I am starting a new job on Monday, and I am trying to figure out what my taxes will be. Basically what I'm trying to do is contribute enough to my 401k to get my tax liability to zero, then put the rest of my paycheck (beyond expenses) into my Roth IRA and/or savings for our house downpayment.
According to the w-4 worksheet, I should be claiming 7. My salary will be $45k. I also work as an independent contractor for a different company and have been averaging $2k/month income, but this will likely go down once I start my new job. Taxes are not withheld by the company I do the independent contracting for. I file as HoH, 2 dependents but no childcare expenses, and I will be in school half-time starting in Fall. I live in CA, so there's state income tax too.
My new employer does not match any 401k contributions, and I'm not sure yet what the fund options are. My Roth IRA is a rollover from a 401k with a previous employer and was worth ~$9k at the time of the rollover (rolled over in 2016), so I'll have to take that into consideration for the 2016 tax year too. It is 100% in VTSMX, but I'm about to throw a few hundred in there to switch to VTSAX.
Can anyone guide me in accomplishing this? Let me know if I've left anything important out.