If an apocalypse happens, do you think anybody gives a flying f\*\*\* if you "own" land based on a piece of paper that says so?  

If you really believe the end of days is coming, build a bunker and stock it with ammo and canned food, ha.  Otherwise any such event means the absolute collapse of financial systems, and sense of ownership or property rights, etc.  It's keep what you kill.

Farming is too complicated; I'm more of a ramen noodle kinda guy

Honestly I'd take the free degree dude - your already doing great in construction but having that degree opens way more doors if things don't work out exactly as planned. Plus the internships during college will give you even more experience and connections, and your coach sounds like he'll still want to hire you after graduation anyway. Four years goes by quick and you'll be way more valuable with both the hands-on experience and the degree

Marriage age gap math aside, I think the real tension here isn’t postnups, it’s that you’re mentally treating retirement savings as “his money vs my money” inside an ongoing marriage.

In most U.S. jurisdictions, anything saved during the marriage is marital property regardless of whose 401k it sits in.

If your prenup carved that out, then yeah revisiting it makes sense, especially if you’re stepping away from peak earning years to align retirements.

But absent that, you may be more protected than you think.

Don’t listen to your friend. If you need the money in the next 3-5 years to buy that house, keep it in the HYSA.

Paid 50% marginal in CA one year

Wouldn’t move because of that because there was nowhere else on the planet that I could have made that income

You have a free college education  waiting for you and you're  wondering if you should throw it away for an 18/hr job?

Wild to see someone stick to the same boring strategy for over a decade and watch it actually pay off - that progression chart is chef's kiss

> I just lack in comparison to other people

Comparison implies someone is better and someone is worse. You will always be able to find someone who's worse off than you, you will always be able to find someone who's better off than you. 

Let go of the whole damn game and do your best today, every day.

Don't invest money you are going to need in the next five years unless you are ok with a setback. Like what would you do if there was a 30% correction? Would this just delay you getting the house or would this mean you don't get it.

P/e, debt-to-equity, revenue growth, cash flow

I don’t like HYSA, keep a 10k buffer there. Open a Fidelity account and put the 90k in SGOV, that is a low risk tbill etf. Use that instead of HYSA. Why? Because in my experience people spend easier out of their HYSA.

In that same Fidelity account start buying setup and automatic weekly buy of VOO. Start with what is comfortable. Then work to increase that. Sell ONLY when there is something urgent to pay for (that thing could be a house, time will tell). It is the habit you need to cultivate early. 

You need to get in the habit of auto investing. 

Set your 401k to lowest cost sp500 fund. Get as much in there as you can stomach as early as you can. Do a little Roth in that 401k also. Sooner the better. 

That’s all personal finance is: spend less, invest more auto, don’t panic sell. 

You will learn a ton more. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but that’s the basics. Keep maxing your Roth. You’re doing great!!

Getting laid off is difficult for a lot of reasons. It's important for people to feel as if they are able to do the job they do, and that's valid. 

I do want to say that if you keep searching for external validation through your job or keep comparing yourself to other people, then you may continue to feel as if nothing is enough, job or not. Take control of what you can. Keep applying, tweak your resume, gain new skills, connect with other people, do something for yourself, and really, that's how you manage, by focusing on what you can do about your situation right now.

  
I am primarily in this sub because my partner is in CS and feels similar insecurities at times. 

You can negotiate step payments. For every 5 years you are together you get a certain percentage of what would have otherwise been invested in the market or comparable alimony. It ends up being fair for both parties in that he would have to come out of pocket to supplement your retirement and you would be giving up a lot of the compounding you would otherwise have made.

“Do customers like it or love it and will they come back happily and buy again” 

That single thing is such a good way to find good stuff and an even better way to screen out stuff that is built on shaky foundations. If people don’t like the company or are grudgingly paying for it cause there’s no other choice then when something better comes along people will leave fast, revenue falls, profit falls, share price falls. 

And figuring out how to measure it (cause your own opinion or just a small group of friends isn’t a good steer there).



Don't be afraid to talk to your spouse about your concerns.  Ask how he is planning for your security after his passing or in case of divorce. You should be able to have these kinds of discussions to make sure everything is fair for you. Talk to a lawyer (yours not his) if you are not sure. 



Your debt and his debt are now you all's debt and expenses, so if you aren't going to work,  he needs to figure something out to cover your bills.  He's the one asking you to give up your financial security,  so he needs to make sure you are covered. If he can't have that conversation with you and doesn't understand that he has to cover your things, then don't stop working. 
Part time work or WFH are other options. As you both age, you might still want to be active or social while he might want to rest and be indoors more. Having hobbies or a job separate from your husband can be a good thing. 



Also, once you've been married 10 years, even after divorce,  you can claim his social security benefit if it's more than yours.

Not the point of your post, but what number of employees are you a considering a mid-size CPA firm? I feel like your wife might not be getting compensated fairly if the number you listed is both of y’all’s comp together.

Awesome! Maybe I missed it but what is your spend currently?

I also have two kids (1 and 3 yo) and wonder how you expect your spend to change as they get older (assuming they are around tween age now from your previous posts)?

Sounds like you can both fire comfortably and reasonably at around 3-4m, based on the higher spend of 120k. Curious why your goal is 6-8m? Also, making sure that is invested NW and not counting home equity. 

Forward P/E, forward EPS, EPS Growth Rate and Cash:Debt ratio

This is underrated.

A lot of client “check-ins” are really just anxiety management. If they don’t hear from you, they assume nothing is happening. A simple proactive update removes that uncertainty before it turns into random messages and unnecessary calls. I’ve noticed the same thing  communication rhythm matters more than communication volume.

Do you ever standardize the format across all clients, or do you tailor the updates depending on their personality?

Brilliant tbh, the proactive communication thing is such a game changer once you actually commit to it

  
I do something similar but with Slack channels for each client - drop in screenshots of work in progress, quick wins, even just "working on X today" type updates. Takes maybe 2 minutes but stops all the anxiety-driven check-ins

  
The friday summary format is smart though, might nick that structure. I've been doing more ad hoc updates which work but probably leave gaps where clients start overthinking things

Awesome progress!  And as other post stated, amazing foresight to learn/act in your mid/teens.

Questions:
1. Did you have good financial mentors/family examples at that age?

2. Are you seriously making >$300K/yr in your mid-twenties?  What type of work?

Take care on your journey. Smell the roses along the way.

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so my manager hit me up on team chat at 8pm tonight asking for a status update like it's no big deal. i replied ngl, told him my contract clearly says 9-5 and i don't work after hours, and literally he just sent a laughing emoji like it's a joke?? bro, i'm all for being a team player but this feels kinda nuts. i stick to my hours, don't ghost work, but suddenly i'm the 'toxic' one for not being on call?

is this just how jobs are now or am i actually in the wrong here? like, should i start low-key applying elsewhere? i'm 23 and down to put in work but not get clown-laughed at for having boundaries.

boss messaged me at 8pm expecting a reply... said my contract says 9-5 and he laughed??

I am from the media industry with 13 + years of experience and was recruited little over a year ago as a Content Writer in an IT firm. Now, the positives, I have completed a year. I am ex TOI, Network 18, and have even written for the Big 4.

In the current scenario, my Indian manager has been akin to a brain aneurysm. He is seated besides me and is constantly breathing down my neck. The moment I come to office, there is a visible shift in his body language, he bends forward and avoids eye contact.

When it comes to work, he is cagey to deal with. His instructions are vague and ambiguous. There is a complete lack of decorum when it comes to me. He doesn't acknowledge communication about work that has been sent. I have to send in multiple follow ups.

For example, six months ago, I had sent in a content strategy to him. I even held a meeting with my American Manager who approved and vetted the presentation. During the presentation and even in my subsequent communication, I mentioned explicitly that I am not well versed with Excel.

I sent in multiple messages and communication to my manager, reminding him that I sought feedback about the presentation. Instead there was radio silence for nearly a month. After a month, he calls a meeting and tells me what I was doing for a month? Which struck me as beyond absurd. He cuts me off before I can even respond and then the intern chimes in ,"this is messy." They are critiquing the formatting of the excel sheet instead of the ideas themselves

In subsequent meetings, what I have noticed is:  
Passive aggressive behaviour towards me - cutting me off mid sentence.  
Dismissing ideas outright. Ironically, he considered the same idea a month later from an intern and made it the hero content.

Being overtly critical when it comes to work - hey, this is not how I wanted the blog written. I want the blog to flow in XYZ (even though the same ideas are already present with synonyms). The criticism does not have a logical segue. It's a one way communication that's entirely draconian in its nature.

Even when it comes to decorum, he lacks the basic professional courtesy when it comes to me. He doesn't acknowledge work related communication. And this is only with me and not others. He is rather courteous to the extremely subservient and overtly verbose new content writer - he too has highlighted that he has trouble with excel.

I am just exhausted, mentally harangued because of him making personal attacks - initially it was inquiries into my caste (I am an atheist of mixed descent and don't believe in it). Right now, he tells me that I have an "attitude problem" and I have a problem with everyone. That I should take this up with the American Manager. I don't see the point. It's a rigged system.

I have been gathering evidence. I have been keeping everything on emails and ensuring that there is a digital trail of conversations that happen.


To offer better context: I am half Indian. I don't look Indian but have had my share of Indian managers and they have been terrible. Some managers have been really good but this is the exception and not the rule.

Why are Indian Managers so Toxic?

I came from a very poor background. Got into sales 2 years ago and am currently making \~180k / year at 24 years old.

My problem is I spend a lot. It seems like money comes in and money goes out and I’m not even sure where it goes. Any advice how to track this.

Also, my mortgage is 2400 a month. I was planning on aggressively paying an extra 3k to the principal per month instead of saving it, and being mortgage free by the time I’m 30. Is this a bad idea? Interest rate is 6.125%, alternatively I could stick all my extra into aggressive savings like VOO.

That was my plan, anybody have any advice which way to go and how to maximize my savings? I’m currently crawling back to save my emergency fund before I do anything else. 

I’ve never made money like this. What do I do?

A family member passed away and their last wish was to leave all retirement accounts to my child. The family member was single and had no dependents. I was made the beneficiary on all their retirement

accounts and life insurance. The family member was sick for some time and left behind hospital bills and a small credit card balance. I’m at a loss on what to do once I receive the funds. I would like to put the money aside for my kid who has a 529 account. I’m not sure if I should move all the moneys to the 529 or set up something separately. If I set up a trust or move the money to my child, will I have to pay taxes? Appreciate the guidance

Family member leaves it all to my child

I'm retiring at 57 and I've done great but I could've done better. I focused on a working class to middle class real estate portfolio and I should've focused on a portfolio aimed at the rich. Let's face it: the top 10% of earners in America control 67% of the country's wealth. I focused on providing middle income housing but my friends that focused on high-end real estate did way better than me. Once you get in high-end communities the high prices don't really matter to buyers. My buyers were always cost sensitive. Like I said I've done great but catering to rich people is where it's at.

I'm a retiring real estate investor and I wish I took a different strategy in portfolio.

Used to be, you could move to DFW and immediately cut your expenses by, say, $1,000 a month compared to the coasts. Now, with housing prices and property taxes going up, it's more like $500. Makes me wonder if the FIRE math still works the same way it did even 5 years ago.

Anyone else find that geographic arbitrage is getting harder?

Just a friendly announcement to keep all your Form 5498, 1099-R, and Form 8606 involving contributions, roll overs, and conversions \*forever\*. Many (including my younger self) assume the IRS and brokerage keep track of that important information, but it's actually your job to prove that you're withdrawing contributions and not earnings (and get income taxed again + penalty--ouch). 

  
This is our first year doing a backdoor Roth, and I found out my spouse did not keep these forms and their contributions were long ago so they aren't available (easily) online. I'm sure I'll be able to reconstruct the basis if need be but it's be a lot easier if all those forms were just saved somewhere!

Keep track of your Roth basis if planning on withdrawing contributions before 59 1/2

I've been an entrepreneur for 50 years.   
If this is your calling too, here's 3 pieces of advice:

1. Nothing happens quickly. Set your expectations accordingly. You may get some quick wins, but don't be lulled into thinking that's every day. 
2. Surround yourself with people smarter than yourself.  It's the smartest thing you can do. 
3. Practice self-care. Entrepreneurship requires every bit of you. Every single day. (And most nights.) Exercise. Eat well. Meditate. Rest. The basics. But you have to do them better, than most other people, just to keep moving forward. Do not underestimate this. 

P.S. I did spend a few years working for other companies. But they simply taught me what I did not want to do. 

What would you add to this list?

 

 

Entrepreneur Realities

Boss called me outside of work, then was an asshole only to find out I was on speakerphone to the whole team.

I work at a large pharma corp. The general schedule is 9-5 but upon starting the position I clearly stated on Wed and Fridays I would come in at 7 and leave at 3 as I needed to pick up my kid at school those days. This was accepted and has been my work schedule for the past 4 years. 

Today, I leave at 3 and get a call at like 3:05 from my boss. I pick it up, thinking it's an emergency or something. It's my boss asking where I am, saying there's a meeting I was scheduled for. I say I'm going to pick up my kid (something he should have know as I started a week before he did and it's been 4 fucking years). He's kind of pissy with me and I'm just thrown off, I offered to come back and asked if he needed me for something specific. 

Then the mother fucker says that I'm on speaker and the whole team can hear this... after a decent back and forth. Then he gives me a passive aggressive "say hi to your daughter for me" line and hangs up. 

AND TO TOP IT OFF, literally the day he scheduled this meeting, roughly a month ago. I told him I couldn't make these meeting because I had to pick up my kid from school AS ALWAYS. and he said it was fine! 

I'm right to be offended here right? Like I get forgetting. He forgets shit all the time. But to call me about and not tell me I'm on speaker phone until the end of the conversation is what pisses me off. 

Boss called me outside of my schedule hours from his personal cell to my personal cell and was bitchywith me on then phone. Then he tells me the whole team can here because I'm on speaker phone. I have a right to be offended, right?

I am months out from early retirement.  I am 50 years old, and my expected withdrawal rate will be less than 3%.  My days are filled with ER planning - travel destinations, concerts, signing up for hobby classes, setting fitness goals for myself, etc. I am sitting around, tweaking my future schedule, worrying about stuff like "Am I traveling too much? Will I get exhausted from being away from home too much?  Am I not traveling enough? I only have so much active time left in my life - what if I don't get to visit and explore all the places I want? What will happen to my proficiency in hobby A if I spend most of my time involved in hobby B? Will I lose contact with friends and family if I overschedule myself? Will I be bored, rotting away on my couch, doom scrolling, if I don't schedule enough to fill my days?"

Meanwhile, a lot of my friends and family are struggling. Not in the financial sense, everyone is solidly middle class, but everyone is overwhelmed with juggling careers, children, and aging parents.  Everyone is stressed over AI coming for their jobs, not having enough saved for retirement, and the general state of the world.  Meanwhile, I am sitting around, busying myself with ridiculous anxieties over "how do I have enough fun, but not too much fun."  I can't help but feel guilty.  

I didn't have a windfall or a lucrative career, I just always felt comfortable with a simple life - small condo, rather than a house, no kids, never spent much on materialistic things, instead spent on experiences.  I've been working nonstop since I was 14, through high school and university. I've been saving and investing for most of my life. Yet, I feel guilty.  As if I had a cheat code to life this entire time and left all my loved ones behind, to struggle their way through.  I have talked about saving and investing to everyone and offered to set up 401K and investment accounts, but of course, no one listened.  And why would they?  I have no financial background, living frugally in a small condo, no flashy cars or extravagant vacations, nothing to show off my wealth.  Not only did no one want my advice, people were constantly advising me - why don't you buy a house? Won't you regret not having kids? Don't go to Mexico for vacation, it's not safe, go to all-inclusive resort like everyone else! Investing 2k per month is absolutely nothing in the long run, but if you spent it now, it could really improve your life! (That last one was a woozy. I am still shaking my head over that one.)

Now, it feels like the world is falling apart around me - wars, economic uncertainty, democracy eroding, climate change, employment fears, and so on. All conversations around me are about doom and gloom, while my head is full of "what is a reasonable amount of time to spend in Central Asia?"  It's a strange situation, and it's making me uneasy.  Do I really deserve to have this life?  Part of me thinks some terrible things will inevitably happen (health issues, accidents, etc) to "put me back in my place".  Like why should I be happy while everyone else is not?  

Can anyone relate?

Does anyone else experience guilt over FIRE?

I’m curious if people on this sub have a real contingency for an apocalypse-style event where the financial system breaks down and currency basically become worthless.

Do you guys hold physical gold, own a "gateway farm," or have some other alt plan? Isn't purchasing a $1M farm a better option than any kind of "umbrella insurance" in case things go wrong?

Anyone here have a "plan B" for an apocalypse or financial collapse event?

I got laid off 2 weeks and 2 days ago from Amazon (after getting my only 6 months of experience), and there's always been an underlying sense of insecurity about it. My old job as an SWE was genuinely like the only redeeming quality I have. I'm not cool, charismatic, skilled, or attractive like other people. I'm trying to change that, but no matter what I do, I just lack in comparison to other people online and IRL. Most of the people I live have tech jobs still – hell, I see a few still wearing their badges from my old company. I'm kind of tempted to try a career pivot and get a master's because of the whole AI thing, but I don't know if I can get into that great of a school (and in turn, I don't know how accomplished I could get to feel).

I don't have a job like other people I know now. Outside of my team, almost all of the people I know at my old company still have their jobs. I also feel even more envious than usual of people that were able to get into really prestigious companies that I've gotten rejected from multiple times (namely Google and Apple). Every time I meet someone new, there's that inevitable circle of everyone saying what they do for a living. It honestly feels like I'm lying if I were to say I'm still a software engineer, so I usually end up caving and saying that I got laid off and am searching. I was debating whether to try to hang out with my friends, but I can't help but feel somewhat avoidant since I'd be the oddball.

I know it's technically not my fault (it was a mass layoff of thousands of people, then half my old team including my manager), but as is, I still don't have a job anymore. Beyond getting another position (which I'm of course, working on), I don't really think there's a way to feel better. I wish I could rewind – maybe I could've made it to another company out of college that didn't do mass layoffs..

Constant insecurity after being laid off - how to manage?

My husband is 20 years older than I am. He wants to retire in 2-5 years. I will be 37-40 years old. I love my husband and would love to spend time with him during his retirement. But, I’m also terrified of abandoning my prime investing years. I’ve never been one to depend on someone else financially. But, if I stopped working and contributing into my own retirement accounts ($60K-$70K/year), I feel like I’m making myself financially vulnerable. If we ever get a divorce for whatever reason, I am basically hosed with my own retirement plans. When I run the simulations just for myself contributing as I do now, I don’t reach FIRE on my own until around 50, which is too late for him to enjoy his retirement. 

Any advice on postnuptial agreements to safeguard your retirement or just even where to start? We already talked about revising it to make me more comfortable about retiring super early. I don’t want 50% of his accounts. That’s money he earned. I just want enough to supplement what I have in the event of a divorce, so I can still FIRE at 50. Basically, just make up for lost contributions & compounding interest. We aren’t sure how to figure out the specifics of it. Has anyone done anything like this before? Right now, our pre-nuptials only split our joint accounts and properties, which does not include our retirement accounts.

Postnuptials for Retirement

TLDR -  Net worth, income, asset allocation and SWR Charts below. EDIT:  Realized I hadn't updated the data ranges properly for the "household income" and "asset location" charts, and Reddit doesn’t let you update embedded images. [This Imgur link should have the updated data](https://imgur.com/ttSHQly) for the past year.

https://preview.redd.it/t7twubqachjg1.png?width=1746&format=png&auto=webp&s=43b07c352d16ee353d0910948f26bc21b3d240fc

I've been doing these posts for a long time at this point - feel free to take a Reddit time travel journey through the [2015](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/308xtv/on_track_to_re_by_50/), [2016](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/4a6oww/one_year_update/), [2017](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/5ynkqi/two_year_update/), [2018](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/838e92/three_year_update/), [2019](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/b44qvp/four_year_update/), [2020](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/fevzeg/five_year_update/), [2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/lz36f7/six_year_update_the_seven_figures_edition/), [2022](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/t800u6/seven_year_update/), [2023](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/11i1hwr/eight_year_update/), [2024](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/1b3uzqo/nine_year_update/), and [2025](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/1j097oq/ten_year_update/) updates. I find sharing my plans and progress to be helpful for giving myself a heading check, and hope this community finds my inputs to be helpful. If you start digging back into those older posts, you'll notice a running theme - boring consistency and gradual improvement. No dramatic changes, no crypto or gimmicks. These posts themselves are probably getting a little repetitive - but I think the results over the long term speak for themselves.

**Current ages and household info**: 40 and 39, with two kids. My sister in law has lived with us for our entire adult lives and pays rent but otherwise maintains her own finances. In a big change, my parents have been having some healths struggles over the past year, so in the past few months we did some light renovation work to make our house more elderly friendly and carved out an extra bedroom from a bonus room for them. They plan on paying some rent once we can wind down their old place. Basically, we have a full-on multigenerational compound now.

**Combined pre-tax income**: About $320k (\~3.6% increase). I'm an engineer and my wife is a partner in a mid-size CPA firm. We're not really striving for more career growth at this point and this is way more than enough for our needs.

**Assets**:

*Cash/emergency fund*: \~$78k (13% increase). Keeping this stable and healthy despite some big changes this year.

*Tax advantaged Retirement/HSA accounts*: \~$1.578M (24% increase). Solid overall growth in the tax advantaged buckets despite a lot of volatility early in 2025. We're still maxing out our 401ks, but have opted not to do backdoor Roth contributions in favor of growing our taxable bucket. We've also moved to a more comprehensive health insurance plan so no new HSA contributions.

*529 accounts*: \~$96.6k (15.5% increase). We have a combination of prepaid plans (for in-state tuition) and 529 investments (to cover living expenses). This is roughly on track to cover the cost of in state undergraduate education for our kids.

*Taxable investments*: \~$333k (45% increase). Mixing our taxable brokerage accounts and my wife's equity stake in her firm to obfuscate the details of her stake a bit. We have a DAF and route our charitable contributions through it to peel gains off our taxable investments, thereby limiting our tax exposure in this bucket. The goal is to rapidly grow this enough to cover at least 5 years of expenses, and all "extra" cash gets diverted here.

*Vehicles*: $68k KBB value of four cars (9.6% increase). Car values are finally going down...but we ended up purchasing my parents' vehicle, so now we have an 'extra'. They don't drive anymore for health reasons, but it's a low mileage, reliable, slow, well-maintained car that we know the full history of. Which means that in a few years, it'll be the perfect starter vehicle for our kids to learn on.

*Home*: Using FHFA home index, our home value is now \~$904k (0.4% increase); using Zillow, the estimate is currently $759k (2.8% decrease). We use those two estimates to get a range to estimate our home's value rather than try to nail down some exact number that's going to fluctuate all the time anyways. In addition to moving my parents moving in, we spent about $20k on installing a new solar system for our house (no batteries because we live in a full net metering state) that covers about 2/3rds of our electricity needs on average.

**Debts**:

*Mortgage*: $317k at 2.875% for 30 years (2.6% decrease). Never gonna give up that ridiculous interest rate.

No other debt!

**Net Worth Estimate**: $2.74M using Federal Reserve Home Index (\~19.7% increase), \~$2.59M using Zillow (\~20.2% increase). We've crossed over into multimillionaire territory!

**Safe Withdrawal Rate**: $74,500 (26.3% increase). This takes our net worth, removes the home, vehicles, and college savings, and then applies a 3.75% multiplier to get an estimate for SWR.

**Extras**: Just figured it's worth pointing out that we didn't include Social Security for either of us, which I'll estimate at about \~$40-50k/year total. I'll also be eligible for a small defined benefit pension in my 60's for another \~$20k-$25k/year.

**Current plans going forward**: I think we're now within 4 years of being able to retire with our desired lifestyle and a high degree of confidence. I've been using [ProjectionLab](https://projectionlab.com) over the past year to start mapping stuff out. It's expensive but I'm finding it very helpful for mapping out long term plans and various scenarios. There's a lot of different scenarios we've tested, but this screenshot shows the baseline 2030 retirement plan.

https://preview.redd.it/1okat03sihjg1.png?width=2134&format=png&auto=webp&s=53f24309645b90ff9f9ccbef8f035cfba79f0bcd

Eleven Year Update

Netherlands just passed a 36% unrealized capital gains tax. California is thinking about a 5% one time wealth tax. NYC has been racheting up various property and income taxes over the years. 

My personal situation is $250k in salary, about $500k in short term capital gains, and millions in unrealized startup shares. 

I live outside the US in a low tax jurisdiction but as a US citizen have to pay federal taxes, but not state taxes. The difference in compounding compared to my Singaporean friends really stacks up over the years...

I personally draw the redline at unrealized gains or wealth tax, and would not be keen to move to an ultra high tax state. I'm not willing to fully optimize and give up US citizenship or move to Puerto Rico. What's your decision function?

At what tax rate would you say enough is enough and move?

25 year old living with my parents still, make 70k a year. I have 100k sitting in a HYSA, my Roth IRA is maxed already, and my 401k is match at 6%. The 100k is for emergency purposes and to save up for a down payment for my future house. My question is, I had a co worker tell me to move most of my money from the HYSA into a brokage account (and buy index funds such as VOO) so I can yield higher returns. My HYSA currently is about 3.5%.. What would ya'll recommend?

100k in HYSA, 25 Years Old and need advice.

Been pursuing FIRE aggressively since reading Your Money or Your Life at \~14/15 years old. Had a \~90% savings rate before and through college. Worked multiple jobs the whole time, went to a state school to get scholarships for 100% of cost of attendance which was a big risk but it is all starting to pay off these days. Neither of us had any student debt as a result, we were able to support our families with some living expenses throughout college for younger siblings, etc.

We always intended for my wife to be able to step away from work whether it ends up being for kids or just to save money on living expenses pre-FIRE but it happened even faster than we had imagined. Really excited about all of the doors that are opened by getting 50-60 hours of time back a week for us. Surprised more folks don't strive for it considering the savings, etc.

Interested to see how it goes over the new few years. Our #s will take a hit but I think it'll only add 1-3 years to time horizon with the cost savings.

Current Expenses: \~120k a year

Future Expenses: \~80k a year. Headline savings are \~5k on cleaners, \~15k on restaurants/ordering in, cutting 10k off travel, and the rest will be tightening up on convenience things, more arbitrage, etc.

2025 HHI: 440k

2027 HHI: 390k. Mostly pulled up from my raise that is tbd. Her earnings are 130k.

Current NW: \~1.3M

Goal NW: \~6-8M

We'll see how it shakes out. Hoping to be out of the workforce by \~2035-\~2037. This is a big milestone in that journey!

12 Years Into Working on FIRE - My Wife Retires This Year!

I used to think better analysis meant more spreadsheets, more metrics, and more tabs open.

More metrics. More spreadsheets. More tabs open. Over time, that approach just slowed me down and made decisions harder.

Now I try to keep things simple. A few core questions. A quick look at the business quality. A check on price versus value.

I am not trying to predict the future perfectly. I just want to avoid obvious bad bets.

I am curious how others approach this. What does your simplest workable analysis look like.

What do you actually use, not what sounds impressive?



What is the simplest way you analyze a company?

Running an agency, I used to dread Mondays. Not because of the work itself but because my inbox would be flooded with some version of:

"Hey, quick question..." "Just checking in on progress..." "Can we hop on a call to discuss?"

I'd spend half my day replying to stuff that could've waited. Or worse getting pulled into "quick calls" that turned into 45-minute therapy sessions about why their competitor is ranking higher.

The change: I started sending every client a short async update every Friday. Just 4-5 lines max.

* What we did this week
* What's in progress
* Any blockers or things I need from them
* What's coming next week

That's it. No fancy dashboard. No Loom video. Just a few lines in WhatsApp or email wherever they prefer.

The result? Monday inbox chaos dropped by like 70%. Clients stopped "checking in" because they already knew what was happening. And the ones who still wanted calls? At least now the calls had context.

Sounds basic, but I resisted this for years thinking "I'll just update them when there's something big to share." Turns out clients don't want big updates. They want to feel like things are moving.

Anyone else have a small process change that had an outsized impact on client relationships?

One small change that's made client communication 10x less exhausting

I worked last summer a construction job on apartments and hotels for my football coach  (framing insulation drywall) i only did insulation and a little bit of fire caulking and i made 18/hr. I can go to florida gulf coast for completely free (cause bright futures / fasfa and stuff) and do construction management there 4 year degree and they have paid internship and they guarantee 98k right off the bat when you graduate . However my coach he's like the general manager or whatever's the position  below the owner of the company is said i can work there for 1 3/4 more years and be a supervisor making 75-85k a year (i live in florida so there's no income tax) and potentially 3 or 4 more years gets me to project manager and he said that is six figures. I asked him about the college and he said it's always good to have a degree though. If i was to go to college , I would most likely go back to this construction job after graduation. He likes me a lot cause im a good worker and im pretty honest. Is it a better idea to go to college so i have more knowledge of the field so i know what im doing more? or should i Just go work immediately ? He said i dont need a degree to be a project manager there. He said if i have the oppurtunity to get the degree work can always wait.  ?

I'm 17 and i have a choice between going to college and working construction?

Ken McElroy

The Market Is Crashing, So I Just Bought $500 Million of Real Estate Grow your gold instead of just storing it. With Monetary ...

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Alex Hormozi

Download your free scaling roadmap here: https://www.acquisition.com/roadmap-yt-d The easiest business I can help you start ...

This Is How I Make A 10/10 Offer

Net Profit VS Gross Profit

The Motley Fool

Motley Fool graders weigh Broadcom's elite margins and AI-driven growth. But a stretched $1.6T–$1.7T valuation and ~25x sales ...

Is Broadcom Still a Buy at a $1.6T Valuation?

Yahoo Finance

Big Tech's taxes got way lower in 2025. Here's why.

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