That's why you should have a fully funded emergency fund. Follow the order of the steps in the prime directive from the FAQ.

Read the post again

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Thank you! I love thinking about reducing our current taxes but I’m always afraid of not being able to have that money available if something were to happen

If you have any money in a trad IRA, this is a great time to do a Roth IRA conversation.

You definitely can not contirbute to a trad IRA and if you were low income you'd much rather contribute to a roth IRA if your future income is going to rise again.

You mentioned you were high earners in the past and have not been able to "deduct" trad IRA contributions. Does that mean you've been doing backdoor roth converstions already?

Well with the child set up the 529 account as well.

Stay conscious of your lifestyle and stay frugal. At off the cars, and start pilling up savings.

total stock index fund or the S&P500 at 17 pick one of those two funds, put 50% of what you're willing to invest in a Roth IRA 50% in a taxable brokerage account

personally until you have a lot more money, skip the individual stocks & crypto, down the line if you have a solid financial foundation and want to throw $50-100 out of every $1,000 into a long shot for fun... not a big deal but for now keep it simple and honestly boring

I forgot to mention that i am contributing 10% + the 5% employer match every two weeks. Luckily we sold our stocks earlier this year (to pay off the house) when everything was high right before the market went down

Congrats, that is a huge increase. Happy New Year. 🥂

What type of work do you do? Sounds like you have a solid set up and I’d think it’d be harder to find a better gig than you have right now

Fidelity. But make sure you have an actual HSA eligible/ qualifying HDHP plan. It will have zero first dollar coverage (nothing paid by insurance before the deductible) among other criteria.

Fidelity is the cheapest option with good investment options.

I bonds.

10k per person per year at the current rate of 6.89% where anything lower is losing to inflation. Thats 20k for 2023 as you likely missed out on having it processed for this year which you would have been able to park 40k in between December and January. They are liquidable after 1 year and you lose the last 3 months interest unless you hold it for 5 years. But depending on when you need the cash and when the consumer price index drops you can hold them for longer.

Just remember that I bonds don’t make you money they are capital preservers. Literally anything making less than an I bond is losing to inflation.

As for a more liquidable account I am a fan of nerdwallet and they rate SoFi banking as one of the best since they offer a checking account at 2.5% when you set up direct deposit plus a savings account at 3.5%. As far as I know SoFi is the only FDIC checking account offering that amount of APY although it is likely so they can attract market share and will not be sustainable long term.

You should maximize your 401k contributions before using a taxable brokerage account. Taxes are expensive. Tax advantaged accounts are excellent for minimizing both your current year taxes (for traditional 401k accounts) and future capital gains taxes, or for future taxes altogether (for Roth accounts).

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At your ages I would be prioritizing retirement accounts over a regular brokerage account. The tax deferral is a big benefit and having the money "locked" away can prevent you from spending it rashly (although it sounds like you are generally very responsible). At the very least, open a Roth IRA to take advantage of the tax benefits for that money - in a Roth you can always withdraw your contributions without penalty, and your earnings will also be tax free.

Great point!

You are behind traditional guidelines. By age 30, Fidelity's rule of thumb is 1x annual salary. You should be targeting 15% gross income to retirement with the ideal goal to max out. With no debt, 15% should be easy.

That flexibility is hard to beat and means more time with your kids and living a life outside of work. If you stay with that company and continue to do great as you’re already doing I’m sure they’ll treat you fairly as the company grows. Hope that helps!

I’m thinking of switching career paths or at least a side job so if y’all have any openings please let me know! I’d love to work from home!

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You need more money based on the responsibility you took on.

Have there been any recent changes to social security (San Francisco California) in the last 2 months?

My employer suddenly stopped reporting my income to social security on my last three paychecks reducing my SS deduction from $400/paycheck to $0.

I’ll be reaching out to my finance team on Monday but curious in the meantime if there was a change or if this is just a mistake. Thanks!

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I thought 18 paragraphs usually came with the customary TLDR...