Hello everyone - I love the site - just discovered it earlier today but I've already wasted a significant amount of time reading through other posts.
I'm 32 with a wife and 2 boys. I use excel to track all our spending, college funding and retirment goals and have been doing so since getting married. Prior to that I wasn't too focused on any long term goals. Now that I need to look forward more effectively, I have our a budget/plan set until my wife and I turn 90!
A couple questions that I'd be interested in hearing feedback about:
1) My company matches 100% of my 401k contributions up to 3% and while in previous years I've consistently put 7% into the 401k, starting on 1/1/08 I decided to put this additional 4% into a ROTH IRA with the assumption that I will be in a higher tax bracket during retirment than I am right now. With my wife staying home and 2 young boys - I pay an effective tax rate of around 4% for both federal and state taxes. I assume this rate will only increase for the rest of my working life. Does anyone disagree with this line of thinking?
2) Another question I'd pose to the group is whether or not I should use this 4% to pay down my HELOC quicker (currently at 8%). I debated this issue for a few months at the end of last year, but at the end of the day decided that with the tax benefit of the HELOC lowering my effective interest rate closer to 6% I'd prefer to build my nest egg.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
I'm 32 with a wife and 2 boys. I use excel to track all our spending, college funding and retirment goals and have been doing so since getting married. Prior to that I wasn't too focused on any long term goals. Now that I need to look forward more effectively, I have our a budget/plan set until my wife and I turn 90!
A couple questions that I'd be interested in hearing feedback about:
1) My company matches 100% of my 401k contributions up to 3% and while in previous years I've consistently put 7% into the 401k, starting on 1/1/08 I decided to put this additional 4% into a ROTH IRA with the assumption that I will be in a higher tax bracket during retirment than I am right now. With my wife staying home and 2 young boys - I pay an effective tax rate of around 4% for both federal and state taxes. I assume this rate will only increase for the rest of my working life. Does anyone disagree with this line of thinking?
2) Another question I'd pose to the group is whether or not I should use this 4% to pay down my HELOC quicker (currently at 8%). I debated this issue for a few months at the end of last year, but at the end of the day decided that with the tax benefit of the HELOC lowering my effective interest rate closer to 6% I'd prefer to build my nest egg.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.