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[quote=AN][quote=flu][quote=plm][quote=cvmom][quote=flu]Employer match is always to a traditional IRA, which currently my employer has at 4% I think.[/quote]

Flu, you gave me a heart attack on this. But I did confirm that my company matches to Roth 401k contributions as well, not only to the traditional one. Just FYI[/quote]

If you don’t mind my question, why do people pick Roth 401k instead of traditional 401k? I thought the whole point was to defer taxes till retirement where the income is lower. Is it maybe to hit the AMT sweet spot but that’s another concept I’m having trouble grasping?[/quote]

Oh shucks. My doesn’t. That sucks.

Plm. Well, in the case of cvmom, it totally makes sense to contribute to a Roth 401k if the employers matches into your account. The employer contribution. Would be tax free and earnings from it would be tax free. As far as why one would contribute to a Roth 401k instead of traditional IRA. Part of me is worried about required minimum distribution that might make my taxable income greater post retirement than now. Also, I believe in the case of a Roth 401k, you can withdraw what you contribute without a tax penalty ( since it was after tax dollars anyways).

The other half of me days who knows what they will do to Roth accounts. And for I need some tax defferals.[/quote]I don’t think the match goes into ROTH. I’ve contributed to Roth in the past and the match part goes to traditional 401k. The reasoning I got is because they don’t know how much to withhold for taxes.

Plm, the reason why I contributed to Roth 401k was because I wasn’t making very much, so I want to take full advantage of the low tax bracket and I expect to be earning more in my retirement. Once I cross a certain threshold, I switch back to traditional.[/quote]

Thanks for explaining. Makes sense if you will be earning more in retirement. I suppose I’m fortunate to make too much so I want to defer taxes but unfortunate that I still have to pay high taxes!

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So for me I should stick with my traditional 401K. I never got good financial advice when I was starting out. Did 401K but just the minimum to get the company match. And my money just went into a checking account instead of investing in stocks. Oh, well I should have time to catch up but its painful to make up for financial mistakes in the past.

Its probably better to get good financial advice than chasing a larger salary. Kind of like all those star athletes that make millions but wind up broke.

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[quote=cvmom][quote=flu]Employer match is always to a traditional IRA, which currently my employer has at 4% I think.[/quote]

Flu, you gave me a heart attack on this. But I did confirm that my company matches to Roth 401k contributions as well, not only to the traditional one. Just FYI[/quote]

If you don’t mind my question, why do people pick Roth 401k instead of traditional 401k? I thought the whole point was to defer taxes till retirement where the income is lower. Is it maybe to hit the AMT sweet spot but that’s another concept I’m having trouble grasping?

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with 175K salary, maxed out 401K and no ESPP or flex spending, that first 8K/mo number is the right number. I want to clarify though that its not me making the 175K salary.

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I don’t think 175K is rich at all. If I made that, the extra money would go into my bank account, not much of a lifestyle change at all. I think rich would be making over a million which isn’t going to happen with just salary. But maybe with stock options and RSUs. I think people should concentrate on that instead of salary.

Oops, I misread your post, you mean well off. Yes, 175K is well off but I’d think most engineers making less than 175K is well off as well.

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Either of the two would be a good decision. What I did was not which was to put the money in a brokerage account earning no interest for a year now. I need to either pay down the mortgage or buy some stocks soon.

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It still seems to me the earlier you make extra principal payments the less interest you pay and the sooner you pay off the mortgage. Kind of like 401K but in reverse. The sooner you put money in the 401K the longer you have for it to grow before you retire.

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[quote=joec]One thing to also be aware is near the end of the loan term, you start paying less/little interest (relative to early in the loan). Paying it off early at that point doesn’t help you lower your interest paid since the interest was front loaded and you already paid it.

You’re only paying off more principle with additional payments.[/quote]

That’s a good point. I had saved some money to invest in stocks but never did buy any and its getting zero interest. So it would be better for me to do a lump sum payment to get it down to 15 years then build up the money again to invest in stocks.

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My goal at the time of refi was to save money. So I should have been making extra payments. I’ll keep making extra payments to catch up to at least 15 years then my original goal would be met. Maybe I’ll even keep making extra payments pay off the loan earlier.

Thanks.

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At Costco, its $32 for an assorted 24 pack but only six of them are what I really like, Sculpin. I get it rarely though since its still ten bucks more than the other 24 packs. If Costco starts sells it nationwide, the growth potential would be huge.

At bars/restaurants, the beer is usually priced really high anyway so I choose what I like the best which is the Sculpin.

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Craft beer may be a bubble but Sculpin is extremely popular and I can find it at quite a few restaurants now. And the last two places I tried to order it but they ran out. Shorting a stock on a place that can’t keep up with demand sounds like a bad idea to me.

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[quote=flu][quote=plm]Thanks for all the recommendations. Replacing the fuse seems enough to fix it for now but I’m thinking of using some other place in the future. The service adviser we had before retired and service just isn’t very good there anymore.[/quote]

Which stealership?[/quote]

BMW of San Diego

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Thanks for all the recommendations. Replacing the fuse seems enough to fix it for now but I’m thinking of using some other place in the future. The service adviser we had before retired and service just isn’t very good there anymore.

[plm]

Good advice but other than incredibly expensive repair bills, its a really fun car to drive so I plan on keeping it.

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I can finally laugh about the hot weather again. Got my A/C working yesterday!

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