Retirement plans?

So my woman and I are thinking of converting a sprinter into a tiny home specifically to live in for 3 years and save most of our income (about 140k/yr minimum between us once she graduates school) for three years and invest that money for our retirement. That way no matter what happens, we’ve at least secured some form of income when we’re too old to work. Or if something happens to one of us.


My question is what plans would be the best to invest the chunk in with monthly addition budget of about 500? Mutual funds? Ira’s , etc? I’m not super learndeded in matters of late life planning as I’ve always intended on dying before old age.

oh btw, I’m like totally engaged now. Weird. Never been married or engaged in a serious way.

this getting older shit is weird and foreign.

 

Two strokes


(Yeah I stole that)

 

Shoulda seen that coming

 

Oh fuck I just saw the retirement plan thread on the 3rd page. My bad mods!

 

The best retirement plan is to not spend all your disposable income chasing $3 wooden plaques in your 20's......Terrible ROI lol.

 

Yah well....

 

Hookers and blow.


Too soon?

 

How dare you

 

Is there anyway the mods can just delete this thread and I’ll repost the question as a reply? I’ve already copied and saved the text

 

No chance... this thread has great potential.

Why you shacking up in a Mercedes when you could go for a Dodge and save $$$?

Will there be a prenup?

 

We want to keep it on the functional luxury side image wise. We’re going to buy a black Mercedes GLA to go with the largest model black used Mercedes sprinter. also we’ll have a bike to go on little adventures in (if only they made bikes, that would satisfy my ocd) I’ll take the van to work and fill it with water daily, do maintenance... etc. she’ll take the GLA. We’ll get a cheap storage unit and keep extra clothes and things we don’t need every day. We’ll shower at the gym, etc.

 

Buying 2 Mercedeseses and saving for retirement while being homeless does not really compute. A 5 year old Mercedes is worth practically nothing and will cost an arm and a leg for maintenance.

 

I do all my own maintenance. And actually like working on German cars. And we’d be buying used models across the board. I can get a crashed, lightly used GLA for 5-10 grand. The sprinter probably around 20-25 or way cheaper if I buy a wrecked one. I do collision repair for a living and actually have quite a bit of experience with repairing sprinters. I also especially like repairing Mercedes, Audi’s, and bmw’s. And we won’t be putting a shit ton of miles as we still intend to live and work in Los Angeles.

Also.... I’ve been homeless. we lost our house because my parents were strung out on dope when I was little. I was homeless again when I ran away from home at 14 because I couldn’t stand it anymore and slept in abandoned homes with other punks and cholos until my grandmother came looking for me. Hell we were homeless January of last year after I lost everything this last stint being locked up. Ive slept on the streets. having a nicely built big van is a far cry from being homeless. Homeless is desperate. I wouldn’t call choosing #vanlife while making 140k homeless.

 

My knowledge of that stuff might be dated.

There is a cap to how much you can put every year into an IRA. So that lump sum you are starting with may have to be split between putting the maximum in an IRA and the rest in a regular brokerage account that you can invest into mutual funds.

Going forward, put the monthly money into your IRA up to the maximum allowed, and the rest into your brokerage account. You want to maximize the IRA first because it's before-tax money from your income. The amount you put into your IRA will be deducted from your income in the current year for tax purposes. You will pay taxes on the IRA money when you take it out after your retirement and likely in a lower tax bracket.

Talk to a professional. It's well worth the money, especially if you don't know what you're doing. You can get your ass burned buying the wrong stuff for your profile at the wrong time.

At a minimum, there's got to be "investing for dummies"-type books you can get to get started.

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdKdL0iSSpgqXrxL9yOf3iPMd2WS6kCon

 

How about if you start to do it in your 40's ?

 

just make the money first

 

Depends if you're spending all that money you saved in your 20's .

 

Then you're WAY behind the curve..but it's still NOT too late.

Also, once you turn 50, I believe from 50-60 there's an "catch up" clause that increases your ability to contribute to your IRA and/or 401K.

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plan...oyee/retirement-topics-catch-up-contributions

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/401k-plan-catch-up-contribution-eligibility

As far as specific plans, Fidelity has their "Freedom 20xx" funds. the "xx" being the year you plan on retiring. If you're 40 now, and plan to retire at 65, then
you'd be looking at the "Freedom 2045" Fund/Plan. It's a mutual fund that matures on the year you plan to retire. The Fund Managers have up to that time
manged the investments for that fund from more aggressive when it's younger, to more conservative as the fund reaches it's maturity date. (At least that's how I understand
it to work) I had to roll a 401K after I changed jobs about 15 years ago. I did some looking around and found these Freedom Funds and decided to give it a shot. It's done quite well.
Mine's MorningStar rating was pretty good, and it's percentage of return over 5 and 10 years was also good.

Nice thing about Mutual Funds is investing there automatically distributes your investments for you.

 

Don't over think it IMO. Put money in and divide it between Small, Mid and Large Cap. You could add International as that is current advice, I don't. IMO the risk is high the return low and I try to avoid business with someone I might have to kill later, YMMV.

Buy and hold. Don't market time just consistently do that over and over. Oh one other mod if you are risk adverse is to add Bond funds, maybe split between gov and diverse. At a young age I would not exceed 25% for bonds, I did far less.

People will tell you all kinds of get rich schemes but that one works every time all the time.

Add in get rid of debt and get a paid for house. When you retire you have money, few payments and a place to live.

In case it was not clear on the caps do it in mutual funds and getting started I would go for index funds (again don't up the complexity until you feel comfortable). The Sprinter sounds good in spirit but you put yourself in something that is not comfortable and goes down in value. If you are going to be where you are for 5 years or more buy a house. Otherwise rent cheap instead of living out of a van, if your house has a title rather than a deed it is a bad idea.

Others will tell you of successes that are real but it is like Vegas only the winners brag not the dude that lost big. You might be the winner and if so good for you. But slow and steady wins 100% of the time in finances, one day you realize you gains are larger than your contributions.

Lastly in my ramble also don't neglect cash. You need some for when life nut punches you as sadly it will. The journey with a funded emergency fund and less debt will help keep panic out of your decision process.

Good luck too both of you. And get off my lawn/dinner bitch!

EDIT: reading above I forgot one other thing. Diversify!!!!!! Do not put all your money or funds in one company/place/fund. If someone is promising above average returns either walk away or be VERY paranoid. The people at Enron who only had 10% in company stock were thought to be losers when the company was booming (falsely) but experienced a minor setback rather than a life changing disaster.