My Financial Journey

Well there were a few exciting days during the last month. There was the flash crash where stocks fell for like 30 minutes and the media ran with it for the entire month. With the volatility in the market I thought it was a very good time to get some more money into the market and I added $8,000 in contributions to our Roth IRAs this month. I was not able to get it all invested, but did take advantage of a few of the dips to buy some more Solar City and Tesla stock. Overall this month my accounts fell some, but I was still able to outperform the SP500. I still have another $1k I can contribute this year to my Roth IRA as well as about $3k in cash so hopefully we have some more precipitous drops in our near future. Overall for the year including 401k matching I have been able to add just under $42,000 to our retirement accounts this year, which I found really encouraging as I feel like this has been an expensive year for our family with the new baby, building a house, and some other family emergencies.

Taxable Account – $22,776.99 (+6.23%)
Traditional Rollover IRA – $37,145.15 (-6.96%)
My Roth IRA – $152,891.90 (-3.04%)
Wife Roth IRA – $84,476.02 (-3.29%)
Traditional 401k – $227,385.17 (-5.21%)

Roth/Traditional % = 45.24% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $524,675.23 (-3.96%)
Retirement Salary (4%) – $20,987.01

Monthly Contributions $1,716.64 (401k) $3,500 (Wife Roth IRA) $4,500 (My Roth IRA)
SP500 Performance -6.26%
My Monthly Investment Performance -5.73% (+0.53% vs SP500)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance -5.58% (+0.68% vs SP500)

Another month of new records for my Retirement Nestegg. An all-time new high and the largest single month increase in the nearly 10 year history of my blog. Granted compound interest has a lot to do with the feat, but still my individual stock portfolios returned 11.75% last month and outperformed the SP500 index by 9.78%! A $37k increase fueled by $34.5k in investment gains is pretty remarkable and it almost blows my mind what might be possible a few years down the road as compound interest continues to work its magic.

Taxable Account – $21,440.49 (+7.57%)
Traditional Rollover IRA – $39,923.58 (+11.98%)
My Roth IRA – $157,683.80 (+13.89%)
Wife Roth IRA – $87,349.49 (+9.00%)
Traditional 401k – $239,889.06 (+2.12%)

Roth/Traditional % = 42.94% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $546,286.42 (+7.31%)
Retirement Salary (4%) – $21,851.45

Monthly Contributions $2,574.96 (401k)
SP500 Performance +1.97%
My Monthly Investment Performance +6.80% (+4.83% vs SP500)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance +11.75% (+9.78% vs SP500)

Well despite the market being down over 2% last month my retirement nestegg still grew by a few thousand dollars thanks to some pretty extreme out performance by my individual stock investments. My stocks this month outperformed the SP 500 index by 4.35%!! Which is pretty impressive and impactful seeing as how over half my nestegg is invested in individual stocks.

Taxable Account – $19,931.18 (+2.59%)
Traditional Rollover IRA – $35,651.20 (+3.02%)
My Roth IRA – $ 138,459.05 (+2.44%)
Wife Roth IRA – $80,140.79 (+1.51%)
Traditional 401k – $234,905.52 (-1.53%)

Roth/Traditional % = 42.94% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $509,087.74 (+0.47%)
Retirement Salary (4%) – $20,363.51

Monthly Contributions $2,059.97 (401k)
SPY Performance -2.10%
My Monthly Investment Performance +0.07% (+2.17% vs SP500)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance +2.25% (+4.35% vs SP500)

Another month another report – not much to say this month. Slight outperformance of the market and some small growth of my nestegg.

Taxable Account – $18,280.5 (+14.04%)
Traditional Rollover IRA – $34,341.22 (-5.93%)
My Roth IRA – $130,426.54 (+3.54%)
Wife Roth IRA – $75,467.36 (+3.89%)
Traditional 401k – $232,898.10 (+0.96%)

Roth/Traditional % = 41.88% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $491,413.61 (1.99%)
Retirement Salary (4%) – $19,656.55

Monthly Contributions $1,807.71 (401k)
SPY Performance +0.85%
My Monthly Investment Performance +1.61% (+0.76% vs SP500)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance +2.93% (+2.08% vs SP500)

Another big contribution month for my 401k due to company bonuses getting paid out this month. Overall a pretty boring month – no $40k swings or anything like that – though I expect/hope there will be some of those coming up in the future one way or the other. Volatility is the investors friend.

Taxable Account – $16,030.31 (-3.15%)
Traditional Rollover IRA – $36,508.31 (-1.48%)
My Roth IRA – $125,964.81 (-1.95%)
Wife Roth IRA – $72,647.36 (-4.11%)
Traditional 401k – $230,681.99 (+0.79%)

Roth/Traditional % = 41.25% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $481,832.78 (-1.00%)
Retirement Salary (4%) – $19,273.31

Monthly Contributions $3,266.21 (401k)
SPY Performance -1.74%
My Monthly Investment Performance -1.67% (+0.07% vs SP500)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance -2.60% (-0.86 % vs SP500)