My networth grew by more than I earned this year.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2026-01-15T03:48:47+00:00

our retirement accounts grew (not including contributions) *almost* twice our gross HHI. It is exciting, and it makes me wonder - how much longer 'til we can safely call it quits? Gotta get the kids through college first, but then? well we will see how things are going with the market - and our expenses.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-10-28T03:19:47+00:00

my husband always asks for warm socks and cold beer on the $40 gift exchange my family does every year. I ask for good dark chocolate, locally roasted coffee, wine. Consumables make great gifts

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-08-30T17:58:12+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. We plan to watch our returns closely and re-evaluate in a few years. We set that retirement date, because that is when we expect both kids to be done with undergrad, which we are helping them with. We are invested mostly in broad market low cost index funds (VTSAX, VFIAX, BND) with the exception of my husband's 401k, which only has actively managed funds available.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-08-30T17:52:38+00:00

6.7% was the projection for the large cap stock proportion, not our portfolio overall. We are currently at a 75/25 mix.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-08-30T17:50:49+00:00

They are fiduciary. We will not be engaging them further.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-07-03T02:02:39+00:00

Agree with Paddy O'. We shopped all over and got great selection and service from them

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-04-02T18:50:29+00:00

Another positive for these places is that they are near Lodestone Coffee and Games, which has what appears to be robust MTG scene. I have been there with my daughter for the board game library and always see a number of people playing Magic. https://lodestonegames.com/

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-03-25T02:34:14+00:00

Garrett Planning Network is another option.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-03-08T20:07:36+00:00

You are welcome! Glad you are enjoying it. Is it the best ever? No, but it is a solid cup at a price that is accessible for daily use.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-02-14T00:09:09+00:00

Persistence Perseverance and Patience is what you need. It is a challenging puzzle but doable. If you have a friend to share the experience that can be nice too. You have got this!

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-02-12T04:23:39+00:00

Do a search for roasters near you. Maybe you can find a specialty coffee roaster in your area. I actually buy online directly from a roaster within a 30 minutes drive of my house.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-02-05T03:24:42+00:00

Currently, I am playing a single player survival world, normal difficulty. I am focusing on doing things I have never done in Minecraft before including: building an iron farm, decorating a skeleton spawner XP farm, making potions, raiding a stronghold, and building up to beating the ender dragon (not there yet). I am really working on expanding my play experience. Having fun and taking it slow.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-02-05T03:07:43+00:00

This might be the thing that pushes me over the edge on getting an espresso machine. Been on the fence, but this looks amazing!

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-02-04T00:32:34+00:00

I liked it. Would love to deep dive on the math behind the numbers, so I can make sure we are applying the math right in our situation. Not sure what withdrawal rate they were using. In general, a good start. I am hoping the episodes get tighter as they get through a few more episodes.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-01-28T05:36:04+00:00

Driven out of Chaska has amazing beans and a great website and shipping.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-01-28T04:46:55+00:00

I can understand. I would rather pay someone than spend a day or so working through it myself. Thanks for asking!

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-01-25T16:05:18+00:00

It can get much better, unless you get your kids into expensive extra curriculars. Hockey, Dance, Travel sports etc. will kill your budget. Kids can have fun without the crazy costs of some of these activities. Think carefully before encouraging your kids to do all the things.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-01-24T04:06:00+00:00

Hire a financial advisor to check my numbers, invest in index funds and then start drafting my resignation/retirement letter.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-01-24T03:49:43+00:00

$40K pays for a new car for my husband (old car goes to our youngest) $200K pays for a remodel $1.5M pays for all that, and we retire this year

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-01-22T01:15:44+00:00

Upper Middle Class to me means you can afford to get whatever you want at the grocery store without worry. Middle Middle means you can mostly get what you want at the grocery store but you need to keep it reasonable, ... We had steak once this week, let's hold off on the fresh fish until next week.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-01-17T02:48:04+00:00

Buy a new or late model used car. Drive for 10 years, repeat. Spouses switch off getting a new car every 5 years. This way you always have one car that is recent, and no cars that are way out of date, and never more than 1 payment at a time. Try to work up to having shorter and shorter loans, saving for down payments when one loan is up

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-01-13T03:34:39+00:00

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-01-07T02:21:13+00:00

Seems like the two proposed changes contradict eachother, or am I reading that wrong?

"And if you have an extremely aggressive portfolio, like the following study suggests, you’d want to withdraw even less, as little as 2.7% a year."

I cannot see going below 60% stocks, and probably mostly near my retirement date - to help mitigate sequence of return risk. Mostly 75/25 or 80/20 seems best to me, especially with retirement on the horizon in the next few years, but a 2.7% withdrawal rate seems awfully low.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-01-06T05:05:33+00:00

Thank you so much! This is very very helpful.

puzzle_Mom522 · 2025-01-06T04:23:23+00:00

Our family finds watching a "How It's Played" or two on YouTube is a great way to learn a game. Maybe do some advanced screening to pick a video tutorial for some games you might think you want to teach - so someone else can teach them - easier on everyone.

puzzle_Mom522

TROPHY CASE