Housing market is nuts and I’m thankful we bought when we did. My house has (supposedly) gone up in value ~50% since I bought it four years ago despite mortgage rates being ~150% higher — how are people making those numbers work?

Is the coffee at least good?

We’re working on front loading 529’s. The goal is to have enough in each to cover four years at a good in state university plus some buffer. Obviously they might literally do something different but it feels like a good baseline. Finishing this front loading is one of the items on our pre-FIRE checklist as the plan is to pull the trigger long before they’ll go off to college.

Weekly question:

For those with kids, what are your plans for college? How does it factor into your retirement plans?

Nothing I’d recommend. I use Betterment for my brokerage but only because having a managed account exempts me from some employer imposed holding requirements.

I’m guessing it’s federation related? I frequently see comments, replies, or new posts pop up long after they were “created”. The lemmy experience is far from smooth right now.

We’ve done it twice. The first time was probably the most common and boring story— we bought a house. It was planned and we’d been intentionally living cheaply to save up.

The second was when my wife stopped working. This was during Covid when all the return to office stuff started and we’d just had our first kid. Now we’ve got two and she’s (mostly) a stay at home parent with a passion/hobby business.

Interesting, seems like one of many federation related challenges.

Does that mean the instance owner was okay with the content and new nazi population?

I’d take this a step further and say I have existential dread when I think of all the talented / smart people that get pulled into my industry and provide very little if any societal good.

You will safely burn through all your money with a 15% withdrawal rate.

Presumably the 8-30k would otherwise be invested in your taxable brokerage, seems to come down to a question of risk tolerance. At that balance It’s very unlikely you’d find yourself in a situation where you couldn’t pull those totals out of the brokerage even in a severe market downturn. It’s true in that situation you’d be selling down, but keeping it cash forgoes market returns in the mean time.

Personally I’m pretty risk averse and like to keep a cash buffer in HYSA/CDs/I bonds despite having a significant taxable brokerage balance. This was true even before the interest rate situation became more favorable.

None of the approaches you’ve listed seem outright wrong for your situation. I’d concentrate on what your risk tolerances are and back out your approach from there.

My wife got a recommendation from a local, online mom’s group.

We recently hired a cleaner to come in twice a month which has been a big help, especially now with two very young kids.

My question of the week: For people in the boring middle, what are you doing, if anything, to make life better now? Doesn’t have to be financial.

Should’ve gone with a lower withdrawal rate. 😞

I’d say FI but not RE. We’ve got enough money saved up where if you squint the numbers kinda maybe work. In practice it’s unlikely I pull the trigger for another few years.

The main point of an emergency fund is liquidity and risk mitigation, so the first three options make sense, as does something like a no-penalty CD.

I think the missing context here is where you are financially— How much money is $8-30k for you relative to your other liquid (and accessible) assets? If you’ve got a huge taxable brokerage account, for instance, some people just forgo the concept of an emergency fund altogether.

I think the definitions are subjective and can be contentious. People seem to love debating the one true list of dollar amounts for each level, which then invariably spirals into a cost of living, size of household, and inflation debate.

I was trying to side step that by just asking where people see themselves and not the underlying numbers. I think what you’re aiming for, regardless of whether we’re using exactly the same definitions, conveys a lot about your risk appetite, desire for luxuries, etc.

You mention your expenses would now be seen as lean — do you actually agree with that or is it more your impression of community sentiment?

I’ll admit I bought a ticket. I know people say it’s a tax on the stupid but my stupidity correlates with the size of the jackpot.