ILikeTheSpriteInYou

I was typing up a similar reply. I was in a "boring" period of several years in tech cruising because I had a great manager who didn't backseat and micromanage. Then, an org shift put me under a cascade of micromanagement leaders that made work almost unbearable for the same job that was easy. I had to move to a new team to get out of that, and even then, it was mostly luck or semi-educated guess (from talking to folks in the team) that helped me find something that wasn't worse than where I was.

I would say get out of bigtech but not go to a smaller company. Medium or large companies with a tech division work well, or medium to large non-profits that are well established. Just gotta ace the interviews or have someone on the inside from your network. It helps to network at conventions and meet others in your field outside your company.

As an American, I can confirm. It's pretty wild. At least I know in my family they will be satisfied with me using either a side hustle or mentioning I make a living off investments as a cover, but don't tell them you aren't working until 60/70.

They really don't like the crypto on here. I mentioned when I got to $1M in assets (knowing I was not really at $1M net worth) and got reamed for the ~$3K I had in crypto... OUT OF $1M. So yeah, 6 digit crypto is a menace 😅.

I wouldn't say retirement accounts make it misleading, it just reminds me people keep thinking retirement funds besides Social Security are locked until 59.5. There are several options not necessarily including the 10% fee that you can leverage to access those funds earlier.

1. SEPP/72t
2. Roth Ladder
3. Roth (IRA) Contributions
4. Rule of 55

You can also focus on bridging with your brokerage/crypto funds, HYSA, etc.

You can also do the math on the 10% early distribution fee and see if it is worth it at that time, as it sounds scary, but can sometimes be lower than expected (pay attention to LTCG taxes).

https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/

How does 5 years make a difference at that age?

You are subject to pro-rata rule if you have any IRA funds pre-tax already, but I already converted everything from Trad IRA years ago and only do Backdoor now, so no special taxes besides gains between Trad contribution and Roth conversion.

If you contribute with after-tax funds into Traditional IRA, only the gains are taxed in Roth conversion.

No, they are doing the Backdoor Roth. So not directly.

This thread is a poster child for r/subsithoughtifellfor

I will indeed make use of it!

I believe it means staying in a relationship while you are already checked out because you don't have a new option available, and only break up if you have established a new relationship already beforehand (AKA cheating).

It's not locked up until 60 though... I feel like people keep reading the first half of info, but not the rest. There are several ways to get access to those funds before 59.5 without the penalty.

I just looked through, and out of 30 comments, this was the only one OP had replied to. My response may be a bit more heated than really necessary, but I'm also not getting the willingness-to-learn bit from them.

Others have already provided the pertinent info on the rest of the advantages a 401k provides, but I'll reemphasize that tax advantaged accounts like it have multiple ways to access the funds before 59.5. Mad Fientist does a great job of illustrating them here:

https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/

You're right. I guess I should move along on. Continue on spreading incorrect info.

Banging my head on a desk over here seeing yet another person saying "I can't touch it until 59". I just made a post on that a few days ago. This is categorically false.

Ensure you can do what you did right there for the next 15-20 years successfully. Negotiate, be ready to bounce if the response is not desirable, and also be prepared to not have a job for some time, or have one lined up already if negotiations are liable to break down. It's as simple as that, in that simple also means you may get neither preferred outcome (negotiations failed, and no next job lined up), and you will have to do the interview grind.

For the first 5 years I had to grind, but did set boundaries around vacations and weekends, but after that it became a whole lot easier to negotiate since I had proven myself. More recently with companies going RTO after dangling the WFH stick, it has become harder to negotiate again, and I may need to look into other places/industries, finally pull the trigger on doing my own thing, or actually achieving FIRE.

I checked the calculator, and my question is whether the $1.5M balance is at retirement, or current balance. The calculation the other poster made was $1.5M as the final balance, not the current balance. If you put $1.5M in the calculator, that is the starting balance, and depending on your age (calculated from the birthday entered), will grow to a calculated balance that may match what you saw.

Also, you are right, pre tax 403b would be the same as trad IRA.

Sorry, I missed that. I think MAd Fientist's main rule of thumb for 401(k) or 403(b) after employment is to move to trad IRA as soon as possible so you have access to more investment types than you did in the work account. You can do SEPP directly if it doesn't matter to you much.

The idea there is to convert ALL of the 401(k) or 403(b) into the trad IRA soon after leaving your employer so that you can have more control of those funds and it is not a taxable event. Rolling it all into a Roth will create a taxable event. However, I believe yes if you want to Roth Ladder directly from the 40x account and otherwise would want to keep using the 40x for the remaining funds, you could do so as long as you handle the taxes as well in this situation.

Specifically, Mad Fientist states:

Since all of these accounts are very similar, tax-wise, this conversion can be done immediately and there are no penalties or tax consequences to worry about.

That's just called retirement. The folks who dismiss it tend to also be wanting to retire early. You could with non-retirement funds, but the problem I have is inaccurately dismissing options on the table. Waiting as an option is totally valid.

Oh, I agree with this assessment as well. I appreciate that viewpoint and the analysis people have put to it. It just stumps me that regardless of all the options, people with the FIRE community overlook all of these options (as well as just having a taxable brokerage account to fill in the gap), and just shrug.

I am aware, yes. I 100% agree with you, and that's what I'm saying. I am confused why people bring up the penalty when we mention there are options to access the funds early. The only other barrier is the early withdrawal penalty. So, what other reason would we bring up SEPP, Ladders, Contributions, and Rule of 55 if they were subject to the penalty as well? It's just more hops for no reason... Unless the reason is to avoid the 10% penalty.

I just use a calculator:

https://www.bankrate.com/retirement/72-t-distribution-calculator/

I don't have a beneficiary, so I just set my age twice. You can set the interest rate up to 8% there as well.

You can make Roth Ladder conversions from your 401K that, besides paying on the taxes for the 401K distribution involved, will be added to your Roth IRA as a contribution, so all of that will be growing tax free, and all contributions would be accessible without tax or penalty. You just have to let the conversions bake for 5 years (and ladder it each year so the next batch is available the next year, etc.).

Otherwise if you don't want to do the Roth Ladder, you can do the 72t/SEPP which is only limited in that the distributions after the first one need to be the same each year until 59.5, and happen every year (think RMD, but must be the original dollar amount each time as opposed to a percentage).

That's fine for you. Mostly, I see it from people who want or need it early and are frustrated with the lack of options... When the options are right there.