My job-related retirement (excluding the 403(b)) goes against its own limit.

You are correct in that the 457(b) stands alone.

Hope this helps. If you want more info, please feel free to search around the site. I’ve written extensively about this in the past.

Since this has become my favority topic, forgive me for asking about it again:

when you say you will max out your 403(b), ER retirement plan, and SEP, you will aggregate all 3 of these sources for 415(c) purposes, right? So if you can afford it, you’ll drop 45,000 (or 46,000 in 2008 – I cant remember) COMBINED into all 3 of these sources (and that includes the ER match), right? And then another 15,500 in the 457 since that is separate for 415(c) purposes?

That is what I understand to be the drill from reading your posts, other posts, and the tax regulations. Just checking to confirm as I am going to try a similar path.

Not at all! Maybe you are just more brave than most, but I am in the same situation.

We recently lowered our 401K contributions to the % our employers will match because we realized we were more out of control than either of us knew. It is only temporary, and not something I would recommend unless you really see no other way out.

I just got married this year and am used to having a tight hold on my finances (excel spreadsheet anyone?) but ended up adding a few thousand to my own debt number during the preparations and honeymoon. Then I started to find out how much was charged on my husbands 4 credit card accounts! It was very sobering to add up that number in the spreadsheet.. total debt.

I’m optimistic and look towards the future. 2008 my goals.

1) a debt free vacation. All expenses saved for in advance.
2) pay down debt on the schedule I made
3) start a short term savings to cover other short term needs (besides vacations) like repairs and holiday gifts.

Consolidate credit limits when you close a card, that might work for me! I have 2 cards under the Citi umbrella.

ING has something called Planet Orange that you could look into on the education front. I was making use of their money education pages in my girl scout troop of 7th graders recently. My younger sister is 10 and I am pretty sure she could understand it just as well as the 12/13 year olds I was working with.

Oh, and becuase I will be out of debt, learn about investing since I will have money then

I have researched this and according to the law if you contribute to a 401k plan you cannot contribute to an IRA. I’ve seen a number of people say they are contributing to both within the same year. I think you are going to get penalized for trying to do both tax sheltered accounts.

My parents started me investing when I was around 10 and my kids have started early as well. With my daughter it started after a trip to Disneyland when I asked if she’d like to own part of Disney. She was obviously very excited about that and subsequently helped me pick some of the other stocks she owns (the likes of Mattel, Disney, Pepsi, and Harley Davidson).

While she’s too young to pick on her own, I always take the time to research a company if she asks me to and explain to her why I did or didn’t buy it for her. So far that’s worked at keeping her somewhat interested in it.

If you have good credit, I think 2008 will be a great year to consolidate debt since it looks like the Fed is going to lower rates further. The 10 year is hovering at 3.9 currently.

Another goal will be maxing out retirement accounts and trying to preserve wealth in what I believe is going to be a financially challenging year.

- finish 2007 Roth IRA contributions ($2K to go)
- increase emergency fund to $10K ($3K to go)
- fund Roth IRA for 2008 ($5K)
- start saving for a house down payment

The Roth is mine, since I don’t have access to a 401k. We also contribute enough to maximize company match in my husband’s 401k, but I don’t think of that as a goal since it just happens automatically. We’ll be looking to increase those contributions and start a second IRA once we get our emergency cushion built up, but that’ll probably be very late in the year, or more likely 2009.

Numerically, I know these goals seem really small compared to a lot of ones I see on money blogs. I really have to remind myself that everyone’s situation is different – for instance, full-time grad school is not exactly lucrative. I look forward to the day when I’m not eligible for the Roth anymore ^_^

Also in the same excel file, it keeps track of all bills paid with confirmation numbers, amount, dates due, tracking of dates paid, etc. This way if he opened it up, he’d know cable due this day, electric due this day. It’s set up to be due every 30 days so even if the bill isn’t here, it should be. Like property taxes every 3 months, expected arrival date and payment date. Also I have an attachment to the scanned/downloaded bills for DH to find on the computer. Also from the excel file, there is important dates like dates we filed for reimbursement, insurance renewal, immigration status, etc. Everything is on the excel file, with dates.

Now for kids (sorry so long). I personally at 10 had a checking/savings account. I was expected to manage my clothing money for the year (it’s different with girls you know?). And had to budget my cash to buy stuff I needed and wanted. I put my christmas money, allowance, gifts, etc to pay for stuff my mom deemed necessary.

Also at 13 I got a credit card and started charging under my mom’s eye. This way to learn how to pay the bill in full and on time. At first I had to keep every charge in my check register to learn it wasn’t “free” money. And this way I knew once it was spent on the card, it was also spent from my checking.

This has held me in good stead for over 15 years and I’ve never paid interest on a credit card or ASSUMED it was free money. Good luck..

I know it would be a huge hassle but you might want to consider putting that binder in a safe deposit box rather than on your bookshelf. Or at least make a good effort to hide it since it would give someone pretty good access to your financial info.

Mike

- max out 401k and IRA
- increase income 20%
- increase website subscribers
- buy an investment property

I heard on the radio the other day that a good way to set goals is to instead look back at 2007 and ask yourself what would you do differently.

Happy New Year!