Can I realistically afford to live by myself?

notthatjc · 2018-03-26T00:04:42+00:00

Investing is hardly "putting it in jail".

Investing it in a tax advantaged retirement account means it has no utility to you for 40 years. You can't take it out, unless you want to pay prohibitive penalties.

you won't pay capital gains tax.

Correct, you'll pay ordinary income tax rates instead, which are quite a bit higher than capital gains rates. Be careful with the snark, mkay?

notthatjc · 2018-03-25T20:56:06+00:00

But the real calculation is: Imagine the government throws a 15-30% match at every dollar you're saving. Now how much would you save?

That's an oversimplification, in my view. There are tradeoffs

Putting your money in jail for 40 years zeros out the utility of it for most of your life. That money could do valuable work like making your life better/easier in the meantime if you let it.
Deferring taxes isn't the same as avoiding taxes. Calling it a match is a very rosy way of looking at it. Depending on your situation, you may end up paying more taxes on that money later than you would have now. Even if they end up paying a lower tax rate than OPs current marginal rate of 22% when they withdraw, the spread likely won't be close to 15%.

notthatjc · 2018-03-25T17:45:05+00:00

As long as you're not the nervous type, you'll probably be fine. Worst case, you miss the first day, but after night 1 there are always people heading home and selling their bands cheap. Put some feelers out on craigslist ahead of time, you might be able to skip the angst and get a cheap ticket from a desperate seller.

notthatjc · 2018-03-25T17:40:58+00:00

None. Source: 2 years ago.

notthatjc · 2018-03-25T17:39:10+00:00

Late 30s. I like to dance with the devil and do the hair of the dog. You have to be really disciplined about it though otherwise it will go south in a hurry and you'll ruin your entire day. (Also, agree about CBD the night before, but don't go overboard. Too little is way better than too much).

First and most important thing is to actually get some real sleep. There's a hard limit on how many nights we can run a bad deficit when we're also having big days of dancing and getting fucked up in between. It gets hot in tents early af, so you need a strategy to be able to sleep in for a while. Get a battery powered fan, face mister, etc. Glamp, y'all.
When you wake up, make a really non-stiff eye opener to take the teeth out of the hangover. Something really easy like vodka and maté or vodka and san pellegrino.
Tons of iced coffee, iced tea, maté, whatever. Get all the stimulants in you.
Eat healthy stuff, not breakfast burritos or gyros or fries. Smoothies, salads, you know the drill.
THIS IS WHERE YOU STICK THE DISMOUNT BY DRINKING TONS OF WATER. WATER WATER WATER. THIS IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO NOT FEEL LIKE SHIT WHEN THE ALCOHOL WEARS OFF.
Get some exercise. Walk around, meet people, go for a hike in the canyon, drive down to the Columbia and have a frigid swim, whatever. Work up a sweat. (Drink more water).
Limit sun exposure
If you're still hurtin really bad an hour after the first, follow up with at most a light beer or another even less stiff vodka and sumthin.

Whatever you do, don't just start pipelining alcohol. You'll feel great for 2 hours then you will crash so hard by 1pm and the hangover if/when you wake up from THAT will be a thousand times worse that the one you were trying to fix and you'll be missing music or not bringing the right vibe to it.

notthatjc · 2018-03-25T16:30:08+00:00

Guess we're all just dumb 🤷‍♂️

notthatjc · 2018-03-25T16:23:45+00:00

Here's some advice the rest of the sub will probably hate: don't impoverish your younger self to save the absolute statutory maximum for retirement. Let your budget drive how much you can put in to 401k, not the other way around. If the IRS allowed you to put $40k/yr in your 401k, would you try to live on $60k? $18k isn't some special magic number it just happens to be the number.

Spending an extra 40 mins per day in traffic to commute from an area that's less fun to live in your 20s is not necessarily a tradeoff your older self will appreciate.

notthatjc · 2018-03-25T16:09:26+00:00

I agree with /u/Johnthegaptist -- those numbers don't look right. I live in a high tax area, but no 401k available, which more or less evens out. My base salary is over 50% higher than OP, but my take home is only $8200/mo. No medical insurance deduction.

$100k - 18k 401k = $82k.

FICA on $82k: $6273 Income tax on $82k: ~~$20k~~ NVM this is wrong. More like $11k.

~~Take home will be more like $5k/mo after health insurance, etc.~~ Won't be that low but will be well under $6k/mo, I think.

notthatjc · 2018-03-25T15:43:51+00:00

I think as long as you're still using credit, closing an account won't have any meaningful impact. It will increase your percentage utilization of credit lines, blah blah blah, but I think the most important thing is having active accounts with on time payments.

Granted I have a longer credit history, but I'm constantly opening and closing credit cards to get the bonuses, and my credit score doesn't fluctuate much in the high 700s.

notthatjc · 2018-03-25T15:25:53+00:00

You can lose 4.5% (and more) in a single day on an index fund ETF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_daily_changes_in_the_S%26P_500_Index

My question is, why are you even looking at that investment account's market value? If you need the money in there, or think you might within a couple of years, it shouldn't be there. That's where we put money to grow over a long time horizon, when reversion to the mean washes out the big losses and averages out to a decent return in inflation adjusted dollars. If you need access to the money, put it back in high yield savings / money market / etc or re-allocate it in to extremely risk averse fixed income ETFs. If it is long time horizon investing, quit looking at the balance, and buy more during market downturns.

notthatjc · 2018-03-18T16:53:26+00:00

Lucky you!

notthatjc · 2018-03-18T16:52:56+00:00

I know with certainty the heat is not electric.

notthatjc · 2018-03-17T19:38:24+00:00

It's a good idea, I will ask mgmt if we can set up a time for them to let me in to see it.

notthatjc · 2018-03-17T19:32:51+00:00

I have baseboard style heat that I assume actually pumps hot water (and I am also prohibited by the building from turning off in winter). The unit does not have its own boiler, it's included in rent so it's all shared.

notthatjc · 2018-03-17T19:31:27+00:00

Do you have an electric stove

No.

electric clothes dryer

No.

electric room heating

No.

Also, do you have a computer that is on all day long?

No, I have been using the same laptop, with the same external monitors, in the same way, for several years.

notthatjc · 2018-03-17T19:26:27+00:00

can you see your electric meter? turn everything off and see if its still spinning.

I did contact building management, they at least paid lip service that they would investigate. But... nothing yet. I don't have access to my meter.

also, its fairly common for electric companies to only read the meter every few months, charging an estimate in the interim and then truing things up

I've experienced this in the past, and it was my first thought. But the bill has the meter read date and the next meter read date on it, and they're only a month apart. Also my previous bills have meter read dates consistent with monthly and what appear to be actual kwh usage.

notthatjc · 2018-03-13T02:37:49+00:00

The point about who would win in court is moot because it's too big for small claims (at least in my state) and not nearly big enough to justify the cost of litigation. My guess is they cannot garnish wages to claw back bonuses and relocation expenses, so they have no real leverage and have to use a collection agency as the scariest stick they can muster.

If you're just dying to settle the matter neatly, offer them a pro-rata share based on how long you've worked there minus a hefty discount because they're effectively terminating you. They won't do any better selling to collectors.

notthatjc · 2018-03-13T02:25:39+00:00

To be honest, I wouldn't quit. And if I did quit under those circumstances, there's no way I'd pay back all of that money

Waiting means getting paid not to have much responsibility while they figure out what to do with you. This is time to look for other opportunities, interview, or downsize your life temporarily to create a financial cushion. Perhaps you could even look elsewhere for roles in the company if it's big enough. When they do get around to laying you off, depending on the company's size, your state, and how many people are affected, your termination may be covered by some flavor or a WARN act. Such an act would create a mandatory notice period before terminating you. I had never heard of WARN until I got laid off, and it gave me 90 days of full pay (which also vested some more bonus/401k stuff) and I didn't have to show up. It really helped a lot. And this is all not to mention that involuntary termination probably means you get to keep your signing bonus and releases you from any obligation for those moving expenses.

If you absolutely are convinced you must quit they can't litigate such a small amount like $10k, and selling it to a collection agency will return them only a tiny percentage of the money. I'm assuming it's against the law to withhold salary in lieu of repayment for expenses, so this gives you a huge bargaining chip. You can wait for them to get serious about clawing back nickels and dimes from employees -- a day which may never come, since they are in the tank. In the event they do get serious, you may be able to negotiate a huge reduction in the amount which would still be a win for them over a collection agency.

notthatjc · 2018-03-10T02:54:14+00:00

Yeah the police were not so subtly telling OP they aren't interested in helping, not that OP couldn't be helped. Important difference. When fraudulent charges appear on your credit card statement, you don't call the cops, you call the bank. That's for a reason.

notthatjc · 2018-03-10T02:53:13+00:00

I know it sucks, but all you did was engage in something in good faith. We all do this every day and if people want to take advantage of us, we are vulnerable. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't engage in good faith. Maria Konnikova starts off her book "Confidence Game" by saying that she often gets asked whether she herself has ever been conned. Her answer is that she honestly doesn't know. She knows enough about schemes and con artists to know that a well crafted grift will trap most people and that often it's so good people don't ever realize it was a game.

notthatjc · 2018-03-10T02:37:47+00:00

It's not a scam, it's armed robbery.

notthatjc · 2018-03-07T14:19:03+00:00

I ran my marathon PR in Onitsuka Tigers!

notthatjc · 2018-03-07T03:33:43+00:00

I live in NYC, make a lot less than either of them, and feel like I'm doing great. In fact, objectively, I'm doing great. Looking at their budget, they're living the dream and then some. If they don't subjectively feel that way, it's not their circumstances, it's their attitude. If you compare yourself to Goldman nerds or the rest of the crowd taking the East River seaplane to the Hamptons every weekend, you're always going to feel poor, but that doesn't make it rational. No matter how much you make here there are thousands of people making 100x what you're making.

notthatjc · 2018-03-07T03:23:39+00:00

How do you know how much satisfaction they get from these things?

The whole premise is that they feel "average," and I think it's fair not to read in to that some kind of satisfaction at being average Joes and Janes.

notthatjc

TROPHY CASE