Monthly Update: April 2007(-$68,225.46, +$6,126.86)
After watching our small portfolio make noticeable gains over the past two months I am beginning to develop an appreciation for the power the stock market has for building wealth. As the stock market continues to set new highs, the gains in our portfolio are adding a noticeable pep to our monthly monthly savings. After a couple of good months it is easy to see how everyone thought they would be able to retire 10 years early during the boom at the end of the late 1990′s. As much fun as it is to our portfolio’s rise, the reality is that I will likely see a bear market or two before I retire.
Some Guidance to our month’s finances:
- The new Traditional IRA was opened for the 2006 Tax year in order to decrease our tax burden from ~$1300 to ~$300. As nervous as I was about investing lump sum in a peak market, as long as we don’t see a greater than 25% decrease over the next year it will have been the right choice financially.
- We continue to save a significant portion of our income. Our goal is to be able to live off of a single income by the end of this year in anticipation of eventually going to a single income household.
- I continue to dollar cost average my way into my Roth for 2007. It appears I may need to make a lump sum deposit at the end of this year to reach the maximum contribution limits.
- now that we are a few months into the year our good habits have really helped make saving a habit. In our effort to squeeze some additional monthly savings we canceled our gym membership which will save us about $70/month.
We have hit a bit of a lull in our financial management. This has been directly related to an increase in our work hours. We will continue to focus on the big picture and do the right thing for the time being but I am afraid it is part of human nature to to become more lackadaisical when everything is going well.
