Author Topic: Where should I invest a little money?  (Read 4254 times)

windawake

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Where should I invest a little money?
« on: March 18, 2014, 09:54:43 AM »
I currently have over $7k in an emergency savings account which is probably too much since about $4,500 will cover living expenses for three months. I'm trying to figure out what to do with some of it. I was thinking either an IRA or a Vanguard mutual fund. Anyone have recommendations?

I'm planning to make some big contributions to my 401k and get close to maxing it out this year. Currently I'm only contributing 10% because the rest of my money is going into my HSA in order to pay for LASIK surgery on May 2nd, but that'll only be happening for another two paychecks.

Cromacster

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Re: Where should I invest a little money?
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2014, 02:34:15 PM »
Nice, if you max your HSA and your 401(k) Kudos!

If you can do both of those....making some assumptions here, you are only paying around 8% total in taxes between fed and state.

I'm not sure how the savers credit works, so that might be something worth looking.

If you end up going for an IRA (Roth or Traditional) as most people here will tell you, go with Vanguard.  With such a low tax rate, I'd go with a Roth, but there might be other ways to limit your tax burden even further.  An easy set it and (sort of) forget it are the target date funds.  Might be a good place to start. 

Other than that, read, learn, read more.  You've been around the forums so you should know about Jlcollinsnh stock series, so give that a go if you have not yet.

http://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/

windawake

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Re: Where should I invest a little money?
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2014, 02:50:08 PM »
Thanks! I just signed up for a traditional IRA for the 2014 tax year through Vanguard. I looked at the jlcollinsnh website to figure out what mutual fund to choose. Can't say I really know what I'm doing but what the hell, I'm giving it a shot. It looks like I'll be pretty close to maxing out my HSA this year, but I'll be using all that money so I never have to wear glasses again (until I'm older and need cheaters). And to me, that's an incredible investment.

windawake

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Re: Where should I invest a little money?
« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2014, 06:16:36 PM »
Serpentstooth, that's awesome! My health insurance is $8/paycheck and transit is $10/paycheck (although I'll probably discontinue this soon since it's now biking season). I'm also contributing at least $2,700 to my HSA this year and possibly more. The only issue I see with those calculations is I'm not sure I can live on less than $18k/year. I'm definitely trying to cut down but my expenses tend to hover right around $1,500/month. I'm also interested in having some after tax savings eventually for when I do the IRA pipeline thing.

windawake

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Re: Where should I invest a little money?
« Reply #4 on: March 18, 2014, 07:15:22 PM »
My paycheck frequency is every two weeks. Thanks for this! It's really interesting.

windawake

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Re: Where should I invest a little money?
« Reply #5 on: March 18, 2014, 08:33:49 PM »
Wow, serpentstooth, this is amazing! Thank you for putting this together for me.

windawake

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Re: Where should I invest a little money?
« Reply #6 on: March 18, 2014, 08:34:18 PM »
Oh and I'm not a state employee.