The Intersection of FIRE and Disney

[alryan]

Yep! With some lady named Gale VadOxlaide or something like that who I believe had a British accent. The people on that show were such a train wreck!

Oh, yeah. I loved that lady and those couples. Nothing like going from Suze, who made me feel totally unprepared, to those couples who made me feel like a financial rock star!

 

[bernina]

Can someone please recommend some guidelines or resources for determining your desired annual spend in retirement? My obstacles are: (1) I don't have a very good handle on what we spend now. We're fortunate to save a ton, but because we make enough to do that without really tracking our spending, I haven't been doing that. I used to use Quicken until about 10 years ago and could itemize almost everything with a very small Miscellaneous percentage, but right now I'm blind. (2) My desired retirement date coincides with Daughter 1 graduating college and Daughter 2 entering college. I have the college costs figured out separate from my retirement savings, so when D1 is (hopefully) on her own, and D2 is being paid for from college funds (except for 2-3 months every year), some current spend should reduce.

Apart from that, I have trouble determining what costs will go up, besides probably medical insurance (I get it thru work but pay for most of it already), and what will go down. Plus we're paying mad crazy taxes based on what we earn now but I have no clue what taxes will be on our lower retirement income.

I'm hoping to find

1. a good, secure and trustworthy tool to track current spend automatically if I provide my bank and credit card info
2. some good guides of how to adjust for lifestyle changes that come with retiring and kids moving out, etc.

Thanks!

Hi! I use a tool called You Need a Budget (YNAB). There is a yearly cost but they also have a no risk trial. I am definitely not the type to pay for apps but honestly this has saved me soooo much time that I don't mind the cost at all.

On the surface the tool is aimed at people that need help managing their finances. I wasn't in that camp, I needed something that would auto import my banking and credit card data and let me assign categories so I could see where our money was going.

I have 3 years of data in there and just added all of DH's accounts this year to get our full picture (kind of a weird year with Covid but still helpful). Since we have so many credit cards (I do come from the I love credit cards thread ) it took me a bit of time to set up, but now it's pretty much on auto pilot.

I also include our investment accounts but don't have those auto import (I really don't want to see my portfolio update any more than monthly, and in a down market every few months is more than enough).

 

[needsomesun]

I enjoyed watching Suze for some reason. Didn’t agree with much of what she said, but we enjoyed it.

There used to be a show called “Til debt do us part” after suze that we REALLY enjoyed though! My wife and I always used to root for people to be insanely in debt and then get yelled at.

I enjoyed watching Suze too. I liked hearing her call everyone "girlfriend" and tell people with zero retirement that they couldn't afford the things they wanted. Also watched til Debt do us part.

 

[mgarbowski]

Hi! I use a tool called You Need a Budget (YNAB). There is a yearly cost but they also have a no risk trial. I am definitely not the type to pay for apps but honestly this has saved me soooo much time that I don't mind the cost at all.

Thanks. I decided to try Mint and Personal Capital (PC) first. because like you I don't refuse to pay for a useful service, but if I can get it for free I'll try those options first. I think I like Mint's reporting and flexibility better, but Personal Capital has 2 advantages over Mint: PC imported my wife's 401k which Mint seems to have trouble connecting to, and PC also imported a full 12 months worth of data from my primary bank account while Mint only pulled in 3 months. PC only got 3 months for all my investment accounts and credit cards, but with a full year of my primary checking account I can add up Checks + ATM withdrawals + Direct Payments (eg utilities & loan payments) + Credit Card payments, and that should give me a reasonably complete account of total spend, even if it will lack the detail that CC history gives me. Now, the last 6 months have of course been non-normal, and I'll have to adjust for that, but having several months history before the shut down hit will help me figure that out. And yes, I can download that info directly from my bank, but these services give me an easier way to sort the info.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

I enjoyed watching Suze for some reason. Didn’t agree with much of what she said, but we enjoyed it.

There used to be a show called “Til debt do us part” after suze that we REALLY enjoyed though! My wife and I always used to root for people to be insanely in debt and then get yelled at.

Did you by any chance catch the afford anything podcast where she was a guest? It was... interesting.

https://affordanything.com/153-hate-fire-movement-suze-orman/

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Did you by any chance catch the afford anything podcast where she was a guest? It was... interesting.

https://affordanything.com/153-hate-fire-movement-suze-orman/

I didn’t but I know Suze + FIRE is not a good combo. 10 years later I realize what a crock Suze can be... but I’d still watch her show if it was on

 

[QueenIsabella]

I didn’t but I know Suze + FIRE is not a good combo. 10 years later I realize what a crock Suze can be... but I’d still watch her show if it was on

Yeah, I don't think Suze really "gets" the FIRE movement. I think she thinks it's all about living in your van and dumpster diving every day. Which it might be, for some people, and if they have enough resources and it makes them happy, go for it. But for most people, it's more about having enough resources to choose your life path, whether it's working at something more meaningful, or working part time to support your camping habit, or whatever.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Did you by any chance catch the afford anything podcast where she was a guest? It was... interesting.

https://affordanything.com/153-hate-fire-movement-suze-orman/

Oh ya know - I did see this (I didn’t realize this was from back in 2018!

Mr money mustache wrote about it too
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2018/10/05/the-fire-movement/

 

[Hoosier John]

From December 11, 2018:

... Probably overkill but I've long thought a recession would hit around Q1 2020. ...

You are my new Financial Planner!

 

[bernina]

Did you by any chance catch the afford anything podcast where she was a guest? It was... interesting.

https://affordanything.com/153-hate-fire-movement-suze-orman/

I had nothing to listen to while making dinner so I figured I'd give this a listen. Oh my goodness Suze! Apparently I need to re-evaluate my financial goals, according to her I need a good $10-$20 mil to retire as an average American. I guess I'll be working until I'm 80....

Thanks for the laugh

 

[Frwinkley]

DH is very close to retiring (I will work a few more years, since I actually really enjoy my job). He's 59, has worked in IT/computers his whole career and is fried. Financially, we'll be fine. He is considering finding a part-time job just to get himself out of the house. Any ideas?

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

DH is very close to retiring (I will work a few more years, since I actually really enjoy my job). He's 59, has worked in IT/computers his whole career and is fried. Financially, we'll be fine. He is considering finding a part-time job just to get himself out of the house. Any ideas?

If he is social, he could teach at a local CC or library? I know my library offers classes on basic computer applications.

If you're financially okay, there are also a ton of organizations that are looking for volunteers. Habitat for Humanity, local animal shelters, etc.

If you have a lot of junk around the house... put him to work listing stuff on ebay/craigslist. Declutters the house and get a little extra spending money.

 

[bernina]

Our next challenge is deciding if we throw $30k of excess emergency funds into our 4% mortgage (7 years left on 15 yr, balance around $138k) or dollar cost average that into VTSAX in our taxable account (maxing out all the tax advantaged stuff already).

So after crunching numbers we decided to split the $30k up and dump $15k into our taxable brokerage in VTSAX (bought in $6k at yesterday's low) and $15k towards our mortgage. I always have a moment of regret when I push the button to buy/pay but hopefully that will soon be outweighed by seeing the lower outstanding loan balance.

 

[platamama]

So after crunching numbers we decided to split the $30k up and dump $15k into our taxable brokerage in VTSAX (bought in $6k at yesterday's low) and $15k towards our mortgage. I always have a moment of regret when I push the button to buy/pay but hopefully that will soon be outweighed by seeing the lower outstanding loan balance.

You did what I was thinking: split the difference and do both.

 

[Hoosier John]

I just made it all the way through this thread last night (ETA it took a couple weeks, just finished last night), and thought some of you would appreciate my spending during COVID quarantine. For those who use Mint, here is my April and May discretionary spending. June looked the same, but I didn't get a picture of it. For those who don't use Mint, there are normally colored bars creeping across the screen to show how you are doing.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I just made it all the way through this thread last night, and thought some of you would appreciate my spending during COVID quarantine. For those who use Mint, here is my April and May discretionary spending. June looked the same, but I didn't get a picture of it. For those who don't use Mint, there are normally colored bars creeping across the screen to show how you are doing.View attachment 529038View attachment 529040

You know what you need to do...

 

[Hoosier John]

You know what you need to do...

Way ahead of ya. Ran outta alcohol 1 month in and food after 3 months, so treated myself to both

 

[Chickinvic]

I enjoyed watching Suze for some reason. Didn’t agree with much of what she said, but we enjoyed it.

There used to be a show called “Til debt do us part” after suze that we REALLY enjoyed though! My wife and I always used to root for people to be insanely in debt and then get yelled at.

I loved Til Debt Do Us Part. It was a Canadian show (like me).

 

[Chickinvic]

Yep! With some lady named Gale VadOxlaide or something like that who I believe had a British accent. The people on that show were such a train wreck!

She was raised in Jamaica before moving to Canada.

 

[Chickinvic]

Yep! With some lady named Gale VadOxlaide or something like that who I believe had a British accent. The people on that show were such a train wreck!

The worst one I saw was a dentist and his wife. He made great money - and they were still overspending by over $17,000 per month!!!!