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Posted
2 hours ago, Superhero said:

It's been nice holding GOOG, AAPL and AMZN the past few days.

Portfolio recovered the $70K, and now up another $150K. All paper money until I retire.

Golden visas keep going up, so now is a good time to get in while you can. 

Posted
1 hour ago, Gatorubet said:

Golden visas keep going up, so now is a good time to get in while you can. 

 

Got my papers 10 years ago so don't need a golden visa. Unless you mean bringing in my super model girlfriend from one of the Baltic countries.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Superhero said:

 

Got my papers 10 years ago so don't need a golden visa. Unless you mean bringing in my super model girlfriend from one of the Baltic countries.

IMG_5164.webp.1af06f16d287210bc3d5c6c091028b37.webp

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Posted (edited)

Finally moved my brokerage account over to Robin Hood. Even sent the IRA as well. Both are getting a 2% bump as a result of their promo. Leaving the current 401k at Fidelity until I’m fully vested in my equity and options in mid November/early December.  The margin rates at RH were too good and will help expedite FIRE’ing into semi retirement.

Edited by StassneyHorn
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

something something Happy Belated Paycheck Monday to all who celebrate. I will drag this thread to the new year, across the finish line, with all my strength.

Got 3 weeks of PTO approved. Still going to have extra at end of the year I need to use or lose. Last post above mentioned the switch I made with some accounts bringing them to RobinHood. Had plenty of margin to cover an existing loan that was at 14.75% and replaced it with 5.75%. So this was a nice week so far.

Posted
On 1/20/2025 at 1:45 PM, 52-80 said:

more discipline sticking primarily to short vol trades.

my target is to beat the total returns of my friend Asadullah, who works in securities.

 

the great irony is my vol positions are negative for the year but my portfolio is having the best performance in yeras

Posted
9 hours ago, 52-80 said:

the great irony is my vol positions are negative for the year but my portfolio is having the best performance in yeras

were they a single equity position or index based?

Posted
13 hours ago, StassneyHorn said:

were they a single equity position or index based?

3 different instruments all derived from SP500 index. The losses have been basically cost of insurance for going net long vol while market melts up. Overall portfolio performance isnt even from market gain or hitting home runs in single equities... its from swing trading EUR/USD futures.  

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Happy Paycheck Tuesday to all who celebrate! May your tacos be birria and your beers cold.

Opened up a 1000 share position in both YSPY and TQQY cause I hear about fun things late.  I'll most likely reinvest weekly dividends until new year or 4/15, then begin feeding them into SPYI and QQQI. Tripling down on our ATH "shaky" economy and shutdown worries. Not too many goals left to consider and just cruising into heart of football season and holidays in a nice position.

Posted
15 hours ago, StassneyHorn said:

Happy Paycheck Tuesday to all who celebrate! May your tacos be birria and your beers cold.

Opened up a 1000 share position in both YSPY and TQQY cause I hear about fun things late.  I'll most likely reinvest weekly dividends until new year or 4/15, then begin feeding them into SPYI and QQQI. Tripling down on our ATH "shaky" economy and shutdown worries. Not too many goals left to consider and just cruising into heart of football season and holidays in a nice position.

I feel like some (most? all?) of the ultra high yield funds are an attempt to catch a falling knife. I know that some here or on Reddit go crazy about the YieldMax funds like UTLY because there's a 80% yield but the fund is also down 47% over the last 12 months. Maybe that is still an overall positive but whats the risk that the fund won't drop another 50% tomorrow. 

Posted

I’m up in 6 of the 9 YM funds I use. I don’t add any more money into them, I will never sell them cause they are income. I take the distros and place into mid yield funds  where the NAV is much more stable (BTCI, QQQI and SPYI) and then put those distros into growth ETFs like SCHG.
 

ULTY itself is a unique example and looking at YTD overlooks the changes the fund has made. Yieldmax has its big winners and big losers, you have far better chances making consistent money in the funds that follow multiple funds or an index rather than a single underlying.

Posted
On 12/31/2024 at 4:04 PM, bborange said:

1.  Max most of my 401K in the first 3 months of the year then lower take out percentage through the year to get full max contribution from employer.

2.  Get 6 plus gain in market

3.  Save 75K plus in cash by lowering expenses

4.  Last day of work at worst December 31st 2025 for retirement. 

After 3 quarters this year and everything better than my goals.   Very good year in my last year of work.  

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Posted

Nice.  Love it when a plan comes together.  I will know how I did in about 30 days.  Everything so far has been to plan but I am really antsy about my private stock.  Time to cash that fucker out.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
22 hours ago, StassneyHorn said:

Hope everyone had a Happy Paycheck humpday. Already mid-October, which means get your travel squared away for the holidays NOW.

I'm buying $20 of BTCN for each of my family members.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

When you guys are planning for retirement, are you counting on social security income?

I'm planning on retire in 12 years, and not counting on social security to be solvent. Getting anything would be like a cherry on top.

Posted
4 minutes ago, Superhero said:

When you guys are planning for retirement, are you counting on social security income?

I'm planning on retire in 12 years, and not counting on social security to be solvent. Getting anything would be like a cherry on top.

I count it between 0 and 75% (its an variable in my spreadsheet). The 75% being abiut what it is on a pay-for basis. 

Posted
17 minutes ago, Superhero said:

When you guys are planning for retirement, are you counting on social security income?

I'm planning on retire in 12 years, and not counting on social security to be solvent. Getting anything would be like a cherry on top.

No. I suspect that it will end up being means tested or taxed enough to become a negligible amount. 

Posted
13 minutes ago, Superhero said:

When you guys are planning for retirement, are you counting on social security income?

I'm planning on retire in 12 years, and not counting on social security to be solvent. Getting anything would be like a cherry on top.

No, I don't plan on being eligible either. Will not be working full-time ever again after April unless I find some new passion in life. Will be using a mix of distribution income and geoarbitrage, to grow investments and have income to live day to day abroad. My investments bring $1500 /week without lifting a finger. Will keep my place here in Austin while always staying informed of the options. 

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Posted
4 hours ago, Superhero said:

When you guys are planning for retirement, are you counting on social security income?

I'm planning on retire in 12 years, and not counting on social security to be solvent. Getting anything would be like a cherry on top.

yes.

Why? Because old people vote. 

Also if you look at this graph

Population pyramid for the United States in 2020.

I was 50 in 2020. The 45-54 bands are smaller than the 55-64 bands. 

As the boomers die off there will be more workers per retiree than there are now

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Posted
4 hours ago, Superhero said:

When you guys are planning for retirement, are you counting on social security income?

I'm planning on retire in 12 years, and not counting on social security to be solvent. Getting anything would be like a cherry on top.

Yes.  I’m going to wait until 70, but they will cut a LOT of other shit before they let SS go belly up.  As @blacklab said, you lose the olds, you lose the election 

Posted

Sb have you looked where the crossover point is if you wait till 70?

It's 82.

So if you die before 82 you leave money on the table, even longer if you can afford to just invest it when you get it. 

I'm taking it the day I turn 62, I'm not sure I'll live to 82.

 

Posted
14 hours ago, Superhero said:

When you guys are planning for retirement, are you counting on social security income?

I'm planning on retire in 12 years, and not counting on social security to be solvent. Getting anything would be like a cherry on top.

I'm planning on it being insolvent, but everything is a bonus. 

Posted

I agree with there being something because the point Blacklab made--old people vote.  But clearly something has to change.  Raise/eliminate the cap being the most obvious.  I think means testing is too difficult to implement.  But I'm not counting on anything.

I'd be curious if you eliminate the cap, what could you do at the bottom of the income range to put more money in the hands of low income earners. Something like SS tax doesn't kick in until $10k earned income.  Or $20k.  Whatever the number is that makes even out with the added tax revenue at the top.  Of course that will never happen, but people making >$176k won't miss the money more than it would benefit low income earners.

Posted

I don’t see SS being eliminated in any of our lifetimes. Even means testing seems like a stretch. If anything, I would guess that payment increases might not keep up with inflation and the retirement age may get bumped up a little. Some of the issues are going to get solved as the boomers pass away though. 

Posted (edited)

Would agree social security is unlikely to be canceled but always found it useful to be conservative and plan on it be much later for retirement age and a much lower amount. Would rather be conservative and not need it than aggressive and end up short. Hoping investments make it immaterial but who knows.

Edited by GoneFission
Posted
16 hours ago, blacklab said:

Sb have you looked where the crossover point is if you wait till 70?

It's 82.

So if you die before 82 you leave money on the table, even longer if you can afford to just invest it when you get it. 

I'm taking it the day I turn 62, I'm not sure I'll live to 82.

 

Plus, your needs late in life are almost sure to be smaller than earlier in retirement.  Lot easier to go conservative/austere at 80 than at 65.

Posted

Jealous of those of you who can retire early. I'm too conservative to pull the plug until my son gets out of college. By then I'll be 63 and hopefully in good enough condition to enjoy a few more decades.

My dad retired at 62 and has been loving the past 23 years - traveling with my mom, visiting the grandkids and watching them grow, writing books. I don't have someone like my mom taking care of me, so maybe I'll kick it a lot younger than him.

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Superhero said:

Jealous of those of you who can retire early. I'm too conservative to pull the plug until my son gets out of college. By then I'll be 63 and hopefully in good enough condition to enjoy a few more decades.

My dad retired at 62 and has been loving the past 23 years - traveling with my mom, visiting the grandkids and watching them grow, writing books. I don't have someone like my mom taking care of me, so maybe I'll kick it a lot younger than him.

Your wife trying to kill you or something?

You need to do the math and get over it. With what you’ve said you have, go should be able to retire easily at 55, even living in Cali? You don’t have the college money set aside or something? 
 

I’m eyeballing HS graduation. Of course a lot has to go right in the next 10 years…

Edited by SydneyCarton
Posted

I’ve been drawing mine for 18 years (retired 10 years before that). 
The wife likewise, except she retired only 3 years before she started drawing hers. 
We didn’t need it, but just used some over the years to suppliment our travel & entertainment. 
Most is just sitting in bank certificates l

Posted
On 10/29/2025 at 10:59 AM, Wiler77 said:

I'd be curious if you eliminate the cap, what could you do at the bottom of the income range to put more money in the hands of low income earners. Something like SS tax doesn't kick in until $10k earned income.  Or $20k.  Whatever the number is that makes even out with the added tax revenue at the top.  Of course that will never happen, but people making >$176k won't miss the money more than it would benefit low income earners.

Lots of things could be done.

You could expand the earned income tax credit, making sure that it's refundable.

You could flat out give everyone cash and raise tax rates to compensate for it, making the system more progressive.

You could make all charitable deductions "above the line", meaning you don't have to itemize to deduct them.  Charity would increase.

Posted

Almost hit my goals for the year:

Max IRAs for me and the wife. Done.

Max my 401k. Will get there with continued contributions.

Start a brokerage account and get it to at least 25k. I’m a few thousand short but will get there easily.

Save for next rental property. Haven’t done as much on this one but have been prioritizing the accounts above since I feel behind on those. Working in public education for 15 years didn’t allow for much saving outside of TRS and IRAs.

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Posted
If a man is making his 401k and individual IRA contribution, is there a reason to not max the HSA as well?

After 65 you can kinda treat your HSA like an IRA, in that you can take a distribution for non medical expenses and not pay a penalty.

You still pay tax on the distributions for non medical expenses, but you can think of it like an extra IRA.

If you like the extra IRA concept but still having some cash for medical expenses if needed, then you may want to max out the HSA.
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Posted

Yea HSAs are the tits. I believe you can rollover an IRA into an HSA once in a lifetime as well but haven't done it or thought about all the benefits/cons.


And I hope you all have a spooky Happy paycheck Friday. If you haven't left the office by now, you will be in Halloween traffic from everyone else having the bright idea to leave early. 

Posted

Having managed my mom's finances (mostly all taxable inheritance), I kinda wonder how obnoxious managing RMDs and filing Schedule Ds will be when I am old and crabby. In theory a pre-tax saving is likely superior, but the simplicity of WYSIWYG Roths (plus simplicity of its inherited) is appealing.

Posted
1 hour ago, Parliament said:

If a man is making his 401k and individual IRA contribution, is there a reason to not max the HSA as well?

If you are able, max the HSA. Within the HSA, you are able to hold money as cash, invested into a fund (VOO etc) or some combination of each depending on your comfort level/emergency fund.
Texas Jeff is correct, after 65 you can pull the funds for any reason and just pay income tax on the withdrawals. Alternatively, you can use those funds tax free for Medicare or long term care expenses. Finally, there is no time limit on when your medical expense occurred vs when you can claim the withdrawals. So, if you want to keep a file of your medical expense receipts for years, when you turn 65 and are on Medicare, you could pull funds completely tax free for whatever and just submit enough old receipts to equal that amount to the IRS. 

Posted
On 10/30/2025 at 2:29 AM, SydneyCarton said:

Your wife trying to kill you or something?

You need to do the math and get over it. With what you’ve said you have, go should be able to retire easily at 55, even living in Cali? You don’t have the college money set aside or something? 
 

I’m eyeballing HS graduation. Of course a lot has to go right in the next 10 years…

 

Pulling the pin at 59 when my son finishes HS might work. By then we'll be sitting on ~$8M. It should be enough to last us for 20-30 years assuming we we keep our monthly expenses below $10K.

But I also want to drink 18 YO whisky instead of 4 Roses, so working 'til I'm in my early 60s doesn't seem terrible.

Posted
16 minutes ago, Superhero said:

 

Pulling the pin at 59 when my son finishes HS might work. By then we'll be sitting on ~$8M. It should be enough to last us for 20-30 years assuming we we keep our monthly expenses below $10K.

But I also want to drink 18 YO whisky instead of 4 Roses, so working 'til I'm in my early 60s doesn't seem terrible.

Back of the napkin math says 8 mil gets you 26,000 a month at a 4% draw rate. Thats also assuming no other income. Obviously have to factor in taxes, but what am I missing? You would probably die with 15+ million.

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