retirement savings

December Investment Income – $90.93

by

My December investment income rose to $90.93 from $89.13 the month before.  This was all the result of gains in my investment portfolio as I did not invest any additional money in December.  There will probably not be any additional investments made for the next few months, other than reinvested dividends, as I am trying to rebuild my cash after a couple of large purchases at the end of 2009.

Disclaimer: This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income. My goal is to get this amount to $1000 a month. If I have $1000 in monthly passive investment income I will be able to retire early.

February Investment Income- $51.69

by

My investment income for February went down to $51.69 from $53.58 the month before.  With the market continuing to slide my portfolio balances are getting smaller and I expect to have another decline in investment income this month.  I’m not putting any money into my retirement savings now because I prefer to keep my money liquid until I start making more money.  It is unlikely I’ll add any more money to my retirement savings until I return from my hike which will probably be sometime in October.  Until then the only way I’ll see any increase in my investment income is if my portfolio actually regains some value.

Disclaimer:This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement accounts, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income.

Former Employer Closed Out My 401(k)

by

My former employer closed out my 401(k) and sent me a check for the balance.  They didn’t tell me they were going to do this but since I had a balance of $175 in the account I wasn’t surprised that they closed it.  They didn’t withold any taxes from the check.  I believe I’ll owe tax on this money unless I roll it over to a traditional IRA.  I don’t have a traditional IRA and I don’t think it is worthwhile to open one just to contribute such a small amount.  I could put the money in my Roth IRA but I’d still owe taxes on it.  I’m wondering if I will owe a penalty for early distribution.  I’m thinking I shouldn’t since I didn’t initiate the withdrawal but I’m not sure.  My thinking is that I can do whatever I want with this money as long as I declare it as income.  They didn’t close the account until this year so it shouldn’t have any effect on my 2008 taxes.  If anyone has any knowledge of whether my thinking is correct or not or has more information on this subject I’d love to hear it.

October Investment Income- $41.34

by

Last month was not a good month for my retirement savings. I lost about $1000 in my Roth IRA which was a significant amount considering I only had $5500 in there.  I managed to increase my monthly income but only because I added $3000 to my savings last month.  Increasing my monthly investment income from $32.01 to $41.34 was good though.  Unfortunately I won’t be able to add a large amount to my retirement savings until sometime next year.  I’m rethinking my investment strategy for retirement and I’ll share that strategy in a post later today.

Disclaimer:This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement accounts, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings.  What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income.

***
Get Cash Back from Top Stores with Big Crumbs!

September Investment Income- $32.01

by

My September investment income dropped to $32.01 from $34.87 the month before due to decline in the stock market at the end of the month.  This is the first time my investment income has dropped since I began tracking it and I hope it is the last. That makes my potential early retirement a little farther away.

I’ll be almost maxing out my Roth IRA this month.  That combined with my mutual fund hopefully at least partially rebounding should bring my monthly investment income back up to where it used to be.  I’m not going to be able to fund my Roth IRA for the $5,000 allowable amount because I haven’t had $5,000 in employment income this year.  I’ve only had a little less than $3,000 in income.  I waiting to fund my Roth with the full amount of my employment income though because I’m thinking my former job might force me to cash out my 401k.

I suppose I could set up a Solo 401k or SEP IRA to put some of my business income in retirement savings.  I don’t plan on doing that because I don’t have much more money to put in retirement savings this year.  I’ll probably do a post sometime weighing the pros and cons of opening a Solo 401k or SEP IRA or neither sometime soon.