Category Archives: Finances

Detailed Financial Picture – June 2016

May’s Numbers

As of June 2, 2016, we are $313,961.09 in debt with a mortgage.  We currently have $960,516.15 in assets.  Our investment accounts are at $536,428.97. Our Net Worth is $646,555.06, up from $633,887.17 in May (2% increase)

I sent the “final” payment off to the line of credit as soon as our paychecks for the end of the month cleared.   I’m also considering paying off the RAV4 before the end of the year – it would normally be paid off in May.  Not sure it’s worth it by the numbers, but it would be satisfying emotionally.  It’s 0% interest rate, and we’re now saving up for our deck.  We’ll be pouring the footers this month or next – depending on when the permit is issued, when the inspector can come out and when our friend (the foreman) is available.

June is looking great from a budget perspective.  We had one of Dad’s paychecks from his old job (paid on a one week delay), the payout of his PTO, and two paychecks from his new job.  Lots of extra money coming in (how we paid off the line of credit).  Too bad his new company sucks at payroll so far – they aren’t taking out local taxes, and they’re taking out the correct amount for the HSA contribution, but aren’t depositing the correct amount into the HSA (which will put us over the Federal contribution limit – *sigh*).  We also haven’t seen the approximately $1500 taken out of his two paychecks deposited into his 401(k) yet (nor his match).  I’m giving them until the 15th before I start to raise hell (ERISA gives them until the 15th of the month following the paycheck to deposit the funds, and they seem to be fully milking that).

Debt (in the order we’re paying it down):

  • Line of Credit (9.75%): $0 (-4500.00)
  • Car loan – RAV4 (0%): $5,383.98 (-489.44)
  • Car loan 2 – Camry (0%): $21,525.70 (-439.30)
  • Mortgage (3.875%): $287,051.41 (-496.60)

Total paid off in May:  $5,925.34

 

Detailed Financial Picture – May 2016

April’s Numbers 

As of May 12, 2016, we are $315,386.43 in debt with a mortgage.  We currently have $949,273.60 in assets.  Our investment accounts are at $526,121.89. Our Net Worth is $633,887.17, up from $613,953.62 in April (3.25% increase)

Surprisingly, our net worth went up this month, we put a lot of money into the markets, and when they decline, our overall net worth tends to decline – with 85% in stocks, we’re sensitive to market swings.

We’re also getting closer to the $1 million in assets mark again. This time, with less debt (and less house).  I’m more interested in the net worth getting up to $1 million.

I still haven’t gotten Dad’s first paycheck yet, but our HSA contributions now come out of his paycheck directly, so we get the “triple tax win” of no federal tax, no social security tax, and no medicare tax. No PA state tax on it either… I know how much is coming out of Dad’s paycheck for benefits, and I could make an educated guess at taxes, but I’m waiting.  I think he’ll get paid twice a month, so that should be coming up shortly.

We’ll have more disposable income with his new paycheck, since we’re not contributing as much tax advantaged.  I will probably contribute to our Roths (assuming we can contribute), and pay down debt faster – then increase our contributions to our taxable account, but we’ll see.  I want to know what numbers I have to play with in YNAB before I allocate it anywhere.

Debt (in the order we’re paying it down):

  • Line of Credit (9.75%): $4,500 (-1000.00)
  • Car loan – RAV4 (0%): $5,873.42 (-489.44)
  • Car loan 2 – Camry (0%): $21,965.00 (-439.30)
  • Mortgage (3.875%): $287,548.01 (-495.00)

Total paid off in April:  $1433.74

 

On Being Sick Without Health Insurance

For one day this month (May 1), we were not covered by any insurance.  The insurance from Dad’s old job ended on April 30 (Saturday), his new insurance wouldn’t kick in until May 2 (Monday) his first day of work at the new job.  We figured that we have 45 days to sign up for COBRA, so if we needed to, we could (we hadn’t even gotten any of the papers about it yet!). Friday, April 29, Daughter Person is sent home from school with a sore throat and fever.  We decide to kind of ride it out and see if it’s just a virus or if she might have had strep.  Saturday, she’s fine other than a fever and saying her throat hurt occasionally.  We let it go.  Sunday (the day without insurance), she wakes up screaming about her throat hurting and still has a fever, but this time is having trouble breathing because her tonsils are so big. Look in her throat, and sure enough there are the typical white spots of strep. Panic!

I asked around my local mom’s group about their opinions on the two urgent care options and which would be more likely to give us a discount for paying cash up front – neither.  BUT, Walgreens/CVS have the in-house clinics that are open on Sundays, and they publish their prices!  We went to the local Walgreens, waited less than we normally do for our doctor, and get this: PAID LESS than we would have at our doctor’s office – with insurance!  We then looked up the cheapest place to get her prescription filled with the OneRX app, and were on our way.

We were charged $134 at Walgreens, and $20.44 at Rite Aid for her antibiotics (azithromycin).  When we took her in March for the same exact thing, we paid $165 for the doctor’s visit (after the insurance negotiation!) and about the same for the prescription from WalMart.  If we needed to, we still could have pulled money out of our HSA to cover it, but the charge was quite low (we thought), so that money’s still working for us.  Now, I’m wondering why exactly we bothered paying $282/mth premiums for our health insurance, it certainly wasn’t saving us anything!

April 2016 Early Retirement Progress

We contributed $5,007.41 this month to our retirement accounts, and we gained $3,302.53 in investment value this month.

This is likely our last high contribution month for a while. Dad’s new company doesn’t contribute as much, and we are losing his 3% mandatory contribution going forward.  We’re expecting to get another large-ish contribution into our HSA ($666.66 into a different one) from his new company.  On the plus side, his new company supports payroll deductions for the HSA.  On the downside, the investment options in his HSA kinda suck.  I’ll probably do a rollover to our existing HSA (or a brand new one!) before the end of the year to keep all the money together.

Dad’s new 401(k) is with MassMutual, and the cheapest investment option has a .97% fee – it’s at least an S&P500 index fund.  Because of taxes, we’re contributing our 18k (or as close to it as we can this year), but it’s going to hurt us going forward.  Needless to say, none of his IRA or old 403(b) money is getting rolled into that account.  The tax savings more than makes up for the fee, and Dad is going to forward a strongly worded letter that I write to their HR person to look at a different 401(k) option with less fees (like Vanguard or Fidelity).  The funny thing is, the company acts like they’ve got the best investment options available to their employees – I just laughed…  The match is OK for the area, but the investment options are *horrible*!

Without contributing 3% mandatory pre-tax *and* cheaper healthcare *and* a higher salary, we’re going to be even closer to the Roth IRA income limits than previuosly – possibly over 🙁  I’m going to save 11k for the year with the “extra” money we’ll be getting because of these differences, but it may or may not go into a Roth (we have too much in IRAs to do a backdoor). If we make too much, I’ll just put it into our taxable account, if not, it’ll go into our Roths.

2016 Totals

In 2016 we contributed $23,303.67 (33.29% of our goal of 70k), and gained $9,148.74 in investment value.

New Job for Dad

Dad has accepted a new job, at a larger salary than he is currently making.  But, he’s not likely to get any bonuses like he does for his current company.  We’ll be losing 5% of company match in our retirement accounts and 3% of his salary, but the savings of benefits/health care almost makes up for it.  Instead of the $260/mth HSA plan we’re on now, we’ll be on the $75/mth HSA plan (unfortunately, new (higher) deductibles 🙁 ).  We’re continuing the HSA plan this year to not have tax headaches next March, but the following year, we’ll have $130/mth PPO coverage – for all three of us.

We’re holding off on any budgeting decisions until I see what his first paycheck is (end of May), but we’ll likely be putting more aside into a Roth or our taxable account (with less tax advantaged money to reduce our AGI, we might be over the limit on Roths rather than just under it), and maxing out our HSA again this year.  Not sure we’ll be putting aside as much as we initially planned this year, but we might be!

His company is based in Europe, and the benefits show it.  Other than the retirement being “normal”, the remaining benefits are amazing – if it were just Dad, he wouldn’t be paying anything at all.  We’ll also remain “healthcare agnostic”, which is important in Pittsburgh thanks to the big fight between UPMC and Highmark/Allegheny Health Network (AGH).  We’ve been seeing mostly AGH doctors (because a AGH hospital is closest to us), but the option to see UPMC doctors is nice, and if we went with my healthcare, we’d be going UPMC (it’s 1/4 the cost of Highmark plans), and having to change doctors – every year as the price war rages on…

He’s going to be traveling a lot at first, but then that will settle down, and he’ll just be commuting.  I expect our gas spending will increase (he’ll be driving more), but that’s it.  We’re hoping to have plans in place to not eat out, and to have ready-made food available to avoid that.  We’re also expecting a general increase in income to more than offset that.   We just won’t have as much tax-advantaged space to work with.

March 2016 Early Retirement Progress

We contributed $5,478.73 this month to our retirement accounts, and we gained $29,203.07 in investment value this month.

I did get a raise in March, which resulted in a bit too much being contributed to my 403b since the HR system still had my old percentage calculation.  I’ve adjusted it so that I contribute slightly less next month to be more in line with the IRS’s 18k max.  My raise also means I got more of a “match” from my employer since it’s based on percentage.  I adjusted the rate to what would be taken out normally, so my paycheck will be quite large in December with no contributions taken out (no worries on my “match”, it’s paid whether I contribute or not).

We finally made it into positive territory for investment gains this year – even if not by much. We didn’t spend enough on our Fidelity Cash back card to warrant a “reward” to our taxable account last month. It was close, but not quite.  We’ll be able to redeem those points for cash back this month though.  We’re focusing spending on a new AMEX we got that gives $300 cash back when you spend $2,500 in 3 months.  No credit pull was necessary, and it’ll replace our Costco AMEX as an AMEX card in late June.

2016 Totals

In 2016 we contributed $18,296.26 (26.14% of our goal of 70k), and gained $5,846.21 in investment value.

Detailed Financial Picture – April 2016

January’s Numbers (the last I did…)

As of April 8, 2015, we are $316,810.17 in debt with a mortgage.  We currently have $930,763.79 in assets.  Our investment accounts are at $511,183.09. Our Net Worth is $613,953.62, up from $584,336.14 in January (3.5% increase)

We’ve passed the half-million mark in our investment accounts and have stayed there for about 2-3 weeks now, so we’re probably going to continue staying there until we start drawing down our accounts.

We’re hoarding some cash at the moment to start building a deck on our new house, so I haven’t paid off the line of credit as aggressively as I probably could.  We’re pouring the concrete patio in June, and will start building over the winter, so we can enjoy the deck next summer.  I’d love to just pull the money from our line of credit to get it done this summer, but Dad has talked be out of that idea.  We’re settling for designing it and getting the patio poured  this summer.  We need to have the deck design so we know where to tell the concrete folks to dig a big hole for a support post.  We are going to save a whole lot of money doing it “ourselves” though.  I say ourselves in quotes because really, a friend is helping majorly, we’re just providing the money, labor, and food to actually build it.  I’m responsible for the design though, so I’ve been trolling google images figuring out what I want.  We’re planning about 15-20k (I want a covered portion) for the whole deck + patio.

Dad is considering a job change, which likely means a drop in his salary, and we’ll lose our HSA plan, so we’re likely to slow down a bit on the income, but we’ll be able to put almost as much aside for retirement, it just won’t be as tax-advantaged (no 3% mandatory contribution). We’ll see how things shake out. We can afford for him to take quite a significant cut in salary, but the benefits for him might not be worth it.

 

Debt (in the order we’re paying it down):

  • Line of Credit (9.75%): $5,500 (-600.00)
  • Car loan – RAV4 (0%): $6362.86 (-489.44)
  • Car loan 2 – Camry (0%): $22,404.30 (-439.30)
  • Mortgage (3.875%): $288,043.01 (-493.41)

Total paid off in March:  $2,022.15

 

Over Half a Million in our Investment Accounts

In the past month, we’ve reached a milestone: we have more than half of a million dollars in our portfolio – the majority of which is earmarked for retirement – about $10k is for Daughter Person’s 529.  Our net worth is more because we have a house (mostly) and some cash accounts, but this is the bulk of what we’re saving for retirement.  Our goal is about $2 million before we retire – 25% of the way there.

Of course, the markets could go south again, and our balances would go with it, but we have time to ride out some of the market swings.

Most of our contributions have happened in the last 3-4 years.  We’re continuing to try to increase our annual contributions, and if the markets do their thing, we’re looking at working another 9-10 years at the most, and we’ll have a nice cushion for unexpected expenses, and not have to work.

From personalcapital.com - our portfolio balance

From personalcapital.com – our portfolio balances

February 2016 Early Retirement Progress

We contributed $5,290.70 this month to our retirement accounts, and we lost $1778.27, in investment value this month.

I expect to get an “out of band” raise this month based on market analysis that I’m not being paid enough for my job description (the University generally aims to be at the 25th percentile of market pay, except since our department is “hot” and difficult to hire in, we’re getting the 50th percentile of pay).  Nice to know I’m worth more – especially after the last 4 months (more details to come)!  It also means that the University’s contribution to my retirement accounts will increase by a similar amount since it’s percentage based.

Dad is considering finding a new position, so we’re going to have to hold off on contributing to our HSA until August (We’ve already contributed through June), and if he works somewhere without an HSA (my job doesn’t offer an HSA plan), we’d have to go through the rigamarole of taking out excess contributions.  So, I’m just stopping contributions until we know for sure, and then I’ll put them in at the end of every full month we’ve still got an HSA.  I’m still setting aside the same amount every month, but it’ll just be contributed differently.

2016 Totals

In 2016 we contributed $12,817.53 (18.31% of our goal of 70k), and we lost $23,356.86 in investment value.

January 2016 Early Retirement Progress

We contributed $7,526.83 this month to our retirement accounts, and we lost $21,578.59 in investment value this month.

January was not a nice one for the markets.  However, we can’t control those, so we have focused on what we an contribute.  This month was slightly higher due to Dad’s company’s $2250 contribution to our HSA, but we also contributed $375 this month and will continue to do so every month this year.

Last January was a perfect storm of the HSA contribution and a 3 paycheck month for Dad, so this January is not quite as high as last January’s contribution.  But it will even out throughout the year.  Dad now has a mandatory 3% contribution (vs 2%), so we’ll end up contributing about $1200 more to his account over the year than last year.

We’re both maxing out our 403(b)s, and it was gratifying to see that on our W2 forms.

2016 Totals

In 2016 we contributed $7,526.83 (10.75% of our goal of 70k), and we lost $21,578.59 in investment value.