• @[email protected]
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    411 months ago

    Has anyone here chosen to make a significant / sudden change to their savings rate at some point in their life? If so, what was the story behind it?

    • @FancyPantsFIRE
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      11 months ago

      We’ve done it twice. The first time was probably the most common and boring story— we bought a house. It was planned and we’d been intentionally living cheaply to save up.

      The second was when my wife stopped working. This was during Covid when all the return to office stuff started and we’d just had our first kid. Now we’ve got two and she’s (mostly) a stay at home parent with a passion/hobby business.

  • @SqueakyDoors
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    311 months ago

    What brokerage/banks account do you guys use? I have a couple of banks credit cards I use. Would be like to consolidate.

    • @yenahmikM
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      311 months ago

      I have Fidelity and Vanguard for my brokerage. I use a local credit union for my banking.

    • @FancyPantsFIRE
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      211 months ago

      Nothing I’d recommend. I use Betterment for my brokerage but only because having a managed account exempts me from some employer imposed holding requirements.

    • @popcornheadlines
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      211 months ago

      I use vanguard for brokerage (recently switched for TD ameritrade though)

  • @FancyPantsFIRE
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    311 months ago

    Weekly question:

    For those with kids, what are your plans for college? How does it factor into your retirement plans?

    • @[email protected]
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      211 months ago

      I should hit my fire number their senior year of highschool. If they receive scholarships, I will probably do “one more year” just in case. If they need help, I may move back my retirement date more. But it all depends on how hard they tried in highschool. If they are a C student, I would encourage them to join a community college or a technical school that matches their passions.

    • @yenahmikM
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      211 months ago

      No kids yet, but assuming I do eventually:

      My parents paid for my education costs almost entirely (except for books/supplies). I would want to do the same for my kids, because it gave me much more flexibility in starting my career. They were of the belief that you shouldn’t start your adult life in debt, and I frankly agree.

    • @FancyPantsFIRE
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      111 months ago

      We’re working on front loading 529’s. The goal is to have enough in each to cover four years at a good in state university plus some buffer. Obviously they might literally do something different but it feels like a good baseline. Finishing this front loading is one of the items on our pre-FIRE checklist as the plan is to pull the trigger long before they’ll go off to college.

    • @FancyPantsFIRE
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      211 months ago

      I’m guessing it’s federation related? I frequently see comments, replies, or new posts pop up long after they were “created”. The lemmy experience is far from smooth right now.