My Financial Journey

Well another very good month for my retirement and a great month for my investments as they all soundly beat the market and my nestegg is getting closer to the $300k milestone. Was less than a year ago that I crossed $200k – compounding is fun to watch.

Traditional Rollover IRA – $18,752.86 (+3.32%)
My Roth IRA – $71,411.42 (+5.79%)
Wife Roth IRA – $40,983.62 (+6.11%)
Traditional 401k – $145,610.04 (+2.51%)

Roth/Traditional % = 40.61% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $276,757.94 (+3.92%)

Monthly Contributions $1,114.08 (401k)
SPY Performance +1.81%
My Monthly Investment Performance +3.50% (+1.69%)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance +5.53% (+3.72%)

Well another new record for my nestegg. The stock market sure is on a roll lately and my nestegg reflects that. Unfortunately I lose to the SP500 this month, but I have beat it in three of the last four months and short term fluctuations like that don’t bother me. I also had quite a few contributions this month which may have skewed my performance metrics as I got a large chunk of matching 401k since my company paid out our annual bonuses this month and I finished maxxing out my wife’s Roth IRA for 2012. In other exciting news I will be putting an offer in on some land to build a house – we will see how it goes but its the first time we’ve gotten serious enough to put an offer in on land so my massive savings efforts the last few years might finally come to fruition. We hope to be able to pay cash for the land.

Traditional Rollover IRA – $18,149.84 (+4.34%)
My Roth IRA – $67,505.30(+3.05%)
Wife Roth IRA – $38,623.05 (+7.54%)
Traditional 401k – $142,040.59 (+5.59%)

Roth/Traditional % = 39.85% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $266,318.78 (+5.13%)

Monthly Contributions $3,296.19 (401k) $2000 (Wife Roth IRA)
SPY Performance +3.60%
My Monthly Investment Performance +3.04% (-0.56%)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance +2.91% (-0.69%)

Well another month another all-time high and another milestone reached. My retirement nestegg is now worth over a quarter of a million dollars. It’s great to see the power of compound interest and the increased frequency of hitting new milestones. I remember starting out and seeing fellow financial bloggers having nesteggs well into the 6 figures and thinking man I can’t imagine how long it would take to save up that much money or build a nestegg that large and now I have reached that level and now those people are approaching or surpassing 7 figures. Once you get the snowball rolling it’s a powerful thing.

Of note this month I had a very large 401k contribution which is half of my company’s matching program that hits each year around this time. My company has an extremely generous 401k matching program and it has been very helpful in building my nestegg. I also maxed out my wife’s Roth IRA for 2012 and now will start working on our 2013 contributions as I have a surplus of cash heading our way with our company bonus that will be paid out in a week or so. All in all things are looking good and $300k doesn’t look too far off.

Traditional Rollover IRA – $17,394.75 (+4.93%)
My Roth IRA – $65,504.79(+1.44%)
Wife Roth IRA – $35,916.69 (+8.31%)
Traditional 401k – $134,516.17 (+5.69%)

Roth/Traditional % = 40.03% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $253,332.40 (+4.86%)

Monthly Contributions $6,400.69 (401k) $2500 (Wife Roth IRA)
SPY Performance +1.11%
My Monthly Investment Performance +1.18% (+0.07%)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance +1.75% (+0.64%)

Well 2013 is off with a bang. The SP 500 gained over 5% this month alone and my investments actually did a little bit better than that (thank you Netflix). My retirement nestegg also hit an all-time high and I’m starting to creep up on the 1/4 million dollar mark which is exciting. I also maxed out my Roth IRA this month for 2012 and today will be making a contribution to max out my wife’s Roth IRA for 2012 so things are good on the contribution front again after lapsing for a stretch while saving for land/house I have yet to buy.

No real big changes expected going forward but I am once again considering opening a taxeable account since 100% of my investments are in tax-deferred retirement accounts and I will not have access to them until I am 59.5 which would make retiring early a challenge so I think eventually I will also add a taxable account to the mix so that I have more options.

Traditional Rollover IRA – $16,577.37 (+2.82%)
My Roth IRA – $64,575.52(+10.71%)
Wife Roth IRA – $33,161.63 (+7.81%)
Traditional 401k – $127,272.89 (+4.96%)

Roth/Traditional % = 38.88% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $241,587.41 (+6.67%)

Monthly Contributions $715.28 (401k) $2500 (My Roth IRA)
SPY Performance +5.04%
My Monthly Investment Performance +5.25% (+0.21%)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance +6.27% (+1.23%)

Well always fun to end the year with all-time new high for my retirement nestegg. 2012 was a big year for my retirement account. I broke 200,000 for the first time, I started contributing to my Roth IRAs again (after taking a hiatus saving for a house), and I had my 4th child. My investment performance wasn’t exactly where I’d like it to be, but I know investing lots of my money into individual stocks I will get some wild swings during shorter periods of time (1 year) and overall my confidence is growing with my ability to pick individual stocks over the long term.

I was also kind of amazed that I had contributed over $25,000 to my retirement accounts this year – I didn’t even remember/notice anything special in this regard. Part of it is my employer’s very generous 401k matching program and the other is saving is so automatic for our household that you can save $25,000+ and not even realize it – which just a few years ago when I started this blog would have blown my mind.

Traditional Rollover IRA – $16,122.50 (+4.17%)
My Roth IRA – $58,330.93(+6.60%)
Wife Roth IRA – $30,760.30 (+0.83%)
Traditional 401k – $121,258.03 (+2.30%)

Roth/Traditional % = 38.88% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $226,471.76 (+3.30% 1 month) (+32.85% 1 year)

Monthly Contributions $715.28 (401k)
SPY Performance +0.18%
My Monthly Investment Performance +2.98% (2.80%)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance +4.48% (+4.30%)

My Contributions for 2012 $25,099.48
SPY Performance for 2012 +13.47%
Investment Performance for 2012 +18.12% (+4.65%)
Individual Stock Performance for 2012 +10.25% (-3.22%)
Total Investment Return 2012 +$30,895.25

Going through a bit of a dry spell with regards to my investments. The good news is I have started contributing money to my Roth IRAs again and hopefully taking advantage of what I am considering bargains on some of my individual stock investments. Assuming I am right with some of those assumptions I will hopefully see some large increases in my retirement nestegg in the next 5-10 years as those investments play out.

Traditional Rollover IRA – $15,477.26 (+0.71%)
My Roth IRA – $54,721.91(+1.44%)
Wife Roth IRA – $30,508.07 (+4.12%)
Traditional 401k – $118,526.75 (+1.70%)

Roth/Traditional % = 38.88% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $219,233.99 (+1.43%)

Monthly Contributions $715.28 (401k) $2000 (Wife Roth IRA) $2500 (My Roth IRA)
SPY Performance -0.53%
My Monthly Investment Performance -0.53% (0.00%)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance -2.44% (-1.91%)

Well this month was a rough one and my investment performance trailed the SP500 and my individual stocks got crushed by the market this month. Many of my large holding had rough earnings seasons and this greatly affected my performance this month. The good news is this is just a one month event and does not change my long-term outlook on my investing philosophy or any of my investments. In fact quite a bit this year and even more so this last month I have been concentrating my individual stock investments into fewer and fewer stocks and putting more and more money into what I consider my best ideas. I still own 39 individual stocks and even my largest holdings account for less than 5% of my total retirement nestegg so I do not think I am taking on any additional risk I just feel like after being in the stock market for 5-6 years now and having gone through a pretty good recession I feel much more comfortable in my allocation decisions – I guess only time will tell.

Traditional Rollover IRA – $15,368.72 (-6.23%)
My Roth IRA – $53,946.83(-5.50%)
Wife Roth IRA – $29,301.05 (-3.47%)
Traditional 401k – $116,549.06 (+0.05%)

Roth/Traditional % = 39.69% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $215,165.66 (-2.35%)

Monthly Contributions $715.28 (401k) $500 (Wife Roth IRA)
SPY Performance -1.91%
My Monthly Investment Performance -2.90% (-0.99%)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance -5.03% (-3.12%)