Or: “How to take advantage of the assembled knowledge of the “high-earners” here on Slowtwitch”
D.I.N.K here - this is the time my wife and I should be making some serious progress towards retiring early … regardless of whether we decide to join the “Breeder’s Club” in the next few years or not.
The vitals: No Cars, pre-tax payments for everything allowable, no high-interest debt, not too much school debt, all nicely consolidated to around 2%. Somewhat above-average income and below average rent. Spending is under control and we put about 1/2 our net into savings per month.
The issue: We have the basics covered, but have no idea where to start to INVEST (and I’m too old for this to be the case)
The question: I need references, not books → people … Ideally a financial planner here in NYC that can walk us through an investment strategy.
Talk to me about fees - what should I pay and when, I don’t like the idea of paying upfront, but I also know that you get what you pay for … sometimes.
My co-workers and friends are more clueless than I am.
Or: “How to take advantage of the assembled knowledge of the “high-earners” here on Slowtwitch”
D.I.N.K here - this is the time my wife and I should be making some serious progress towards retiring early … regardless of whether we decide to join the “Breeder’s Club” in the next few years or not.
The vitals: not too much school debt, all nicely consolidated to around 2%. Somewhat above-average income and below average rent. Spending is under control and we put about 1/2 our net into savings per month.
The issue: I have no idea where to start (and I’m too old for this to be the case)
The question: I need references, not books → people … Ideally a financial planner here in NYC that can walk us through an investment strategy.
Talk to me about fees - what should I pay and when, I don’t like the idea of paying upfront, but I also know that you get what you pay for … sometimes.
My co-workers and friends are more clueless than I am.
Don’t know much about investing, but my parents just shifted a lot of their retirement funds into a bond fund, and it’s earning about 7%.
D.I.N.K here - this is the time my wife and I should be making some serious progress towards retiring early … regardless of whether we decide to join the “Breeder’s Club” in the next few years or not.
The vitals: not too much school debt, all nicely consolidated to around 2%. Somewhat above-average income and below average rent. Spending is under control and we put about 1/2 our net into savings per month.
It seems odd that you still have school debt while saving so much and talking about retirement. I would start by eliminating the debt, with 2 incomes and no kids, that should be easy.
It seems odd that you still have school debt while saving so much and talking about retirement. I would start by eliminating the debt, with 2 incomes and no kids, that should be easy.
What’?! He’s only paying 2% interest on his student loans and depending on his income he can deduct some of this interest. He’s better off keeping the very low interest consolidated student loan debt and investing his savings. Even a good high-interest checking account or money market will earn +2% these days.
In other words carrying debt isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If these student loans were high-interest credit card debt that, of course, would be a different story.
Please dont take this as being “snarky” … but umm, yah, no kidding. When one covers the “no shit” basics and realizes that things like Roth IRA’s are no longer a benefit, and the employer-provided retirement options are uninspiring at best … then what?
… regardless of whether we decide to join the “Breeder’s Club” in the next few years or not.
Join the club & move to Jersey.
Mow your lawn on the weekends instead of long rides. Pour money into home renovations and your time into commuting…
…but that’s just me
(and prior to moving to NYC I was commuting 1:15 to DC and personally renovated a rowhouse in Baltimore … not exactly the investment return I’d hoped for!)
The fastest way to retire early is to drive each car you buy for at least 10 years, preferably 15 years. The guy beside you is spending $40K on cars every three years. You do it perhaps once every 15. The guy beside you is spending $120K-200K more on cars every 15 years…he’s likely going to spend 500K more on cars than you in a lifetime if you are smart with what you pay for cars.
You realize how much longer it takes to save $500K in today’s money…keep in mind this is after tax money (at least in Canada)…I suppose in the US you can take a bigger mortgage and write off the associated incremental mortgage interest associated with the principle related to your car purchase…
My math might be off depending on what you buy and what your neighbour buys, but you get the picture…
investing is gambling. for the past 100 years it was a win win situation because economic growth was inevitable due to ever increasing energy and population.
i suspect that may be over, I wouldn’t count on your money ‘working for you’ unless you are skilled enough to predict the future of certains investments better than the other players in the market =)
I’m probably not going to stop spending money - but even if I did, where would I put it?
We (somewhat unbelievably) cook the majority of our meals and don’t have a starbucks habit
We live in Manhattan and sold our cars.
Our rent is lower than you’d believe.
It’s not so much about reducing outflow, it’s more about making what we have work harder.
Get a legal pad
Draw a line down the middle
left side is stuff you can live w/o
right side is things you can’t
you may not like what you see, but 99% of the population spends money on things that won’t kill them if they pass.
my girlfriend went from living paycheck to paycheck…to having an extra $15K a year in disposable income from this simple exercise. it’s kind of like taking medicine…but if you want what you say it’s a small sacrifice.
her list of don’t needs included: eating out, clothes, stop upgrading to new cars and drive it til it dies, starbucks…instant $15K a year pay raise.
on the investing issue: don’t invest if you can’t afford to see it vanish over night. wall street is legalized gambling. max your retirement…it’s crazy not to.
My parents have invested in nothing more than a CD for the past 20 years or so while all their friends were millionaires on paper, now they are all broke and foreclosing their houses and my parents are doing just fine. For most people they are barely where they started decades ago. I think the mattress is the best investment, also in some sort of tangible value, not debt in the form of paper of a bankrupt country. Although with the pending doom we are all facing the best investment might be a 12 gauge and a few years supply of food and a tornado shelter
You may be right - but I don’t think that means it’s time to take your savings and stuff it under your mattress. If it is, then I should be investing in chiropractors and hidden-compartment mattress factories.
there are a lot of lower-risk products out there that return a hell of a lot more than a 2% Savings account or a 3% CD … If we take the analogy of gambling, a skilled blackjack player is going to do a lot better than a wild-eyed drunk throwing down random number bets on roulette …
I think the real lesson from this thread is that the folks who have no more of a clue than me are reading slowtwitch at the same time as me.
Hi Tom, do you really want to pay a financial planner or stock broker 1% of your portfolio every year to manage your money? If you can take the time to become a triathlete, you can spend a few minutes planning your financial future and managing it yourself. Think Vanguard funds (very low fees) for retirement investing. Keep it simple. Automate everything.
About your consolidated debt at 2%. Pay it off and live debt free. 2% is more than many short term CD’s are paying…
The best financial advice I ever got was from an old seasoned airline pilot who said, “Keep the same house and the same wife and you will retire a rich man.” Seriously, you have the debt covered which is great. Make sure you have some type of emergency fund with quick and easy access. Then, max out your IRAs and 401s. Once that is done, look at mutual funds: S&P 500, small and large cap growth maybe diversify with some international. I think realestate today can also be a good bet given how depressed some locations are. You are in an enviable position and doing well. Keep it up!
