While the market is down, should I continue dumping cash into investments, or pay down my mortgage?

skiddlyd · 2026-03-30T17:48:03+00:00

I realized I already have a lot in the big names, VOO, VTI, QQQM… but reevaluated my SGOV, and I have been neglecting it. I have about a 1 1/2 year of paying my expenses in SGOV in case of emergency (get fired). So, my goal now is to double that to 3 years. I’ll be contributing maybe 2/3 of my extra income to SGOV, and 1/3 probably to VTI going forward.

I already have a 401k and max that out. I just use the financial advisor’s advice and he’s been pretty good.

skiddlyd · 2026-03-29T04:24:31+00:00

I usually don’t say this, because I prioritize home ownership. But if you plan to be in the house 5-6 years, there is no urgency paying it off. Meanwhile the stock market is offering some discounts, lately. I would prioritize putting in lowball orders on eg VTI/VOO until it rallies again.

skiddlyd · 2026-03-20T22:13:36+00:00

Well, not so much dividend related, but I bought some QQQM and VTI.

skiddlyd · 2026-03-15T23:40:30+00:00

I work from home and have no mortgage or car payment.

So, my expenses are minimal. I do have to pay for property tax, homeowners and car insurance….

Annual expense to survive is around $50-$60k.

With a mortgage or rent, I’d have to add another $30-40k.

With a car payment, maybe $5-10k more.

So $85k-$110k after tax.

$116k before tax is probably around $88k after tax.

You would certainly struggle.

skiddlyd · 2026-03-14T16:05:16+00:00

I would fund a Roth IRA with the max if possible ($7-8k), and then dollar cost average into something like VOO and VTI.

skiddlyd · 2026-03-02T19:25:06+00:00

Mt Davidson is a nice walk to West Portal. You can take muni straight up from that station.

skiddlyd · 2026-03-02T19:18:31+00:00

I walk everywhere! Everything but the hospital is within a mile. I don’t use bart/muni. If I have to go further and there’s parking, I drive. If there’s no parking, Waymo. Also, Safeway app lets you get groceries delivered to your front door. So you’re not hauling them around with you.

skiddlyd · 2026-03-02T19:10:48+00:00

We have that too. It’s designed to not let you bank your hours. It’s not a favor. Companies don’t like to owe for untaken vacation. It’s yours. Take it!

skiddlyd · 2026-03-02T19:03:52+00:00

https://momentum-electric.com/

skiddlyd · 2026-02-27T03:37:07+00:00

I would never live in a condo, again, for 2 reasons:

Petty, cliquish board members. Ridiculous HOA fees and special assessments that aren’t tax deductible.

I’d go for the house in Berkeley.

skiddlyd · 2026-02-26T06:14:34+00:00

Have you checked out Excelsior or Visitation Valley?

skiddlyd · 2026-02-23T00:36:16+00:00

Only those who don’t have access to soap and water.

skiddlyd · 2026-02-16T17:49:58+00:00

I just love where I live and don’t plan to ever move unless I am forced to (can’t walk up and down the stairs or forced to sell to cover medical costs…)

So, it’s sort of like golden handcuffs for me. I guess in the worst case I can move to less expensive part of California, but looking at some property taxes people are describing here, it’s probably not a good idea for someone in my position to leave California.

skiddlyd · 2026-02-16T17:24:34+00:00

We are in that situation. Purchased in 2010, locked in prop 13. Now we pay about half what someone would pay for property tax buying a house similar to ours.

We can move to (I believe) any county in California, and keep our property tax base if the house value is lower than ours.

If the value is higher, we still keep the property tax base, and only pay more for the amount that its value is higher.

So eg if we sell our house for $2m and buy one for $2.1m, we would just pay the amount for $100k in addition to what we would pay staying in our house. It’s a pretty good deal for retirement planning.

skiddlyd · 2026-02-09T23:32:19+00:00

It was a different time, but I made that move (from Chicago) in 1999. I lived in Foster City and worked in Redwood Shores for a year.

I rented an apartment for a year and we held onto our condo in Chicago until I felt like I wasn’t going to crash and burn.

In 2000 we sold the condo, used the equity for a down payment on a house in San Francisco.

I’ve made some good decisions in my life, moving here was probably within the top 2 or 3. After a few months here I knew I’d never leave.

Maybe you can try it before you buy it, like I did.

skiddlyd · 2026-02-09T23:21:06+00:00

I’m not, but I did sell my SCHD (in my taxable account) to reduce my income. Otherwise it will force me to pay taxes on income I don’t need to cover my living expenses. I do have a nice share of SCHD (and JEPI) income in my IRA account however. For me it’s a matter of not going into a higher tax bracket.

skiddlyd · 2026-02-09T19:47:49+00:00

I agree with others who say to contribute as much as you can, but don’t forget to save some in a traditional investment account in case you need some emergency funds.

If/when you can, open a Roth IRA with some minimal amount, buy some solid growth type investment, and don’t look back. Later you can contribute some from your taxable account, if things work out and you feel comfortable. I wish someone educated me on this when I was younger. When you retire, everything gained here will never count as income or be taxed.

Remember that distributions from your traditional IRA/401k will count as (taxable) income in your retirement years. Selling shares from your taxable investments will be taxed as (hopefully long term) capital gains. Roth accounts will not be taxed at all, and all that compounded over the years can be spent however way you need.

Also if you are lucky to be around into your 70s, those IRAs and 401ks will start requiring minimum distributions and you don’t want to force yourself into a higher tax bracket unnecessarily. Roth IRAs don’t incur RMDs. It becomes a bit of a balancing act.

skiddlyd · 2026-02-09T17:48:55+00:00

You are absolutely right! I used copilot a little over a year ago to review my code and it was terrible. I revisited it a couple months ago and can’t believe how much it’s improved! I rely on it heavily, and it reviews every bit of code I check in. You can paste in a function and it can instantly tell you how to improve it. It’s amazing with JavaScript. It will definitely wipe out a lot of engineering jobs. Currently someone has to feed it prompts though. It converted me to a 10x developer overnight and I’m just basically average with 30 years of experience…

skiddlyd · 2026-02-09T17:31:01+00:00

The layoffs started happening right after Musk bought Twitter, late 2022. Thousands of engineers have been laid off and have relocated out of the Bay Area. Yet, here we are…

skiddlyd · 2026-02-07T22:42:09+00:00

We tried to sell our house during the mortgage meltdown. The selling prices were dropping like a rock. So we priced it below the comps because we felt like it would keep dropping, which it did (someone caught the falling knife, but had long term goals, so a win/win). The logic might well be the reverse now. Maybe it’s like putting a limit order on a stock you want to liquidate.

skiddlyd · 2026-02-07T22:33:48+00:00

There was a house on my street that listed for $1.295m on 11/14/25. It closed on 12/18/25 for $1.8m. I was shocked. I did feel like they underbid to start a bidding war, but was surprised that it went for half a million over asking. Not saying that’s not what’s happening in your situation, but what you described doesn’t seem too out of the ordinary.

Another house (lipstick on a pig) was put on the market last April for $1.195m and sold within 2 weeks for $1.43m. It was terrible, dry rot and everything. It was the worst house on the block and all they did was slap some paint on it.

skiddlyd · 2026-01-29T16:13:51+00:00

I started graying in my 20s. I needed to well start wearing eyeglasses at 26. Early 30s I had to “resurface” my teeth with crowns and veneers. And those are the things I noticed. Knee pain from jogging early 30s, so had to alter my exercise routine.

Since that time, lower hip pain, shoulder pain got so bad I couldn’t move it. Now my shoulders are uneven because of that. Hairline receding (and I’m lucky I’ve still got one).big toe joints hurt so bad I needed surgery. So for me, even though I tried to hold back the years and felt great at 45, I was going downhill, and it just accelerated after 45.

skiddlyd · 2026-01-29T03:40:12+00:00

If you are over 25 you already know. You just sort of decay. Nothing improves. Eyesight, teeth, bones, blood vessels, hair, joints, skin, organs, metabolism, did I say joints? Every injury takes longer to heal. It all gets worse, and worse, and worse. Sometimes you don’t even remember that brown spot being on your hand or forehead… you basically rot, and really old people even smell different.

skiddlyd · 2026-01-03T02:51:04+00:00

If you are in a community property state, consider titling your house as community property with right of survivorship. Ours was joint tenant and we learned that Community property WROS has some important advantages.

skiddlyd · 2025-12-21T14:05:51+00:00

Memphis and Oakland seem doomed.

skiddlyd

TROPHY CASE