I'm good with low traffic, suits my antisocial tendencies lol. We're in the UK so I might not have a ton to contribute but just wanted to say hi anyway!

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 7 points 8 months ago

All are welcome. We're a niche within a niche within a niche, so it's not like we're going to have enough users to support region specific communities anytime soon.

Feel free to post UK-specific stuff, surely you're not the only one it will apply to.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Wife is pregnant for the first time (very early, so we’re still in the ‘fingers crossed’ stage). Definitely not ready to tell family/friends, but exciting times nonetheless!

We’re slightly older than most new parents and have been down the FIRE path for a while so we’re financially prepared, which is nice. Definitely grateful for the financial security.

Now I get to look in to 529 plans for the first time. Not thrilled that I have to use one of the ones run by the state to get the state tax benefit. Didn’t want to have to manage a separate account from my brokerage/IRA. Oh well!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Congratulations, fellow older parent here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Husband quit his previous job & took the summer off to work on some personal projects / reset for awhile. For various reasons he wasn't able to start job searching until the middle of November, just in time for Thanksgiving, and now the job market is shutting down for the December holidays. He's starting to get super discouraged that he can't find any positions (first time he's really struggled to find something quickly). I'm trying to keep his spirits up but the longer it goes the more discouraged he gets. : / Not really a financial issue but it really goes to show how much the whole "your worth is your job" mindset our society has affects people.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

It does affect Americans heavily, especially if he was the breadwinner. That said, the timing really is atrocious, so he should spend any free time during the holidays refining his resume and written references (since people are in a charitable mood this time of year).

Best of luck that he lands something soon!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Happy spreadsheet day y'all! Enjoy that last minute rally in November.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Anybody else remember there being 5 year CDs at 5+% years ago? I could have sworn I saw those advertised back in the late 90's - early 00's. I didn't get one because stocks were all the rage.

Nowadays, banks won't offer 5% for more than 18 months or so. It seems like they're expecting interest rates to come back down in the next couple of years.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah I’ve seen projections for 100-200 basis point rate cuts in the next 12 months. I don’t know if I would expect more than 75 or so but anyway. Rates should go down.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm thinking something along those lines. It could be another 5-6 months before inflation cools down to where the Fed is happy.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Agreed. I think they’re going to hold longer than people expect. No point in burning all your ammo to fight a real recession. But I’m just a layperson.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I just got one for 23 months at 5.3%.

But yeah, it's definitely weird seeing shorter term CDs with higher rate than long term, since my whole life longer term was higher interest.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Brokerages have them, but they're not call protected. I am seeing 3-year call protected CDs going for 4.6% or so, so I think banks are thinking rates will stay high about that long.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Good observation. I'm happy with my money market accts(~5%). But I figure banks have access to a lot more info than we do, so I look at CD rates as an indicator.

As far as actually investing in one, I had a CD back in the 90's and didn't like it. It's just not my thing. I'm a stock guy.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea 4 points 8 months ago

Same. I've only had one CD, and that was a no penalty CD to hold onto some cash for someone.

I pay state income tax, and t-bill rates are almost always better than CD rates (at least recently) after accounting for state tax rates. So I buy t-bills on autoroll in my brokerage (which is my main bank) with most of my cash, and the rest sits in a money market fund.

I haven't seen much point, but rates are currently pretty good and I'd probably get them if I didn't have state income tax.