My goal for 2007 is to “save” $48,000 in various retirement, education, and investment accounts.

Click here to read all posts associated with my $48000 goal.

Click here to read about my savings and investing goals for 2007.

Here’s my updated chart with detailed information:

As you can see, I’m going to miss my goal… by more than $20,000! Yikes, right? Well, it’s not nearly as ‘bad’ as it seems.

My primary mini-goals were to fully-fund our retirement accounts. I managed to fully-fund my 403b, my wife’s pension plan, my Roth IRA (for 2006 and 2007) and my wife’s Roth IRA (for 2006 and 2007). I also fully-funded my daughter’s ESA (for 2006 and 2007). Mid-year, I decided not to fund my son’s ESA in 2007. I am going to fund his ESA in 2008. I also put $1000 into my standard brokerage account. All-in-all, I was able to put $38,000 into various retirement / education/ brokerage accounts.

But, all did not go as planned. First, when I opened my wife’s Roth IRA, I “borrowed” $5000 from my ING Direct Savings account. (I wanted to fund the Roth for 2006 and April 15th was right around the corner.) Then, in October, our old van began to “die” - so we decided to use some of our savings and purchase a newer van. So, instead of ADDING $10,000 to my savings, I actually DEPLETED my savings by $12,000. (I’ve managed to ‘payback’ $3,000.)

There are two ways to look at 2007. On the one hand, I managed to fully-fund 4 retirement accounts AND buy a newer car with cash. On the other hand, I missed my original goal and I actually lowered my “savings”.

Personally, I’ll always view 2007 as a success. While I did not reach my goal, I reached several “mini-goals”. In 2008, I’ll work to rebuild my “savings” - and I’ll continue to fully-fund the retirement/education accounts.

I still have a month to go and I’ll be working VERY hard to rebuild my savings account. I’m a little bummed to see the hit that our savings took, but I’m very, very happy with the newer van.

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I’m working towards saving $48,000 this year, which is 60% of our gross household income.

Click here to read all posts associated with my $48000 goal.

Click here to read about my savings and investing goals for 2007.

Here’s my updated chart with detailed information:

Explanation

My Roth = $8000 ($4000 for 2006 and 2007)

Wife’s Roth = $8000 ($4000 for 2006 and 2007)

ING (Repay $5000) = I ‘borrowed’ $5000 form my savings so that I could fully-fund the Roth IRAs for 2006.  I am in the process of ‘paying myself back’.

Next Step:  Open and fund ESA for my son.

(You can also follow my progress over at the No Credit Needed Network: NCN 2007)

• 15 Comments

I’m working towards saving $48,000 this year, which is 60% of our gross household income.

Click here to read all posts associated with my $48000 goal.

Click here to read about my savings and investing goals for 2007.

Here’s my updated chart with detailed information:

Explanation: I ‘borrowed’ $5000 from my ING Direct Savings Account so that I could fully-fund my Roth IRA for 2006.  I’m in the process of ‘paying myself back’.  Since last month, I’ve managed to deposit $2000 into my wife’s Roth and an additional $1500 into my ING Directs Savings Account.

At this point, I should have saved $4000 per month for a total of $32000.  But, I’ve only managed to save $28,500, so I’m $3500 “short” of where I had hoped to be.  Why?  When calculating my budget for 2007, I made a major miscalculation and forgot about a $500 per month recurring expense.  Still, I pretty pleased with my progress and I’ll be working very hard to reach my goal by December.

(You can also follow my progress over at the No Credit Needed Network: NCN 2007)

• 2 Comments

My main goal for 2007 is to save 60% of our gross household income ($48,000) in various retirement, brokerage, and education savings accounts.

Here’s my current, updated chart:

(I’ve also updated my chart over at the No Credit Needed Network: NCN 2007)

I made a couple of adjustments to my chart.  Pre-Tax Retirement Goal was increased by $1000 and Brokerage Account Goal was decreased by $1000.  Why?  I recently made a few changes to my retirement contributions at work and I wanted my $48,000 Goal chart to reflect these changes.

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I recently adjusted the amount of money that I ‘take-home’ so that I can maximize my 403b contributions for 2007.  The maximum contribution amount for 2007 is $15,500.  In January, I elected to have $1000 per month contributed to my 403b, but in mid-June I decided that I needed to adjust my contributions.  So, my monthly paychecks for July - December will be $583.33 less.  ($3500 / 6 months = $583.33)

This additional contribution of $3500 should save me $875+ in income taxes for 2007.  (I’m in the 25% tax bracket.)  So, by maxing out my contribution for 2007, my total tax savings should be approximately $3825. ($15,500 * 25% = $3825)

I’ve already managed to fully-fund my Roth IRA for 2007 and I’m working on my fully-funding my wife’s Roth IRA.  By fully-funding multiple types of retirement account, I can diversify my investments AND my tax risks.  The 403b will grow “tax-deferred”and the Roth IRAs will grow “tax-free”.

I’m working very, very hard to save $48,000 in various retirement and savings accounts.  This adjustment was partially “planned-for”.  In other words, when I created my $48000 goal, I had hopes that I could adjust my paycheck and fully-fund my 403b.  So, this adjustment keeps me on track to meet my goal.

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