One of the great advantages, at least for me is that by contributing to my Roth IRA at work I know that some day when I leave the company I can roll it over to a Roth IRA which is a much friendlier vehicle for someone who may be thinking about retiring early. Well I have only been contributing to my Roth 401k for a year, but I am interviewing pretty hardcore lately and it’s likely that I’ll be leaving my current company in the next month or so.
The Carnival of Personal Finance # 79 is being held at A Penny Saved and there are an enormous amount of articles included in this week’s carnival, including one by me on “The pursuit of a perfect savings rate”
Well I just talked about how I’m going to have to start paying off my student loans come next summer, well I’ve got another expense I need to start planning for……our 2nd kid. My wife and I are expecting next July, which means I won’t be able to whack diapers out of the monthly expenses anytime soon 🙂
Well I’ve been out of college completely now for over two years, but the student loan people just finally figured that out. I graduated with my MBA in Dec of 2004, but for whatever reason the student loan company thought I was still a full-time student. Which was nice because all of my student loans were being deferred and the government was still paying the interest on the subsidized loans. Well I got the bad news today that they figured out that I am no longer a student and will have to start making payments come next August.
How do you ever become content with with the amount you are saving for retirement?
Sorry if this is just a ramble and I know this isn’t the worst problem in the world to have, but I’ve found saving to be too damn addictive. To me it’s the same as salary, you’ll never be content. You always think to yourself, you know if I was making $10,000 more a year I’d be so content and wouldn’t ever need to make more money than that, I would have all I would ever need. Then all of a sudden you get that $10,000 boost in salary, your lifestyle/expectations adjust and all of a sudden you just need a little bit more to make you content.
I have been contributing to my Roth 401k for the last year and am now considering looking for a new job so that I can make even more money and contribute even more to my retirement. When I leave my current employer I plan on rolling over both my Traditional 401k balance to a Traditional IRA and my Roth 401k balance to a Roth IRA.
Well I just sent in the form to change my Roth 401k withholding percentage from 17.5% to 20%. This change is the direct result of me following my plans laid out in my $100,000 by Age 30 post. Seeing as how I just got a raise this won’t hit the pocketbook as hard as it originally would have and really at the same time because of my raise 18 or 19% probably would have sufficed, but I’d rather just stick with my original plan and worst case scenario I end up with too much money. If anything I’d rather overdo it now as my money this year is worth a lot more money that next years (see waiting just 1 more year).