Madison MoneySports - Personal Finance Thread

[WRXtranceformed]

Still too poor for heated toilet water

My brother's old apartment in Arlington was so quickly and poorly built that the plumbers ran a hot water line to his toilet. It would steam your nut sack every time you sat on it. It was kind of nice and weird at the same time

[Tyler.M]

All good points, I think I'm prepping for myself if I inherit a bunch of property..If the day does come and I have a windfall like that, I would imagine continuing to rent and hold on the homes that require less maintenance would be fine and just hang on to the commercial properties for as long as possible. Trying to buy myself and hold that all together without a group willing to do so too would not be my ideal lifestyle. That's why commercial lot development seems like a good idea if I had the capital. Who knows? I still plan to focus most of my retirement into 401(k)'s, Roth and stock market investment but I'd like something else, too.

[ScottyB]

However “real estate investment” of personal property does not give you anything into retirement as you have to live SOMEWHERE

bold of you to assume i'm not selling everything and living my best hobo life out of a van in the sierras

[V1GiLaNtE]

For me I think its a 10-15 year 'investment' in both time and money, that I hope would include a bunch of houses.  My thinking is that houses in the $150-200k range, probably in Richmond, that I can rent out enough to net $500/mo after management fees.  

You better move quick there bub. Those homes don't really exist anywhere or at least where you think a reputable renter pool exists..Richmond housing market is very competitive and not that pipe dream is was 5-6 years ago.

[.RJ]

Yep, its blowing up. But still plenty of cheap small properties, mostly looking around the hospital (always renters there)

[V1GiLaNtE]

Yep, its blowing up.  But still plenty of cheap small properties, mostly looking around the hospital (always renters there)

Which one..... lol

[Apoc]

At least real estate Covid proof... for now?

I always sat on two months expenses in cash (savings account) for years just in case. I thought maybe I was crazy, then we starting paying bills by selling Google RSUs. None of that prior value was mine until it sold anyway, but it just feels better to try and weather this with cash than have to sell stock that's worth 20% less than it was in February.

[Senor_Taylor]

Yeah, I'm starting to get concerned. Potentially cancelling my roll cage appointment in April. Doesn't make sense to spend that kind of cash with all of this going down.

[Sijray21]

I always sat on two months expenses in cash (savings account) for years just in case.

i've been sitting on more now for a while. Is that not what people do? i thought 3-6 mo of expenses in a liquid medium was preferred, no?

[Apoc]

I always sat on two months expenses in cash (savings account) for years just in case.

i've been sitting on more now for a while. Is that not what people do? i thought 3-6 mo of expenses in a liquid medium was preferred, no?

Stocks are considered liquid. The market can be shut down, but also "cash" withdrawals/transfers can be suspended from banks.

[D_Eclipse9916]

At least real estate Covid proof... for now?

I always sat on two months expenses in cash (savings account) for years just in case. I thought maybe I was crazy, then we starting paying bills by selling Google RSUs. None of that prior value was mine until it sold anyway, but it just feels better to try and weather this with cash than have to sell stock that's worth 20% less than it was in February.

For now, my two rentals have contracts through mid-to-late 2021.  While that is no guarantee; people typically stay put when they have families and don't know where the economy is headed.

Just have to wait out 60-90 days for mortgage rate applications to drop and then banks will drop with the big rate drop.  Dropping my investment property mortgages from 4.375% to 3.75% will save me almost $450/month between the two properties.  More if they continue to drop in rates.  Even now, nobody is willing to beat 4.375% without points in investment properties. 

Taking the down payments from the two homes out of the stock market mid and late 2019 proved out to be a good move.  Sad for my kid's college fund where I waited and threw in a bunch at Dow ~25k but it's got 15 years to recover.  I am relying on Dollar Cost Averaging for our 401k/TSP/IRA/personal funds at this point.

[Apoc]

We're at 3.75%, so a refinance break even is probably 3-5 years away depending on how low they go. I think they only reason I'd do it is if we wanted to pull some equity out to pay bills for awhile... and that's a pretty expensive prospect. With respect to stock, I've landed on just riding it out. I didn't want the tax hit to sell things and well, now it just seems like chasing my tail to do anything. Net worth is down ~10% in the last week, but it is what it is and we have years to recover. At this point, I'm more concerned about possibly being unemployed next week and having to pay for COBRA. 

[D_Eclipse9916]

We're at 3.75%, so a refinance break even is probably 3-5 years away depending on how low they go. I think they only reason I'd do it is if we wanted to pull some equity out to pay bills for awhile... and that's a pretty expensive prospect. With respect to stock, I've landed on just riding it out. I didn't want the tax hit to sell things and well, now it just seems like chasing my tail to do anything. Net worth is down ~10% in the last week, but it is what it is and we have years to recover. At this point, I'm more concerned about possibly being unemployed next week and having to pay for COBRA. 

Yeah my personal home I bought 2 years ago is not worth the reduction until 15 year rates hit 2.5% without points. (2 years into a 20 year loan currently).

I thought you were corporate Google or Amazon?  Are they prepping for major moves?

In 4-6 weeks if this continues; it's going to disastrous.  Concerned for some friends; and especially neighbors.  If you didn't know, I work a side gig with an IMSA GT3 Cup Team.  Our season just got nixed for the next 60 days minimum.  Worried less about the shop, but all the fly-in crew guys that depend on this income.  Already talk of doing multiple "tests" at local tracks to help generate income; but what will the drivers want to spend?  These crew guys are not set up to absorb 3-6 month losses.

[rherold9]

Well, sometimes procrastination can work in your favor. I've delayed so long working on my car and setting appointments for things (cage, engine swap, etc.) that I have plenty of budget if shit hits the fan.

I feel like I'm in a pretty comfortable position at work atm. I work in collections so this will only help strength my job I'd hope.

All that aside, seeing the market take a doodoo as an adult with actual investments is pretty crazy. As a younger kid I didn't really see it in first person when there was the crash in the mid/late 00's. Now I get it and we aren't even that bad yet

[Senor_Taylor]

My company announced downsizing a few days before all of this stuff really went down. Interesting times lie ahead.

[Apoc]

I thought you were corporate Google or Amazon?  Are they prepping for major moves?

I've been on disability from Google since August and it's directly related to my job there. My disability has run out and I am not interested in returning to that job, I'm interviewing for a transfer internally. I should hear back from my latest interview this week. If I don't get it, I will likely resign from Google. We're fine for income; I do not want to pay for COBRA. Most Google job are in CA, which is a non-starter for us.

Staying in my current role really isn't an option, so I've been interviewing at other companies too. Google's short term disability has been great, but our bills have been getting paid by selling Google RSU that vested last year for about two months months (read: haven't gotten a paycheck in two months). It's really unfortunate timing for sure, but many many people are a lot worse off so no complaints here.

[JPolen01]

We locked in at 3.1% for our new mortgage about a week and a half ago. Since then rates are back up around 4%. Thank you Covid-19!!

[WRXtranceformed]

Made a very healthy buy into MSFT yesterday! $135 a minute before closing bell was too tasty to ignore for a long term hold

If AMZN breaks into the 1500s again, I'll buy it again

[Apoc]

Finally did our taxes. Just barely went over the standard deduction and was a few hundred dollars over the SALT cap for deductions. Our tax liability is significantly lower this year, but I also made a good bit less in 2019 due to a number of reasons.

Incorporating household employees (nanny) into our tax return is annoying if for no other reason I get to see those dollars get taxed every time they change hands (i.e. when I earn the money and then again when I give it to her). We pay a premium for payroll admin and it is 100% worth a couple hundred dollars a year so all her W-2 and whatnot are prepped for me.

Also, AMZN is kicking ass the last four days when most of the market has alternated. I think people are buying because it's cheaper but also because Amazon is to COVID as Home Depot is to hurricanes. Earnings may be through the roof.

[HAULN-SS]

So my fun money brokerage account is now back up to about +16.5% from being down -20% a couple of months ago. Account was started January 2019. Anyone thinking of going to bonds or something safer for a bit? I'm about to double my entire portfolio with some bonus money, and trying to decide what to do with it. I have about half my portfolio in VOO (tracks S&P500), 1/4 in bonds, and 1/4 in tech stocks. Almost everything has been in long enough to not be considered short term. AAPL is up 65% since I bought, so I hesitate to "sell a winner". I suppose I could keep what I have and use the supplemental money to rebalance to safer plays? I don't have any immediate need for most of the money, but we are looking to build an addition on the house this year, and I am trying to decide whether or not to pay cash for that by liquidating this, or get a loan or equity line for it. Any opinions?