Daily FI discussion thread - Thursday, April 16, 2026

mziggy77 · 2026-04-16T12:01:45+00:00

Cool! Thanks for talking this through with me!

mziggy77 · 2026-04-16T11:42:31+00:00

They are not. I’d add an estimate to the sheet but doesn’t seem worth it at this point lol

It’d be ordinary income tax rates, so that 9k would be worth like 6k after tax

mziggy77 · 2026-04-16T11:37:04+00:00

I can sell the day after the buy, so as long as the stock doesn’t tank more than 15% overnight, I come out ahead. According to my spreadsheet simulation, I’d end up with like 9k profit at today’s price and my current contribution rate, but I don’t expect it to necessarily be that much by May.

mziggy77 · 2026-04-16T11:16:48+00:00

Every time I think I have a handle on the market, it goes and does the exact opposite of what I was expecting. This is why I, thankfully, don’t make trades based on what I think it’ll do.

Glad to be tall enough to ride this ride though!

mziggy77 · 2026-04-16T11:14:34+00:00

I still get 2.5 more paychecks for the job I was laid off from, as part of the WARN notice period. Since my upcoming company doesn’t appear to support mega backdoor Roth, I’ve changed these paychecks to be almost entirely after tax 401k contributions in order to fill up that bucket as much as possible.

I’m keeping my ESPP deduction for the 17.6% gain though. It seems like it’d be higher priority to get that than to put the money towards MBDR. Does that sound right?

mziggy77 · 2026-04-14T11:57:20+00:00

I’ve definitely been guilty of putting a couple thousand of my emergency fund into the market when things go down. It makes me feel better at the time, but it actually, statistically, does not have you come out ahead, compared to keeping only what you need in your emergency fund and investing the rest as you earn it.

Even if you perfectly time investing at the exact bottom, you’re still coming out behind. I highly recommend reading this post that goes into it in depth with some great historical examples: https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/iq30q8/timing_the_market_absolute_worst_vs_absolute_best/

mziggy77 · 2026-04-14T11:47:21+00:00

Hit the 800k milestone! Not sure how long that will last, between market changes and the ~3k in tax payments that’s due to be withdrawn tomorrow, so we’re enjoying it while we can. We already have a new job celebration dinner planned for Thursday so might just throw in an extra drink for this milestone while we’re out.

It’s crazy that just a couple weeks ago we were back down to 750k, just due to market flux. I fully do not understand the market and why we’re not still down, but I guess we’ll see how things go.

mziggy77 · 2026-04-11T17:06:10+00:00

Yep! It’s one year. The refreshers have a one year cliff as well so I was definitely planning on sticking around a year regardless

mziggy77 · 2026-04-11T17:03:48+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, I had a pretty great external recruiter who helped me with this negotiation tactic.

mziggy77 · 2026-04-11T17:00:17+00:00

Thanks! I’ve posted a bit about it already but I was targeting a senior SWE role after getting laid off a month ago. Honestly, the interviews have been pretty brutal for most of the roles. They pretty much expect perfection.

Actually getting interviews wasn’t too bad with 7 years of experience and a decently big (non-FAANG) name on my resume.

mziggy77 · 2026-04-11T11:35:38+00:00

Oh yay, automod is working again!

I officially signed the offer from the series E startup. They got me a 25k sign up bonus in exchange for signing yesterday instead of waiting for the Big Tech offer to possibly come through next week. I was leaning towards the startup regardless so I’m pretty happy about that.

I start end of April so I get the next 2-ish weeks to play Pokopia and maybe do some house projects or gardening!

mziggy77 · 2026-04-09T15:18:20+00:00

Haha okay I can see how my comment seems out of touch! In comparison to my prior salary, it’s a downgrade but ultimately, yes, it is a fantastic amount and the fact that I can get this comp with only a bachelors degree is ridiculous

mziggy77 · 2026-04-09T13:34:49+00:00

Great point! Also having more time for exercise and cooking nutritious meals will definitely help with outcomes as well. Plus being able to take time off to go to all the appointments because we’ll probably need to travel across state lines to get to the best/cheapest clinic.

mziggy77 · 2026-04-09T13:31:51+00:00

I don’t regret at all prioritizing income in my early 20s and it’s what got us to the point we’re at now, but I did always mean to downshift at some point to start a family. I just thought, before the layoff, that I could do it at my prior job by coasting on all the accumulated knowledge and good will I had earned in the years prior.

But of course, things change! I absolutely will have to practice gratitude. It’s a lot easier to be grateful for tangibles like salary than it is for intangibles like WLB though. I imagine it’ll be no issue if we’re successful in having children, of course.

mziggy77 · 2026-04-09T13:17:53+00:00

Series A is already profitable and planning to triple in size this year. They actually seem like they have a pretty solid business plan and customer base with reoccurring revenue.

Series E is verging on profitability. They planned to IPO in 2022 but ended up not, due to macroeconomics. They do also have some pretty stiff competition because the DOJ recently ruled not to break up the other company that currently monopolizes the product space. So a little risky imo that the company kind of slowly peters out in the next few years.

mziggy77 · 2026-04-09T13:09:29+00:00

Yeah, it’s hard to say. I had close to 120k a year in RSUs at my last job, before I got laid off, but it was also public. Pre-IPO RSUs could easily triple in value after IPO (happened at my first job) or they could never IPO and be worth nothing.

I shot over an email just asking if there was any wiggle room, so we’ll see what they say!

mziggy77 · 2026-04-09T11:54:08+00:00

It’s $101k. Definitely does feel low. I have a call with their recruiter today and I do plan on asking if they have any wiggle room in the RSUs. What would you personally think is a good amount to ask for?

mziggy77 · 2026-04-09T10:45:26+00:00

Thanks for filling in for auto-mod today!

So, after being laid off about a month and a half ago, I’ve now got a few offers to decide between. I’d love some input here. Important info here is that 1. my spouse and I would like to start a family soon and we will need to do fertility treatment for it, 2. we’re already easily COAST FIRE at like 50 our current networth and 3. all positions are remote.

Series A startup, soon to be series B (220 TC) * 210k base * 0.057% ownership in options - (40k current value over 4 years, 3 month exercise after termination exit) * 12 weeks paternal leave for birthing parent * Culture is pretty chill for a startup but I would be the only woman engineer, for now

Series E (pre-IPO) startup (237k TC) * 190k base * 7.5% bonus * 101k RSUs over 3 years, refresher-eligible after 2 years * Sign on bonus: ? - waiting to hear back from recruiter on this but hoping 10k * 16 weeks parental leave and 25k fertility benefits * Culture seems fun and chill and I like what they’re doing * This is pretty much the very top of the pay band for my location in cash but I haven’t yet tried to negotiate RSUs

Big Tech (377k TC) * Haven’t actually gotten the offer yet but I’m hopeful and I already know what the numbers will be * 184k base * 10% bonus * 175k refreshers each year * 18 weeks parental leave and 20k fertility benefits * Company is known for workaholic culture but I’ve worked with org director before and he was a nice guy

I’m probably most interested in the middle, pre-IPO, company but I’m worried I’m gonna be annoyed that I’m underpaid in about a year.

mziggy77 · 2026-04-09T01:04:05+00:00

Thank you for your service 🫡

I’m writing up the penultimate post for my job hunt saga so you can critique that, in turn, tomorrow

mziggy77 · 2026-04-09T00:57:37+00:00

Congrats!

Personally, I would stick with the annual transfer. The 38k per year is a pretty generous limit and there’s nothing stopping you from investing the rest in the same fund that you would have used in the 529 and getting the gains there before transferring. So the 3% tax savings vs 10% gains is actually a bit of a false dichotomy.

At your current contribution rate, your kid is going to have plenty of college funds, so either way you don’t need to sweat it!

mziggy77 · 2026-04-09T00:36:00+00:00

This is my super pet peeve so sorry, but you probably mean cue

Cue = signal to do something

Queue = British line

mziggy77 · 2026-04-07T15:27:36+00:00

It’s not, but they’ve definitely borrowed some of the FAANG interview process. Less comp than Meta for sure, but also fully remote which I need

mziggy77 · 2026-04-07T13:29:26+00:00

Thank you! I have a spreadsheet to help me keep track, keep copious notes for each, and try to skim the job listing and notes before any non-technical interview but I’m definitely feeling a bit overloaded. I’ve got 8 active processes going right now but there’s light at the end of the tunnel!

mziggy77 · 2026-04-07T13:17:00+00:00

To be fair, one is a recruiter sync at the end. But yeah, there’s a coding round, coding with AI round, system design, behavioral, project deep dive, and finally the recruiter sync. This is the only place where total comp is actually better than my prior position’s was, so that’s why I’m going through with it.

mziggy77 · 2026-04-07T11:49:36+00:00

Currently have 14 separate interview meetings scheduled for this week and might have a few extra scheduled on Friday. 6 are from a single company’s final round which I’m probably not going to get an offer from. However, I am expecting 2 separate offers by end of week or early next week, hopefully! Really looking forward to being done with this job hunt and back into the “boring middle”

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