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Archive for December, 2011

End of Year Nest Egg Projections

December 30th, 2011 at 11:52 pm

This is a little something I like to do at the end of the year. I take my ending nest egg balance, I assume different rates of return, and I see how I am doing. In this first chart, I assume I contribute $3240 per year to my tax-deferred accounts (that's $1800 plus $1440 match) and $3000 per year to my Roth. That is what I am doing now, so I assume I simply continue.



I would like to retire at 65 with a minimum of 600k in traditional and 150k in my Roth. It is possible I will reach that with what I am doing right now, though it is far from certain. Looking at the chart, it seems to me that right now, if I have extra dollars to contribute, they should go into traditional. However, I also want to have no mortgage. If I hit age 65 with a mortgage, I will feel comfortable withdrawing any amount over 150k from my Roth to apply to the mortgage.

If I simply am too far from my goals at age 65, I will have to keep working, assuming I can find work. Working until age 67 won't be horrible, but I would rather not.

And if I completely stop contributing right now, this is how my nest egg might look down the road.



Traditional doesn't look too much worse, does it? The bulk of the growth in the future will come from what I have accumulated already. My Roth looks awful.

Conclusion: I have to keep contributing.



My New Fence!!

December 28th, 2011 at 06:03 am

My new fence was installed today. Yay! I wrote a check for $1410. Hopefully, at some point, I will be reimbursed $630 from the neighbor. Last week, I learned that my neighbor's "main objection" to paying her share is her dislike of my nephew. I am not certain what one thing has to do with the other. At any rate, her son stated he will try to talk her into it, and if possible (he is unemployed) he will pay it himself. I am not going to do anything for now, but when tax season is over, I will contact her again and state that if it is not paid, I will proceed with the legal remedies available to me.

What else? I received a crisp $100 bill in the mail inside a Christmas card from a client. This is the same client who sent me $100 last year. What a nice man! Smile I would love to tuck it into my Roth. However, since CurveBall is poor and since January's Visa bill will include a $479 charge for my new brakes, I am going to tuck it into CurveBall.

I decided to close my Betterment account and will tuck that money into CurveBall as well.

We had a lovely, low-key Christmas. I never did get around to putting up the tree or opening my Christmas decoration storage tubs. On Friday as I was leaving the office, I realized that we would be throwing away the poinsettias on Tuesday. Therefore, I took 5 of them home with me. I put 4 of them on the "shelf" (a wall which does not quite reach the ceiling) between my living room and kitchen, and the 5th one on the kitchen table as a centerpiece. That was it for decorations.

Christmas Eve night is when my ex-husband's family does their gift exchange. After ex-husband picked up J to take him to his grandparents' house, I wrapped his iPad2 (only present) and put it under the poinsettia on the table! I had a card with a Microsoft points card for my nephew and put that under it too.

Christmas morning my mom and ex-husband came over. J opened his present and BF and I made breakfast. After breakfast ex-husband left. We played cards, watched Phantom of the Opera, and put our dinner in the oven around 4. My mom had made a pork roast, sweet potatoes, and a peach pie the day before and brought them with her. I made a salad. When everything was warm, dinner was served.

Christmas Bonus, BF Update

December 13th, 2011 at 07:26 am

We had our company Christmas party this past Saturday night. It was fun and my dinner was delicious. I received a Christmas bonus of $1750, same as last year. Smile For now, I used it to pay bills. On payday, I will send $1450 to CurveBall. I do have a fence to replace and my car insurance is due in February. BF borrowed $300 last week which he will repay soon and that will go to CurveBall as well. More on that below.

I bought J's iPad2 on Sunday. With a cover, 2 year warranty, and tax it came to $825. I used $500 of Best Buy giftcards bought with credit card reward points. Ex-h is contributing $150 so my out of pocket is $175. Also, for purchasing the cover I received a $50 Best Buy gift card which I used to buy Microsoft points for nephew for Christmas. (That's what he said he wanted). I will send my daughter a check for $150. And that is it, I am done Christmas shopping.

BF was here over the weekend but left this morning to go back to his house. He has a meeting tomorrow with a real estate agent at the house. He had his mother's jewelry appraised and is in the process of selling it. She had some collectible guns which he has taken to a gun store to sell on consignment. He has been gathering up items of value to sell on e-bay, some are already listed and receiving bids. He has been working on getting the corporation documents in order (family business, now defunct but still owns real estate). So he has been getting the ball rolling. He says it feels really good to finally be making some progress. He will be receiving a check next week which represents the last of his IRA money. Frown I lent him $300 to hold him over until he receives it. His checking account was overdrawn. He has also decided to sell his car. He has a car and a truck. He loves the car but needs the truck, so the car has to go for now. He has lost a great deal of money by procastinating dealing with all of this and living off of his savings. His reasoning was that he didn't have time for a job until he settled the estate, but he wasn't doing a thing about settling it. And so here we are. Fortunately for him, he should still come out of this with a significant chunk of cash and his share of the corporation. I told him when the house sells, he needs to take his share and set it aside, investing it sensibly. Then get a job rather than live on his little nest egg. He says he will. I hope that he does, but that is entirely up to him.

New Brakes

December 9th, 2011 at 04:56 pm

My brakes were making a funny noise, so I dropped my car off this morning to be checked out. The verdict: I need new rear rotors and pads, and in the front just new pads. The estimate is $479.

BF has been getting a lot done each and every day, he texts me updates through the day. I am so pleased that he is moving ahead and making real progress with his huge "to do" list. Smile

Our company Christmas dinner is tomorrow night. It should be fun.

Mortgage Payment #44

December 7th, 2011 at 05:50 pm



Another mortgage payment down, just a wee bit of chipping progress. Sometimes, I feel overwhelmed when I look at this big number.

November 2011 Budget Report

December 4th, 2011 at 10:43 pm



The "unspent" money went to paying off last month's credit card purchases. The charges are all categorized as they are made.

November 2011 Net Worth

December 4th, 2011 at 09:48 pm

Personal Life Update

December 4th, 2011 at 04:58 pm

A few days after we broke up, BF sent me a long email taking responsibility for his inaction and told me that he has been struggling with depression. Looking back, I realized that he had tried to tell me about the depression before but that I didn't "get" what he was saying. He doesn't seem depressed at all when we are together, but looking at it in that light, I can see that many of his actions (or inactions) fit with depression symptoms.

His life is a big mess right now, and much of it is his own making.

We are going to work things out, but on the condition that he seek professional help for his depression and stop procrastinating in....settling his mother's estate. His mother died 5 years ago, he is the executor, and this is still not done.

He is finally taking steps with both of those things.

Wish me luck!