My wife rolled over a $1,493.85 balance from her old company 401(k) into an traditional IRA with Vanguard. We already have our Roth IRAs with Vanguard and like the company. She chose to invest the traditional IRA money in Vanguard STAR Fund (VGSTX) a balanced fund of stocks, bonds, and short-term investments. She is eligible to contribute to her new company 401(k) in April.
Category Archives: 401(k)
Received My Profit Sharing
Good news, a $730.72 company profit sharing contribution was deposited into my 401(k) account today.
With the poor economy, my company only contributed $12K total to the plan this year, much less than last year. Therefore, I knew I would not be receiving the $3K that they gave me last year. Nonetheless, I was happy to relieve 6% of the total they contributed to profit sharing this year. There are close to 40 employees in the company, so I feel like I received more than my fair share.
I’m fully vested, so 100% of the money is ours, although we won’t be touching it for 20+ years.
Almost Profit Sharing Season
My company’s annual profit sharing contribution should process in the next week or two. I am anxiously waiting to see what my share will be.
Most of the years I have been with the company, my share of the annual profit sharing has been ~$500. Last year was my 7th year with the company and my first full year as a Sales Manager. I was surprised to see my profit sharing jump to $3,005.63. I don’t expect to receive that much this year because of the challenging economy that we’re in, but I still hope to get a nice little boost to my 401(k).
I’ll keep you posted.
401(k) Increase Time
I just submitted paperwork to increase my 401(k) contribution by 1% next year (effective 1/2/08). This will bring us to a 4% total contribution to my 401(k) plan. This percentage is low because our first priority is to contribute the max to our Roth IRA’s each year ($5,000 each in 2008).
Based on my current income, a 4% contribution represents $2,646 annually. However, my annual review is also in January, and I would guess that my raise will be ~5% this year. If that assumption is true, the total 2008 contribution will be $2,778. In addition to my 401(k) contribution, I also receive company profit sharing into my 401(k) in September, which last year was $3,005.63.
Our plan is to increase my 401(k) contribution 1% each year until we reach the maximum contribution. By timing this increase with my annual raise, we don’t even feel the effects of the extra contribution money missing from my paychecks.
Retirement Account Forecasting
To help keep myself motivated on our early retirement goal, I like to review our 20 year retirement account forecast from time-to-time.
I was happy to see today that our current retirement account balances (assuming no additional contributions) should be worth just over $100,000 in 20 years. I calculated this using an 8% average return rate, which I believe to be conservative given that the historical average return rate of the stock market is ~10%.
Obviously, we plan to continue contributing to our retirement accounts, and even hopefully increase our contributions; it’s just nice to envision what our sacrifices now will be worth later, God willing.
2007 Profit Sharing
I’ve been eagerly awaiting my company’s annual profit sharing. In the past, it has represented a $550 increase to my 401(k) each year. It’s typically paid around July, but my company was running a bit late this year because of administration issues.
Well, I woke up this morning and was shocked to see that my 401(k) balance jumped $3,000 since yesterday. I checked the transaction history and it turns out a $3,005.63 employer contribution was made!
I had heard that the profit sharing contribution was going to be big this year, but that’s quite a jump compared to previous years. I hope it is not a mistake. I’m not sure how each person’s share is calculated, but I’ve been told it has something to do with how long you have been with the company and that being in management helps too. I’ve been with the company over 6 years and have been a manager for ~1-1/2. I hope these are the reasons for the dramatic increase.
Assuming there was not a mistake, this would mean that we will likely hit our 2007 net worth goal of $22,000 this month, 3 months early. What a blessing!
Balancing Act
My wife and I are trying to find the balance between long term investing (retirement) and short term savings (emergency fund, house, etc.).
I tend to focus too much on investing for retirement, and am eager to put all of our spare money into either our Roth IRA’s or 401(k). The power of compounding is amazing and time is the most important element. The more money we can invest now, the better off we should be later. This simple table demonstrates that a person who invests early and for just eight years will have more money at 65 years old than will someone who starts late and invests for nearly 40 years.
My wife, on the other hand, reminds me that we can’t keep all of our money tied up in retirement accounts. We want to buy a house in a few years and need to save for a down payment. We also need to have cash on hand for unexpected emergencies. We had a real world example of why this is important when my wife was recently laid off. The value of an emergency fund, even the smallish amount we had in our savings at the time (~$3,000), provided a great deal of peace of mind. Thankfully, my wife found a new job within a week, and we did not have to dip into our savings.
Like most things in life, we have to find a balance. Currently, our retirement investments represent 78.30% of our total liquid assets. We’ve agreed to work on increasing our savings, but not at the expense of fully funding our Roth IRA’s. In fact, we have already added another $1,300 to our savings this month, while simultaneously investing another $200 in my wife’s Roth IRA.
Investing Plan – Update
We have made good progress with our Investing Plan, and have tweaked it a bit along the way.
401(k)
Our 401(k) is currently at $13,184.13. We have increase our contribution from 2% to 3%, effective July 4. To better diversify our 401(k), we have reduced the percentage allocation of each mutual fund, and added a couple of additional funds. Our current holdings are:
16% – JH Lifestyle Aggressive (1.47% expense ratio)
16% – Pacific Rim Fund (1.46% expense ratio)
16% – Real Est. Securities Fund (1.19% expense ratio)
20% – Natural Resources Fund (1.49% expense ratio)
16% – International Small Cap Fund (1.55% expense ratio)
16% – Small Cap Index Fund (0.95% expense ratio)
I really dislike the high expense ratios of my 401(k) choices, and I was surprised to find they increased on some of the funds since my last post, and went down on others.
My wife is eligible to enroll in her company’s 401(k) plan in October. She will get a 100% match on the first 3% and a 50% match for the next 2%. Needless to say, we plan to invest 5% of her paycheck to get the company match (free money).
Roth IRA’s
My wife and I have opened Roth IRA’s thru Vanguard.
For my wife, we invested $3,000 in Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares (VFINX) (0.18% expense ratio).
And for me, we invested $3,000 in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares (VTSMX) (0.19% expense ratio).
We hope to have both Roths fully funded by the end of the year.
Taxable Accounts (Brokerage, Prosper, etc.)
Our 300 shares of ADVENTRX Pharmaceuticals (ANX) are now worth $798.00. My parents gave me this stock, and have a large amount of money invested in this stock. Since they first bought in, the stock has almost doubled. They expect it will go to $10/share. That would be sweet.
My wife and I invested $100 in two Proper loans. Both loans are current and our average interest rate is 12.23%, which is great, but for a variety of reasons, I’m glad we didn’t invest more money.
Savings Accounts
With just a $1,286.79 balance, we haven’t made as much progress on our saving as we would like. Most of our spare money has gone to funding our Roth IRA’s. We should be able to build this up the 2nd half of the year. Our goal is to eventually have a $10,000 emergency fund.
We feel that things are clicking along nicely. We’re working towards our goals, while not having to overly sacrifice. God willing, this success will continue.
Roth IRA vs 401(k)
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We currently have $12,688.05 invested in my company’s 401(k) plan and $630.00 saved up to begin funding Roth IRA’s for my wife (minimum required to open a Vanguard Roth IRA is $3,000).
The 401(k) money was accumulated (no company match) over the past 5 years of off and on investing without a plan or a goal. Now that we do have a plan and a goal, we have decided to focus on fully funding our Roth IRA’s this year, while still contributing a small amount (2% of my salary) to my company’s 401(k) plan. The Roth IRA money will be invested in the Vanguard 500 Index Fund.
The main reasons we choose to focus on the Roth IRA’s are:
- The average expense ratio of Vanguard 500 Index Fund is just 0.18%, while the average expense ratio of our 401(k) investments is 1.48%
- The Roth IRA principal can be withdrawn penalty-free, while the 401(k) has limited loan availability
- The Roth IRA has no mandatory withdrawals, while the 401(k) withdrawals must start at 70-1/2
Since Roth IRA contributions are limited to $4,000 in 2007 (increases to $5K in 2008) we will be investing a total of $8,000 for my wife and I this year.
Stong Financial Foundation
Simple ideas for a strong financial foundation:
Live below your means
I believe this is one of the most important steps to a strong financial foundation and, for me, one of the hardest. If you try to keep up with your rich looking friends and associates, you may end up like most of them: lots of nice stuff, but a low net worth. Every dollar that you save is worth more than an extra dollar earned because the extra dollar earned is taxed.
Start an emergency fund
Job loss, health issues, and expenisve repairs are financial blows that can affect us all. Open a high yeild savings account (Emigrant Direct, ING, etc.) and start saving for the unexpected.
Aviod credit card debt
Credit card debt is the path to financial ruin. Been there, done that. Believe me when I tell you that digging the hole is very, very easy and climbing out is often a long, hard fought battle. The only thing we use credit cards for now are monthly bills because we get cash back from our Citi credit card. Don’t do this if can’t pay off the balance in full each month.
Track spending / create a budget
It’s easy to overspend if you don’t know what you’re spending. Track spending for a few months and use this information to create a budget. The budget will help keep you on track and hopefully help you find areas where you can reduce spending.
Learn all you can about investing
Most financial planners are more interested in their commission, rather than what is in your best interest. If you educate yourself, you can save A LOT of money and probably do just as good a job, if not better.
Invest at least 10% of your gross income
The future is coming whether you want it to our not. The magic of compound interest can make your consistent contributions grow into a large nest egg. Take advantage of tax sheltered retirement account such as a 401(k) and/or Roth IRA. If your employer offers a 401(k) with a company match, take advantage of the free money.