End of my "1st quarter" Look--- Retirement Accounts

The first quarter of 2010 is over… so it’s time to look back at my retirement levels and see the “big picture” of how my finances are doing.

401A Account:

Three Months ago
• 2.80% of my portfolio
• UP 5.89% since inception
• Worth $741.62/685.02 Gain +$56.60

NOW
• 3.08% of my portfolio (0.28% More of my portfolio)
• Up 10.41% since inception (Grew 4.52% in the last three months)
• Worth $866.40/$784.70 Gain +$81.70 (Difference of +$25.10)

Essentially this account is worth a slightly large part of my retirement portfolio… its grown 4.52% in the past three months, and I’ve made an additional $25.10… Not bad for a mandatory 401 at work. =) 100% of the contributions go to a target date 2040 mutual fund.

457 Account:
Three Months ago:
• 3.89% of my portfolio
• Worth $1,032.80
NOW
• 3.67% of my portfolio (-0.22 % of my portfolio)
• Worth $1,033.17 (Gain of $0.37)

Well, it gained a whopping $0.37. Since I can’t do anything with this money, my goal is for it to represent less and less of my portfolio: so a -.22% is a start… maybe by the end of the year it can be in the 2% range…

Roth IRA ING DIRECT:
Three Months ago:
• 9.68% of my portfolio
• Up 2.21% since inception
• Worth $2,267.56/2,500. Gain $67.56

NOW:
• 9.19% of my portfolio
• Up 3.432% since inception (1.22%)
• Worth $2,585.80/$2,500.00. Gain $85.80 (Difference of +$18.24)

Since this account is made up primarily of CD’s, I won’t lose money… but it won’t get spectacular gains either… I also didn’t make any contributions to the account over the first quarter so all I have is the small amount of interest accumulating. One CD came up for renewal… and since rates are shabby, I just stuck it into the savings account. No point locking that money in for a while at 1.10%... I’ll take the 1.00% APY in the savings account and hope for a rate increase soon. What will really hurt my CD account soon is in Sept… my $1,000.00 cd at 4.5% expires…. Sniff Sniff… (a reminder of better interest rate days)

Sharebuilder Roth IRA:
Three Months ago:
• 43.47% of my portfolio
• UP 1.97 since inception.
• Worth $11,532.06/11,500.00 Gain of +$32.06

NOW:
• 44.68% of my portfolio
• Up 2.66% from Inception (+0.69% change since inception)
• Worth $12,575.89/$12,250.00 Gain of +$325.89 (difference of $293.83)

Very nice! I’m finally beginning to see a profit on my accounts! I added a new target date mutual fund to play with for 2010… and I’ve continued to make contributions to my older mutual fund as well.

Over all what have I learned?
For me right now it seems like Target Date accounts are good if you regularly drop money into them. It’s my best performing account for the amount of money that is currently being invested in it. My Employer 401a account has made me 10.41% since inception, and did well for the quarter. (I like to gear things from the point of inception because you could lose a lot of money one year, have stellar gains the next quarter… and it can make your portfolio look better than it really does in the long run.)

Goals for 2nd quarter (April, May, and June)
• Try and get the 457 account below 3% of my portfolio…
• Continue $250 a month to Mutual funds ($100 target date, $150.00 ING Mutual fund)… I may get one Extra paycheck (its june or july) and my goal is to take $1,000.00 and buy Cd’s slowly with it. (Hopefully rates will go up!)
• Hopefully my 401a contributions aren’t cut when the budget cuts go through… I’d rather pay more for my pension right now then miss out on the upswing this account has the possibility of continuing…
• Continue doing my pension buy-back…. 32 more installment payments to go!