gpburdell

Turned 50 this year. I've been coast fire for several years now but kept maxing 401k, maxing roth, maxing hsa, taxable account.

Contributions aren't that significant anymore. But I won't stop saving for retirement until I retire; however I am taking my foot off the gas.

This will be the first year since my early 30s that I'm not maxing my 401k. I will do just enough to get the full match. I'll keep maxing hsa & roth; they provide alot of flexibility for controlling taxable income. Though, I will stop contributions to my taxable account.

I believe I could retire now (Firecalc says 100%) but I'm very leery of inflation & healthcare costs. Also it would be much easier to retire using rule of 55. 72t is an option but rather not use it.

My job pays well and it isn't that stressful. So I'll keep working for a few more years and let my nest egg keep growing.

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Rates are higher meaning prices are lower for bonds now. I’d argue it’s a much better time for bonds now than in the past few years. You can get close to 6% yields for investment grade (Baa3/BBB- to Aaa/AAA) bonds right now with about a 6yr duration.

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The problem is many people don't understand the difference between bond funds and individual bonds. If you buy individual bonds AND hold to maturity, the changes in interest rates mean nothing. You will get the agreed interest and par value of what you bought. Only a default would cause you to lose money.

You are correct. If you are a bond fund holder for the long term then you want higher rates. Yes the bond fund value dropped now due to higher interest rates. However you will eventually come out ahead and have higher overall return than if rates had stayed flat or fell. The catch is you have to hold the bond fund for long enough for the higher interest payments to make up the difference.

This is directly related to a bond fund's duration which many people don't understand either. If you need the money in a year; you shouldn't be buying a bond fund that has a duration of 5+ years.

That is why many people who held a general bond fund like BND were crying when interest rates went up. BND has a duration of 6 years but if you were looking to retire in a couple years then you are SOL. You would need to hold the fund for ~11 years (2xduration-1) to come out ahead. That assumes the interest rate stayed flat which it wouldn't.

Obviously if you could market time when to buy and sell based on rate changes that would be great but almost impossible without luck.

As someone who owns mid 6 figures in a ladder of individual bonds, I made sure I understood what I was getting myself into. Those individual bonds will guarantee my basic yearly income when I retire in a few years.

So I will never have to sell stocks in a down year to fund my basic expenses. This is my solution to SORR and to help ensure that I can retire early and not have to work again.

I still remember the crash of 2008 that derailed the plans (for years) of so many who were close to retirement or just started retirement and then fell victim to SORR.

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Motor City Supreme is very legit. Half now save half for later. Red Baron Supreme also.

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Big fan of Motor City frozen pizza. They taste good and cook very consistent for a thicker pizza unlike Digiorno.

I wished my Costco carried the supreme version; they just have the double peperroni.

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no offense but what do you think that streaming roku, apple tv or android device you're using is doing?

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If you're tech savy, highly recommend installing pi-hole on your network which will block most of the ads & data collection stuff. If you're not familiar, pi-hole would act as your network DNS and you can feed it lists of domains to block.

Though companies have gotten smarter about it & will break functionality of sites/apps and require you to unblock certain domains.

Yes. The last 3 years & this year YTD, my portfolio has gained more than my gross salary even excluding yearly contributions.

Last year, my portfolio gained more than double my salary. 3 years ago was when I realized me being able to retire early was actually in sight.

I've had a Senn HD6XX for a few year now and love them. If you don't have a good headphone DAC & Amp, I'd say upgrade that first.

When I bought the HD6XX, I bought a Schitt Audio DAC & Amp.

https://www.schiit.com/products

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The Roth options give you flexibility. The traditional probably lets you save more money if you use it right. You need some of both.

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Trad 401k gives you more flexibility than roth 401k. You can always convert trad 401k to roth. You can't do the reverse. Once you go roth 401k, you've locked taxes in.

I do agree that you want a mix of accounts. My portfolio is a mix of pre-tax (401k/ira), tax-free (ira/hsa) & taxable account allocated roughly 50%, 30% & 20% respectively.

I plan to convert some of my pre-tax assets each year to roth once I retire when my income is very low/zero & before I start taking social security.

Also with a trad 401k/ira, those roth conversions can give you enough income for ACA eligibility which is required in many states if you want to avoid Medicaid.

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Have up to $98,900 AGI for 0% LTCG if MFJ in 2026.

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Sure you'd pay 0% capital gains but from ACA perspective it doesn't matter.

ACA would see that as $99k for MAGI. For a couple age 55, the average ACA silver plan would cost ~$2200/month for that MAGI.

You have to control MAGI to get signifacnt premium subsidies. You could sell $100k from your taxable and lets say that only $50k is capital gains & the rest principal. In that scenario, the average silver plan is ~$330/month.

https://www.kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/

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So are they abandoning the live action show? They don't seem to care much about it even though it's a big hit.

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Nope; season 3 is currently in production. I think they are remaking the anime to be a more streamlined version. The anime has over 1100 episodes and is still going.

I'm actually glad for this new adaptation as I want to watch the anime but it felt too daunting. While I enjoy the live action, I'm sure alot of things get left out. So this new show is hopefully a good middle ground.

Using Uber/Lyft to get to & from Sphere is a breeze now. It wasn't though when it first opened; I've been to Sphere twice. So staying at a close hotel isn't needed unless you want to walk.

Fwiw, I will be there next week and will see Illenium at Sphere. Will be staying at Cosmo.

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"superhero account" that's a new term for me. Apparently just cheesy slang for taxable brokerage?

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Yeah I've seen that term used by some of the financial bloggers I've watched on YT the past year.

I think it's because many people don't realize how powerful a taxable brokerage account can be (i.e. 0% LT capital gains rate) especially if retiring before 59.5.

The few friends that i discuss finances/investing with have sizable trad 401k/ira, roth ira and hsa. However I don't believe any of them have built up a sizable taxable account. About 20% my portfolio is in my taxable account.