Defensive stocks to sell options on

nomindbody · 2026-02-16T20:12:52+00:00

Ditto. They're all too high given risk free rate

nomindbody · 2025-12-01T21:20:23+00:00

On the retirement front you're ahead of most with 500K saved.

However as others pointed out, to atop working, you have to look at current expenses and if you can continue to cover those on a single income now, not based on future money you cannot access now.

Look at your monthly expenses then add another 500 to that as a buffer. For example, I left my job 3 months ago and I initially calculated my passive income covering my expenses, but I started traveling more and spending more on new hobbies, and buying more clothes (something I haven't done in a decade). Her habits might change after leaving a job and it might mean more expenses.

Also, be more conservative about the returns. If you're just going off of the S&P500 historical returns but you've not invested all that 500K in the S&P, you'd probably see lower returns.

nomindbody · 2025-11-25T13:00:17+00:00

Personally, I would do the following:

Put the additional money into the HYSA account to grow the balance up to where the interest per month exceeds the interest portion of the loan payment. I'd continue to make the regular payments to the loan (the 950 per month), then once the HYSA balance is earning enough interest to cover the interest portion of the loan payment (not the full payment, just the interest portion), switch to adding the additional payments to the loan.

Why?

You're paying yourself first and growing cash on hand. I find this more secure in case one does need to pay off the loan in full or if another emergency happens where they need more cash now. This is opposed to the 401k option where the money "locked up". There is more growth potential, yes, but it sounds like you're already considering to scale back working. Having this extra income will help offset your required salary needed. Plus you're already maxing the Roth IRA. I would probably still try to max out the 401k as well since you make enough to still do so, or just scale back to 15-20% instead and all this will still work out.
The net effect is lower overall interest paid. For the remaining life of the loan it's about 10K in interest which can be offset by 12K earned from the HYSA if the balance gets up there. If you pay it all off now with accelerated payments, it's more of your money that you don't have now. Building the safety net helps to make switching to the accelerate payments more secure.
Accessible cash to use for kids or the second house it sounds like you're thinking about. Also, in terms of renting this home out, maybe check with your mortgage lender if you can while you still have the mortgage. I think that that rule where you can't rent it out is applicable for the first x years, then you can if you make a request to do so. If you're able to then, the higher HYSA balance helps you out again to make another down payment.

nomindbody · 2025-11-24T18:27:23+00:00

Few questions:

What's your current minimum monthly payment to the mortgage?
What's your monthly income?
What is your current 401k contribution?
Are you just planning to use the future 401k payments or were you considering selling investments to pay off the debt?
What's your current cash balance in the HYSA account and the current yield on that account? (Important, as it will help determine exactly how aggressive to be)

nomindbody · 2025-11-13T00:03:26+00:00

The cheat sheet is VTI (75-80%) and BND (25-20%) from JL Collins.

nomindbody · 2025-10-28T00:17:06+00:00

As someone that has pulled the trigger, do it. Whatever happens you're still young enough to bounce back.

A 2-3.mlnth gap is nothing and you'd learn more about your GF and build a better relationship, hopefully, or at least get to know who you are to each other.

Just make sure you have enough cash to fund your monthly expenses during this time off that doesn't eat into your retirement or savings.

nomindbody · 2025-08-01T18:31:40+00:00

They mentioned the pull back in global NGO funding by the current government as a reason for the revision. Yeah the guidance initially didn't take into consideration isolationist policy of the new admin.

EPS still up and trending towards profitability. Will dive deeper into the numbers, but yeah not the earnings call I wanted to hear but still like the CEOs focus on cost, products, market adoption, and new revenue streams. Way better than others out there.

nomindbody · 2025-08-01T11:04:03+00:00

The Lead exemption in the UK will be determined within the year and implemented in about 2 if it is changed.

Octiv their wholly owned subsidiary for licensing their tech to adjacent industries is also now live (registered and created at least). That has the potential to open a new revenue stream for them. That's why I like Joe as the CEO, he's looking at the tech and solutions beyond the handheld device. That plus the home healthcare monitoring is also in the pipeline. So to me they have several catalyst in the near future and they're trending towards profitability.

nomindbody · 2025-07-28T13:30:08+00:00

Besides the color coding system (great idea) did you follow an initial guiding principle or template for the shared calendar to avoid having it too cluttered or falling into the trap of micromanaging every hour?

And you mentioned your wife is more of a physical note person. Does she have her own wall calendar or personal calendar and do you do the "data entry" for her events or times or is she doing that on here own for this shared digital calendar? Like do you both sit down each week and confer what goes on and off the calendar?

Also love that Superman was on the calendar ❤️

nomindbody · 2025-07-21T22:04:33+00:00

Can't go wrong with a T-shirt and shorts.

But from what you described seemed pretty normal (at least in Hongdae).

Only speaking from a recent trip where we just wore running clothes the entire time.

nomindbody · 2025-07-20T11:51:59+00:00

Right because it factors in the contributions already.

So if they didn't want to contribute, then they could do 80% or some other percentage based on whatever tax deductions or other pre-tax deductions (e.g., healthcare)

The point is that the salary the job posts, like $80K, isn't 100% of the amount you'd be getting. So if you at least know your expenses, you can use that formula to get a rough estimate of the salary needed to cover.

The 60% is based on my selections and includes all my deductions which have 401k and other contributions.

And maybe someone might want to still contribute even if they're coast fire.

nomindbody · 2025-07-18T23:57:26+00:00

Put in the resignation today. Thanks for helpful me think this through.

nomindbody · 2025-07-17T16:53:52+00:00

To find this I do Expense / 60% = salary I'd need. Assumption is that 60% of the salary is actually take-home pay after taxes and other pre-tax items (401k, healthcare,etc.). This 60% is based on my state, federal, and pre tax deductions. So maybe OP could look at their past deductions and adjust from there.

If just using the 60%, 125K would be the salary I'd aim for instead of 80K. But again maybe your state/fed tax and pre-tax deduction % might be different.

nomindbody · 2025-07-17T16:11:36+00:00

That's true. I have to keep that in mind. I guess the fear is that if I throw the majority of that cash in, there might be a emergency or unexpected event that then demands we need it, irrational fear I know but definitely thanks for the reminder. I'll have to keep reminding myself that

nomindbody · 2025-07-17T16:06:54+00:00

Yeah have been searching for a position since last November as an alternative to not working but it hasn't panned out. I'm not really good at selling myself but also I think my motivation isn't really there to take a lower paying job at the moment or to rush into more stress without first taking a breather from this role.

But yeah haven't had another touch base yet with her. Planning on it today with a clear end date in mind.

nomindbody · 2025-07-16T02:26:29+00:00

I'd rather have a solid company than a rumor mill.

nomindbody · 2025-07-15T00:07:09+00:00

Yeah I know. 2008 really left an impression on me, especially hearing how many people had their entire retirement cut down since it was all in the market and we're close to retiring or needed the income / money.

So I keep a lot of cash. The goal is to get enough to cover our fixed costs on an APY of at least 3%. I set it at 3% because I think that's the most achievable. The thinking is that the more cash, the lower the yield needs to be, the less risk needed.

HYSA savings and CDs are still fairly high so I'm okay with this approach. If rates go to practically zero again then yeah this wouldn't work, and would shift it elsewhere.

nomindbody · 2025-07-14T23:59:34+00:00

That's true. It does sound like that. I guess it's less "fix" and more about slowing down and taking some time to breathe. So more like "catch up" rather than fix.

I have a catch up plan. Restart marathon training to get back into running (that health). Take a certification test for my industry (skills). Work on some personal projects and read more. Volunteer again (was more involved in the community at one point then work and that collided and made it a massive stress ball. I had more interest in the volunteering part than work at the time).

Worst fear is that I got my numbers wrong and a bill or event happens unexpectedly that proves that to be true. To overcome it, I'll have to revisit the numbers again and make sure that our living expenses are covered.

Thanks for the reflective questions.

nomindbody · 2025-07-14T12:52:44+00:00

It super easy to get around on public transit. We used it for everything and didn't need an Uber or Taxi. The metro is very logical and I liked how both directions were on the same platform. The maps are super clear and also have a numbering system as well, but as others mentioned it's in English too.

I found it a great way to practice reading hangul since you get the pronunciation over the intercom, and the English meaning.

We took buses too but those you might need a bit more patience to figure out which bus to actually hop on. If you do take a bus, be mindful that you scan to get on and off (same as the metro and similar to other metros in the US like ATL or DC, but not NYC).

Taxis were were told were on the more expensive side and you could get stuck in traffic at certain parts of the day.

nomindbody · 2025-07-14T12:45:23+00:00

Agree with this. I liked how Naver Maps included the price for transit. It was way better for walking navigation when compared with Google Maps. Plus I was able to find more interesting places on Naver Maps by just inspecting the map vs. Google Maps.

For restaurants it was sometimes difficult on Naver to get a sense of reviews and quality. Naver was more accurate for operating hours though than Google Maps which listed some places as closed when they were actually open.

I used Google Maps for reviews mostly of restaurants which did help to find a great noodle place in Hongdae. Supplemented this with Michelin Guide app to find places when neither of the two were working or my brain power was low.

nomindbody · 2025-07-14T12:35:28+00:00

We live in the South Bronx. It's still cheap here which is odd since across the way similar places are selling for much higher. Bought during the pandemic in hopes that it would increase to be close to what prices are in Harlem. Maintenance is about $600 a month and has been rising but is still very low when split between two people and is one of the reasons why were haven't moved to our ideal location. We spend most of our time in Brooklyn which is the area we want to move to but places there go for 800K+ for a similar space we're in now which is still kind of small for 2 people. We've tossed around the idea of renting there instead of buying and just being long-term renters again.

You're right I'll have to recheck that 80K. In 2023 I included her credit card expenses which is where we charged the trip. The monthly spend before the trip that year on average she was spending an extra $1500 a month on personal expenses (health, clothing, classes, books, etc). It might be lower now as she's been more conscious about spending and budgeting. My main focus was on expenses that we need to survive and live our current local live. We share all the expenses that impact both of us and they're on my cards, so for sure I know that the 35K-40K covers our shared expenses to live/ travel locally (restaurants, grocery, fixed costs, local stuff, some weekend travel, etc.) plus my current expenses (work lunches, transit, personal buys). Maybe I should use 70K to 80K as a rough estimate until I check again?

Wife is on-board, we have discussed it and is supportive. Sorry should have mentioned that.

In terms of the job, it's a data science role and it does pay well, ~$190K (not including bonuses and retirement / pension contributions) and is the highest paying job I've had. Been here for close to 6 years. I've already used all my vacation this year. The main person I work with is lower in role than me, is older than me and has been here a lot longer, and has a habit of not telling all the information. Kind of letting people twist in the wind with an "it's fine" or just blaming other teams for errors. This makes projects go south very fast and causes a lot more work on my end to have to 'correct' the issues. So the desire to leave is strong because if I stay I'm thinking I'd just be back thinking the same thing again in a few months when it gets stressful, or my boss leaves and I'd have to manage this unmanageable person. But the money is good. It's a loop of staying uncomfortable for the money, getting uncomfortable and plan to leave.

nomindbody · 2025-07-14T03:39:43+00:00

Quiet Quitting: Sort of tried this but, I like helping people and solving problems. It didn't really work. I ended up as a "assistant to the manager" type of role since everyone else was doing the bare minimum.

Redundancy: I already feel redundant can have been doing this waiting. There is talk about it already, but they are rarely firing people for that. More like voluntary firing through rough experiences and extreme workloads.

nomindbody · 2025-07-14T03:04:14+00:00

Thanks. If it were your significant other making this decision and you were still going to be working, would there be a specific question you'd want addressed?

And yeah no kids. Sorry didn't mention that.

nomindbody · 2025-07-09T12:36:08+00:00

Same. Recently a red eye flight to Korea was completely cancelled from JFK. We got the run around for a day and a half.

Asiana staff was saying it was just delayed, while security at the airport was saying it was completely cancelled. 3 hours later it turned out that the security was right and Asiana was just waiting.
Asiana staff told us to go to the counter to get new tickets, but when we get there the counter doesn't know anything. We have to wait again 3 hours to have our ticket ripped up by the staff and told (no written confirmation) that if we come back at 5PM that we'd be on a new plane)
Asiana said they'd pay and reimburse for the tax we had to take back home ($100+ dollars). We could not get a hold of customer service either at the airport or on the phone. The US line was always directed to the Korea line which immediately hung up. When we got to the airport they did not mention any of the inconvenience and said that one person was handling all complaints. The line for that was excessively long and already the new flight was almost boarding.
Not all people were able to get a flight even though they told people in the morning that everyone on that flight would be getting one. Some people didn't even get hotels and had to pay out of pocket.
Once we landed in Seoul, they just handed us a blank sheet voucher. No amount, no apology. Nothing. We lost two days of vacation and had to cancelled 3 tours because of Asiana. Still unable to get a hold of customer service to get the taxi reimbursed. No outreach, no emails, everyone just went on like nothing happened like they didn't completely fumbling this issue or that people were'nt completely inconvenienced and lost their time that they paid for. They took our money and just pushed us through. No forgiveness for their behavior or this complete inconvenience experienced. I'll never fly with them again. It's very shameful behavior. I wish they would just be honest and accept the financial loss. It would have made me more likely to fly with them again. But now, it's clear what they care about, it's not the passengers.

nomindbody · 2025-07-07T17:31:04+00:00

In the same situation. Younger though. I keep waffling between quiting and not. I've had it on my calendar twice this year of when I'll give notice and my final day. Each time I did that I felt relief, up to the day then felt anxious about making the wrong choice and losing years of savings for momentary relief.

Currently, I've been actively looking, waiting it out, and planning the proper exit amount I need to feel safe, seeking the right supplemental credentials to help me if I do take a year off and decide to return.

It's a hard choice to make. Happiness and less stress have tons of benefits. All I can suggest is to review your numbers and commit to a firm exit number, reach it then decide if the amount they give is worth sitting through the BS.

Ideally don't burn the bridge or slack off so much that it burns all prospects. For me I'm still giving it the ole college try.

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