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NOTA BENE :  our 2015 salary and tax information was updated on February 5th, 2016.  These updates resulted in higher savings rates than previously estimated. Greetings current and future millionaires!  A reader wanted to know about our savings rate, and I realized that I needed to put this figure to paper.  Since June represented the midway point of the year, I projected our annual income by simply doubling the amounts of our June pay stubs.   Basically, I opened up a spreadsheet,  doubled our June pay stubs, and entered the amounts.  Within in 10 minutes I had some numbers to work with.  (I can't believe that I had never made this calculation before!) As the chart below indicates, we have three sources of income:  the salaries from our jobs, our 72t IRA distributions, and our 457 distributions.  From those numbers I was able to determine our savings rate as a percentage of our salaries and another as a percentage of our total income .  The varying savings rate estimates are base...

We're almost to mid-July and I have one question: Where has the year gone? Since we're officially more than halfway done with 2015, it's time for a check on our progress on our 2015 savings goals. First up, let's take a look at what we saved in June. [table id=19 /] Back in May we made two adjustments to our retirement accounts. First, we began adding money to our 403b accounts. Second, we set our 403b and 457 contributions to amounts that will reach our maximum contribution limits in December. We actually received over $1,800 from both our May and June paychecks! (We're in the money...we're in the money!) Between now and April 15th of 2016, we'll figure out how to top off our IRA and HSA contributions. We still need to add $11,500 to our IRAs and $6,000 to our HSA. (I'm planning on adding our 2014 tax refund of roughly $5,000 to our HSA.) Here's what we have managed to save over the first six months of 2015: [table id=20 /] Right now it looks like w...

Greetings and happy summer to all!  Last month I did a podcast interview with one of my favorite bloggers, the Mad Fientist .  On his show, we talked about some of my favorite subjects:  debt avoidance, hardcore savings, prudent investing, tax minimization, and frugal living.  We also talked about how we use geoarbitrage to maximize our savings while also minimizing our expenses.  If you haven't read his blog, you have some summer reading to do.  (Yes, this is homework...you are responsible for the material on his blog...it will be on the test!) If you made your way here via the Mad Fientist website, welcome to my blog.  For what it's worth, this is my take on personal finance, financial independence, and extreme early retirement.  I am certainly no guru, but I believe that many of the concepts that we used to build our wealth might also help others looking to find their financial footing.  It is my sincere hope that a few of my posts might actually help my fellow teachers imp...

[caption id="attachment_449" align="aligncenter" width="550"] St. George Island Here We Come[/caption] April is right around the corner and our March paychecks have already made it to our checking account.  Before we head off to St. Georgia Island, Florida for spring break, I wanted to fire off this hardcore savings goals update.  As the chart shows, we dropped $8,000 into our 457 accounts in March.  Other than that, we saved very little...a whopping $35.  Nonetheless, it was an other banner month.  Enough of this boring money and savings chitchat, we're off to the beach! [table id=14 /] [table id=76 /]

[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...