Category Archives: Finances

April 2015 Early Retirement Progress

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We contributed $5,284.68 this month to our retirement accounts, and we gained $2,729.64 in investment value this month. 

 

We gained in every account except my IRA this month.  There’s a pretty hefty sum in an REIT mutual fund in that account, and it didn’t do so well this month.  Oh well, that’s how the market works, and I much prefer to have a REIT than actual property!

I may delay setting aside money for the Roths until later in the year so that we can pay off our car faster.  It’s 0% interest rate, but we’d prefer to get rid of the payment.  And I’ll still be able to make my goal of 70k into our accounts by only putting aside about 3 months worth.  That will have to be played by ear – I just want to get enough into Dad’s Roth account to get out of ETFs and into a mutual fund to have it 100% invested.  We put a token $250 in for 2014 to just open the account, but we need 2500 to invest in the mutual fund I want (FSTMX).  My Roth climbed over the 10k balance and the investment was transferred to the advantage class mutual fund earlier this year.

While trying to get the new house set up, we’re feeling the pinch of cash flow right now with a lot of money going towards retirement, but I keep reminding myself that it’s good for us and most of the house stuff can wait as well! (except the window blinds – we have huge windows, and we need our privacy and insulation!)

2015 Totals

In 2015, so far, we’ve contributed $24,805.90 (35.44% of our goal of 70k), and we’ve gained $14216.4 in investment value (59.54% of our planned total).

Detailed Financial Picture – May 2015

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April’s Numbers

As of May 5, 2015, we are $304,884 in debt with a mortgage!  We currently have $882,149.80 in assets.  Our investment accounts are at $468,778.01. Our Net Worth is $577,265.80, down from $579,430.79 last month (0.37% decrease).

We are home owners again (finally!), so we now have a new asset (the house) and a new liability (the mortgage).  We bought the house for 366,730, but it was appraised at 372k (how they do appraisals before the house is finished, I have no idea).  I’m only counting what we paid for it.

We’ve moved into the house, and the movers were almost 1k over the estimate (I do give them a break since the estimate was in August!).  My goal for the next month or two is to buy the last few things we really want for the house (like blinds!) and then build up our mini-emergency fund to 5k again.  It’s at about 3.5k at the moment.  We also have a full month’s salary “buffer” because we use YNAB and live on last month’s income, so I’m not horribly concerned.  Once that’s built back up, we’re going to start aggressively paying off the car.

We’re rounding up our mortgage payment, and it ends up being about an extra $75/mth towards principal, but at this point in time, I’m not in any rush to pay it off.

We’re maxing out our 403(b)s and HSA plans, and starting in July, we’ll be setting aside $950/mth to go towards our Roth IRAs. The money won’t be put in the account until we do taxes in 2016, but it’ll be there (and be part of our emergency fund as well).

 

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

  • Car loan (0%): $12,000 (-500.00)
  • Mortgage (3.875%): $293,384.00

Total paid off in April:  $500

Detailed Financial Picture – April 2015

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March’s Numbers

As of April 7, 2015, we are $12,000 in debt without a mortgage (yet).  We currently have $591,430.79 in assets.  Our investment accounts are at $461,854.73. Our Net Worth is $579,430.79, up from $566,247.28 last month (2.33% increase).

I hate seeing so much money sitting in the bank collecting a pittance and not paying off the car loan.  We’re still on track to pay it off before the end if the year, but after almost 2 years of aggressive debt paying, this slow just above minimum payment is annoying.  It’s all 0%, so we’re not paying for the privilege of borrowing money, but it’s still annoying, we’d like to get rid of that payment.

This month, we spent a significant chunk of change on odor neutralizers and air fresheners for Dad’s car.  A rodent crawled in and died, and we can’t find the carcass.  We took apart the entire trunk and backseat – luckily, it didn’t die in the air/heat system – we can open windows and run the air.  What’s worked best for us has been this charcoal bamboo sachet that we got from Amazon.  It takes the smell from gagging level to bearable.  I’ve been driving Dad’s car to and from work (45 minutes each way) so that Daughter Person doesn’t have to be in the car.  We even took her car seat out so it doesn’t absorb the funk.  Meanwhile, I’m getting great gas mileage since his car gets better mileage and I’m the one with the longer commute.  We’re seriously considering trading the 15 year old Accord (aka rat-mobile) for a newer Prius V for me to drive.  I have perfect driving conditions for it: stop and go in traffic.

No news on closing on the house, but we have electricity, and the sales guy estimated 3-5 weeks after that happened it would be “completed”, and 2-3 weeks after that for closing.  So, we’re looking at early/mid May for now.  Theoretically, I was supposed to hear from the closing coordinator last week, but I didn’t.  I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt around the holidays and call today instead 🙂

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

  • Car loan (0%): $12,000 (-500.00)

Total paid off in March:  $500

March 2015 Early Retirement Progress

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We contributed $5,096.15 this month to our retirement accounts, and we lost $2,508.27 in investment value this month. 

This was a pretty “normal” month in terms of contributions – no one time contributions, no extras from my Fidelity cash back card (although next month that will really have a lot – and the following month once we buy appliances – on the cash back card of course!).  We’ll have to contribute more to our Roths later this year to make it to 70k for the year, but that’s OK, I plan on setting aside that monthly amount in July, and probably putting it all in Dad’s account next February – once we know we’re under the AGis for the full contribution.

The markets seem to be slowing down in anticipation of the Fed rate increase and not knowing when that is, but I suspect it’ll still be up for the year, just maybe not the 20+% it was last year.

We got a letter in the mail allowing us to change the terms of our HSA to “more accurately reflect our goals”.  We have Optumbank, and our previous option was a minimum of $2000 in the “cash” part of the HSA, and $3/mth investment fee plus a $3/mth account fee (completely covered by Dad’s employer).  We sent the paperwork back to be a “investment” HSA, which requires a minimum of only $500 in the “cash” part, and $2.50/mth investment fee plus a $3/mth account fee, $2 of which will be covered by Dad’s employer, so we pay an extra $0.50 in fees per month, but we have the opportunity to invest $1500 more than we currently do – which in VFINX, I think we’ll make up all of the fees during most months.  The online account information hasn’t changed yet, so I haven’t been able to see this in practice yet.  The account fee can be waived if there’s a minimum of 5k in the “cash” part of the account – which kind of defeats the purpose.  I’ll need to watch that account to see if the investment option continues to make sense (so far, it hasn’t, but it’s only been 3 months).

In house news, which really deserves its own post: we have an electric meter!  I should know by Thursday or Friday when closing will be, and I’ll call and lock in my rate then (as well as finish up any other paperwork the lender might need).  We cannot wait to move in!

One quarter into the year, how are your contributions coming?

2015 Totals

In 2015, so far, we’ve contributed $19,521.22 (27.89% of our goal of 70k), and we’ve gained $11,486.76 in investment value (56.69% of our planned total).

Detailed Financial Picture – March 2015

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February’s Numbers

As of March 5, 2015, we are $12,500 in debt without a mortgage to speak of (yet).  We currently have $578,747.28 in assets.  Our investment accounts are at $454,222.97. Our Net Worth is $566,247.28, up from $551,947.34 last month (2.59% increase).

Not as much of an increase, but we didn’t have the same contribution assistance from Dad’s company this month.  Just a lot of improvement in the markets.

The outside of our House

The outside of our House

We have siding on the house (mostly), the kitchen cabinets are mostly installed, and most of the outlets, built-in lights, and faceplates were installed as of earlier this week.  Not sure we’ll be moving in by March 26, but they might be finished and we might be on the path to closing by then.  We’re still waiting for the electric company to install the electric meter before we can schedule inspection and closing.

The kitchen cabinets

The kitchen cabinets

We’re all ready to finally move out of my mom’s house! We’ve been able to put $3400 (at least) aside every month towards closing, moving costs and new appliances while living with my mom, but we’re done and ready to be on our own again – with a garage, and our own kitchen!

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

  • Car loan (0%): $12,500 (-500.00)

Total paid off in February:  $500

February 2015 Early Retirement Progress

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We contributed $5,902.70 this month to our retirement accounts  We gained $16,648.42 in investment value this month. 

February made up for January’s market slides, we “made” almost 70% of our annual total in the first two months of the year.  If we keep “making” this much money, we could retire on it now – too bad it’s not consistent!

This month, we dropped an additional $750 into our Roth accounts for 2014. I’m counting them this month since they were a bit spur of the moment. I added $500 to mine to get it above a $10k balance, and I added $250 to Dad’s because we needed to open a Roth for him anyway and that was a nice round number we could afford.  Most of his is invested in ITOT at the moment since we don’t have $2500 to get to FSTMX.  We likely won’t be contributing any more to Dad’s Roth until we see what our taxes are like in 2016, so it might as well gain us some money in ITOT.

Once closing happens (oh please $DEITY soon!), we’ll know our cash flow better, and I’m hoping to start setting aside money to put in Roths next year after 2015 taxes are done.

2015 Totals

In 2015, so far, we’ve contributed $14,425.07 (20.61% of our goal of 70k), and we’ve gained $13,995.03 in investment value (69.07% of our planned total).

2014 Roth Contribution – $500

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For the first time since I’ve been married (2008), I’ve contributed to a Roth account. I didn’t have much set aside, so I limited myself to $500 into my Roth for 2014. We just barely scooted in under the contribution income limits for 2014, and I wouldn’t have been able to put in the full amount anyway. $500 was enough that I could scrounge up from “extra” money laying around, and we’ll be getting about that much back from our taxes, so I can “float” the $500 in our budget until we get the money from the state of VA.

$500 is also just over the magic number I need to add to the account to qualify for Fidelity’s Advantage class (vs Investor class), which saves me 0.03% in fees (0.10% for investor vs 0.07% for advantage). This is why I really did it 🙂  I have $200 leeway for the markets to decline and still remain above the 10k minimum needed. I now only have investor class funds in my taxable account, where I just managed to get the $2500 minimum to buy into FSTMX; so it’ll be a while before I qualify for the advantage class fund there.

We should qualify for contributing 2015 funds as well (hopefully the full amount) since I’m finally maxing out my 401(k) contributions and lowering our MAGI. I’m budgeting to put about 75% of the maximum 11k in for 2015. I’m hoping to start a specific budget line item for our Roths in June/July with $950 each month – then doing the actual contributions the following February (once we can confirm that our MAGI is under the contribution limits). The exact timing depends on how closing goes down, how much we have left from what we’ve saved, and what our monthly cash flow looks like.

Did you max out your Roth contributions for 2014?

Detailed Financial Picture – February 2015

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January’s Numbers

As of February 6, 2015, we are $13,000 in debt without a mortgage to speak of (yet).  We currently have $564,947.34 in assets.  Our investment accounts are at $442,758.19. Our Net Worth is $551,947.34, up from $532,971.98 last month (3.56% increase).

The markets are going back up (at least for today), and so are our investment accounts.  It didn’t hurt that we added about 8k to our accounts in January.

Our house still didn’t have any siding on it as of this past weekend, but we can’t see inside the house any longer (the garage door has been installed – and we were able to see into the kitchen through the garage).  I sent an e-mail off to the sales guy to ask “permission” to go inside when we drive by this weekend, or if he’d tell us what the progress is 🙂  It’s recommended that we lock our rate with the mortgage company when the cabinets get installed.

I have a feeling that we’ll be refinancing very shortly after getting the mortgage.  The mortgage company asked me to write a letter explaining why my income dropped between 2012 and 2013 (uh, I got a salary plus bonuses and the bonuses were lower?), and why $1500/mth was being taken out of my paycheck and sent to Vanguard.  Seriously?!?!  Dad didn’t have to write any such letter, despite him also contributing the max to his 403(b) *and* having part of his W2 as bonuses based on how well the company did.    A lot will depend on their rates as to how quickly I refinance.  I may give them a month or two of trial if their rates are sufficiently low.  The estimates they’ve given me so far have been 4.75% – which is outrageously high (and the loan officer admitted that, but it was “safe”) – I’d be on the phone to refinance immediately after closing if that’s the rate.  Unfortunately, the builder is giving credit against our options only if we go with this lender (FBC Mortgage), and because we’re planning on paying off the loan early, the rate would have to be criminal before it made sense for us to finance elsewhere.  Doesn’t stop me from refinancing immediately though!

Since it’s 2015 and we started the year with no debt other than our car loan, I’m going to just drop off the other debts below, and will add the mortgage back in once we have one.  It’s actually driving me nuts seeing the ability to pay off the car sitting in my bank account, but earmarked for something else.  I’m hoping that I’ve really saved way too much for the down payment and I’ll be able to put some of what’s left to paying off the car faster.

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

  • Car loan (0%): $13,000 (-500.00)

Total paid off in January:  $500

January 2015 Early Retirement Progress

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We contributed $8,522.37 this month to our retirement accounts  We lost $2,653.39 in investment value this month. 

January was an exceptional month for contributions: it was a three paycheck month for Dad, and his company contributed $2250 to our HSA for us on January 1.  This influx lets us put all of our contributions to investments (minimum of 2k in cash).  I also redeemed a little bit (about $64) of our Fidelity cash back points into our Fidelity account.

There are two more 3-paycheck months this year thanks to Jan1 falling on a Friday – Dad’ll get paid on Dec 31 for his last paycheck of the year.  I had to figure this out because there was less taken out of his paycheck for daycare FSA and I wondered why (the year still has 52 weeks, but instead of 26 pay periods like normal, he has 27 pay periods).

We have a good start on our contributions for the year, but the markets have been going down.  I don’t expect to get 6% gains every year, just averaged over the 10 or so years we’re actually contributing.  2015 may turn out to be a down year, but we were well ahead in 2014 to make up for it!

2015 Totals

In 2015, so far, we’ve contributed $8522.37 (12.17% of our goal of 70k), and we’ve lost $2653.39 in investment value (-13.10% of our planned total).

Detailed Financial Picture – January 2015

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December’s Numbers

As of January 12, 2015, we are $13,500 in debt without a mortgage to speak of (yet).  We currently have $546,471.98 in assets.  Our investment accounts are at $425,862.38. Our Net Worth is $532,971.98, up from $522,285.88 last month (2.05% increase).

I almost forgot to include our HSA into the above values.  I only included the amount that’s in the “investment” side under investments and the remaining as cash.  Part of the large increase in assets was the 2250 that was contributed to our HSA for us by Dad’s company.  That won’t happen any more this year, but we’re contributing $367/mth which with a small change in December (to $363) will max out our HSA.  I’ve got it set up that 2250 stays in the “cash” account, and anything else above that gets swept into the investment piece.  We can then use it for medical expenses if we need to.  There’s a minimum balance of 2k in the “cash” part of the account.

The markets have been up and down since Christmas, and so have our balances.  I am enjoying the lower gas prices though!

We toured our half finished house on Friday, and the production manager is thinking we might move in in early March (about one month ahead of schedule).  It depends on when the hardwood flooring is delivered and if we have any more extreme cold snaps.  He said if the flooring is there by the end of the first week of February, it’s very likely we’ll be moving in at the end of February or early March.  Normally, I love cold weather, but this time I’m going to hope for mild weather so that we can move out of my mother’s house sooner!

The money for closing is sitting in our bank account, but if we close in February rather than march, we might have to float the cost of the refrigerator on our line of credit until we get the credit from the storage company.  We can already float the move for 30 days on our credit card (and get cash back!), which may be all we need.

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

  • Line of credit (8.75%): $0.00
  • Chase (4.99% for life): $ 0.00 
  • Student loans (aggregated 4.21%):  $0.00 
  • Car loan (0%): $13,500 (-500.00)
  • Mortgage (4.125%): $0.00 

Total paid off in December:  $500