Hoping for some financial advice - wife and I make about $150k combined. Both max out our 401ks, HSAs, and IRAs. We also pay an extra $1300 towards the mortgage each month (3.25% int rate). We’ve put some cash into series I bonds, high interest savings as an emergency fund and one CD. We’re both reluctant to put more in the market and our 401k contributions recently have gone into money markets. Are we being too conservative? Any other investment advice?

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With all due respect - you are insane. At your age, you staring at a guaran-fuckin-teed yellow brick road to generational wealth if you take advantage of it. Stop paying extra on the mortgage. Stop with the bonds. Don’t ever breathe the word money market again unless you are buying another house or saving for a large cash purchase. There is no magic risk-free investing advice that won’t keep inflation from shanking you and bleeding on the side of the road. It’s Equities. Equities. Equities.

Please do whatever it takes for you to get over this fear of the market. Over 10,20,30+ years, the likelihood you will not only be rich, but stupid rich by just buying the s&p index is almost a certainty. Run a compound race between 4% return and 8% over 30 years and see what happens.

You can hear the steam coming out of my ears, but I say this from a place of genuine good will for your future self. This current moment is a gift with stocks on sale and even better for you if it drags on.

Park 10% of your net worth in cash/short term bonds and every dollar extra goes into 100% equities.

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D1, look at VOO (Vanguard) or equivalents at other brokerages. Or, get into a total market fund like VTI and just buy and hold.

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Way too conservative, unless you’re like 65.

How old are you is prob the most important question here?

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Yea so that’s the first thing to fix. Adopt the 30 year timeline and act accordingly. That means dollar cost average your way into the market. Don’t time it, just buy every month.

Also, as others said, maximize the free money (eg stop paying down that low rate mortgage balance).

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Have you looked at a calculator of investing the extra mortgage money into an S&P 500 for 30 years or even 15 and what it would take to payoff remaining mortgage?

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You have a great interest rate. Why would you put more money towards your mortgage. Stagflation is only short term. The more you move your money around the less you end up earning. Historically.

Stop paying the extra $1300 to the mortgage each month, 3.25 is an amazing rate. That money could sit better in a savings account or even in the market. I would never ever ever pay off a mortgage early that has that low of a rate

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Stop paying the extra and no more cds or savings accounts. You’re never gonna retire with this strategy

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Why in the world are you paying extra for such a low mortgage rate. This is a great example of not leveraging debt as the wealthy do.

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In case you need more convincing, here is a graph of S&P 500 market price in the last 40+ years. Like what others have commented, keep a few thousands in your operating account, and your liquidity needs (3 to 6 month worth of expenses) in a high yield account, then invest the rest in the market (all the 401k, IRA and brokerage.) Once you get closer to retirement age, increase the liquidity amount to 18 to 24 months, so in case of a market crash, you will have the liquidity to ride it out and not draw from the market at a significant discount.

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Similar to Marcus, Ally is another option

Be riskier with the 401k. If you have no pmi don't put extra into the mortgage, invest it in real estate or stocks.

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You’re doing awesome maxing all those retirement vehicles. Can likely put more in ETFs. How much do you have left on the mortgage? The interest in low, but being free and clear brings a different type of peace as well

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I think people misunderstood what you said about the cash in the the I Series bonds & CD. It sounds like you're doing the baby steps which I personally agree with because they work...all the time. Leave your 3-6 months of living expenses right there. I'm assuming you have no other debt but if you do then I'd stop paying extra on the mortgage & use the $1,300 off the debt provided you can be debt free in say 2-3yrs but if it's going to take longer than that then I'd say use the $1,300 to build your assets, preferably those that produce income. FIRE is about building assets that you can use to produce income. So yes building a few million in assets is great but if you can't produce spendable cash without drawing down the asset then you could end up back to work when you're older.

Got it..I missed that part lol. Yes I would completely agree that they shouldn’t put money in a MM account. I like MM accounts for parking cash when I’m saving to buy something like a car, my next rental property or emergency fund. For long term investing, the stock market is on sale so now is the time to dollar cost average into good quality stocks or at least, just buy an S&P index fund.

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