I also have no idea what a dream job would be for me. If I have to do it and I wouldn’t ordinarily do it with my free time, then it’s still just a job to pay the bills and get me to retirement.
There aren’t many situations I would take a pay cut for, aside from protecting my mental or physical health.
Yep! Everything is proportional based on the FTE.
I technically have an underlying hourly rate, but am salaried in the sense that I am guaranteed a certain number of shifts equivalent to my FTE if that makes sense. Currently my FTE is 1.0 and I work 10 shifts biweekly. 0.7 would be seven shifts biweekly and so it would be 56 hours times my hourly rate. 401k match is 6% of whatever I get paid regardless of FTE. This kinda setup is common in healthcare.
Insurance cost would rise a few bucks a month. Nothing crazy.
Non-FIRE-related question of the week:
What’s the best Halloween question costume you have ever worn (or seen)?
That would be perfect. Fortunately we’re in healthcare and our jobs are pretty accommodating to adjustments in our FTE. My wife already dropped down to 8 shifts biweekly. As the money tracker of the couple, I’m not quite ready to let of the accelerator to FIRE… (one more year 🤣)
Set my first career reduction goal on my way to RE: Dropping down to 3.5 days/week (okay, 7 days biweekly) as soon as we have our renovations paid off.
Should be doable before the end of 2024!
Something warmer at that point of the year. I guess that’s important to note when asking for advice haha. Also considering a Jamaica/Dominican Republic all-inclusive.
Looking like I’ll get a week off in January or February.
Any recommended US destinations? I prefer Hyatt hotels fwiw. May use a big chunk of points for Big Sur…
My amateur attempt at explaining:
High interest rates —> financial indicators continue to be strong (inflation) —> Fed may raise interest rates much higher than previously expected —> panic sell from riskier companies that may struggle with higher borrowing costs and move to cash/treasuries.
Ride it out and pick up some cheap stocks.
Yes, but again because of our credit score and good DTI ratio, the PMI was very reasonable. Like $40/mo IIRC.
We refinanced and got rid of PMI when the housing boom happened and our equity was suddenly over 20%. That was pure luck, but anyway it’s possible that rates will go back down during the next recession.
I don’t have a great answer for you, but one thing I learned from buying my first house is that you don’t have to put down as big of a down payment as you might think. My wife and I did 3.5%. We were fortunate that we made a good amount and had good credit, but we had very little in savings. We were both putting a ton toward student loans.
Although a small down payment is tough to swallow these days considering that means you’re financing more house at 7% plus.
Another motivation to RE:
About two years ago, big corporate forced a mandatory 30 minute lunch into our work day, turning our 8 hour day into 8.5. We didn’t ask for it — we were all perfectly happy eating at our desk. It doesn’t sound like much, but that’s asking for 5 extra hours of our life every two weeks for no additional pay.
Most of us ignored it, and because we were salaried despite having to clock in/out, we still got paid our full FTE.
Well, big corporate is now back to enforce their terrible mandate. Accusing people of “not working their FTE.” Guess we all get to stare at the wall in the break room rather than continuing to be productive all day. Sweet.
Using our combined gross income… 7.5%. We don’t make tech money or anything, we just got lucky with buying below our means in 2018 before the market got insane. We’re in the Midwest which helps.
If we were to buy the same house today with current rates and values based on our improvements, we would be closer to 17%.
I don’t love high interest rates and inflation generally speaking, but I always chuckle at the hysteria around the rate decisions that the Fed makes and the corresponding effort that everyone makes to interpret the Fed chair’s facial twitches for future clues.
I just keep my savings parked in a 5%+ money market fund and go on with my life.
Hiking, although I did go down the rabbit hole of ultralight hiking/camping. That’s where you end up paying a premium for tents, sleep systems, and packs.
I do enjoy going to the library. We also have a few breweries around with a dog park so it’s pretty easy to grab a pint and sip on it while enjoying the weather for a few hours.
$2 mil for some lavish comfort and not having to stress so much about a strict budget, or $1.8 mil for a easily doable 3.5% withdrawal rate. For both numbers I would want a paid off house to be able to manage my tax situation better.
I’m at about $700K in savings/retirement, $200K in home equity which doesn’t really count for anything in this scenario, and $250K left on my mortgage. So… not that close but honestly not that far if all goes well. Hopefully eight years or so.
Happy first full weekend of college football season!
I love this time of year. Woke up with a few cups of coffee while watching Chelsea vs Nottingham, now on to CFB with a Revolution Brewing Freedom of Speach.
These most recent ones are for fun. One of those classic HGTV-style renovations. Knocking out walls, putting in a beam, redoing the kitchen and fireplace. We’ve probably put about another $60K in necessary repairs and appliance replacements in the 5 years we’ve owned it.
Still though, even if these renovations added zero value we would still be ahead in home value since we bought it.
Just had to chuckle because my wife and I are doing something that the average person should never do (assuming they’re fortunate enough to even consider it like we are):
We have like 90K in credit card debt.
…
At 0% for the next 18 months. Went ahead and financed extensive renovations on CCs with 15-18 months at 0% intro offers. One of them is earning 1% cash back as well. Considering we only got charged 3% extra to bill to CCs and we can park the payoff funds in SPAXX earning nearly 5%, it’s a pretty sweet deal to keep liquidity!
Haha neither… although I can see where it would seem like a WFH joke. I just bring my own in a thermos.
Put in the effort to learn another language