saving

What if you always maxed out your 401(k)

03.20.2013
If you maxed out 401k every year, you would have a lot of money in your retirement account

How much do you have saved in your 401(k)? If you max out your 401(k) contribution every year since you started working, you would have a good size retirement portfolio by now. However, if you are like the average worker, your retirement account balance is woefully low. Fidelity Investment analyzed nearly one million investors’ retirement accounts and here is the result. This study combines the IRA and 401(k). The average balance is $225,600 as of Dec. 31, 2012. The result looks A LOT better than their last study which looked at just the 401(k) balance. The average 401(k) balance is much [...]

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Am I being too cheap?

01.25.2013
Am I being too cheap?

So, Mrs. RB40 finished reading the Money Code and she agrees that she has the fear money mind. This means she sees money as security and is conservative about spending. I think it got her thinking because she asked – “what’s the goal for our money” – at 1am. This confused me at first because I wasn’t sure what she meant. Anyway, she is wondering if hoarding money and being super cheap is really the right way to live. It seems that I have been overly cheap for a while now and she thinks we should spend some money to have a [...]

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Should you invest in 401k and Roth IRA if you plan to retire early?

01.23.2013
early retirement invest in 401k and Roth IRA?

It’s only January, but I’m dreading tax day already. Our taxes will be quite complicated this year because I sold a bunch of stock options and the rentals will muck things up as well. Anyway, I already purchased a copy of H&R Block and I’ll fill it in as the required W-2 documents arrive. I really hope we won’t have to send the IRS a big check this year. Save 15% on H&R Block At Home Online Deluxe Taxes take a huge bite out of your income and nobody likes to pay them. That’s why I advise people to invest [...]

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Our Money in 2012

01.04.2013
How we did financially in 2012

Now that 2012 is over, let’s take a look back and see how we did financially. I have been keeping track of our income and expenses over the last 2 years and it’s quite illuminating. If you’re not doing this for yourself, you should try for a year so you can see where all of your income goes. Savings Let’s start off with savings. We had a few months of setbacks due to the rental properties, but overall we were able to save $13,191. Most of the extra money went into the 529 plan for Baby RB40 and I invested [...]

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