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Mad Fientist
Personal blog · madfientist.comeconomicsproductivity
Mad Fientist is a personal blog at madfientist.com about economics and productivity. Since 2016, 21 different Hacker News readers have linked it 28 times, most often “How to Access Retirement Funds Early”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-08-05, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (20) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked for financial independence (FIRE) content on tax-advantaged accounts, safe withdrawal rates, and retirement strategy, plus its podcast. Commenters cite its posts as sources for their points.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 20 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Advanced strategies for pursuing financial independence and early retirement
Most-linked posts?
- /4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-01-18
- How to Access Retirement Funds Early3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-05-07
- /safe-withdrawal-rate/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-08-01
- How to Access Retirement Funds Early2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-07-29
- /after-tax-contributions/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-07-12
What Hacker News says?
You can also take your principal (and earnings) out of a traditional IRA penalty free if you work through the loopholes. http://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-ea...
Comment linking /how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/
on “Investing for Geeks”Submitted How to Stack Tax Benefits for Even More Savings (2021) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionYou read through all the advice in these blogs [1][2]. Seriously. If you are invested in low cost index funds, most assume you can safely withdraw 4% a year and not deplete your principal. If you're retiring at 35, you might want a greater safety margin, so let's say 3%. That gives you 60K a year. How do you retire on 60K a year? Obviously take what I'm saying with a grain of salt as I'm a relatively young person an…
Comment linking /
on “Top Paying Tech Companies by SWE Level”Submitted Valuable Lessons from My Second Year of Freedom as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIf the average worker has any stock or index fund investments, that worker absolutely can take advantage of this (in the U.S.). It's called tax-loss harvesting - worth reading about here [1]. [1] https://www.madfientist.com/tax-loss-harvesting/
Comment linking /tax-loss-harvesting/
on “Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes”Submitted How to Access Retirement Funds Early as a story · 1 points
HN discussionhttps://www.madfientist.com/after-tax-contributions/
Comment linking /after-tax-contributions/
on “Insider trading has been rife on Wall Street, academics conclude”Submitted Valuable Lessons from My First Year of Freedom as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSure, so there's a few things to look at. The first is going back to the origins of the 4% number in the first place, the trinity study. The parameters for that were a 30 year retirement period, and success was "not completely run out of money after 30 years, 95% of the time". If you extrapolate from that original study, if you retire for more than 30 years (FIRE includes retiring early), success drops from 95%. The…
Comment linking /safe-withdrawal-rate/
on “Ask HN: I have $450K cash, what should I do to maximize my return?”Submitted How to Access Retirement Funds Early as a story · 1 points
HN discussionTo be clear, the 4% rule assumes a 30 year retirement (i.e. retiring at ~50-60). For early retirement you should target a 3.5% annual withdrawal rate. https://www.madfientist.com/safe-withdrawal-rate/
Comment linking /safe-withdrawal-rate/
on “Ask HN: I have $450K cash, what should I do to maximize my return?”I’d wager that a lot of people using HDHPs are doing so in order to be allowed to use HSAs as a stealth (but best) additional retirement account. https://www.madfientist.com/ultimate-retirement-account/
Comment linking /ultimate-retirement-account/
on “Uber funds new lobbying group to deny rights for gig workers”I am converting after-tax, not pre-tax contributions. For more information on why that would be desirable, this is an easy read: http://www.madfientist.com/after-tax-contributions/
Comment linking /after-tax-contributions/
on “How I'm fixing the 401(k)”> Would change one’s approach to retirement and savings if you knew how long you needed money for… Popular wisdom amongst early retirement groups is you need 25x your annual spending to retire indefinitely. This figure is based on average stock market returns, so as long as you take out less than you earn each year you are golden. Some years it won't do so well, others it'll do better, but overall you should be safe…
Comment linking /safe-withdrawal-rate/
on “People who live past 105 years old have genes that stop DNA damage”We took a HDHP just in order to qualify for the HSA. It probably doesn't save us money on the health-care side, but the HSA as stealth additional retirement account more than makes up for us. https://www.madfientist.com/ultimate-retirement-account/
Comment linking /ultimate-retirement-account/
on “High-Deductible Health Policies Linked to Delayed Diagnosis and Treatment”Mega backdoor Roth primer is here: http://www.madfientist.com/after-tax-contributions/ Don't get hung up/paralyzed into doing nothing for fear that something slightly better might be available if you did hundreds of hours of research. The most important thing is to get started, IMO.
Comment linking /after-tax-contributions/
on “Why has regional income convergence in the U.S. declined? Housing costs”It depends actually what is your purpose. If you intend to learn about stock trading for personal finance reasons you can follow a lot of blogs or podcasts in the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) community. Some examples are the stock series of JL Collins ( https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/ ) and the Mad Fientist ( https://www.madfientist.com/ , the blog is a bit tax focused, but it goes well with the…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Best resources to learn about stock trading and investing?”> Both on contribution and withdraw To clarify, the same money generally isn't taxed twice. Contributions to pre-tax retirement accounts are not taxed, but distributions are. On the other hand, contributions to Roth accounts come from taxable compensation, but qualified distributions are tax-free. Finally, you buy taxable investments with after-tax principal, and only its earnings are taxed later. > Keep in mind you…
Comment linking /how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/
on “Ask HN: Can you still achieve FIRE if you start planning at 40?”Adding onto this, this article compares various approaches to getting money “early” out of a 401k/tIRA (Roth conversion ladder as said here, 72t SEPP’s, early withdrawal penalty), and has the surprising conclusion that even the “just pay the 10% penalty” comes out ahead of regular taxable contributions, at least in some situations. https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-e...
Comment linking /how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/
on “It’s possible to pay $150 in taxes on an income of $150K”Disclaimer: I'm not an accountant, so my answer here is paraphrasing what I've read from others and may not be the best, is not advice, etc. Since the tax code is always changing, the techniques available will change over time. I always recommend having an accountant or financial advisor. That said, there are several ways to save money on taxes in the situations that exist around early retirement. 1 - One example is…
Comment linking /tax-gain-harvesting/
on “Ask HN: Why do software engineers always focus on salary and early retirement?”I'm into the FIRE stuff. I don't find being interested in your work and having access to early retirement as mutually exclusive. Having the ability to retire early is not really about retiring — it's about having optionality in your life to choose what you do with your time, whether that's what you work on, where you work, who you work for, or if you even work at all post the point of financial independence that div…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Why do software engineers always focus on salary and early retirement?”Something that I was listening to today along the same lines. http://www.madfientist.com/side-hustle-nation-interview/ From the linked site: Today on the Financial Independence Podcast, Nick Loper from Side Hustle Nation joins me to talk about the importance of investing in yourself, why you should diversify your income streams, and how creating your own side hustles can help make your journey to financial independe…
Comment linking /side-hustle-nation-interview/
on “Ask HN: How do you diversify your income?”Mad Fientist: http://www.madfientist.com/podcast/
Comment linking /podcast/
on “Ask HN: Which podcasts do you listen to regularly?”/r/personalfinance has some solid stuff in their sidebar/wiki. I'm big into Financial Independence as a concept and community, so I'm partial towards that. Some recommended reading (some which you may like and some you may not): - /r/financialindependence sidebar/wiki - https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ - Bit more radical on the frugality side but a personal favorite - https://www.madfientist.com/ - Podcast and blog.…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Good resources to become financially literate”Survivorship Bias. I like Mr Mustache but in one interview he relieved to have made all his wealth by buying numerous properties in Las Vegas during the crisis. Edit: I think it's here https://www.madfientist.com/mr-money-mustache-interview/
Comment linking /mr-money-mustache-interview/
on “If You’re Not Getting Rich in Your 20s, You’re Doing It Wrong (2015)”
