Closing out on 2017 while anticipating 2018 (HSA, vehicles, transfer, credit)
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From a purely financial perspective, this has been the most prosperous year my husband and I have ever had. A lot of changes and flux at my company ended up providing us some windfall and additional opportunity I was not anticipating.
My husband's firm shut-down mid-year, but before the formal shutdown he was able to find another position, his dream job actually. He is working as a contractor at the moment but should be converting sometime in the next year to 18 months. He was getting double-paychecks for a few months from both employers, his severance just ran out a couple of weeks ago.
The only downside to that is I've lost a significant amount of tax-advantaged space, but once he's hired on (hopefully), we'll likely get a nice 401k with a multitude of fantastic options, generous company match and additional yearly contribution.
We contributed a total of $40K after employer matches to tax-advantaged accounts this year, taking advantage of every bit of the space we had available to use. We've done a great job keeping our expenses low and budgeting in check, we've saved an average of 65% of our after-tax pay each month. We're heavily paying off what little debt we have left besides our mortgage, and should have my husband's student loans paid off by the end of February.
We should be also hitting our $500K net-worth milestone (including home equity) next month when my commission comes. I'm really looking forward to it because it was my goal to hit the $500K by 30, and I'm coming in approx. 10 months before goal!
2018 we're hoping will be fantastic as well. Have funds to max our Roths first thing in January, I have anticipated bonus check coming in January that will also fill 40% of my 2018 401K space. God willing, my husband will get on full-time at his new gig & I will get another raise similar to ones I have gotten in previous years.
We will continue to keep our expenses as low as possible, save as much as possible - as I have the goal to become financially independent by my early 40s.
Last edited by stargirl007; 11-30-2017 at 09:02 PM..
We hit our savings goal, which is for a significant d/p. It just sits there in a high yield savings for now, because we have no idea when we would be putting this money down---could be a year from now, could be more than that, who knows.
I actually completed funding my Roth IRA before the year ended, which I hadn't done previous years.
We were hoping my husband would find a new job with a significant raise. He didn't even get a raise this year and he has had zero luck getting out of his current place Hoping that it will change for next year and that possibly my husband can put more into his 401K.
I didn't work for the first 6+ months of the year and my net worth went up quite a bit. The 7 years of stock market run-up continues. I really need to re-balance my portfolio. I turn 60 in May and I'm way too heavy in stocks.
I'm mostly back on track. I have my Roth 401(k) deduction set to the $24,500 catch-up maximum. I haven't quite worked out what my 2018 after-tax savings & investment goal is. I have some deferred home repair/remodeling spending I need to do. I used to save 40% of my gross and I doubt that will happen in 2018.
On a personal level, 2017 was one of the best years I've had in a very long time. Financially, though, not so much. We blew through a huge wad of cash on a long-planned trip to South Korea. We had been saving up for it for many years, so the money was there to finance it. But now it's gone.
Worse, it seems like everything in the house that can break, has broken. The water pipe leading into the house from the public main sprung a leak and had to be replaced. Ditto for a pipe in the upstairs bathroom, which leaked down into the kitchen, so both the pipe and the ceiling had to get fixed. Our deck had to be redone. A lamppost by our driveway got backed into and needed to be replaced. Ditto for the mailbox, thanks for the county snow plow. (Of course the county won't take responsibility unless I can prove that they did it, which I can't; I saw it happen but couldn't get out to the plow before it drove away, and I didn't catch it on film. My word against theirs.)
Our aging washer was on its last legs and sounded like it would explode at any moment, so I preemptively replaced both it and the dryer. Just last week, the dishwasher died -- three days before our big Thanksgiving dinner would generate tons of dishes and pots. (The replacement is on back order, so it's back to the old hand-washing thing for now.) And my wife's 12-year-old car is causing us some worry too. (We're hoping it'll keep going until my 3-year-old car gets paid off in 2019.) And to top it off, one of our kids had recently entered private school, and the other one entered during the year.
On the plus side, our investments are doing well. We're continuing to fund our 401k accounts and the kids' college funds. Better yet, we are debt-free, except for my car. Credit cards are paid in full every month, and the house has been paid off. So, long term, things are looking good. We just have to get past the current short-term squeeze and start to rebuild our savings -- and keep our fingers crossed that nothing else will break for awhile.
Like most people, I had an amazing 2017. My portfolio is through the roof! I got a promotion. I got bonuses. I saved a ton. I paid off my student loans in full.
Alas, I feel the good times are going to come to an end over the next year. So, to hedge against a downturn I sold half my stock holdings and bought into bonds and T-bills. If the market goes up, great! If it goes down or worse, I lose something, but not much.
This thread is a month early. Y'all just couldn't wait couldya!
I find that I don't really enjoy thinking of these things when the time has already come. In my experience having a road map to where I'm going before I set out on the road works best. Other people do things differently...
On a personal level, 2017 was one of the best years I've had in a very long time. Financially, though, not so much. We blew through a huge wad of cash on a long-planned trip to South Korea. We had been saving up for it for many years, so the money was there to finance it. But now it's gone.
Worse, it seems like everything in the house that can break, has broken. The water pipe leading into the house from the public main sprung a leak and had to be replaced. Ditto for a pipe in the upstairs bathroom, which leaked down into the kitchen, so both the pipe and the ceiling had to get fixed. Our deck had to be redone. A lamppost by our driveway got backed into and needed to be replaced. Ditto for the mailbox, thanks for the county snow plow. (Of course the county won't take responsibility unless I can prove that they did it, which I can't; I saw it happen but couldn't get out to the plow before it drove away, and I didn't catch it on film. My word against theirs.)
Our aging washer was on its last legs and sounded like it would explode at any moment, so I preemptively replaced both it and the dryer. Just last week, the dishwasher died -- three days before our big Thanksgiving dinner would generate tons of dishes and pots. (The replacement is on back order, so it's back to the old hand-washing thing for now.) And my wife's 12-year-old car is causing us some worry too. (We're hoping it'll keep going until my 3-year-old car gets paid off in 2019.) And to top it off, one of our kids had recently entered private school, and the other one entered during the year.
On the plus side, our investments are doing well. We're continuing to fund our 401k accounts and the kids' college funds. Better yet, we are debt-free, except for my car. Credit cards are paid in full every month, and the house has been paid off. So, long term, things are looking good. We just have to get past the current short-term squeeze and start to rebuild our savings -- and keep our fingers crossed that nothing else will break for awhile.
I must be the only one who is in the spend down (retirement) portion of my life.
Every year at this time, it’s all about harvesting gains and losses. My fixed spending these days comes in around 27k a year, and I allocate 8k for unexpected things. This year, barring something unforeseen in the next 30 days, I’ve only had 3k in surprise expenses, so it looks like 5k will roll into next years “kitty”.
Since I took all of your good advice on credit card strategies, I don’t anticipate having to spend anything other than southwest points on travel for quite some time.
As far as investments go, most of my liquid net worth is in boring ETFs that track indexes. So whatever they are up, I’m up, less the 30k in spending.
For next year, I’ll have the same 27k or so in fixed expenses. Who knows what the unexpected expenses will be. The dogs are getting old so I suspect sooner or later, there will be large vet bills.
I don’t mess around with asset allocation much. I don’t buy and sell a lot. Pretty much just let whatever happens happen. This was a lesson learned the hard way, believe me.
Finances for 2017 were OK. Average to good returns on investments. Property taxes up again, now 50% in 4 years, can't afford and don't want to move. Sigh.
I have 2 areas of frustration going into 2018. One is the ongoing risk of identity theft/account hacking, following the Equifax catastrophe et al. Other than freezing my credit reports and keeping an eye on my accounts, there doesn't seem to be much else that I, or a LifeLock type of company, can do. The second nuisance is the spiraling fees for various telecom services, now totaling nearly $500/month, and trying to figure out where cords can be cut, so far unsuccessfully.
My sympathies to anyone with a kitchen appliance malfunction during the holidays.
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