cmonkey's journal

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Frugalchicos
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Frugalchicos »

Thanks for the info! We are also considering going something like 70-30...we can't really decide.

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

Frugalchicos wrote:
Tue Apr 02, 2019 11:07 am
Thanks for the info! We are also considering going something like 70-30...we can't really decide.
Ultimately, building out a SWAN portfolio is the best strategy. What lets you sleep well at night is entirely dependent on you. As for myself, a 100% stock portfolio would be a SWAN portfolio if it consisted of the right stocks.

My strategy is based on tax situations. For our case, we need to have 27.5K in annual income to qualify for the healthcare option I want, yet the MN standard deduction/excemption for a 3 person household is about 25.5K, leaving me with about 2K in income I need to transform into tax-exempt income - thus the need for state tax-exempt bond income.

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

Bmonkey had her next echocardiogram today and we got some news we were NOT expecting. Her heart is completely normal, all issues are gone. The cardiologist nonchalantly mentioned that what he saw last time could very well have been a reading from the pulmonary artery, which he failed to mention as a possibility last time...

In any event, they got a good picture of everything this time because bmonkey just slept and everything was bigger. Her aorta is totally normal and pressure is fine. We are going to have another scan done at 6 months old and then maybe every year for a couple years. Eventually she won't have any more appointments.

NO SURGERY!! :o :o :o

DW and I feel like we need to celebrate, but we don't know what to do! Anyone have any ideas?

7Wannabe5
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

That is great new! Maybe order a heartnut tree to plant at your new home, surrounded by baby soft pink tulips intermixed with red veined sorrel?

prognastat
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by prognastat »

Congrats on the amazing news, hope it'll keep going this way.

Tyler9000
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Tyler9000 »

Wow -- that's terrific news! As a happy new parent of a healthy baby girl, that sounds like a great opportunity to take a well-deserved nap. ;)

classical_Liberal
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by classical_Liberal »

Frick'en fabulous!

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Seppia
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Seppia »

cmonkey wrote:
Wed Apr 03, 2019 6:01 pm
NO SURGERY!! :o :o :o
This is fantastic news! you made my day today cmonkey
cmonkey wrote:
Wed Apr 03, 2019 6:01 pm
DW and I feel like we need to celebrate, but we don't know what to do! Anyone have any ideas?
make another bmonkey?
;)

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

Thanks everyone, I still feel like I'm walking in a dream after hearing the news. I doesn't feel quite real. I guess the lack of appointments on my phone is confirmation.
7Wannabe5 wrote:
Wed Apr 03, 2019 6:20 pm
Maybe order a heartnut tree to plant at your new home, surrounded by baby soft pink tulips intermixed with red veined sorrel?
This is a wonderful idea! I wish our plot of land was big enough to grow one, but who knows where we will live down the road. Maybe I could grow one in large pot.
Seppia wrote:
Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:40 am
make another bmonkey?
;)
Ha! We are pretty dead set on just one, I'm not sure I could go through all the wondering and worrying again. The past 6 months have been a rollercoaster of greater magnitude than most parents go through.

One other consideration here is reversion to the mean with regard to general attitudes in babies. Bmonkey never cries unless she gets hungry and then it's more of a grunt and she sleeps very well right from the start... so....dunno if I wanna revert here. ;)


I also forgot one other thing! We got bmonkey's genetic results back and got more detail about them. Turns out she has no genetic diseases at all (or coming) but she has a small deletion on one of her chromosome 18 which isn't associated with any known problem. This either came from just one of us, or was a random mutation. Which means that her Situs Inversus is not genetically caused, it's just entirely random occurance. The cause is completely unknown. She also doesn't have PCD!

George the original one
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by George the original one »

Hurray!

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jennypenny
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by jennypenny »

Congrats on healthy bmonkey! I'm so happy for you.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Likewise! That is great news.

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

Thanks guys!

We met with one of the top-selling realtors in the area today. We both like her and are going to talk with her partner tomorrow.

She is pretty confident we will sell the place quickly, given we have a lot of land and people are looking for land in the area, plus we have made such extensive upgrades to the house. She was pretty impressed.

I am pretty nervous about this and just hope it goes smoothly. I feel better after talking with the realtor.

I've been working on finishing up last little projects (some trim and floor transitions) and making sure anything that an inspector would note are taken care of like uncovered electrical boxes and other stuff. Still have a bit to do, but I am close to being finished.

I'd say we have about 50% of the plants dug up that we are taking. The rest are coming up quickly now since it's so warm this spring.

Smashter
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Smashter »

Glad to hear all the hard work on those home improvements paid off. And such good news about BMonkey!

How hard is it to take all those plants? How did you decide what to take? I love the idea of you selling stuff you don't need anymore but keeping a bunch of plants, such an ERE move :D

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

Smashter wrote:
Mon Apr 08, 2019 8:31 pm
How hard is it to take all those plants? How did you decide what to take? I love the idea of you selling stuff you don't need anymore but keeping a bunch of plants, such an ERE move :D
Thanks Smaster. Many of the plants hold meaning to us because they came from deceased family members and a lot of the others are more unique varieties of stuff that we like to much to leave behind. Most of it is just splitting of plants so we are not removing the landscaping.

Yes we are silly. :lol:

George the original one
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by George the original one »

cmonkey wrote:
Mon Apr 08, 2019 8:43 pm
Yes we are silly. :lol:
Nah, you're just gardeners! We did the same thing.

vexed87
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by vexed87 »

Belated hurrah! That's brilliant news, we are thrilled for you bmonkey! 8-)

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

So I got pinged by my old co-worker(s) again and this time had a phone call with them. Later this week I have a conversation with their new manager. It sounds like all the old BS of outsourcing burned them pretty bad and they are bringing all the technical work back to US hands.

They have exhausted their internal search for a candidate and are going external now, which is why they contacted me.

I'm not totally sold on going back, but it is a good company and the people were great to work with, much more so than my current co-workers. I'm going to be very particular with what I would want with any position with them - 1099 for about 30% more pay than I get now, full-time remote/WFH ( they are good with this already ) and I'm thinking a start date of August 1 for a variety of reasons.

The work definitely isn't/wasn't as interesting as what I'm doing now, but that might have changed. It sounds like they have started working on some of the stuff I do now. Taking this job would actually allow me to go back to my current job in a year ( 1 year non compete agreement! ) through a direct contract rather than through the contracting company I go through, which would effectively double my current pay as the contracting company takes a substantial portion. We are talking 250K+ in income annually for the exact same job, minus all the taxes and health insurance of course.

Of course I also want to just be done working with computers, but doing different things is kinda fun too....one more year syndrome might be hitting here.

Another HUGE negative is that taxes will be more complicated and tax-sheltering much more difficult. I would likely just hire a tax guy. Tax sheltering while self-employed is possible, but all of the accounts (SEP IRA, Solo 401k, SIMPLE IRA) are vastly harder to get money out of before you turn 59.5. Effectively all this extra money would mean nothing to my FIRE plans unless I kept it out and paid the taxes. But you can stash 100K+ in them each year, tax free!

We'll see what happens. In any event its nice to be wanted, it's a weird and new experience for sure!

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Mister Imperceptible
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by Mister Imperceptible »

Congrats on the 1099 life, you will be very happy. Not having to go thru such farces as “setting my goal for this year on the company portal” is a wonderful thing. Extra satisfying after the guy intially said it was salaried only and you just stayed firm :D :D :D

The taxes are a pain. I say pay the taxes, or at least not max out pre-tax. I maxed out my SEP IRA in the first year for tax diversification, but am thinking of contributing $0 for 2018 (have until Oct 2019 to decide....the nice thing about self-directed plans also is that you have the optionality of waiting on developments). Taxes are at record lows. I’ve been thinking about this and really tax deferral is a variable interest rate loan with a government that is over $22 trillion in debt not counting SS, Medicare, and unfunded pension liabilities. But I’m biased toward real assets and it’s harder to own that stuff in a retirement account. You can get the leverage back with real estate.

Cool that it just turns out that maybe bmonkey actually just has super powers or something ;)

cmonkey
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Re: cmonkey's journal

Post by cmonkey »

@MI, yea that's the exact reason I don't want a salaried position. Plus all the 'development goals/tracking' stuff. It's just so stupid.

I actually just learned I could be on W2 with a direct contract as well, so I might go through route if offered. I'd still pay more in taxes, but at least nothing would change from now and I'd only see half of the FICA tax payments.

Good thinking on the taxes, I think it's inevitable that taxes will go up at some point. I don't even think you can get money out of a SEP IRA anyway, not like a normal IRA. With a Solo 401k you have to 'shut down the business' officially with the IRS and then you can roll it into an IRA, but I don't think you can do Roth conversions on it.

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