Preseason week 3 gamethread:Steelers vs Bills

NFL still having issues with how Streaming is supposed to work?!?!

 

This thread is like thinking you're walking into a metal bar and it turns out to be a country bar. And you're like, "what the sh!t is going on in here?"

 

was definitely odd seeing that dude chug a beer.

 

I'm sorry. I took a quick look but I don't know if you run your own business or if you work for a company that has a percentage of dollar matching for a 401K.

I'm going to assume that you work for a company with this response.

If I were you, I would pound money into a 401K AND start a Roth IRA on your own. On top of the 401K, if you can consistently put a reasonable dollar amount in a Roth every paycheck, you will be able to get the compounding interest of the 401K and pay the taxes on the backend, while still being able to supplement your income later with the Roth IRA where you have already paid the taxes on that money as it grows and you can withdraw the money as you need it.

Combine that with some gold in your portfolio, and hopefully you have enough left over to use in a brokerage account to play the stock market, crypto, ETF's, etc...

If you don't know enough about it to manage all of it yourself, don't be afraid to go with a reputable financial advisor to help you devise a plan that is tailored to what you are trying to accomplish.

 

Poor people like me.

 

Thanks Zach. I appreciate the advice and agree with all of it.

Most of the investing part is similar to what I grew up with in Canada, except: (1) Canadian account names are much better because the name tells you what it is instead of the section you can read about it in the tax code / politician who brought it into being and (2) US investment products are much better here...way easier to get low cost index funds / ETF in the US...expense ratios in Canada are ciminally high IMO...or at least were when I moved here.

I'm a w2 employee and have been saving at a probably something like 30% / year in both our company plan (we're non-profit, so 403b) and r-IRAs for my wife and I. No appreciable assets in a taxable account because we don't contribute more than the limits for the retirement accounts.

It is crazy to see the effects of compound interest now that we've been investing for over a decade. Kind of shocking because I know what the balance of the portfolio is and I know how much I contributed. And the difference there keeps accelerating (thankfully!)

All in low cost index stuff. Basically a Boglehead "3-fund portfolio" (US stocks, Internation stocks, US Bonds), but my bond allocation is 0%. So I guess a 2 fund portfolio...with US equities split between Total US Market (in our IRAs) and SP500 (becuase my 403b doesn't have a total US market...but the difference here is minimal IMO). In reality, the difference in my allocation (percentage in US vs percentage in international) isn't much different than if I just bought a global stock index, but I am a little bit "overweight" in US (I think home country bias is good if you live in the US, really bad in Canada where the market is almost all resources and banks without much else).

The main thing for our finances I'd like to learn about is SS. I think an advisor taking %age of assets under management is too much. But I'll probably go to a fee for service person when I'm on the order of 5 years out.

I'd also like to go to someone with my parents to see if there's something we need to do about their estate since they live in Canada all my siblings also live in the US. Their bank (where their advisor is) tells them some things about how the executorship of the estate has to be set up, but I don't trust the people from the bank to be acting as fiduciary. And IMO the money they'd make on probate might be influencing the advice they give. My guess is that this would have to be some kind of lawyer that has experience with international trusts or something...

Edited to add. Resources I think are good:
1) JL Collins Stock Series Blog (or his book "Simple Path to Wealth"...but I'm cheap and the blog is free)

2) A Freakonomics Podcast episode called something like "The stupidiest thing you can do with your money"

3) It's not too Canada-centric, but there was also a podcast that was called the "Canadian Couch Potato". The investment products they talk about are Canadian, so you can't buy them here. But there's a lot of good info on index investing these.

Sorry to all because this is all off topic...but hopefully it's useful to anyone just starting to think about this stuff (like Zach's post too!). It's funny, because someone on the old Steelers board I was on (might have been Felt, who's here now too) mentioned Mr. Money Moustach right when I got a "real" job and had to start thinking about investing. That's how I found JL Collins and got into index investing. When we were in Canada, most investing products we knew about sucked, so we were basically taking the match from my wife's job (I was still a student) and dumping everything else into paying down our mortgage (which made moving here much easier). So I found that info just at the right time.

 

Well hey dude, it sounds like you have a really good grasp of things. I wasn't sure when I read your earlier posts, but you have a very good understanding of finances. I kept my advice very simple because I thought you were basically looking for a direction and I figured that was a good place for you to start.

In regard to your parents, in the US, estate planning is a necessity and the way to go with many people is an irrevocable trust. I have no idea what your parents have access to or what the laws or tax implications are in Canada. You should most definitely talk to an expert that can guide you to the best path for them to take.

Thanks for the list of resources. There are so many voices out there it can turn into one big wall of static! It's always a good idea to listen to a lot of different people but lean on a handful more than the rest that have a great track record and a lot of experience.

Anyway...wishing you all the best with your finances and helping to get your parents squared away.

Back to Steelers talk!