Because it’s not like anybody is going to be reading our blog today anyway. Heck, *we* won’t be reading our blog!
Next year is kind of exciting for IRA lovers because the amount you can save in an IRA is going up. In 2012 you could invest $5000 per person. In 2013 you can invest $5500. How cool is that?
401(k) and 403(b) limits are also going up. Last year, a mere $17000. This year, a full $17500.
With time and compounding these extra $500 tax-advantaged contributions will start to add up, especially if you’re married and it’s more like $1000.
Of course, with our state-employment options there’s no way we’ll be maxing out all our tax-advantaged accounts (457 limits are also going up another $500), so getting the additional $500 room isn’t helping us because we didn’t have the $39000 ($17000 + 17000 + 5000) to put away last year, much less $40500 this year (wouldn’t it be neat if we could get raises? hahahahahaahaaaa *sigh*), but for all you folks that don’t have access to that 457 plan, try to use that new extra room to its fullest extent!
December 24, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Grateful for an oddly quiet Christmas eve hereabouts. Merry Christmas!
December 24, 2012 at 5:17 pm
It’s not actually sad that I’m reading your blog on Christmas Eve–I have all the presents (though they still need wrapping), I’m well fed, dishes and laundry are caught up, and things are generally just good. No crazy visitations are happening–just a festive lunch tomorrow. Just killing a little time as it gets dark before my new annual tradition of walking around my neighborhood admiring everyone else’s lights on Christmas Eve.
**
All those people who say to max out their retirement funds, well, I’ve only recently made that amount before taxes, never after taxes, let alone after room and board.
Still, the increase in the IRA max is good news for people who can’t max out all their funds if they can more than max out their IRA because usually your IRA choices are better than your other choices, so you can put more of your money into the things you prefer.
In my case, I get to contribute an extra $1500 to my IRA this year because I’m turning 50!
Man, just when it was going to be evenly divisible by 12 for me ($6,000), I can now contribute $6,500. Oh well, so far I only have half-time work, and for less than half the year, so if that stays true, I won’t be contributing anything and I’ll start withdrawing next year. That sounds kind of bad, so part of me wants to look for more work. But I’m pretty sure I can last the 4 years until my pension kicks in with this five months of half-time work plus my savings plus withdrawing my IRA deposits. And never having to work for money again also sounds good to me. So my current plan is to let my co-workers know I’m available and just let whatever happens happen.
I’ve already gotten three jobs from these co-workers (1 – half-time for a 1.5 years, 1 – half-time for 9 months, and 1 – 4 hours a week for a couple of months), and two more of them have aleady expressed interest though they haven’t gotten back to me since I announced I was going to be available several weeks ago. So I may or may not get more work. Either way, I’m probably good.
December 26, 2012 at 12:01 pm
Sounds like your co-workers are coming through for you. Hang in there! And merry new year.
December 24, 2012 at 9:27 pm
$41000 ($17000 + 17000 + 5000)
39,000 is not equal to 41,000.
December 25, 2012 at 10:06 am
Good to know! This is the year where my goal is to finally max out the roth IRA. The extra 500 just means I’ll have to go an extra month, as I’m intending to do $500 a month — now for 11 months! We’ll see how much wiggle room I have. I’m making good progress paying back my efund :-)