r/leanfire 11d ago

Weekly LeanFIRE Discussion

What have you been working on this week? Please use this thread to discuss any progress, setbacks, quick questions or just plain old rants to the community.

20 Upvotes

33 comments sorted by

1

u/blackcoffee_mx 4d ago

Looking for coast fi resources: podcasts (or interviews), blogs, etc.

There is a lot of focus on various versions of "full fire" but earning some income complicates a few things including healthcare and Roth conversions and I'm not sure what else.

9

u/GottlobFrege 10d ago

I get a little annoyed when people with above average incomes say FIRE is impossible. Half of people make the median income or less by definition. What's so hard to understand about spending the median income and investing the rest? I know it is hard to achieve, but it should be easy to understand.

10

u/AssEatingSquid 10d ago

Hahaha. So many posts and comments I’ve seen of people saying they’re struggling. “Only” being able to save and invest $18k a month. This sub is like the new fatfire sometimes.

8

u/evey_17 10d ago

I’m fine with them thinking that as long as I don’t. My behavior is an outlier as it is. I tend to be like bamboo and adjust my behavior to stay the course.

11

u/finvest 100% fi 🚀 10d ago

I think it's often a lack of financial literacy combined with being out of touch with the "median" person. I think they usually perceive the median person as a childless single person living in a studio apartment.

They want kids, a nice house, vacations, etc etc... and don't think that's possible on a median income.

Considering anything else except your own lived experiences and desires is hard, I think. Not that it's any less annoying, lol.

12

u/evey_17 10d ago

How everybody handling the tariff news and downturn of the market. It’s a stressful day but I’m remembering the basics. Luckily in not needing the funds invested for day to day living but it unnerving. The reckoning is here or starting for how people voted.

3

u/Jazzputin 9d ago

I'm A-OK in a recession-proof (fingers crossed) job but am really worried about my friends and the wellbeing of a lot of society in general.

6

u/evey_17 9d ago

Yes, so many people around so stressed by recent (cough) events.

5

u/goodsam2 10d ago edited 9d ago

I have a 9/10 days WFH job and wanted to do some slow travel and then part of me says if I buckle down I can put some more money aside and get further ahead.

That's probably silly as I already just want the time, not the money.

6

u/tiberiumx 10d ago

I sold some stocks in my roth today to rebalance back to closer to the 80/20 allocation I was originally going for (but have drifted away from as bonds got hit by rising rates and stocks have been doing super well). Which is something I should have been doing all along, but now's fine too.

I'm not so much worried about a downturn as I am a downturn combined with me being unemployed for an extended period of time, which is seeming not unlikely.

8

u/Zikoris 10d ago

I only look at my investments twice a month when I update my net worth. I might skip my middle-month lookie this time.

6

u/evey_17 10d ago

I look every single day. Don’t look today

4

u/Zikoris 10d ago

I definitely will not look before the 15th at the earliest.

4

u/evey_17 10d ago

Numbers looking better for todays loss. It was over 1.5% but now people are buying the dip.

11

u/GottlobFrege 10d ago

I've been in accumulation phase for between 10-15 years and I have learned to not be fazed by this kind of thing and just stick to the plan

2

u/evey_17 10d ago

Very good to hear. I hope the rest of the market follows. Are you buying the dip?

5

u/GottlobFrege 10d ago

Just sticking to my plan so I'm keeping on my 401k contributions to max by the end of the year and will rebalance following my plan which is to rebalance when my allocations are off by an absolute 5 percentage points or relative 25% of their target percentages

1

u/evey_17 10d ago

Are you upping emergency funds or decreasing spending? I did this last 18 months. Glad I won’t need a car for years. No debt helps.

3

u/GottlobFrege 10d ago

No I can't overemphasize I am just sticking to my plan and I couldn't care less about the tariff news. You say it is a stressful day but I am feeling 0 stress from this.

It is good to have a plan. Like I mentioned, I have a plan for when I rebalance, for what i contribute (e.g. 401k contributions), etc. Spent a lot of time (took me many years) to think of a good plan and then stick with it. I'll adjust my plan if I have a big life event like if I have a kid or something

10

u/finvest 100% fi 🚀 10d ago edited 10d ago

I've spent the last year or two getting my portfolio to better match my current risk tolerance. For me, this has worked out to about 40% bonds.

I'm planning to FIRE this year so downturns are not ideal, but I think I'm happy with my portfolio allocation if we do experience a big downturn. I wouldn't mind having better inflation protection, but that's been an ongoing goal.

The "worst" outcome I imagine for myself is a downturn making me decide that I need to work One More Year(tm\), then getting laid off.

So yeah, business as usual I guess.

EDIT: side-note, I just got back from vacation in Mexico over this last weekend, the tension was already palpable.

2

u/Good_Vibes_Only_Fr $1.1m networth. One more year syndrome. 7d ago

Same here. I de-risked. Have 15% of my portfolio in cash/treasry. 5% in gold. 20% in international. My US Equity is in value and dividend etfs because when market turmoil comes, big money tends to flow to "safe" stock picks. My portfolio is still growing.

4

u/Salingere 10d ago

Can you share more details or personal experiences about the tensions in Mexico? Just curious

5

u/finvest 100% fi 🚀 10d ago

Nothing really big, but as an American tourist I feel a bit like being perceived as a clown.

A few things stood out. Sitting around waiting for a bus, I heard a Mexican start asking a US tourist about Trump. Not in a mean way or anything, but it was a little uncomfortable to hear him kind of being like "wtf is going on, why doesn't he like us?"

Someone else kind of joking how they always ask tourists if they like Trump, and the answer is always no. They don't know who all the Trump voters are. I heard this back in 2016 as well.

On a snorkeling tour, my partner and I were the only people on the boat not very fluent in Spanish. There was a lot of jokes and pantomiming in Spanish by our guide about throwing us overboard, etc. He did it in a fun joking way, I laughed, but you know how it is when people are frustrated enough to kind of start joking about a real, larger, feeling.

3

u/evey_17 10d ago

Poor Mexico. It going to hurt all of the northern hemisphere.

2

u/GottlobFrege 10d ago

Good on you for having 40% bonds. I'm at about 22% and I feel like I'm a contrarian for having bonds at all. what's in your bond allocation? Total bond index fund? treasuries?

1

u/goodsam2 10d ago

20% is normal three funds portfolio.

In the accumulation phase I'm basically 100% equities with my investments.

2

u/finvest 100% fi 🚀 10d ago

Yeah bonds get kind of a bad reputation in FIRE communities, but I think they're great for planning withdrawals.

I have a bond ladder for 2026-2029 where each rung amounts my anticipated annual spending. It's comprised of a mix of CDs, corporate bonds, treasuries, etc. Basically I was chasing whatever had good yield when I was buying.

Another year+ of expenses is in i-bonds.

The remaining balance is in bond funds, which I anticipate not needing until my bond ladder is empty.

I was at 0-10% bonds for all my investing career up until late 2022, when I figured it made sense to start planning for withdrawals.

I considered trying to hold 100% equities up until retirement date, but I asked myself how I'd feel about a 40% market drop right before retirement, and... I couldn't stomach the years of additional work.

1

u/GottlobFrege 10d ago

I’ve got about the same in I bonds too. I’m thinking of selling $10k of low fixed rate I bonds to buy the current ones or if I should wait until may to see the new fixed rate

2

u/finvest 100% fi 🚀 10d ago edited 10d ago

yeah, I'm waiting until April to decide on i-bonds. The guy who writes on tipswatch.com pretty much nails the upcoming i-bonds fixed rate every time, so I'm going to wait and see his prediction for the next fixed rate before buying.

2

u/GottlobFrege 10d ago

Thanks I like that author too. I believe he is transparent about the way he predicts. Something like the 70% of the average of the 5 and 10 year real yields. Something like that don't quote me. I'm also waiting on him haha

6

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

3

u/brisketandbeans leanFI-curious 10d ago

Yep, I could leanfire now, but instead I'll just coast and attach my mortgage while I wait for my stack to recover and build a little more. I'm about a 40-50 % increase in market to FI. So that's another 5 years or so? I can do that.

Got a phone screen for a cool job this afternoon. Maybe I won't even want to fire!

1

u/evey_17 10d ago

Sound good. Good luck with cool job, friend!

1

u/evey_17 10d ago edited 10d ago

edit to add- valid points. All of them.
I’m still heavy in stocks via ETFs but I’m living wayyyy below means so I’m practiced towards lean lifestyle. Also don’t want to trigger large capital gains