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Has anyone looked into getting TA for Project Management Professional (yes, the acronym is PMP) certification? Still have my certificate available and I'm trying to find the best way to use it that'll help with a business job on the outside that I'd enjoy (I already have BSBA and MBA).

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Has anyone figured out a way to make a lot of money real fast, with little effort, and no risk?

If so, can you post it here?

Form an LLC and file for Govt. stimulus; then file Chapt 7, move to the island paradise of your choice.

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Has anyone looked into getting TA for Project Management Professional (yes, the acronym is PMP) certification? Still have my certificate available and I'm trying to find the best way to use it that'll help with a business job on the outside that I'd enjoy (I already have BSBA and MBA).

Not PMP but there are a bunch of free online courses/certs here:

Defense Acquisition University

http://www.dau.mil/default.aspx

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Sorry if I missed this discussion buried in this thread but just out of curiosity what % of your income do you guys normally invest? We have been doing 15% but I have been thinking about upping that....

One data point: we've been investing roughly 30% of my gross income for the last several years. Start by maxing out two Roth IRAs and the TSP. On top of that we put $500/month in a 529 and invest another $1k/month in a variety of stocks and mutual funds. Goal is to stop working by 55 and pay for the kids college. So far we're on track...

Edited by TTP
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One data point: we've being investing roughly 30% of my gross income for the last several years. Start out by maxing out two Roth IRAs and the TSP. On top of that we put $500/month in a 529 and invest another $1k/month in a variety of stocks and mutual funds. Goal is to stop working by 55 and pay for the kids college. So far we're on track...

Single source income of two? About what is your combined income?

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With that description of your (TTP's) investments, if you're single you're making at least $135K if you're truly investing 30% of your income.

$17,500 - max out TSP (assuming no deployments, the max could be much higher if so)
$5,500 - max out IRA (assuming your AGI is <$112K...probable with BAH if you're mil)
$6,000 - $500 x 12 for 529
$12,000 - $1K x 12 for taxable investments

Total: $41,000 /0.3 = $135K

So...either you're a general, have some income on the side or are married and the wife makes money, which in that case you'd have to make $150,500 to meet the 30% due to the married limit for IRA being $11K.

On a related note, I'm bored and congrats, sounds like you've got a good plan :beer:

Edited by nsplayr
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Single source income of two? About what is your combined income?

Single source income. Just hit the 14-yr mark. I am a pilot and currently on the bonus (annual gross approx $155k), but we've been investing 30% +/- of my gross for a few years now. I think one year the investments got as high as 40% gross. We realized that was a bit extreme and backed off a little. No debt of any type. Being financially secure is a great feeling!

Really appreciate all of the great financial advice and perspective everyone brings to this site.

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That's awesome dude...glad my nerd calculations added up pretty damn close.

I recently ran the numbers for myself and financial independence was closer than I imagined, especially if you factor in an AD retirement pension.

For me, I calculated my annual spending minus mortgage (which will be paid off by the time I would have enough money to "retire") and investments (not absolutely necessary once financially independent and the kid is through college) and arrived at around $40K in spending. Right off the bat, in today's dollars a High-3 Lt Col retirement is IVO $48K and indexed to inflation so boom, there you have it. Stay in for 20, make O-5 and don't spend like a drunken sailor and you're financially independent around age 42. Still the best deal out there for those willing to get kicked in the nuts for at least 20 years.

On top of that, based on my current savings rate and reasonable future increases in income, we'd have around $625K in the bank at "retirement," which would translate into an additional $25K take every year (i.e. 4% of principle as an annual safe withdrawal).

So no only would I be financially independent, but I'd have the ability to spend damn near twice as much as I am today. Honestly I'd have to acquire some pretty fancy tastes to straight spend more than $6K per month on things other than investing or a mortgage.

Plain and simple, every military officer has the ability to be financially independent i.e. you never have to work for money again at retirement. And that's with a very modest savings rate.

Even without the mil retirement (which I'm not planning on), I'd need $1m in the bank to sustain $40K per spending annually, which I think is doable before age 50, and honestly it'd be way easier to tighten the belt a little bit or do TR or some kind of other part time work, thus requiring much less in the bank to live off of.

Every dollar you spend today is gone forever unless you used it to buy an appreciating asset. On the other hand every dollar you invest goes to work for you every single day for the rest of your life and over time produces many, many other dollars that do the same.

Would you rather own stuff or freedom, time and energy?

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I think what personal finances really come down to is your approach toward money. Meaning some people have no idea where their money is being spent, which is why David Ramsey is popular with some people (personally I never heard of David Ramsey until a couple months ago). He offers a very simple, common sense approach to making a budget and spending only cash to ensure you know how ever dollar is spent. This can help some people develop a solid understanding of where their cash is actually going. For others, he is far too basic as they have moved well beyond his baby step system.

I've always had a budget, and that didn't change when I got married. Budgets are useful in two ways. If you are having problems with money, a budget can help provide insight to where your money is going. These people need to reference their budget on a daily basis to ensure each and every dollar is in line with their plan. Otherwise things can spiral out of control fast. For others, a budget is simply a good sanity check that should be referenced every 1-2 months to ensure their spending matches their plan. These people have developed the financial discipline and long-term financial look to basically be on autopilot.

To help spur further discussion, here is my family's (1 wife, 2 young kids) budget. I’ll use percentages of gross income to help make it transferable to others.

Investments: 30%

Rent: 18%

Taxes: 13% (Federal, FICA, SS, Medicare; no state taxes)

Leisure: 6% (restaurants, baby sitter, movies, etc)

Groceries: 5% (I am shocked at how much food costs!)

Autos: 4% (own both cars outright, this is gas & maintenance fund)

Charity: 4%

Utilities: 4%

Kids stuff: 4% (clothes, toys, books, shoes, sports, etc)

Vacation fund: 3%

Medical/Dental/Life & Home & Auto Insurance: 3%

Pre-school: 2%

Christmas gift fund: 1%

Cell phones: 1%

Misc: 2%

Edited by TTP
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Random question...my wife and I are planning to file separately because she has to pay off some professional school loans and it benefits her to keep her yearly income low so she can qualify for an income-based repayment plan (lower monthly payment). However, according to the IRS website, if we do that and make a combined income over $10k, we cannot contribute to a ROTH IRA for the year.

http://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Amount-of-Roth-IRA-Contributions-That-You-Can-Make-For-2013

Am I reading this right?

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I'm not a finance pro, don't take anything I say as gospel...

I don't see why it would matter. I'm a big fan of Vanguard, and they have a headline about this that says: "Converting assets from a traditional Vanguard IRA to an existing Vanguard Roth IRA"

https://personal.vanguard.com/us/insights/taxcenter/tips-rothira-conversion

So reading between the lines, an existing Roth isn't a problem at all for the backdoor, which is really just a special kind of IRA conversion. There are tax considerations if you have other traditional IRAs you're not converting, but I don't know enough about your situation to even guess how that'll play out. Give Vanguard or whoever you use a call - it's a relatively popular strategy. It's usually used by high earners, but the theory is the same for your married filing separately case.

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