It’s open enrollment time here at the company and I was wondering if anyone is familiar with the HSA contribution limits.

Mainly, my spouse and I each are eligible for an individual HSA. However the combined maximum of 2 individual accounts is more than the family limit. My question: is our combined max the family limit or the combo of 2 individual limits? My benefits HR person said it’s the individual limits, but I’m skeptical.

Reposting from last week, since I posted late in the week…

What percentage salary increase would it take for you to accept a new job, assuming you are happy with your current job?

What percentage salary increase would you need to change jobs (assuming you like the one you’re currently at)?

Context: I was reached out to by a recruiter for a role in my niche industry. It seems exciting, but accounting for the current benefits I have compared with the benefits at the new role, it would only be like a 10% raise at best. That doesn’t seem like it would be worth it, but maybe I’m just looking for excuses to avoid change…

Oof. Got news today that a coworker in their 40s passed away this weekend. They worked Friday and died Saturday. If that’s not a punch in the face to retire early, I don’t know what is. I certainly want to have as much retirement as possible, and not die after slaving away for years without being able to enjoy it.

Just applied for a new job for the first time since a couple of years ago. Here’s hoping it works out, since it would pay more, have more PTO, and would give me more retirement accounts to max out (pension, 403b and a 457!). I’ve been in my current role closing in on a decade. Usually, when I apply for other jobs by the time I get to the interview stages I’m not as interested in leaving. I’ll see if that happens this time around or not, since I’m doing this in response to RTO after being WFH for the past 4 years.

Haven’t checked my balances this week due to taking an unexpected trip. I’m assuming it’s going great.

I’ve snagged a few deals on CDs but haven’t done bonus churning. I feel like having to move my money in and out of various institutions and holding it for the required period is too onerous. I’d rather just shovel any extra funds into investments and forget it.

That’s what I’m hoping. My manager has been WFH herself for over 15 years, so I think it shouldn’t be a huge issue. Last time I was very upfront about not wanting to go back in, and it sounded like the worst case would be being reclassified as a remote employee. Hopefully that remains the case.

My manager informed me that word is they are going to start pushing RTO again. Last time they tried was the end of 2021 and it failed miserably, since everyone just ignored it. I told her it just doesn’t make sense for day to day work when the team is not co-located. We’ll see what they do this time around to get people to actually show up. I’ve now spent an equal amount of time at this job between going in full time (pre Covid) and WFH. I really like WFH and it is one of the major reasons I haven’t seriously job searched recently. I may have to ramp up applying to new jobs if this mandate has any teeth.

What are everyone’s thoughts about paying off your mortgage pre-retirement?

I got enormously lucky and refinanced at the very bottom of mortgage rates in 2020. Conventional wisdom would be to never pay this off as it’s effectively free money. However it is costing us roughly $20k a year in added expenses, which I could see as having a massive impact on ACA and FAFSA (assuming a future child) in retirement.

I’m getting to the point where if I want to pay this off before retirement, without having to sell investments, I’d need to start diverting funds from investments into a cash account (since HYSA is currently > mortgage rate) to have enough saved to lump sum in at retirement. Another option I’ve been considering is saving enough cash/equivalents to cover mortgage payments without paying it off. However I’m looking at roughly 20 years of remaining payments at retirement and I’m not sure if that is a good strategy or not. Thoughts?

Pleased to realize that between my taxable account and Roth IRA contributions, I now have 5 years expenses saved to support a future conversion ladder in retirement. I’m still a ways out, but it’s cool to realize that even if I don’t save anymore post-tax, I’ll be able to access my funds penalty free.

I’d consider a CD ladder with the amount needed for each tranche maturing at the time I’d need it (depending on rates I could get compared to HYSA rates).

Holy compounding growth! I can’t believe that I just crossed the $500k invested mark in January and I’m already just one more good day from hitting $600k. I very well could cross that line in time for the end of month spreadsheet day. (Don’t worry, now that I’ve put that thought out there, we’ll certainly see a market crash)

A particularly sucky way to save money: skip your spouse’s birthday celebration because you both got sick just in time for their birthday.

I feel especially bad because I dragged them to an event last week and they’ve been sick since we got home. Of course karma means they gave me their illness and I’ve been feeling bad since yesterday.

Frugal “win” of the day:

I over stretched my hamstring last week and sitting all day hurts. I was able to scrounge a perfectly sized box to transform my normal desk into a standing desk. Now I’m just hoping I can reduce the pain enough to survive the major tournament I’m travelling for next week.

Good for you. Every little bit helps!

Next week I’m going on vacation. The senioritis at work is real! I have no desire to do anything productive this week (besides obsessively checking the weather forecast for my destination)

Today’s my wedding anniversary (sort of, thanks to COVID causing us to have multiple anniversary dates).

It’s amazing how much marrying the right person can accelerate your timelines. My spouse was in the “work til I die” camp when we first met. However, they were always very frugal. Now we both dream of FIRE and have a pretty significant net worth.

Most likely. I would guess 4-5 years if no major changes in lifestyle. Longer, and harder to guesstimate, if we decide to have kids.

My most recent meaningless milestone:

With a 4% withdrawal rate, my current investment balance supports a monthly equivalent to my takehome pay of one paycheck. So I’m basically getting 12 additional paychecks a year from my investment balance.