Here’s a look at our current retirement investment portfolio.  These numbers are current as of today.  This breakdown does not include my wife’s pension plan, nor does it include money invested for college education savings.  We use four accounts to save for retirement (in addition to my wife’s pension).  My 403(b), my Roth IRA, my wife’s Roth IRA, and a SEP IRA for business income investing.

Large Cap / Total US Market = 46%

Mid Cap / Small Cap = 34%

International = 17%

Cash / Bonds = 2%

The majority of the large cap / total US market stocks are held in Vanguard’s VTI ETF – which tracks the broader US market.  The majority of mid / small cap stocks are held in my 403(b) via a REIT.  All of the international stocks are held in a fund with my 403(b).  I recently made a change to my future contributions, so the amount held in cash / bonds should increase, as a percentage of the portfolio, over time.

One of my goals for 2009 is to fully-fund my 403(b) ($16,500).  I also hope to fully-fund my Roth IRA ($5,000) and my wife’s Roth IRA ($5,000).

This is my personal portfolio, constructed after doing my own research and according to my own risk tolerance. I may even change it in the future.  It is not a recommendation to purchase any specific securities.  I am not a financial professional or investment adviser, nor do I play one on the web.

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Current Retirement Asset Class Allocation

Earlier this month, I wrote about my financial goals for 2009.  After talking things over with my wife for the past couple of weeks, we have decided to shift our focus – temporarily – away from aggressive long-term saving and towards aggressive short-term savings.  Here are the changes we plan to make -

Original Prioritized List Of Personal Finance Goals

1. Fully-fund 403(b)
2. Fully-fund 2 Roth IRAs
3. Fully-fund 3 Education Savings Accounts
4. Save for down payment on a new home
5. Stay out of debt

Current Prioritized List Of Personal Finance Goals

1. Fully-fund 403(b)
2. Save for down payment on a new home
3. Save for future automobile purchase
4. Fund 2 Roth IRAs
5. Fund 3 Education Savings Accounts
6. Stay out of (non-mortgage) debt

As many of you know, I live in a home provided by my employer – as part of my compensation.  My wife and I, at some point, want to buy a home of our own.  We have decided to increase our non-retirement savings, so that we will have adequate funds for a large down payment, should we choose to buy a home.  Of course, I would prefer to pay cash for a home, and that might be what we decide to do, but we want to be prepared to buy, should we find a house that we like at a price we can afford.

We will still work towards fully-funding our Roth IRAs and ESAs for our children, but saving for the new home and a newer automobile will be higher on our list of priorities.  Again, we have no idea when we’ll actually purchase the home, and it might be several years from now, but we want to be prepared, just in case.  Having a solid down payment, on top of our current emergency fund, is very important to both of us.

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Shifting Focus – Updated Goals For 2009

Personal Finance Goals

1. Fully-fund 403(b)
2. Fully-fund 2 Roth IRAs
3. Fully-fund 3 Education Savings Accounts
4. Save for down payment on a new home
5. Stay out of debt

Blogging Goals

1. Post daily to No Credit Needed
2. Increase number of subscribers
3. Improve site usability
4. Establish connections with other bloggers
5. Continue to support the personal finance blogging community

Health Goals

1. Continue to lose weight
2. Continue to exercise regularly
3. Run in my first 5K
4. Continue to avoid soft drinks and refined sugars
5. Post daily at No. Calories Needed

Other Goals -

In May of 2008, I started 99 Changes – my personal development site.  I’m tracking my progress as I make changes – big and small – and improve my life.  I write about organization, spiritual matters, networking, personal growth, and my health.  If you are interested in goals and personal development, you might like 99 Changes.

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Resolutions And Goals For 2009

I hope you had a Merry Christmas.  My family and I are finally home after a week away.  We had a wonderful time visiting with our parents, but it feels good to be home.  My wife spent most of the afternoon yesterday cleaning out our kids’ closets, making room for their new toys.  I’m working hard to get ready for 2009, and I’m taking several steps in an effort to simplify our finances.

Updating Inventory of Financial Accounts -

I’ve spent a few minutes updating my inventory of financial accounts.  This single-page document serves two purposes.  First, I use it to keep track of all of my account names, account numbers, and account passwords.  Second, if something were to happen to me, my wife would have easy access to all of our financial information.  Read more about the Inventory of Financial Accounts and print your own copy.

Opening Education Savings Accounts -

As soon as I publish this article, I’m going to open two new education savings accounts, one for my son and one for my youngest daughter.  I opened an ESA or my oldest daughter a couple of years ago, and I actually printed out an application for my son’s ESA a few months ago.  I’m actually thankful that I didn’t open the account at that time, because I’ve decided to go with Vanguard instead of my original choice, TD Ameritrade.

Consolidating Budget Categories -

I have been using the You Need A Budget financial management software for quite some time, and I am very pleased with it.  This year, I’m trying something a little different.  I am going to consolidate several smaller budget categories into just a few larger categories.  At this point in my financial journey, I have broken the habit of overspending, and I want my budget to be a tool, not a burden.  By consolidating, creating my budget will take a little less time.

Scheduling Automatic Contributions -

As soon as I open the education savings accounts, I plan to schedule automatic contributions to all of my after-tax retirement and education savings accounts.  In the past, I liked to manually enter my contributions, as a way to keep my head-in-the-game.  Now, after almost four years, I’ve moved past the need to micro-manage every detail of every transaction.  In the words of the info-mercial, I’m going to set it, and forget it!

Organizing Financial Documents -

I recently purchased a fire-proff safe and my wife and I are using it to store our marriage certificate, our kids’ birth certificates, our social security cards, and our wills.  Tomorrow, I’m going to go through several of our financial documents, and organize them for tax time.  I need to sort though last year’s documents and receipts, just to see if their are any pertinent tax-related documents.  I also have a retirement-specific form that I need to update for my employer.

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Working Hard To Get Ready For The New Year

Here are my after-tax retirement and education savings goals for 2008/2009/2010. Contributions to Roth IRAs and ESAs can be made from December of one year until April of the next year. I have three children, and I have five months to fully-fund 2008 ESAs for each of them. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to afford to do this, but I’m going to try. Also, my wife needs to fully-fund her Roth IRA for 2008. Once those accounts have been funded, we’ll get to work funding 2009 accounts. The chart should clarify. (Chart corrected.)

To be frank, I would love to fully-fund all 2009 accounts during the 2009 calendar year, but that might not be a realistic goal. Remember, while I’m working to fund these after-tax accounts, I’m also trying to fund my before-tax 403(b) and save for a future home purchase.

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Retirement And Education Savings Goals

As I sat down with my wife to talk about our financial goals for 2009, I realized that I needed to know if the contribution limits for our retirement and education savings accounts were going up in 2009.  After some searching, of both the Internet in general and the IRS website in particular, here’s what I found.  (By the way, if anyone from the IRS is reading this, it would be VERY helpful if you could create a single, easy-to-find page where all of these limits, and the limits for other types of accounts, could be listed.  Also, if such a page already exists, hook me up with a link, please.)

2009 Contribution Limits for 401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) Accounts:

$16,500 – Elective Deferrals (employee contributions)

$5,500 – Catch-Up Contributions (over 50 years of age)

$49,000 – Total Contributions Limit (employee + employer)

For more information and details, please see the following resources -

IRS 401(k) Resource Guide

401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) Contribution Limits For 2009

2009 Contribution Limits for Roth IRAs and Traditional IRAs:

$5000 – under 50 years of age

$6000 – over 50 years of age

Roth and Traditional contribution limits were unchanged from their 2008 limits.

2009 Contribution Limit for ESAs (Education Savings Accounts):

$2000

ESA contribution limit was unchanged from 2008 limit.

I’ll keep these limits in mind as I think about my 2009 goals.  As it looks now, more than 50% of our gross income will be allocated for retirement and education savings.  I’ll let you know, in just a bit, what we decide to do.

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Retirement And Eduction Savings Contribution Limits For 2009

It’s hard to believe, but in just 15 days, it will be 2009.  I have started thinking about my financial goals for the coming year.

Last year, I set some pretty aggressive goals, and I managed to accomplish most of them.  I fully-funded my 403(b) retirement account, my 2008 Roth IRA, and my wife fully-funded her pension plan.  We are still working to fund my wife’s 2008 Roth IRA and ESAs for our kids.

In April, my wife gave birth to our third child, a beautiful baby girl.  My wife is an educator, and she did not work during the months of April, May, or June.  Her income for 2008 was much lower than it was in 2007, due to the time off, so it was much harder to meet out 2008 goals than I had at first anticipated.  Of course, having the new baby also means that we’ll be able to claim an additional dependent, so our tax bill for 2008 should be lower than it was in 2007.

Due to the different timetables for when contributions can be made, it’s hard to create financial goals based on a calendar year.  For instance, all contributions to my 403(b), which are made pre-tax by my employer, must be made between January and December.  Contributions to a Roth IRA or Education Savings Account, on the other hand, can be made from January 1st of one year until April 15th of the next year.  Some of my 2008 goals will be rolled-over into 2009.  Those goals, including funding ESAs for our kids and my wife’s 2008 Roth IRA must be accomplished by April 15th, 2009.

I haven’t created my official goals for 2009, but here’s a preliminary list of things about which I’m thinking.

Retirement -

I know that I want to fully-fund my 403(b) and it’s mandatory that my wife fully-fund her pension plan.

I need to fully-fund my 2009 Roth IRA.

My wife needs to fully-fund her 2008 Roth IRA and her 2009 Roth IRA.

I also have a SEP-IRA, for income earned from blogging.  I’ll make contributions to it, so that I can reduce our taxable income.

Education -

I have three kids, ages 9, 4, and eight months.

I would love to be able to fully-fund ESAs for all three of them, for the years 2008 and 2009.  At $2000 per child, per year, that’s $12,000.

Savings -

One of my long term goals is to pay cash for a new house.  I’m not sure how this goal will fit in with my other goals, but it’s something I’m definitely thinking about.  In fact, I have given some thought to reducing my retirement contributions, for a brief time, in order to bolster my long term non-retirement savings.  We shall see.

I’m going to sit down with my wife, and we’ll discuss our plans for 2009.  Once we have decided what we want to do, I’ll let you know.  When I right my “official” Goals for 2009 post, I’ll include contribution limits and some specific figures.

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Thinking About My Financial Goals For 2009