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Home > 2016 Retirement Wrap Up

2016 Retirement Wrap Up

January 1st, 2017 at 03:27 pm

Our retirement investing is on auto pilot. My husband saves 10% of his base pay (this is pay that does not include our housing allowance). We also each max out our Roth IRAs for a total of $11,000 a year. Our total retirement investment for 2016 was $20,032.04.

The total balance in our retirement accounts at the end of 2015 was $330,739.99. We ended 2016 with a total balance of $392,814.02. A difference of $62,074.03. More than two thirds of that increase was growth!

I wish the market had done well enough for us to see $400K. We were really close at one point, but the market fluctuates. We will get there!

Our retirement savings rate is 17.45% of our income. I often bump this up every year by 1%. I'm pretty sure I will do it again this year, too. I'm also contemplating changing from Roth IRAs to Traditional. We are in the 15% tax bracket so the savings would be $1650 in taxes. I guess I figure this is money we could put toward college expenses that are happening now. I have a little over two weeks to decide (the auto investment happens around the 18th of the month for our Roth IRAs).

Are you increasing your retirement savings in 2017?

Posted in Saving, Taxes | 8 Comments »

8 Responses to “2016 Retirement Wrap Up”

  1. MonkeyMama Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 03:41 pm 1483285308
    1483285308

    I'd recommend that you run your tax return with and without Traditional IRA contributions, to see the real tax difference. Taxes aren't quite that simple. We are only in the 15% tax bracket, but we save 25% for every dollar we put into Traditional IRAs. (Because we also lose other deductions if our AGI is higher). So we have been doing Traditional IRAs for the past few years.

    How exciting to be so close to $400k!

    I don't plan to increase retirement savings, but we max out everything that we can.

  2. creditcardfree Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 03:43 pm 1483285429
    1483285429

    Thanks MM, I will do that. We don't pay state income tax, so there is no savings there.

  3. MonkeyMama Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 04:41 pm 1483288879
    1483288879

    Most of the 25% savings is Fed savings, for us. (We only pay about 0.5% to our state). It's just going to depend on your personal tax situation. Which is why the easiest thing to do is just to run your tax return both ways.

  4. rob62521 Says:
    January 1st, 2017 at 08:29 pm 1483302545
    1483302545

    You are doing quiet well on your retirement savings!

  5. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    January 2nd, 2017 at 04:33 pm 1483374821
    1483374821

    Yes, I do plan to increase our retirement savings this year. Probably an extra $10/month for each of us starting this month. Once the union contract gets signed for my group, and I get both raises owed ... then I'll probably increase it by 3% - whenever that happens. I had already increased it in August when the new contract *should* have been signed.

  6. livingalmostlarge Says:
    January 3rd, 2017 at 05:23 pm 1483464213
    1483464213

    Congratulations. Can you do a traditional IRA if you have a TSP? I thought if were covered by an employment plan at work it's not possible? Also are you below the income requirements? Why not just contribute to the TSP and skip the traditional IRA?

  7. creditcardfree Says:
    January 3rd, 2017 at 06:05 pm 1483466700
    1483466700

    @LAL, yes we can we can have the TSP and a Traditional IRA. Just like people can invest in a 401K or 403b and still have traditional or Roths (all with income guidelines of course). We are below the income requirements. Some of our income (over $24K is housing allowances) and is not taxed nor counted as income in determining the income thresholds. You do make a good point of putting the money into the TSP rather than a Traditional IRA. I could do that for DH, but I would like my portion in my name, thus a Traditional IRA would still be necessary for me. I will defin

  8. terri77 Says:
    February 26th, 2017 at 08:27 pm 1488140831
    1488140831

    I will max out my retirement accounts which I have been doing since 2008, but my income has risen so I don't think I'll be saving a third of my income as I have in the past.

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