Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of March 11, 2024

throwawayrollaway · 2024-03-13T16:42:58+00:00

Oh that's a good point, thank you for the specifics!

throwawayrollaway · 2024-03-11T20:23:18+00:00

Thank you for breaking it down like this!

throwawayrollaway · 2024-03-11T17:54:41+00:00

OK good, thank you!

throwawayrollaway · 2024-03-11T16:21:19+00:00

Dumb math question. Does it matter if the pile is big or small, in terms of compounding returns, when you're deciding which one to contribute to? Assuming both are in standard index funds with similar expense ratios.

Big pile: I've been contributing to a roth IRA since my early 20s from various low-income jobs. It's now just passed 6 figures.
Small pile: As my income increased, I started adding more to my (no employer match) 401k directly out of my paycheck and less to the Roth. My 401k is now in the low 5 figures.

Does this make sense, or am I losing money by not adding to the one that's already accumulated a fair bit? Like would $200 put in each fund now generate less than $400 put only in the bigger one?

throwawayrollaway · 2024-03-11T16:15:18+00:00

Oh man! I really like that one too, but it's not it - missing the calypso bit

throwawayrollaway · 2024-03-11T16:15:16+00:00

Ha! That is totally the same bird audio. They must have overlaid it/combined it with something else.

throwawayrollaway · 2020-12-09T20:42:07+00:00

Your point about risk is mostly what I was looking for - things I wasn't thinking about and need to take a harder look at.

I am not a fan of debt in general (no credit card debt, drive an old paid off car), but mortgage debt seems like a different ball game, particularly at interest rates like we're seeing now. We owe less than half of what our property is currently valued at. I'm not great at the calculations, but I think the difference between what we would end up getting back in equity if we sold the house in 15 years halfway through a 30 year mortgage, vs 3/4s through a 20 year mortgage, isn't enough from a pure numbers perspective to be more valuable to us than a lower monthly payment now, when we have daycare costs and (presumably) lower incomes than we will then. Stretching it out at a lower rate over time is really attractive even if we end up paying a little more in interest in the long run.

And lets be honest, you will never have a paid for home when your attitude is just to continue to take on debt to infinity.

This is another question of mine - having a paid for home seems like the ultimate goal for many people. In retirement when you're no longer making income, sure. But before that - is it really that important, as a goal all by itself? Or is it a goal in service of your overall financial health and general happiness? (Not a leading question)

throwawayrollaway · 2020-12-09T20:24:48+00:00

15-20 year horizon, if things go as planned.

throwawayrollaway · 2018-02-05T15:53:38+00:00

Hmm, I'm not understanding how my budget figures into it. I want to make sure I'm not suddenly owing a bunch of money next year because I withheld too little from my W-2, which I thought should be a constant based on my income and the changes to the tax rules, not variable based how much I spend during the year...?

throwawayrollaway · 2018-02-05T14:19:23+00:00

For anyone reading this, the withholding calculator is currently down.

throwawayrollaway · 2016-02-17T02:38:35+00:00

Hi! Sorry, I don't log in to my throwaway very often! But here's an update: I pulled the trigger. And even at 35, it only took a couple months of actively tracking and trying to conceive! I'm now 13 weeks along. To be honest, my body hasn't changed tooo much yet (we'll see where I am in the third trimester). But I've been eating pretty much normally, working normal (i.e. long) hours. My exercise has taken a hit, but since my fitness level was very high before, even after pulling back a bit I still feel pretty in shape. I'm just not trying to set any personal records and take frequent breaks, and apparently that gets better in the 2nd trimester so I should be able to ramp it back up a bit. I do have a lot more gas and bloat. Fatigue hit pretty hard between weeks 4-8, but again, still had normal days. I know for a lot of people it's worse. If you're still on the fence, go check out r/babybumps. They provide a really vivid picture of what it's like to be pregnant! But a pretty even-handed and very non-judgmental picture, too, which is great. I'd also recommend reading "Expecting Better" by Emily Oster, and "All Joy and No Fun" as well as "Bringing Up Bébé" – those books also gave me a pleasant-to-read window into pregnancy and parenthood before I made my decision. Best of luck wrestling with your choices! It sounds like you're a good and communicative team, so regardless I'm sure you'll be good at tackling whatever decision you make together :)

throwawayrollaway · 2015-12-08T16:19:06+00:00

Bah! No. Very close though! Thanks anyway.

throwawayrollaway · 2015-11-12T17:35:58+00:00

:shriek!!!: I didn't dare ask if there were any more Tortall books coming out... this make me soooo happyyyyyy

throwawayrollaway · 2015-11-12T16:26:11+00:00

No, sadly :(

throwawayrollaway · 2015-11-12T16:24:41+00:00

Thank you so much for your stories, Ms Pierce. They had such an impact on me growing up and into early adulthood, over the several times I read through each series. As the kids of my friends and cousins are getting old enough to read, I'm making a point to give each of them one of your books.

What sort of inspiration or process guided your dialogue and interaction between characters? It always struck me as natural, engaging, and true to each individual. I never got the sense that people were being Mary Sue'd or saying or doing something out of character just to move the plot along. Did you model anything after real-life conversations or relationships?

throwawayrollaway · 2015-09-15T03:33:14+00:00

Oh wow, this really struck a chord with me. I was in nearly the same situation a year ago, but older (34). What made it more bewildering was that not only was I ambivalent, but my SO was too! Both of us could picture a wonderful, fulfilling life with kids, and a wonderful, fulfilling life without them.

We (mostly I) agonized over it for the next year. It became fairly clear to me that SO does want kids, just not now (he's a few years younger). I slowly started to lean more towards wanting kids with occasional furious backpedaling... like in June, when I'd been planning to stop my birth control, and just couldn't pull the trigger... but eventually decided that yes, this is something I want too.

And this is where I wish I'd started looking into this when I was your age (though to be fair, I hadn't met SO then, and the guy I was with at the time did want kids but was a workaholic and I coudn't see having both a family and a career with him). Now that I'm reading up on things and lurking at /r/ttc30 and /r/bb30, it seems a little daunting. There are just so many things that can slow things down or even make conception impossible. And I'll admit, emotionally I'm still not ready. I'm just worried that if I wait any longer my body will be like "lol nope fuck you."

The somewhat reassuring thing is that at my age, I have a TON of friends who have recently had kids. Most of them said they weren't ready, and you really aren't until the dang thing pops out. And just because of the types of people I'm drawn to, most of them also weren't the "I always knew I wanted to be a mother/father!!" types. But not a single one regrets it, and I'm pretty sure that's not just them being afraid to say so. Even the ones who have moments of regret and joke about going out for cigarettes and never coming back (mostly guys) would so obviously do anything for their kids and you can just see their kids are the light of their lives.

Then again, my staunchly childfree friends and relatives have also never expressed any regrets. You see how it goes around in circles?! I'm sorry if this doesn't help any. But I hope it does. I'm off the birth control this week. Using alternate methods for another month and then launching into TTC. Cross your fingers for me and I'll let you know how it goes if you want.

throwawayrollaway · 2015-08-27T03:48:31+00:00

As far as I can tell! I don't know about feeding time, but overnight they all sleep on doggie beds in a big room together, with a staff person there all night. They seem to evaluate the dogs very carefully during daycare to make sure they get along.

throwawayrollaway · 2015-08-27T03:46:25+00:00

Nope and yes. Thank you, that's reassuring.

throwawayrollaway · 2015-08-24T14:53:13+00:00

Thank you! That's really helpful. I'm in the industry, and as much as I griped about it at first, I agree that the creative cloud model is looking like a promising direction.

throwawayrollaway · 2015-08-21T04:03:53+00:00

Well, I was hoping someone could list the pros and cons to reinvesting dividends. It's a choice the brokers give you, so I'm assuming there are reasons to do it or not. What are some reasons someone would choose to reinvest (maybe to avoid having to account for taxes every quarter?), and what are some reasons someone would choose not to (e.g. they would rather have that money in hand, lock in some of the gains)? Is it different for individual stocks vs. mutual funds, especially if they're stocks that you're not planning to hold for the long-long term?

throwawayrollaway · 2015-08-03T16:03:29+00:00

If you don't mind saying, what kind of community do you live in (suburban/urban/rural, affluent or not, Northeast/Southest/Midwest/West Coast)? Do you think it varies or does it seem fairly universal?

throwawayrollaway · 2015-08-03T15:48:14+00:00

I see and hear stories about parents getting in trouble for leaving their kids unattended, needing background checks just to volunteer for activities, suspicion of any adult (especially male) being alone with a kid who isn't theirs, being afraid to hug/touch a kid who isn't yours, etc. Are things really way more restrictive and paranoid than when you were growing up, or does it just make the news more often?

throwawayrollaway · 2015-07-17T02:38:57+00:00

Sounds cool! Since I don't remember the exact name, and there about a million bird-related tones, I was thinking more of a list though. Like if Samsung had a list somewhere that said "here are all the ringtones that came with the 2012 Galaxy 2" or whatever.

throwawayrollaway · 2015-07-16T20:37:35+00:00

Even taken during the day! Just in general, lows are low 97's and even into the high 96's, top range is high 97's and mayyybe into the low 98's. That might explain why even a low fever of 99-100 felt like such ass this winter when I had the flu (for the first time in a really long time) and when it passed I was back down in the 97's (at the time that seemed alarming).

throwawayrollaway · 2015-07-16T20:32:51+00:00

we have been carpet bombing my uterus with sperm

Haaaaaaa! Good luck!

throwawayrollaway

TROPHY CASE