7th October 2007
I know I know, it’s been forever since I’ve posted anything… I’ve been completely consumed by various things including selling our old house, working on a project for a client and life in general. It seems I’ve gotten out of the habit of posting (or gotten into the habit of NOT posting) and have ignored you all for too long (again)… For this I apologize.
Posted in Investing, Miscellaneous, Moving to Illinois, My Goals, Real Estate, Retirement | 4 Comments »
2nd June 2007
The international buyer fell through…not entirely surprising.
We did end up with another offer on the house that we’ve accepted. They are using conventional financing and are pre-approved for the purchase amount. The inspection happens next week and the closing is set for June 15th.
Posted in Moving to Illinois, Real Estate, Retirement, Saving Money, solo 401k | 4 Comments »
18th March 2007
Welcome back…
First off, I apologize for being gone so long. A lot of things going on in my personal life that took precedents over writing on the site. That situation has stabilized for the moment anyway so I’d like to get back to writing on a more frequent basis.
For my first post back, I thought I’d do an all-encompassing update that touches on all things financial in my life. So here goes…
Posted in Debt Reduction, Insurance, Moving to Illinois, Retirement | No Comments »
28th December 2006
As I mentioned in an earlier post on Saving on taxes through additional retirement savings I’ve selected an administrator for our solo 401K. In the end after talking with nearly a dozen providers it came down to two choices.
Posted in Retirement, Saving Money, Taxes, solo 401k | 4 Comments »
1st December 2006
Some of you may have heard of dividend capture strategies used for stocks. I’ve tried it in the past with limited success and no longer look at dividends as part of short-term investments. This year many mutual funds will be distributing relatively large amounts of capital gains. This is due in part to their having used up the tax credits for losses from the tech bubble crash. All this got me to thinking about whether this would work well in a tax-deferred account.
Posted in Investing, Mutual Funds, Retirement | 3 Comments »
14th November 2006
My wife and I are in a rather unique (for us anyway) situation this year. She lost her job at the end of January, and was given a lump-sum severance equal to nine months of her salary. The severance was taxed at the 25% bonus tax rate which means a huge chunk was withheld by the federal government. To make matters worse, there were no 401K contributions taken out of the severance amounts, meaning the full amount would be taxed.
Posted in Investing, Retirement, Taxes, solo 401k | 2 Comments »
4th November 2006
After some deliberation, I’ve decided to start cashing in the I Bonds I purchased a year or so ago. It’s not that I don’t think they are good investments, they just don’t fit my needs right now.
Posted in 0% Credit Cards, Bonds, Debt Reduction, Investing, Moving to Illinois, Retirement | No Comments »
20th May 2006
A few days ago, May 12th actually, I got concerned with the run-up in the overall markets and subsequent drop in the Dow. I shifted our 401K accounts more into cash and bonds. The Dow closed at 11,380 that day and has subsequently dropped to 11,128. So I saved us a couple thousand in losses.
Posted in Investing, Mutual Funds, Retirement, Stocks | 1 Comment »
7th May 2006
Well it turns out my company still considers me highly compensated, they just changed the rules to allow higher contributions by such employees to our 401K plans.
Posted in Investing, Mutual Funds, Retirement | 3 Comments »
1st May 2006
Rates for the next six months for I Bonds were released today. The fixed rate was raised to 1.4%, while the variable rate is 1% as expected from the CPI-U numbers announced in mid-April.
Posted in Bonds, Financial News, Investing, Miscellaneous, Retirement | 4 Comments »