My Finance: Retirement Planning

I have mentioned before that I work for a nonprofit organization. Our retirement account was through a 401(K) plan with Wachovia. Last month, my co-workers voted to change our retirement plan from a 401(K) to a 403B Thrift account with Mutual of America. 403B Thrift plans are specifically for nonprofit organizations. I am very excited about the change for several reasons. First of all, when my employer was with Wachovia, we had a $40.00 a year account maintenance fee that we were billed for. We did not have Internet access to our account, therefore, we did not know day to day what was going on with our account and we could not make changes to our investments easily. With Mutual of America, we don't have an account maintenance fee and we have Internet access! I was originally only contributing $150.00 a month to the 401(K) plan, now I am contributing $200.00 a month to the 403(B) account. With my employer match program, there will be $400.00 a month going into my retirement account. It's not a whole lot, but it is a start for me. Plus, I am only 28, so I have a loooooong time until retirment. I will increase my contribution again in February when I get my cost of living raise. I was aggressively investing my money with the 401(K) account, but the way the economy is, I changed to just saving my money for right now and I"ll venture back into investing when the economy picks back up. If anyone here knows of a better strategy, please let me know! I am also rolling over the money from my 401(K) account to the 403(B) account. Well, I guess that is all on the financial front for today.

My Life, My Love, My Finance

Love Ya,

Ms. HM

Got A Pay Raise.........BUT.........

So, as of August 7, 2008, I have been with my current employer for 2 years. After my evaluation, I got the standard pay raise. The pay raise did not go into effect until the first of this month. As I told you, I work for a non-profit organization and our salaries are set. It does not matter how good, mediocre, or bad an employee is, you will get the same raise regardless. When I got paid, I hardly even noticed that I got a raise. I got my second paystub today with the pay raise rate, and guess what.........my health insurance went up 25%! Now, my check is less than it was before I got the raise! This sucks! I think I need to get my resume out and update it. Maybe it is time to start looking for something else, but in this economy, I don't even know what to expect. I am already struggling to meet or even keep up with my financial goals. At this rate, I can't even save much. Due to the decrease in my check, I am going to have to cut cost somewhere else. Anyway, I need to get back to my job, so I'll blog with you later.

My Life, My Love, My Finance

Love ya,

Ms. HM