Copernican

@[email protected]

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

Copernican ,

How does this work out with all in value when it comes to stock options or other vesting based non salary compensation? Aren't you leaving a lot on the table if you switch every 2 years? Does salary alone make up for that?

Copernican , (edited )

Idk about it being locked in. I have seen people with Sr and Lead titles interviewing for a lower position these days. Those things don't always stay with you the rest of your life. But titles are cheap. Salary, bonuses, and stock are money.

For me, I had considered job offers with higher salary. But then when I looked at the salary and reduced PTO I realized my hourly wage didn't change that much. When I factored in the stock package and downgrade in 401k match these 10%+ percent salary increases put me behind near term (near term being about 3 years until the new company started to vest and become regular earnings).

Copernican ,

My company gives up to an extra 2 weeks of PTO based on years of service. Stock Options/RSU have like a 3 to 5 year pay out vesting timeline with a % of it vesting every year. but you get new grants every year. So after you've been working for 3 or more years, you basically have a "full" grant value vesting every year. throw in 6 percent 401k match at 100 percent match my on paper below market value salary actually returns a pretty good total comp package. I'm not sure if switching every 2 or 3 years would provide me any significant benefit because of how my long term tenure at the company has paid off with these incentives for staying. I imagine there's a probably something about jumping around early vs mid vs late career that factors into this equation too.

Copernican , (edited )

Pensions worked the same way. The difference is personal responsibility and inequity of employment and wage. But who's 401k deprecates in value over the long term anyways? If you select a target fund that should be fine.

Copernican , (edited )

Is it possible that commenter is putting money into retirement accounts but not putting that money into any funds, etfs, or bonds? But even then, I would hope it's in a money market type core position where they are getting some return. But I rolled over all my stuff into a target fund at my new employer 9 years ago. I'm up 21% on my cost basis.

Copernican ,

So my employer did this thing where new hires automatically got enrolled in a 401k. If you did absolutely nothing to your 401k, each year it would automatically up your percentage to a max of Y. Is that common or uncommon? And in this world of 401k over pension, should that be more of a norm to help protect people that don't know better build retirement savings. It doesn't solve the problem of folks not having enough money and needing to use 401k for emergency funds...

Copernican , (edited )

How do you think pension plans make money? They are managed by fiduciaries responsible for investing. Guess where they invest. 20% of the stock market is owned by pension funds :https://retiregenz.com/what-percentage-of-the-stock-market-is-owned-by-pension-funds/

Copernican ,

Yeah, it's a bit of a stretch. I know folks forget to do this when setting up IRAs, but kind of hard to do with 401k. Who knows.

Copernican ,

But isn't the point of this article highlighting personal responsibility can't solve the larger social issue we are facing.

Copernican ,

I think the "Pensions you don’t contribute to and the amount you get is fixed." is a bit murky. If you have a pension that probably means you have a lower salary compared to an equivalent non pension job, because part of your labor value goes into funding the pension. But the main thing is 401(k) puts a lot of responsibility on the individual. And as this article points out, if you put a lot put retirement financial planning on the individual, that creates a larger social problem since many people can't sufficiently do that themselves, even if they are being responsible with what they earn.

Copernican ,

But the point is we can't trust personal responsibility. If a significant volume of the population is basically guaranteed to not invest and save voluntarily for retirement that is always going to be a social problem. Also, there's the problem of employers voluntarily providing retirement programs. Sure, I think there's a question of what or how that savings is invested for retirement (pension, 401k, etc), but it seems there needs to be more mandate to require employer's of a certain size to support retirement plans. And possibly even more mandate to require contributions to retirement plans. The article describes this in Australia: "Australia’s Superannuation Guarantee requires companies to contribute the equivalent of 11 percent of an employee’s monthly pay to an investment account that is controlled by the worker, who can also put in additional money. The “Super,” as it is known, includes full-time and part-time workers and has proved to be enormously successful. With its relatively small population — just 27 million — Australia now has the world’s fourth-highest per capita contributions to a pension system, and almost 80 percent of its work force is covered."

Copernican ,

I thought they already had that during working hours. I swear sometimes while I’m working on the east coast hours, my west coast colleagues signs on at 12PM EST and signs off of 530EST and aren’t around to answer my 6:30 EST pings. Meanwhile I’m waking early for EU client calls, and handling 9PM meetings with Asia offices. So it goes. I don’t think we can have it both ways where you can be remote working from anywhere yet not be on the hook to work hours during the defined operational times. I’m not working 9 to 9EST, and take long breaks mid day if I have evening meetings, but there are operational realities of needing to talk to people to get work done and those times need to be defined.

What are "complicated" taxes that require a professional? (USA)

I always see advice about which software to use and there’s always the advice that FreeTaxUSA is the best bang for your buck and does everything you need for when your taxes are “simple.” I’ve used and thought it was great for years. But as my career has grown and no longer filed as a single I’ve begun to question when...

Copernican OP ,

What’s tricky about RSUs? Doesn’t my brokerage account, fidelity in this case, just provide the forms I need to enter? I also thought if I sold the RSU’s the second they hit my account there was not really a tax implication since taxes were paid from the gross RSU value so my net RSUs were a lot less than than actual gross grant number of RSU.

Low Interest Loan Repayment or CD/HY Savings

Looking to pay off $15k of student loan debt of my partner. It’s something we could wipe out with cash on hand if we wanted to relatively quickly. But one of the loans is 4.5%. Am I better off just riding that out but keeping the cash in for that loan in a HY savings account or keep reinvesting it in short term CD’s that...

Copernican OP ,

Thanks. I didn’t even consider tax implications.

Newly-ish married. How to plan and save for home buying in NYC?

Newliyish married, but the new reality is partner finished law school so going back to the DINK lifestyle. We live in NYC and are lucky to be in a rent regulated apartment. On one hand we realize it’s cheaper to stay there forever, but it’s not the most well maintained building the the amenities aren’t the best… Anyways,...

Copernican OP ,

Saved money isn’t spent money. Sure, we are saving for a down payment, but that’s a multi year project, and if our priorities change we can use the cash for other things. But the point is we are taking advantage of our current low cost rent, and trying to live as if we had that mortgage by putting that difference in cash aside.

Copernican OP , (edited )

Possibility of kids. But looking in Brooklyn in particular. Our place is big enough for 2 kids now, so trying to buy something similar if needed. There is a doom and gloom outlook we have that rent stabilization or the building won’t be around forever and want to make sure we can buy something if needed similar to what we have as renters.

Copernican OP ,

That’s the thing, our rent stabilized place is has location and size, but the amenities and maintenance of the building are lacking. We have actually been curious about doing some renovation ourselves because it’d be cheaper to spend 10 to 20k on renovation and keep the rent stabilized rates than get a similar apartment at market value and pay that rate for 2 years. So that is why we kind of look at the saving strategy as a test of lifestyle. The thing about the market though is all conventional wisdom says don’t put that down payment in the market if you want to buy in the next 5 years.

Copernican OP ,

My purchasing timeline in reality is probably at least 2 years out. So right now the thought is establish the saving plan. Over the next 2 years actually so the research on home ownership logistics.

I appreciate the advice. Thanks!

Copernican OP ,

Totally am. Not maxing out my 401k, but employer does 100 match of 6 percent which gets me close to the same sum compared to folks that max out with less generous matching. I am also doing the planning on how to back door roth ira next year and just converted my old tIRAs.

What the hell is this shit? Instead of pushing for the return to traditional pensions, capitalism is celebrating the idea that Millennials and Gen Z may simply never be able to stop working. ( www.cnbc.com )

Traditionally, retiring entails leaving the workforce permanently. However, experts found that the very definition of retirement is also changing between generations....

Copernican ,

Hell of a fake news editorialize. Where is the “celebration” in this article? You could equally spin this article as “Gen Z and Millennials refuse to contribute to generational wealth and prioritize making capital enrich their lives instead.”

“However, this fear may not be that much of a concern for the younger generation, as most are actually looking to retire early — or to retire at all, the report by Intuit showed.

Traditionally, retiring entails leaving the workforce permanently. However, experts found that the very definition of retirement is also changing between generations.”

I am seeing that with my parents. My dad has had offers to make some pretty good cash as a consultant for a few hours a week here or there. In some industries, like law, a retired judge can make bank working in arbitration where they can pick up just a little work for a good pay check to keep them busy and have more fun money. And then there’s the God’s work that is unpaid, child care for grandchildren. For a generation that has lower birth rates as a personal choice, I can see those folks looking to do part time work if it’s enjoyable and supports their other endeavors.

[US] Dual Income Life Insurance Question

My partner recently started a new job. Prior to her employment I had been paying into my employer personal supplemental insurance as well as spousal insurance. Now that my partner has employer provided and options for employer supplemental life insurance, what should we be looking at doing? Do I stop my spousal life insurance?...

Copernican OP , (edited )

Thanks. For us, our incomes are relatively equal. Currently I make more, but I think my partner has longer term higher earning potential. I am not really looking at it as a wealth generating or retirement investment vehicle. Mostly looking into it as part of benefit elections and modifications since the rates seemed low. The main use for life insurance is really just for risk of untimely death. There are things like student loans, and we live in a high cost of living area as non renters so want the security for each other if something were to happen to not have immediate impact on life style. Both of our default work policies offer 1x to 1.5x annual salary. The supplemental coverage we were looking for each was to add an extra 2x or 3x salary. Child care is something we also think about in the event we have children in the next year or 2 as well.

When it comes to supplemental long term disability… What is considered a decent amount of coverage. If the included employer offers 40% salary, with supplemental up to 60%, how do I evaluate what is right for me? It’s about 700 bucks year for the supplemental through my employer.

Copernican ,

Just to be clear, this is ESPP type for a publicly traded company? What are the EU rules for holding?

For me, at Fortune 500 company it’s been great. Not super sexy growth, but most of my lots are stable. And even lots that have lost value have not really fallen below the discount price. I think the challenge for me was the combo if ESPP as well as Stock Option and RSU’s quickly led to a place where I was/am overexposed to the company for my non retirement investment. You need to be disciplined to annually, or quarterly, selling shares and reinvesting to diversify.

On the downside, if shit hits the fan with your company, it sucks. You could lose your job and lot of value in stock if you have so much. That said, if you believe in the company and already have a somewhat diverse portfolio of index funds or other holdings, it’s probably a no brainer to opt in.

Stop Loss Securities as Savings/Emergency Funds safe?

Is it safe to treat stocks and ETFs in my brokerage account as savings and emergency funds as long as I have a significant number of lots with a Stop Loss or Stop Limit Order in place? My Savings Account technically doesn’t cover 3 months of expense, but combined with my brokerage account it does. Is it safe to be have 1 month...

Copernican ,

Bring on the tanks.

Copernican ,

Although I love the gothamiat. I think they should pay taxes. But what does this have to do with personal finance?

Pay off student loan debt or invest?

Is there a general rule of thumb on student loan interest rates and whether or not it’s better to pay off ASAP vs invest in an index fund? Sold a lot of company stock from an ESPP and RSU program that happens to be the value of our household’s student loan debt that is just entering repayment after graduation. Can’t tell...

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • random
  • All magazines