Time to Refinance? - My Dollar Plan
I'm not quite ready to jump into the Real Estate market, mainly because I don't know how long I'll be in this city or where I ultimately want to end up but Madison is a mortgage and refinance expert and I love reading about her expertise and strategies regarding just about everything financial.
Suze Orman 'Save Yourself' TD Ameritrade Offer - My Money Blog
Jonathan's post is the reason I'm considering trying out this offer. He always does a great job of finding good deals and breaking out the actual return on your money. This blog is always a great read.
The Boomers Go Bust: What Can We Learn? - The Simple Dollar
This is a great post for those of us who are just starting out and trying to figure out a long-term retirement strategy in the midst of this unprecedented economic crisis.
Shares, not dollars - Well-Heeled
This is such a fun blog to read and check out the awesome savings/investment bars and goals for a 24-year-old!
Loose Ends - MFA or Bust
I love reading this blog, partially because of the background of NYC. The salary negotiation in this post is awesome and I wish I would have been a little better about my own new job negotiation. Hopefully I can keep some of these tips in mind for mid-year reviews though!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
2009 Financial Goals
I am trying to make these goals achievable yet challenging and though I am not writing with the intent to change them, if this year is any indicator, I may change my mind about my priorities and end up altering them mid-year or so...
Roth IRA
I just changed jobs and am rolling over my old 401(k) into Vanguard's 2050 Target Retirement Fund (changed my mind from the 2045). I haven't decided if I am going to put an additional $3,000 in as part of my 2008 Roth IRA (like Money Maus, I know I shouldn't be nervous about this because I'm young and have the time to wait out the market but I do see the benefit of cash savings that may ultimately turn into a downpayment, as well). Regardless, I am definitely committing to fully funding $5,000 into my 2009 Roth IRA in this same fund. I will do this by setting aside $210 from each paycheck. I'm not sure how these contributions will work (go to ING first and then Vanguard once a month?) until I get my account set up and figure out the rules around it.
401(k)
Unfortunately, my new job doesn't have a Roth 401(k). It also doesn't have as great of a match as my previous employer (only 50% match up to 5% of salary with a 5-year vesting timeline). Regardless, I will contribute 5% to make my total retirement contributions 15% and the slight tax benefits will be a nice boost to my paycheck, especially since my base salary is declining ever so slightly in the new position (overall comp should be the same though!) I won't be eligible until March so my total contributions should be $2,115.
Emergency Fund
I am going to contribute $700/month to this fund. I already have $5,000 in it now and I will earn some interest (however pitiful it may be) but I will likely tap it for some various things throughout the year too so I am going to make a goal of $14,000. I will also throw my tax refund in here if I get one. I plan on keeping it with E*Trade because I'm not interested in rate-chasing unless some other amazing offer appears. This $14,000 may end up higher if I decide to use that $3,000 to pad my cash savings instead of the Roth IRA because of this rocky economy. I'm also thinking of doing Suze Orman's Save Yourself Account for the $100 bonus so $100/month of the $700 might start going there instead.
Travel/Holiday/Gift Fund
I want to go on at least one big trip and maybe a smaller long weekend trip or two in addition to possibly having a wedding or two to attend so travel could end up being a pretty big expense this year. In addition, I'd like to be able to dip into this for gifts and even holiday travel if possible. I have $160 in there now and am going to contribute $115 per pay period for the rest of my 25 pay periods in 2009 for a total of about $3,035 plus interest total over the course of the year. Again, this will be a fluctuating fund so it will be a little hard to track but I have my contributions from my checking to ING Savings on autopilot for my biweekly paydays so I should be all set to go.
Roth IRA
I just changed jobs and am rolling over my old 401(k) into Vanguard's 2050 Target Retirement Fund (changed my mind from the 2045). I haven't decided if I am going to put an additional $3,000 in as part of my 2008 Roth IRA (like Money Maus, I know I shouldn't be nervous about this because I'm young and have the time to wait out the market but I do see the benefit of cash savings that may ultimately turn into a downpayment, as well). Regardless, I am definitely committing to fully funding $5,000 into my 2009 Roth IRA in this same fund. I will do this by setting aside $210 from each paycheck. I'm not sure how these contributions will work (go to ING first and then Vanguard once a month?) until I get my account set up and figure out the rules around it.
401(k)
Unfortunately, my new job doesn't have a Roth 401(k). It also doesn't have as great of a match as my previous employer (only 50% match up to 5% of salary with a 5-year vesting timeline). Regardless, I will contribute 5% to make my total retirement contributions 15% and the slight tax benefits will be a nice boost to my paycheck, especially since my base salary is declining ever so slightly in the new position (overall comp should be the same though!) I won't be eligible until March so my total contributions should be $2,115.
Emergency Fund
I am going to contribute $700/month to this fund. I already have $5,000 in it now and I will earn some interest (however pitiful it may be) but I will likely tap it for some various things throughout the year too so I am going to make a goal of $14,000. I will also throw my tax refund in here if I get one. I plan on keeping it with E*Trade because I'm not interested in rate-chasing unless some other amazing offer appears. This $14,000 may end up higher if I decide to use that $3,000 to pad my cash savings instead of the Roth IRA because of this rocky economy. I'm also thinking of doing Suze Orman's Save Yourself Account for the $100 bonus so $100/month of the $700 might start going there instead.
Travel/Holiday/Gift Fund
I want to go on at least one big trip and maybe a smaller long weekend trip or two in addition to possibly having a wedding or two to attend so travel could end up being a pretty big expense this year. In addition, I'd like to be able to dip into this for gifts and even holiday travel if possible. I have $160 in there now and am going to contribute $115 per pay period for the rest of my 25 pay periods in 2009 for a total of about $3,035 plus interest total over the course of the year. Again, this will be a fluctuating fund so it will be a little hard to track but I have my contributions from my checking to ING Savings on autopilot for my biweekly paydays so I should be all set to go.
Let's Try This Again...
Well, I definitely dropped the ball on keeping with this blog since May but I am going to try to recommit for the New Year. Fortunately, just because I haven't been writing doesn't mean I haven't been sticking with my financial goals. I have had some personal issues derail or postpone some of my plans but, overall, I'm doing pretty well!
Looking back at my 2008 Financial Goals:
I am just dollars short of saving $3,000 for my Roth IRA goal in my ING Direct savings account (paying 2.5% interest right now). I actually did reach $3,000 but transferred some out to my savings account to make that $5,000 (instead of $4,500) because of the crazy economy. I change my mind every day about whether I should go ahead and stick the $3,000 into the Roth IRA (either all or part since I am rolling over my old 401(k) and therefore won't need to worry about the $3,000 minimum buy-in!) or leave it in savings for a little more cash cushion/security. More on that to come, I suppose...
For my Roth 401(k), I just squeaked in past $5,000 this morning, as of 1/1/09! I was down about 42% for the year so, though I know I contributed a lot more than this $5,000, I'll consider this pretty good.
Student Loans are gone as of 11/4/08! This achievement was pushed back a bit by some expensive emergency travel this summer but they're gone and with rates of 4.5%, 5.0%, and 6.8%, putting my money to work for them this past year was definitely a win over anything else I could have done (at least in the short term).
My Emergency Fund is at $5,200 ($5,000 in an E*Trade account at 3.01% and $200 as a cushion in my Citibank checking account which pays no interest). I've changed the $300 cash cushion to $200 since I tend to overdraw into my cushion each month (bad!) and in a real emergency, this would likely be more accurate.
My Holiday/Gift Fund was depleted by the holidays and I think I am going to up my contributions to this a bit in 2009 and use it for Travel as well. My Moving/Computer Fund is no longer necessary as I am hoping to avoid a move in 2009 and have gotten a new (to me) computer that will suffice for now.
Now, a lot of this success was bolstered by very generous year-end holiday cash gifts but not so much so that my work didn't pay off. I have done pretty well minimizing my spending on clothes but Starbucks (and eating out in general) has been giving me a literal run for my money as the cold weather has set in. I will try to cut that down in the new year as well. So, these numbers could be better, could be worse but, all in all, I think I'm doing pretty well and am excited to see what 2009 brings financially and otherwise. Next post will be 2009 goals!
Looking back at my 2008 Financial Goals:
I am just dollars short of saving $3,000 for my Roth IRA goal in my ING Direct savings account (paying 2.5% interest right now). I actually did reach $3,000 but transferred some out to my savings account to make that $5,000 (instead of $4,500) because of the crazy economy. I change my mind every day about whether I should go ahead and stick the $3,000 into the Roth IRA (either all or part since I am rolling over my old 401(k) and therefore won't need to worry about the $3,000 minimum buy-in!) or leave it in savings for a little more cash cushion/security. More on that to come, I suppose...
For my Roth 401(k), I just squeaked in past $5,000 this morning, as of 1/1/09! I was down about 42% for the year so, though I know I contributed a lot more than this $5,000, I'll consider this pretty good.
Student Loans are gone as of 11/4/08! This achievement was pushed back a bit by some expensive emergency travel this summer but they're gone and with rates of 4.5%, 5.0%, and 6.8%, putting my money to work for them this past year was definitely a win over anything else I could have done (at least in the short term).
My Emergency Fund is at $5,200 ($5,000 in an E*Trade account at 3.01% and $200 as a cushion in my Citibank checking account which pays no interest). I've changed the $300 cash cushion to $200 since I tend to overdraw into my cushion each month (bad!) and in a real emergency, this would likely be more accurate.
My Holiday/Gift Fund was depleted by the holidays and I think I am going to up my contributions to this a bit in 2009 and use it for Travel as well. My Moving/Computer Fund is no longer necessary as I am hoping to avoid a move in 2009 and have gotten a new (to me) computer that will suffice for now.
Now, a lot of this success was bolstered by very generous year-end holiday cash gifts but not so much so that my work didn't pay off. I have done pretty well minimizing my spending on clothes but Starbucks (and eating out in general) has been giving me a literal run for my money as the cold weather has set in. I will try to cut that down in the new year as well. So, these numbers could be better, could be worse but, all in all, I think I'm doing pretty well and am excited to see what 2009 brings financially and otherwise. Next post will be 2009 goals!
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