MiB Smarter Money » Timeshare

How Do I Plan To Reach My Investing Goals For Retirement?

hank — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 13:00:50 +0000

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To make my goal of having my net worth be $1,000,000USD by 2020 I need to have a plan laid out. Yes it will change through the years, My wife and I will get raises; we won’t get the return we’re shooting for with investments in some of the years, but as a base goal if we take our current principal of $75,000 and continue to invest $21,500 per year for the next 13 and that will put us just over the 1MIL mark. That first MIL is the hardest, Pinyo lays it out here.

Where do I find $21,500 per year to invest? We’re currently contributing 10% of each our salaries for about $16,000 per year to our 401k plans, then add in $4,000 each for our ROTH IRA accounts and we’re well over the limit there. We’re planning on bumps in the road, so that’s why I’m giving the $21,500 number. There are a lot of calculations that need to taken into account, but that is the same with any investment plan. At 10% return with those calculations we’re looking at just under 840k, and at 12% that puts us over the 1MIL mark.

We could have a year where we can’t pay contributions to either our 401k or ROTH, but on the same note, there could be years where we’d contribute MORE to those accounts, For instance, we’re planning on trying to bump the 401k contributions up to 15% in 2008 and that would be $24,000 in itself; add in the ROTH IRA contributions and we’re looking at $32,000 invested per year and in 13 years, that will be worth 1.33MIL.

Numbers are numbers – sticking to the path of just getting money in is the key. In 13 years I’ll still be nowhere near retirement, but the first million is always the hardest to make, after that, it is quite ridiculous how fast it grows. In 35 years on this same $21,500 per year at 10% return we’re looking at 8.5MIL. Which is dreaming, and a lot can happen in 35 years, but there is no time like the present to start planning on it!

Time, as usual, is the key piece of this financial pie; variables are always tossed in to make it interesting. As long as we’re putting in the $21,500 we’ll be on a good pace. I’m sure there will be other investment opportunities, more job promotions, more raises, maybe more kids, but staying on this basic path is the key to our specific financial goal. What’s your path?

My Monthly Expenses Are High; How Can I Cut Down My Monthly Expenses?

hank — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 01:12:22 +0000

So I decided to try out Flexo’s monthly expense template, and it isn’t looking too promising for me this month. I’m doling out more than I am taking in this month. Off the top, that sounds like it is bad, but really it isn’t TOO bad. I figured my cash allowance was high this past month, so I had some room to spare since I have $6,000 in cash. I’ll pay off the $4,300 on the credit card so as not to get a ridiculous fee charged for interest on it, but then I don’t get billed for anything for another 2 weeks. So I’m alright there.

My expenses can certainly get a trimming though. This is eye-opening to say the least though, as I KNOW that I’ve been right at breaking even for the past few months, especially after the trip to Australia that pretty much drained the rest of what I had from the sale of my house last year. That’s ok though because my wife took home less because we bumped her 401k allocations to 10% matching mine, and I’m still contributing to my ROTH IRA at $200/month. This pretty much smashed the urge to get the new car though – It’s certainly helpful to see everything out on paper to further the need to back away. That’s maybe the allure piece grabbing me.

I’m probably going to start a new car fund though shortly because my 2001 burb isn’t going to cut it going forward. I took it in last week to check out a “clunk” it was making and they quoted me at almost $1,900; 95% of that money was for upkeep, 60k lube and maintenance, a few leaky pipes, but ultimately I got out of it and fixed the clunking noise for $108.

So here is the first installment of my monthly expenses (click to expand):

Obviously I can cut down the Retail Store Purchases and Dining Out, and if everything goes as planned, I’m in the market for a raise in a few weeks; I’ll be certain to keep the post up on that one. It’s pretty ridiculous what the ol’ government takes out each month, but it’s nice to actually see it out on [electronic] paper. Daycare is a killer, but we get that back when we can write it off at the end of the year, but that takes a good monthly chunk, and we’ve got a GOOD rate!

My wife wants to have another in the next year and good grief that Daycare budget is only going to rise in time; add another kid and it is starting to get ridiculous…

Laying this information out has really been a beneficial exercise and I can get this info from my credit card each month. I’m going to start doing this monthly from now on to get a better grasp on it so I can realize what we’re spending/saving. I highly recommend doing this for anyone curious as to what they’re spending $ on. Do you have a budget worksheet you can work off?

My wife has about $80 in Starbucks that I didn’t account for on here that I’m sure we can trim also! Anyway, goal for next year is to get these numbers and stick to a budget more strictly going forward. We’re making money off our investments, but we’re not getting the best bang for our buck because we’re leaking money in other areas when we could be putting it to better use.

In What Order Do You Invest Your Money?

hank — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 00:36:04 +0000

So one of the biggest steps after deciding that you want to save money is deciding WHERE to put the money? There are so many options out there, and so many different people suggesting places to put it. I’ve actually lurked on dozens of sites that have their own choices on where they put their money. My favorites links to those blog instances are, in no specific order:

Bargaineering
GenXFinance
Everybody Loves Your Money
Fivecentnickel
Living Almost Large
My Money Blog
My Retirement Blog
Beach Girl Blog

And here is what I came up with the months of research in the order I choose to put MY money:

0. While writing this post about paying off credit, I figured this deserved to be first BEFORE you start investing, pay off your debt because you’re just building the CREDIT CARD COMPANIES net worth, NOT your own. First and foremost is to pay these cards off!

1. Build Emergency fund – in the WORST case scenario my wife and I lose our jobs or lose our arms or something, we should have at 2-6 months of expenses ready to be paid for – this should be put in a money market account or high yield savings account, many of which are paying in the low 5% right now –

2. 401k/403b – If your company will match your investment, you’re silly not to at least hit the match. This is basically FREE $ from your company, and IMMEDIATE 100%return on your investment. Try to find that anywhere else.

3. ROTH IRA – You can’t beat the benefits of a ROTH IRA either – You contribute up to $4000 in 2007 ($5000 if over 50) and it is already taxed as you’re putting it in after you get paid, so Uncle Sam has already taken his whack at it. One of the biggest benefits here is that you only pay the tax that Uncle Sam originally hits you with. It is tax deferred when you take it out. One thing I can almost guarantee is that taxes are going to go up in the future, they always do. If you don’t think they will, maybe a Traditional ROTH is more your style. The one downside I can see is that there are phase out periods of the ROTH starting at a combined MAGI of $150,000 in combined household income; and not contribution after $160,000.

4. External funds (Index Funds, ETFs, REITs, Mutual Funds, and likely in that order for me) – As of now, I only have 1 fund that my mother bought in 1993 for $400 and it was mine when I turned 18 as it was a UTMA account – It is FGRWX and is worth almost $1900 today. I haven’t put any more in this – but I do like that it is a large cap growth fund with only a 1.07% expense ratio, so I think I’ll hold on to it. (It has a front load of 4.75, but I haven’t put anything in it, so that piece was taken out by Mom when she bought it.

5. Investing for college – There are several different options for this these days and there are a few questions to ask when chosing one of them:
How much can I contribute to the plan?

a. What are the plan’s investment options?
b. What are the taxes?
c. Who controls the money?
d. Can the money in the plan be used for anything other than education?

What are a few types of education savings are there now?
Education IRA -
Section 529 plan –
State Prepaid Education plans
I have opened two 529 plans for my 2 and 3 year old with Pacific Funds and will try to contribute more as the years go on, but honestly, I think a big part of learning to manage money is having some debt. Getting out of college and having a few bills to pay is good for building character and a financial education. I can guarantee my kids will have some debt out of college, but I’m willing to help now as I can –

6. Individual stocks – risky, but worth a look if you’ve mastered 1-5.

7. Other investment vehicles – real-estate, business models, investing in other peoples ideas.

8. Start your own business – after you’ve covered all these previous bases, and have some spare $, it’s a good idea – furthermore, it’s beneficial tax-wise to be able to write things off to create more liquid $ you can allocate to your other investments (1-7). As is stated in my disclaimer, this is not advice on HOW to invest, this is how I invest. How do you? Do I need an order change?

Baby Boomer Without A Retirement Portfolio

hank — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 23:05:43 +0000

My mother, bless her heart, has “some” idea of how investing works. She has a basic idea of how compound interest works, but has no $ to put to it. She makes a small income enough to make ends meet at the end of each month. She knows that she SHOULD invest, but doesn’t know where – She is 55 and isn’t looking to retire before 70 as she just got back into the workforce 6 years ago after raising kids. So she doesn’t have a big nest egg waiting for her (Dad isn’t around) at the end of the day, nor a big income to be putting $ away.

I’m helping her out with a ROTH IRA because she can still draw from it not at the standard 59 1/2, but at 60; meeting the 5 year min requirement for a ROTH.But aside from that she mentions that she doesn’t or hasn’t ever had anyone talk to her about money. Most of the folks I know and associate with now have a better knowledge of the ins and outs of investing for sure.

Maybe it is that I came from a small town in the Pacific Northwest that didn’t have a lot of time to put into saving, much less investing. We were always eating boloney sandwiches and macaronis every other meal and didn’t have a lot of $ to put into anything else but sustainment – but Mom is learning, slowly but surely I guess. She’s no spring-chicken, but she’s far from an old dog – she can still learn a few tricks of the trade and I want to be able to help her along the way. Does anyone else have any ideas that can help a Baby Boomer that has 10k to her retirement name? I’m willing to help, and the best I can think of is a ROTH for now – other ideas?

Bad Decisions I’ve Made Along My Investing Journey

hank — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:51:50 +0000

I thought I had some good points to contribute, and stories to tell even though I’m nowhere near retirement. I really have had a few bad investment mistakes along the way, and I’m sure I’ll run into more in the future, but that’s one of the points of MyInvestingBlog.com – figuring this stuff out!

The BAD investments include:

1. I crafted a post earlier this month that touched on the get rich quick schemes I fell for. This was throughout my teenage years I fell for these ideas, what can I say, I was young, dumb and WANTED the money. At least I had the drive to push forward on it. I didn’t sit and let life come at me! Unfortunately, believe it or not, none of them paid off.

2. In 2003 I took a $10,000 loan out on my 401k to fund a possible startup company that ate it and along with it my money. I wasn’t interested in a retirement portfolio at the time. I knew I should put money into it, and it was amazing that I had that kind of money in there to borrow in my early 20′s, so in looking back, I applaud myself for putting the funds in originally. However, I’m still not through paying it off yet and it hits me several ways I didn’t research when I initially came up with the idea. The first way it cut me was that “loan installment fee” of $100 right off the bat. Then there was the double taxation:

“If you recall, your retirement plan contributions are made on a pre-tax basis. This means that you realize a tax break when making contributions to the plan, and you’re then taxed in the future when you take money out of the plan. Unfortunately, when you take a loan from your plan, you may be subjecting yourself to additional taxes.
While regular 401(k) contributions are taken out of your paycheck on a pre-tax basis, the loan repayments are not. This means that you are taking pre-tax money out of your account`and then repaying it with after-tax money. This can result in some of this money being taxed twice.”

Third point of #2 is the whole loss of interest in the compound interest structure from taking 10k from the 401k at age 23. Bad idea. As I’ve still not put everything back yet and won’t till 2010 on the current payback schedule, I’m losing big $ in the $ I have compounding in there. Yes, I may still be adding 10% per paycheck to my 401k, but 8% of that goes back to the loan I took out each check too, further pushing back that number. Lastly, that 8% they entice you to pay back to the 401k loan IS money you’re paying back to yourself, but you’re paying that with the after tax money now furthering that gap. I wrote an article on my brothers payback schedule for his wedding last week that shows how much you’re losing by digging into the nest egg now.

3. I gave Day Trading a shot when I was 19 and had a full-time job already. I breezed through 5k there in nothing flat. I couldn’t devote the time needed to watch the market, the tools or knowledge of how the software worked, nor the terms and pieces I needed to utilize (short selling, day orders, hard stops, long puts, etc.) the idea properly. My money was eaten up so fast from transaction fees and losses it’d make your head spin. I don’t deny that this may work for some, but you have to have the tools to do so, and I wouldn’t recommend starting in the stocks with anything less than $25,000 or the fees are just going to eat up any profits you make.

4. Undercut my ROTH IRA growth potential by cashing it out and rolling it into a land investment deal. Again I applaud myself for even contributing to this at a young age, so kudos to myself there, but I DIDN’T yet understand my undercut to my retirement (see #3) and should have realized that I’d be better off just sitting out this investment until I had enough money to put towards it. This actually still might not be a bad idea though. I’ve restarted another ROTH IRA in the interim with Edward Jones and the land deal is in a good area that is selling like hotcakes now, but still not a good idea to dump the NEAR sure thing in a ROTH IRA.

5. I’m still not convinced that my Variable Universal Life insurance policy is a completely lost cause yet. I haven’t gotten any responses on the post I left for it last week and it sounds like I’ve sat out the bad years that the agent is taking her cut of the $ as I’ve been investing blindly for 4 years now, the mutual fund that is wrapped in it is almost catching up. Granted I’ve put in almost $10,000 in that time frame and the mutual fund value is nearing that mark giving me a o% gain over the past 4 years, but from what I’ve read, it might be worth sticking around for. I know the Suze Orman folks (TeachToRich, Queercents, Flexo, Select Quote) folks will tell me always recommends term life insurance and investing the rest of the $, but I’m not completely sold yet. I try to take everything with a grain of salt, so if someone has some knowledge to share, or comparison to share, please let me know. I don’t know if I can consider this an “investment” but I would like to hear an opinion either way on it if someone has a term policy that is simple while investing the rest. Clearly a 0% gain isn’t good, but am I over that “paying the agent” phase now? Will I see $ in the future here? Please let me know, but for now it sits in the “bad investment decision” tub.

6. Co-signing a student loan for a “then friend” saving him $8,000. He gave me $3,000 to co-sign with him as I didn’t think I’d find myself needing a very good FICO score to secure a new house for my new child and new easy-make family. When I signed on he told me that I’d not have to worry about it hitting my credit; I didn’t really care that much then. I didn’t own anything, didn’t have debt, and didn’t plan on moving in with the girlfriend and settling down within the next year. Well, long story short, the friendship was shot because he pushed me to sign the papers again the following year as I had “verbally agreed” to help him pay for his college. Yes, money between friends shouldn’t happen unless you’re 103% (Yes one hundred and three percent) certain of the terms and the effect it will have on your relationship. I was honestly best buddies with this guy and it all went out the window for $3,000. Strange how money works. So this was a bad decision on a personal AND a financial level both.

I’m sure there will be more in the future that I’ll hit myself on the head for, but experiencing is the best way to learn. Keep a clear head when making the financial decisions and think them out rationally or you could find yourself making the same mistake twice, I’m sure I won’t though thanks to these hard learned lessons.

Net Worth Update July 16, 2008 [$102,416.87(-9.57%)

hank — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:01:21 +0000

Welp, the landscaping and deck building this past week dug deep into the e-fund and overall numbers so they’re not really as bad as they show up because they should both pay off more than the 8k-ish spent on them.

Be sure to enter Hanks Holiday Handouts #3 before Aug 6 to win your share of $300!

The deck was actually the Trex decking that doesn’t mold, need to be re-stained, no maintenance. I think it was (and will be) very worth it in the long run.

The rest of the portfolio dove pretty hard along with the rest of the country. I am still sticking in 15% on my 401k and am at $2600 into my ROTH for the year, so I’m still trucking along there.

Although it is disappointing to see cash leaving my account, the positive is that I’m getting good funds at cheaper prices by using the dollar cost averaging. I wrote about a similar post last week when Lazlo asked if he should keep his $ out of the stock market because it was doing poorly.

As you can see, I am taking my own advice (go figure) and not going anywhere. I don’t plan to go “anywhere” for another 30 or 40 years, so I’m going to see bumps like this; no worries though.

Money Hacks Carnival #18 — The History Of Money!

hank — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:12:29 +0000

So I did some deep undercover investigation for this weeks carnival digging back in time to bring you The History of Money! Did you know that China was the first to use paper money around the year 1000. It was made from the bar of mulberry trees. Leaves from these trees, you may recall, are feed to caterpillars to produce silk. I honestly don’t know the last time I used paper money – I stick to plastic. Without further adieu…

The Editors Picks – Series 1934 Gold Certificates Go To:

The largest denomination of currency ever printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) was the $100,000 Series 1934 Gold Certificate featuring the portrait of President Wilson. These notes were printed from December 18, 1934 through January 9, 1935 and were issued by the Treasurer of the United States to Federal Reserve Banks only against an equal amount of gold bullion held by the Treasury Department. The notes were used only for official transactions between Federal Reserve Banks and were not circulated among the general public.

A lot of good submissions this week, but the Series 1934 Gold Certificates go to:

Dorian Wales presents The Importance of Learning to Let Go posted at The Personal Financier. I grew up in a family that had a tough time letting go of a lot of things. Maybe it was because we were so frugal with everything, but we did and this post hit home.

Aryn presents Avoid Baggage Fees: How to Pack a Suitcase posted at Sound Money Matters. It’s a lost art, but I lived by it when I got out of school and went traveling – if you don’t know how to do this, you best stay home.

Livingalmostlarge presents Investment Mistakes a Couple Makes posted at LivingAlmostLarge. I’ve made a few mistakes on that front, and it’s a list that you don’t see often, but it is DEFINITELY worth reading.

Broke Grad Student presents 9 Simple Ways To Save Money On Gas posted at Broke Grad Student. With gas where it is now, this is always something people are interested in. The tips may “seem” small, but when we’re looking at where gas is headed, every penny counts!

Big Bills, Big Dreams

On July 14, 1969, David M. Kennedy, the 60th Secretary of the Treasury, and officials at the Federal Reserve Board announced that they would immediately stop distributing currency in denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000. Production of these denominations stopped during World War II. Their main purpose was for bank transfer payments. With the arrival of more secure transfer technologies, however, they were no longer needed for that purpose. While these notes are legal tender and may still be found in circulation today, the Federal Reserve Banks remove them from circulation and destroy them as they are received.

Hilary Green presents When is Leasing Not For You? | Cars for Girls posted at Cars for Girls.

Ybother presents 10 Ways To Get The Best Price For Your Car posted at www.ZhouWenhan.com.

Dividends4Life presents The Will to Win posted at Dividends4Life.

jim presents Advanta Business Card for Bloggers, eBay, PPC posted at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.

Unique Money Uses

The $2 bill has not been removed from circulation and is still a circulating denomination of United States paper currency. The Federal Reserve System does not, however, request the printing of that denomination as often as the others.

The Series 2003 $2 bill was the last printed and bears the names of former Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snow and Treasurer Rosario Marin. As of April 30, 2007 there were $1,549,052,714 worth of $2 bills in circulation worldwide.

Joy Harrison presents Reduce your debt load: 9 proven techniques posted at Money Sense.

The Happy Rock presents Sometimes You Just Don’t Feel Like Saving Money posted at The Happy Rock.

FMF presents A Real-Life Example of How to Save $1,300 in Less than Two Hours by Shopping Around for Car Insurance posted at Free Money Finance.

Mark Runta presents Seeking Therapy for Debt Management posted at investing lessons.

NtJS presents Do You Trust Trans Union? posted at not the jet set.

Steve Faber presents - Top Debt Consolidation Loans – How to Get the Best Debt Consolidation Loan posted at Debt Free.

passive family income presents Creating a monthly family budget to track income and expenses. | Passive Family Income posted at Passive Family Income.

MrsMoney presents Does it Make Sense to Drive Farther to get a Lower Price on Gas? posted at The Ultimate Money Blog.

Brice Hogan presents How to Radically Save Money posted at Financialzip.com.

Saving Money Tips

On March 10, 1862 the first United States paper money was issued. The denominations were $5, $10, and $20. They became legal tender by Act of March 17, 1862.

The inclusion of “In God We Trust” on all currency was required by law in 1955. The national motto first appeared on paper money in 1957 on $1 Silver Certificates, and on all Federal Reserve Notes beginning with Series 1963.

retirehappy presents Rules on Claiming Dependents posted at My Retirement Blog.

RothIRA presents Graduation Gift Idea: Roth IRA posted at Roth IRA Explained.

DMH presents Best Gas Credit Cards posted at Daily Money Hack.

FFB presents Customer Service Done Right 1800Contacts.com posted at Free From Broke.

PT presents Credit Card Rewards – Are They Really Worth It? posted at Prime Time Money.

Joe Manausa presents Property Flipping Re-Energized? posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog.

Helen Anderson presents 8 Tips for Saving Money and Your Life posted at Bankaholic.

Mrs. Common Cents presents 8 Tips to reduce your medical spending posted at Our Common Cents.

J. Savings presents Save $10 bucks and wash that sexy car of yours. posted at Budgets are Sexy.

Chief Family Officer presents Lesson: Always track Amazon’s prices posted at Chief Family Officer.

Joy Harrison presents Cash-out refinance loan? is it a good choice for extra cash? posted at Money Sense.

Coupon Artist presents How Couponing Changes Your Outlook on Life posted at artofthecoupon.com.

Kaye presents Savannah Family Fun – The Intro posted at Mrs Nespy’s Frugal World.

Heather Allen presents Where There’s a Will… posted at The DebtFree Playbook Blog.

Bill D presents 13 Lucky Tips to Save on Life Insurance posted at The Wealth Hunter.

Worldly Money Influence

Reserves were formerly held only in gold, as official gold reserves. Under the Bretton Woods system, the United States pegged the dollar to gold, and allowed convertibility of dollars

to gold. This effectively made dollars appear as good as gold. In 1971, however, the U.S. abandoned the convertibility of dollars to gold, and the dollar became a fiat currency.

Since then, all major currencies have removed convertibility to gold, resulting in a general devaluation of world currencies over time. The dollar has remained the most significant reserve currency, though central banks now typically hold large amounts of multiple currencies in reserve.

Foxie presents The Latest Object of My Affection posted at Dreaming of Ferraris.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Managing All My Money Is Futile: Outsourcing My Finances posted at The Digerati Life.

Will presents Prepaid Visa Travel Cards posted at Your Finish Rich Plan – A Personal Finance Blog.

GBlogger presents Market Plummeting! Recession! Plague! posted at CAN I GET RICH ON A SALARY.

Interesting Hack (Facts) About The $100 Bill

The vignette on the back of the $100 note is Independence Hall in Philadelphia. There are three people depicted in the engraving. Two (a man and a woman) are in front of the hall close to the building; the third person is a man pictured looking toward the building. There is no record that the man and woman are embracing.

The hands of the clock are set at approximately 4:10. Although the time is not readily identifiable to the naked eye, it may be verified if examined under twenty-fold magnification. There are no records explaining why that particular time was chosen.

Lisa Spinelli presents The Dope On Stagflation posted at Greener Pastures.

Ryan Taylor presents What are the Risks of Shorting Stocks? posted at Millionaire Money Habits.

The Shark Investor presents No Buzz = No Business posted at The Shark Investor.

MoneyKing presents Real Estate Profits And Losses: Burn, baby. Burn!!!!. Scenario 39. posted at The Money Kings – RULE your money at home, at work, and at play!.

CreditAddict presents Amex Delta SkyMiles Cardholders Can Pay With Miles posted at Credit Card Addict.

nickel presents Four Financial Tips for Recent Graduates posted at fivecentnickel.com.

mbhunter presents Why are some gift cards more “expensive” at MyPoints? posted at mbhunter.

Kay Bell presents Tax help for summer camp costs posted at Don’t Mess With Taxes.

Madison presents What is Credit Card Arbitrage? posted at My Dollar Plan.

Brooke presents Six Flags and Other Theme Park Details posted at Dollar Frugal.

Ray presents Best 0% Balance Transfer Credit Cards posted at Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog.

Bryce presents Perot Charts posted at Save and Conquer.

Pamela Grundy presents Recession Monday: Do Vegetarians Save More Money? | Personal Finance Analyst posted at Personal Finance Analyst

Amanda Milne presents Show Me The Coupons! posted at Value For Your Life.

RC presents 7 Reasons You May Not Have Received Your Economic Stimulus Rebate Yet posted at Think Your Way to Wealth.

Kevin Fleming presents Netflix 30 Days Free Coupon – Satellite TV Guru posted at Satellite TV Guru.

Thanks to everyone for participating! Keep an eye out next week over at SoundMoneyMatters as the carnival heads that way!

Net Worth Update June 6, 2008 [$113,261.38(-3.08%)]

hank — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:01:24 +0000

June wasn’t as bad as the numbers make it out to be. Yes, I lost about 3k on the net worth, but I bumped up my 401k contribution to 15% this past month along with my wifes. The 3k loss can most likely be contributed to the landscaping addition I tacked on that sucked 3.5k out of my liquid assets.

(Click the spreadsheet to enlarge)

We have had really good return on our 401k additions since inception; 220% for my wife and 22% for me. That’s due mostly to the small amount my wife started with. She’ll get moving on it a bit more and that number will drop in the coming months/years. But we’ve both still seen consistent growth in the funds we’ve got in there.

The house isn’t doing any different and has been pretty stagnant over the past few months, which is to be expected in such a short timeframe.

I’m really happy with the $ I’ve been able to put in my ROTH this year. I’ve already hit $2500 which is more than halfway to what I can put in for the year, and so I’ll certainly hit that one, but I’d like to see about getting the wife in the ROTH mix here shortly as well. It’s a pretty strange reality that if you just keep putting it off, you’ll slowly just forget to do it and it falls off the map. I’ve really got to get on that one.

Net Worth Update May 9, 2008 [$120,697.64 (+3.55%)]

hank — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:01:22 +0000

We’re looking up again this month – looks like the mutual funds are coming back a little bit this month. Both the wife and I had good 401k returns this month. The house dropped a bit, but that’s to be expected, but overall we’re looking up again.

I’m still keeping my eye on a few “green funds” because I’d like to be able to dip in at some point. I’m waiting for the right one to come around though that piques my interest. Haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary yet. Right now I’m looking at:

Green Century Balanced GCBLX 17.19 0.00 (0.00%)
Green Century Equity GCEQX 20.63 +0.01 (0.05%)
Calvert Large Cap Growth A CLGAX 32.39 +0.19 (0.59%)
Spectra Green N SPEGX 6.91 +0.01 (0.14%)
Guinness Atkinson Alternative… GAAEX 14.59 +0.18 (1.23%)
Winslow Green Growth WGGFX 18.53 +0.40 (2.16%)

Like I’ve said before, none have really caught my eye yet, let me know if you have any you’d be willing to share in the space that make sense right now. I think they’re all a little pricey now without great return.

The Emergency fund has bumped up to $3,704.00 which is nice to have as a cushion and it is sitting in the Washington Mutual 3.30% high interest savings account. Yea, 3.30% isn’t spectacular, but it’s better than chasing the rate around.

You may ask why I’ve got some much in the standard savings right now and that is just because it hasn’t been transferred to my WAMU account. I’m also thinking of dumping the rest in to my ROTH IRA before we hit the ROTH phase out range. To offset this the wife and I have both bumped our 401k contributions up to 15% to offset that ability.

Slowly but surely we’re inching our way up the chain. Nothing major, but we’re up 4,000+ since last month and up 3.55% from the month prior so thing are certainly going well.

Click the Excel spreadsheet to enlarge.

Net Worth Update April 1, 2008–$116,557.16 (+10.54%)

hank — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:01:36 +0000

A few things helped out this months net worth statement:

1. My almost 8k tax refund certainly didn’t hurt anything. I am not going to be getting as much next year as I adjusted my W-4s to better fit my pay scale finally. I’m sick of giving the government a free loan each year; should be closer to 0 next year.

2. I added in my SWEGX fund for my 2007 ROTH contributions.

3. I added in my $1000 I had put into my emergency fund crafting up over at WAMU – It was at 4.00% when I opened it and is now down to 3.30%, but I like the security there. UFBDirect is hitting the road. There’s something to be said about having a bank in your neighborhood with decent (relatively speaking) efund high yield rates.

4. The wife’s 4o1k saw it’s first single digit increase in a while, but still accounted for almost another 1k net add.

5. My 401k is finally biting back a bit and was able to add to the positive this month also close to $1000.

Here is the latest screenshot (click to enlarge):