Financial goals you've achieved this year (2016)?

[Gas_Doc]

6 months out of fellowship:

- Student loans fully paid off thanks to being DINKs for 5 years

- Bought a house, put 20% down, and got a great mortgage rate (3.25% on a 30 yr fixed).

- Maxed out a Roth 401k in 6 months (though this will be the first and only year I fund it in favor of a traditional 401k in the future)

- Did my first Backdoor Roth

- Convinced my partners to switch our retirement plan away from the current high-expense ratio, actively managed provider

- No expensive purchases

[MedMO]

Been living on my semi-retirement budget 6 months now, which I had test driven for over a year.  Am trying to match my shift pay to expenses but stopped my retirement contributions;  I'm just not withdrawing anything.

Started a sinking fund for my next car.  Personally, if I don't keep the money separated it'll vanish.

[wideopenspaces]

I love this thread! It's inspiring to read about what everyone has accomplished in the past year.

-I'm about 2.5 years out of residency. This year we'll hit a net worth of 250k.

-Fully funded 403b for both myself and my husband for the first time.

-Opened a 529 account for my 8 year old. Seems like he'll go to college as he's finally sleeping in his own bed all night!

-Had baby #2. He's only 4 weeks old, so the jury's still out on whether he's college material. Hence no 529 for him this year.

-Finished funding the 6 month emergency fund.

-Increased savings rate to 35% of total income.

-Before the end of the year, will refinance current 30 year mortgage to a 15 year mortgage to get a lower interest rate and to get rid of PMI. On track to pay off in 13 years as we've made extra payments each month this year. This is our only debt.

[Antares]

Hit 2M in retirement savings. Contributed 50K to after tax account, a yearly record for me. On track to reach 3M in net worth this year. Most importantly, I like my work enough not to need to quit before I've secured a solid retirement.

[nachos31]

Agreed, this is a great thread!

- My biggest financial accomplishment this year was completing my indentured servitude tenure and starting to get paid a real salary.

- Second biggest was convincing my spouse to keep renting this year and to try the DINK thing for a year.

- Retirement savings rate thus far of 25% of total income. I unfortunately had to avoid my 457b due to crappy disbursement rules. May start my first taxable account sometime soon.

- Did Roth conversions on all of our prior retirement accounts such that 90% of our retirement savings is in Roth space.

- Funded an HSA for the first time.

- Net worth....is getting less negative. Hopefully PSLF remains intact...

- Set up a sweet Excel document to track individual accounts as well as entire portfolio. Still have a lot of work to do setting it up, but this has been fun to do.

Congrats on all the milestones, everyone!

[Psyched]

Congrats everyone! It is very encouraging to read of people's successes across a wide range of age, salary, etc. I think there is definitely a psychological benefit to putting financial goals and achievements in writing that helps you to stay on track and honest with yourself. Lots to be thankful for this year...

[Kamban]

hatton1 wrote:

I am older so different milestones as well.  I did my first Roth conversion.  I am struggling with the decision about when to completely retire.  I had planned to do it this summer when I turn 60 but………not to brag but I am close to reaching a milestone. I am close to making 1 million completely passively since transferring all my accounts to Vanguard 2.5 years ago.  Compounding is awesome.

Click to expand...

I have net worth similar to you and am a year younger. My passive income is mostly in form of distributions from investments in hotel properties where I have not control on when it will be given out ( other investors have the "want it right now" attitude) . I am curious to know the tax bracket you are in and how you went about converting your retirement money to Roth IRA. I have a SEP IRA and a traditional IRA that I may have to convert before starting to contribute to backdoor IRA. Also, I am not sure if my tax bracket will remain the same, go down or go up in retirement. Decisions, decisions.

 

[DMFA]

I forgot to mention - refi'd my dumpster fire of a mortgage (ARM at 4%) to a 15-yr fixed at 2.875% :-)

[tex]

nachos31 wrote:

Agreed, this is a great thread!

Click to expand...

Motion for making it an annual tradition

[MochaDoc]

Congrats to you all on your financial accomplishments, big and small.

 

 

[EM_INDY]

We've been fortunate to make a lot of progress toward our financial goals this year. Now 3.5 yrs out of residency I paid off my student loans in June (peaked about $200,000). Maxed 401k psp, wife's 403b, wife's 401a, hsa, backdoor Roth's, put 20k in defined benefit plan and contributed to 529 up to state tax credit. Crossed 500k net worth. Agreed to buy house (close in 3 weeks) putting 20% down and getting 15 yr mortgage at 2.875%. Welcomed twins to the world (maybe not a financial achievement but extra motivation to keep our finances in good shape!) I feel very fortunate to have a rewarding job that compensates me so well financially. I'm also grateful for this site and this community of like minded people that support and nurture each other's financial well-being!

[Sneezy]

1. Net worth >2M.  Am 51 and annual expenses around 100k so getting within sight of financial independence. In fact, could retire now if I wanted to and was willing to move to a LCOL area

2. Funded 15 year olds 529 such that if it appreciates 6% real it will pay for 4 years at expensive private college (I figure you don't want to overfund, so I go to this point and then recalculate every 6 months).  19 year old is already in expensive college and I need to save ~24k more to have that funded.  Saving 2k/month so that should be no problem

3. Resisted temptation to prepay my 2.75% 5/1 ARM figuring I'll make more investing it

4. Total savings ~40% net/50% gross income including maxing out 401/403/catch up and lots of taxable

[YSH]

1. slated to max out solo 401k (keeping my fingers crossed for any late year disasters)

2. refinanced our mortgage, already paid off >1/3 of non jumbo loan, new amount will make dumping extra chunks into principle easier.

3. learned enough basics for diy investing and so far the majority of my portfolio still in the green (tho, this is probably not related to me alone, but I will take it)

4. emergency fund, disability, life insurance- all done and still appropriate for our needs

 

 

[DrMoneyTails]

I'm on my last year of fellowship. Started really tracking my expenses after our wedding in April 2016

- increased our net worth from 17k to 40k, and on track to end the year at around 45k

- paid off all of our wedding costs (including engagement ring x2 and wedding band x2)

- paid 12k in student loan debt

- saved 20% of our take home pay

- signed my first ever attending contract!

[Craigy]

Had a baby whom I will raise to be a doctor who can support me financially.    :lol:

Willed the fed to keep rates low so my wife's variable rate student loan didn't increase too much.    8-)

Lucked out with a new FEMA flood map which reduced my flood insurance by a few hundred this year (no joke I got a check in the mail from my mortgage escrow, when the ************************ does that ever happen).    

But mostly just paid off a lot of debt through scheduled monthly payments.

My 401k shows I'm up about 23% this year so that's nice, just wish I had a bigger balance to begin with.   :cry:

Oooo and to copycat Gas Doc above, convinced my firm to switch to a lower cost 401k advisor and vanguard provider.  Fantastic.