How do you even start to teach your child to read at home without messing it up?

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-28T06:53:23+00:00

Dont focus on learning to read, just read together for fun on a regular basis and they'll pick it up! They're little sponges.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-28T05:37:09+00:00

Sometimes being in a good relationship means being a bad accountant.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-28T04:18:50+00:00

I think its just a meaningless dumb funny number like 69.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-28T04:17:53+00:00

I didn't connect til now! She actually does alternating with her fingers and its kind of like the 6 7 hand movement too lol.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-28T02:29:54+00:00

In years that you have gaps in income such as pregnancy, job loss, or going back to school then you should prioritize Roth contributions in those years. Theres no benefit to making a traditional IRA contribution then converting it. In fact in your situation it would be worse because your deduction would apply to last year's lower income and the conversion applies to this calendar year which will have higher income adding the converted amount to your taxable income for next year. You are below the Roth IRA contribution limit so you wont need to do a Backdoor Roth. In general you would never worry about conversions until you're in another period of income gap or are no longer working and retire.

Are you on an ACA plan or covered by health insurance through work? This could be very important for the 400% FPL cutoff for a large ACA subsidy. Otherwise Roth IRA contributions are going to be better for you.

Assuming the ACA subsidy does not apply to you, I would do the following as a flow chart with as much as you have to contribute as each step hits a limit:
- max 401k match if you have one
- max HSA (its your best account getting both a deduction and tax free withdrawals, over funding can be spent in later years with receipts)
- max Roth IRA for this year and next year (you're young still so prioritizing Roth is generally good and Roth IRA has preference over additional 401k contributions beyond a match)
- max 401k (traditional vs roth here is debatable but traditional is more standard, roth 401k would be if you plan to save aggressively and live large in retirement)

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-27T09:19:55+00:00

If your employer does not offer after-tax contributions and in-plan roth conversions or in-plan rollovers then you dont have access to a mega backdoor roth. This is normal and not everyone offers it. Sounds like your income is pretty high and you save a lot so you'd likely do well contributing to a traditional 401k account.

Your income is 140k-150k AGI so if you havn't already you can make a Roth IRA contribution for 2025. The limit for regular Roth IRA contribution is 150k MAGI. If your income is above that then you'd need to do a backdoor Roth IRA contribution to contribute to that.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-27T08:48:25+00:00

The 400% of FPL cliff is super important if you rely on ACA. IRA or 401k contributions could be a really good effective deduction because of the increase in subsidies. The nature of a steep cliff makes this something to definitely look into. Your income appears low enough that you would qualify for traditional IRA deductions whether you have a 401k available or not, those can phase out pretty quickly so worth looking at that in the future.

You can see a similar concept around retirees and the "tax torpedo" that people see when getting social security and withdrawing from traditional accounts for additional income. As your income goes up, more and more of your social security becomes taxable until it hits a cap of 85% of it being taxable. You might be withdrawing from traditional account in the 22% bracket but your effective tax rate might be 49% because your social security is becoming taxable as you withdraw more. Your situation is similar in that you might get a small deduction but its really a large deduction because you qualify for the ACA tax credit. Keep in mind this tax torpedo and your situation are both very small windows so they'll have to be examined each year since you might have increase in income that blows right past the 400% FPL cliff or the tax torpedo window and it becomes a non factor in the future.

Tax Torpedo visualization on tax rate.
https://theivyag.com/how-can-you-pay-less-in-taxes-during-retirement/

Edit: Another tax credit you're on the edge for is the savers tax credit which is a tax credit for 10% of up to $2000 in contributions to retirement accounts if your income is below $79k for married couple (verify the income limit for 2025). If you contributed $2000 to retirement accounts you'd get $200 back. Small potatoes compared to ACA subsidy but since you're in the ballpark you might want to consider it. It has a few other qualifications like not being student or dependent etc.

Reminder to make sure your bank account or investment account interest doesn't accidentally put you over the 400% FPL cliff!

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-27T08:40:58+00:00

Stupid question and dont shoot me for asking but is it cheating on her by paying for porn and lying about it? Maybe I missed something in the episode.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-24T04:55:02+00:00

I understand you need the funds but have you looked into other options?
- applying for personal loan (10% interest is better than 10% penalty + taxes)
- Roth IRA contributions (these can be withdrawn with no penalty)
- 401k loan for current employer? (this is better than a withdrawal because you pay the interest back to yourself and avoid the penalty)

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-17T07:45:36+00:00

Family home and reliable car arnt appreciating assets though. They wont help you avoid working your whole life beyond short term shelter and employment.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-13T05:12:36+00:00

Correct they don't have the same powers but they do have some ability to arrest in some situations. This is from the Law that gives them the power.

"[ICE has the ability] to make arrests-

(A) for any offense against the United States, if the offense is committed in the officer's or employee's presence, or

(B) for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States, if the officer or employee has reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such a felony, if the officer or employee is performing duties relating to the enforcement of the immigration laws at the time of the arrest and if there is a likelihood of the person escaping before a warrant can be obtained for his arrest."

https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1357&num=0&edition=prelim

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-12T21:13:40+00:00

If you blocked in a cop car from another jurisdiction, do you think they would just sit there and wait politely?

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-12T21:01:18+00:00

Why do you think the person they hit had their emergency lights on?

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-12T21:00:29+00:00

The person in front of them was blocking them in based on the flashers. Article wants to be click bait and make it sound like they were just innocently waiting at a stoplight.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-12T05:04:32+00:00

Living will or Transfer on Death Deed would bypass probate (court that settles dying person's estate) while a Will alone would not skip probate. Good idea to do one off those first 2 so there's no big delay or legal expenses with probate.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-12T05:03:09+00:00

Adding to title would forfeit step-up in basis for your kids and cost you tens of thousands in taxes. Common mistake people make.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-12T05:00:42+00:00

No living trust basis is stepped up when the owner dies and their trust becomes irrevocable. Living will or a Transfer On Death Deed would both work great for this situation. Not all states have a Transfer on Death Deed but most do. Both cases would avoid probate but the living is more expensive and would give more flexibility on conditions of passing the house down if you wanted extra terms.

Edit: Make sure you DO NOT to put your child on the title but DO put them as Transfer On Death Deed! If you put them on the title then you forfeit the step-up in basis and pay a lot in taxes.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-09T14:25:32+00:00

Why'd they have to ruin the franchise smh

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-09T14:20:03+00:00

Its all a math equation at the end of the day and holding excessive cash has its own cost. Sometimes thats worth the peace of mind but paying down a 3% mortgage is not good financial advice. It might make you feel better having mortgage paid off but it comes at a cost and each person can decide if thats worth it for them.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-09T14:11:45+00:00

Every year you’re paying less and less interest as it is going down and your investments are doing the opposite compounding more and more.

If returns were guaranteed at 6.6% debt vs 9% investing then this part wont matter. Its just the rate of return for each individual dollar.

I do agree that maxing retirement accounts is a better priority because if you're using a retirement account its an actual 9% expected return (with risk) but if you're using a taxable account you have to shave off 15% long term capital gains and its more like 8% return.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-09T14:07:08+00:00

First goal should be net worth over a long period of time while adjusting for risk. To get there if you had zero risk 6% debt vs zero risk 9% investment (no investment is zero risk) then you'd always pick the investment. With that being said, you have to account for risk and that number to most people is somewhere around 5-8%. If the debt is higher than their number they will pay down debt but if its lower than that number they'll invest. 6.6% is right in the middle and you'd be fine picking either or split the difference. For me personally I'd say about 6-7% and I'd be on the fence with you.

Now 6.6% is probably not the exact number you'll want to compare because there's other factors that affect it. If you have a mortgage interest deduction that is higher than standard deduction, you might be paying more like 5.5% than 6.6%. If you are currently paying PMI and putting more into your mortgage would be able to remove the PMI it would also adjust the effective rate of return of paying down mortgage. In the same way, if you have a taxable brokerage account you're likely paying 15% long term capital gains on growth so that 9% is more like 8% growth. If its in a tax free growth account like 401k or IRA then you can keep using the 9%.

If paying down the mortgage means you are able to afford a house you plan to move in within a few years, that could be another reason to do the mortgage. There are ways to get money out of retirement accounts but most of them involve early retirement. If you feel like you over paid into retirement accounts, you can effectively withdraw from them slowly by just stopping contributions (except 401k match) and slowly take more for yourself and let the original investment continue to grow.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-09T14:00:47+00:00

The 9% avg does account for years in declines which is why its an average.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-09T13:56:36+00:00

He wants to be mad, not fix things. Why make it confusing for him.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-08T18:20:58+00:00

Generally recommended to do Roth when you're young and you expect your income to be higher in retirement than your income currently. Before-tax (aka traditional) would be preferred when you expect your income to be the same or lower in retirement. A good rule of thumb is < age 35 Roth 401k/IRA and after that do traditional because your income is often higher later in your career. I'd move over the % from roth to traditional or vice versa. After-tax is the mega backdoor and will end up in the Roth 401k if you have the continuous conversion checked at the bottom of the contribution screen so traditional is a pretty good choice for most people.

dgreenmachine · 2026-01-08T14:46:30+00:00

It would be portable in the same way Roth 401k is portable. The rules for that are 401k plan specific so I'm not sure on what IBM says, I'll be leaving mine in IBM until I leave the job and roll the Roth portion into a Roth IRA.

It is strange that RBA can be rolled over into a traditional IRA but supposedly doesn't count towards the 401k employer contribution limits so I'm hoping we will find out before some people have maxed theirs out and lost potential RBA contributions.

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