April was an exciting month for my personal finances.
The reason it was exciting was not because April 18 was the tax deadline here in the United States. My taxes are on the complicated side, so I started them early and managed to get them done near the beginning of March.
That we went to our first wedding of 2016, thus starting, a steady stream of weddings we’ll attend every few weeks — including two overseas destination weddings — until November. This will stretch our budget a bit, but we’re good at acquiring airline miles and equally good at doing creative things to save on lodging including splitting AirBnBs with other guests, driving from home, and staying with friends. This is all against the backdrop of planning for — and starting to purchase stuff for — our own wedding which is quickly approaching.
The most exciting thing that happened to my personal finances in April was that I made the last contribution to get to the maximum allowable amount for both my 401(K) and my Roth IRA, $18,000 and $5,500 respectively.
The numbers
Here are my numbers for the month:
Here’s how this past month fits into the context of my entire debt payoff:
Good news and bad news
The good news is that I’ve completely maxed out my retirement contributions just a few months into the year. There are plenty of reasonable arguments against front-loading all of my retirement contributions this early. For me, what’s most appealing is the calming feeling of knowing that whatever may happen for the last eight months of 2016, I won’t have to worry about scrambling at the last minute to hit my retirement targets.
The bad news is that I’ve completely maxed out my retirement contributions few months into the year. Now, I’ve either got to get creative to get more of that sweet, sweet tax-advantaged savings or continue to add to a taxable brokerage account.
This big month also kept me on the pace to hit the next milestone by the end of the year — a net worth of $100,000
How was everyone else’s April?
The post May 2016 net worth update — Up $10k, plus I maxed my 401(K) and IRA…for 2016 appeared first on Debt BLAG.