The Intersection of FIRE and Disney

Thanks. I’ve got all kinds of spreadsheets going. Definitely never had this “problem” before.

He has been working some ridiculous OT so I’m projecting that even if he limits it he will still wind up around $113k this year (before any taxes or deductions). So that’s well into the 22%. Just his income alone after the standard deduction would still be about $11,000 into that bracket, right?

I don’t mind putting this info out there if anyone has any suggestions because this is completely new to me and I may be missing something.

Reductions to taxable income would be:
$24,400 New Standard Deduction
+ tax deferred contribution amounts

Tax deferred contributions limited to $19k (per person?) and that amount includes my elective deferrals and employer match. Or is the employer contribution in addition to the limit?

Do you or DH have an IRA by chance? Or is your only tax deferred account the 401k?
 
Do you or DH have an IRA by chance? Or is your only tax deferred account the 401k?

He has a 403b at his current job that he contributes 4% to receive the match (I think it’s 6%, maybe it’s 5)

He also has a Roth IRA that we max each year. (I should have been doing the same, but we did not have enough money to save that much thus far.)

I know he has an IRA where he rolled money from a previous employer, but we haven’t done anything with that (I’m not sure if we can contribute to that or not. I would have to look into it.)

We also have a municipal bonds account that he has been putting $100 a month into.

My new job will have a 401k. Their match is 200% up to 4% (so if I do 4, they put in 8%).


The plan is to put a good chunk (maybe half my salary or more?) into my 401k and his 403b. Since all my income would be taxed at 22% this seems like a better idea than doing a Roth, but I suppose I will have to do the math to see if it would be better in the long run to do both.
 
He has a 403b at his current job that he contributes 4% to receive the match (I think it’s 6%, maybe it’s 5)

He also has a Roth IRA that we max each year. (I should have been doing the same, but we did not have enough money to save that much thus far.)

I know he has an IRA where he rolled money from a previous employer, but we haven’t done anything with that (I’m not sure if we can contribute to that or not. I would have to look into it.)

We also have a municipal bonds account that he has been putting $100 a month into.

My new job will have a 401k. Their match is 200% up to 4% (so if I do 4, they put in 8%).


The plan is to put a good chunk (maybe half my salary or more?) into my 401k and his 403b. Since all my income would be taxed at 22% this seems like a better idea than doing a Roth, but I suppose I will have to do the math to see if it would be better in the long run to do both.

MFJ 2019 tax brackets are:

$19,401 - $78,950 = 12%
$78,951 - $168,400 = 22%

My goal would be to have taxable income at exactly $78,950. I asked about the IRA because you have the option to do a Roth conversion if you end up below that figure. However, it has to be done by 12/31, so you'd have to estimate taxes at year end. I was a little annoyed with myself this year since my taxable income was low and I missed the opportunity to convert some to a Roth - kicking myself!
 
MFJ 2019 tax brackets are:

$19,401 - $78,950 = 12%
$78,951 - $168,400 = 22%

My goal would be to have taxable income at exactly $78,950. I asked about the IRA because you have the option to do a Roth conversion if you end up below that figure. However, it has to be done by 12/31, so you'd have to estimate taxes at year end. I was a little annoyed with myself this year since my taxable income was low and I missed the opportunity to convert some to a Roth - kicking myself!

I've superficially looked into back door Roth conversions, and the complications of it just make my head explode. It's one thing if you've never had any kind of IRA open before, then it's not bad. But if you have an existing IRA, or have rollover IRAs, or have multiple IRAs because of previous 401(k)s that you rolled over into an IRA, etc. it just seems like a nightmare IMO.
 


I've superficially looked into back door Roth conversions, and the complications of it just make my head explode. It's one thing if you've never had any kind of IRA open before, then it's not bad. But if you have an existing IRA, or have rollover IRAs, or have multiple IRAs because of previous 401(k)s that you rolled over into an IRA, etc. it just seems like a nightmare IMO.

Yes it makes my head spin a little too! The issue is holding both tax deferred and non tax deferred IRA funds, correct? I was just reading something the other day that gave a few interesting strategies for avoiding all the headaches. Will have to go dig it up.

However, simply converting from an IRA (where all funds were contributed tax deferred) to a Roth is simple. I try to convert a little in years where our taxable income is in a lower bracket. I sure wish Roths existed when I was young and in a low tax bracket.
 
Yes it makes my head spin a little too! The issue is holding both tax deferred and non tax deferred IRA funds, correct? I was just reading something the other day that gave a few interesting strategies for avoiding all the headaches. Will have to go dig it up.

Quoting myself . . . found the article. Suggestions given to get rid of tax deferred IRA before doing back door non tax deferred IRA (so no need to worry about pro rata rule) . . .

#1 - Roll tax deferred IRA to employer 401k; OR
#2 - Do surveys online to earn income so that you are a business. Get an EIN number. Then open individual 401k and roll tax deferred IRA to that.
 
Perhaps this is a silly question, but those aiming to retire early, I'm guessing you're not factoring SS into your retirement income really? I've been running my numbers on my pension and possible retirement dates (I could leave teaching as soon as 6 years from now...that's crazy to me). I obv won't start to collect SS at 48, but one of the options for my teacher's pension is to take a larger payout now, that will balance out when I start SS collection. But in reading how SS is calculated they take the highest 35 years of work experience. I have been teaching for 20 years now. I'm guessing the EARLIEST I would retire is when my son graduates, in 8 years. So that gives me 28 years (but I bought years, so I get to add 5 to my teacher pension...YAY!). Figure I started working at 16. So 16, 17, 18, 19 I have SMALL amounts of income for the calculation (which is better than a $0). So if I'm lucky I MIGHT have 32 years of work earnings. From what I read I would have 3 years of $0 added into my calculation. I guess the easiest thing would be to teach for 3 more years after that....or I guess there is a chance I do some other job for at least 3 years.

I know there's all the talk of no SS anyways, etc, etc. But I'm gonna be optimistic, LOL. As one income (at least currently), I'm gonna need all the money I can get, LOL.

So I'm guessing you are all planning on retiring early based on your investments only and not banking on any SS.
 


When we ran our number for retirement, we figured on 70% of SS. Obviously, there's no way to know. Our logic was: it's not likely to go away completely, but the possibility of it being reduced for higher net worth people, of taxed more, is pretty good. I'm also inclined to think taking early SS is a good idea--take my money and run. While waiting makes sense for some, I like the idea of starting to get some money back, in case they change the rules later.
 
Perhaps this is a silly question, but those aiming to retire early, I'm guessing you're not factoring SS into your retirement income really? I've been running my numbers on my pension and possible retirement dates (I could leave teaching as soon as 6 years from now...that's crazy to me). I obv won't start to collect SS at 48, but one of the options for my teacher's pension is to take a larger payout now, that will balance out when I start SS collection. But in reading how SS is calculated they take the highest 35 years of work experience. I have been teaching for 20 years now. I'm guessing the EARLIEST I would retire is when my son graduates, in 8 years. So that gives me 28 years (but I bought years, so I get to add 5 to my teacher pension...YAY!). Figure I started working at 16. So 16, 17, 18, 19 I have SMALL amounts of income for the calculation (which is better than a $0). So if I'm lucky I MIGHT have 32 years of work earnings. From what I read I would have 3 years of $0 added into my calculation. I guess the easiest thing would be to teach for 3 more years after that....or I guess there is a chance I do some other job for at least 3 years.

I know there's all the talk of no SS anyways, etc, etc. But I'm gonna be optimistic, LOL. As one income (at least currently), I'm gonna need all the money I can get, LOL.

So I'm guessing you are all planning on retiring early based on your investments only and not banking on any SS.
I'm not factoring in SS in considering us retiring somewhere between 60-62 at least that's the outlook currently. Assuming that we have retired prior to being eligible age to draw SS, and would be used to living on a particular income where we weren't in desperate need to draw it. But, for us that's factoring in more than one pension in the household in our 60s, one drawn now when DH retires in a couple years from service, and I will have mine that begins at age 60 and another small one at age 62. I would guess that my age group (close to 50) will still have SS at the time I would start drawing it, I hope so.
 
Rereading a few things here after I have done our taxes. DH decided to do Roth 401k contributions last year thinking taxes in general are only going to go up. I think it is a fairly new option for him to be able to do the Roth. He wants some tax free earnings to be there at retirement. Looking at our taxes last year (2017) we were firmly in that 12% bracket. He got a significant raise last year plus adding in the Roth contributions plus everyone's stupid taxable income going up this year, our taxable income doubled from last year and therefore we had earnings in the higher bracket for the first time. Basically our whole Roth contribution. He got another raise at the beginning of this year. I think he needs to switch it back to regular 401k, he still thinks we are at low tax years in general, as in the lower rates we have had for last few years are unsustainable and someone is eventually going to have to raise them again. Any thoughts?

Also just got our 401K statement for last year. :sad: I have been trying not to look at it online, but when they mail it to you it makes you want to take a peak. Should have left it closed.
 
Rereading a few things here after I have done our taxes. DH decided to do Roth 401k contributions last year thinking taxes in general are only going to go up. I think it is a fairly new option for him to be able to do the Roth. He wants some tax free earnings to be there at retirement. Looking at our taxes last year (2017) we were firmly in that 12% bracket. He got a significant raise last year plus adding in the Roth contributions plus everyone's stupid taxable income going up this year, our taxable income doubled from last year and therefore we had earnings in the higher bracket for the first time. Basically our whole Roth contribution. He got another raise at the beginning of this year. I think he needs to switch it back to regular 401k, he still thinks we are at low tax years in general, as in the lower rates we have had for last few years are unsustainable and someone is eventually going to have to raise them again. Any thoughts?

Also just got our 401K statement for last year. :sad: I have been trying not to look at it online, but when they mail it to you it makes you want to take a peak. Should have left it closed.

If your portfolio looks anything like mine, chances are January was VERY GOOD for bringing things back up :)
 
Rereading a few things here after I have done our taxes. DH decided to do Roth 401k contributions last year thinking taxes in general are only going to go up. I think it is a fairly new option for him to be able to do the Roth. He wants some tax free earnings to be there at retirement. Looking at our taxes last year (2017) we were firmly in that 12% bracket. He got a significant raise last year plus adding in the Roth contributions plus everyone's stupid taxable income going up this year, our taxable income doubled from last year and therefore we had earnings in the higher bracket for the first time. Basically our whole Roth contribution. He got another raise at the beginning of this year. I think he needs to switch it back to regular 401k, he still thinks we are at low tax years in general, as in the lower rates we have had for last few years are unsustainable and someone is eventually going to have to raise them again. Any thoughts?

Also just got our 401K statement for last year. :sad: I have been trying not to look at it online, but when they mail it to you it makes you want to take a peak. Should have left it closed.
That 12% vs 22% is a real tipping point in my Roth calculations too. I'm very happy to pay 12% today and then earn tax free. BUT I'd rather avoid the 22% lol. The thing that's difficult with the 401k that you're certainly showing us is that decisions have to be made before you know the end result!
 
Rereading a few things here after I have done our taxes. DH decided to do Roth 401k contributions last year thinking taxes in general are only going to go up. I think it is a fairly new option for him to be able to do the Roth. He wants some tax free earnings to be there at retirement. Looking at our taxes last year (2017) we were firmly in that 12% bracket. He got a significant raise last year plus adding in the Roth contributions plus everyone's stupid taxable income going up this year, our taxable income doubled from last year and therefore we had earnings in the higher bracket for the first time. Basically our whole Roth contribution. He got another raise at the beginning of this year. I think he needs to switch it back to regular 401k, he still thinks we are at low tax years in general, as in the lower rates we have had for last few years are unsustainable and someone is eventually going to have to raise them again. Any thoughts?

Also just got our 401K statement for last year. :sad: I have been trying not to look at it online, but when they mail it to you it makes you want to take a peak. Should have left it closed.

I share the same thoughts as your DH. I think taxes are at a historic low and will be going up up up in the future to service our debt.

Have you seen this https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...UK7x1IwUJT78T6hQwD9dGFEfnM5L_svwUkPkUaL7vKsVw

Sooner or later this house of cards is going to fall and taxpayers are going to have to pick up the pieces. Did we not learn anything from Greece???:sad2:.

I'm trying to get my work to allow us to convert our $ in our regular 401ks into our Roth 401ks, kinda like how people do backdoor conversions with their IRAs. I don't understand why some workplaces allow this and at mine it's not being done. Of course I'm about the only one who keeps asking for it, no one else wants to willingly pay taxes on money now.

But I do, because I feel I'm going to be in a higher tax bracket when I retire. Of course part of me is worried if things do get bad they could just change the rules on the Roth's anyway, but that's a chance I'm willing to take.
 
Hello FIRE chasers! I found this thread earlier this week, and it is the first time I'd seen the acronym FIRE but I've been interested for a long time. I have read the whole thread!

My Dad retired in 1991, on his 54th birthday (when I was 16). He worked for GM and they were offering a buyout, and he was in a position to take it. He did a little consulting for a few months, but that was it. Mom was a stay at home Mom. I think she probably earned $1000 during my lifetime, running Girl Scout daycamps. We lost my Mom 4.5 years ago and my Dad last summer. I was going through tax records as far back as 1970 this weekend to figure out what to keep, and realized my Dad never made over $38K a year, and yet he managed to leave my 2 brothers and I each $40K in IRAs, $40K outright and a $150k house to sell and split the proceeds on. My parents still did2 what they wanted (frugally) in retirement; went to Australia, England a half dozen times (I was stationed there in the Navy), all over the US, Dad had a 1946 Er Coupe plane he flew until just before Mom died of breast cancer (and then sold for more than he bought it for). I want to be my parents.

I am a single Mom of 3, with 2 bonus kiddos from my 2nd marriage (which also ended in divorce, but the now adult kids and I still wanted to keep each other). Did pretty well early on the FIRE path (had 10K in IRAs and owned a house by 24) but married people who weren't FIRE compatible. I am in a different boat because I am a disabled veteran. I'm currently only able to work a few hours a week, but my disability from the VA covers my living expenses (and as a bonus, is all tax free income). In-state college tuition (Indiana) for my kiddos is covered by my disabled veteran status, so I bought a home 4 blocks from a college, where my college freshman is attending. Because of my low taxable income, he gets full Pell grants. I have 14 years left on a 15 year mortgage but am in a low COLA, so my *yearly* property taxes are under $700 (I get half off because of my disabled veteran status).

I'm looking into seeing if I can convert traditional IRA to ROTH IRA and still get the EITC. I'm only taking the RMD on the inherited IRAs, but by my calculations I should be getting enough from those towards the end of the distribution period (I have to fully withdraw by 83) so that if I leave my personal IRAs in traditional then I will have a whopping tax bill. That doesn't sound like any fun. I'm in a sweet spot on taxes for a few years that as long as I am single, I should get a decent amount from EITC. While researching the topic, I came across this blog: https://www.frugalprofessor.com/ and I was wondering if you guys had any thoughts on it.
 
Hello FIRE chasers! I found this thread earlier this week, and it is the first time I'd seen the acronym FIRE but I've been interested for a long time. I have read the whole thread!

My Dad retired in 1991, on his 54th birthday (when I was 16). He worked for GM and they were offering a buyout, and he was in a position to take it. He did a little consulting for a few months, but that was it. Mom was a stay at home Mom. I think she probably earned $1000 during my lifetime, running Girl Scout daycamps. We lost my Mom 4.5 years ago and my Dad last summer. I was going through tax records as far back as 1970 this weekend to figure out what to keep, and realized my Dad never made over $38K a year, and yet he managed to leave my 2 brothers and I each $40K in IRAs, $40K outright and a $150k house to sell and split the proceeds on. My parents still did2 what they wanted (frugally) in retirement; went to Australia, England a half dozen times (I was stationed there in the Navy), all over the US, Dad had a 1946 Er Coupe plane he flew until just before Mom died of breast cancer (and then sold for more than he bought it for). I want to be my parents.

I am a single Mom of 3, with 2 bonus kiddos from my 2nd marriage (which also ended in divorce, but the now adult kids and I still wanted to keep each other). Did pretty well early on the FIRE path (had 10K in IRAs and owned a house by 24) but married people who weren't FIRE compatible. I am in a different boat because I am a disabled veteran. I'm currently only able to work a few hours a week, but my disability from the VA covers my living expenses (and as a bonus, is all tax free income). In-state college tuition (Indiana) for my kiddos is covered by my disabled veteran status, so I bought a home 4 blocks from a college, where my college freshman is attending. Because of my low taxable income, he gets full Pell grants. I have 14 years left on a 15 year mortgage but am in a low COLA, so my *yearly* property taxes are under $700 (I get half off because of my disabled veteran status).

I'm looking into seeing if I can convert traditional IRA to ROTH IRA and still get the EITC. I'm only taking the RMD on the inherited IRAs, but by my calculations I should be getting enough from those towards the end of the distribution period (I have to fully withdraw by 83) so that if I leave my personal IRAs in traditional then I will have a whopping tax bill. That doesn't sound like any fun. I'm in a sweet spot on taxes for a few years that as long as I am single, I should get a decent amount from EITC. While researching the topic, I came across this blog: https://www.frugalprofessor.com/ and I was wondering if you guys had any thoughts on it.

That website looks interesting. I read a few of his posts and understood most of what he was talking about, which is not always the case with these FIRE websites.
 
Has anybody here read Playing with FIRE by Scott Rieckens? It’s about FIRE (obviously) and I’ve seen it recommended in a couple of spots but I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet.
 
I love this thread.

I finally posted on the credit card forum today for the first time. Now I'm going for the double-dip!

I hadn't even heard of FIRE until a couple of months ago when a post on another board referred to something from MMM. I poked around over there, then read through a few dozen posts to get a sense for what it was all about. Holy smokes. This stuff is amazing.

I've always been keenly interested in budgets and spending, vastly preferring to hoard cash than spend it. For the last year before I got married, I lived extremely frugally...and it was great. As it turned out, it was also necessary: my wife and I moved to Michigan for my graduate school shortly after our wedding at a time when Michigan was in a one-state recession as the rest of America recovered. We ate through almost all of what I had saved prior to the move before she found a job, one that turned out to be very fortunate as she got the gig when she was seven month's pregnant with our surprise DD (she knew that she was pregnant - the timing was just a few years ahead of schedule). We made things work throughout grad school as we both worked and paid the onerous part-time daycare bills, then I got a job in Florida (her home state). We relocated in 2013 and made a solid, middle class income for a few years. During this time, we were WDW APs since they were dirt cheap as every Florida resident can attest as well as occasional DVC point renters. Nevertheless, we returned to Michigan in 2016 to an improved job market complete with a better job for me that included more benefits and a notable raise. We still weren't saving much, though we did make some money on the sale of our Florida house and used our time in Florida to pay off all of our student loans as well as my modest car loan (we had the cash for it, but when the loan is at 0.89%...come on). We put a few thousand dollars into retirement accounts each year, but that's obviously no way to move the needle in a big way. After about a year and a half in Michigan, my employer offered up another sizable (unexpected) raise, pushing our income higher in the middle class bracket and presenting us with a chance to spend big! Or save.

I had been investing some money on the side that did quite well and we had a good year of bonuses combined with a few months of house hunting (which meant living with my folks - me (32), DW (31), DD (7), and DD (4)). Add it all up and we had a nice pile of cash. Looking back on it now, I probably would have plopped it all into a couple of IRAs. Instead, we poked around the DVC resale market, in the process becoming (I think) the first resale purchasers to have a PVB contract snatched up in the ROFR process. That's a badge of honor for us - the deal was simply too good for Disney to pass up on it! A couple of months later, we tried again and found a similarly good deal that got through. I crunched numbers for hours to see if it really made sense, and given our travel habits, I kept coming to the same conclusion: we're ripping Disney off!

That last paragraph is about the least FIRE thing anyone has ever said. I get that. I also get that this thread is a space for people who love frugality, efficiency, and saving with their personal finance while having an illogical desire to spend time at WDW. Here, I can be me.

I listened to The Millionaire Next Door last week (loved it) and I'm in the process of working my way through The Millionaire Mind. The basic principles don't do a ton for me because, for the most part, they're principles about which I already abide. There are improvements to be made, to be sure:
  1. I have taken too much control over our financial management; as a result, my wife feels somewhat left out. We've discussed this recently, and while I continue to meticulously track expenses, I'm involving her more in the summaries and budget reconciliation. She appreciates frugality, but she also grew up in a family where shopping was a hobby/leisure activity so there are so implicit barriers that we work through together.
  2. We pay extra on our mortgage and don't have any desire to "upgrade" to a newer and/or bigger house in the future, but we spent a bit more than we initially wanted to spend when we bought. The investment portion has played out nicely so far -- the expected valuation is up about 20% since we bought in late 2016 sayeth Zillow -- but that doesn't do much for us since we don't plan to sell for a few decades. I'd still love to put more money against the mortgage to rapidly accelerate the repayment timeline, however...
  3. We're in a tax spot where we really should be hammering Roths. My work involves the tax world and there's basically no way that tax rates will be this low in the coming decades - the numbers just don't work. This year, we'll likely put enough into Roths to fill up one of our two maximum contribution slots. That's good. But it also feels like a missed opportunity. Then again...
  4. We're finally putting a sizable chunk of change into my 401(k). This is a wonderful feeling and obviously an efficient use of resources as that money will grow tax-deferred for decades. But I'm not quite all the way there to maxing out my contribution.
DW transitioned out of the workforce back in 2014 when DD #2 showed up and she hasn't yet reentered. We've been blessed that we haven't needed her to work. But with DD #2 nearing full-day schooling, we've started tiptoeing around the conversation of her going back to work and it has me thinking about stuffing retirement accounts, aggressively paying down the mortgage, etc. I've never dreamed about being a big-time spender, but now I'm dreaming about being a big-time saver. With my HSA maxed out and the 401(k) nearing that spot, I'm pretty confident that the Roth is next. If she goes back to work, we can make that the Roths.

I'm not sure that there's any particular point to this post other than this: I love that there are so many people interested in living a genuinely frugal lifestyle that also recognize the value in making the WDW exception. I also imagine that most of you apply your frugality to your WDW planning; I certainly have in the past and I took things to new levels of efficiency for our upcoming trip, but it's all within context.

Thanks for having this thread and for pursuing these seemingly diametrically opposed goals!
 
I love this thread.

I finally posted on the credit card forum today for the first time. Now I'm going for the double-dip!

I hadn't even heard of FIRE until a couple of months ago when a post on another board referred to something from MMM. I poked around over there, then read through a few dozen posts to get a sense for what it was all about. Holy smokes. This stuff is amazing.

I've always been keenly interested in budgets and spending, vastly preferring to hoard cash than spend it. For the last year before I got married, I lived extremely frugally...and it was great. As it turned out, it was also necessary: my wife and I moved to Michigan for my graduate school shortly after our wedding at a time when Michigan was in a one-state recession as the rest of America recovered. We ate through almost all of what I had saved prior to the move before she found a job, one that turned out to be very fortunate as she got the gig when she was seven month's pregnant with our surprise DD (she knew that she was pregnant - the timing was just a few years ahead of schedule). We made things work throughout grad school as we both worked and paid the onerous part-time daycare bills, then I got a job in Florida (her home state). We relocated in 2013 and made a solid, middle class income for a few years. During this time, we were WDW APs since they were dirt cheap as every Florida resident can attest as well as occasional DVC point renters. Nevertheless, we returned to Michigan in 2016 to an improved job market complete with a better job for me that included more benefits and a notable raise. We still weren't saving much, though we did make some money on the sale of our Florida house and used our time in Florida to pay off all of our student loans as well as my modest car loan (we had the cash for it, but when the loan is at 0.89%...come on). We put a few thousand dollars into retirement accounts each year, but that's obviously no way to move the needle in a big way. After about a year and a half in Michigan, my employer offered up another sizable (unexpected) raise, pushing our income higher in the middle class bracket and presenting us with a chance to spend big! Or save.

I had been investing some money on the side that did quite well and we had a good year of bonuses combined with a few months of house hunting (which meant living with my folks - me (32), DW (31), DD (7), and DD (4)). Add it all up and we had a nice pile of cash. Looking back on it now, I probably would have plopped it all into a couple of IRAs. Instead, we poked around the DVC resale market, in the process becoming (I think) the first resale purchasers to have a PVB contract snatched up in the ROFR process. That's a badge of honor for us - the deal was simply too good for Disney to pass up on it! A couple of months later, we tried again and found a similarly good deal that got through. I crunched numbers for hours to see if it really made sense, and given our travel habits, I kept coming to the same conclusion: we're ripping Disney off!

That last paragraph is about the least FIRE thing anyone has ever said. I get that. I also get that this thread is a space for people who love frugality, efficiency, and saving with their personal finance while having an illogical desire to spend time at WDW. Here, I can be me.

I listened to The Millionaire Next Door last week (loved it) and I'm in the process of working my way through The Millionaire Mind. The basic principles don't do a ton for me because, for the most part, they're principles about which I already abide. There are improvements to be made, to be sure:
  1. I have taken too much control over our financial management; as a result, my wife feels somewhat left out. We've discussed this recently, and while I continue to meticulously track expenses, I'm involving her more in the summaries and budget reconciliation. She appreciates frugality, but she also grew up in a family where shopping was a hobby/leisure activity so there are so implicit barriers that we work through together.
  2. We pay extra on our mortgage and don't have any desire to "upgrade" to a newer and/or bigger house in the future, but we spent a bit more than we initially wanted to spend when we bought. The investment portion has played out nicely so far -- the expected valuation is up about 20% since we bought in late 2016 sayeth Zillow -- but that doesn't do much for us since we don't plan to sell for a few decades. I'd still love to put more money against the mortgage to rapidly accelerate the repayment timeline, however...
  3. We're in a tax spot where we really should be hammering Roths. My work involves the tax world and there's basically no way that tax rates will be this low in the coming decades - the numbers just don't work. This year, we'll likely put enough into Roths to fill up one of our two maximum contribution slots. That's good. But it also feels like a missed opportunity. Then again...
  4. We're finally putting a sizable chunk of change into my 401(k). This is a wonderful feeling and obviously an efficient use of resources as that money will grow tax-deferred for decades. But I'm not quite all the way there to maxing out my contribution.
DW transitioned out of the workforce back in 2014 when DD #2 showed up and she hasn't yet reentered. We've been blessed that we haven't needed her to work. But with DD #2 nearing full-day schooling, we've started tiptoeing around the conversation of her going back to work and it has me thinking about stuffing retirement accounts, aggressively paying down the mortgage, etc. I've never dreamed about being a big-time spender, but now I'm dreaming about being a big-time saver. With my HSA maxed out and the 401(k) nearing that spot, I'm pretty confident that the Roth is next. If she goes back to work, we can make that the Roths.

I'm not sure that there's any particular point to this post other than this: I love that there are so many people interested in living a genuinely frugal lifestyle that also recognize the value in making the WDW exception. I also imagine that most of you apply your frugality to your WDW planning; I certainly have in the past and I took things to new levels of efficiency for our upcoming trip, but it's all within context.

Thanks for having this thread and for pursuing these seemingly diametrically opposed goals!
Thanks for sharing - I really enjoyed hearing about your journey so far! There's a lot of similarities (including all the ages) to my family and our story!
 
There's a new "Millionaire" book that came out last fall. For when you finish the first two.

I quit my job as an engineer when our first child was born. DH is also an engineer. While we had always figured I'd go back to work, it has just never worked out. When I even glance in the direction of a part-time job, crap comes up for DH at work that means him putting in ungodly hours, traveling, or, in the case of our latest hurricane, getting locked in at the plant for days at a time. We decided it was best for the family to have me continue to stay at home and manage all the kids activities, appointments, homework help, sick days, etc. We have 4 kids, the youngest turns 13 next week. You'd THINK I would have little to do at this stage of the game, but that's less true than I would have thought.

FTR, we've been members of the "2-comma club" for a few years now. One advantage to me being home is that we rarely eat out, and I do a lot of money-saving activities.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top