It is interesting that you found cheaper than Pittsburgh. Do you mean the city or suburbs? Our first apartment (2001) was technically in Shady side but a block from the train tracks and the rent was $680 or so which included water and heat. We bought a house in Bloomfield for $43k (2002) and so the mortgage and taxes and PMI was $279, so it seemed like a no brainer to me. I think we moved in 2008? renting out original house for a few years, which just cleared a profit on its own by $10k or so, though the headaches of that are worth reconsidering...). And then sold for $90k in 2012. We did pay tax on that sale because we also sold our suburban house in the same year for a similar number, bought for $70k. We moved back to the town where I grew up in NH and bought a house for $69k. Mortgage was paid off in 2006 or so, though taxes are much higher here, though the rents are sky high (I think $1500 is the minimum for a single bedroom), and $2000 or $2500 for anything of any size. (We have a family of 10 so drastically different situation than you). Being able to move easily is probably your best point and for those that want to move (we figure we are done moving, maybe one of the kids will take our huge house when we get older, maybe we move into the in-law apartment, who knows) But, I 100% agree on people who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their house. We had friends who spent that kind of money in Pittsburgh at the same time. We never lived in a fixer upper - though I did consider the $20k houses in both Pittsburgh and NH that would have needed some work. We have upgraded electrical and various projects in all of the houses we've lived in, though I also enjoy that work, so that isn't entirely a downside. People here like to think that renters don't pay property taxes and don't realize that the rents include those numbers. And while our property taxes here ($6k) are high in my opinion (higher than my mortgage in Pittsburgh) I've heard of lots of worse off areas, though the $25k/student at the public school is hard to imagine that is being spent well ..
Thanks - I hadn't heard of this plan, and we started a scholarship fund a few years ago and trying to figure out the best way for it to both grow and provide scholarships for as many years as possible. Since all of the money is not required to be spent each year, I've wondered about a strategy that spends less in a down year, and this formula might be a good way to do that.
Do you know about https://sites.google.com/view/incometaxspreadsheet/home I've used them for a number of years for my taxes and I always use them for estimating. (I recently switched to OLT for my taxes). I also have an additional sheet i add to the Excel sheet above that calculates the maximum amounts to contribute, both employee and employer portions for my solo 401k for my wife and I, as well as keeps track of the HSA, IRA, college savings, and also auto-inputs into the W2 page, which I've updated to auto calculate as and Medicare taxes, etc.
My mom opened a second account with a limited amount of in it after my father just barely missed being taken in. He allowed them to screen share and they edited a screenshot of his bank statement or something and "proved" that they had accidentally deposited a large amount into his bank account that they needed him to return via money order to Nigeria. He was driving to the bank when my mom found him. The bank said that while they can't legally stop someone from doing that they do try to keep the seniors from getting scammed. He falls for it every time, and he used to be a software developer.
Not the point of your message, but thought you would like this story. Our IT department sent out an email asking the workers to download the .exe and run it! It sure looked legitimate and so I emailed them to make sure it was, and they responded, yes it was required for all employees to run this scanner and it would report back to them. I was so shocked that an IT department would do exactly what you aren't supposed to do... I researched how the program worked and saw that it wrote to a network share that was freely writable (and readable) by all. I suggested that they change the NTFS permissions to insert only, but they refused, so I looked through the data to see what my coworkers were up to. When the report came back, I was not in compliance of having various software downloaded that we weren't supposed to have, mp3 player, Bible app, developer tools that they didn't know about. My boss said, "kind of makes you feel violated", but didn't make me uninstall any of it... My current IT department sends out obvious phishing attempts and all sorts of people click on them.
Correct. It wouldn't deny it, but it wouldn't auto-fill by default because the domain is incorrect. And yes. I wouldn't want to count on this "security". Examining the links are the way. I get lots of emails from people asking for me to check them out and I think it must be hard for people to see the From addresses for some reason. My email clients always show the From address, so it is trivial to see forgeries.
We are in the same place, with my two oldest still at home. My oldest (as an electrician's apprentice and employer paying for his schooling) is able to save up a lot of money, much more than any of his peers and is firmly onboard with saving for retirement, though he wonders if maxing out his 401k is a good idea when faced with potentially buying a house in X number of years. My second will likely move out before him though with less savings due to having to pay for his pilot's license (we currently pay 1/2). It is hard to look at property prices these days and think it is a good deal.
As a CFP now, do you work for individuals and do you recommend index funds for them? I just received a call from Empower/Personal Capital and he was extolling the virtues of giving him my money and *only* paying 0.8% to do so and promised that he would beat the indexes that I'm currently in. It sounds pretty convincing, but I am a boglehead at heart, albeit a pretty unknowledgeable one. Your article to re-encourage me to stay the course was good for me, thanks.
I hadn't realized non-tax dependent kids could contribute to their own HSA and not affect my contribution limits. That is interesting. Seems to me that makes their HSA definitely better than a regular IRA or regular 401k, though they don't get the SS and Medicare exemption like a regular HSA. And the retirement saver credit needs to be included in the calculations. I'm not sure if it better than a Roth account, though I'd guess less likely to have tax law changes, which some people worry about Roth taxes changing at some point. Once other avenues are maxed out, then it is definitely good.
Comments:
It is interesting that you found cheaper than Pittsburgh. Do you mean the city or suburbs? Our first apartment (2001) was technically in Shady side but a block from the train tracks and the rent was $680 or so which included water and heat. We bought a house in Bloomfield for $43k (2002) and so the mortgage and taxes and PMI was $279, so it seemed like a no brainer to me. I think we moved in 2008? renting out original house for a few years, which just cleared a profit on its own by $10k or so, though the headaches of that are worth reconsidering...). And then sold for $90k in 2012. We did pay tax on that sale because we also sold our suburban house in the same year for a similar number, bought for $70k. We moved back to the town where I grew up in NH and bought a house for $69k. Mortgage was paid off in 2006 or so, though taxes are much higher here, though the rents are sky high (I think $1500 is the minimum for a single bedroom), and $2000 or $2500 for anything of any size. (We have a family of 10 so drastically different situation than you). Being able to move easily is probably your best point and for those that want to move (we figure we are done moving, maybe one of the kids will take our huge house when we get older, maybe we move into the in-law apartment, who knows) But, I 100% agree on people who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their house. We had friends who spent that kind of money in Pittsburgh at the same time. We never lived in a fixer upper - though I did consider the $20k houses in both Pittsburgh and NH that would have needed some work. We have upgraded electrical and various projects in all of the houses we've lived in, though I also enjoy that work, so that isn't entirely a downside. People here like to think that renters don't pay property taxes and don't realize that the rents include those numbers. And while our property taxes here ($6k) are high in my opinion (higher than my mortgage in Pittsburgh) I've heard of lots of worse off areas, though the $25k/student at the public school is hard to imagine that is being spent well ..
Post: Home Free
Link to comment from January 18, 2025
Thanks - I hadn't heard of this plan, and we started a scholarship fund a few years ago and trying to figure out the best way for it to both grow and provide scholarships for as many years as possible. Since all of the money is not required to be spent each year, I've wondered about a strategy that spends less in a down year, and this formula might be a good way to do that.
Post: Spending It
Link to comment from January 12, 2025
Do you know about https://sites.google.com/view/incometaxspreadsheet/home I've used them for a number of years for my taxes and I always use them for estimating. (I recently switched to OLT for my taxes). I also have an additional sheet i add to the Excel sheet above that calculates the maximum amounts to contribute, both employee and employer portions for my solo 401k for my wife and I, as well as keeps track of the HSA, IRA, college savings, and also auto-inputs into the W2 page, which I've updated to auto calculate as and Medicare taxes, etc.
Post: A Taxing Retirement
Link to comment from November 16, 2024
My mom opened a second account with a limited amount of in it after my father just barely missed being taken in. He allowed them to screen share and they edited a screenshot of his bank statement or something and "proved" that they had accidentally deposited a large amount into his bank account that they needed him to return via money order to Nigeria. He was driving to the bank when my mom found him. The bank said that while they can't legally stop someone from doing that they do try to keep the seniors from getting scammed. He falls for it every time, and he used to be a software developer.
Post: Stay Safe Out There
Link to comment from September 28, 2024
Not the point of your message, but thought you would like this story. Our IT department sent out an email asking the workers to download the .exe and run it! It sure looked legitimate and so I emailed them to make sure it was, and they responded, yes it was required for all employees to run this scanner and it would report back to them. I was so shocked that an IT department would do exactly what you aren't supposed to do... I researched how the program worked and saw that it wrote to a network share that was freely writable (and readable) by all. I suggested that they change the NTFS permissions to insert only, but they refused, so I looked through the data to see what my coworkers were up to. When the report came back, I was not in compliance of having various software downloaded that we weren't supposed to have, mp3 player, Bible app, developer tools that they didn't know about. My boss said, "kind of makes you feel violated", but didn't make me uninstall any of it... My current IT department sends out obvious phishing attempts and all sorts of people click on them.
Post: Stay Safe Out There
Link to comment from September 28, 2024
Correct. It wouldn't deny it, but it wouldn't auto-fill by default because the domain is incorrect. And yes. I wouldn't want to count on this "security". Examining the links are the way. I get lots of emails from people asking for me to check them out and I think it must be hard for people to see the From addresses for some reason. My email clients always show the From address, so it is trivial to see forgeries.
Post: Stay Safe Out There
Link to comment from September 28, 2024
We are in the same place, with my two oldest still at home. My oldest (as an electrician's apprentice and employer paying for his schooling) is able to save up a lot of money, much more than any of his peers and is firmly onboard with saving for retirement, though he wonders if maxing out his 401k is a good idea when faced with potentially buying a house in X number of years. My second will likely move out before him though with less savings due to having to pay for his pilot's license (we currently pay 1/2). It is hard to look at property prices these days and think it is a good deal.
Post: Brooklyn Bungle
Link to comment from June 29, 2024
As a CFP now, do you work for individuals and do you recommend index funds for them? I just received a call from Empower/Personal Capital and he was extolling the virtues of giving him my money and *only* paying 0.8% to do so and promised that he would beat the indexes that I'm currently in. It sounds pretty convincing, but I am a boglehead at heart, albeit a pretty unknowledgeable one. Your article to re-encourage me to stay the course was good for me, thanks.
Post: The Apprentice
Link to comment from June 29, 2024
I hadn't realized non-tax dependent kids could contribute to their own HSA and not affect my contribution limits. That is interesting. Seems to me that makes their HSA definitely better than a regular IRA or regular 401k, though they don't get the SS and Medicare exemption like a regular HSA. And the retirement saver credit needs to be included in the calculations. I'm not sure if it better than a Roth account, though I'd guess less likely to have tax law changes, which some people worry about Roth taxes changing at some point. Once other avenues are maxed out, then it is definitely good.
Post: Youth May Triumph
Link to comment from May 20, 2024
Why isn't break even a concern? If it isn't then take SS as soon as possible, right because the amount doesn't matter?
Post: Playing Their Part
Link to comment from May 18, 2024