Right! I think BTC will go back down before the halving and then I could buy back in cheaper but I don't want to pay the taxes either. I'll just hold and hold thru all the dips and pumps. I'm always buying so the averaging in helps.
My Plan for 2023
- Thread starter WhatsHisNuts
- Start date
Right! I think BTC will go back down before the halving and then I could buy back in cheaper but I don't want to pay the taxes either. I'll just hold and hold thru all the dips and pumps. I'm always buying so the averaging in helps.
I lost a bunch on weed stocks, too. It was one of the best lessons I ever learned on speculation.
As far as AI goes, I think the best/safest route is to stick with the big names. Google and Microsoft aren't going anywhere and I'd bet they'll be gobbling up the smaller players that make any waves or have the upside they need.
bingo, I have plenty of Microsoft and Google in my mutual funds. My dad and I had the same convo a few days ago about AI stocks.
Yeah, I lost my ass on MJ stocks, lol. Still haven't sold them yet, just let it ride. Maybe the feds get it legalized in the next couple of years.
I may jump in and buy some BUD now that its been beat way down.
a solid AI company is NVDA. the stock is up a ton recently, but they make the chips that everybody wants/needs. probably their biggest risk is if china actually invades taiwan.
The landscape is going to get interesting in the chip wars. Under the Chips Act, TSMC and Intel have started construction projects in the USA for massive facilities. I used to own NVDA, Intel and AMD stock but have since shed it for the stuff I listed earlier in this thread.
well, speaking of the chip wars and the new factories being built... another personal favorite that i just learned about last year (and is, somehow, up 85% in nearly a year) is ASML. they make the only machines capable of making the most advanced chips. talk about a legal monopoly!
My recap for the year using the original post categories:
EXPENSE TRACKING
Financially speaking, another year like 2023 and would be a dream come true. CHEERS!
EXPENSE TRACKING
- No major changes compared to previous years. I'll keep at this so I can run reports at year end for comparison purposes.
- Now that I have a few years data in place and nothing significant changing (except income), I think the budgeting is done.
- Between my wife and I, we have maintained more than 1 year's expenses in cash.
- Maxed out and still paying out of pocket for medical. Saving receipts for future distributions. The investment account has really taken off
- My wife and I started off only contributing the minimum to get the company matches ($0.50/$1 up to 6%) but I have recently bumped mine back up to 10%. Psychological thing after comparing old pay checks.
- Performance this year was great
- Still not eligible and Roth conversions don't make much sense at this time.
- I greatly underperformed the S&P 500 (imagine that). The REITs got their asses kicked and led to a less than spectacular 11% return. I'll keep with the current lineup and let the dividends reinvest in the REITs.
- My wife has this benefit and the investments within it did really well. She's going to keep hammering this as it will be a big part of our early retirement strategy.
- My wife has this benefit and she started pumping cash into it.
- Bought more in January and now, with inflation receding, I need to find a way out and put this money elsewhere (T Bills or HYSA)
- Added a nice chunk to our brokerage accounts this year.
- Didn't add anything to the Fundrise account, which is getting its ass kicked. Oh well. It's a long term investment (Real Estate).
- Changed gears when part of my financing plan took a turn for the worse. I was using a HELOC to self finance a portion of the remaining loan balance when the interest rate soared to 8.5%. Paid off the HELOC with cash from savings but have left the original mortgage in place, paying it off on the regular schedule.
- Paid quarterly as usual.
- Not much opportunity for tax loss harvesting other than losses I ate earlier in the year when I moved stuff around slightly.
Financially speaking, another year like 2023 and would be a dream come true. CHEERS!
I got my wish, another year of excellent investment returns! Come on 2025, you can do this!
Alright, here's an update, two years into the plan I posted.
EXPENSE TRACKING
2024 was probably the most chaotic of my life, but it is ending with me being in a great place (figuratively and literally). Having a mortgage again is a bit of a bummer but everything else is looking great.
Would one more great year of investment returns be too much to ask?
Cheers!
Alright, here's an update, two years into the plan I posted.
EXPENSE TRACKING
- Completely out of whack from previous years, so the data as a whole is trash but, by category, is still fairly useful (grocery, travel, entertainment, golf, etc.)
- This will be important for 2025 as our expenses will look a lot different. No more investment property. New house w/ mortgage.
- Cash position took a hit to keep new mortgage low, but we should be able to build it back up to 1 year's expenses by end of the year. We still have ~ 6 months +, so not exactly dire.
- (NO CHANGE) Maxed out and still paying out of pocket for medical. Saving receipts for future distributions.
- Back down to minimum contribution to get company matches. Our tax deferred totals are
- Performance this year was great (Even better than 2023)
- Still not eligible and Roth conversions don't make much sense at this time.
- I will likely start doing Roth coversions once we both retire and can manually manage our income amount
- I underperformed the S&P 500 (again). Made some changes late in the year to put more in total US market and S&P 500 funds.
- REITs were sold. The interest rate outlook doesn't look like it's going to help these investments so I decided to bail and go with VTI & VOO.
- My wife has this benefit and this is going to be our bridge to the tax deferred accounts (we'll retire well before age 59.5)
- Wife and I have different plans and we're both participating.
- Didn't buy any in 2024 and doubt I'll do anything with them in 2025. Selling doesn't seem like a terrible idea but we're going to hold.
- Took money out to remodel the investment property and am just starting to put money back in.
- Didn't add anything to the Fundrise account (Real Estate).
- Adios, motherfucker! Major water damage led me to push renters out and renovate the property for sale. May thru August was a nightmare, trying to balance the renovation and regular work/life, but it all paid off. Sold it and rolled the proceeds into our dream house.
- I'm looking forward to doing taxes this year. Clean break from the investment property and from here on out, taxes will be much less complicated.
- No more quarterly taxes
- All the losses from previous years helped me avoid capital gains on the investment property.
- We sold the primary residence and won't have to pay any capital gains since the proceeds were under the threshold.
2024 was probably the most chaotic of my life, but it is ending with me being in a great place (figuratively and literally). Having a mortgage again is a bit of a bummer but everything else is looking great.
Would one more great year of investment returns be too much to ask?
Cheers!
Happy new year!
Wife and I are going this route for 2025. Have been told by many who use an HSA to just pay for all medical out of pocket and let the HSA grow as it’s another tax advantaged vehicle to save.
Don’t know much about an HSA, so what do you mean by saving receipts for future distributions?
Other than the big change to an HSA for 2025, we are still on the same path as we’ve been on as far as maxing out 401(k)s, investing, employee stock option plan, etc.
Starting in late August we will have a college freshman who still needs to decide where she’s going to go to school. Once she commits someplace we should get solid numbers on our out of pocket expenses and know if we have enough in her 529 plan to cover it.
The thought of
Right before Xmas she got a couple of letters from schools she interested in telling her she’s a finalist for full ride scholarships which would be fantastic as she’s wanting to attend grad school. If her undergrad won’t cost much she’d have that much more to put towards a masters degree.
Happy New Year, brother.
If you haven't been using the HSA, it's good that you are starting. Triple tax advantage: Pre-tax going in, tax free/deferred growth, tax free on distributions coming out for medical expenses and deferred for other distributions post age 65.
Your plan administrator should have some sort of rules around managing money in the account. For example, mine says anything above $1k can be invested in the stock market. At this point, I'm putting money in every paycheck that goes straight into investments. I'm paying out of pocket for all medical expenses now, but holding on to the receipts so that I can be reimbursed for those in the future. If I pile up $5k in medical expenses (I've already paid cash for) and decide I want to be reimbursed, I can transfer money out of the investment vehicle, back into the HSA account and request a distribution/reimbursement....tax free.
If you pile up a nice chunk of money in that HSA investment account, it can be treated like an IRA once you turn 65. This is how I hope to use this money.
Sounds like you did well by your daughter and she won't be saddled with a crazy amount of student loans. Hopefully she'll appreciate it once she hears how much the lives of her peers are owned by that debt (at least early on).
Cheers to a great year ahead!
Fingers crossed our assets and economy survive the next 4 years…
Haven’t seen any info from the plan administrator on what we are able to do with the HSA.
At 60 years old for me and soon to be 55 for my wife, I imagine we won’t invest the money inside the HSA in anything too risky. We have significant assets now so no need to take any risks with what will be saved. We make too much to be eligible for Roth’s so we see the HSA as a way around that and another vehicle to accumulate assets for our upcoming retirements.
Makes sense on why you’re holding on to receipts for future disbursements. Thanks for explaining that for me.
Just park it in VTI and leave it.
I’m reading a book by Ed Slott called The Retirement Savings Bomb Ticks Louder. I’m in same boat with retirement assets and not able to invest in Roth IRAs. However, I’m starting to feed a Roth 401k via work. This book is making a compelling case for doing Roth conversions sooner than later. I’m not sure I want to start converting this year but I might put the wheels in motion.
That’s likely what will happen with it. Short of a world war or a world wide depression, I’d think the markets will still be in the black over the next 10-15 years.
I won’t file for SS until I’m 70 so I get the max benefits I’m eligible for, but we’ve been in the mindset that even in the next 10 years SS will either not exist or they’ll cut the amount we are supposed to receive by so much it will hardly be enough to pay the light bill.
I’ll have to get a copy of that book. Thinking I should put the wheels in motion on converting to a ROTH but I haven’t made the move yet either.
I like it. By the way, general guidance is that the higher earner waits for max benefit on SS (if they can). I'm not sure about the lower earner, but my guess is guidance is for them to take it at 65/67 (whatever is considered full retirement). I need to learn up on that.
As far as the future of SS, I think it will be here to stay but I expect it to get cut. Having billionaires running our government is not going to bode well for the regular folk.
If you get me your address, I will send you the book when I finish it.
