The thought of buying bonds hurts my soul. I’ve been so anti-bonds since I started investing 10 years ago. But if all goes well I may approach my FIRE number in 7-8 years, so at some point I’ll need to figure out a plan.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

We’ve got a fixed percentage of bonds in investment accounts, but we’ve also been accumulating i bonds for the last 7 years, so I suppose we have been (slowly) building a mini i bond tent (or maybe sleeping bag).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yup. I'm getting close as well, so like 10 years give or take depending on what the market does.

I'm planning on a glide path like ERN describes in his SWR series. Basically, I'll start buying bonds about 5 years from retirement, then move back to equities during the first 10 years of retirement. Or maybe I'll do it over 20 years, i haven't decided. I'll basically be going somewhere between 20-40% bonds depending on how close I am to me FI number, the closer I'm cutting it, the higher my bond allocation will be.

That said, bonds are looking pretty attractive right now. T-bills are around 5-6%, and they seem to be stabilizing, so longer term bond yields will likely be going to unless we have a recession. I've been switching my efund to t-bills, and if longer term bond yields go up, I might start my bond tent a little earlier than planned.

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

I thought I saved up enough to buy a modest place for myself but looking at the prices.. I was so wrong. My landlord will be happy.

[–] yenahmik 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's a bummer. Prices do seem like they are dropping a bit (at least in my area). Hopefully you can find a good deal sooner, rather than later.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'm not even sure how to estimate it properly. Redfin and Zillow have a wide range, like 20% off from each other. And Realtor puts it at like 5-10% above Zillow.

My read is that house prices have gone up a little in the last year since the average is a bit higher (like 5%, give or take) than around this point last year. I have been seeing houses stay on the market longer (cousin recently sold and it took ~2 months), but there's still not a ton of inventory. So I think prices have stabilized, but not gone down much, at least in my area.

[–] FancyPantsFIRE 2 points 1 year ago

Housing market is nuts and I’m thankful we bought when we did. My house has (supposedly) gone up in value ~50% since I bought it four years ago despite mortgage rates being ~150% higher — how are people making those numbers work?