403(b) Summary: 4th Quarter 2007

One advantage to having a pitiful IRA balance is that when you're losing money, there is not much for you to lose.

My 403(b) summary for the 4th quarter of 2007 came in the mail today. The net result? I've lost $4.44 cents over that time period. Actually, I've lost more but some of the funds had substantial dividends. Losing my money wasn't what bothered me, the balance was a different story.

Since I'm a state employee not participating in the state retirement program, the max I'm allowed to contribute is 6.5%. Luckily, the state matches contributions up to 5% of my salary; so technically, each month 11.5% of my salary is stashed away. Unfortunately, when you're paid as little as I am, there's not a lot going into the account every two weeks.

Within the year, I'd like to start contributing another 3.5% into a Roth IRA. That would bring my IRA contributions to over 10% of my pre-tax salary. Thinking about how this will grow over the next 35+ years makes me smile! July is the ETA for my emergency fund reaching six months worth of expenses; and at that point, I can split my monthly savings between the Roth, the house account, and my emergency fund.

It's just depressing to know that after upping my contribution levels, I will still be a few thousand dollars away from maxing out my yearly contributions.