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17325
Markets still falling like whoa
Could be wrong thread not sure, but felt so good after meeting with two Fidelity reps today. I am self-directed, and am retiring from education officially on August 31. My last day at school was April 8, as my super wonderful principal let me take all of my accumulated days. My saving grace was probably about 5 factors. 1. decision to leave Texas, move to rural Alaska to teach SPED in 2018. First three years got back on the bicycle of investing just the max for the traditional IRA, but then my wife read my mind one evening in early 2021. "Okay, you can go up north and make the big bucks, but I reserve the right to go live with my sister in Euless." I smiled and the best three years of my life began in late July 2021. My appetite was super-strong to save and invest for retirement and it happened, beating my wildest hopes and dreams. 2. About the same time I moved to above the Arctic Circle, someone on this board suggested I take a look at bogleheads.org. Thank you whoever you are!!! I had already received a tip from my principal in southwest Alaska about something new to me called the S and P 500 Index fund. In Alaska education we have control over our retirement account, because that is all we get. In Texas, the ERS and TRS recommend a "three-legged stool." In Alaska, there is only one leg, your retirement savings. So when I switched future investments from a target date fund to all S and P 500 fund for the last three years in Alaska, it was on, and by on I mean I saved and invested like a man with his hair on fire. I maxed out a 457b with 100% S and P 500 fund as well. 3. My investigative curiosity about purchasing service credit began way back in 2012, when I purchased my 6 years of state of Texas service. I called the IRS in 12, made sure I was doing the purchase correctly, asked for the IRS agent's first name and ID number, put that info in an email to myself and it worked out almost exactly as planned. Sure enough, about two months after filing the return, here came the mean letter from IRS, claiming I filled out forms wrong. I pulled up email I sent myself, filled out form with agent's name and ID number, and sent it back. 2 more months and a 2nd letter from IRS, giving me the nod. I remembered all of that info. as I planned to buy my out-of-state service from TRS. I completed the transaction early this spring, and my Alaska retirement account performed so well, I got out of the market in May 2024, knowing I had hit the target. I beat the target by about $9,000. I had 96k, and the six years cost me $87,500. Stayed safe with that money from May 2024 until purchase in February 2025. Along the way I took a huge portion of my S and P 500 gains and moved them into a 55/45 fund at Trowe. I was anxious to have money with both Trowe and Fidelity. I am an index investor with Fidelity for the traditional IRA only. I will never be a Roth man, as you can see that I purchased 12 years of service credit total. My Trowe money is down only about 3% since January 21, 2025, which astonishes me. Very exciting! 4. Goal setting. I had done well with goal setting for my fourth graders in the 2010s at the charter school in south east Dallas, so why not try it in Alaska? There was plenty of spare time. I went back and realized my net worth was about 165k when I arrived above the Arctic Circle, so I decided to make a serious goal of doubling that before I left Alaska for good. I remember exactly where I was in February 2024 when I hit my goal of 330k, but it didn't end there. it was rolling like a snowball. After the dust finally settled after the last paycheck in summer 2024, the number was 390k. Before the correction, buying the years of service, and moving a bunch of money to Trowe I think the number was 450k, not sure. My goal when I landed above the Arctic Circle was to work in education until age 67. That number quickly went south as things happened at a crazy good pace. After two years up there the goal was down to 61, and I am retiring this year at age 60! 5. Research attitude. I don't know where it all started but I have been researching financial stuff forever. At some point I started calling both ERS and TRS on a regular basis, to make sure details were the same. I am retiring from ERS because of the free health insurance premium for me, for life. Money is the same from both systems. I started calling once a year, and met some of the nicest people. Turned out the ERS people were highly trained and more knowledgable. Then after a while it became once a semester, then more often, etc. until the week the check arrived in Austin from Trowe. I called TRS once a day that week, and they were still nice about it! It was done! Woohoo! I believe there is a message of hope in this, especially if people know somebody who has a strong spender for a wife. I survived, but it never ends. I possibly set the world record for years between a full year's IRA contribution, as my last full year of contribution before marriage was probably 1993, and then I resumed once again in 2019. It can happen! -
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21433
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715
ICE activity/raids
<sigh> Nice pic. https://www.npr.org/2025/05/01/nx-s1-5383108/haitian-woman-death-ice-detention -
23672
Wordle [spoilers inevitable but discouraged]
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