My Plan for 2023

[WhatsHisNuts]

I may end up going into more detail depending on interest level but I figured I'd lay out my plan somewhere and I suppose this is as good as any a place. This is for the household, which has two incomes.

EXPENSE TRACKING

• I will continue tracking joint account expenses and my personal expenses through 2023, but it's likely to be the last year of logging everything. I've logged everything over the last two years +, so I know what my/our life costs.
• If you haven't done this, I highly recommend it. It's the only way you'll understand your true personal finance picture.

BUDGET

• This is tied to the header above. Probably the last year for laying out a budget plan.
• My high level categories that I track are: Auto, Discretionary, Golf, Household, Rental Property, Medical, Taxes, Investment (Brokerage). I split out Golf from discretionary because it is a large category for me.

EMERGENCY FUND

• Maintain one year's worth of expenses

HSA/MEDICAL

• I'll max this out again this year, move everything over $1k into the linked brokerage as the year goes.
• I no longer use this for medical expenses. The investment opp is too good so I pay for all my stuff out of pocket (which is almost nothing)

401k

• Both of us will only be contributing enough to get the company match.
• Based on future projections for what we already have in these accounts, there's not much need to tie up money that we'll want to access before we're 59.5

ROTH IRA

• I would max this out if eligible, but we're not.

IRA (existing accounts)

• I'll tinker with these old 401k accounts that we rolled into IRA accounts but won't be adding anything. Focus will be on S&P 500 ETFs, dividend paying companies/ETFs, and REITs

DEFERRED COMP

• Only one of us has this benefit and we'll be jumping on it heavy again this year.

COMPANY STOCK PURCHASE PLAN

• Only one of us has this benefit but we won't do much with it.

SERIES I BONDS

• Buy more this January

BROKERAGE ACCOUNTS

• Keep auto investing into S&P 500 ETFs, dividend paying companies/ETFs
• Leave the Fundrise account as is. No adding to it this year.

RENTAL PROPERTY

• Continue using income to pay off existing mortgage but won't pay ahead while inflation remains high

TAXES

• Pay quarterly as usual (rental property income)
• Take advantage of tax loss harvesting before end of year (if available)

 

[yyz]

Don't forget to pray. Praying is very important.

:0074

 

[WhatsHisNuts]

If the real estate market tanks, I'd be looking to pick something up (lake property or something else to rent out). If it starts to happen, I don't see the buying opportunity to be in 2023 but 2024 or 2025. It's going to take awhile (IMO) for prices to drop substantially.

 

[WhatsHisNuts]

Don't forget to pray. Praying is very important.

:0074

I'll leave that to Buddy.

Also: I won't be touching crypto anything. Have at it.

 

[yyz]

I'll leave that to Buddy.

Also: I won't be touching crypto anything. Have at it.

I hope all MJ members make out swimmingly on crypto, but I don't have the nerve to go after it.

 

[kickserv]

Don't forget to pray. Praying is very important.

:0074

Thoughts and prayers.

You gotta add in the "thoughts", you can't just have praying all by itself, you just can't.

 

[kickserv]

TAXES

• Pay quarterly as usual (rental property income)
• Take advantage of tax loss harvesting before end of year (if available)

In the USA churches don't pay tax....so just call yourself a church and bam.......big money saved:0071

 

[WhatsHisNuts]

For the main brokerage accounts, here's the direction I'm mostly going in:

SCHD (ETF)
VOO (ETF)
VYM (ETF)
TXRH
SPGI
CHD
UNP
TROW

401k & IRAs:
S&P 500 funds
Total Market funds
SCHD
VYM
O
VICI
PLD
AMT

I've tried to perform my own company valuations but it's too time consuming and I just don't feel confident in the results so most of the above is from the portfolios of Joseph Carlson and GenExDividendInvestor. They are both huge fans of AAPL, MSFT, and COST, which are all heavily represented in S&P 500 funds weighted by market cap.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

I may end up going into more detail depending on interest level but I figured I'd lay out my plan somewhere and I suppose this is as good as any a place. This is for the household, which has two incomes.

EXPENSE TRACKING

• I will continue tracking joint account expenses and my personal expenses through 2023, but it's likely to be the last year of logging everything. I've logged everything over the last two years +, so I know what my/our life costs.
• If you haven't done this, I highly recommend it. It's the only way you'll understand your true personal finance picture.

BUDGET

• This is tied to the header above. Probably the last year for laying out a budget plan.
• My high level categories that I track are: Auto, Discretionary, Golf, Household, Rental Property, Medical, Taxes, Investment (Brokerage). I split out Golf from discretionary because it is a large category for me.

EMERGENCY FUND

• Maintain one year's worth of expenses

HSA/MEDICAL

• I'll max this out again this year, move everything over $1k into the linked brokerage as the year goes.
• I no longer use this for medical expenses. The investment opp is too good so I pay for all my stuff out of pocket (which is almost nothing)

401k

• Both of us will only be contributing enough to get the company match.
• Based on future projections for what we already have in these accounts, there's not much need to tie up money that we'll want to access before we're 59.5

ROTH IRA

• I would max this out if eligible, but we're not.

IRA (existing accounts)

• I'll tinker with these old 401k accounts that we rolled into IRA accounts but won't be adding anything. Focus will be on S&P 500 ETFs, dividend paying companies/ETFs, and REITs

DEFERRED COMP

• Only one of us has this benefit and we'll be jumping on it heavy again this year.

COMPANY STOCK PURCHASE PLAN

• Only one of us has this benefit but we won't do much with it.

SERIES I BONDS

• Buy more this January

BROKERAGE ACCOUNTS

• Keep auto investing into S&P 500 ETFs, dividend paying companies/ETFs
• Leave the Fundrise account as is. No adding to it this year.

RENTAL PROPERTY

• Continue using income to pay off existing mortgage but won't pay ahead while inflation remains high

TAXES

• Pay quarterly as usual (rental property income)
• Take advantage of tax loss harvesting before end of year (if available)

Excellent advice in all catagories Gary and I'm not surprised.. A great road for all to follow. I have a few tangents off your main road I'll go into if you like but don't want to corrupt the focal points you made in great thread.

A prosperous and healthy New Year to you and yours

 

[WhatsHisNuts]

Excellent advice in all catagories Gary and I'm not surprised.. A great road for all to follow. I have a few tangents off your main road I'll go into if you like but don't want to corrupt the focal points you made in great thread.

A prosperous and healthy New Year to you and yours

Fire away. I was hoping someone would chime in with their thoughts or versions.

Cheers :toast:

 

[redsfann]

Great point about not paying ahead on a mortgage, car loan or any other long term loan you may have when inflation is running as high as it is. Only debt we currently have is a 0% car loan with two years left. Could write a check tomorrow, but when todays money will be that much more degraded due to inflation, I’ll go ahead and continue to pay it monthly.
Also the I bonds are a great way to save at the present. The interest rate has come down a bit in this current 6 month cycle but it’s still high at 6.89% through April of 2023.

assuming the assholes in Washington don’t default on our debt, then all bets are off… on everything :sadwave:

 

[WhatsHisNuts]

Great point about not paying ahead on a mortgage, car loan or any other long term loan you may have when inflation is running as high as it is. Only debt we currently have is a 0% car loan with two years left. Could write a check tomorrow, but when todays money will be that much more degraded due to inflation, I’ll go ahead and continue to pay it monthly.
Also the I bonds are a great way to save at the present. The interest rate has come down a bit in this current 6 month cycle but it’s still high at 6.89% through April of 2023.

The peace of mind you get from eliminating or aggressively paying down debt has finally met its match! :mj07:

 

[redsfann]

The peace of mind you get from eliminating or aggressively paying down debt has finally met its match! :mj07:

Indeed. Used to be very aggressive in paying back loans as I hate any debt, even so called “good” debt like a mortgage or student loans.
Decided when we took out the car loan that we’d take the whole 5 years to pay it off. Even 2% inflation for 5 years means the payment at the end of the loan wouldn’t buy as much as it would have at the beginning.

 

[WhatsHisNuts]

Indeed. Used to be very aggressive in paying back loans as I hate any debt, even so called “good” debt like a mortgage or student loans.
Decided when we took out the car loan that we’d take the whole 5 years to pay it off. Even 2% inflation for 5 years means the payment at the end of the loan wouldn’t buy as much as it would have at the beginning.

We share the same mindset. I totally understand the concept of good debt and how the rich use it to their advantage but I have always been driven to get rid of it ASAP.....but the high inflation environment finally drove me to change my ways.

 

[MadJack]

• Maintain one year's worth of expenses

Where do you keep these funds?

I'm starting to feel uncomfortable leaving a large amount of money in bank accounts.

FDIC insured my ass. Not if there's a run.

 

[WhatsHisNuts]

Where do you keep these funds?

I'm starting to feel uncomfortable leaving a large amount of money in bank accounts.

FDIC insured my ass. Not if there's a run.

Money Market account. I trust the FDIC :toast:

 

[WhatsHisNuts]

It's getting hard to ignore some of these T-Bill and other rates. Anyone jumping on any of the bank offerings now that interest rates are climbing?

 

[WhatsHisNuts]

SERIES I BONDS

• Buy more this January

RENTAL PROPERTY

• Continue using income to pay off existing mortgage but won't pay ahead while inflation remains high

Update:

The I Bond rates are continuing to drop as inflation recedes so we won't be buying any more next year.

The rental property was partially refinanced via a variable rate HELOC. I've started hammering away at that as the interest rates have risen to 7.5%.

 

[MadJack]

I have been adding to my positions in BTC, ADA, and ETH. The next 2 years will be exciting for people in crypto.

 

[hedgehog]

I have been adding to my positions in BTC, ADA, and ETH. The next 2 years will be exciting for people in crypto.

I thought about buying more BTC and ETH myself. The ETH I have has gone up in the last couple years, I sold enough to get out whole and left the rest 3-4 years back, I have never sold any of my BTC after buying when it was 790 per BTC, don't want to pay the taxes lol

I dipped my toes in some weed stocks a couple years back hoping it would be legal federally soon with the dems in charge, they let me down big time so far

May be worth looking into AI stocks too