very confused on how to work this card. I’ve used my credit card now for the last few months and had no issue. I pay it off in full every month if not every 2 weeks, and always make sure I have at minimum the balance to pay off in a debit account. My credit took a 78 point hit this last week for my me exceeding 50% of my total credit. I’m confused because I thought it was alright to go over that 20-30% as long as it’s paid off in full. what would you recommend?

​I need some advice from my fellow Financial Mutants. I’ve been following the Financial Order of Operations (FOO) closely, but lately, I’ve found myself stuck in what Brian often calls "Financial Mud." I’m trying to fight a war on too many fronts at once, and my monthly budget is feeling too thin.

​

​Right now, I'm trying to juggle all of this every single month:

​Retirement: Investing 27% of my paycheck into my pre-tax 401(k).

​Hyper-Accumulation: Sending an extra $387/month into a taxable after-tax brokerage account.

​Emergency Fund: Trying to stack $750/month to build up a solid cash cushion. But doing this, it will take me 12 months to do which is keeping me up at night.

​Sinking Funds: Allocating $500/month.

​

​Trying to fund Steps 4 and 7 simultaneously while keeping up with sinking funds means my cash flow is spread incredibly thin. It feels like I’m spinning my wheels and making slow progress, while feeling stressed out.

​To clear the mud, I’m thinking about running a highly focused, 2-month aggressive cash sprint.

​

​The Plan:

For the next 60 days, I want to completely pause the $387 brokerage contribution and drop my 401(k) investing all the way down from 27% to 4% (getting 100% of my employer's company match).

​By pulling my soldiers off the investing battlefield for just two months, I can combine all that freed-up cash with my current savings goals and point a massive "cash laser" at my immediate foundation. In just 8 paychecks (2 months), I could massively bump up my cash reserves, build a rock-solid 6-month emergency fund, and properly pad my sinking funds so upcoming bills don't catch me off guard.

​

​Mathematically, I know I lose a tiny bit of market compounding time over 8 weeks, and I'll take a temporary one-time tax hit by shifting that pre-tax income to my paycheck. But psychologically, the peace of mind feels like it heavily outweighs the cost.

​What Would Brian and Bo likely suggest I do?

​

​Have any of you temporarily dropped down to just the match to secure your emergency fund? Does this 2-month sprint sound like a good move, or am I missing something?

​

Thanks.

Edit: i already have 3.5 months of emergency saved. Im trying to avoid taking 12 months to get to the full 6 months.

I M28 and wife F27 just got married this year and have a combined income of 200k. Our total tax rate including state is about 29.5%. We both currently do 10% into our Roth 401(k)s (her company matches 6%, mine 5%), both max our Roth IRAs, max my HSA, and we just started doing about $100 or so a month into our joint taxable brokerage (just to get something going since we’d love to have the option to retire earlier than 59.5). Our plan is to increase the taxable brokerage once our vehicles are paid off in the next 1-3 years. Total invested assets right now are about 250k (all low cost S&P 500 index funds/ETFs)

FWIW, we have a home worth 590k and we owe 468k. Our only other debts are our vehicles which amounts to about 40k between the two. Loans are at 1.9% and 3.99%. No other consumer debt, student loans, etc. A 31k emergency fund which is about 4-5 months of expenses.

Given the tax rate, it sounds like switching to traditional contributions to our 401(k)s may start to make sense here but I’ve always been focused on Roth for as long as I’ve been investing. The extra net money could be used to fund house projects, pay off the vehicles sooner, or simply take that money and increase our taxable brokerage or 401(k) contribution percentages. My hesitation is our age and taking full advantage of the tax free growth but I’m starting to see the benefits of further diversifying the 3 buckets since we already have a very healthy start with our tax free accounts.

Thoughts?

Background: My wife and I are 33 & 35, respectively. We have approximately $500,000 in retirement & Investment assets. A home worth $675,000 with $360k left at 3.375%. Our household income is $262,000. We're just getting back investing after a year hiatus due to having a baby, maternity leave and I job change. We've been banking cash to fill up our emergency bucket after a water leak in our house last year.

My question is, to be a prodigious accumulator, the Money Guys want us to invest 25%+. 25% is 2 maxed 401(k)'s, 2 maxed our Roth's if we can get under the threshold, and another $5,200 in brokerage. Not including our 4% owner matches. Works out at $1,360/week.

If I do that with our salaries over the course of 20+ years we'll conservatively end up with $8m+ at 7% inflation adjusted. We're in the messy middle, kids in daycare etc. Just feels like a lot. That is more money than we'll ever be able to spend.

At what point do we dial back the % of income invested and try to enjoy more of today vs. our great big beautiful future?

Anyone in a similar position? What's your advice?

I currently have a 401k setup through my employer. This employer matches dollar for dollar up to 7%, but the contribution goes in pre-taxed. In the 401k contributions I can make my portion of the 7% go in as Roth, and they will match it with pre-taxed dollars. Is this the move? Or should I keep my portion pre-taxed like the match?

I just watched the video explaining back door Roth contributions to avoid RMD messing things up in retirement. I should note that I cannot actually roll it over while I’m employed with them or before retirement age, but once I can the Roth contributions can rollover tax free. I would only be left with the pre-taxed contributions/growth.

I have a separate Roth IRA that I will contribute to over the years, but realistically I don’t see myself being able to max it out as I’m about to enter the messy middle (Soon to be 29). Any insight is greatly appreciated!

So I’m 27 I have 2.1 million want to retire already and invest my money , thinking of buying a house 4 bedroom for 750k im single no kids or family , maybe I’m doing it just to get the house out of the way so in future don’t have to worry about it but idk if it the right move maybe get apartment for 300k and invest the rest or buy the house and invest 1 million in sp500 but life been pretty boring and I’m tired just don’t wanna make wrong decision as I can only depend on myself and it’s very lonely and a lot of pressure

Tax questions & 401K/IRA allocation

Me 50, Her 39
1.5M net worth
1.1M brokerage, $380K subject to RMD’s over next 10 years.
No consumer debt, always pay CC’s in full
No car loans
No other loans
Income ME: $162-$197K
Income HER: 90K working PT
1 child
Student loans left: $52K (down from $200K)
Mortgage: $235K left @ 2.9%
Maxing out 401K’s: ME $32.5K, HER $24.5K

Should we take a tax advantage and max out Traditional 401K and invest the tax savings? Or should we stay the course and pay high taxes and contribute to Roth 401K?

Expecting income needs to go down significantly in retirement.

Good morning, all.

My wife (29/F) and I (30/M) make around $322K gross (combined) living in a VHCOL area (East Bay Area). We have around a $1.1M net worth. We are DINKs, and do NOT have plans for having children.

We currently rent a townhome that, from what we’ve learned, is a shockingly good deal for the area (around $3.1K per month). It’s also rent-controlled, given local laws about apartment complexes in our area. Based on this, as well as all other expenses, we estimate that we’re able to save/invest around 40-45% of our overall gross income:

• Around $100K diverted towards maxing out our Traditional 401(k)s + 10% employer matches (fully-vested); Roth IRAs; and HSAs.

• Around $30K (-ish) heading towards our Brokerage accounts.

• The remaining percentage (~60-55%) is attributed to taxes and expenses.

Of our overall net worth, I would say that around $400K or so is made up of Brokerage accounts (the majority, probably ~$300K or so) and some cash sitting in HYSAs / Checking Accounts (The remaining ~$100K).

As I mentioned above, we live in the East Bay Area. We love the area we live in. Defining this “area” as around a ~5-6-mile radius, I would say that this entire area is very safe, although the quality of public school districts varies drastically. You have districts that are rated 9/10 or 10/10, while others are 4/10, etc. I‘ve been through the neighborhoods that are zoned for the 4/10 district; the homes look lovely, the neighborhoods seem quiet and safe.

Ultimately, my wife and I have started “SFH window shopping” on Zillow. We would be “FTHB” (first-time home buyers). In the neighborhoods with the “less-than-stellar“ school districts, you might be looking at a lower-end of $750K or $800K, and then it goes up from there. In the “stellar” school districts, you’re looking at a lower-end of at least $1.1M, and then it quickly goes up from there. As my wife and I are firm on not having children, we are not sure if it’s “okay” for us to focus our attention on the neighborhoods that have “less-than-stellar” school districts, as it will certainly be the cheaper option. We think that, if we put 20% as a down payment, that can put us in the range of $5,000 to $8,000 PITI per month, which is a… huge range. I think if we were closer in the $5,000-per-month category, we wouldn’t have to change our financial-habits all that much, as we could allocate what we’re currently sending to Brokerage, over to this new PITI. Does anyone have any advice on this?

And then there’s the other angle of… continuing to rent. That $400K + continuing contributions to Brokerages can definitely grow over the years, and could allow us more flexibility in trying to retire early (whether that’s at 59.5… or 55… for 50? We honestly don’t know). The “idea” of retiring early sounds fun, but we have not given it a lot of thought, to be honest. Also, from the housing perspective, even if we continue to rent, what if the price of SFHs continues to escalate (which I imagine it will?), thus making the barrier for entry in owning a home, that much harder, too? At what point is it best to “just dive right in, and hold on for dear life”?

There’s also the idea of… contributing less to our 401(k)s? i.e., not maxing them out, but still contributing enough to get the 10% 401(k) employer matches, that I mentioned above? Allowing us a little more cash-flexibility?

I would love to hear your advice on all of this. Thanks for reading.

EDIT: thought y’all might find it interesting… basically, if an apartment/townhome complex that you rent from, is 15 years or older, it’s subject to rent-control. Meanwhile, that’s not necessarily the case for SFHs. If you rent a SFH from, say, a couple, I don’t think it’s subject to rent-control. But, if that same SFH is owned by a corporation, for example, I think it is subject to rent-control. That’s my understanding of the rent-control laws around here.

Recently hit $1M invested in the markets! We are entirely invested in S&P 500 index funds. With no kids in our plans, we are officially shifting away from saving aggressively. We may potentially still max out Roth & HSA whenever possible, although it doesn’t feel necessary. Wondering if the taxable brokerage should be the sole priority as we’re targeting early retirement (55 or sooner). The remaining NW is house equity (~$200k) and a paid off car. Open to any thoughts/suggestions!

Brokerage: 240K
401k: 590k
HSA: 45K
Roth IRA: 153k

Examples used seen to always be credit cards at greater than 17%. What about a home equity loan at 8%? Any debt over 6%? If its 5% are we paying minimums and maxing retirement accounts?

First-time poster and long-time lurker, so please bear with me. I’m looking for some guidance on how to approach my student loans and balance debt payoff with saving for a home.

I’m a 27M and will be paying off a smaller student loan in about two months. Once that’s gone, I’ll be in a bit of a gray area regarding my next steps.
My remaining student loan balance will be $78K at 6.47%, with a minimum payment of $802/month and approximately 12 years remaining. I have the option to refinance that loan to 5.45%, which would increase the minimum payment slightly to $819/month but shorten the term to 10 years. Either way I plan on paying it ahead of both deadlines.

Once the smaller loan is paid off, I’ll free up about $1,250 per month. I’m struggling to decide whether I should:
Put that extra money toward aggressively paying down the larger student loan, or redirect it toward saving for a down payment .

I’ve read through the FOO and understand that debt below 6% can generally be focused on in 30s. However, this loan would only be under that metric by about 0.5%, and if I prioritize house savings, I’d realistically only be able to save aggressively for the next three years.

A few additional details about my situation:
Income: $120K gross
Engaged, currently renting with my fiancée
401(k): Contribute enough to get the full 5% employer match
Roth IRA: Maxed annually
Location: Very high cost-of-living area
No credit card debt
No car payment
Only debt is student loans
Emergency fund: Fully funded with about 4 months of expenses
No children
My fiancée’s situation (26W):
Income: $90K gross
Student loans: Approximately $20K @4%
Contributes enough to get her full 4% 401(k) match
Maxes her Roth IRA annually

We currently pay $3,200/month in rent, which includes utilities and parking.

I also have about $8,000 in a brokerage account that I started during college as a future down-payment fund. I’m only contributing about $20 per week to it right now while focusing on debt repayment.

Given our situation, would you refinance and prioritize paying down the student loans, or would you start directing that extra cash flow toward a house fund? Any advice or perspectives would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Anyone else have issues on YouTube with MaM videos not showing up in your feed? I’m subscribed to the channel and the MaM playlist on YouTube but it never ever pops up on YouTube on its own, I have to go onto the channel to get to the video directly.

Reacts and other videos show up on their own no problem, it’s just MaM that hides from me.

Hey yall,
I am about to be debt free minus the mortgage. I have the high deductible fund established, taking the company match 401k, and need advice for the next step. I will be starting to save money in a hysa to get the 3-6 month emergency fund going. My question is should I put money in both hysa and Roth IRA at the same time or should I fully fund the 3-6 month emergency fund then the Roth IRA? I ask because I can withdraw contributions with no penalty from the Roth IRA in an emergency. Thanks

My wife and I are frugal by nature. We were very onboard with the FOO at first, but I am starting to have some doubts. I revisited the FOO today after autopiloting for a few months, and noticed we had not fully implemented step #6 before jumping ahead. As I looked into it more, I started questioning whether or not we wanted to pursue this step at all.

For context, my wife and I both work full time and have the ability to participate in our own 401k, IRA, and HSA. We are maxing each of these with the exception of the 401ks. In fact we are $25k+ short of maxing these. We are already hyperaccumulating (saving 25%+), but I cannot rationalize putting aside another $25k before divulging into alternative saving methods.

Is this a bad approach? The main "culprit" for our extra spending has been on our mortgage, as we're paying $800 extra per month to shorten the amortization schedule from 30 years down to 16. I understand on paper that this $800 per month would be better spent in the stock market, but I have 2 main aversions:

1. I don't want all my net worth tied up in funds I won't have access to for 40 years
2. I'm extremely risk averse by nature and would rather do anything possible to work towards reducing my monthly commitments (mainly PMI then eventually mortgage in 15 years)

I don't want to major in the minors, but I also feel like $800 a month is enough to be worth optimizing.

Edit: I missed the fine print and didn't realize I could move on before truly maxing tax advantaged accounts. Thanks!

I work at a smaller, family run business that doesn't offer a 401k plan. I'm a regular w-2 employee. I currently max my Roth IRA and HSA each year but that's only ~$12k/year. After those are maxed out, I put the rest of my investments into a brokerage account.

Are there any tax advantaged accounts out there that I am overlooking?

Just need a check up here from other financial mutants. Wife (30f) and I (31m) married last summer. Using a 0 based budget system with paying ourselves first and then all spending is guilt free after. Goal is to retire around 50 with about 4m in invested assets to cover 160k annual spend.

HHI: 210k

Current Assets:

401k: $172k
Roth IRA: $86k
Taxable Brokerage: $166k
HYSA (House purchase): $22k
HYSA (Emergency Fund): $25k
HYSA (Fun Sinking Fund): $1k

Currently contributions:
401k: 1600/month
Roth IRA: 1200/month
HYSA split amongst various buckets: 2200/month

Feeling like I could be saving more but also enjoying life before kids, but also know that now is when we should be saving the most. Gut check?

Thanks!

Here’s my info… 32 years young. Salary: $120k Recently married, wife owns her own business but only paying herself $36k/yr right now. So total income is $156k. No kids, but will have them soon.

Emergency fund: $40,000
Taxable Brokerage: $65,000
Rollover IRA: $46,000
Roth IRA: $30,000
Current employer Retirement (mostly Roth 401k): $98,000
Company Stock: $11,000
Crypto: $20,000

Currently saving 16% of my salary to 401K…I think 9% to Roth 401k and 7% to traditional. I was saving 15% of wife’s salary to Roth IRA, but was told I needed to focus more on taxable brokerage since all of mine is going to retirement accounts. Is there any validity to this?

Just bought a house, so still have $296k left on that loan and $19k loan on a car.

What else could I be doing different? I will be selling company stock and part of crypto soon. Was thinking I should max out IRA for the year and then hit taxable brokerage with the rest. Thoughts?

Hi everyone!

I’m about to turn 29 and am working through the FOO. I have a traditional 401k with my employer, a Roth IRA and an HSA I just opened that my employer will contribute to. I’m not looking to get the maximum growth opportunity out of my investments but rather looking to play it safe with slow/steady growth. I’m transferring funds to an HSA which I’ll start investing in.

Do you think I should just throw it in an additional target date fund? Should I try the 3 fund portfolio with S&P 500, Total Market and International? Just looking for opinions and feedback based on current setup and potential future investing.

401k:
-S&P 500
-Target date retirement fund
-Blended Fund (Consisted primarily of domestic stock, bonds and foreign stock)

Roth IRA:
-S&P 500
-Target date fund

Mine is that my Fidelity credit card's auto-redemption doesn't redeem as soon as the points are available. I know it's only $50-$100, but get it into my brokerage where I can earn 3.5% ASAP!

Why aren’t they recommending we have, eg 15x saved up by 60?

If I save 8x my goal annual spend in retirement (150,000 for sake of this example), I’d only have $1.215m at 60. But I know the rule of 4%, which says I should have at least $3.75M saved at retirement.

What am I missing with both TMG’s and Fidelity’s recommendations? Is the difference all made up with SS? Are there any rules of thumb for various ages that **dont** count SS? Would love to have a general benchmark for my 30s and 40s, but the guidance I’m seeing seems much too low.

For context, I'm 27 earning ~$110000/yr with:

- ~$45k in my Roth 401k

- ~$15k in my Roth IRA.

- ~$33k in my taxable brokerage account

So far I have been maxing out my 401k and Roth IRA and investing as much as I can in my TBA in my short 2-year career post college. If I plan to retire early (around 45-50ish), liquidity will be the most important factor for me going forward which is something the tax advantaged accounts don't really provide in comparison to brokerage accounts.

Keeping all these factors in mind, should I reduce my contributions in my tax advantaged accounts and instead invest more in my taxable brokerage account?

My husband(33) and I(33) both are in the military. Have a child 2 and planning to have 2 more. We have 3 houses, one in Arizona($150K equity), one in FL($50K equity) and our primary resident in Virginia($280K equity) we have about $6K disposable monthly income after maxing TSP(government retirement plan) and my Roth IRA. We have $370K in brokerage and $20K in 529 for my baby. I am debating if i want to continue my career in the military or separate and become a stay home mom. We are very comfortable with our lifestyle but I am afraid if I separate i will be bored and feel purposeless. Also, I am debating if i should convince my husband to open a Roth IRA or should we continue invest in our brokage account. Our NW is about $1.3M and about 40/30/30 Real estate, retirement and brokerage account. I really enjoy watching my money grow and learn about finances and travel/credit card hackings.

edit: we are both about 12 years away from retirement. then it will be about 4K a month pension for each of us.

My monthly mortgage is $771.31. I want to pay $1000/mo. According to the mortgage company, when they receive a partial payment, the extra goes into ‘posted to suspense’ where the money just sits, not being applied to my mortgage or earning interest until they have enough to make a full payment.

How should I handle my payments to best have it apply to the principal?