My Financial Journey

Retirement Nestegg Report – July 2015

August 1, 2015 MFJ Comments 3 comments

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)

Retirement Nestegg Report – June 2015

July 1, 2015 MFJ Comments 2 comments

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)

Retirement Nestegg Report – May 2015

June 1, 2015 MFJ Comments 1 comment

Another month of nice growth and out-performance of the SP500. My nestegg finished above the $500k mark for the first time in history. It’s funny to me how as the numbers in my accounts get bigger and bigger that a $15k jump in a month seems like a very ho-hum thing and just a few years ago $10k in a month would have had me dancing in the streets. I look forward to my first $100k increase in a month.

Taxable Account – $19,428.60 (+6.28%)
Traditional Rollover IRA – $34,606.62 (+3.63%)
My Roth IRA – $135,155.27 (+3.54%)
Wife Roth IRA – $78,950.46 (+4.62%)
Traditional 401k – $238,556.66 (+2.43%)

Roth/Traditional % = 42.26% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $506,697.61 (+3.11%)
Retirement Salary (4%) – $20,267.90

Monthly Contributions $1,373.31 (401k) $2000 (Wife Roth IRA)
SPY Performance +1.05%
My Monthly Investment Performance +2.47% (+1.42% vs SP500)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance +2.95% (+1.90% vs SP500)

Retirement Nestegg Report – April 2015

May 1, 2015 MFJ Comments 0 Comment

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)

Interim Retirement Nestegg Report – I broke $500,000

April 16, 2015 MFJ Comments 6 comments

Well it took a little longer than last time, but compound interest is still working its magic with my retirement nestegg. Today I officially broke through the $500,000 mark for the first time. This milestone came 14 months after the $400k milestone which was actually slower than it took to go from $300k to $400k, but this market is not exactly the magical market that existed in 2013.

The more I update those tables below the more I question why I used a stupid metric like the DOW as an indicator, I think the only reason I chose it was because of the nice symmetry for when I first broke through $100k and the DOW also being at exactly 10,000 – anyway you get the idea that my nestegg is growing faster than the ridiculously dumb and outdated DOW index 🙂

I also broke through another milestone this month – my wife and I had our 5th kid! While this certainly won’t help me financially I think it carries some weight to the fact that you can’t use kids as an excuse as to why you are not achieving your financial goals/dreams. 5 kids and 1 income have worked out just fine for me to reach $500k in retirement assets at age 35 – and I am hardly hardcore when it comes to being frugal – though I’m also not a moron generally when it comes to spending money either. So it’s been a nice balance I’ve been able to work out.

Taxable Account – $17,678.94
Traditional Rollover IRA – $37,561.08
My Roth IRA – $133,790.44
Wife Roth IRA – $77,432.67
Traditional 401k – $236,145.41

Total Retirement Nestegg – $502,617.54

$100,000 NestEgg Milestones

Date	DOW Jones Value	MFJ Nestegg
Oct 2008	10,000	$ 69,300
Oct 2009	10,000 (+0%)	$100,000 (+44%)
Feb 2012	13,000 (+30%)	$200,000 (+100%)
Jul 2013	15,423 (+19%)	$300,000 (+50%)
Feb 2014	16,395.88 (+6.3%)	$400,000 (+33%)
April 2015	18,084.48 (+10.30%)	$500,000 (+25%)

Retirement Nestegg Report – March 2015

April 1, 2015 MFJ Comments 0 Comment

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)

Retirement Nestegg – February 2015

March 1, 2015 MFJ Comments 2 comments

Well another all-time high by a long shot this month. My nestegg increased by almost $39k this month! This was in part by crazy strong returns for the stock market and the fact that I also contributed $14k to my accounts this month.

The big contributions were due to two reasons. First I received a very large federal tax refund which I decided to invest entirely in Tesla Motors stock in my taxable account. I know I need to adjust my allowances – I filled out my W-4 nearly 9 years ago when I started my job and I’ve had a handful of kids since then.

I also received a portion of my 401k matching 5.5% that my company contributes once a year into my 401k (on top of the 4% they put in with each paycheck).

I am getting with in striking distance of the half a million dollar milestone and I expect that I could eclipse this figure next month due to the fact that there is a chance I would get a bonus payout from work next month.

It was also nice to see my potential retirement income jump by about $1500 a year in just one month!

Taxable Account – $16,551.55 (+70.30%)
Traditional Rollover IRA – $37,058.16 (+5.62%)
My Roth IRA – $128,463.17 (+4.99%)
Wife Roth IRA – $75,762.74 (+6.70%)
Traditional 401k – $228,876.40 (+9.23%)

Roth/Traditional % = 41.96% (tax free)

Total Retirement Nest Egg $486,712.02 (+8.71%)
Retirement Salary (4%) – $19,468.48

Monthly Contributions $7,799.06 (401k) $6,300 (Taxable)
SPY Performance +5.49%
My Monthly Investment Performance +5.56 % (+0.07% vs SP500)
My Monthly Individual Stocks Performance +5.61% (+0.12 % vs SP500)