Ach, I’m one of THOSE people now
June 26, 2008
Boston Gal’s posting of this WSJ article about folks who are cutting back on their retirement savings made me feel guilty.
I know that I had a perfectly good reason for doing it, but it still stings that not only did I cut down, massively, on contributions, my account keeps dropping like a rock and doesn’t even reflect the amount of contributions I’ve been making since the beginning of the year. At this rate, I’ll never crack $25,000! [I’m not talking about overall, just between the 401(a) and 403(b).]
Ok, that’s not guilt I’m feeling, I’m just disheartened.
The important things to remember:
1. The reduction is temporary. It does not affect my match because I’m maxing out the 401(a) which is the only account that is matched.
2. Finances have to be flexible to accommodate when life happens. Obstacles are inevitable, and stubbornly stashing hefty amounts in my retirement fund while cash flow suffers does not make sense.
3. I’m simultaneously working on reducing all expenses so as to narrow the gap between expenses and income. This reinforces the temporariness of this solution. I’d like to see the gap closed in a matter of months, but it’ll take some more mathing, when I have time.
I felt really bad discontinuing my 401K while I was taking classes last year. You’re right, sometimes the here and now has to take precedent over retirement later.
Oh–I found the minitouch CD–I emailed you. I leave saturday but I can put something in the mail before i leave if you write me back before then.
I stopped contributing to my Roth IRA a few months ago to save more cash for my move…
sense: As long as we get back on track later on, right? I’m mostly uncomfortable with it because I don’t have a clear restart date in mind.
Huh, how does NZ change your retirement savings plan?
savingdiva: Thankfully, you’ve been making some pretty awesome progress this whole time with blogging and you stopped your contributions for a great cause!