Living in America 2015

[rootypig]

New thread. In honour of:

1. allegedly Irish bangers discovered I saw in Trader Joe's today, which made me think of you lot and especially you Want2b, you pork fanatic - I will report back; and

2. taxes bloody argh! do I have to do this? NOW??? My green card was granted in August last year and I didn't earn a bloody penny. What am I supposed to put on a tax return

How else is everyone's American odyssey going?

yours chaotically, as ever,

rooty

There are a bunch of retirees working on a part time basis in accounting. I want to be able to travel and do what I want. As we won't qualify for any help I want to make darn sure we have enough money. DHs granny died at 96. Spent the last 4 years in a home.

I'm inclined to agree with brow, although feel it will be more a question of not being worth the effort, than worth nothing at all.

Separately, am I the only one already looking forward to retirement (prob 30-35 years away)? Seems to me retirees who have saved for their later life have it really good: I can't wait to not give a shit about anything any more, and just enjoy my life!!

I have good British expat friends currently visiting key west / sanibel in Florida with more than half a thought to retirement locations. Still 20 or more years away but the blue sea and sky looks amazing....

Do you have investments then Want2B? I know nothing and am totally head in the sand about especially as I haven't worked in 3 years and will struggle to earn anything more than tuppence in my chosen career. Our biggest aim will def be mortgage free, but where to start from there?? I have no idea. Keep pretending we're young and have plenty of time yet but next week DH officially hits his mid thirties....no a good excuse anymore

Brow Couple of different things that we do. There is a lot of info which will probably completely overwhelm you at first.

If you earn less than $180k per year you can do ROTH IRA accounts. We now convert IRA accounts every year. I contribute the max to my 401k plan but my employer only matches the first 6% of income. Additionally we have SEP IRA accounts (for self employed people) where you can put up to $44k per year away. DH puts the max away and I put in the excess to my 401k (ie 44k - 401k contribution).

We then also through DH's employer have Health Savings Accounts. Now these are GENIUS. If you have a high deductible plan through your employer I highly recommend these. I put in the max each year and let it roll over. We don't have health insurance costs so never have to claim the money. After your balance is over $1000 you can invest it. Family limit is approx. $6k. Once we hit retirement I expect we will have about $350k in that account and it should cover most healthcare costs we have in retirement.

Overall, start small. DH and I were laughing at our first heart to heart many moons ago. We were arguing about whether he should save $10 or $15 per week into his ROTH account! What worked for DH was having an auto payment set up and to this day our savings are 'paid' first. We built up the amount we save slowly. If you have enough cash savings I would say invest in a HSA first then a ROTH contribution if your DH doesn't have a 401k plan with a match. If he has a 401k with a match a good start would be contributing up to the point of the match. What nice about ROTH IRAs is that you can withdraw the capital contribution without penalty if needed so it can function as a savings account. If you need it to do this then don't invest in a HSA before you invest in your ROTH. There is a 10% penalty if you pull funds early from a HSA.

We have an investments account too which I am managing. All of these accounts are held at Fidelity. They are a discount broker (therefore cheap) and very competent. They can manage your money for you but I think they charge too much. I use to know all the fund managers and invested accordingly. Now I use trackers and then pick certain companies that I like. If you are not sure about trackers PM me and I will send you some info.

I do laugh when people tell me they are scared of college fees. We pay more in daycare than in-state tuition for two kids. Also, Im Canadian so my kids can go north for far less. I am far more 'scared' of funding my retirement. So much is unknown. BTW - IMHO only contribute to a 529 plan if you are fully funding your retirement.

Watch out with the health saving plan - you can only use that money for healthcare payments. You can't withdraw it to pay for anything else or take it with you if you move country for example. Otherwise it's a good deal. We looked at it but unsure whether we will be here for retirement.

Yes - we plan to be here in retirement. I hope DH agrees to spend the winter months in the south and the summer months in Europe.

I'd love to do a split year eventually - or just travel constantly!

I have no idea what any of those things are you talked about and but will hit up Google over the weekend with the acronyms! We have no idea where we'll be in 5years let alone retirement

Do you mind me asking when you started doing this Want2B? At what age?

I started saving 10 years ago for my pension (I was 25). When I lived in England I spend my money paying down my flat so I was mortgage free when I left. I had a great income when I worked for the bank but compliance rules made trading too hard so I used my income to pay off my debt.

I started dating DH in January 2006 and by March we had our first talk about financial stuff. DH told me he didn't have a savings account. I asked him how much cash he had and he said he had $2500 in his current account. I nearly dumped him. He was almost 30 with nothing to show for himself. He rented a small one bed flat, had a company car and no pension. I told him straight that if we were to have a future he would need to start saving. It started as $10 or $15 a month. He got a 2% pay increase a month later and I made him save the difference! My employer matched dollar for dollar any contribution to the 401k plan. I saved the maximum amount. That match doesn't exist anywhere today.

I've always been frugal to the point where DH got upset with me today because he wanted to take the kids out for lunch and I thought $50 was too much to spend. I just think it's really unhealthy for kids to think its ok to eat out because you don't feel like cooking.

And herein lies the problem, we saved and used the savings as a deposit on our flat in London, now we are saving again but it's for an extended travel trip around South America in a few years time, and we make intermediary savings for other travel (going home and around America)....

It's so easy to save for travel. Is it not better for you guys to use a credit card to earn points for some of your travel? We put everything including daycare on credit cards and pay it off in full every month. With DHs work expenses we earn enough points to pay all travel in excess of what is covered through work for jaunts. We buy loads of stuff with those points.

I remember when our income was lower and how hard it was to save.

Yeah I've looked into credit cards and just need to work out which ones are best - and now I have an SSN I can actually apply for them, we're getting there!

Apologies for thread hijack

It's ok. It took me a couple of years to learn what to do here. It's so very different to the UK. I was happy to have £2000 I my bank account in England because I was paying off my mortgage and I didn't need much. Every month we spend about $2000 in healthcare that does get fully reimbursed but we still have to put the $ out there. There also needs to be enough cash available so we can rock up to the airport and fly home. That's now $6k for us four. It's a lot of money compared to what I had sitting in cash in the UK.

Not a hijack ATB, going into a different financial system is

Want2 thank you for being so generous with your advice, as ever

Yes, thank you want, your openness is one of the traits of American-ness (I know you're not American, just saying that this trait is) that I am trying to cultivate. I'm not naturally a secretive or overly private person - in a very un-British way I find it can be quite insulting of your interlocutor's intelligence and discretion - and I naturally appreciate the average American's generosity of spirit when it comes to things like this. Don't want to ramble, so just thank you!

On a separate note, dare I wonder for us East Coast-ers, if Spring has sprung?? I heard actual birds actually singing this morning!

And on an even more separate note, please help me settle a brunch-time argument: is a "biscuit" not basically a scone, just a bit crumblier (so slightly less shortening)? To be eaten with jam and cream, and not bloody gravy?? (That's bloody the expletive, not literally)

I was just analysing the biscuit the other day
It is the love child of the scone and the dumpling I think. I feel like scones (English scones; American scones are an abomination) are crumblier. Biscuits are doughier. I must say, I enjoy them in the dumpling-y way, savoury!

But do you eat them with white or brown gravy rooty?chicken and waffles is a big thing here, we've just had crawfish season and I had my first ever funnel cake at the Houston rodeo last week, could see my waistline expanding...

I find American biscuits like cakey scones I think? And American made scones too crumbly

Yes thanks Want2B, we need to start sorting our finances and thinking ahead so it's all very useful. We never want to sell our London flat and would like to pay it off asap then start accumulating a new deposit as well BUT my current priority is this big trip over saving for anything else.

Trouble is we don't know where we'll be in 5 years let alone retirement so we'll need to find creative ways of saving long term I think

Thanks Brock! I would never have been so forward even 5 years ago. My sharing is in part because it took me so darn long to put the pieces all together and part is the Americanization of me. I still struggle to food shop on a budget. It's so very different here.

I have no idea on biscuits. I don't order them ever for fear that I will become addicted. It's bad enough with brownies, bagels and pancakes. I had a client in North Carolina and a two week audit saw me gain 15lbs as we ate southern food everyday. I have never eaten any southern food again.

Well since I live in California, I eat them with neither kind of gravy but with butter, alongside something like an egg scramble. Actually, once with friend chicken, brown gravy and mashed potatoes at Disneyland. It was quite delicious! But I have only had them a handful of times. As Want says, probably wise.

I have another food related question actually. Several perhaps. I am planning Easter lunch and thinking I'll make this deliciousness www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/20/1970s-recipes-millefeuille-trifle-yotam-ottolenghi
But where is best to find double cream? The only thing I seem to see in chiller cabinets is half and half? I can't whip that! TJ's has heavy whipping cream but it's UHT, in a carton on the shelf. No thanks.

Related (same lunch), where would people recommend to buy a leg of lamb? I actually haven't bought lamb since we moved, we don't eat much meat. But I'm feeling sentimental about Easter lunch. I used to buy lamb at Turkish grocers in London, it was delicious.

Fried chicken. Not friend chicken. That would be macabre.

I found heavy cream in the fridge in TJs - still not quite sure how the US dairy products translate to UK, but it was sort of a cross between double and whipping cream

Lamb is hard but sprouts on sepulveda sometimes has it and actually TJ was carrying it a while ago as a boneless leg

You can get whipping cream in sprouts too

Yay sprouts (0.88 special on strawberries at the mo on sepulveda too)

Oh thanks ATB, yes we love Sprouts, when I can hack the drive. I have therapy over there, I'll pop in on my way back. They might be able to order it for me, come to think of it.

Thanks Closer, I haven't seen that in my local TJs. People in LA probably aerate avocados or something instead

What 88c/lb. for strawberries? Cheapest around here is two 1lb boxes for $3. This week they are charging $4 for the 2 boxes. I have never seen them cheaper than $1.50/lb.