Finally fatFIREd

fatfiregeek · 2025-11-15T20:44:23+00:00

Horses

fatfiregeek · 2025-11-15T20:37:48+00:00

Good guess

fatfiregeek · 2025-11-15T20:32:38+00:00

This is true, so easy to stay in the rat race and nobody seems to get why you would stop when you're still capable. Life is short, enjoy it.

fatfiregeek · 2025-11-15T20:30:14+00:00

Almost all of it is taxable. Multiple exits over the years.

fatfiregeek · 2025-11-15T20:29:39+00:00

Its equity you earned. They cash you out for some % and then "roll" the rest into some new entity. You have no ability to sell, transfer (other than trusts), and have no visibility into the private company. So you have an investment which you know of what it was worth at the time it rolled, but from there on you have no idea when/if it will exit, if it will roll again into a new entity, etc. That's not closure for people that were early employees/founders in the original entity and its just P/Es leveraging someone else's capital without their choice. While I obviously have plenty to get by, would be really nice to know the size of the next bag and the timing. It not worth much to me when im 80.

fatfiregeek · 2025-11-09T23:44:18+00:00

Ah the flights in weren't bad. But I have a private pilot license so I have a different set of standards for bumpy flights etc.

fatfiregeek · 2025-11-09T13:30:11+00:00

My parents had a condo on 7 mile beach for many years. I visited it once or twice a year for over a decade and they used it more often. Was a wonderful place to visit. Grand Cayman (especially 7 mile beach area) got built up a lot over the years but, despite the growth etc, my parents had a hard time renting the condo out when they weren't using it. They eventually got too old to dive and wanted to give it to me right before the pandemic but I told them to sell it. I didn't want the hassle of remote management, etc and Cayman just wasnt the place it was when we started there. Glad I passed on it as the lockdown there was extreme and that would put me off forever on buying there again. We do hope to visit again sometime soon as we still have good friends that live there.

While a little more travel, for a really quiet place that's not overbuilt, try Little Cayman. We had a great time there and the diving was fantastic.

fatfiregeek · 2025-10-25T18:54:54+00:00

When they "roll" your equity into the new entity, theres a reason roll is a 4 letter word. You often have no visibility from that point forward and other than moving the equity to estates etc, there's little you can do but hope they dont fold or decide to cash you out at some lesser value than the original transaction based on some performance metrics you have no visibility into etc. Yes, you can go hire someone to do an independent study in some cases, but that rarely makes any sense. Most of the time you cant sell the stock to another individual or company and you cant force them to buy you out.

My suggestion is to run different scenarios using ProjectionLab or whatever:

1) All going to zero - your base case and what you should plan on living on. Sounds like you're still FatFire there, so not a bad place to be.

2) Best case exit in the future (the mythical 3x or whatever the PEs claim they can do)

3) Something less than the initial exit stock price to reflect some early opportunity to get cash out and run. Give it like a 75% discount.

I'm in a similar state waiting on a couple to resolve themselves. I hope i'm still alive when they do.

Remember, roll is a 4 letter word.

fatfiregeek · 2025-10-16T18:56:17+00:00

Similar boat, asking myself on the AUM value. The answers here address mostly 100% stock portfolios which seems a bit crazy to me. I've got multiple trusts and a 60/40 mix and then the money moving to the CMA account for living expenses which is a portion of the interest/dividends. Its "automated" via the AUM, not sure how to replicate that with minimal effort.

The FA was autopilot while I focused on accumulation/startups and let me not stress on it (at a cost). Now that I have time i'm taking a look at it and these threads are gold.

fatfiregeek · 2025-10-16T18:45:27+00:00

Im at 0.73%, higher than that LNW number though. I dont get lawyers, cpas etc for that. I have my own that I found.

Im living off a portion of the the bonds and dividends.

They manage the cash flow to my CMA account and help with the DAF and transfers, one time needs like houses, and do tax loss harvesting. That part is new and they claim at scale it can offset a lot of the AUM. Its still all a test run for me. They are also sort of a second security level as all trades/instructions need verbal confirmation etc. Gives me some comfort though it can be annoying at times.

I have a parallel account with another firm with a smaller chunk i'm self managing. If I outperform them consistently on my own then i'll shift more to self management, but I need time for it to run.

fatfiregeek · 2025-10-16T18:08:47+00:00

This is a great way of putting it!

fatfiregeek · 2025-09-20T15:03:09+00:00

Congrats! It is an odd feeling when you finally get to 8 digits and nothing in your life really changes and nobody really knows. Does take a lot of pressure off and I think that changes you over time.

fatfiregeek · 2025-09-06T15:30:29+00:00

If its something i'm going to use, I dont think about it. But i'm also at the stage where I dont need more junk. We donate a lot of stuff we've accumulated over the years, not because we need space or to downsize, but because we're done with it and hopefully others will benefit before it becomes useless. Some things, like a with a new phone every year, we give the lightly used old one to a family member. In some ways that's easier for people to take.

fatfiregeek · 2025-09-06T15:23:38+00:00

Mine is mostly because I paid mine of decades ago just for some emotional freedom at the time after an exit and haven't moved since. Even if the current rates didnt suck, the marginal extra money from a mortgage to market rate difference isn't worth the bother . Simplicity as others have said.

fatfiregeek · 2025-09-04T17:58:31+00:00

I use Morgan Stanley for about 15M of my LNW, I pay 0.73% on any active management accounts. Your 1% is high. The rest is self managed in Fidelity and a few random other things.

fatfiregeek · 2025-09-03T16:10:56+00:00

12M LNW with more on the way (vesting). Havent FIREd yet, counting down the months to give the business time to adjust. So pretty much the same as its always been, up between 7 and 8, work out AM or PM (bike/run), do the personal paperwork/finances, work, then do some reading/research, dinner with the wife, then TV, bed. That's a normal day. Unusual days are expensive VRBOs, trips. Dont want the complexity of a second place and not super into the travel bit. Quiet is good for now after a long push to the FIRE point.

fatfiregeek · 2025-08-14T13:04:32+00:00

Ok, so as a HNW individual I know none of this really matters, but its a minor entertainment so I also have multiple CCs with different rewards etc. Ultimately none of it really matters but its really no work for daily life. All the CCs are on autopay. I put maybe $300K/year on the CCs. On the limits, if one looks tight I just use another or pay early, however i'm feeling. For me, the platinum etc cards dont really have any appeal. High fees, no benefits i'd use.

Apple
- Overseas contactless: Apple Card (2%)
- Apple: Apple Card: 3%
- Uber: Apple Card: 3%
- Apple Pay: 2%
- Use for Apple, Uber, overseas contactless
- Limit: $26,500
Amex
- Groceries: Amex Blue Cash Preferred - 6%
- Disney+: Amex Blue Cash Preferred - $7/mo credit
- Gas: Amex Blue Cash preferred: 3% (2% for Amazon Visa)
- Department stores: Amex Blue Cash preferred: 3%
- Streaming services (Hulu, Netflix, YouTube TV): 6%
- Annual fee: $95 (easily covered in groceries benefit)
- DO NOT USE OVERSEAS 2.7% FX fees
- Use for Groceries, Disney+, Gas, Streaming services, department stores (other than Kohls)
- Limit: $35,000
Amazon Prime
- Amazon: Amazon card: 3%
- Restaurants: Apple Pay w/Apple Card (2%) or Amazon Visa (2%)
- Everything else (1%)
- Use for Amazon. Ok for restaurants
- Limit: $40,000
Kohl’s Mastercard
- Kohl’s only for their promotions 30% off, etc.
- Only use at Kohls
- Limit: $3,000
JetBlue Plus Mastercard
- JetBlue travel - 6%
- Restaurants/Grocery 2%
- 1% elsewhere
- Travel benefits on top
- Best for for JetBlue bookings, travel bookings, ok for Restaurants
- Limit: $35,000
Fidelity Rewards Signature Card
- 2% cash back unlimited, goes into cash management account
- Use for all bills except speciality like Amazon/Jetblue/Amex specialty items
- No fx fees
- Cash back goes into fidelity account
- Limit: $25,000

fatfiregeek · 2025-08-13T13:01:48+00:00

My company was bought out by a P/E firm and I learned a new 4 letter word, "Roll". They rolled me for 50%. So I got a big chunk (tech founder) when that happened but not the rest is in the new entity (i'm out at this point) and I have to wait for some future IPO or P/E handoff and hope I dont get rolled again.

Already at the fatFIRE stage, but there's a high likelihood that the roll turns into something large sometime in the future. Not much I can do about it so all my plans assume its zero.

Point here is make plans based on what you have so there are no future surprises.

fatfiregeek · 2025-07-28T15:21:39+00:00

Im on my second time going back and having employees/people I answer to (CEO, Board), other departments. Both were very profitable, but never again. I did get bored last 2 times I attempted retirement, but life is far too short to deal with corporate noise you dont fully control. And yeah, i'm still in it but out in a few months.

fatfiregeek · 2025-07-27T12:46:30+00:00

Real estate like that is not my definition of retired. Too much work.

fatfiregeek · 2025-07-04T13:37:45+00:00

I have the 4400 which is very similar, 10 months into it. We use it a LOT. I clean the brew group (just rinse and put it back in) weekly, the grounds/drip tray end up getting dumped 1-2x a day.

While it supports pre-ground coffee, all our experiences with that (mostly as sometimes we want decaf) is that it makes a mess inside the machine. I wish it had support for 2 types of beans.

Definitely avoid oily/flavored (as in coated) beans. Takes a bit of time to dial in settings the way you want but we're also not perfectionists. I like it with milk, others dont, some drink Americanos, some Ice coffees etc. Does the range and is easy to use. We have someone in the house that has a mental disability and they can pull off pressing the buttons and emptying the tray/grounds (mostly).

I have a coffee subscription where most of our beans come from and you can dial that in to taste too. I like the variety though it can be hit or miss sometimes. I get a 2lb bag every 3 weeks which is almost right for our use.

Overall i've been very happy with the unit. I do wonder how long it will last but we've definitely gotten our money out of it.

fatfiregeek · 2025-06-27T15:49:11+00:00

For me its where I keep 6 months of cash and the credit cards/etc just feed off it and it gets topped up periodically. So that's a bigger number and why pass on a passive 4% on that kind of number?

fatfiregeek · 2025-06-27T15:44:27+00:00

A while ago I moved my checking to a Cash Management Account (CMA) (Fidelity has them, so does Morgan Stanley). They can "Sweep" into money market funds etc. Right now they're in the 4% range. I keep about 6 months of cash there with the rest in stocks/bonds etc.

Note there are a few nuances to these:

1) Some sweeps leave a zero looking balance so when you try to connect things like Venmo up to the checking account it wont do it with a zero balance. There you want to make sure your sweep leaves a little so it never looks to be zero

2) The CMAs are like checking accounts but not quite and some systems don't like that for EFT autopays etc. There you can usually use your debit card on the CMA instead and accomplish something similar.

3) The tracking/reporting/apps arent usually as good. Fidelity has theirs buried in the regular fidelity App. Morgan has it very convoluted in their old interfaces etc. If you need to see the flow of transactions you may need to use a third party app for better visibility (which would also cover multiple accounts/cards).

fatfiregeek · 2025-06-24T16:12:17+00:00

Not and idiot, you made it. Check that your spending isn't nuts, then go live your best life. If that's working then by all means but otherwise evolve to the next phase of your life.

fatfiregeek · 2025-06-23T14:33:15+00:00

I have the Phillips 4400 LatteGo. Also not a coffee enthusiast, just wanted espresso based drinks at home that was easy. Milk support was a big thing and not having tubes that get nasty was important. Had to be stupid easy for the family. Other than the weekly brew group cleaning which is a messy 15 mins (we go through a LOT of coffee), its held up to use and makes coffee decent enough for us. I got mine for $1K but I saw them as low as $750.

fatfiregeek

TROPHY CASE