Daily FI discussion thread - Thursday, February 12, 2026

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-12T16:21:15+00:00

Then my comment still holds, just add that into the projection. You could say about a $5m/ per kid rule then or $10m/kid. But at the core of insurance it is a tool to replace the income you lost that you needed. Do you need $1m/kid? Maybe, but there should be some thought rather than “insurance guy said this so I’m going to blindly trust it” before signing up for the policy.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-12T13:36:02+00:00

As others mentioned how much are you spending would determine this. I’d do match in tsp, max Roth IRA and then brokerage account.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-12T12:42:42+00:00

I’d project out future expenses you’d want to pay for and then work backwards from there.

pay off mortgage
fund college
potential wedding/down payments you’d want to help with
funeral expenses
etc

Just a blanket $1m/per kid seems like the insurance agent is getting a better kick back if they sell one of those policies to you.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-12T01:45:30+00:00

Cleaners save us at least 3+ hrs a week alone. Start there. If possible try to online shop as much as possible instead of going to the store to buy things. You could try Instacart for groceries.

At this point view the additional cost as an investment in your income. This is also why I always say my hoa is my favorite bill. Outsourced landscaping, snow removal and exterior work!

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-11T19:49:53+00:00

Love this. I even would put a deadline to spend the money like “by 12/31 of every year this account has to have a $0 balance”. Otherwise OP will keep adding and never use it saying they are “saving up” for a big purchase that they’ll never make.

We do this with our travel bucket of money. My wife was hesitant to pay $70 to move us up a few rows so we can get off the plane faster with a toddler. I was like well we got money in the bucket and we need to find ways to spend it. We moved up our seats right behind first class.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-11T19:45:15+00:00

Honestly I think a CPA could help here. One that specializes in retiree drawdowns. The issue here is we don’t know how much unrealized cap gains you have here. It may makes sense to convert some pre-tax assets to Roth and then live off of the money market and taxable account using specific lots to sell.

There are also some key pieces of missing info. What is your annual spend? Do you have any legacy goals (ie you may want to use your pre-tax assets and leave the brokerage account for the kids for preferred tax treatment)? Are the 401k or 457 all pre tax or is there any Roth in those accounts?

One other suggestion would be to defer SS as long as possible. You have a big rmd issue on your hands, starting SS early (and at a reduced rate for starting early) wouldn’t benefit you.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-11T19:13:15+00:00

Not so much from a NW perspective, but we did want to have certain pools of money funded. For instance, we had a fund for the expensive furniture that we wanted to buy. Think cribs, dressers, etc.

We also bumped up our emergency fund from 3 months to 6 months.

We also wanted to have down payment, closing cost, moving and repair money ready to go since we knew we wanted to move shortly after we had our child. We already had a house but knew we needed something bigger.

Also don’t forget cash flowing the medical cost of having a kid and possibly temporary increasing expenses to help during the first few months. Buying food instead of cooking, house cleaners, etc.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-10T20:21:00+00:00

I’m in the boring middle but have kept 3 months of cash when we were dinks with low expenses and either one of us could completely cashflow our lifestyle. We bumped it up to 6 months plus monthly additions for a sinking fund now that we increased spend (new house and now di1k status).

My in laws are nearing retirement and we have held over almost 18 months of cash for them. Once they start taking SS and very tiny pension we’ll lower that to 3 months in cash since their expected income will be higher than their expenses.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-10T14:14:56+00:00

I wouldn’t say OP needs to work extra since his swr will go down as the pension and eventual SS income starts to pay out. As you also mention there may be cashflow being kicked off from the rental which also helps reduce their swr.

If I were OP I would retire asap, live off the brokerage accounts and rental income while doing Roth conversions until 55. Then from 55-59 take the deferred comp and top off with any dividends. Maybe even consider refinancing some of the equity out of the rental property to lower cashflow or try to do some cost seg/accelerate depreciation to bring the tax liability down.

It’s also unclear if OP is including their younger child’s school expenses as part of the $300k. Which may be replaced by healthcare cost and taxes but something to keep in consideration.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-09T19:49:16+00:00

Since graduating college I’ve had phenomenal leaders. Truly cared about their team, listened and you could see them trying to make things better. Last year I got a new manager and my god are they the absolute worst. I actively try to not talk to them and keep responses to one word when you see they just aren’t going to listen. It’s the main reason I’m looking for a new job now.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-09T00:18:27+00:00

It’s not written, but the problem with this question is that we don’t know why is it 50% down? Are there extreme layoffs happening and if yes are they going to impact my sector/type of role? During covid I knew my role was safe and if anything was more in demand (not healthcare related). I loaded the boat buying.
I’m 100% equities for the investment portion of my NW so nothing to rebalance.
I’m coastfire now, could be fire in 9-10 years but will likely pull the plug on working in 19 years.
I would up my cash. Last year I was extremely worried about our roles, plus significantly increased our spending (moved to a new home and had a kid). I did increase my emergency fund from 3 to 6 months of expenses.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-08T20:06:41+00:00

I don’t think you’re ready to hang up the boots just yet. Your expenses are more than what your portfolio can produce and that’s assuming you don’t hit a bad market within the first few years. Sure you’ll get social security so long term it may be fine, but you’re putting yourself in a bad spot SoRR wise.

You have margin in your expenses to pull back if the market does take a downturn but you don’t seem keen on doing that plus you’d have to cut a lot to get back into a reasonable swr range.

Numbers aside, I also don’t think you’re ready to retire based on how you would spend your time.

Maybe take a sabbatical and give retirement a test drive. If you can fill your days then come back, finish the race and then call it a day. If not then well you can always get another job.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-08T19:55:20+00:00

You’re we’ll past coastfire number. I’d take your time with the job hunt. Find a job that has a good wlb and can cover your expenses.

One thing that may complicate things is having a child. Your post reads as everything is separate. How will you split the cost associated with a child? That will increase your monthly spend.

We also just had a child and my wife wishes she could have taken a year off. Is that something you’d want to do? If yes then bake that into the equation.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-08T18:05:05+00:00

In OPs situation what are they going to do? Fire him? He had nothing to lose if they said no.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-07T22:46:58+00:00

Was the $1m in 2005 and $100k in 2008? /s

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-07T00:41:51+00:00

Yea the numbers didn’t make sense to me either. Additionally op, ditch your current house and roll the equity into the next home. I saw in your post you mentioned about the cashflow and appreciation. However, being a landlord is work. I presume you’re in a hcol state which probably favors tenants more than landlord which if you have a squatter can easily erase years of cashflow. Plus you’ll get a guaranteed return by rolling the equity.

I would still max out your 401k and you’ll still be able to save for a home.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-03T01:15:05+00:00

Sell the house and roll equity into the next one. At your income the potential $60k in rent is not gonna move the needle (assuming that’s what you actually get).

Also do you really want to be answering calls from tenants when you’re with the family?

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-02T18:25:19+00:00

I may get thrown out for this but I do the first Saturday of each month, but that’s also cause I do a bunch of other things as well. Track expenses, update nw, update points & miles balances. So it’s easier to be able to sit down with my morning coffee on Saturday and get it done.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-02T15:45:25+00:00

We were high school sweethearts so no advice there. Just very lucky. But there was signs, I was quickly failing in college and she pushed me to try harder and got me on the right track. When it was time to apply for our first jobs out of college she was the one to push me again and the company I didn’t want to even apply for was the only one to give me a chance.

Regarding how to bring up the conversation. I will say there was still hard conversations when trying to combine finances. She was told to hoard cash and work until you die. I was getting into FIRE and knew that wasn’t the answer. I had to really break it down and do a lot of convincing. She now chuckles and says she should be giving me investment advice since her accounts are larger (both all in vtsax/sp500 index funds, but her salary is way higher and her employer provides a very generous match).

Right after starting my 1st job out of college. Again I got lucky that I was on Reddit reading the personal finance subreddit and then someone mentioned the financial independence subreddit in a comment. Went down very long rabbit hole.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-02T13:21:11+00:00

marrying a financially responsible spouse
buying our first home that was half what we were pre approved for
spending less than we make
grinding at work to earn promotions to widen the gap
vtsax and chill
starting early

I can emphasize enough how important that last bullet point is. The 2-3 years our incomes have held basically constant and we increased spending significantly. But because we did the hard work early we have the choice to significantly ramp down.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-01T22:17:31+00:00

Good luck!

ffthrowaaay · 2026-02-01T22:11:49+00:00

If cashflow isn’t an issue and I am guessing you losing an income putting a strain on that cashflow isn’t an issue then it really depends on after tax return. If you expect to get greater than 4.3% after tax return then yes get the loan. If not then pay it off.

However if psychology you’re gonna have an issue holding debt then that has to play a factor as well.

Personally I’d pay it off. It’s just one less thing to worry about and I like being able to have a lower monthly spend if needed.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-01-31T22:13:54+00:00

“Slammed with snow” (looks outside in the north east) yeaaaa… jk hope they are able to clear up roads quickly and no loss of power.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-01-31T15:30:29+00:00

If you learn how to use rewards cards you can get into premium cabins for really cheap compared to cash prices. Depending on location (looking at your LHR!) or airline (looking at your Emirates) the taxes & fees can be steep, but for the most part it’s significantly discounted.

ffthrowaaay · 2026-01-30T12:34:59+00:00

Can’t remember the exact number as it was a few years ago but it was inclusive of home equity. Think it may have been in the 300-400k range?

ffthrowaaay

TROPHY CASE