A good daydream for normal people involves winning the lottery or scoring a lifetime pass to the Maldives. Good, normal thoughts. Mine used to be daydreaming that I was the only person left in the world because that meant I could now go into any restaurant and eat for free. No joke, that was my to-go daydream in middle school -_-

At age 13, the KFC on Taraval street was the first place I wanted to be after being left behind in the Rapture. Even back in those school days, I was a pig.

But more common with me lately has been a daydream of outperforming the market, which is probably just as insane. Just think about when income, in the long run, could become irrelevant compared to growth. When your income doesn’t have to come from working anymore – holy moly, wouldn’t that be a beautiful sight?

Our Partnership

So Hubby and I started sharing the responsibilities of teaching ourselves topics related to investing. It’s one helluva convoluted subject and everyone gets to set their own spice blend.

We don’t learn the same things and it’s clear we do not process the information the same way, at all. He is going towards alternatives forms of investing and I stick with my Boglehead derivatives. Then we come together and merge minds. That’s what we’ve been doing with our spare time when we have the time. We discuss, inquire, and explain what we learned to each other.

It’s a very slow process as you can imagine, but we both learn better this way. Plus we have a while to go until we hit that FI point (formula below). There’s no “yolo” here yet. We are trying to use both our personalities to our advantage as a partnership because much about investing is understanding self. The natural brief is if we can teach each other in a sufficient way that means we have absorbed it correctly and that’s the first step.

Safety First

Our real point for fatFIRE is safety as we’re naturally careful. Food isn’t as costly as a flight or hotel stay but it is indeed all I (mostly) need to be happy. What did I want to do with the rest of my fatty FI time? Take the kiddies to ballet? Go back for more pole dancing fitness lessons? What’s oddball fun that requires a brain so I don’t turn into soup?

Less beach sand and campouts; more being in bed with all the time in the world, surrounded by take-out food and digging back into Security Analysis with hubby (which was basically what I did this entire weekend.) Throw a few hours of deep life passion projects in there and that’s the recipe for a great day.

The reason for fatter financial independence is to have that margin of safety. It doesn’t mean we use it to live it up. Not into that, it’s really against this particular oddball’s programming, to be frank.

Math-ish

Here’s a random equation my Hippo came up with, it’s not anything complicated. Just solving for what returns to aim or salary or starting amount (ie money baby :P).

Legend

r1 = Passive Returns

r2 = Active Returns

S = Salary (After Tax; Before Expenses)

MB = Money Baby (Investable Portfolio)

Equations

r2MB = r1MB + S

S = r2MB – r1MB

S = (r2 – r1) MB

MB = S / (r2 – r1) 

All 4 solve for the same things basically.

A Typical Example

MB = S / (r2 – r1) 

$2,500,000 = $100,000 / 0.10 – 0.06

After decades of diligent saving and maybe some luck with a rich, dead uncle, you’re ready to hang up your day job. So let’s say you dedicate time to managing part of your portfolio and do the homework to generate a higher return rather than staying at a job you hate grinding away.

A typical household or individual making a salary of $100,000 annually will need a minimum of investable $2,500,000 assets returning at an annual average of 4% more to make it “worth it” enough to let go of the day gig. You would need to generate an extra 4% in returns to make up for the $100k salary with a 2.5mil money baby. If the S&P 500 did 6% then you aim for 4% on top of that. If one can do that then it makes sense to give up the day job and start hooking bigger fish.

Caveats

An easy scenario above, no-brainer, but life isn’t easy. What impacts your numbers will be a huge component of other things like your initial capital (money baby) and income level. Then you have to figure out if assumed effort into managing your own portfolio would yield higher returns that could beat the market. That is not an easy feat for us peasants without a crystal ball or decent diligence.

Then you have to neglect the fact that, without a job, you will not have health insurance and that will always be another wild card in the deck. Lastly, you would also have to assume your expenses will be the same. That’s hard to say. Perhaps without a job, it’s possible to move to a lower cost of living area and geoarbitrage your savings that way.

Summary

In a nutshell, the formulas are not perfect. There are various factors that will impact this formula that goes beyond just math. Income is not the only reason why people choose to work. Some people find meaning in their work and would never give it up. Some people hate their soul-sucking job and would live happier, longer lives without one. That is up to the individual. Portfolio returns are never guaranteed. We are all trying to figure out at what level do those diminishing returns make it worth it.

Besides that, according to the math, the rich indeed get richer. That’s one reason why Warren Buffett doesn’t beat the market anymore. Imagine his position in any value stock would immediately flood it and there’s very little value right now for his gargantuan sum. Compounding is powerful. Put strong returns and the two together and most of everything that trips us up today becomes irrelevant. That’s why I stress when frugality stops being fun and money isn’t a problem to let go of the small things.

~

Top Money Resources We Use:

• Survey Junkie: Survey Junkie is one of the few survey companies that is actually 100% legitimate, user-friendly, and great for actually making extra money. Payout to PayPal is available. Earn up to $1,000 a month doing surveys online.

• Personal Capital: Sign up and use their net worth calculator for FREE. They are a free financial service platform that helps you analyze your portfolio, retirement, and financial health all on one simple & secure account.

• Ibotta: I thought this app was overrated before trying it myself. The “any item” promos instantly save you money after scanning your grocery receipt. Ibotta also hosts promos and contests for your team to save more by working together. You can get $10 if you sign up.

Found this article helpful? Check out our sister blog that has all topics related to making extra money and working from home.

~

Over a nice quiet dinner out with my husband we discussed the trending post-retirement topics inside our home this week. Financial independence city contenders for our desired lifestyle was one of the big points. Tinkering with viable long-term business ideas is another one. Then we talked about commodities trading and alternative investments.

Lastly, the much uglier topic was what would we do if our health became shaky or health care became even more expensive. If everything is going well, we much prefer to gamble for ourselves but life throws nasty curve balls. One of the most unfair of such curve balls is that wildcard healthcare. If we plan for children then the healthcare situation gets even riskier.

When I was in college, I joked to my ex-boyfriend Mr. Executive, that my dream job was to be a Wal-Mart greeter. I would love to spend every day saying “hey, howdy, hi!” to Wal-Mart shoppers.

Of course, I was also 19 years old at the time but that idea wouldn’t be half bad to get me over a rough spot. If it comes down to it, my husband or I could be your next Walmart greeter!

 Related Reads:

• All You Need to Know About Becoming an Amazon Flex Driver (Starting $18 to $30/hr)
• 7+ Companies That Will Pay You To Lose Weight (Really!)
• How To Work From Home Creating a Profitable Doggy Day Care

IKEA

Who doesn’t love the Swedish furniture giant IKEA? When I ran my Airbnb, we had guests that drove all the way from Iowa (where there is apparently no IKEA) to come check out our local IKEA. That’s a long way to drive for a taste of meatballs! Here’s another reason to love IKEA, generous benefits for even part-time workers!

That means that all of our co-workers, both full-time and part-time, hourly and salaried, and their dependents are eligible for at least a portion of our comprehensive benefits package.

Our benefits package, just one way that we aim to make IKEA a great place to work, includes the following and more!

• Competitive medical and prescription plan (for co-workers who work more than 20 hours/week)

• Generous 401(k), dental and vision plans

• Retirement plan called “Tack” (the Swedish word for “thank you”)

• Tuition assistance

• Co-worker discount and meal deal

• Pet insurance

• Generous parental and paid-time off package

Lowes

Lowes provides the same work benefits to part-time employees as to their full-time employees which is amazing. Full benefits include:

“Part-time Medical Plans, Pharmacy Discount Card, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short Term Disability, Critical Illness, Accident Insurance, Fixed Indemnity, Auto and Home Insurance, Vacation, Holiday, 401(k) Plan, and Employee Stock Purchase Plan.”

All employees have 30 days to enroll and coverage will begin after the new month after working for 30 days. Part-time workers can transition to full-time employment internally. On top of benefits, Lowes provide learning and career development in demand trade program. Awesome. Note: Home Depot (Lowes competitor) does not offer medical or AD&D insurance to part-time associates. They only offer vision, dental, disability, and life insurance.

Starbucks

Starbucks offer benefits including medical, dental, life insurance and vision coverage. 401k matching and free college achievement plan make Starbucks a great company to work part-time. In order to receive Starbucks benefits, part-timers must work 20+ hours per week.

Wal-Mart

Working at Wally World might not always be glamorous (unless you were me at 19) but their health and work benefits are a step up. Walmart pays about 75% of healthcare premium cost and 60% of total health care costs for all working and eligible full or part-time associates. Walmart provides: medical plans to start at $23.20 per pay period, dental, vision, spouse coverage, HSA, disability, illness, company discount, 401k, stock and the list goes on and on.

Amazon Fulfillment

Yes, Amazon Warehouse has received backlash for work conditions. But in a pinch, seasonal work and employees working more than 20 hours per week come with benefits like overtime pay, life and AD&D insurance at the time of this article. Amazon, like Starbucks, also has tuition reimbursement if they study-related fields in demand and relevant to a future career at Amazon. These Amazon careers include “medical technicians, paralegals, robotics engineers and solar panel installation professionals.” Well, that totally hints at what Amazon’s future plans are huh? Medicine, robotics, and renewable energy?

Recommended Reads:

• How I Made Over $2,400 on MTurk With This Survival Guide
• 11 Real Ways You Can Make Money With Your Car?
• Can Being a Friend-For-Rent Really Make Extra Money? – Rent A Friend Review

Chipotle

All eligible part-time or full-time workers at Chipotle can get health insurance for themselves and their life partner. Dental and vision are covered for part-time employees and varying medical plans for individuals. 401k and matching after the first working year are available as well as tuition reimbursement for those that don’t want to work in fast food for a lifetime.

Costco

Part-time employees working at Costco enjoy good health care coverage (medical, vision, prescription, hearing, and behavioral) for them and their families. Other benefits include core dental plan, 401k plan, dependent care assistance, disability, life insurance to eligible part-timers who has worked for 180 days or 600 hours.

REI

Sweet deal, I didn’t know this about REI. As long as you are working more than 20 hours a week, REI pays for the majority of employees’ medical plan cost with the Flex Plan. With generous profit-sharing benefits, health insurance, disability, life insurance, traditional 401k and even tuition reimbursement among other perks, it’s perfect for a full-time student looking for a part-time gig. But you need to work at REI for more than 1-year part-time to qualify for their benefits.

Nike has part-time health coverage for part-timers working over 20+. I will refrain since there is no evidence that policy is here today except they do offer sick time for part-time employees.

JP Morgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase offers a benefits package that includes life and accidental insurance, medical insurance, reimbursement for tuition, child care assistance and discounts on in-house products as long as you perform over 20 hours of work per week.

 Recommended Reads:

• How To Make Money as a Notary Public
• 45+ Legit Ways to Make Quick Money Before Pay Day
• 105 Ridiculously Easy Crafts to Make & Sell for Money

Trader Joe’s

This is my personal experience but isn’t the workers at Trader Joe’s are happier looking than a run-of-the-mill grocery chain employee? Starting salaries are higher at Trader Joe’s. Part-timers are eligible for medical, dental and vision at a small fee of $75/month and paid time off with more tenure. Trader Joe’s retirement match is at 10% of annual salary and annual salary increases based on tenure. There is also a 10% discount on Trader Joe products for in-store employees.

Whole Foods

Whole Foods provides part-time employees with a decent health plan and overtime pay for those working 20+ hours a week. Employees get 20% to 30% off your sale purchases which is great for spending if you are a student. Like Trader Joe’s the working environment is more relaxed and WF has a good 401k plan.

Federal/State/Army/Government

Generally, industries regarding the state and federal government as well as the U.S. army come with well-equipped perks. Joining the army reserves is one avenue for part-time employees to receive some healthcare and family benefits.

UPS

UPS is one of the few companies that provide full-time perks for their part-time workers. United Postal Service offers hourly employees full benefits in medical, dental, HSA, life insurance, stock purchase incentives and tuition assistance for getting Associates and Bachelor’s degrees. Very impressive and a win-win for part-time workers!

FedEx

Like UPS, FedEx offers competitive offers PTO and health, dental, and vision insurance, 401k etc. It is harder to move from part-time work to full-time for those working under 25 hours a week. But it’s an excellent way to build up experience right out of school for good benefits.

Barnes & Noble

Yes, we are all confused why Amazon has not killed off Barnes & Noble yet. But let’s hope they don’t roll over since part-time employees are able to receive paid vacation, sick days, and annual holidays. Furthermore, part-time employees can also enroll in dental and health plans after six months of employment.

“That’s Interesting!“

• Panhandling: How Much Money Do Panhandlers REALLY Make?
• How To Make Money As An Instagram Influencer (Internet Fame That Pays?)
• 39 People Who Got Richer AFTER Quitting Their Day Jobs
• Can Being a “Friend-For-Rent” Really Make Extra Money?

Nursing

Healthcare is naturally an industry that offers strong benefits to employees. One of the best perks about the nursing pathway are the hours you can choose to work as a nurse, traveling or non-traveling. Part-time perks vary depending on the institution but often include bonus pay, medical, dental, vision, retirement + matching for all employed nurses.

Aldi

Aldi skirts the definition of part-time and full-time. Working at an Aldi for more than 25 hours a week essentially means you are full-time which has full benefits. Anything less such as part-time has no benefits besides emergency days off.

This is something they never taught us in school when I feel like it’s one of the most important things to know. Please, please, please do not take for granted the ‘perks’ of a good job.

Without basic healthcare, retirement benefits, and respectable working conditions, it would be hard to build any wealth being exposed to the elements of real, raw, life.

This is a fun post where I let my mind run wild under all the different possibilities of extreme wealth. I got the idea from both Joe (Retire by 40) and Frugal Asian.

I’m assuming we have all heard of the term leanFIRE, fatFIRE and moFIRE now? While I introduced my Hippo to the general concept of FIRE and investing, it was my husband who made me aware of these sub-categories of early retirees:

LeanFIRE

…is the only steadfast ruled out of the 3 categories. It’s basically 25x your annual spending or a conservative withdrawal rate of 4% ($40K) with $1 million bucks invested in liquid assets such as stocks and dividends.

LeanFIRE is something I find to be very practical. It’s enough FU money to be financially free at a safe 4% withdrawal and after that, you can devote your time to work that matters to you.

I would happily leanFIRE with less than $1 million because I’m confident in the power of frugality and my resourcefulness. Plus, $1 million dollars is still quite a lot of money even these days.

The main issue would be the future landscape of healthcare and the cost of raising a family. Those were my husband’s biggest concern, that and the fact that we are towards the end of a bull run. There’s a difference between retiring with a million dollars in 2011 vs a million dollars in 2018.

FatFIRE

…is (at least I’ve always thought of it as) as having a return of around $100K or greater. It still has to apply to the 25x-30x rule of LeanFIRE but the net worth number is naturally bigger.

Generally, I think of the $100K threshold as a solidly “middle-class” number. A family of 4 could live comfortably, but not extravagantly, on that amount with $2.5 million invested.

Mr. Husband thinks that’s perfect for us. He works in big tech so there’s burn out abound. Engineers do not typically have long career spans. Big tech likes fresh young things and burns them out quick. Sometimes the salaries even go backward if they don’t reach a certain level by a certain age.

The 10 years FIRE date is based on my husband. We should land on our target of $4 million in about a decade; not sure. We seem to be at the end of a long bull run and either of us is optimistic about future returns so we’re padding that into the estimate, along with inflation.

Morbidly Obese FIRE

(This name, my sides xD hahaha) is one tier ahead of the paltry $100k return per year of fatFIRE. I first heard of this term on Physicians on FIRE’s “What is fatFIRE” and I couldn’t stop laughing. I wouldn’t try to Google moFIRE right now. Even the all-knowing search engine thinks I’m asking for something…totally different.

I think this category of Financial Independence peeps just really like having lots of money or purely enjoy to keep busy with their work (high 5!) There’s absolutely nothing wrong with obese FIRE, it’s just a different tune but the same song and dance.

I don’t really know what amount quantifies as moFIRE. PoF said $200k+ in annual spending which means $5+ million. I think it should be left ambiguous as a catch-all since it’s going to be on the way out fringe of most early retirees anyways.

 Related Reads:

• How Much Money Does Our Frugality Save? (Spoiler: $56,000+/Year)
• Eat Ugly, Save Money? Imperfect Produce Review (+ FREE COUPON)
• Everything ‘Married…With Children’ Did That Kept Them Poor

Is Fatty Fatty FatFIRE Possible?

Not without us feeling very guilty at first I’ll tell you that much.

After a lifetime of frugal habits, I am sort of doubting we would surpass a personal spending of $40,000/year.

That means we can just live on my income (at my current income now) and maintain that standard since I don’t plan on “retiring.” Then we can let what we’ve built just ride.

Having been accidentally influenced by Mr. Executive in my very early 20s, he changed how I pictured my adult life. Like him, I will always be working on some scheme and building passive streams. I’ve said it over and over and over again but most people don’t really understand the nature of people like me.  It’s just not me to go on very long without making up ideas that frighten the husband.

If we play our cards according to plan over the next decade, we could reach some forms of obese FIRE goals on this list.

What Obese FIRE does not look like to me:

• Accumulation of “stuff”
• Private schools
• McMansions
• Flashy cars/boats/jetsetc.
• Expensive clothes/accessories/shoes (I rather thrift shop for adventure)

It just doesn’t do anything for us, to each their own?

I think I’m dead in the imagination because there’s not much I want more than all that I already have.

(Again, this list might probably not be super obese FIRE to some people much richer but there’s no clear definition of moFIRE. Since it’s my blog, I’ll just go with anything in the ballpark of whoever having more than $5+ million bucks, which sounds like a hefty, triple bypass worthy FI to me ?)

 Related Reads:

• 3 Signs When Being Frugal Doesn’t Work & What To Do About It
• Why Rich People Penny Pinch When They Don’t Have To?
• At What Age Does Being Broke Stop Being Cute?

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee let’s go!!

1) Driverless Car

I’m still not over how cool this technology is. Hopefully, it’s more affordable in 10 years, if it rolls out by then.

Even in my wildest moFIRE dreams, I’m still thinking about a regular, mid-range, frugal version of whatever will be the Volvo versions of level 4 or 5 driverless cars.

I put this first because…I don’t know…I really want one so I can go to another city to eat famous Korean BBQ buffet without having to pay $100 for Lyft cab or mess with busing to the car lot, picking up a Zipcar, finding parking, driving back again, returning the Zipcar and taking a bus ride all the way back….when I was ready to coma-out from beef bulgogi-fest like…90 minutes ago.

But seriously, driverless cars is #1 because we live in Washington and we want to stay in Washington. The rest of Mr. Hippo’s family is back in California. We love living in Washington state but being able to be near family and reaping the experience of tenured grandparents would be a huge upside.

Yesterday we almost entertained the thought of moving back to California even though there is sunshine and taxes galore. We don’t like sunshine; sunlight is…intrusive and should be blocked out by a giant round disk in the sky. Plus, California in one of the toughest states to retire in, along with New York.

Hippo and I think it’s a 1,000% nicer if we could go to sleep inside an autonomous electric vehicle, wake up in 9 hours, and find ourselves on California soil for a weekend with family. We wouldn’t have to worry about reporting back to work on Monday and we can extend our stay anytime. My in-laws and most of the family are all retired. Their house is huge now that they’re empty nesters. There are brothers and sisters all working and living around a few mile radius.

We can be there for all the family celebrations and reunions, big or small. I would say fully autonomous cars makes for a big piece of the puzzle.

Hurry up technology, while we’re young pleaseeeeeeee.

2) Multi-Gen Estate

There are two things I get green-eyed on: mother-in-law units and/or multi-unit rentals on a big acreage lot. You could almost see my millennial city dweller upbringing showing as I’m craving something practical, profitable but also uniquely different.

We currently live in Seattle where buildable land is rare, restrictive…and super expensive to say the least. The city clowncil and their red tapes put a damper on anything requiring a permit and dumping laws make building ridiculously expensive. If that changes then we can stay in the city, but right now, it’s not worth it.

I want to move to where there is more buildable land. Somewhere on the early stages of up-and-coming.

(The earth is effing huge, why don’t companies spread out with all these telecommunication capabilities now UGH.)

I would love to buy an acre of land, build a main 2-story Tudor brick house, no more than 2000ish square feet, and then smaller, detached units out in the style of a close-knit medieval village. I can’t find perfect examples of my ideal but the estate image above just went pending and…*someday, someday.*

We would like to stay in Washington state. Preferably, I would still like to live in or near a decent-sized city, strong public schools, near a lake or river…so that narrows the land search considerably

Naturally, we want to rent out the detaches and multi-gens but also try to pass something down through multiple generations. I might be coming off super concrete, but that’s because I’ve spent hours looking into these possible plans in all different parts of Washington. It’s such a fun way to blow time since it’s something that IS tangible down the road which makes it doubly exciting.

 Related Reads:

• 16 Part-Time Jobs with Good Health Insurance and Benefits
• 6 Biggest Reasons Why Airbnb Is So Popular

3) Wasabi Farm & Production

BETCHA DIDN’T SEE THAT ONE COMING! ?

This was one idea my husband actually really liked from my bucket list. #JustBeingAsian

About 3 years ago, I was coming back from work and saw one of my housemates crawled out of the back of a truck carrying a jar of green goo. I didn’t know him that well but I was still like…

“WHAT THE SH*T JORGE!!! Did you just break into a truck to steal a jar?!”

(The truck was actually his so it wasn’t a total crime, but the merchandise was not.)

“Está bien, pruébalo! ;)”

*Offers me a spoon full of green mystery goo*

“….Really?”

So when someone offers you stolen goods, you should say no. But according to myself, apparently, if someone offers me stolen food – I take it without a single moral struggle. :\ I never said I was perfect.

But ladies and gentleman, that was the most surreal bite of physical food I’ve ever popped into my mouth!!

I floated down from heaven and said:

“WHERE CAN I BUY THIS? Where? I can pay you right now.”

Then Jorge starts laughing at me. His truck was just the vehicle of transport, he has no access to it.

That’s why he freakin’ looted it.

Getting real wasabi outside of Japan is hard and getting that stuff into production in the States is unheard of.

Bank financing for a vegetable? Not gonna happen.

The jar Jorge stole isn’t commercially available. They go to high-end restaurants and the restaurant serves a dollop of it on a plate of fancy for Lord knows how much. I can understand why Jorge rolled into his own truck to steal it. I would have done the same and it didn’t even have to be my truck.

I’m glad he shared it with me because now I get to add it to my bucket list and bring it to production someday.

They keep well if harvested and stored right, there are tons of uses, and the demand is there. I only have a starter test plant and these suckers take several years to grow. They’re impossible to grow and sooooo fragile. They can only be grown on a small scale outside of Japan but (…its destiny y’all…) they grow very well in the Pacific Northwest! That’s another reason why I wanted to stay in Washington state. All the existing wasabi farms are located in Vancouver, Washington, and Oregon because we’re geared for them here (weather-wise).

Recommended Reads:

• 51 Healthy Frugal Dinner Recipes You Can Make for Under $2
• 25 Simple 5-Ingredient Meals for Under $5 to Feed a Whole Family
• 35 Scrumptious Meals You Can Cook Under 20 Minutes (20 Minute Recipes)

4) Domestic Help

Now that I have given this serious thought while writing all this out…I don’t think it’s necessary to hire one specific person for one specific duty. I enjoy cooking and hubby enjoys baking so a personal chef or sommelier isn’t on top of the list even if I love to eat.

For convenience, it would be better to have a general extra hand around the house. If we wanted someone helpful to boil some mac n cheese, pick up a postal package, walk the dog, vacuum the carpet etc. while we’re in a pinch for a pair of extra hands. I am not picturing full-time help in my mind but someone who can come for a few hours, 3 days a week when we’re not down in California or traveling abroad.

I think too much help around the house might make the kids a bit too dependent and helpless. Chores are important to character building, even in the best kids.

5) Globetrotting Foods

I want to eat out anytime, anywhere in the continental United States and across the Oceans. It would be great if we were rich enough to be able to afford it instead of having to depend on travel funds by making YouTube videos that would distract us from enjoyment. It’s not a no from me in terms of documenting our journey but I shouldn’t sell it like it’s full-time, career work.

We should be able to take a few months off a year to jump around the globe for food. If we do have (biological or otherwise) kids, I want them to grow up to have a wider perception of the world. I think we’re all stuck in our own bubbles and echo chambers wayyy too much. It’s doing its own harm but no one but the weirdest people sees it.

It’s good to be able to get out there and check other customs and cultures. That in itself is a good privilege to have and it makes me happy being able to provide those experiences for kiddos.

6) Public School, Private Lessons

The private lesson thing is just to supplement in subjects that public education does not teach. If a balanced adult was to depend solely on the public education system then we would have all failed.

It’s better for our kids if they are at least bilingual (although preferably they can speak 3+ languages.) Learning Chinese, German, English and a concentration in robotics engineering is probably going to be very useful down the road. I imagine we’d be shipping our American tech talents overseas in 30 years’ time.

So why public school?

In my experience, public education is about a few varying degrees down in almost all aspects compared to private institutions. But then again…the strongest argument is simply kids who want to learn WILL learn.

 Related Reads:

• 7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Feel Embarrassed To Attend Community College
• How I Paid Off $20,000 In Student Loans Working Part-Time
• 15 Money Things Young Adults Overlook That Matter

I’m foreseeing a lot more coming struggles among the public education sector but my reasoning for them TO attend public school has nothing to do with education quality. It has to do with living in the real world. I remember being in ESL classes (English as Second Language) in middle school. There is always at least one kid per class hellbent to not learn. They stop the already gave up, tired teaching person from teaching and we all waste our time for the reprimand song and dance to end.

In an ultra-prestigious private school where children are treated with more triple the attention, care, and concession…there is less room for them to make and learn real-world mistakes.

You also don’t witness as many peer mistakes. But mistakes are good. If they’re going to make mistakes: I want them to do it early, witness disaster early and learn when they’re young.

I want them to be fearless and I don’t want to coddle them. Resilience is important. I would like to test them for resilience. I want my children to be able to break themselves out of prison if they needed to. If they’re going to be a chef, then I want them to be the best chef they can be. If they want to be professional drag queen then I want them to be the most inspiring queen.

Ultimately, I don’t want to pay more money when our tax dollars are already being used for the free alternative. They’ll get a crap ton from us when they’re fully grown, working adults, but we’ll try to be stingy bastards until then. Which leads me to…

7) Generational Wealth & Legacy

I’ve made it clear to Hippo from the beginning that leaving a legacy was not negotiable if our future was being together.

If I didn’t want to ensure legacy, we would already be FIRE and halfway to Hong Kong with a backpack full of cash.

I told Hippo if he didn’t agree with leaving a large inheritance, then it’s better if we stopped seeing each other.

The thought of losing our relationship momentarily scared him straight – now he’s after the legacy train too.

Passing down a legacy (money, real estate, x-factor, infamy) is non-negotiable. Well…barring our kids don’t turn out like spoiled shits, by which then I will just give everything away and chuck it under as “I fucking tried.”

Oh which reminds me, they also need to know that they did nothing to deserve being born financially free. You know, for humility sake.

They don’t have to be biologically ours. I’ve addressed this in the other post, however, they have to understand the possibilities from where they’re from is better than what most people ever got, and it’s best not squander or waste this blind gift.

 Related Reads:

• The Costs of Sperm Banking (And How We Saved Money On It)
• 13 (Sensible) Upper Middle Class Characteristics & Status Symbols

Conclusion

I’m kind of running out of ideas. None of this short list is cheap though. Most of my obese FIRE ideas (rentals, commercial farm, private classes) all involve running some sort of business or putting in some form of investment. I mean…did you want me to get a regular house to live in? How does that sound like me? No! A property should generate income because…screw full price mortgage payments!!!

But yeah, there will be plenty of tweaks but that’s the general plan. Stay in Washington, multi-gen. house, public school, globetrotting, legacy! Pieces can move and be replaced, it doesn’t matter. I did the numbers from to #1 to #6 and I think we need about $300K per year to afford everything if we brought in no additional income. Eeeeeeshhhh!!! $225K is a ton of money to blow on the non-essentials. Yikes. :\ I need to refrugal my center.

But then again, the estate was meant to be a bed & breakfast/rental and the wasabi farm would be an asset and/or profitable within 15 years. We would certainly pivot if not the case. Maybe I need to trim my fatty fat fatFIRE goals a little.

OK, this is getting weird, I’m talking about wasabi farming…wow what have I written. How was this post 3,300 words? I’m tapping out…

Item	15-Year Cost
Autonomous Car	$60K (give or take)
Estate + Rentals	$1.5 M
Wasabi Farm	$400K
Random Help	$400K
Food & Travel	$500K
Tutor & Classes	$500K
Total (yikes!)	$3.36 M ($225K/year)

WHAT’S YOUR DREAM FATTY FAT FAT FATTY FIRE? Go cray, throw something at me. Have I told you I once freelanced as a magic genie?

In her usual guileless way, Soap (a good friend of mine) asked me something I’ve wondered myself before. 

Why are there wealthy people who are still frugal?

Soap continues, “It admirable but it doesn’t make sense to me. I know if I had that money, I would go shopping and I wouldn’t be rich for long but you ARE frugal. We both know you’re not going to go crazy one day and spend $3,000 on a dinner plate so why work knowing you can swing it lean? If a person is still working and making good money, do you even have to be frugal?”

Who exactly are those that do not need frugality but still so stubbornly choose to practice frugality?

Good ol’ Billionaires Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Chuck Feeney – who is this girl’s frugal hero.

(By the way, if you think those wealthy frugal people are rarities…you should probably read and meet some of the commenters below this post.)

So why are millionaires still so frugal?

Why do they continue working, saving, and investing even after their FI date?

The usual reply is something I consider…a little snarky and convenient guesses than anything else. Most of the time, the answer other people give is one of these three:

#1 “The rich understand it’s not how much you earn, it’s what you save.”

Not a great answer. I’m not talking about what anyone thinks poor people don’t know vs the rich knows.

Personal finance is not a hard concept. You earn money, spend less than what you earn, save what you don’t spend and you invest it in something less stupid than your brother-in-law’s new restaurant.

Money is a hush-hush topic because it’s so easy to understand that if more people knew about the basic principles, no one would be dumb enough to fund the immediate economy at 16% APR unless they were genuinely destitute. Everyone would be penny pinchers and our market would spiral into depression* until new baselines are set again. *That theory depends on which economist you ask but yeah.

#2 “They don’t go to Starbucks and drop 5 bucks on a cup of joe every day. They don’t buy expensive cars and swap them in for an upgrade once every few years.”

That answer is unsatisfactory too. Funny, this was one of the top answers as to why millionaires and billionaires are frugal even though it doesn’t really answer the question of why.

Another thing, getting coffee every day is probably not going to prevent you from becoming a millionaire. You would have to blow $25,000 a year on liquefied cocoa beans for 30 years in order for that to happen.

I’m literally still wondering which millionaire has gone bankrupt from a coffee habit. I also can’t wait to meet the millionaire whose monthly $2,000 grocery bill for 2 leads to their bankruptcy hearing right around the corner. I don’t see that happening ever. Even just 1 million dollars is still a lot of money to blow on coffee and cars.

Most of the time, frugal people are naturally frugal. Why would I choose the economy class when we could afford first class cabin plane tickets? Yet we don’t? 

(Because the value to me isn’t worth the money I have to spend.)

What is the resistance of buying name brand ketchup if you already have more than enough money to buy all the name brand products you want without compromise?

(Because generic ketchup tastes just as good as Heinz to me.)

 Related Reads:

• 3 Signs When Being Frugal Doesn’t Work & What To Do About It
• Why Rich People Penny Pinch When They Don’t Have To?
• At What Age Does Being Broke Stop Being Cute?

#3 “They have to be frugal or they wouldn’t be millionaires.”

This is what my husband said. I can’t say I completely agree with this answer as there are some high earners who could have pulled through with a millionaire status even if they had a comfortable, cushy middle-class lifestyle.

Earnings can outpace frugality because earnings do not limit you to a set sandbox of numbers.

For example, we know our lowest cost of living is baseline around $300. Typically, that number is closer to $1,000 per month. We can save $700 by living with extreme frugality. That may not be anything to sneeze at but there’s nothing left to cut. The gravy train stops here. But if an internal transfer and promotion netted an extra $2,000 a month and opened up career-advancing pathways then you’re better off optimizing for a higher income than being extremely frugal.

Why *I* think millionaires are frugal long past financial independence

1. Habits are hard to change

You and I both know that our frugal habits will be lifelong even post FI. If you guys are reading our family income reports and expecting things to change much in a decade in terms of spending…good luck. It is not happening!

I’ve even got a piece of science as proof. A young 20-something-year-old brain is still in the phrases of a young adult’s development but the choices and actions we make are strengthening the neuro-connections and that is solidifying our behavior and stabilizing our personality and future identity (compare to our teenage brain) for the long-term. These neuro pathways being exercised constantly will make most of us stubborn creatures of habit. If you’re a price comparison shopper like I am, it would be a hard fight to not comparison shop.

2. Frugality as a past time

Some people think skiing is fun, some people love a good 5,000 piece puzzle game. I know a lot of millionaires who think it’s simply fun to find a bang for your buck in a sea of things for sale. I know when I hit the grocery store, I’m in game mode, I have a target budget to keep under and with self-limitations, I am allowing my creativity to flow.

“Frugality includes all the other virtues.”

I know to some it may sound crazy but limitations bring a sense of challenge, meaning, and creativity. I am a firm believer that living a simple frugal life brings you closer to thy real self and real happiness.

 Related Reads:

• How Much Money Does Our Frugality Save? (Spoiler: $56,000+/Year)
• Eat Ugly, Save Money? Imperfect Produce Review (+ FREE COUPON)
• Everything ‘Married…With Children’ Did That Kept Them Poor

3. Giving back means more than anything else

Not everyone craves a 5,000 square foot mansion (too much cleaning!) The natural progression of being according to Erikson Psychosocial life stages, GIVING is the favorable stage of a middle age and elder being. A portion of the wealthy who have already reached financial freedom will come to the last stage and realize there is nothing that money could possibly do more for them – so they generously give it away and live without lavish abandonment for a selfish lifestyle.

4. Influences of parents/poverty

Many wealthy frugal people have quoted how seeing their parents lived through the Great Depression in the 1930s changed how they viewed money and spent money. Even though my Chinese family was nowhere near the United States in the ’30s, I can understand growing up with that feeling of scarcity. There are people who have to work like dogs day in and day out to keep food on the table and bills paid on time today. I knew that about my parents because they openly complained about it constantly as to motivate me to do better in school. Seeing them work hard to get absolutely nowhere but kicked down was not pleasant and affected my perception of spending money.

5. Stealth wealth is easier + safer

The safest hiding place from a lynch mob is to be part of the lynch mob. Forget the McMansion Hells; stealth wealth is here to save the day! Everybody wants to call themselves middle class because, in that disappearing gray zone, you get to embody the neutrality of a disappearing, humbling, victimized class. There is no one to impress, no one to catch up to, no giant green lawn to maintain and upkeep…AND you save more money by being stealthy. That’s a triple deal for the post-FI frugal millionaires.

There are some money guilt-ridden people out there, like my husband who is guilt-ridden because he’s white, male and made good choices in life. Can you imagine the level of imposter syndrome he suffers from most of the time? If you think you’re a fraudulent person, would you really dress to impress?

6. Simply a greedy cheapskate

Sometimes, it’s just not enough…it’s never enough.

Soap’s first response to the frugal millionaire trait was “admirable” because she associated frugality with almost a zen-like quality of inner peace that she’s been trying to crack.

There is all this cool stuff and adventures in this world you can exchange for money but…you’re not tempted by anything? Wow, that’s some degree of nirvana!

But there’s another flipside to that. Sometimes, they could just be greedy for actual money. Greedy enough to not feel temptation other than keeping the money on their persons because it’s the first and most precious thing. The green papers represent money, security, and status which is more direct than any other material possession. 

Maybe that hero frugal millionaire (like us?) are just a bunch of money greedy cheapskates. Never put any blogger on a pedestal. They’ll just break your heart and leave you to raise the babies all alon….wait what.

7. Chronic overachiever

Do you know what’s a million times better than a million dollars?

2 million.

What’s better than 2 million?

Take a guess

So sometimes, it just never feels good enough…it’s never good enough. Now I don’t consider myself an overachiever but according to Valerie, I am? I thought being an overachiever meant you had to achieve something first…

The biggest sign of being an overachiever is feeling highly competitive, never feeling good enough, always needing to be the best and expecting too much out of everythi………AWWW heck what. So I really am one…?

 Related Reads:

• 4 Profound Things I Wish I Knew Before Growing Up
• Effective But Semi Illegal Ways To Pay Off Student Loans
• Top 5 Financial Mistakes I’ve Made In My Early 20s

8. Diminishing returns on higher prices

The savvy shoppers who have spent an entire lifetime chomping down and pinching pennies will be price comparison shopping for experience and overall result for the price. The easiest example of diminishing returns is the economy vs first class flight pricing. Both kinds of flights will land you safely at your destination, except your 14-hour flight would be varying degrees of pleasant in the first class select cabin. But the first class select cabin also cost exactly twice as much as the economy class ticket. Unless I could write it off as a business expense, I would feel very guilty about paying essentially another ticket for 14-hours of rented sky luxury comfort. That is justtttt the way I am and it’s made worse by my nihilism (more on that below.)

Random bonuses reasons:

1. Seeing the money grow is addicting and rewarding.

2. You run a successful finance blog and your scared readers will judge you for spending $550 at a spa.

3. And lastly — you look forward to giving it all away one day. For now, you are playing the guardian of compounding interest.

This is *my* personal reasons for being frugal past the 7 figure mark… 

1. Building generational wealth

I’m not sure if this is a common reason as to why millionaires choose to live frugally but it is a big reason for me. If imposter syndrome is my husband’s issue at work with himself then this one is mine. I have clear intentions of leaving a reasonably large chunk to my husband’s future kids. I have made this very very clear to hubby and it is not negotiable.

That is why our FI/RE number is so high. They should never have to worry about money, ever, for generations.

Dreams of being an artist are what puts your family in financial danger. I had to give up art because my family’s poor. But I’ll be able to protect them from that!!

Whatever life we engineer someday won the genetic lottery because they get to breeze through life after we’re dead, doing whatever they please from studying art, singing, underwater basket weaving or just being a brilliant and underpaid research scientist. They will never have to worry about money or supporting old parents like I had to worry. They don’t have to say no to their talent and dreams. That’s the best gift I can give them and that’s why generational wealth is not negotiable with me.

 Relevant Reads:

• What Is The Real Cost of Raising a Child (Done Frugally and On The Cheap)
• Got Kids? Check Out These Free Rainy Day Resources for Kids
• 11 Punchable Financial Crimes According to Me
• When Having Too Much Money is Bad (The Cons of Being Rich)
• How To Make a Roll of Paper Towels Last Embarrassingly Long

2. Paranoia

Nobody likes to lose money or entertain the thought of it. Frugality could stem from fear and insecurities about your wealth. Sorry to rat out my husband again but this is more him than me. LeanFIRE is the principle of retiring at or under $1 million dollars and trying to live lean within a safe 4% market return. This usually comes with no debt (not even mortgage) and branded together in a typical digital nomad lifestyle. Generally, it’s either a childless or a single offspring couple who best fit the ideal of LeanFIRE.

You can see why I’m tempted by this idea, right? We’re mad frugal and we can swing this. I bought up the topic of LeanFIRE with hubby before but he actually blubbered at me. “Pffffff, we’re not doing that. I’m not doing that for the rest of my life. That’s too close to the edge for me.” Hmm, well, it takes two to tango so LeanFI isn’t in our plans.

3. Existential Nihilism ?

Nihilism, extreme skepticism maintaining that nothing in the world has a real existence. Well, this has our brand of frugality all over it. Maybe we’re all just a little depressed?

>See cute outfit in mall.

>Debate price and necessity in mind.

>“Do I really need this outfit for the money?”

>“Why do I want this?”

>“…and who cares that this speck of dust has a new outfit among the other gigabillion specks of dust.”

>*Existential crisis and nihilism sets in.*

>Gives up, goes home empty. /shrug

Seattle, this time last year. Brrr…hoping this year will be better.

Being millionaires by thirty sound like a pipe dream so it’s crazy that it came true for normal, lucky ducks like us. We both worked very hard to get here but I would definitely say being lucky helped a bit too.

So are you wondering what we did this month to celebrate our millionaire threshold?

Answer: nothing.

November was a very frugal month for us as we entered our first foray into the double comma club, millionaire club. Hubby’s 30th birthday is next month and I turned 26 a few months back.

Our actual living expenses were $595 this month which is really low even for our standards for a family of 3. My side hustle alone this month almost covered for that. I guess as long as Airbnb is stable, we can technically FIRE, how’s that for a daydream!

This month’s report is a little different. I figured out the TablePress plugin on WordPress so I’m testing out how this flows. Everything is in pretty tables which should get easier to input from now on since I already made the templates.

[This post may contain affiliate links at no additional cost to you. Please read my disclosures for more info.]

To avoid any confusion, here’s the rest of our income report from previous months (in their old format):

Income Report & Budget Breakdown – August 2017

Income Report & Budget Breakdown – September 2017

Income Report & Budget Breakdown – October 2017

Now let’s take a look at our income and expenses for the month of November.

INCOME STREAMS

Premise		We are a household of 3 grown adult & 1 dog. We run Airbnb full-time that counteracts the mortgages.
Source	Amount	Note
Paycheck	$7,451	Take home after retirement. This was a 3 paycheck month. Well deserved for a nightmare-ish on call.
B&B	$4,326	Typical winter. As expected. December is looking to be even slower. Summer is the time to make your money, winter is for relaxing.
Side Hustle	$587	Dog sitting and selling things have been really fun. We have a nice tempo going. I get to play with a pupper, declutter and blog on my own terms.
Retirement	+/- $5,000	Retirements contributions are automatically reserved and then invested. It's usually around $5,000/per month.

You can’t hate the 3-paycheck months! Airbnb had an occupancy rate of 85% and it grinds at me. Nothing is more costly than a vacancy. Looking around, it seems to be a simple demand issue, not a pricing issue. Only going to get worst from here until March.

Lazy little tots. One more fashionable than the other.

I started dog sitting for a former client of mine. It’s part-time and it’s really easy because the Shih Tzu pup is so mellow. For the same work I put in with Grace, I take their dog along too. They socialize, keep each other entertained and nap by my feet for the rest of the day. I’m definitely digging this setup and want to continue this. I started selling using the eBay auction format and they’re really fun. I mark everything for 99 cents (+shipping), close my eyes, and see where it lands.

EXPENSES

Category	Budgeted For	Actual Spent	Notes	Rollover (YTD)
Groceries	$350	$286	For 3 people with random snacks and premade foods, we did great this month.	$2,002
Dining Out	$150	$23	This isn't completely accurate; we got food at the food court but they were charged as groceries. It is a really frugal month for dining out due to the bad weather.	Combined with above.
Transportation	$100	$20	Just reloading my bus fare money.	$515
Personal Care	$100	$69	I finally decided to start seeing again.	$914
Entertainment	$25	$43	Two rare books off eBay for this nerd!	$375
Home Maintenance	$300	$0	Goose egg.	$4,152
Misc. Expenses	$100	$2	$2 at Dollar Tree.	$267
Pets	$50	$58	Dog food + grooming.	$361
Mobile (AT&T)	-	$34	This is for just my phone. I get unlimited talk and text with 1 GB of data. Hubby's sponsored by work.	$221
Vacation + Travel	$50	$0	Current rollover to date is $473 dollars. That is our Christmas budget.	$473
Internet	$60	$60	It's employer sponsored but we still pay it before they reimburse us.	$0
Electricity, Gas, Water, Sewage, Trash.	$350	$0	For both rented properties. It is charged every 2 months. This month we didn't have to pay. Next month will hurt! :O	$1,068
Mortgage, taxes, etc.	$4,500	$4,132	No utilities charged this month. Airbnb covers this.	$1,239
	Spending Total	$595	Out of pocket living expenses for the month.
	Grand Total	$4,727	Everythings!

Groceries

Green onions from the backyard.

Green onion pancake.

Ahi tuna.

Fresh poke at home.

We’re eating the same things as usual since my father does half of the cooking and grocery shopping. Chicken drumsticks have been the only protein being served this month. I don’t know why. Has pork prices gone up in winter? Anyways, I treated myself to ahi tuna and some other fun things to break the monotony of chicken and zucchini being served constantly. I don’t know how he can eat the same things day in and day out.

If you’re wondering how we keep our grocery costs so low for 3 adults, read our grocery guide: How We Keep Our Food Costs So Low – 6 Months of Receipts Reveals All.

Dining Out

So every weekend has been stormy and cold. We didn’t feel like going anywhere in the rain. The biggest downside to living car-free is being limited when the weather is bad. We kept putting date night off until it just became nights in.

So..

GOOD!

The $23 was for Peruvian/Mexican food on the one day that we went window shopping on Black Friday.

We ordered food delivery once this month through Eat24, waited over an hour, then phoned in to ask where our order was. The restaurant never got the fax and by then we just canceled the whole order and resorted to eating at home.

Transportation

I just refilled $20 on my bus card for the month.

Notable memory: a meth head with bleeding needle holed skin asked me for money at the bus stop. That bus stop is ground zero for this kind of activity and I ride that bus several times a week so I’m used it. She was very persistent and started to follow me and didn’t take no for an answer, so I got annoyed and pulled the “我不会说英语” (I don’t speak English); like usual, it worked.

Personal Care

Well, it would have been $0 but my husband reminded me that I was blind and needed glasses. My old pair broke when the mini hinges and screws flew loose.

I’ve been needing glasses my entire life, never got them, got used to not seeing things, now I don’t care and walk around blind 24/7. I’m not a detail-oriented person most likely because I walk around -4.5 blind in both eyes. I like living in my own world and subconsciously I decided I didn’t need glasses. I’ve lived the vast majority of my life without them and I never slipped on a banana peel or flunked a class.

Jared’s like “you can get glasses now, we have insurance and it’s kind of ridiculous that you don’t want to see.”

Cyber Monday rolled around and Bonlook had some stylish, cheap frames for $29 (regularly $99). I snagged up the cheapest pair of frames that would work which is a mauve pink one. My entire order total including special high density for my mad blindness was only $69 + an optometrist to vouch for you. It will arrive by Christmas and I’ll be able to see clearly again.

Entertainment

All me! I bought two rare, used books from eBay. I’ve been stalking both books for a while. When eBay sent me a coupon for $15 off $50 on Cyber Monday, I jumped on it. Both books I purchased are limited copies so that’s why they’re on the expensive side for consignment books that no one has even heard of. Both of these books are the first failed creations of what people consider as famous writers today.

The first book is a coffee-stained, unproofed copy. Unproof copies are what publishers send out in its rawest form to booksellers, notable writers, book reviewers in an effort to generate feedback and drum up publicity on the possible value of the book.

Unproofs copies have not been edited. That’s the copy the author wrote in its purest form, before any kind of editing by the publisher. Unproofs are not as valuable as first editions because they are printed on the cheapest quality paper. They’re meant only to be given away as drafts.

This is going to sound so hipster...

I like unproofs better. I don’t want the edited, primped, leather-bound copy – I want the content in its raw form, grammar errors, mistakes and all. Editing or omitting a word could change how the entire sentence is read. Since the subject is historical, the first person details are more important to me than grammar.

The second book is something only a creep (me) would buy. The author (now famous for another work soon to be a TV series) publicly denounced it a few years ago. He wrote his badly disguised memoir long before he became famous. That’s why the author’s completely embarrassed and happy it’s out of print. Naturally, I HAD to buy a copy! There are not many copies left floating out there. First editions go for $150. I snagged a regular copy. Its still in transit but I’m prepared for a really bad, corny read.

I have a growing wishlist of rare books I want to collect but I just haven’t committed to buying them. It’s not like a stock. I can throw thousands into the Robinhood brokerage and feel nothing but books are guaranteed sunk costs items. Am I coming off a little crazy?

Misc. Expenses

Dad spent $2 at Dollar Tree. The only Black Friday thing tempting my husband was Google Home. But he didn’t get it, it sold out before he decided. We didn’t participate on Black Friday much unless you count I spent $1.98 on a roll of invisible clothing tape.

Pets

We have 84 lbs of kibble in our living room. First world dog privileges.

We bought 84 lbs of dog food for $36. That’s the best deal per pound of dog food we have ever scored. It’s the American Journey brand on Chewy which has a 4.5/5 on Chewy and 3.5/5 on Dog Food Advisor. I couldn’t it pass up for the price. It’s still better than the Alpo and Purina stuff but a small notch down from Grace’s usual food. I doubt she would know the difference. I give her salmon oil and coconut oil every meal to keep her coat shiny. The other expense was Grace’s nail trim for $14 and a treat following that in an effort to calm her down.

Related: 5 Frugal Dog Things We Don’t Do

(& yes, she still knows the route to the vet and we still have to carry her part of the way there. This dog ain’t dumb.)

Vacation + Travel

Our year to date rollover of $473 will be our preferred budget for Christmas. We have our plane tickets paid for so it’s only a matter of riding and tipping the transit bus drivers. The in-laws insist paying for our food when we go out together so I’m not expecting too many expenses besides thrift store shopping and when we go out alone.

 

Net Worth

Accounts	Amount	Notes
Savings	$19,175	Banks, PayPal, I-bonds.
Brokerage Accounts	$400,523	Need. more. more!
Retirement Accounts	$217,825	401Ks, IRAs and a HSA.
Real Estate	$427,533	Current asset minus mortgage liabilities. We are using property tax estimates from 2016 instead of commercial home estimates like RedFin and Zillow.
Total	$1,065,056

Related: Free Google net worth calculator sheet (free download with email.)

Not that it matters, but woo, we’re millionaires. It feels the same. The county rejected our square footage claim around the beginning of November. It’s 1) a total plug for more property tax money, I’m just sayin’… and 2) I needed to fetch a licensed realtor to submit the claim and I didn’t do that.

Also, some classic bedtime reading if you missed it…how dumb luck made my husband a rich man.

The thing that blows me and hubby away is that we started this year with $700k in net worth and now it’s over a million. That’s a mixture of house, new stock grants, Amazon and the overall market still going strong.

Club Pledge

Reflecting back on when I first took J$’s millionaire pledge almost 6 months ago:

I am a firm believer that anyone can become a millionaire. In fact, I have a pretty good feeling that most people can become multi-millionaires if they tried.

Obviously I don’t feel so optimistic about that now; especially after calculating in inflation.

Fully Funding…

We are still fully contributing to our retirement accounts and we’re expecting to sink in $5,000 mo indefinitely across our 401Ks, IRAs, and HSA. My husband knows more about retirement, in fact, his manager just sought him out for help with retirement. Hah.

Passive Income Streams

I also need to step up in the passive income department thanks to Passive Income MD who has opened my eyes on the real challenge at hand. 7 streams!

Absolutely am still trying to create as many sustainable income streams as possible.

I am fully behind the mind-set of Rocco’s motto, “just set it and forget it.”

That’s the biggest challenge for 2018. I’m still selling stuff and trying to invest my time wisely. The biggest privilege about financial well-being is being about to afford a delay in getting rewarded. Let’s hope I don’t run out of patience.

Pay The Mortgage

…well that’s even more obvious. What’s the alternative? Going homeless? What was I writing in my second month of blogging…?

More Credit Cards

Ummmm, we’ve been off the churners game. If it wasn’t for our utilities for both houses, we wouldn’t be able to crack $1,000 in monthly spending. My husband wants to get back to it though.

More Marriage

My sweet brilliant rising star genius angelboy of a husband is next to me and Grace is curled up on the foot of the bed like a snarly toothed angel. What I can work on that has no ambiguity is my love for my two idiots: the hub and the pup.

AWWWWW I said that? Cute!

Handsome fella.

Things are still going here. Our marriage is pretty solid. I estimate about 95% smiles and 5% fights.

I hate to say it but this guy just might be my soulmate. Oy vey…….maybe I can swap him out for an arcade game when we reach $2 million.

Related: Fledgling Pledging for the Million Dollar Club

By the way, regarding net worth growth…

It can come down oh-so-easily. We would get kicked out of the double comma club and have to rebuild again. So disclaimer, watch out for the second time we’ll be crossing that line. Because that’s probably the more accurate one. Lol! I crack myself up ?

We’ll continue living and saving next year like we did this year. We saved six figures this year in pure monies. I mean, there are still areas for improvement though. I want more side hustles and passive income streams. I’m thinking of putting more money in my Robinhood brokerage account. That’s my play money and I like informed gambling I guess…?

However, there are also other factors that you should take into consideration. Not all 401ks plans are created equal. Some employers offer 401ks plans that are generously matched.

There are employers who offer 401k plans with very low management fees. Some 401Ks plans have auto enrollment whereas others do not. Is your tax-deferred 401K plan & match good enough?

What is a 401k?

A 401K is essentially an employer managed retirement account. The basic idea behind a company 401K is to gather up a large sum of money from all contributors in order to reduce management fees.

Example: Under Vanguard, you can have different plans for different fees starting with Investor (0.15%), Admiral (0.04%), and Institutional with a 5 million dollar minimum (0.035%).

The money is usually managed by the employer and partly managed by the contributor. The small caveat here is of course if the 401K plan is managed properly. 401Ks have largely replaced pensions from our parent’s era. 

401Ks plans were initially proposed as a cost-cutting measure mostly. In the light of seeing how often both private and public pension funds are sometimes mismanaged. A company 401K is not allowed to take money out of their employee’s 401Ks even under bankruptcy.

 Related Reads:

• 9 Money Mistakes To Avoid For Debt-Free Living
• Don’t (Nicolas) Cage Yourself In Financially
• 4 Practical Budgets For People Bad With Money

6 Tell-tale Signs That You Got A Bad 401(K) Plan

The importance of having a 401k is astounding. Competitive salary & employee benefits (64%) tops the list when employees are comparing employers ¹. Moreover, 43% of workers say they would happily take a lower paycheck in exchange for a bigger 401k match ².

1. You and your employer does not “match.”

Your employer should match the contribution you make to your plan as early as possible. That even depends if your employer would contribute or not. Although it is in your employer’s discretion to match your contribution every month, good employers often match their employee’s contribution by 50%.

According to Bankrate.com, only 10% of the employers match 100% of their employee’s contribution up to 6% of salary. 31% of employers give a considerable 50% while 27% of employers offer between 51-99% contribution. The other 32% of employees match less than half of their employee’s contribution. If your employer opts to not contribute to your plan, that is a sign that you have a bad 401(K) plan.

It is also a bad sign if your employer will only match your contributions after a certain amount of time. Some employers will make you wait until the end of the year to make matching contributions. Time is important in growing an investment, so it is important that your employer would match your contributions as early as possible.

What is a 401k match?

Many employers offer 401ks for their employees but not many employers offer 401k matching. Matching is essentially an employer’s promise to throw money into your retirement savings as long as you throw money into your savings. They will try to match you in order to urge you to save – much like a charity marathon fun-run.

If you are in a competitive field that constantly demands new talent, a 401k match is common.

The industry standard for a strong 401K package is one with a generous match. Generally, a 3% match of your base salary or 50% match up to $18,000 is considered a strong 401K plan.

2. Very few or very diverse investment options.

Contribution types is also a thing to consider in a 401(K) plan. Since a portion of your income is usually invested to grow, good investment options should be taken into consideration. Two of the most common sign of poor investment choice are very few, or too much investment choices.

Again, people with little to no training of spotting good investments might have a hard time. When a 401(K) plan have bad investment options, the employee might receive the biggest shock of his or her life when the plan only grew slightly. Good plans should have a handful of solid investment options.

If a plan lacks a good model portfolio (e.g. a lineup which consists of only annuities)no matter how many money and time you put into it, your money will not reach is peak growth potential. Experts recommend a plan that has actively managed fund available low expense ratios.

3. Long vesting schedule.

You can immediately notice if your employer is one of the worst kinds when it comes to taking care of 401(K) plans when you have to wait for a long vesting schedule. A vesting schedule is the amount of time needed to remain in the company in order to have ownership of your employer’s contribution.

The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that only 22% of employers give immediate full vesting. 47% of employers offer a grading schedule in which the longer you stay in the company, the bigger your rights would be in your employer’s contributions. There are graded vestings that last for seven years, with the earliest right being vested after three years at 20%. There are 22% of employers who uses cliff vesting, in which the employee will only have a full right after a specific date. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 requires the date to be no later than three years.

Employees who would want to stay in the company will not have a hard time with graded vesting. However, for those who found a more suitable job or an offer to advance their careers, graded vesting would mean that they won’t have any rights to their employer’s contributions at all if they leave before they start receiving their rights.

4. No automatic enrollment feature.

Automatic enrollment is a feature that lets you contribute a part of your savings automatically. This helps in making regular contributions and avoid missing a month. Choices for opting out should also be available if the employee prefers contributing at a preferred pace.

It is revealed that automated enrollment is a way to make employee participation higher. This is true to younger workers who usually don’t feel the urge to participate in any retirement plans so soon. Fortunately, a lot of companies offer automatic enrollment in their plans. If a plan has no automatic enrollment feature, prepare for more hassle on the way.

5. Fees are high.

Nobody wants to pay a high fee just to save money because honestly, it defeats the purpose of saving. Plan fees can also impact your plan balance. Although these fees are going to legal and accounting services for keeping the plan, a high fee will likely hurt your investment.

The average rate right now for a small retirement plan for 100 participants is 1.3%. The number is reduced when the participant grows, with 1.08% for 1,000 participants common for big companies. If your plan has a higher fee percentage, this would cost you hundreds of dollars a year.

6. There are eligibility conditions.

Less generous employees usually delay the need for contribution to avoid any hassles and contributing early. Although there are 58% of plans that offers immediate eligibility, there are still almost half of the plans that need eligibility to contribute. Eligibility can be acquired by staying in the company. Some plans require the employee to wait for one year in order to contribute. While other plans require two years before an employer is required to match contributions.

 Related Reads:

• The Difference Between Reverse Budgeting vs. Traditional Budgeting
• Tips for Battling High-Interest Debt That Won’t Go Away

Things to Watch:

The other concern is if your employer happens to have an inferior 401K plan with high management fees and poor investment options. Or if you started saving for retirement at a later age (but we can cover how to correct that later).

In addition, talk to your employer first on how they handle 401K transfers. If you have less than $5000 in your 401K your employer will not do a transfer for you. For 401Ks less than $5000, most often your employer will just cut you a check. Within 60 days, you would have to roll it over to a personal IRA account. This often creates a domino effect since the employee are commonly unaware of the hefty tax-fine if they do not roll their 401K check into an IRA within the IRS allotted time of 60 days. Your 401K is taxed at your current income bracket with an additional 10% tax penalty added on.

What To Do If Your Employer Offers A Bad 401(K) Plan?

A bad 401(K) is literally investing in a bad investment. If your plan has some or all of the signs described above, there are a few actionable things that you can do.

1. Negotiate with your employer.

Ideally, plans should be discussed during the hiring, so you can negotiate with your employer to get a better plan. Having a good retirement plan is a way to keep good employees. Although changes might not be possible, at least you tried.

2. Max out your contribution.

Having a considerably bad plan still holds a lot instead of having none. If you really want to work in that company, one of the best adjustments you can make is to max out your contribution each month based on your employer’s match. That’s applicable only if your employer offers a match at all.

3. Consider other options.

The best solution for a bad 401(K) plan is to invest instead in an IRA. An IRA is simply an account where a person can make a retirement fund. IRAs are typically tax-free when there’s a growth or tax-deferred. You can choose among a traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or Rollover IRA, whichever that fits your needs.

Want to master your finances effortlessly?

1. Sign up with your email to download our free Google Sheet budget template.

2. Sign up with Personal Capital and use their automatic Net Worth Tracker for free. Personal Capital is a free financial service platform that helps you analyze your financial health all on one simple & secure account. This was a huge step up from the tedious dance we did before where we had to manually log in to our financial accounts (all 19 of them) individually.