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[caption id="attachment_1132" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Aiming for Our Targets [/caption] Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my trillions of readers out there!  With 2015 almost gone and 2016 right around the corner, it's time to 1.) see how we did last year and 2.) establish some goals for the upcoming year. 2015 Results  A year ago I wrote that our goal was to save $106,250 in 2015.  Currently, we have contributed $104,250 to our various accounts, and we are just a little short of hitting our goal.  I'll need to check with my CPA to make sure that I earned enough to top off my IRA with the final $2,100.  (Fortunately, I'll have until April 15th of 2016 to contribute to my IRA if necessary.)  Here is what we did in 2015: [table id=41 /] Wow, I can't believe that we were able to cram so much money into our accounts this year.  As a working-class guy with simple tastes, six-figures of savings is a lot of moola to me.  How...

Greetings to my dozens of readers out there.  Because of the surging stock market, our high savings rate, and our frugal lifestyle, we're slowly approaching our goal of amassing a net worth of $1 million.  Currently, we have a net worth of approximately $900,000, so, barring a total meltdown of the U.S. economy, it looks like we'll hit the 7-figure mark sometime over the next 18 to 24 months. As I watch our net worth grow, my mind starts to race at a furious pace.  While a $1 million net worth is a lot of money to me, I know that it's small change to the money elite.  So, after lots of thought, I have decided to (pardon the cliches) go for the gold and shoot for the moon.  My goal is to exceed the net worth of Bill Gates, Carlos Slim and Warren Buffett combined...I'm going to become a TRILLIONAIRE ! How?  The Nuts and Bolts How do I plan on achieving this lofty goal of $1,000,000,000,000?  First, I'm going to continue investing at least $25,000 every year until I di...

[caption id="attachment_929" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Fall Camp Out with Cub Scouts...Much More Fun Than Tax Planning! [/caption] Anybody out there like free money besides this guy?  Yes, it's October, so it's time for the IRS to release valuable tax information for the upcoming year.  I've been hawking the internet for the 2016 tax-code changes and finally came across  this reliable source .  As usual, we plan on using this tax information to 1.) determine our free money and to 2.) develop a comprehensive tax plan for the next year.  Let the tax planning begin! FREE MONEY  My regular readers know that our " free money " consists of three main components:  the standard deduction, our personal exemptions, and our tax credits.  The total of these three amounts provides us with our free money amount.  In 2016, it appears that we'll be able to earn $34,750 of income before we owe any federal income tax.  Because we're a...

Cool fall greetings to all my current and future millionaire readers. Since September is done and gone, it's time for a Q3 hardcore savings update. As always, we continue to feed our 457 and 403b accounts with the intention of maxing them out in December. So far, so good! Thus far, we've managed to contribute $65,000 into our 457, 403b, and IRA accounts. In total, we have managed to save a little less than $70,000 thus far in 2015. [table id=34 /] How are your savings goals progressing? Good luck to all and keep on hammerin'! [table id=76 /]

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...