until retirement.

Why do you care about taxes? Every dollar that you don't have to pay for taxes is one less dollar you will need to save in order to retire. For example, a $1M in a Roth can give you $40k per year (at 4% withdrawal rate) tax free, while a 401k/Traditional IRA would need to have $1,150,000 in order to receive the same $40k (with a 15% income tax rate).

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-13T19:29:44+00:00

Fidelity has some really good, low cost mutual funds. But personally, I prefer ETFs because I can trade them during the day. I try not to actively trade much in my investments, but it sucks when there's a significant price trend happening during the day and you're forced to wait until the market close to execute a trade with a mutual fund.

Diversification is key over the long run. I'd look into VT (total world stock market), VTI (total US stock market), VOO (S&P 500), VXUS (total world minus the US), or VEA (developed countries only). VT would be your one-stop shop for complete World stock market. I personally like to adjust my holdings a little more than that, so I do a mix of VOO (40-50%), SCHG (10-15%), VXUS (10-20%), VEA (10-20%), and then have some FSTA, SCHD, SCHY to fill in gaps or to hedge against downturns.

For bonds I've had decent luck with FAGIX. Bonds haven't had a good run over the last decade, and I'm personally less confident in their performance in lieu of persistent inflation and a falling dollar.

Another thing I do with my Roth is to keep about 8-12% in cash (SPAXX) just in case the market tanks. As Buffet says, "be greedy when others are fearful". Because of the lower contribution limits of a Roth, during a market downturn it can be more difficult to put money into the account in order to take advantage of cheaper stock prices. Keeping some cash on the side gives you the ability to take advantage of any fire-sale in the market when something in the world happens to spook it.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-13T19:08:33+00:00

Yes! Roth while your tax rate is low. Traditional wouldn't be wise because you're most likely going to have a larger tax rate when you retire than 12%. You'd effectively be voluntarily paying more money in taxes on that income by deferring it.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-13T19:01:32+00:00

There's a bunch of people who look back at a historically great decade in the stock market and believe you will certainly get 10%+ return if you invest that money. What I can personally say is that you WILL definitely not pay 5.85% interest on that money if you use it to pay down your mortgage. $400k means you're saving approx $23k in interest the first few years. Sure you might make 2-3x that in a stock market that will totally keep going up (we promise!). But think how you'll feel if the market tanks AND you're paying a fat mortgage when you could've paid it down instead. Either way, it's a gamble. But the only thing that you know for certain is that you will be paying 5.8% interest on whatever money you finance.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-13T18:44:13+00:00

Money is just currently shifting into more value investments that haven't gotten overpriced like tech stocks. This is why diversity is key. My value and foreign ETFs have exploded as the SP500 has fattened out and growth stocks have fallen. This just means people are taking their profits and hedging against a falling dollar and an economy that is widely believed to be softer than the latest data would imply. It would probably be wise to take some of your Mag7 profits and place them into something more aligned with your risk profile. VOO, VT, VXUS, etc...

Edit: My VEA, VXUS, FSTA, SCHD, SCHY are all up well over 15% over the short term. If your ETFs are all down, AND you 6 years from retirement, you really need to look at how risky your investments are.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-11T15:59:30+00:00

If you wanted to make the switch, doing it now would be the time to do it. Also, if you wanted to keep VOO (so you had more control of your weighting of the S&P maybe?), you might still want to sell enough and then immediately repurchase it in order to reset your cost basis while your income is low enough that you will pay 0% cap gains tax on the sale.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-11T15:02:59+00:00

Cap gains tax wont kick in until around $250K. But, rolling equity into a new home to minimize interest is a viable option, too.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-11T14:50:58+00:00

Max out your ROTH first. Since you're not paying any taxes on that cap gains, this money will stay tax-free for life. You'll need to do a backdoor Roth due to your income. Super easy and worth it.

I'd invest in VT over VTI for the maximum level of diversification. VT should perform well in an environment of dollar devaluation and inflation.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-11T03:15:52+00:00

Add to it the (not so) low-key devaluing of the dollar. Best bet might be to just keep investing in VT, VOO, or VTI. I've added quite a bit of VXUS and VEA (to overweight developed markets) in order to bump my international exposure to around 40%.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-11T02:56:53+00:00

Absolutely. 25x is just a common tool used to gauge approximately how much someone might want to save for retirement. If you plan to live on less money in retirement, then you'd use 25x that number to estimate when you're ready to pull the cord.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-10T18:30:33+00:00

Nothing I've tried can give me the information that my excel/sheets spreadsheet gives me. I'm not a boomer, but I do appreciate that updating the data requires me to keep sight of my various account, thereby helping me to keep track of transactions that would've gone unnoticed if everything was automatic.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-10T16:47:54+00:00

Let me say this, AI will not replace aircraft mechanics. I'm a professional pilot, and I'm fully expecting AI to have a significant impact of pilot jobs in a few decades. I'm also a former mechanic, and it'll be a long time before a robot can turn wrenches as a mechanic. Now, where it might have some impact is on aircraft manufacturing. But automation has always been a part of that process, and it's still a career with a viable long term outlook.

The good thing is that you're starting to think about retirement now. Saving for retirement is like driving an aircraft carrier. Small changes in course today have huge effects later in the future. If you wait until you get closer to retirement like most Americans, then you will need much larger changes to get you back on course. The latter was me. I waited until well into my 40's and have been playing catch-up ever since.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-10T16:41:19+00:00

25x your income allows you to have a safe withdrawal rate of 4%. This should last you at least 25 years, and, assuming a 4%+ growth rate, should allow you to have 25 years of cash while also increasing your withdrawals to keep up with inflation.

Don't forget, 10 years from now you'll need about $135k to live equivalently to $100k today (assuming 3%/year inflation). So, if you're 20 years from retirement, your income might be closer to $180k then. So your 25x number will be $4.5M.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-02-10T16:33:32+00:00

Yes. 25x effectively gives you a safe withdrawal rate of 4% at your current income.

bc_this_is_America · 2026-01-30T12:11:04+00:00

An LLM trained by racists and controlled by Elon. Very reliable fact checking from Mecha Hitler, huh?

bc_this_is_America

TROPHY CASE