wants to know if you’d spend 20% more for an American-made PC
Would I spend more if I could buy a product that paid people fairly, was ethically sourced, etc? Probably.
Would I spend any amount on a product that benefits Palmer Luckey? No.
Myself, my wife, her parents, and my parents all use it, though honestly the latter are there for grandkid pictures and I’m confident 100% of their conversations with anyone else are sms/facebook/etc.
If you needed an image to sum up this administration, here it is. The only way it could be more on the nose is if they did it in front of starving people.
To challenge you slightly: what are your tax reasons for focusing on dividends? People commonly misunderstand the comparative tax implications of dividend vs total return investing. In most cases focusing on dividends is suboptimal both in terms of return and diversification.
Zooming out, there’s key pieces missing here: what are your goals with your investing? What is your current financial situation?
My blanket advice for generic scenarios would be:
A mega backdoor Roth involves putting money into an “after tax” (not Roth) 401k account and then rolling it over into Roth either within the 401k plan or to an external Roth IRA. It can mean an extra $25k+ in Roth on top of what you’re already contributing to the 401k. Most plans do not offer the features necessary to do this.
Assuming tax policy stays the same, you’d probably lean traditional if you expect your income to be lower in retirement but you’d also want to consider tax diversification. Another aspect is that Roth IRAs will allow you to take contributions back out tax and penalty free before retirement which can be useful if you planned on retiring early.
Apologies, I didn’t intend for this to turn into a wall of text, but I’m posting it anyway. 😅
Usually Roth vs traditional comes down to a judgement call on whether you think it’s more advantageous to pay your marginal tax rate now vs your marginal tax rate in retirement. The optimal answer is unknowable without knowing the future, so you make an educated guess.
People early on in their careers (especially, but not exclusively, where they expect to earn significantly more later) or those who feel that tax rates will be significantly higher in the future during their retirement vs now (eg. you believe taxes are at historic lows and will rise) will often opt for Roth accounts.
Conversely those in a high marginal bracket now who expect to have significantly lower taxes in retirement will often opt for traditional. Indeed if you’re a high W2 earner a traditional 401k is one of the few tax breaks you get.
There’s also something to be said for tax diversification: we don’t know what tax policy will be in the future nor what your income will be in retirement so you can hedge the risk of guessing wrong by putting funds in both Roth and traditional retirement accounts.
People looking specifically at backdoor Roth are usually those who aren’t otherwise eligible to contribute based on income limits.
People looking at mega-backdoor Roth are just lucky (both to have a 401k plan that offers it and to have the money to leverage it).
Regarding a financial advisor: it’s entirely possible to get one-off financial advice for a fee instead of an ongoing commitment or having them manage your assets. The key is to look for a fee-only fiduciary that offers consultations (checkout napfa.org) and not financial “advisors” at banks, brokerages, insurance companies, etc. Those guys aren’t guaranteed to be bad, but they most often double as salesmen who get commission and have a conflict of interest at best.
The main thing I worry about with this headline is that Trump will read it, realize there is such a thing as the Library of Congress, and then indeed metaphorically burn it.
Nice! Inspired me to pop up my planner.
The empower (née personal capital) planner shows us running out somewhere around 115 in tenth percentile market performance, at least with current social security estimates.
If I zero out social security it’s around 85.
Cursor (which everyone at my job is now “heavily encouraged “ to use) spat code at me today that attempted to hardcode credentials. Good luck guys!
To add to that, look at pictures of the pro Trump protests in Utah around Jan 6, many of them openly carrying assault rifles, none of them shot. I don’t like guns or open carry but the difference in reaction is stark.
I doubt it means much, but the first 12 years of my career were on a more modest path. Luck and opportunity have an outsized impact. The only “smart” thing I did was leave a comfortable job for a higher stress one, but that’s probably survivorship bias talking.
I’m conflicted on giving numbers, by default it feels like an unintended flex. But hey, it’s the fire community and we love numbers so…
I was gonna do shocked pikachu face, but he’s gotta roll coal now, poor guy.
I just updated my annual spreadsheet (haven’t been on top of it) and some “fun” facts that no one asked for:
Fingers crossed for you.
I’m damned close to a naive 4% withdrawal covering my base salary, but the same caveats about the market tanking apply.
Despite the useless headline, it’s depressingly the same as it ever was:
47% of U.S. adults disapprove of of deploying the Marines to LA, with 34% approval.
45% disapprove the National Guard deployment, while 38% said they approve.
An equal share — 45% — also disapprove of the protests against ICE, per Monday YouGov polling.
36% said they approve of the protests, and 19% said they are not sure.
His core of 30 something percent approve whatever the hell it is he is doing and not enough people disapprove.
As an American who has watched this episode it made me confused, angry, and hungry.
(Of course it didn’t, it’s Bluey and it’s a good episode.)
Housing market is nuts and I’m thankful we bought when we did. My house has (supposedly) gone up in value ~50% since I bought it four years ago despite mortgage rates being ~150% higher — how are people making those numbers work?
Is the coffee at least good?
I guess playdoh is technically non-toxic.