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[caption id="attachment_424" align="aligncenter" width="300"] This is how we do it![/caption] [table id=12 /] The last day of February is always one of my favorite days of the year.   Since 2004, my wife and I have front-loaded our retirement accounts with our January and February paychecks.  By paying ourselves first to the extreme, we have been able to accelerate our wealth building.  This year we're both hammering our 457 accounts to the tune of $4,000 a month.  So far this year, we have contributed $16,000 into our 457 accounts...that sure puts a spring into my step! Since we were rolling in the dough last month, we also decided to knock out some of our 2015 financial goals.  Here is what we did: Coverdell ESA We sent $1,750 to our son's Coverdell ESA  at Vanguard to max out the 2015 contributions.  His ESA now has over $31,000 invested in the following funds:   VTSAX and  VTIAX . UTMA We dropped $180 into our son's UTMA account a...

January is officially in the books, so it's time to see how we're doing on our 2015 savings goals.  So far, so good!  As always, we diverted most of our paychecks to our retirement accounts. 457 Accounts *  Since our 457 accounts are more flexible than our 403b accounts, we always fund them first.  In January we managed to squeeze $4,000 each into our 457 accounts for a total of $8,000. IRAs  *   After our 457 contributions, we still had about $400 of paycheck left.  I immediately sent $300 to my IRA and $200 to my wife's IRA, both at Vanguard. Son's Accounts *  Automatic contributions of $25 and $10 were made to his 529 account and his UTMA respectively.  We also made a $250 contribution to his 2015 Coverdell ESA. [table id=10 /] [table id=76 /]

Greetings all!  It's tax time, so I've been looking over last years numbers.  All in all, it was a good year financially.  While we only worked five months in 2014 (we were busy doing other things ), we did manage to stash away a little over $46,000.  Most of our savings went to the 457 accounts at our new jobs.  We also maxed out our traditional IRAs and our health savings account.  Our 2014 savings total also includes our son's accounts:  a Coverdell ESA, a 529 plan, and a UTMA account.  Here is what we were able to do last year: [table id=9 /] In 2015 we hope to save even more by fully funding every retirement account available to us just like we did back in our Echols County days.   There is nothing glamorous or sexy about this savings strategy; it's just good ole hardcore savings*.  Last December I went to my employer's human resource office and set our 457 contributions to $4,000 a month for both my wife and myself.  That means we're putting $8,000 away ev...