Thank you all for the feedback, it was generally what I was leaning towards. Keep the advice coming, just starting out in this lifestyle there is for sure going to be growing pains, in addition to the emotional ones for my daughter and I.
The net loss on the investment property is what is killing me at the moment, just have to generate enough cash to unload it at a 15k loss.
My current property I am also of like mind to selling it, one it is way to big, and you all confirmed my fears that it would be a waste to try and rent it. I do lose about 25k of my net worth if I sell it because of the little bit of equity in there. That doesn't make a difference does it?
One thing I didn't see an answer for yet, does maxing retirement also mean the $5500 in a traditional IRA or just the 401K?
My understanding is that federal jobs often have 403B/459 plans as well, have you explored this?
Not at all, I must of glazed over them, I will look into them post haste, thank you.
Posting a budget here might be facepunch worthy, and lead to some more constructive criticism.
I wish I could, I have no clue what the true expenses are for a single guy and his daughter, for 10 years it has always been the 3 of us, so next month is the true test of what I can sustain. There will still be facepunch worthy stuff I am sure, and I am hoping Mint shows me how hard I should punch myself.
Lastly, about investing. Do you want "Look Mama, no hands" type of investing or a "I know the hell of a lot about these companies, I will slice and dice their annual statements" type of investing? If the first, sell your stock and move to Vanguard and buy ETF's or Mutual funds with very low expenses. Make sure you have an asset allocation strategy when you go this path.
The next few months will be hard. Feel free to vent or ask for advice from this forum. I have never found a better set of people and advice than on this forum.
Thank you for this, it is exactly what I was leaning towards. I did speculative biopharms and made decent money, but it was just to much to micromanage. I just want to buy, have automatic reinvestment of my dividends, and forget about it for 10 years. A plus would be for it to automatically balance it every quarter, but I do not think Vanguard can do that yet.
Unrelated to your questions, I find the child support with 50/50 custody interesting. Why child support if, in theory, you each have the child half the time? Is it due to income differential? (Just curious...nothing more.)
Yeah, this is strictly due to income disparity. I make 100k she makes 40k, so the law in PA is that you can reduce your liability of child support based on the percentage of time you have with the child over 30%. Since I am roughly 70/30 income wise, I get a reduction in the full child support and only have to pay 50% of that amount, plus child care expenses, etc. I understand the need for Child Support, but taking a $769 loss each month, kind of eats into your savings rate.
This is probably the least of your concerns, but I think it's funny that you're invested in both Coke and Pepsi. Since they're direct competitors, doesn't that just mean you're betting on a strong market of selling processed sugars? I don't exactly consider myself an activist, but I do like to invest in things that I don't dislike.
Yep, I don't mind a carbonated beverage every once in awhile, but the reason for investing is more unemotional. Coke and Pepsi, normally rise together because demand is almost the same for each type. All 3 pay roughly a 3% dividend and I was first turned onto Coke and Wells Fargo by Warren Buffets books. Pepsi, was just a good earner year over year as well when I bought them. Funny, but only Pepsi has given much of a return this year so far.