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The Financial Fitness Thread

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
15,827
13,063
Cash back credit card and put all your spending through it, paying it off in full each month. We get 2% on ours.
 

gonefirefightin

free wieners
Considering I am already retired and on a fixed income I have had to adjust my portfolio to a more liquid stance and allow it to revolve a bit more than I used to for annual gains.

I still am pretty heavy on broad markets and easy climbs like ETF's and mutual funds but have dove head first into the crypto markets and using the volatility to my advantage. Luckily the Crypto markets are supported by a ton of tech and tools available to the market that truly makes the Fiat markets look like stone age. With the advent of coinbase pro and paid bots in 3commas I am able to automate everything with trailing stops, limits and even futures and staking and hardly any maintenance. I do still play with pennies and options just to give me something to do but overall I set and forget most of everything.
 

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,261
8,767
Crawlorado
Hey @stoney and/or @Toshi, if people intend to give us money for our kid, what is the best vehicle to park that in for tax advantages and long term growth?

Planning on tucking a healthy chunk of gifted cash away for her future.
 

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,520
7,068
Colorado
Hey @stoney and/or @Toshi, if people intend to give us money for our kid, what is the best vehicle to park that in for tax advantages and long term growth?

Planning on tucking a healthy chunk of gifted cash away for her future.
529. College Savings Plan. Keeps the money in your control and grows tax deferred. The range of what it can be used for is very broad - technical schools, computers, housing, etc. Depending on the state, you might also avoid state income taxes at drawing. Also incredibly high cap (effectively limitless given most people's family wealth levels).

UGMA/UTMA will give them control at age of adulthood (18-21, state dependent). That's a hard pass from me.

Coverdell has low limit and much more stringent usage rules.

Find your state sponsored 529, as they are usually the cheapest option. Most have no transactional or maintenance fees and it just comes down to expense ratios and fund selection. We use the state sponsored here in CO vs. a private firm option (company doesn't do them, so I don't bother even looking there anyways). If the state sponsored seems expensive, look at Vanguard; they might have a cheap one.
 
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Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,032
7,551
Yup. 529. But even better may be a Roth. Generate earned income for your kids creatively. See Hiring Your Kids section here

 

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,520
7,068
Colorado
What they said....I opened a 529 for both kids the day I got their SS number. $100 each paycheck goes into both.
We have it set up with basically every family member that if they get cash for a gift, half of whatever they get goes I to the plan. Haley gets frustrated by it sometimes, but knows that if she gets $50, it's because they were giving her $25 to spend. They still get real gifts, but since they have so much crap, easily half of gifts are cash.
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,853
9,557
AK
We have it set up with basically every family member that if they get cash for a gift, half of whatever they get goes I to the plan. Haley gets frustrated by it sometimes, but knows that if she gets $50, it's because they were giving her $25 to spend. They still get real gifts, but since they have so much crap, easily half of gifts are cash.
I wish people would give me cash.
 

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,520
7,068
Colorado
I wish people would give me cash.
She also "randomly" won two pairs of airpods. She's director level of sales & marketing for a developer. She has a lot of money to throw around, so they want her business. Sure as hell ain't me; I'm a pleb.