Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Save-O-Meter Updates

The emergency fund got a sexy bump today of $1000, courtesy of LaLa, bringing us to 88% of our goal. With the tax refund due in a couple of days I think we may be able to meet this goal this quarter if we stretch a bit. I suppose we should start making a specific plan of where to park this money once the promo rates start expiring for online savings accounts. We want to keep it fairly liquid so we'll be considering options like: online savings, Fidelity Mass Muni fund, CD ladder, & short term t-bill ladder. Stay tuned.

It was also the mid-month payday today and that's when I make Roth contributions. I officially started my 2006 Roth today with a $400 contribution. My plan is to contribute $400 each month so that by mid-December I'll reach the maximum contribution of $4000. I've made a new 2006 Roth-O-Meter to monitor my progress meeting that goal.

With the emergency fund goal in sight and the Roth chugging at a solid pace, it's time to think about re-instating my 401(k) contributions. I feel ready to do this in time for the end of month payday, but the financial condition of my company gives me pause. Even when the cash was actually flowing they were pretty pokey about moving money into my account -- sometimes brushing up against (past?) the legal time limit. So...it's complicated.
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7 comments:

  1. I made them using CSS...some very beginner non-elegant CSS...but it works. To see how i did it, view source on one of my pages and look at the html :)

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  2. What is the legal time limit for companies to make retirement contributions, anyway? It always seems to take my company forever, too.

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  3. Apparently the "deadline" is sort of a fuzzy one. I found *some* info in this article about DOL auditing. It's supposed to be "ASAP" but no later than the 15th of the following month (if I am interpreting that correctly)

    Yeah...that doesn't always happen...but unless we unleash the auditors on our companies, what can we do?

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  4. Caitlin,
    I had about a four week delay for a company I worked for. Apparently, the delay was a data entry one from the financial firm who ran the 401k.
    Sounded like a poor excuse, but I did investigate further and it took about a week for payroll processing records (deductions) to move from one org to another - and can you believe they even had to rekey contributions!

    Love your money meters...any advice for a novice on how to do them?
    Are they automated?

    Thanks.

    Good luck on your goals.

    makingourway
    http://makingourway.blogspot.com

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  5. Caitlin,

    I really enjoy your blog and am looking forward to deciphering the mysteries of your CSS save-o-meters - thank you.
    Is it possible to share links:
    http://makingourway.blogspot.com


    I don't have your e-mail address, so I figured I'd post the request as a comment.

    Thanks.

    m

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  7. I posted a blog regarding the "site-o-meter" that contains the needed code. It is listed as I have modified it for my own site, but if you have any questions or would like me to redo it to any specifications I would be glad to help you do so! Save-O-Meter Code

    Props to Clutter2Cash for creating it!

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