I thought it would be interesting to revisit a couple of the polls that I have hosted here at the NCN Blog, and to examine their results.

Poll 1: Savings Rate Poll
Basic Info:
If you could “lock-in” a savings rate for your retirement investing, what rate would it take for you to get out of the stock market and simply have all of your money in cash? Click here to read the original poll post: Savings Rate Poll. After you vote, you can click to see the poll results.

Results Review: 59 people have voted so far, and 17 percent would get totally out of the stock market, if they could achieve a solid 8 percent return on their cash. At 10 percent return, 34 percent of voters would ditch their stocks for cash. I think you will find this poll to be very, very interesting.

Personally, I think that I would “settle” for a locked-in, minimal-risk 9 percent return.

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I will be taking the next two days off from work and from blogging. See you guys Wednesday or Thursday. Thanks, NCN

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I realized that in over a year and a half of blogging, I’ve never really talked about my retirement. So, here are the basic details:

1. My job offers a 403b retirement plan. Whenever I contribute 100 dollars (or any amount above 100 dollars) my employer contributes 17.50.

2. There is no match or bonus for contributing over 100 dollars.

3. I would be foolish NOT to contribute the 100 dollar minimum. In essence, whenever I contribute 100 dollars, I receive an immediate 17.50 Percent rate on my money.

4. So, I reduced my retirement contributions to 100 dollars per month, so that I could get the 17.50 bonus AND so that I would have more money in each pay check to put towards debt reduction and savings.

Now that I am inching closer and closer to my emergency fund goals, I am going to increase my 403b retirement savings DRAMATICALLY.

(For my particular job, there are tax benefits associated with the 403b that actually make it a BETTER investment vehicle for me than a Roth IRA would be. Due to the nature of my job, I will be able to withdraw, tax-free, a portion of my 403b retirement as a housing allowance. So, I not only get to contribute with no taxes on the front end, I can also withdraw (a portion) with no taxes on the back end. I am not a tax expert, but I’ve researched this pretty thoroughly. I would suggest that you NOT listen to my input about taxes, as I might be wrong. But, I think that for me, the 403b will be the way to go.)

So, what has my “paltry” 100 dollars per month done during the last year and a half? Here’s a chart:

And here are the numbers:

So, I contributed 2200 dollars, my employer contributed the other 280, and I gained over 2900 dollars in market value. YAY!

I am really excited about the prospect of pouring more and more money into my retirement. Just as soon as I finish my Emergency Fund savings, I’ll be ready to get my retirement REALLY rolling.

By the way, the breakdown of my investments is as follows:
30 percent international fund
40 percent small cap fund
30 percent real estate fund

I’ll be changing these at the end of the month, and will be moving into some less speculative areas.

(My wife contributes 5 percent to a mandatory pension plan, and we are going to increase her retirement savings as well.)

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I am sure that many of you use the deal finding site, Fatwallet.Com. Well, if you’ve not visited the forums in a few days, I suggest you go and check them out. It seems that the moderators at the Fatwallet forums have changed the rankings system, and users are up-in-arms. As far as I can tell, the popular ability to “neg” a post has been removed, and replaced with a 1 - 5 “stars” system. And users are not happy. Here is a direct link to the most current discussion thread involving the changes.

I for one loved the old design of fatwallet, and I do not like the current design. I hope that the moderators listen to end users, and incorporate the functionality that most of us prefer.

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NCN made a boo-boo. I have 2 free checking accounts with Wachovia. I made a deposit into our primary checking account Monday morning. Or, at least I THOUGHT I made a deposit into our primary checking account. In fact, I made a deposit into our SECONDARY checking account. This error lead to a 50 insufficient charges fee. YIKES! So, I called our local branch, and they were super-cool about everything. They reversed the charges and corrected the deposit. I like my Wachovia free checking. Now, if they only offered a decent savings rate!!!

Lessons learned:

Check, and re-check your deposit slips.

If YOU make a mistake, own up to it, take your medicine, and don’t blame someone else.

Do not assume that people are going to say “no”. Sometimes, they say “yes”.

Special note to self: NCN, you might “know” a little bit (or a lot) about handling money, but you can still be an idiot. Do not get smug and over-confident. Dork!

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Your Very, Very Best Money Saving Tips is now up to THIRTY-TWO Entries. Click the link for more money savings tips, and enter to win the Very, Very Best Money Saving Tips Contest!

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