My last blog post was last December, come to think of it, I'm technically able to tap into my retirement accounts. I believe for those who are 59 1/2 years old, your able to draw from these types of accounts without any penalty. But do I need it as this time?
As I gear up for retirement next July, I feel I'm in a bit of a speed bump in saving for retirement. Earlier this year, I was hit with a huge tax bill as well as liability on my home insurance. Apparently a tree fell on my home during the winter season. I had to pay for the deductible and that set me back. Tapping into my emergency reserves was hard, but I'm glad something was in the reserves to tap into, that really helped. Also, for some reason, I didn't withdraw enough in taxes and I ended up paying, that also put me in a pickle to tap into my emergency reserves.
As a result of these sudden expenses, I had to also finance some of the portion on a credit card. Good thing, I was able to snag a couple of credit cards with zero interest for a year to allow me to pay back these expenses I incurred. So, one, emergency reserve fund helps in these situations.
Since this happened, I had to build back up my emergency reserves, so this will take some time.
I think once these areas area stabilized, I think I might be able to breath a little better. Not what I expected in my last year before retiring. I was hoping to save like crazy in my last year, but I think in the long run I should be fine. The other area I cleaned up in the past few months in dealing with my finances was to consolidate my accounts to one brokerage. I had to say goodbye to my financial advisor who was charging me over 1% on assets under management (AUM) fee? It appeared to be a lot for so little that I had in my account. The brokerage I'm with, Fidelity Investments is also the record keeper of my employer's retirement accounts for me. They don't charge as much. So having to focus on on brokerage with nominal fees at this time, saved me tons of money in fees. My focus is to be aggressive in my investing.
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In the next 3 months, I hope to be rid of most of my credit card balances that are not zero interest as well as build up some emergency savings before then. Usually the goal is 3-6 months of monthly expenses. Cross fingers I can be rid of my remaining credit balances in 2025.
Stay tuned. Stay focused on saving and living within my means. I just might be ready for retirement.
