June 2011 Retirement Status

One item that I am planning on making a recurring part of my monthly posting is the inclusion of where I am at with my retirement savings. Over all, my retirement savings and investments are less than where they should be for a couple of reasons:

1) I raided an old 401k to pay off some debt (which, I know, is frowned upon in personal finance circles. In one sense, I do regret it, but in another sense, I can't help but be pleased that I pulled it out in early/mid 2008 before the economy fell in the toilet*).

2) I have been working temp jobs for the better part of two years while I was in grad school.

Nevertheless, here are my current totals:**

Overall, I am fairly pleased; I'm only 29, and I have a sneaking suspicion that even with the amount I already have, I'm still in a lot better place than a lot of my peers. I've been forcefully putting money into my Roth since I opened it in April, and I'm already better than halfway to the limit for 2011. Further, the market over the last couple of days has really helped. Some of my individual investments in the Roth have grown 3-4% in the last few days alone (the fact that this is just bringing them back close to what I paid for them is a fact that tempers my enthusiasm).

My old 401k is an account that I just remembered that I had as I was talking to the company's HR person. On my to-do list in the coming month(s) is to fill out the paperwork to roll that money over into an IRA (probably through ING Direct, through whom I opened my Roth).

The new 401k that I have isn't great as there is no employer match. Still, I wanted to put some money into to try to make up for some lost time over the last couple of years. This 401k is through the temp agency I have been working through for the last several months (though I only started contributing in May). The good news for me is that I am set to be hired on by the company that the temp agency assignment has had me working for, and their 401k plan is amazing (it's a 100% match up to the federal limit). The only problem with my soon-to-be-employer is that I am ineligible for their 401k until I have been with the company for 6 months, so I won't be able to get that amazing benefit until 2012.

I will probably add more to this month-end review as time goes on, but this is a good starting point, I think. How are you doing for retirement?

*Yes, I am aware that nearly all investments have recovered to pre-Great Recession levels, but still, I remain pleased by the coincidence (it was through no sheer intellect on my part that I knew the market was going to tumble and so I pulled out; it was just dumb luck).

**I am pretty positive that I have ~$5,000 in a rollover account. I will update that portion next month when I get my quarterly statement. I will also, at that time, figure out how to monitor that account on line.