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2025 / 2026 Investment Thread

i've had a weekly buy into the sp500 index, but i've also started buying an ex-us international index the last month or so
 
Well, this.dip is making me regret not getting more cash on had in January since I'm still living off stock until I can find a job again. The only upside will be figuring out when to do a rollover from my 401k to Roth to maximize this correction.
 
N4teTheGreat said:
Well, this.dip is making me regret not getting more cash on had in January since I'm still living off stock until I can find a job again. The only upside will be figuring out when to do a rollover from my 401k to Roth to maximize this correction.
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if you haven't had any earned income in 2025, this will be a good year to convert a chunk into roth, and esp so if you're under 22% marginal. for roth conversions, technically best to sell at lowest stock value and immediately convert 100% of the sale amount into a roth and get it into the same type of investment.
 
Das MotorRad said:
if you haven't had any earned income in 2025, this will be a good year to convert a chunk into roth, and esp so if you're under 22% marginal. for roth conversions, technically best to sell at lowest stock value and immediately convert 100% of the sale amount into a roth and get it into the same type of investment.
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and pay the taxes on the conversion from savings
 
That's the goal, savings are basically coming from sales of my former employer stock, but yeah, definitely not paying the 10% early withdrawal hit to pay for the conversion out of the 401k rollover funds.
 
Don't forget that if you thought you might retire overseas, converting may be a waste of money. The standard deduction is $15k single or $30k married, which a couple can live like champs on $30k elsewhere, so you could have your entire pre-tax 401k, tax free.
 
Yeah, odds of me retiring, let alone overseas, are pretty slim, so may as well batten down the hatches for the future.
 
You also may not have to convert, if you have Fidelity, you can withdraw to spaxx and make 4% while being insulated from market turmoil.
 
Sounds like that still requires a IRA conversion, or does fidelity have a way around that?
 
N4teTheGreat said:
Sounds like that still requires a IRA conversion, or does fidelity have a way around that?
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i believe he means if you're able to change your investments inside of the 401k
 
Ah, I'm not worried about volatility yet, just hedging for higher taxes when I'm ready to withdraw, but if I'm able to do a conversion and get in on a dip that'd be a win win.
 
Yeah the Fidelity sweep spaxx is still technically within your 401k, so there are no conversion losses. You can insulate your full pre-tax balance while chaos ensues.
 
byke said:
Don't forget that if you thought you might retire overseas, converting may be a waste of money. The standard deduction is $15k single or $30k married, which a couple can live like champs on $30k elsewhere, so you could have your entire pre-tax 401k, tax free.
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That's assuming you don't live in the popular ex-pat areas, which are a lot more expensive
 
Yeah I think the top level concept is really about doing what you need to in order live the life you want with what you have, then the rest just kinda sorts itself out naturally.
 
byke said:
Don't forget that if you thought you might retire overseas, converting may be a waste of money. The standard deduction is $15k single or $30k married, which a couple can live like champs on $30k elsewhere, so you could have your entire pre-tax 401k, tax free.
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I think federal taxes for married joint are pretty nominal when you consider with 30k std deduction, you're only going to pay an effective 11% all the way up to 125k/yr?

There's no FICA since you already paid that, and if you live in California just shy of 6 months and spend the rest elsewhere, there's no state income tax either.
 
It's an okay hack, but you're having to deal with the cost of having two places to live and then of course if one of them is California, you have all the costs associated with that. The relative tax ends up being pretty gnarly.
 
Yea, it's sort of predicated on the assumption that you were able to buy a place in California and pay it off, and then only have (prop 13) property taxes and maintenance, ongoing.

I think if you didn't do that, you'd probably want to move out of this state completely at retirement. You might not be paying any taxes on your roth disbursements, but you will continue to have to pay for California rents, which are probably going to continue to go up forever...
 
Though the one nice thing about paying rent in California is.....you never have to pay. :laughing
 
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