Board 8 > Invest in stocks, or try to get a condo?

(+) Yeah! (+)

If you buy a condo, it might not be permanent but you can use it as a rental property down the road if/when you find a better home for yourself. So yeah, do whats best for you now.

Definitely get out of LA though lol. Im up in Santa Maria. Central Coast aint too bad.

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Santa Maria is pretty nice. Been there a few times when on California road trips. I actually drove around once and the neighborhoods looked good to me.

LA feels like it's becoming the kind of place where you earn money for a while, build your career, and then leave for another place you can live in long term. Kinda like San Francisco.

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Seanchan posted...

Just to be clear, with a Roth you can only take out the PRINCIPAL (i.e. the money you invested) without penalty. Any gains on that money you remove before retirement would suffer a penalty.

To add onto this there are exceptions.
https://www.schwab.com/ira/roth-ira/withdrawal-rules

Notable: You use the withdrawal (up to a $10,000 lifetime maximum) to pay for a first-time home purchase

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Zachnorn posted...

We used to be financially codependent. If I weren't paying rent, she wouldn't have been able to make the rent payment. But this changed recently because she got Social Security income coming in, which is way more than the $450 I pay.

Fair enough, I won't judge you for your financial situation.

It's just that the way the whole thing is framed feels colder than what I'm used to. "Sharing the rent" would be the same thing in practice, while "charging rent" sounds like you are a customer to a business. Americans put things in capitalist terms by default, while latin countries like mine don't. Capitalist concepts don't come naturally to us.

I was raised to keep money away from family relations as much as possible. I didn't get allowance as a kid, I just got raised to not expect to get everything I wanted and make reasonable requests. My parents get offended whenever I ask if they are unconfortable with helping me, and after a few years I just stopped asking. I don't intend to be a leech though, I have my own job now and I'm just living with them because we like to be with each other. Right now they don't need help from me, but if they ever do, I will help, but I won't put it in any terms that could sound capitalist or make the family feel like a business.

Anyway just ranting about something I see often. Not much a criticism of you. Sorry for derailing your topic.

Something I never understood is the push to get kids out on their own at 18. That wasn't the case for me at all. I guess it's obvious when I'm 31 and living at home. Though, I admit that I do have some craving for independence, I'm just not sure if it's worth the cost in terms of finances and also upsetting my mom that I would move out.

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Yeah, getting kids out the door at 18 probably costs American families a boatload of money on average. It seems to be a relic of an earlier time when property and rent were cheap and wages were high.

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Colegreen_c12 posted...

Notable: You use the withdrawal (up to a $10,000 lifetime maximum) to pay for a first-time home purchase

You really never want to do this though since you have an absolute hard cap on how much money you can out in a Roth IRA. Around 6k * 40 years. If you take out the 10k, then you're effectively throwing away 2 years from your limited 40 years available. With compound interest, it's a huge hit to your final retirement amount.

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red sox 777 posted...

Yeah, getting kids out the door at 18 probably costs American families a boatload of money on average. It seems to be a relic of an earlier time when property and rent were cheap and wages were high.

It was a time when we were building homes and selling them to people for what they were worth so that they could live in them.

Now what few homes we build we sell to people so that they can charge people more than what they are worth over time to live in them.

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Independence has its ups and downs, even aside from financial terms.

For me the biggest issue was loneliness. During college years I lived alone just fine, but when I went to live alone to work for a few years, my social life basically ceased to exist.

Modern society makes it difficulty for people to build social connections, so living with parents helps counter that a bit

foolm0r0n posted...

You really never want to do this though since you have an absolute hard cap on how much money you can out in a Roth IRA. Around 6k * 40 years. If you take out the 10k, then you're effectively throwing away 2 years from your limited 40 years available. With compound interest, it's a huge hit to your final retirement amount.

A regret (kind of) of mine is that I missed a lot of time with an IRA. I had reasons to not do it (including being told by a financial advisor not to), but still. I'd certainly want to avoid touching it if possible, but it's nice to know that I can.

red13n posted...

It was a time when we were building homes and selling them to people for what they were worth so that they could live in them.

Now what few homes we build we sell to people so that they can charge people more than what they are worth over time to live in them.

Gosh the stories I've heard about landlords as well. I hope I never have to rent. I'd rather get scammed by a mobile home park than deal with the landlords that own the building after some stories I've heard.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Independence has its ups and downs, even aside from financial terms.

For me the biggest issue was loneliness. During college years I lived alone just fine, but when I went to live alone to work for a few years, my social life basically ceased to exist.

Modern society makes it difficulty for people to build social connections, so living with parents helps counter that a bit

That is a nice thing for sure. What helps with me is that I have some online friends I do things with and do voice chats. We watch movies, YouTube, play games, etc. It's nice.

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Thanks everyone.

So I'm thinking I will just invest in stocks. Might put in several grand per month until I'm down to just my emergency fund. I feel safer spreading it out even if it means missing out on some potential returns. I feel bearish on the market.

Long term, I could just sell my stocks or get a margin loan if I need to get a down payment. But for now, I guess the cheap rent can allow me to save and invest quickly so that I'm in a better financial shape going forward.

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