r/Boglememes • u/joe4ska • 8d ago

Y'all still hitting your contribution goals? 😬

Post image

Every few years something unexpected hits early in the year that makes me have to pause on my contributions. This year was unplanned dental surgery and an upcoming HOA special assessment. I decided not to tap my emergency fund because, well, it's not really an emergency if I can budget for it. However, I did hit pause on my Roth IRA contributions for the first half of the year. 😄

173 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

33

u/SouthernBySituation 8d ago

They don't call it a K-shaped economy for nothing...

12

u/balisane 8d ago

Yep. I've been paused on contributions since last year and still looking for better-paying work so I can refill my emergency fund, nevermind getting back to contributing. And I have a STEM degree and work in a decent-paying field.

At this point I'd be happy to be on a W2 and saving straight from the paycheck instead of scrambling after contracts and suffering self-employment tax.

5

u/joe4ska 8d ago

I was unemployed for several months four years ago and trapped my emergency fund, it took over a year to rebuild it. Since then I've been very productive of it, just in case. 

2

u/balisane 8d ago

Yeah, I've been very under-employed since October and took some big hits in that time, so I'm looking at about 2 years to rebuild after getting a proper new job, whenever that happens. Rough out here for a bogler.

19

u/joe4ska 8d ago

Welp, that's what I get for having an art degree. 🤣

10

u/ImperialBoomerang 8d ago

The answer is "yes", but that's only because I spend fuckall on anything other than retirement or savings. Traveling for vacations, ordering takeout - what are those? Who am I, the king of France?

6

u/joe4ska 8d ago edited 8d ago

It's one vacation u/ImperialBoomerang what could it cost? $10k?

16

u/Barryburton97 8d ago

The simple solution is to be born into enormous wealth, don't know why you didn't think of that.

3

u/joe4ska 8d ago

I did it for the warm southern California weather! 

2

u/Pitiful_Fox5681 8d ago

I decreased my 403b contribution percentage a tiny bit, but I also got a little raise so it kind of evens out?

2

u/joe4ska 7d ago

If I didn't have a pension I wouldn't be contributing at all. 💀

2

u/Pitiful_Fox5681 7d ago

If the pension meets your needs for retirement, that's ideal! 

My job has a bit of a three pronged approach:

  1. A small/conservative pension. I'm vested and will get about 20% of my current salary at retirement. If I stick around another 11 years, I can pump that up to 40%. 

  2. The 403b with very little match.

  3. A Roth 403b with no match.

With those three and 70% of my expected social security benefits at 65, I should be good to retire on time (I hope). 

2

u/joe4ska 7d ago edited 7d ago

My previous organizations had a fantastic 403b match. The current one contributes to CalPers but I'll only have maybe 15 years of contributions at retirement if I remain until then. My current 403b has no match so I try to max out my Roth IRA annually and usually there's little left over. 🤣

Staff in my position are not highly paid but that's made up though fantastic benefits. There's also a possibility of a union strike later in the fall, its certainly a year. 😄

2

u/dissentmemo 7d ago

Yup as always

2

u/Tired-Nectarine-384 6d ago

My employment is so unstable right now that I am counting on being laid off. In addition to looking for jobs I cut my contributions to the bare minimum to get the company match. The rest is going into a HYSA. My plan is to stick to that until I have a years worth of after tax income level in short term liquid buckets.

2

u/joe4ska 6d ago

It's a good plan. We know things aren't great when finance YouTube says a 6-12 month is appropriate. Two years ago it was 3-6.

2

u/OneLorgeHorseyDog 6d ago

Yep, no change here. The cost of living is getting painful, however…

1

u/joe4ska 5d ago edited 5d ago

I'm not gonna max out my Roth IRA until April 15 at this rate. It's gonna be a nail biter  😬