Retirement Withdrawal Strategies

Any value in making non-deductible traditional IRA contributions?

Am I crazy in thinking that there’s no real value in contributing to a traditional IRA with after-tax money when your income exceeds the deductibility income limits? We also cannot do backdoor Roth out of this IRA account due to the existence of another IRA account that contains rolled over pre-tax dollar from a prior workplace 401k plan. So, I assume non-deductible traditional IRA contributions where there is no backdoor Roth game plan is even less useful than a taxable brokerage account due to...

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Gena Yoo

5 minutes ago 7 Share

[Why] living below your [retirement] means feels more abundant than living at your means even though it involves spending less

A lot of both popular media and retirement research focuses on maximizing spending in retirement (on yourself, family, charity, etc) - with a common approach being adaptive variable spending based on portfolio performance, with the presumption that you'd be happier the more you can spend from a given nest egg. But that ignores the effects of a couple major human behavioral biases: loss aversion (loss hurts more than equivalent gain feels good) and hedonic adaptation (getting used to a lifestyle...

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JDFI

5 minutes ago 14 Share

Asset allocation for money you’ll never spend

Let’s consider a 70 year old couple from the FI community who have lived a good, yet conservative life. They have no debt, $2M of investable assets, receive $40k in social security annually, and have an annual spend of $80k (with no interest of spending more). By all measures, they’ve over-saved—and they’re ok with that! Based on the 4% rule of thumb, we know their first $1M of their portfolio should be able to generate the needed $40k for the portion of their annual spend not covered by social...

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Brianmain

5 minutes ago 11 Share

Explain FI Healthcare in the US, please

Like many, one thing that is preventing me to “Choose FI” is healthcare in the US. Will someone please explain this topic to me? How can we afford healthcare if we don’t have an employer paying for it? Thank you!

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MichelleS

6 minutes ago 8 Share

Improved Equity Glide Path

In "Glide Path to Retirement During Financial Uncertainty" (Episode 377) BigERN presents a rising equity glide path approach to mitigating sequence of returns risk. I want to share an improvement to this approach with the community that **increases how much money you can spend from your portfolio without changing the risk profile** - incorporating a TIPS ladder in the bond portion of the portfolio for the duration of the glide path that covers required living expenses. This approach is similar t...

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TheJourney

6 minutes ago 0 Share

Helping an Aging Parent

I have a lot to unload here. My mother recently moved in with my family because she’s having memory issues and likely has Alzheimer’s disease. My husband and I both work full time and we have two young kids that we pay for full time childcare. My mother is 70 yo and retired. She has NEVER let me in to her financial information. So this has all recently been dumped on me. I’m now her POA and Healthcare POA. She has about 100k invested with a financial advisor with a 1.5% fee. I am going to need t...

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Chellyfish

6 minutes ago 14 Share

Reviewing and probably revision retirement 401(k) investments - retirement one month away!

Hi, Hoping to get some input on something I am debating. My husband is close to retiremement at the end of the month. He is 65, I am 49 and am still working. I plan to work for 3-5 more years. He has $1.2M in his TSP (federal govenrment job), and it's currently 50% C fund, 50% L 2030, so at this time about 25% bonds, 75% equities. I would like to roll that TSP over into Vanguard or Fidelity. I am a Vanguard girl (my dad got me started with Vanguard 30 years ago). I currently have a 403(b) in my...

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Anonymous

6 minutes ago 5 Share

You have one free hour with a financial planner...

As part of my husband's retirement plan we have a free one hour call with a financial planner. I'd like to say up front, I am in no way going to be swayed by this person to sign on for more time with them :) But... if you had one hour with a financial planner, I'm curious, what would you ask them? We are about 2 years from Coast FI, if all goes as planned.

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ehomaha

6 minutes ago 11 Share

Where to keep your cash?

I am three years from retirement and want to increase my cash holdings to about 1 year of spending. We don't have room in the budget to increase savings. I contribute to a 457 plan. I am planning to change to contribution to a money market fund instead of a stock/bond fund. Would this make sense as a way to hold cash? What are the downsides to this?

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reynoljb

6 minutes ago 9 Share

Does anyone else thinks we should adopt the 30x rules instead of 25x?

Given newer research on retirement sustainability—especially work incorporating sequence-of-returns risk (SORR), longerFI horizons, and updated return assumptions such as those discussed in recent analyses of Karsten (ERN) and others —the traditional 25× rule (4% rule) should be rounded up to the \*\*30× rule\*\*. It effectively lowers the withdrawal rate to about 3.333%, which meaningfully improves resilience against early negative market sequences and extends portfolio durability for early ret...

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Anonymous

6 minutes ago 29 Share

Using "Risk Parity" in the transition years prior to retirement?

Looking for advice. My spouse and are 53 and FI or close to it. I plan to work (full time/ part time) until around the age of 60 both for security of getting my kids through college and to maintain health insurance. I have lately been listening to “Risk Parity Radio” with Frank Vasquez and have taken a special interest in “safe withdrawal rates” and just starting to transition my long standing portfolio ( 90% growth stock, 5% bond, 5% cash) towards a “Risk Parity- Golden Ratio”. But before I go...

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Zekesmoney

6 minutes ago 9 Share

HSA question for first-timer

I've never qualified for a HSA before but now I am on a sabbatical and have an ACA healthcare plan that qualifies. It's given me an option to open a HSA account but I am not sure it's worth it for me since my sabbatical is coming to an end and I will be getting my healthcare through my new employer (the government) starting next month. What are your thoughts? Is it worth me opening one and funding it with my savings that is sitting in a HYSA? I could just fund it and leave it for the next 10 yea...

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Stellar

6 minutes ago 5 Share

Estate taxes in Oregon

Hi, so I kept hearing that I don't have to worry about estate taxes since it's like around $15 million, but there's also state estate taxes! Unfortunately I'm in Oregon where it's at $1 million. I'm planning on setting up my estate plan. Do you have any tips or good questions I should be asking an estate attorney? What type of trust should I be asking? We're a family with 2 young kids with a net worth over $1 mil and we're in our 40's. Thanks!

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Anonymous

6 minutes ago 11 Share

Long-term Care Insurance - Hybrid vs. Traditional

I still have a whole life policy that I set up years before I started on my FI journey. (Yeah, I know. Why haven't I cashed that out yet? I'm dragging my feet.) But I'm thinking more and more about long-term care insurance, especially after reading Die with Zero. What he says makes sense: why stockpile massive amounts of money that you feel like you can't use to live your life because you might need it to take care of yourself when you're old? I've been hearing more about Hybrid plans - Whole Li...

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ShannonG

6 minutes ago 12 Share

Umbrella Insurance Policy Recommendations!

Hi all! Not sure where this topic neatly fits but here seemed best. I am finally about to look up some umbrella insurance policy quotes. Was wondering if those in the community that have already purchased it had some companies they do business with that they recommend? And if you’re comfortable feel free to share your coverage amount and yearly policy rate, plus if you like the company’s support if you’ve ever dealt with them. Cheers!

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8thWonder

6 minutes ago 16 Share

Anyone have part or all of their emergency fund in an HSA?

I'm projecting I can save a couple hundred dollars per year in federal taxes if I keep my emergency fund in my HSA. Note that I have receipts from past health expenses for the full amount, so I can easily get at it in the event of an emergency, even if it's not a health emergency. I would put the emergency fund money within the HSA in a money market fund to keep it liquid. Has anyone done this? Is there anything I'm not thinking about?

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mousey5

6 minutes ago 7 Share

AI for Monte Carlo Simulations

I've been struggling using different free tools to see projected portfolio success % because a fixed withdrawal rate doesn't make sense given complexities like kids at home now but will be empty nesters sometime later and wanting to factor in future income streams like social security. I also want to do a reverse glidepath to incorporate the research from Pfau, Kitsces, and of course Big Ern. So I made a document of expected yearly expenses per year in today's dollars based on my assumptions and...

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mousey5

6 minutes ago 15 Share

To Roth or not to Roth

I recently wondered whether I should convert my traditional IRA and 401K accounts (including my current 401K contributions) to Roth. I spoke with a friend who advocated strongly for switching everything to Roth. While I recognize that Roth has great advantages (I have a Roth IRA presently) like no taxes on distributions and no required minimum distributions, I wonder if it'd be right for me. Below is a little bit about my situation. - I'm more interested in retiring with zero than passing anythi...

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Arcenis Rojas

6 minutes ago 24 Share

Pension - Complicating Retirement Planning

Hello, My name is Phil and I'm a full time firefighter. My wife and I are both 36 years old. I am currently on the launching pad for my FI journey and I'm super excited. I read (ok, I listened to) The Simple Path to Wealth. Now I've been formulating a plan, bouncing ideas off of a couple of good buddies who are helping me. Here's where I'm at so far: -No vehicle debt. Mortgage at 5.99 percent in a home we can well afford. My wife's student loan debt will be done by EOY. My student loans are done...

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fishinphil57

6 minutes ago 14 Share

Roth conversions in early retirement

I am on track to retire in the next 3-4 years but will need to do roth conversions to supplement my after tax brokerage account along the way. Our yearly spend as of now is 50k,so im figuring to plan for a yearly spend of 70k in retirement to account for Healthcare premiums and increased travel. Im trying to figure out roughly how much I could do in roth conversions per year but still qualify for Healthcare subsidies (I know these are not guaranteed to be there in the future). I know alot of thi...

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AMS2025

6 minutes ago 9 Share