We can close the books on 2017. There will be no going back but you had best believe all the decisions we made in 2017, will be coming forward. For example, early in 2017 I set up an automatic deduction in Fidelity for my traditional IRA. I wanted to keep flexibility in my budget but I knew at the time I was setting it way too low. By June, I needed to make regular extra deposits. But I would only put an extra $50 here and there and I wasn’t making a dent.
Fast forward to today and I need to come up with $3,300 by April 15,2018 to max the account and receive the full write-off. I will not deplete my savings or use money designated for investments so my only alternative is to throw all discretionary spending money at the IRA and then write a zero-percent credit card check for the balance. I won’t have any spending money for the first quarter of the new year and I will be adding a new debt to my ledger. UGH!
Maxing out my IRAs are foundational for building real wealth. It is the only place that you can grow money tax free. So, even if I weren’t receiving a write-off, I would still max it out at all costs.
Allowing poor choices to infringe on my future-self is no longer acceptable!
I broke out the calculator, logged into Fidelity and set up a bi-weekly deduction of $229.16. This time next year my IRA will be fully funded. It will be the first time that I won’t need the additional four months to go crazy trying to play catch up. Because the truth is even a zero-percent credit card check charges a fee of 3% of the balance used.
Fortunately, most of the choices I made last year were good, thank God. Just like bad choices, good choices also follow you forward, but they give you a boost or a leg up. I’m really excited about my taxable investment account, which I put on automatic because I’m determined to build a substantial dividend portfolio (DP).
Next year is all about passive income for me. I wasn’t going to start the portfolio until I paid the last of my credit card debt off but I said, “F*%* it.” There’s another zero-percent transfer where that came from, as far as I’m concerned. Okay, so maybe I’m not done with making poor decisions.
Anyway, back to my DP. I’ve decided to break it out and show all the details. I’ll update it whenever I add a share, a company or receive dividend payments. I’m excited to have this little DP following me into the new year. Total dividends received in 2017 was $40.48.
December 2017 Net Worth Update
Assets
SEP IRA: $6,030.42
IRA: $7,439.82
CASH: $3,401.14
MM: $3,722.23
Stocks (taxable): $3,282.40
I-bonds: $7,707.44
Investing fund: $1,560.74
Liabilities:
Credit Card: $6,740 @ 0%
–SEP IRA is very close to being maxed out for 2017. If I need to add more it won’t be more than a couple of hundred dollars.
–Traditional IRA you already know.
–Cash is down $700 with a few unexpected bills. I’ll build it back to just over $4,000 slowly
–MM is home of the almighty emergency fund which is building up according to plan
–Stocks(taxable) see above
–I-bonds love the steady safe growth at 2.58% until April 2018
Will you be ending 2017 on a good financial note? Remember, it’s not too late to lock in a few
