I intended to write this post with parts 1 and 2 but baby #5 (or #3 depending on who’s counting) arrived. Mom and baby are healthy. Mom and dad are sleep deprived. I made three retirement contribution changes recently. Two in one direction and a third in the opposite direction because I’m a walking contradiction.
Last year I was closely watching some tax law proposals that would close the mega backdoor Roth loophole. Nine months later I voluntarily changed my 10% after tax 401k contribution with immediate conversion to Roth 401k to zero. This 10% raise will go towards an emergency cash fund to cover my last 3 years of child support.
At the end of each year I’ve cued up 6k in cash for a January 1st traditional IRA contribution that I backdoor convert to my Roth IRA as soon as Vanguard lets me. This year I will use that 6k in cash to fund monthly cash flow for my third move. Perhaps I’ll make a backdoor Roth IRA contribution later in 2023. Perhaps I won’t.
The third move I made was to increase my before tax 401k deferral from 28% to 70% of my paycheck. If my math is correct, I should hit the 2023 max 401k contribution of 22.5k by mid March. That’s a big acceleration of the past few years where I hit the max in July. Why? Because I think I can pull this early retirement extreme move off. Stay tuned for a better explanation as I explore new job opportunities or early retirement by mid 2023.
