market seems convinced trump is going to cave again on tariffs after a call with Xi (in reality due to the bond market continued sell off) rugpull coming
If I were getting paid weekly instead of monthy and the changes were automatically applied, then I would consider adjusting a few % +/- for when the market is topped or bottomed. Buy more when stocks are down and buy less when stocks are high. Of course, it would be better for me to simply max out contributions and leave them alone but I'm a poor.
No. I've got it set up to max out at the end of the year and adjust the % down based on how big my bonus is and any OT.
yeah, my employer match is biweekly too so I need to spread that shit out across the year to ensure I don’t max out too early and then lose any match
Mine does a true up if we max early, I just like having a consistent income per month for budgeting purposes.
I’ve been doing some reading on old posts from 2008-2012 on the Bogleheads forum to read how people were feeling in real time as the Great Recession was occurring. I don’t really have any idea how things will unfold if Trump somehow gets rid of Powell, the tariffs resume and continue for good, or if shit goes down with the treasury/national debt, but I found this 2011 post on the Bogleheads forum particularly comforting. https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=79939
A great forum read is the investing discussion of the folks who poured money into what didn't make it to apple iphone glass, many years back. Who can find that link
Haven't read the link yet but Trump taking away the Fed's independence will be a huge fuck up. Of course, all of the branches giving Trump supreme authority is just as bad. Even if Trump was 100% correct about everything and had nothing but good intentions for the people and the country, all of these actions are setting precedent for the next power hungry president to rule unchecked with good or bad intentions.
S&P 500 posts longest winning streak in 20 years as Trump and China show some willingness to bend on trade https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/investing/us-stock-market
Buffett stepping down from Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year. Also, he took time to criticize Trump during his annual shareholder meeting. Spoiler Buffett took time during the meeting to slam Trump for his harsh trade war. “I don’t think it’s right, and I don’t think it’s wise,” he said. “There is no question that trade can be an act of war, and I think it’s led to bad things, just the attitudes it’s brought out.” Buffett also told the crowd that “trade should not be a weapon.” “It’s a big mistake, in my view, when you have 7.5 billion people that don’t like you very well, and you’ve got 300 million that are crowing in some way about how well they’ve done,” he added. Buffett went on to rip the president’s callous remarks that international allies are “screwing” the American people. Trump’s “America First” trade war has imposed tariffs as high as 145 percent on other countries and led to major swings in the newly-unstable market. “I do not think it’s a great idea to try and design a world where a few countries say, ‘Ha ha ha, we’ve won,’ and other countries are envious,” Buffett said. “The more prosperous [the world becomes] and the safer we’ll feel, and your children will feel one day.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/warren-buffett-steps-down-after-slamming-trump/
This guy is usually pretty pessimistic, been waiting for him to release something. To my surprise it was a rosy titled look at the current state of affairs. https://earlyretirementnow.com/2025/05/09/market-musings-recession-fears-trade-war-end-of-fire/
If I want to do the back door Roth IRA, do I need to drop the lump sum of 7k in an IRA then immediately covert it, or I can contribute to the 1k per month for the rest of the year to get to the 7k then convert it?
Either way. The former is cleaner because any money earned between your contribution and conversion is taxable income. If you contribute and immediately convert as soon as you can, you maybe have like $1 in taxable income between the two events. At least with vanguard, there’s always a small lag for me between the two events.
Very important to remember the stock market is not based on logic so the "This time is different" literally never applies.
Wondering what everyone’s thoughts are on shifting some retirement deductions from pretax 403b to MBD Roth IRA. After pension, and my wife and I both maxing out our 403B/401K we’re still in the 24% tax bracket. I’m thinking about what our taxes might look like when RMDs hit. Might it make sense to shift some from one of our 403/401 to a MBD Roth IRA so as to lessen the tax burden when RMDs come around?
When do you want to take it in the shorts or when does the tax burden hurt you more? I’ve been doing pretax so as to max take home during wealth creation and still do as much cool shit as possible when the kids are young. But obviously there’s a great case for Roth and having no future tax liability at retirement.
If I were to adjust my contribution I would do it in such a way that my take home was the same. I’m thinking we’ll fall into the same tax bracket, or what’s now the 22% tax bracket, at the start of our retirement, but I’m now thinking at some point we might be in what’s now the 32% bracket, especially with my wife’s pension. I’m thinking it might be worth it to take some hits now to not have that concern down the road.
I took my 2024 bonus on Wednesday and invested it all in UNH. Took a fantastic beating yesterday for that dumbass move. Regained half back today but that was fun yesterday