So, with my husband changing jobs and commuting, things just have changed. And one thing that has changed is how we save for retirement. We have moved from our Roth IRAs to his employer's traditional 403b. We did this for multiple reasons, one is that they were using vanguard and the prices were very low, much lower than we could get and two, because we wanted to stay in our current tax bracket (10% for federal) and there are tax credits you can get if you put use a employer plan, not an IRA.
The main one is EITC, the earned income tax credit. EITC is dependent on your wage (minus FSA, health insurance and 403b contributions) and your adjustable income. Both need to be low to get this, and your traditional IRA does not affect your wage, though it will adjust your adjustable income. So we are now putting in $5233 into his 403b this year but his HR was not on the ball as much as we would have liked so, we had to adjust how that money came out. He received his first paycheck without the money being sent to his 403b, so we hoped online and increased the amount to make up for that, but that means we only put away $751 in September. And, because of the decline of the stock market that means we are at $22,836. Still not at $25,000, my gross income, but oh so close. Three more pay periods (aka a month and half) and we will be there. Well, only if the market cooperates. Let's hope please?
As the end of the year comes to a close we will be turning to our taxes and optimizing them which may involve more repairs to the house, we have a list we want to do or increasing or decreasing the 403b contributions. We shall see, and I promise to post all of it here for everyone to see.
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