On being an adult

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 I don't feel like an adult often. I mean I do, but not really. I generally feel like I'm an imposter. I know, imposter syndrome, but in this case it's true. I said a while back that being an adult is making a series of decisions you are just not qualified to make. And I generally feel that way. I know that I have to act like I know what I'm doing and plow ahead, but inside I generally don't know what I'm doing. Luckily, most of the time things work out okay so that's good. 

Thanks to YNAB I have gotten my financial situation in order. I have gone from living paycheck to paycheck to not even looking at my bank balance because I know where all my money is. I have a couple of savings accounts with very healthy balances. But now I'm looking for more. Let me back up a minute. 

I have always said that I would never retire completely because I get bored just sitting around the house. And while that is true, I think part of that came from the fact that I never planned for retirement. I've now been in my current job for 6 years and have been forced to contribute to the state retirement system. So now I have about $40,000 in that retirement and since I have to work until I get forgiveness for my student loans, I'll be in another 6-7 years. Their simulator shows that if I continue to contribute at the current rate, I'll get $1500 a month when I retire in 8 years. That's not bad. Since I will be 69 at that time, if I delay my retirement until I'm 70 I'll get $2900 from social security. That would be a total of $4400 a month. Along with hubby's retirement, we could do that. So I never considered that I would even live this long, much less worried about preparing for retirement. So I've joined the bandwagon a little bit late, but I guess it's better than never. 

So back to my original statement, I'm considering things that will help me in my retirement. Rather than just sitting in a savings account making very little interest, I could be investing those dollars. I have a HSA account I'm not using to the full extent. I can open a Roth IRA now and contribute to that. I can contribute $7,000 a year to that. And if I don't touch that for another 8 - 10 years that should be a nice chunk of change. Okay, so I just went and did a little tiny bit of research and discovered that I can't have a Roth IRA. I have to file taxes separately because of my student loan forgiveness program and you aren't eligible for a Roth if you file separately and make over $10,000 a year. Hmmmm....that is a weird rule that I don't completely understand but okay. However, that does mean I have no reason not to load up my HSA every year. I could also open a regular investment account and just do it that way. This has given me some more to think about and I need to get moving. 

More later........

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