Thursday, January 22, 2015

Retirement Accounts (Update) - January 2015

For several years now, our retirement accounts have been growing at a decent pace...this year, however, the performance has been pretty anemic! I am thankful that, overall, we are not losing money. But as our readers probably already know, the anemic growth is one of the reasons why our family has now decided to switch our focus towards building our Dividend Stocks Portfolio and P2P Lending Accounts so as to have optional income streams in retirement. Nevertheless, we will still continue to track these accounts as they are still part of our retirement plan.

EXISTING RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS (JANUARY UPDATE):

 
Below is a quick update to show the current values of our retirement accounts as of January 1, 2015.  For a more comprehensive list of values (beginning January 2014) and details of these accounts, please visit the Retirement Accounts page on our blog.
 

As of January 1, 2015

PENSION
Cash Value of Pension$212,588
($2,301 increase from December update of $210,287)
 
457K
Total value of 457K: $118,401
($259 decrease from December  update of $118,660)
 
Roth IRAs
Total value of Roth IRA accounts: $54,349
($669 decrease from December  update of $55,018)
 
Although we saw an overall increase of $1,373 from the three accounts combined, two of the three accounts actually had a decreases in value. As long as the needle moves up, I am certainly not complaining.  It know every month can't be a great month.  We knew the party had to end (or at least slow down) sometime.  After all, in December, we saw an overall gain of $3,002. As for November, we saw an overall gain of $6,311.

As it stands, the total amount of our retirement accounts is currently valued at: $385,338 (up from the $383,965 reported last month). We currently contribute to my 457K (up to my company's match - 3%) and also $200 each to a Roth IRA for both myself and my wife. Although we are not entirely happy with their growth, we still feel that the 457K and Roth IRAs should remain part of our retirement plan.  If for nothing more, the 457K and Roth IRAs will help supplement my pension. With some of the uncertainties around government pension these days, they could very well serve as back-up plans as well. 
 
Click below to view retirement accounts page 

RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS

4 comments:

  1. The markets have been quite volatile so personally I don't really pay too much attention to the overall value on a monthly basis. I only check on a quarterly basis. I think as long as you are contributing to the retirement accounts regularly and executing your investment strategy you should be OK.

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    1. Thanks for the confirmation. We certainly agree and plan to continue to fund our retirement accounts as well as our other investments. In the long run, everything should work out since we only invest with money we do not need in the short term. Worse case is it sits there longer before it grows. :) AFFJ

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  2. Some positive gains in these volatile months is still a good sign, AFFJ. Im not sure I recognize/understand all the account types you've mentioned (since I dont live in the US :), but thanks for sharing. Soldier on!

    R2R

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    1. Thanks R2R...I'll take a positive month over a negative month anytime. Thankfully, we have seen more positive months than negative months in these accounts. Thanks for stopping by.

      Best Wishes! AFFJ

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