March 3, 2009
While still employed
~ Complete as many Professional Development classes as possible. I might, if I stay employed through April and get off the wait list for one set of classes, manage to get enough classes in before the layoff to complete my Certificate in Management. *cross your fingers for me!*
~ If there’s space, or I get de-waitlisted, I’d like to take Excel and Illustrator classes. We’ll see about approval.
~ A friend’s fiance is a freelance web designer who is willing to teach me web design and programming skills. Whoo! I’m calling it an “apprenticeship” for now, I’ll do work for him, he’ll teach me how, and maybe when I get good, he’ll hire me on! We’ll see. For now, I want to learn some basics since I’m pretty clueless. It’ll come in handy here and professionally.
~ In other good news, when they changed our retirement plan last July, we were automatically vested. So whenever the axe falls, I get to roll whatever little money accrued from my first two years into my existing retirement plan. Since I didn’t contribute anything, it should be qualified for a relatively hassle free rollover. It’s good for a few hundred, I figure. I just hope that it can also be sent into my 403(b) as well. (Hope hope hope).
~ Do the math. Well-Heeled reminded me that if I do that math, unemployment will cover a good amount of my household expenses, even with 3.5 people. So I can breathe a little easier knowing that my e-fund will last longer than previously anticipated. (Now I have to do the math to see how much longer that means.)
~ Need to settle the final details and applications for: renter’s insurance, long term care insurance, life insurance, safety deposit box, my will. Whatever I can get employer rates on (LTC, for one) and is portable is a priority.
March 1, 2009
Not only is WAMU still charging the stupid $25 annual fee for 2009, they’re also charging a $75 distribution fee, costing my already depleted IRA fund a total of $100 in fees. Unbelievable. At this rate, I’ll be lucky to retain half the value of my original contributions. Then again, I only had several months to contribute at that employer after I turned 21, and before I quit, so it wasn’t a huge amount of money to begin with.
I would have balked, and did mentally, but sting though it might, this is the smarter long-term choice. Paying a hundred dollars now to roll the remaining money into my current employer’s plan under Vanguard is the equivalent of 4 years’ worth of annual fees. That money better be sitting in the retirement account for much longer than 4 more years! That’s my breakeven point.
This should have been done as soon as I established my retirement plan with the current employer, but I didn’t realize that it could be incorporated into my 403(b) without tax implications. In retrospect, it’s already cost me more than a hundred dollars in fees (a $40 distribution fee was charged when I first rolled it over). This is for keeps because I’m signed up for Vanguard’s emailing service which eliminates annual fees on my accounts and I have enough money in Vanguard to just keep it there once I leave this employer.
Just another stupid tax from back when I didn’t know to look out for fees charged for moving my money around. Come to think of it, I was shocked by the $40 distribution fee back in 2004, and could have sworn that I asked about it, but cannot for the life of me remember what the answer was. The cost of naivete and inexperience.
August 8, 2008
Either I should look at my portfolio with an eye to rebalancing as necessary or just, as my bio teacher used to say, “Shut my eyes and cover my ears and it’ll all go away.” *grump* It’s probably really going to all go away as it’s profusely bleeding red right now.
Yodlee makes it so easy to take an unnecessary daily peek at the balances bouncing all over the chart; I’m going to make it a point to scroll right past my portfolio on a daily/weekly basis because there’s no point in fretting if I’ve made my choices. June was the worst month with a depreciation of $1,710. The losses have been exponentially less since then: July (-344) and August (-169 thus far).
It’s a little sad because just the month before (May) it was doing pretty well and the value of my investments was actually above the net investments. Now they’ve traded spots on the graph.
I’ll be giving it some time to ride out some of this market volatility. Since I’m taking a very long view with this money, and am not contributing a significant amount right now, it behooves me to be patient and educate myself about the market in the meantime.
July 18, 2008
Now there’s a funny title. Not such a funny article, though.
According to this article, for my age (25 is such a nice cut off), I need to have between $119k to $282k right now if I were to stop investing in order to maintain a 1 million dollar portfolio by age 70, assuming an 8% annualized return and inflation between 3-5%.
Alternatively, assuming my goal is to have a portfolio of 1 million dollars by retirement, and the chart isn’t clear if they’re using age 70 here too, or if they’re using age 65, I’m going to need to save $8,985,008 assuming 3-5% inflation. I guess they’re also assuming an 8% annualized rate of return?
I’m not sure, there seems to be a whole lot of assuming going on here, and you know what that means!
Means we don’t really know what-all’s going on.
To be perfectly honest, I haven’t decided what magic number I’d be comfortable with. I don’t think there is one. After all, I’m 25 and while I’ve been saving diligently, there are a whole lot of other factors that I’d been focusing on. My savings and retirement numbers are just that right now: numbers. I’m doing my best to maintain a higher rate of savings for as long as I can, but that’s because I’m playing catch-up.
If I had to pick a number, I’d ballpark about 2-3 million by the time I’m ready to retire, or go part-time. It seems like enough to provide for a relatively comfortable lifestyle. Nothing terribly extravagant is necessary, but I think it’s good enough for me to be self-sufficient with regards to medical care and daily life, and some travel.
Ultimately, though, I want to enjoy the journey to that point as much as I expect to enjoy life from that point on. I plan to enjoy the next forty years, not spend them anticipating how much fun I’ll have after these pesky in-between years are over!
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.
May 19, 2008
My Vanguard contribution has been knocked down to the minimum allowed: $12.50/check. Awww man. Now I’m sad. But, this will improve cash flow, and actually, increase the total amount that is considered 5% of my check when payroll calculates my matched contributions, so this could increase my matched money by a little bit. That’s not bad. We’ll see if that’s how it works out.
April 30, 2008
| Retirement Savings |
Rollover IRA: $1,357
Roth IRA: $3,669
401(a): $3,742
403(b): $16,129
Total: $24,897
|
| Emergency Savings |
15,004
|
| Goal Oriented Savings |
Car Maintenance: $21
Savings for taxes: $4,800
Total: $4,821
|
| Investment Loans |
Prosper-ish: $12,630
Personal Loan: $5,000
Total: $17,630
|
| Total Assets |
Non-Liquid: $24,897
Semi-Liquid: $17,630
Liquid: $19,825
Expense Acct: $3,691
Total: $66,043
|
| Debt and Liabilities |
Truck: $5,847
Citi: $2229
American Express: $153
Chase: $358
Rent: $1,360
Total: $9,589
|
| Net Worth |
$56,454
|
Most of my gains were due to retirement contributions during the two months between this and the last snapshot I put together. I’m surprised that I, at least, kept the amounts I contributed, considering the market’s performance. Still need to re-examine my allocations, using Moom‘s Madame X series as a guide.
I’ve paid my tax bill, which was offset by a state refund, so the cash situation is half settled. I haven’t received my rebate yet. At that point, I think I’ll decide what to do with the lump sum of tax savings money. It’s mainly going to be divvying it up between the other smaller savings/expense accounts that have been neglected until now: auto maintenance was drained, insurance is perpetually lonely, the intermediate emergency fund has been languishing, and a little has to be set aside for upcoming Con. If there’s anything left after those are taken care of, I’d love to open a vacation/fun fund. That’ll be a first!!
Oh, and I need a moving out fund. I vaguely envisioned funding that from paychecks and miscellaneous income through the rest of this year, since the other major savings goals may be set. Regardless of the source, I need to set an actual number for that.
