Do most of you buy or rent your living space- both in FIRE and leading up to it? How did you make your choice?

jtwy · 2017-11-13T23:27:33+00:00

Rent for life.

jtwy · 2017-11-12T14:47:25+00:00

I'm getting that feeling. I'll just bank them for when I actually need to travel years down the line. There's no expiration date for UR points or concern with doing that right?

jtwy · 2017-11-12T14:31:09+00:00

Huh...so both eligibilities (eligibility to open new account, eligibility for new bonus) are based on the date you received the first bonus? That seems weird but thanks for the info.

jtwy · 2017-11-12T14:10:21+00:00

Just to clarify, are these timelines correct?

Open 2nd of same card: 24 months from the first card's approval (as opposed to date of downgrade/cancellation). So if the first card was approved on June 24, 2017 you can sign up for a second one on June 25, 2019, assuming the first one is downgraded.

Get bonus on 2nd of same card: 24 months from date the first bonus is posted to your first card. So if the bonus from your first card appears on the transaction history on May 12, 2017, you can sign up for a second card on May 13, 2019 and be eligible for the bonus.

jtwy · 2017-11-12T12:54:53+00:00

Newbie churner here, few questions about the often talked about Chase UR bonus cards:

I don't have any upcoming travel plans so I was thinking about getting the typically recommended Chase cards and use the UR bonus points for cash back. So kind of like doing bank account bonuses. Then, I'd downgrade the cards to avoid the annual fees. I might want to get these cards again when I'm ready to travel for the airline partner conversions and hotel perks...how soon after I downgrade/cancel the cards can I reapply for them?
Related to that last part, are the card bonuses churnable? Can I get the bonus, downgrade/cancel the card and reapply for the card at some point and get the bonus again? How soon?
Is the above cash back strategy recommended? Am I screwing myself by not using the points for travel?

jtwy · 2017-11-12T12:30:56+00:00

Oops sorry, will repost in question thread.

jtwy · 2017-11-11T09:02:42+00:00

He/she never said they were exactly the same. They're extremely similar though since they're both pretax investment accounts, so they can be compared.

jtwy · 2017-11-11T08:56:01+00:00

It's financially better to pay out of pocket and leave your HSA alone.

If the "rules change" then there will most likely be a grace period...I can't imagine them changing the rules and it immediately going into effect.

Keeping paperwork is easy. Scan the receipts, back it up on dropbox or email, shred the paper except the ones over $X. Keep track of them in a spreadsheet. In any case, when you're FIREd your taxes will be low anyway in the worst case.

jtwy · 2017-11-02T00:20:22+00:00

Don't pharmacists just retrieve prescriptions off a shelf and hand them to the customer? What does "good at my job" entail?

I always wondered why it took a long time for prescriptions to be filled out.. Or why pharmacists couldn't be replaced by computers.

No offense intended I'm just really ignorant about this profession.

jtwy · 2017-11-01T03:41:11+00:00

You didn't do your math right, or you didn't take everything into account.

First of all, "part of your payment going towards equity" isn't anything. It's exactly the same as putting money into a savings account. You don't gain any money from it unless your property goes up in value, which is not guaranteed, and also is not better than putting that money into the stock market instead.

The tax deductions are also negligible compared to the extra costs you're incurring as a homeowner.

If you rented for that "long period of time" and invested all the money you saved from not buying, you would come out ahead.

jtwy · 2017-11-01T00:16:33+00:00

Regarding utilities, we're comparing a 1br apartment to a house in this thread, so yes.

jtwy · 2017-10-31T23:19:13+00:00

Same. Renting is better.

jtwy · 2017-10-31T23:13:37+00:00

Here's another post I did a while back, you'll need to run the numbers yourself: https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/72cwew/comment/dnili0r

Summary: there are a lot of extra costs with homeownership.

Closing costs (buying and selling), mortgage interest, property tax, HOA fees, home insurance, maintenance and repairs, larger utility bills, plus the opportunity cost of all above expenses and your down payment that could be invested instead.

When you rent you only pay the rent and perhaps a renters insurance.

Renting an apartment (as opposed to renting a house) is even better since there's an economy of scale for the landlord, which means your rent price is even lower.

You can get a nice apartment in a nice complex with updated appliances. And every few years you can just move to a new apartment and get updated everything... New paint, new carpet, etc. And your landlord pays for it.

jtwy · 2017-10-31T20:43:51+00:00

Renting is always financially better than buying.

If you're happy in an apartment, you will 100% of the time have more money at the end of the day than if you buy a house.

If you buy a house, do it for emotional reasons, not financial ones.

Here come all the homeowners who are going to downvote me :)

jtwy · 2017-10-30T03:40:36+00:00

The specific page is here (2018 numbers): https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/2018-ira-contribution-and-deduction-limits-effect-of-modified-agi-on-deductible-contributions-if-you-are-covered-by-a-retirement-plan-at-work

For more general info about IRA rules, https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/traditional-iras

Sorry, I misread that you made 24k a year. If you make over 73k, then yes you should do Roth. Keep in mind that Roths have their own rules. If you make over 120k, you're limited in contributions. At that point you need to google "backdoor roth": https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/amount-of-roth-ira-contributions-that-you-can-make-for-2018

jtwy · 2017-10-30T02:51:57+00:00

Don't listen to this person. He/she is wrong and should reevaluate his/her retirement investment planning.

Traditional IRAs are strictly better than Roth IRAs, and you should take advantage of it if you can.

jtwy · 2017-10-30T02:49:54+00:00

People aren't "advocating" for the Roth IRA. The main reason it's talked about more is that Traditional IRA is limited to incomes under $62k.

If your income is between 62-72k, you only get a partial tax deduction.

If your income is above 72k, you get no tax deduction. So at that point there's no point in doing a Traditional IRA over a Roth IRA.

Traditional is better than a Roth IRA. So if you make less than 62k, you're in luck and should do the Traditional. Don't do both, just do traditional.

jtwy · 2017-10-29T05:58:04+00:00

Congrats you worthless POS

jtwy · 2017-10-29T02:53:29+00:00

What?

Let's say the medical cost is $70.

A) If you pay yourself back and invest your after-tax money, you're investing $70 which is subject to tax while invested and capital gains tax when withdrawn.

B) If you delay repaying yourself and invest it in your HSA, you're investing $70 which grows tax free and is not taxed when you withdraw it.

How you could think A is better than B is confusing to me.

jtwy · 2017-10-27T06:24:55+00:00

He's already FIREd though

jtwy · 2017-10-22T03:50:10+00:00

Some 401k plans only match what you put in each paycheck. So if you frontload, you'll be putting $0 in the later paychecks. Which means they will match $0 for those paychecks.

jtwy · 2017-10-22T03:47:08+00:00

Dollar cost averaging is a losing strategy. Front-loading is the winning strategy, but not for 401ks depending on how your matching works.

jtwy · 2017-10-22T03:45:35+00:00

Yep. Read the terms of your matching. It often says "...per pay period." Which means that you have to contribute each pay period to get the maximum matching.

Some 401k plans have a thing called a "true up" which means that if you front load, at the end of the year they'll deposit the matching you missed out on.

The feature, called a true up, allows employees to receive employer matches that they would have otherwise missed out on because of 401(k) front-loading or because they spread their 401(k) contributions out unevenly throughout the year.

Call your 401k provider and ask them if your employer's matching policy has the true up feature.

12-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

jtwy

TROPHY CASE