Our 2018 Savings & Investing Plan

2018 is well underway. Last year, M and I had a good amount of tax advantaged retirement “pots” available to us along with some employer match and contributions:

• My 403(b) + generous employer match + contribution
• My 457(b)
• My cash balance plan
• My backdoor Roth IRA
• My solo-401(k)
• His 403(b)
• His Roth IRA
• His solo-401(k)

The pots totaled close to $90,000 of tax advantaged space – not bad! With our move I lost some unvested money in the 403(b) and completely lost the cash balance plan. At the same time, I took advantage of the ability to contribute to a Mega-Backdoor Roth IRA and was able to contribute about $8,000 into that. Now we have new jobs and slightly different available pots this year:

• My 401(k) + employer match
• My solo-401(k)
• My backdoor Roth IRA
• My HSA
• His 401(k) + employer match
• His Roth IRA (may need to backdoor it this year)
• His family HSA
• Our taxable account

Our pots this year total around $80,000 + additional into a taxable account this year. We hope to bring our total 2018 savings to > $100,000. You’ll notice that we now have access to a health savings account (HSA) plan via a high deductible health plan (HDHP). M’s job allows unmarried partners to hop onto benefits at very affordable premiums. It was a no brainer to sign up our whole family. Since we are not married, we are able to take advantage of two HSAs – individual ($3,450) for me and family ($6,900) for him. We do not intend to actually use it for deductibles. We will be using it as a Stealth IRA or use it for medical expenses in “retirement.” Our asset allocation will remain the same as last year:

• 68% US stocks
  • 17% Large cap growth, 17% Large cap value
  • 17% Small cap growth, 17% Small cap value
• 24% International stocks
  • 12% Large cap developed countries
  • 12% Diversified emerging markets
• 8% US REITs

Most of our accounts are with TD Ameritrade. You may have heard that they updated their commision-free ETF list and removed all the Vanguard ETFs. Bummer. So our FA has developed this new portfolio that closely mirrors the prior portfolio: We will be opening our taxable account at Vanguard. What do you think? Comment below!]]>