Earlier this month, I had posted about moving forward with a plan to have one retirement portfolio to rule them all. We’re slowly going through all of the steps, and learning a ton along the way. Since Her just had a series, I thought I’d do my own, but not in a day-after-day format. The ... Read more →
A few months ago, Her posted about the idea we had of investing into our retirement accounts as if it were one retirement portfolio. Great idea, right? Let’s pool our retirement money and fix our allocation and goals as one. Super-duper. Yeah. Well, since then, we’ve done nothing to go forward with that plan. We ... Read more →
Her and I have a year end goal to reassess our retirement portfolios, including making goals, determining asset allocation, and rebalancing. In order to get a head start at this process, I’ve been tinkering with some online calculators that try and assess how much money I’m going to need when I retire. The answers didn’t ... Read more →
Can cash add years to your life? Insurance companies think so. I recently had a casual conversation with a life insurance “insider” – an insurance businessman who has been at his company for about 30 years. He told me that private insurance company studies have determined that after illness and accidents, the biggest cause of ... Read more →
A few weeks ago I was out having a few drinks with few coworkers during happy hour. One of my coworkers (CW1) noted that in a few weeks he will have been at the company for six months. Another coworker (CW2) remaked that he was then eligible to participate in the company retirement plan. Both ... Read more →
If you’ve looked at any of our net worth statements, you’ve seen that we have four retirement accounts between the two of us. Only two of these accounts, the employee sponsored ones, are actively being funded right now. If you don’t want to read my long-winded analysis of our accounts, scroll to the bottom to ... Read more →
According to economist Jack VanDerhei, the typical “best scenario” American family is saving around 9% of their salary in their 401(k). But by his estimation, the average American family needs to be saving up to 18% of their salary consistently for thirty years in their 401(k) to be able to maintain their pre-retirement standard of ... Read more →
If everyone is offered the same 401(k) plan and is free to make all the decisions themselves, then everyone has an equal shot at success, right? Not according to Brooks Hamilton, a Benefits Consultant with fifty years of experience and tons of historic 401(k) participant data at his fingertips. He sees a pattern in the ... Read more →
We have been managing our money in a joint checking account for a year with much success, and this week He broached the idea of a new joint venture for us: the Joint Portfolio. Up until now we have each funded and managed our own retirement accounts. He has a Roth IRA that was a ... Read more →
Today, for the first time in my life, the total value of my investments (Roth IRA, 401K and ING Direct Savings) surpassed $10,000! I track these accounts in an Excel graph every day but it was still a big surprise to see it cross the $10,000 mark. For all those who have commented on our ... Read more →
Many PF bloggers plan to retire young. Here’s why I don’t. In many professions, employees are valued less as they age. In my highly traditional profession, the opposite is true. Many people in my profession have famously worked until they died – not out of financial necessity but because there is always one more triumph ... Read more →
Many in the pfblog community have a goal in mind – to retire at a young age. Two bloggers want to retire at 50, another says 30, some just want to retire young and wealthy. Retire@50 says: When I say retire I simply mean that I don’t want to work because I have to. I ... Read more →
If you haven’t noticed, we are drowning in a crapload of debt. Between the two of us, we have eight credit cards (down from 20+ a year ago) and about $18K in credit card debt. Because we are also trying to save for a wedding, right now we’re only putting an extra $100/month towards the ... Read more →
