Search found 42 matches

by NightHeart
Fri Jun 15, 2012 2:45 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Government contractor seeking help with portfolio
Replies: 8
Views: 1258

Re: Government contractor seeking help with portfolio

I was under the impression that if you transfer the GI Bill that you are no longer able to collect the BAH benefits. Did that change?
by NightHeart
Wed May 02, 2012 5:58 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Am I on the right track?-unique situation going back for PhD
Replies: 14
Views: 1841

Re: Am I on the right track?-unique situation going back for

Unless you just absolutely can't stand the military, let me recommend something a little different. I am also a Physicist in the Air Force and there are options for you. If you really want to do the instructor/research pathway, you can do that and stay in the military. I am at AFIT right now (the Air Force's graduate school) getting my graduate degree in Physics. You will have a service commitment afterwards, but this way you can keep getting paid while you go to graduate school. If you want to teach, they have what they call an "instructor pipeline" and your follow-on assignment will be teaching at either the Air Force Academy or AFIT. If you really need a break from the military for a while, they will let most of the people pick...
by NightHeart
Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:04 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax
Replies: 24
Views: 2314

Re: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax

The large change in taxes is due to the lack of a phase-out for the Retirement Savings Contribution Credit (it has a sort of cliff instead). Normally, dropping $23 in taxable income would only lower my taxes by ~$4, but since I become eligible for the next level of Saver's Credit where I get an additional $400 credit. Kudos for noticing the steep cliff. Just curious how did you find out? Getting to the 50%-credit level is even more rewarding. I've known about the credit for a while (I've taken it the last 2 years). I think I first saw it on Fairmark but I have read lots of stuff on your website as well. In this particular case, I just noticed where it was. I had entered all my tax information except for the dividend info from Vanguard. Whe...
by NightHeart
Thu Feb 09, 2012 5:52 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax
Replies: 24
Views: 2314

Re: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax

Hopefully you did not receive a 1098T form indicating you are at least a half time student; if so, you are probably not eligible for a Savers Credit. I mention that becasue I read an IRS press release a week ago that stated they were doing "soft audits" of all 2009 AOC credits for those taxpayers who either did not receive a 1098T or received one where the "At least 1/2 time student Box" was not checked. (In a "soft audit", they send letters to affected paypayers and give them a chance to amend their return if warranted). They evidently are starting to do consistency checks with 1098T forms and other tax benefits Neither of us were considered 1/2 time or greater for tax purposes. I would like to challenge the ...
by NightHeart
Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:25 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax
Replies: 24
Views: 2314

Re: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax

Are you even eligible for deductible TIRAs? Our AGI is $36,523 so I believe so. We are right on the cutoff between 20% and 10% retirement savers credit which is the phase out causing the high marginal tax. If you can get your AGI down to $34000 you get a 50% savers credit.. that might make a recharacterization of $2523 even with gains worth it? http://thefinancebuff.com/savers-credit-plays-hard-to-get.html I hadn't really thought of going that far. That might be worth it. The extra $2500 recharacterization will save me about $800 more in taxes (the entire rest of my tax bill). You could also go to your friendly JAG office to ask for help with your taxes. Most bases will do tax prep free this year, or at least have someone who can help you ...
by NightHeart
Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:47 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax
Replies: 24
Views: 2314

Re: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax

Bob's not my name wrote:Are you even eligible for deductible TIRAs?
Our AGI is $36,523 so I believe so. We are right on the cutoff between 20% and 10% retirement savers credit which is the phase out causing the high marginal tax.
by NightHeart
Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax
Replies: 24
Views: 2314

Re: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax

Did you both participate in a 401k or equivalent? Yes, we both maxed out our TSP last year. 3) If those don't work, I maxed out our Roth IRAs at the beginning of 2011. I hear people turning Traditional to Roth, but does it work in reverse? And could I convert only the $23 that I need? See if you can "recharacterize". I once converted a traditional to Roth, then recharacterized back when the market crashed (why take all the loss when Uncle Sam would share it?). I don't know if that helps or not, but you can research it. There was a fairly large ~15% return on the $5000 in the Roth since last year. I also tried looking up the rules on the form 8606 for recharacterizations, but they don't have an example like mine where I would be d...
by NightHeart
Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:33 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax
Replies: 24
Views: 2314

Re: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax

pshonore wrote:Books are an allowable expense for the AOC (American Opportunites Credit). That will not lower your income but will give you a credit.
I didn't realize that. I just looked it up, though, and saw that it's only good for undergrad. I'm currently enrolled in graduate school. I forgot to mention that in my original post, sorry. :oops:
by NightHeart
Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:06 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax
Replies: 24
Views: 2314

Help lower AGI, 1757% marginal tax

Okay, when I did my tax planning last year, I expected a bit less AGI than I ended up with. My student loan interest deduction was a little smaller and taxable investments gave off more dividends than last year. I also received reimbursement for a move that ended up being taxable that I didn't realize would count towards taxes. Add them all up and I'm left in this situation. If I can lower my AGI by $23, my tax bill lowers by $404 (hence the outrageous marginal tax rate). I'm basically looking for ideas. I have a couple of my own that might work but I'm not sure if I'm allowed. I don't need to come up with much so I'm hoping I can do it (already claiming student loan interest deduction). These are in the order I would prefer to do them. 1) ...
by NightHeart
Wed Jan 18, 2012 2:44 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Improved Net Worth by Age [and plot]
Replies: 252
Views: 50973

Re: Improved Net Worth by Age [and plot]

I would love it if you could open the form back up. I didn't get to enter my data yet and I think what you are doing here is very useful.
by NightHeart
Sun Jan 02, 2011 4:01 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Your 2010 Savings Rate Please
Replies: 32
Views: 5452

About 51% for me.

I'm going to try to keep it just above 50% for as long as my wife will let me. :P
by NightHeart
Sat Dec 11, 2010 11:49 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: What parameters do you track in your portfolio spreadsheet?
Replies: 89
Views: 24361

word wrote:
NightHeart wrote:
VennData wrote:1) Forget Excel, dump Microsoft, move to Google Docs. To load Asian markets:

In A1: http://finance.yahoo.com/intlindices?e=asia
In B1: 5
in C1: =ImportHtml(A1,"table",B1)
...
Impressive work there, but what do you do with the TSP??
They should be able to similarly imported
You'd think so, but they don't have a ticker symbol. So how do you import something without one?
by NightHeart
Sat Dec 11, 2010 7:53 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: What parameters do you track in your portfolio spreadsheet?
Replies: 89
Views: 24361

VennData wrote:1) Forget Excel, dump Microsoft, move to Google Docs. To load Asian markets:

In A1: http://finance.yahoo.com/intlindices?e=asia
In B1: 5
in C1: =ImportHtml(A1,"table",B1)
...
Impressive work there, but what do you do with the TSP??
by NightHeart
Fri Dec 10, 2010 2:47 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: just to confirm "wisdom" of my current SS plan
Replies: 12
Views: 1549

Wow, thanks a lot for the clarification sscritic! That makes sense.
by NightHeart
Fri Dec 10, 2010 1:57 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: just to confirm "wisdom" of my current SS plan
Replies: 12
Views: 1549

If what you say about your relative earnings is true, you would be better off reversing the roles. Example: your PIA is $2000. Hers is $500. Your method: her age 66 to 67, your family collects $500. her age 67 to 71, your family collects $750 ($500 + $250; you are the spouse). her age 71 on, your family collects $3640 ($2640 + $1000). Reverse method: she starts at 66, a year later you file and suspend, she files as your wife. At her age 71, you un-suspend. her age 66 to 67, your family collects $500. her age 67 to 71, your family collects $1000 (she is the spouse). her age 71 on, your family collects $3640 ($2640 + $1000). That's four years of an extra $500 a month. Of course, you need to run your own numbers (your PIA is approximately you...
by NightHeart
Fri Nov 19, 2010 1:55 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Profitable on an Operating Basis?
Replies: 2
Views: 641

Profitable on an Operating Basis?

Can anyone tell me what that means? I thought I knew what it meant to be profitable, but I read an article today saying that Chrysler had a net loss of $84 million in the last 3 months but that it was profitable on an operating basis. How are they profitable if they are losing money?

I tried googling it, but couldn't come up with anything that actually explained what that meant. If you need it, the article that I was reading is here: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/inves ... /19724579/

Thanks a bunch for your help!
by NightHeart
Fri Apr 23, 2010 11:51 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: [POLL] What is your personal saving rate?
Replies: 63
Views: 9589

manuvns wrote:i think it's impossible to save over 40% in under 100k income with family .
We did that last year. We didn't have kids which certainly would have made it harder but my wife and I saved $43k out of a gross income of about $87k last year. That was nearly 50%.

Maybe saving over 40% is nearly impossible with kids, but I can't say from experience.
by NightHeart
Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:36 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: [POLL] What is your personal saving rate?
Replies: 63
Views: 9589

We save just under 50% of our gross income.

We are DINKs in our late 20s. Paid the last $10k of our interest charging student loans off this year. We are saving the last $10k for when they start charging us interest.

About 40% of our income is exempt from all taxes though, including FICA and SS (though the amount exempt won't count when I collect after I retire). No state income taxes either and we put enough in retirement accounts to get our federal tax down to $0 as well. With that we end up with a net income of about 95% of gross. This definitely helps us with our savings rate.
by NightHeart
Fri Apr 16, 2010 8:27 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Effective Tax Rate - POLL
Replies: 48
Views: 8005

Effective tax rate = -3.5% :oops:

Sounds more impressive than it is (though still the first time I can remember getting more back than I paid). Our total tax ended up being $0 and then we got the $800 making work pay credit on top of it. Our low AGI makes the percentage look impressive.
by NightHeart
Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:31 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Never Invested - 29 and plan on retiring at 45
Replies: 9
Views: 2951

A couple of things to note... 1) TSP can be taken out at age 59 1/2. 2) You miscalculated the retirement pay by just a bit. An E-7 retiring with at the 24 year mark will be over $29,000/year today. 3) If you are in the Air Force, they just announced that their High Year of Tenure (HYT) for most ranks are decreasing. If you are, that means you will be forced into retirement at 24 years as an E-7 and at 26 years as an E-8. The other branches all have HYT limits as well so it is something to keep in mind. As to where to put your money, I would max out both you and your wife's Roth IRA and your TSP first. As a teacher, she'll likely get access to a 403b. I would then try to max that out as well. Any excess money can be put in a taxable account....
by NightHeart
Sat Apr 03, 2010 11:05 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Buying gift cards at grocery stores on a cash back card
Replies: 24
Views: 8433

I do this at the Price Chopper grocery store. I buy a Home Depot gift card for say $50 and put it on my VISA. Visa credits me 1% cash back if I pay my balance off on time which I always do. Price Chopper has a deal with the gas station next door where every $50 I spend I get 10 cents off a gallon of gas up to 20 gallons. When I know I need to buy something at HD I buy their gift card at PC, a $50 gift card is good for $50 at HD and I pay nothing extra for it at PC. I get 1% cash back via VISA and 10 cents a gallon off gas! What a deal! Maybe this belongs in the frugal things you do thread. :lol: Zaplunken Totally not worth it... Far easier to get a PenFed card paying 5% back on gas and 1.5% on everything else (2% at grocery stores, actuall...
by NightHeart
Sun Mar 28, 2010 10:22 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Is leasing a car always a bad idea financially?
Replies: 43
Views: 8901

I found this website recently: http://www.truecar.com/index.html

If you pick your car and click the "lowest certified price" button, you can usually find a car for about $1,000 below invoice (sometimes more, sometimes less). I did the Civic VP for my area and found one for $15,312 (about $1500 below invoice). I don't know if this will change your decision but hopefully it will give you something to think about.
by NightHeart
Sun Mar 28, 2010 9:26 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Where to put taxable money?
Replies: 11
Views: 2132

This is where is may be helpful to understand the theory and intent of the "chart". Yes, VFWIX is better than I bonds in taxable if you can put fixed income in tax-deferred. As another example, tax-exempt muni bonds are very tax efficient. That doesn't mean you should prefer them to another tax efficient investment. A fallacy is that emerging markets equities are not large caps. In fact, the emerging markets funds VEIEX, EEM and VWO are large caps. So while VFWIX has emerging markets in it, it is still a large cap int'l fund. If you want int'l small caps, choose VFSVX, VSS, or similar fund. If you want emerging markets small caps, you may wish to purchase DGS. And I do not agree that your premise about rebalancing will be easier....
by NightHeart
Sat Mar 27, 2010 9:07 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Where to put taxable money?
Replies: 11
Views: 2132

So you are not using a small cap fund? For rebalancing, you do not need to have the same asset allocation in the TSP and in your taxable. Indeed, you will probably want something different. I would just use a tax-efficient international fund in taxable to start with. May I suggest Vanguard FTSE-all-world-ex US large cap VFWIX? You can reduce the I fund in your TSP to get the asset allocation you want. Maybe move some money from I fund to the small cap fund. Is that the S fund? I use Vanguard's small value fund in my Roth to tilt towards value and that is able to cover the full small cap portion of my portfolio. The reason I wanted it to be the same/similar fund is because my TSP/Roth/Taxable ratios are/will be changing by quite a large amo...
by NightHeart
Sat Mar 27, 2010 8:35 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Where to put taxable money?
Replies: 11
Views: 2132

Where to put taxable money?

I've checked up on the wiki about tax-efficiency (http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Principles_of_Tax-Efficient_Fund_Placement) but I just wanted to check with you guys to make sure I'm making the best decision overall. My wife and I will be maxing out our TSPs and Roths this year and will have about $10,000 left that I want to save towards retirement. In order to make things easy for me for re-balancing, I wanted them to match up with my TSP funds that I currently am using (C, G, I). The investment choices I was looking at were: C Fund -- Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX) I Fund -- Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund (VGTSX) G Fund -- I bonds I'm in a low tax bracket now, but should be entering the 25% tax bracket in 2012. I should th...
by NightHeart
Sat Mar 27, 2010 4:35 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Go with pension or stick with 457 plan? One chance only.
Replies: 16
Views: 2582

If you put 6% of your salary in the 457 plan instead of the pension plan and couple that with the 12% match, it looks pretty good. Assume: $70k/yr with inflation raises, 1.07% return after inflation, 4% safe withdrawals after retirement with 25 years of working. With the 457 plan, after 25 years, you'll have about $800k for $32k/yr withdrawals. After 35 years, you'll have about $1.75 million for $70k/yr withdrawals. (all with inflation adjustments) The pension would give about $35k/yr after 25 years and $49k/yr after 35 years. With that in mind, it looks like the 457 plan would be better if you work for longer, but I'd probably take it either way. I know people who have had their pensions cut after retirement recently so that is a small ris...
by NightHeart
Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:51 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: 2011 On Line Income Tax Calculators?
Replies: 1
Views: 663

Nobody knows for sure what the tax will be in 2011 yet. The tax law hasn't been written yet.
by NightHeart
Fri Mar 26, 2010 4:15 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: How Would You Come Up With $XXX In A Week?
Replies: 50
Views: 6217

1) credit card
2) Hope they can figure something else out.
3) Contact the JAG and see if they can defend me.
4) I can't imagine paying that much for a house much less a painting! :shock:
by NightHeart
Fri Mar 05, 2010 12:18 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: When should I "retire"?
Replies: 51
Views: 9967

avalpert wrote:
ResNullius wrote:If you can live comfortably off of pre-tax $120K, then you're all set to go right now. I decided to retire when I realized that I was working for nothing more than the opportunity to increase my son's inheritance, plus give the folks in Congress more money to waste.
I would think a 4.6% withdraw rate for someone that age would be quite aggressive and risky
You forgot to count the money in his IRA/401k.
by NightHeart
Thu Mar 04, 2010 11:57 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: What do you think of my portfolio?
Replies: 10
Views: 2098

1) That is a large emergency fund but some jobs are less secure than others and, in my opinion, it's always better to have too large a cushion than too small. Peace of mind is worth a lot.

2) I think 80/20 is fine.

3) You can put your money in a non-deductible IRA and then immediately convert it to a Roth IRA. $5000 for 2009 and another $5000 for 2010.

Not sure about the rest.
by NightHeart
Wed Feb 24, 2010 6:20 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Roth TSP start in 2012
Replies: 45
Views: 8105

I just want to point out that until recently (they still have this on the TSP website) they were saying that this would be ready by early next year (2011). This now makes me skeptical that it will even be implemented by 2012. This is unfortunate because I was really looking forward to using the Roth option. I max out my wife's and my TSP already so this allows us to put more money into it (like you mentioned). Plus, since we are both in the military, a good portion of my pay is tax free right now. Combine this with 2 pensions and 2 social security checks during our retirement and we will probably be past the bottom tax brackets already. With us maxing out our retirement savings, I'm expecting the balance to be pretty large so there should b...
by NightHeart
Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:35 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Military Investing
Replies: 125
Views: 65471

Thanks a lot EmergDoc. Very useful advice to those of us in the military. I am certainly looking forward to the new Roth TSP. I can't wait until that comes out.

Thanks for your effort in pulling this all together.
by NightHeart
Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:47 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Dual-military couple looking for advice
Replies: 14
Views: 2433

aadwen wrote:It is possible that they are deployed in a combat zone where they are not taxed on their first 80 or is it 100k?
It is the first $7,386.30 per month that isn't taxed (even both of us together wouldn't touch that) when in a combat zone. Neither of us is deployed right now though. It's just a combination of the housing and food allowances not being taxed, extremely large contributions to TSP, and low ranks to keep our taxable Base Pay low.

Any thoughts on the new idea for the portfolio though?
by NightHeart
Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:47 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Dual-military couple looking for advice
Replies: 14
Views: 2433

I agree completely with you on the way the taxes working not making a lot of sense, but I'll take advantage of it while I have the chance. ;) On the portfolio, I've thought it over and decided to be a bit simpler than what I had before to make things easier to balance. Please tell me what you think.... 20% G Fund 20% C Fund or S&P 500 20% I Fund 15% Small Cap Value 15% Emerging Market 10% REIT Basically, this allows me to balance by controlling the amount of C Fund in the TSP. As long as the TSP is at least 40% of the total portfolio (it already is so that shouldn't be a problem) then I can split the C Fund between my Roth and TSP to balance it. If the TSP grows to more than 60% of my account (shouldn't be for a long time because of the...
by NightHeart
Mon Jan 11, 2010 7:58 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Dual-military couple looking for advice
Replies: 14
Views: 2433

Maybe your marginal rate actually is zero. Weird things happen when we exempt low income earners from paying any tax at all. I mean, look at you- you make enough to put away $40K a year yet don't pay taxes. Weird stuff going on in this country. Don't blame you, I'd do the same, but I think it's a problem. I think you may believe that I make more than I really do. The reason I can save so much is because of how frugal I live, not the money I make. For example, my wife's car is 12 years old and mine is 6 and we don't plan on buying a new car for many years even though we could technically afford one (and many of our friends and neighbors are). I don't personally know a single person that makes our income that could save as much as we do. I s...
by NightHeart
Sun Jan 10, 2010 5:25 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Dual-military couple looking for advice
Replies: 14
Views: 2433

Re: Dual-military couple looking for advice

How are you in a 0% federal tax bracket, yet can save $43K per year? I struggle to save that much and I'm in the 25% bracket. Even if you pay zero taxes, your marginal rate/bracket still isn't zero. Ah. I must have been confused on what was meant by "marginal tax rate." I thought it was the tax you pay on the last dollar you made. I paid $0 in taxes last year and should pay the same this year so that was what I meant by that. Sorry about the confusion. We don't spend a lot of money right now (maybe $12k/yr or so outside of housing). This is what allows us to save that much. Do you want to save more than $43K/year? If not you don't need a taxable account. TSP will soon have a Roth option. Be sure to switch to that. It will allow y...
by NightHeart
Sat Jan 09, 2010 6:12 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Dual-military couple looking for advice
Replies: 14
Views: 2433

chaz wrote:For help in planning your portfolio allocations, I recommend you read the wiki on this forum..

Good luck.
Already have, thanks. I couldn't find the answers I was looking for on the wiki.
by NightHeart
Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:46 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Dual-military couple looking for advice
Replies: 14
Views: 2433

Dual-military couple looking for advice

Hello everyone. My wife and I are currently in the US Air Force and I have been trying to get a plan together now that I finally have a reasonably sized portfolio. I've had a 100% stock portfolio up until now (even through the downturn) and am planning a more conservative mix not because of being afraid of risk but because I figure that I should be able to get similar return for less risk which seems like a no-brainer to me. Emergency funds = 8 months of expenses (I am, perhaps, parsimonious to a fault so my expenses are rather low [this is only about $9,000]. It doesn't include rent since I live on base and that works a little differently so I generally try not to include that in my income at all.) Debt: About $23,000 in wife's student loa...
by NightHeart
Sat Jan 02, 2010 12:13 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Can't Keep New year resolutions? Blame it on the brain!
Replies: 3
Views: 1357

ButWait wrote:Supposedly, most only use a small fraction, something like 10-12% of their brain's computing power. Essentially, lazy and not been taught to take advantage of it, particularly the subconscious mind's great analytical and problem solving powers.

ButWait
Urban legend. Look at any brain scan and you can see that a person is using the vast majority of their brain at any moment.
by NightHeart
Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:02 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Do you max out your retirement+IRA plan contributions?
Replies: 90
Views: 16963

Wow, yours is an unusual situation. Without knowing more details, it sounds possible that you might be better off not maxing out your tax deferrals, and using taxable investments instead. How much you should shrink your tax-deferral would depend on how much it takes before your marginal rate jumps to an unacceptable level. (The Roth is still a no-brainer however.) For example, do you expect your spending to increase in retirement from where it is now? If so, then paying 10% tax on your "surplus" income now might be better than paying tax on that income in retirement. You also need to account for how your state takes its cut, and its rates, since they could be the same order of magnitude. Well, before contributions we are in the 1...
by NightHeart
Fri Aug 28, 2009 10:44 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Do you max out your retirement+IRA plan contributions?
Replies: 90
Views: 16963

My wife and I are far below the 100k a year mark but we still max out all our retirement savings.

Him:
$16,500 TSP (no match)
$5,000 Roth

Her:
$16,500 TSP (no match)
$5,000 Roth

Total: $43,000/$43,000 invested = 100%

We are in the 0% tax bracket this year because of our contributions but next year we should move up to the 10% tax bracket because of raises.
by NightHeart
Sat Aug 22, 2009 8:30 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: How does average US consumer spend his paycheck Chart
Replies: 25
Views: 6448

asset_chaos wrote:Conspicuous by its absense for a government produced chart is an entry for tax. Now why would the government want us to not think of tax as an expenditure? Hmm.
Isn't that included in the middle? It looks like the average household pays about $13k in taxes from the chart.