The "What Are You Doing This Moment" Thread

Well union and taxpayer funded are inextricable from direct assault on meritocracy.

Yeah agreed. However a union that makes it hard for a corporation to arbitrarily fire a bunch of workers is much less an assault imo than not allowing shit cops to get fired or shit teachers to get fired because the protection of shit cops and teachers has a huge impact on society.

Unions obviously could be improved, I just wouldn't do away with them.
 
this should be an IRA. It's a fed government one only, tsp.gov , is the website.

im guessing i got 35-40 years until retirement

here's the fund overview : https://www.tsp.gov/InvestmentFunds/FundsOverview/index.html

The F, C, S, and I Funds are index funds, each of which is invested in order to replicate the risk and return characteristics of its appropriate benchmark index. For example, the C Fund is invested in a stock index fund that fully replicates the Standard and Poor's 500 (S&P 500) Index, a broad market index made up of the stocks of 500 large to medium-sized U.S. companies. The C Fund's objective is to match the performance of the S&P 500. The F, C, S, and I Funds remain invested regardless of the performance of the securities markets or the overall economy.

on tax status, i cannot make any more deposits atm since i no longer am federally employed and i know its 20% if i pull out before 65. not sure if that is everything ya need to know or not



i'm down with the risk, this is really just side $ at the moment.

but if im going risky and aggressive, would i split it or keep it aggregated? seems like 100% is ideal for a risky option.

First off, if your not investing in Roth IRA you need to start and also transfer out of the traditional IRA if that's what your in. By virtue of compound interest, you're better off footing the tax bill today rather than down the line. However, I would wait until the new tax policy kicks in to do this because it will ultimately save a marginal amount of money with a lower tax rate. Additionally, you want all your funds in equity with a 35-40 year horizon for retirement. There's no reason to worry about a bubble in the short term because the markets will rally as they always do. What you don't want to happen is that you have funds caught in a downswing five or so years from retirement. Otherwise, max out your contribution limit and forget about the market until you get to that point. These funds are diversified at an aggregated level so it's not like dumping your money into dogecoin or some shit.

The S&P is fair spot to park your funds for the long haul, but I would personally opt into the riskiest fund possible.
 
Would I have to contact the tsp people to confirm which type of IRA it is?

oh you're in a TSP.... I had a tsp when I was in the army and we could access and manage funds online. If they have a rep, I would recommend consulting them on the particulars. There won't be any penalty for the transfer so long as you get it done with 30-90 days or so (can't remember the exact deadline). I remember them having a Roth option, but I've since transferred them to an IRA since ETSing.

edit: there definitely a roth tsp. I'm sure you can transfer it.
 
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First off, if your not investing in Roth IRA you need to start and also transfer out of the traditional IRA if that's what your in. By virtue of compound interest, you're better off footing the tax bill today rather than down the line.
How do you know that? With a Roth contribution, you pay tax on all the money up front, but there's no telling when (or if) you pay on all the money withdrawn from a traditional IRA, because it's withdrawn over many years of retirement. Any money left untaxed has more time to keep compounding.

You neglected to mention the possibility of having a lower tax rate in retirement anyway, along with the fact that an individual's financial situation is deeply personal and complex, where things like lifestyle and spending habits need to be factored in before any sound asset allocation decisions can be made. These are two basic things anyone qualified to give financial advice would know (not that giving financial advice on a web forum is ever a good idea to begin with), so just stop.
 
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How do you know that? With a Roth contribution, you pay tax on all the money up front, but there's no telling when (or if) you pay on all the money withdrawn from a traditional IRA, because it's withdrawn over many years of retirement. Any money left untaxed has more time to keep compounding.

You neglected to mention the possibility of having a lower tax rate in retirement anyway, along with the fact that an individual's financial situation is deeply personal and complex -- two basic things anyone qualified to give financial advice would know (not that giving financial advice on a web forum is ever a good idea to begin with), so just stop.

Well it just depends where he is tax wise at the moment. I believe that new tax policy won't hold for 35 years and he will actually have higher taxes in the future, but this is just conjecture. The tax policy going into effect currently is phasing a lot of it's benefits over eight years so it might be prime time to load up a Roth fund. I mean he's talking about 35 years or so into the future so I don't think he has sense of exactly of the lifestyle he will wanting at that point and should probably re-evaluate it as time goes. The whole point is to start saving early regardless.

I already disclosed that I'm only a CPA, but I think I'm qualified enough to lend some advice. It's up to him to decide and you can feel free to chime in.
 
Well it just depends where he is tax wise at the moment. I believe that new tax policy won't hold for 35 years and he will actually have higher taxes in the future, but this is just conjecture. The tax policy going into effect currently is phasing a lot of it's benefits over eight years so it might be prime time to load up a Roth fund. I mean he's talking about 35 years or so into the future so I don't think he has sense of exactly of the lifestyle he will wanting at that point and should probably re-evaluate it as time goes. The whole point is to start saving early regardless.

I already disclosed that I'm only a CPA, but I think I'm qualified enough to lend some advice. It's up to him to decide and you can feel free to chime in.
I absolutely do not agree that you're qualified to give advice here, sorry. You don't seem to understand that financial advice goes beyond the letters after your name -- it involves a one-on-one relationship where you get to know someone personally and understand how their lifestyle affects their finances.
 
I absolutely do not agree that you're qualified to give advice here, sorry.

word. do you even know about the deductibility of traditional ira/tsp limitations? forced distributions? or that many people end having to back-door into roth ira's in the future anyway?

edit: I'll dig into the minutia if you want me to. it's not nearly as simple as being in a lower tax bracket at retirement
 
I absolutely do not agree that you're qualified to give advice here, sorry. You don't seem to understand that financial advice goes beyond the letters after your name -- it involves a one-on-one relationship where you get to know someone personally and understand how their lifestyle affects their finances.

I agree, but he still needs to save as much as possible now and aggressively given the 35 year timeline. There's no way to be precise about his "lifestyle" at the moment and there's no reason to fret over market crashes in the short term given the natural ebbs and troughs of the market and that he will be investing in index funds. At some point he does want to temper the investments and move things around, but that's a null point today. You'd be an idiot diversifying into bonds for a retirement forecasted out 35 years.

edit: Plenty of people have recommended seeking the advice of a financial advisor which he should absolutely do before committing to anything concrete. I'm speaking on things I learned while in grad school. However, getting so hung up on the man's lifestyle 35 years away from retirement is silly. I'm sure he's sensible enough to save what he can while still budgeting for short to long goals and such.
 
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lol I mean he's making fair points. RMS just wanted to know which fund to invest in which is a simple enough thing to answer given the timeline. There is plenty of debate about Roth vs Traditional.
 
They mostly work in our favour here, in my experience. Teachers Unions and Police Unions are the worst imo.

Nope. Teachers and cops are the least respected professions ever. Labor laws wouldn’t cover us if we didn’t have a union. We need one in order for students or people not to like kill us at work and get away with it. Also administration then could easily let you go if not for a union and mandate shit that is unfair. Like some teachers teach over 100 students and they have to grade and plan and give feedback to all those students. Imagine if they had to do other bullshit on top of that crazy ass workload? Which is what administration always tries to throw at you.
 
I just think it should be easier for shitty teachers and shitty cops to get fired.
I don't really have much sympathy for the work load of teachers but that doesn't mean I'm saying get rid of teachers unions.
 
I did, but that was just because of the flexibility of IRA for me. I was young when I was contributing to the TSP and I never put a whole lot into it. There's no reason you have to transfer out of the TSP really. I would just see if your using a Traditional or a Roth. It's most likely a Traditional TSP If you're contributing pre-tax dollars. I can't remember a lot of the TSP benefits vs civilian offerings, so I don't know if there's limits on deductibility. For instance, I couldn't deduct Traditional IRA contributions at my first job because my income was too high (it starting phasing out at around $60,000). It wouldn't be that much of an issue If you can still deduct your contributions and expect to continuing doing so overtime.
 
I just think it should be easier for shitty teachers and shitty cops to get fired.
I don't really have much sympathy for the work load of teachers but that doesn't mean I'm saying get rid of teachers unions.

You don’t need to have sympathy for teachers workload. Just know it is a lot and most teachers do try to be good and bust their ass at work while simultaneously helping parents properly raise their children. It amazes me how people just don’t respect teachers but it’s also because they literally have no idea what the job truly entails anyways. It’s not only teaching a subject and grading papers.

There’s some charter schools that are from 7am to 4:30pm. And the teacher still has to go home and lesson plan and grade and contact parents. Easily a 12 hour day. And forget it if you actually want to do programs to help students catch up with math and reading. Or any after school programs like any kind of sport teams for the kids.You’ll basically live at work, which a lot of teachers do just to run programs and to help their students. Whatever.

In addition, it’s actually not that hard to be fired as a teacher. Here in NYC you are rated so if you continuously get rated low by administration they can let you go. It’ll be very difficult for a low rated teacher to find a teaching position that would hire him or her. They’ll have to accept a position called RTA which is like similar to a substitute but for the entire district. Everyday different building and school. They have heir own supervisors and because they are already rated low they are easily let go. The few bad stories you hear isn’t representative of the whole.

Also here you lose your tenure if you repreatedly receive low scores for three consecutive years. Without tenure they can get rid of you very easily. The teachers union is nowhere near as strong as the police union. Though both professions need a union and it would make sense that end police union would be stronger. In any event, administration is tough because they have to blame someone (that’s not themselves of course) if the schools not doing well and the easiest finger to point is to the teachers. It’s not like they are doing this out of malice always (though sometimes it is) but they are just trying to keep their jobs too.
 
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You don’t need to have sympathy for teachers workload. Just know it is a lot and most teachers do try to be good and bust their ass at work while simultaneously helping parents properly raise their children. It amazes me how people just don’t respect teachers but it’s also because they literally have no idea what the job truly entails anyways. It’s not only teaching a subject and grading papers.

There’s some charter schools that are from 7am to 4:30pm. And the teacher still has to go home and lesson plan and grade and contact parents. Easily a 12 hour day. And forget it if you actually want to do programs to help students catch up with math and reading. Or any after school programs like any kind of sport teams for the kids.You’ll basically live at work, which a lot of teachers do just to run programs and to help their students. Whatever.

A lot relative to what? I'm not trying to shit on teachers here, my complaint about Teachers Unions is based on a respect for the profession and the role they play in society, same with police. I also have nowhere stated that I don't support unions, I definitely do. But I've worked in the mines, I've worked 12 hour days getting up at 4:30AM, at work by 5AM and home by 5PM working on construction sites and properties all day.

And that's a job with very little in the way of holidays and time off. It's not a competition (thankfully I work for myself these days but it took a lot of ass-busting to get there) but I swear teachers can be a little self-pitying at times.

The few bad stories you hear isn’t representative of the whole.

Of course. This also goes for the police. But I think it becomes a problem when the few bad examples of a profession as important as teaching or policing are very hard to remove from the body of the profession.

In addition, it’s actually not that hard to be fired as a teacher. Here in NYC you are rated so if you continuously get rated low by administration they can let you go. It’ll be very difficult for a low rated teacher to find a teaching position that would hire him or her.

I can't speak to the way it is in America, especially in a specific state, but here in Australia the Australian Education Union makes it so hard to have shit teachers fired, often dragging the process on for months and months which of course impacts the students and the school that they work with.