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Tier 1: Gross Income The total starting point (100.00) before any deductions.Tier 2: Primary Deductions The first major split, where Taxes (27.00) are diverted from your income.Tier 3: Payroll Allocations The split between Retirement/Benefits (13.00) and your actual Take-Home Pay (60.00).Tier 4: Bank Buckets The division of your take-home cash into Checking, Liquid Savings, and Portfolio Investing.Tier 5: Final Destinations The specific endpoints for every unit, such as Rent, Emergency Fund, and Roth IRA.
Zero Cost: $0 to open accounts (Roth IRA, Brokerage), $0 account minimums, and $0 commission fees on most trades. Banking Alternative: The Cash Management Account (CMA) offers checking features (debit card, bill pay, and unlimited ATM fee reimbursements) with higher interest rates than traditional big banks. Free Expert Access: All members can schedule free 1-on-1 financial planning appointments. Advisors can help with budgeting, retirement goals, or portfolio reviews regardless of your account balance.
🛡️ Tax-Free Growth: Every penny your money earns inside the account—through dividends or stock price increases—is yours to keep. The government cannot touch the growth. 💸 Tax-Free Withdrawals: When you retire (age 59.5+), you can withdraw the entire balance without paying a single cent in income tax! 🔓 Flexibility: You can withdraw your original contributions (the money you put in) at any time, for any reason, without taxes or penalties. It acts as a secondary emergency backup. In a Roth IRA: You keep all $758,000. Total tax paid: $0.In a Normal Brokerage: Every time you sell a stock or receive a dividend, you pay taxes (roughly 15-20%). Over 30 years, this "tax drag" can easily cost you $150,000+ in lost gains and payments!
Centralize Data: Link external bank accounts, credit cards, and non-Fidelity retirement accounts (like an old employer 401k). 🔗Live Net Worth: It automatically tracks your Assets vs. Liabilities, providing a live net worth calculation. 📈Replace Spreadsheets: This tool provides a high-level overview of your financials, making manual spreadsheets or app-hopping unnecessary. 🔭
Max out your ROTH IRA ($7,500 limit for 2026) with recurring month/annual transferMonthly Brokerage Deposits: Treat your individual brokerage account like a mandatory bill. Schedule a monthly transfer from your bank to Fidelity Auto-Buying ETFs: You don't even have to log in to click "buy." Fidelity allows you to set up Recurring Investments for ETFs like VT. You can choose the amount (e.g., $200 every payday) and the date, and Fidelity will automatically buy the shares for you.
Formal: A security representing fractional ownership in a corporation and a claim on its assets and earnings. 📈ELI5: Buying a stock is like owning one specific Banana Tree 🌴. If that tree grows lots of fruit, you get to keep them. But if that specific tree gets hit by lightning, you have no bananas. It’s a big bet on one tree.
Formal: A pooled investment security that trades on an exchange like a stock, typically tracking a specific index (e.g., S&P 500). 🧺ELI5: An ETF is like owning a Bag of Seeds 🎒 from 500 different trees. Even if a few trees in the jungle die, your bag is so big that you’ll still have plenty of bananas. You can trade your bag for other stuff anytime the jungle market is open.
Formal: A pooled investment vehicle priced once daily at the end of market hours. 🤝ELI5: This is the Village Banana Pile 🍌. Everyone gives their bananas to a "Silverback" (Manager) who decides which trees to plant for the whole tribe. You can’t just grab your bananas whenever you want; the Silverback only settles the pile once a day at sunset.
Formal: A "set-it-and-forget-it" mutual fund that automatically adjusts its asset allocation (shifting from stocks to bonds) as the investor nears a specific retirement year. ⚓ELI5: This is a Smart Garden 🪴. When you are a young monkey, the garden grows mostly wild, high-reward fruit trees. As you get older and closer to your "nap time" (retirement), the garden automatically swaps the wild trees for steady, safe bushes so you always have a snack nearby.
Formal: An investment strategy in which an investor divides the total amount to be invested across periodic purchases of a target asset (like an ETF) to reduce the impact of volatility. By investing a fixed dollar amount on a regular schedule, you automatically buy more shares when prices are low and fewer shares when prices are high. ⚖️ELI5: DCA is the "Steady Climber" method. Instead of trying to jump across the whole jungle in one giant leap, you take one small, equal step every single day. Some days the ground is muddy (low prices) and some days it's rocky (high prices), but because you never stop moving, you eventually get to the top without ever worrying about the weather. 🧗♂️
Formal: A tax-advantaged account structure where contributions are made with after-tax dollars, but all future growth and withdrawals are 100% tax-free. 💎ELI5: ROTH is a Tax Shield. You give the Chief his Leaves (Taxes) 🍃 today, but in exchange, he promises to never look at your bananas ever again. No matter how many bananas grow in your stash, they are all yours to keep.
Formal: A post-tax employer-sponsored retirement plan with tax-free growth. 🛡️ELI5: This is a Hollowed-Out Log at your job. You put bananas in now after the Chief takes his cut. Any new bananas that grow inside that log are yours to keep forever—the Chief can never touch them again.
Formal: A triple-tax-advantaged account for health-related costs (Single limit: $4,400). ⚡ELI5: The Magic Medicine Pot 🏺. It’s the only place where the Chief doesn't take a single leaf when you put bananas in, while they grow, OR when you take them out to fix a broken monkey tail.
Formal: An individual account offering tax-free growth and withdrawals. 🔓ELI5: This is your Personal Secret Stash. You don't need a job-log for this one. It’s another tax-free bucket you keep in your own cave 🕳️ for when you’re too old to climb trees.
Formal: A taxable investment account that has no contribution limits and no withdrawal restrictions, but offers no special tax advantages. 🎣ELI5: This is the Open Ocean. You can fish here whenever you want, and you can keep as many fish as you can catch. However, every time you catch a big fish, the Chief stands on the shore and demands a few Leaves (Capital Gains Tax) 🍃 as a fee.
Formal: A Simplified Employee Pension plan for self-employed individuals or small business owners. 💼ELI5: The Chieftain’s Private Orchard 🌳. If you run your own troop, you can put away a massive amount of bananas here (up to 25% of what you find) to make sure your golden years are spent in a hammock.
The 401(k) / IRA Trap: If you withdraw your money fully when you leave, the U.S. will take 20-30% in taxes plus a 10% early withdrawal penalty. To avoid this, do not cash out. Instead, roll your 401(k) into a Fidelity IRA and leave it there to grow. You can legally withdraw it after age 59.5 from anywhere in the world.The Address Issue: When you move, update Fidelity with your foreign address. You must file Form W-8BEN every 3 years. This tells the IRS you are a non-resident, which often reduces the withholding tax on dividends from 30% down to 0%–15% depending on the treaty.Buying Restrictions: Once you are no longer a U.S. resident, Fidelity may let you hold your current stocks/ETFs, but they might block you from buying new ones due to international regulations. It is often best to finish your heavy investing while you are still in the U.S.
Bank Smarter: Use a Checking for bills and an HYSA for savings. Avoid big banks (Chase/BofA); move savings to Capital One, Discover, AMEX, or SoFi for 3.10-4.00%+ interest. Eg. For a 3.10% interest rate, you will earn $310 annually on a $10,000 balance in a Capital One Savings account. Compare that to Bank of America, which offers a standard rate of 0.01%, earning you only $1 for that same $10,000.Automate Retirement: Aim for 10–15% in your 401(k). Open a Roth IRA and a Brokerage account at a firm like Fidelity.Kill the Interest: Set all credit cards to Auto-Pay the "Full Statement Balance" every month.Invest the Cash: Ensure money inside your Roth/Brokerage is actually invested in Index Funds (like VOO or VTI), not just sitting as cash.Pay Yourself First: Set an automatic transfer from every paycheck directly into your HYSA or investments.Contribute and max out your ROTH every year
I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Ramit Sethi
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Disclaimer: This guide is for educational and community-sharing purposes only. It is not intended to be legal or professional financial advice. Always do your own research or consult with a certified professional before making significant financial decisions!
Why invest
The Primate Economics Investing Explaned with Bananas provides an essential overview of modern finance, explaining the mechanics of different assets and why Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) are often the most efficient choice for long-term growth. The core takeaway is that you don't build wealth simply by "saving" money in a traditional bank. Due to annual inflation, cash sitting idle actually loses purchasing power over time. Instead, money should be viewed as a tool to either improve your quality of life today or to buy back your time in the future through strategic investing.
VT EFX from April 2021 to 2026
To visualize the power of investing, consider the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT). If you had invested $10,000 into roughly 100 shares of VT at $100 five years ago in 2021, those same shares would be worth approximately $150 today in 2026. By simply letting that capital sit in a diversified global fund, your investment would have grown to $15,000, netting you a $5,000 profit without any active labor. This illustrates the fundamental shift from working for your money to letting your money work for you.
Taking this concept further, if you were to invest $1,000 monthly into VT consistently over the last five years, your total portfolio would be worth significantly more. This is known as Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA)—the practice of investing a fixed dollar amount on a regular schedule, regardless of the share price.
By following this system, you aren't trying to "time" the market or guess when the next peak or valley will hit. Instead, you are systematically accumulating more shares when prices are lower and fewer shares when prices are higher.
5-Year DCA Breakdown (April 2021 – April 2026)
Category
Value
Initial Investment (April 2021)
$10,000
Total Monthly Contributions
$60,000 ($1,000 × 60 months)
Total Principal Invested
$70,000
Estimated Portfolio Value (April 2026)
~$102,380
Total Profit
+$32,380
Total Return %
~46.2%
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Simple Cash Flow Strategy
W2 Salary
This visualizes a percentage-based cash flow model for a modern professional on a W2 salary. While specific percentages vary by location such the NJ state tax and HCOL housing costs shown here, the core logic remains universal:
Freelancer
How to get started
is a comprehensive financial hub that functions as both a professional investment platform and a high-yield banking alternative.
Key Features
🤔 Why max out your Roth IRA?
As of 2026, if you earn less than $153,000 (Single) or $242,000 (Married), you can contribute up to $7,500 per year to a Roth IRA. While it doesn't lower your tax bill today, the benefits are massive:
What you lose if you don't use a Roth 📉
Imagine you invest $7,500 every year for 30 years and earn a 7% return. In both scenarios, you end up with about $758,000.
The Takeaway: By not maxing your Roth, you are essentially giving the government a "voluntary tip" of six figures later in life. Maxing it out ensures that 100% of your effort stays in your pocket.
💡 Pro-Tip: Fidelity Full View® 🗺️
Full View® is an account aggregator that eliminates financial "silos" by pulling all your data into one real-time dashboard.
Action Plan ✅
ETFS to buy!
Here is Michael’s ETF to invest in (). Do note that this isn’t update regularly, so it’s up to you to do your own research on what ETF to buy
Here is a breakdown of ETFs to buy:
Tier 1 — Beginner
Zero decisions required. Perfect for someone who just wants to invest and not think about it. The fund rebalances itself.
🌍 VT 100% (Entire world stock market — ~9,800 US + international stocks in one fund)
Tier 2— Beginner
Same thing as VT essentially, just split into two pieces. Slightly lower fees, and you can adjust the US vs. international ratio yourself over time.
🇺🇸 VTI 75% (Total US stock market — large, mid & small cap companies)
✈️ VXUS 25% (Total international stocks — developed + emerging markets ex-US)
Tier 3 — Three-fund growth, More precision, slight complexity
Same thing as VT essentially, just split into two pieces. Slightly lower fees, and you can adjust the US vs. international ratio yourself over time.
🇺🇸 VTI 20% (Total US market — adds small & mid cap exposure beyond S&P 500)
🇺🇸💰 IVV 50% (S&P 500 — core US large-cap anchor of the portfolio)
✈️ VXUS 30% (Total international stocks — developed + emerging markets ex-US)
Tier 4 — Advanced global, Targeted international tilt
🇺🇸💰 IVV 75% (S&P 500 — core US large-cap anchor of the portfolio)
✈️ VWO 10% (Emerging markets — China, India, Brazil (higher risk, higher growth potential))
✈️ VEA 15% (Developed markets ex-US — Europe, Japan, Australia (stable economies))
Tier 5 — …
💻 FTEC 20%
🇺🇸💰 IVV 40%
🏥 VHT 10%
✈️ VXUS 30%
VT - Total Stock Market
VTI - USA Stock Market
VXUX - International Market
IVV - Top 500 US Company
VWO - Emerging Countries
Part 2 Investing as a habit
Investing isn’t a “one-and-one” event; it’s a habit you return to consistently, whether that’s monthly or quarterly. You can automate almost everything to keep your strategy running the background:
Terminologies
Stocks (Equities) 🧱
Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) 🧺
Dividends
Formal: A distribution of a portion of a company's earnings paid to shareholders, typically as cash. For an ETF like VT, this is the sum of payouts from the thousands of companies the fund owns. 🏦
ELI5: "Thank You" Bananas 🍌. When a company makes a profit, they send a little cash back to you just for owning a piece of them. It’s a reward for holding the stock, paid out regularly without you having to sell anything.
Most investors use a Dividend Re-Investment Plan (DRIP). Instead of taking the cash, you automatically use it to buy more shares. This creates a "snowball effect"—your money makes its own money, which then buys more shares to make even more money. 📈✨
Mutual Funds 🍕
Target Date Fund (TDF) 🗓️
Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) 📈
Investment Vehicles
ROTH (The Tax Shield) 🛡️
Roth 401k ($24,500 Limit) 🪵
HSA ($4,400 Limit) 🧪
Roth IRA ($7,500 Limit) 🎒
Individual Brokerage Account 🌊
SEP IRA ($72,000 Limit) 👑
FAQs
As an international, I don’t intend to retire in the US. What happens to my Fidelity accounts if I move back home before age 59.5?
TLDR: Don't cash out now: keep your Fidelity accounts open, file a W-8BEN when you move, and let your money grow tax-advantaged in the U.S. until you hit age 60.
Each country treats "remitted" (transferred) money differently. Here is how your group’s destinations compare:
Country
US Tax Treaty?
Tax on Bringing Money Back
Key Strategy
🇸🇬 Singapore
No
0% (No tax on foreign income)
Singapore does not tax foreign-sourced income or capital gains. It is the "cleanest" exit; you just pay U.S. tax on the way out.
🇨🇦 Canada
Yes
High (Taxed as regular income)
Canada taxes worldwide income. You must declare your U.S. accounts. However, a strong treaty exists: you can often "roll" U.S. funds into a Canadian RRSP to keep them tax-deferred.
🇹🇼 Taiwan
No*
0% (for most)
Overseas income is only taxed if it exceeds NT$1 million and your basic income exceeds NT$6.7 million. Most retirees fall under this threshold and pay 0% in Taiwan.
🇮🇳 India
Yes
High (Taxed at slab rates)
You must report these accounts in "Schedule FA." You can claim a Foreign Tax Credit for taxes paid to the US, but India's top rate is 30%+, so you may owe the difference locally.
🇨🇳 China
Yes
0% (for first 6 years)
Use the "6-year rule." Leave China for 31 days every 6 years to reset your tax-free clock.
🇹🇭 Thailand
Yes
Variable (New 2024 rules)
As of 2024/2025, Thailand taxes foreign income if you are a tax resident (180+ days) and bring the money into the country. Money earned before you became a Thai resident is generally exempt.
🇮🇩 Indonesia
Yes
0% (first 4 years)
Indonesia has a "Territorial Tax" incentive for certain professionals: foreign income can be 0% taxed for the first 4 years. After that, they may tax your global income.
🇨🇴 Colombia
No
High (Up to 39%)
Once you stay 183+ days, you are a tax resident. Colombia taxes global pensions at progressive rates (up to 39%). There is currently no tax treaty between the US and Colombia to prevent double taxation.
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Q: What is the single most important thing to do before I leave the U.S.?
A: File Form W-8BEN with Fidelity. This certifies you are no longer a U.S. resident. Without it, the U.S. will automatically take 30% of your dividends. With it, the treaty (for countries like India, China, or Canada) can drop that tax to 10–15%.
Q: Should I close my U.S. bank and brokerage accounts?
A: Absolutely not. It is nearly impossible to reopen these once you are abroad. Keep a U.S. "hub" (Bank + Google Voice number) active. Move money from Fidelity to your U.S. bank, then use an app like Wise to send it to your home country. This avoids massive wire fees and account freezes.
Q: What happens if I die with money in a U.S. Brokerage?
A: The "Death Tax" Warning. If you are not a U.S. citizen, the U.S. can tax up to 40% of your brokerage assets over $60,000 upon your death. Keep your "big money" in your 401(k) or IRA, as these often have better treaty protections than a standard brokerage account.
💳 The Financial Quick-List
Great job! Here is a quick summary of what you have set up or should setup now!
Recommended Readings
Security 📜
Formal: Any tradeable financial instrument that holds monetary value. Securities fall into three main categories: equity (stocks — ownership in a company), debt (bonds — you are the lender), and derivatives (options, futures — value derived from an underlying asset). When someone says “pick a security,” they mean pick a tradeable asset. 📊
ELI5: A Security is basically any official “Jungle Claim Ticket” 🎟️. It’s a piece of paper (or digital record) that says you own something of value — a tree, a loan, or a bet on a tree. Stocks are one type of security (your banana tree ownership deed). ETFs are another (your bag of seeds receipt). They’re all just different kinds of official claim tickets the Jungle Exchange will let you trade.
💡 Margin of Safety: In value investing, “security” also means buying something at a big enough discount to its real value that even if you’re wrong, you don’t blow up. If a stock is worth $100 and you buy at $60, you have a 40% buffer against being wrong.
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