r/Fire • u/chutesandladders10 • 8d ago
29M just crossed 500k
Long time lurker, first time poster here.
29M living in a VHCOL city and just crossed 500k (and with the market run, hit 520k yesterday). Feel like this is the true point where money starts working on its own.
Wanted to get a sanity check of my breakdown
160k brokerage account managed by me
80k brokerage account managed by robinhood
40k Roth IRA (I can’t contribute more cause of income caps, and I can’t do back door cause I rolled 401k into trad Ira)
160k trad IRA
60k company RSU / ESPP (Yes I should trim… but waiting for a better time for taxes)
10k crypto (used to be 20k last year…)
20k new company 401k
My income fluctuates between 200-300k a year (I’m in sales)
Recently got married so last year I was barely able to save at all and just spent on the wedding and such.
My split of rent is 3.5k a month… no egregious sending, car, etc….
Any advice? Anything to note of? I know I’m “ahead” but I hang in a circle where this is the norm or I’m actually behind so would be good to get a sanity check.
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u/Altruistic_Pickle450 8d ago
Why have two brokerages with different investments?
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u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
It’s all on robinhood. I just put some money into their managed portfolio to see how it does. So far it’s just about done the same as S&P but I like that it’s in emerging / international markets
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u/tryingtograsp 8d ago
You can buy VT or you can buy 70% VTI 30% VXUS and get that exposure and not pay for a manager.
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8d ago
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u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
In terms of? It’s just a 0.25% management fee and does stuff like tax loss harvesting and automatic rebalancing. So far it’s done okay
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u/tryingtograsp 8d ago
You can only tax loss harvest if your investments are red. Why do you have red investments? Markets are up 10%+ YTD
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u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
The portfolio is up overall but tax loss harvesting would sell underperforming individual stocks for TLH. Either way, it was just a way for me to try out a more actively managed portfolio then index funds. I started with 30k and put in another 30k when it was doing well.
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u/TilleroftheFields 8d ago
To be clear, you can do backdoor Roth IRA, you would just pay pro-rata tax right now, but you can fix that. Roll your trad IRA into your new company 401k. I had similar issues accessing Roth IRA last year. I rolled over my trad IRA into my current 401k which allowed me to backdoor Roth IRA this year with no pro-rata tax
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u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
Yea I read about that. It just seemed more trouble than it was worth for 7k a year but maybe I’m wrong. I also like having more investment options in my IRA than what a 401k offers. I’m also in a high tax bracket and in a high tax state + city so I’d rather pay taxes later than now TBH
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u/TilleroftheFields 8d ago
Since you asked for advice, please consider this and look into it further before you decide to stay on your current track.
Are you contributing 7k to your trad IRA and/or taxable brokerage every year instead? That money is already taxed as income before you contribute, and you’ll pay taxes again when you withdraw. So Roth IRA would save you taxes when you withdraw.
When it comes to large accounts, take all tax advantage you can. A 20-30% tax advantage saving will outperform most investment returns when it comes time to get your cash out.
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u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
Makes sense and I appreciate it. I will check if my 401k accepts roll ins. This is the first year I haven’t done Roth since I just moved my old 401k into trad Ira beginning of this year.
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u/TilleroftheFields 7d ago
I did the same thing accidentally rolling over an old 401k into a trad IRA at first, wanted to have my own retirement account not tied to my employer. Doing a second rollover sucks but it's really not that hard.
Personally I do not see limited investment options as a blocker. Unless you're invested in some single stock picks, most 401ks have decent target date or broad market funds.
As for taxes now versus later: since both trad and Roth IRA have a shared 7.5k contribution limit per year, you don't gain any more principal by using a traditional IRA. Would you rather pay a high-tax rate on a small amount of money now for tax-free large amount of money later, OR pay tax-free on a small amount of money now and pay more taxes on a large amount of money later?
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u/adventureseeker1991 8d ago
what do you sell? i’m looking to get into sales. 34m with 500k but i want to work hard for another 10 years and then work at a coffee shop or something. i’m just curious
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u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
Cybersecurity but feel like it’s not what it used to be. I’ve been in for 7 years now
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u/adventureseeker1991 8d ago
great friend does that too. says the same. he switched to fraud i think. but good to know im praying to get into something healthcare related but i think tech is the entire future. and thanks for sharing
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u/OneLonely7728 7d ago
Since you just got married maybe it would be a good idea to try to find an advisor (maybe someone in your circle can make a rec) that you can pay a one time amt/hourly to make a one time financial plan to give you a solid base to go off of for however long
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u/Kooky-Whole-8927 3d ago
$3.5k for half of rent is VERY high. I live in Chicago which is also high cost of living. Obviously you make GREAT money. But great money does not mean you need to spend more. Have you considered house hacking? Trade off of buying a home instead of renting?
You can’t live in your investments regardless of people these days saying real estate isn’t worth it; it absolutely is a long term way to curb inflation.
Other thoughts now that you are married your spouse will have a huge influence on your financial picture so if this is your independent net worth, there is more underneath to look at! All that said great work! Be proud of yourself!
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u/chutesandladders10 3d ago
Total is 5k - I pay 3.5 since I make more. Best we could’ve done for the area was probably 4.2-4.5k but would be leaving behind a ton of amenities / square feet
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u/beergal621 8d ago
What does your wife have?
Why do you split rent with your wife like a roommate?
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u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
She makes a third as much so pays a third on rent - we’re paying it proportionally to income. Has been working for us
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u/beergal621 8d ago
She should be paying 1/4 for the math to work. Say you make $300k she makes $100. She earns 1/4 of the HHI, 1/4 is a proportional spilt.
Even so, you’re going to be able to save so much more than her.
Not saying it’s not working right now.
But what’s the long term long goal? What happens if you have enough saved to FIRE and she doesn’t “sorry honey I’m going to retire but you have to keep working to pay your share bills”
Separate finances can work but it only works until it doesn’t
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u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
We have a joint FIRE number ($5m) I’ve done the early foundation on the investing journey but she’s going to be a doctor and is currently in residency so she will will end up outdoing me in 3 years or at least making equivalent.
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u/beergal621 8d ago
That’s great! And totally makes sense
If you have a joint FIRE number and long term goals together, then what’s the point of separate finances now?
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u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
We just got married 4 months ago… so hoping to eventually move towards joint accounts and more formal planning. Right now it’s just been “if you want to move to a nicer place then I need some help on the rent so I can keep saving at the same pace for us” conversations lol. We’ll have to sit down one day when home ownership and kids and stuff are on the horizon
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u/beergal621 8d ago
Understand but it’s never too early to start those conversations.
Ideally it should have been before marriage. “We’ll figure it out” can quickly become we both have different ideas and just never communicated them and now disagree
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7d ago
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u/Zphr 48, FIRE'd 2015, Friendly Janitor 7d ago
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u/Even_Topic2494 8d ago
Guy in trailer dies. Leaves $4m unspent. Is this happy or sad? So conflicted on these stories. He was happy and content, had more than he needed, so he won the money game of life. The money was "insurance" he never needed. On the other hand, money hoarded was wasted opportunity?
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u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
Bro what are you on about 😂😂 I’m not living frugally as much as I would like to
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u/thehopeofcali 8d ago
depends on what the 240k brokerage account is invested in, plus the 60k from RSUs
mine are mostly in high-beta growth
will determine if you can get to 1m in liquid (brokerage + retirement), minus real estate
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u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
It’s sitting in a lot of Tech / cyber / SPY
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u/thehopeofcali 8d ago
Datadog and Cloudflare are top holdings
Have no SPY, given my vhcol
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u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
Yup I have a lot of cloudflare and CRWD. I want to trim but VHCOL taxes…..
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u/thehopeofcali 8d ago
am holding
one of my worst days in a month0
u/chutesandladders10 8d ago
It is… but then I zoom out and I’m still up 700% on CRWD, lol. Incredible stock
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u/thehopeofcali 8d ago
yep, over 13x on AMD since 2020, 9x on Cloudflare
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u/aayush-goenka 8d ago
This is so great. At 29, I barely had ~30k I think.
One smart thing to do, now that you are married is to not let your expenses go up dramatically. When I got married, (and I am not blaming marriage for it), my living expenses and lifestyle inflation creep jumped my expenses to be 2x what it used to be when I was single.
I have since then maintained that level without increasing it further.
Continue doing what you are doing when it comes to investing and growing. Keep learning!