Category: Roth IRA Challenge

The reds are running and I’m off with the family to go fishing! (I’ll reveal this year’s catch on the blog next week!) Meanwhile, today’s Roth IRA Challenge comes to us from Belgium! The author of Amber Tree Leaves is another parent on the journey toward financial independence. Go check out his blog! Today’s post discusses real estate in Belgium with fascinating perspectives on ownership and its implications. Enjoy!

Back in 2001, when I broke with my girlfriend, I moved back home. After a few years living alone when studying, and then with the girlfriend, it was a change in life. Time to get a place of my own.

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Today, while we’re flying back from the UK/Paris, I would like to introduce you to my friends over at Ditching the Daily Grind. They are lucky enough to be able to MOVE to the UK next month! (I’m thoroughly jealous, obviously!) We’re delaying our June plan update to next week, so stay tuned for all those travel costs we’ve incurred! But for now, we get an awesome spin on the Roth IRA Challenge all about U.S. Reserve Military Service. Mr. DTG gives a thorough, fascinating look at the possibilities. After you read his post, go read their blog and wish them safe travels on the new adventure!

I’m not the type of person to live with regrets, but one thing I wish we’d done earlier is open Roth IRAs and fully max them out.  Until a few years ago, we were intimidated by the stock market and our only real investments were our Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) accounts, the U.S. federal government’s version of a 401(k).  I can’t help but think of the tens of thousands of dollars in potential investment gains we left on the table.

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I love today’s contribution to the Roth IRA Challenge. Des over at Half Banked is awesome at talking about financial basics and helping you apply the principles to your own situation. Today is a perfect example of that! The Roth IRA Challenge is all about figuring out how to earn and/or raise $5500 and make sure it goes towards the goals you want. After you learn loads and get excited to read more and do more, go check out her blog. Also, in my defense, the following conversation never happened, but I’ll let Des take it from here…

Maggie: Des, you should participate in the Roth IRA Challenge!

Des: Are you sure?! I’m not really a side-hustler – unless my sad fledgling Etsy store counts?

Maggie: Well, how much have you made from it?

Des: *checks total* Tens of dollars!

Maggie: …

A proficient side-hustler, I am not.

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Amanda over at Dream Beyond Debt took the Roth IRA Challenge. I followed Amanda and her amazing writing and story as she successfully worked her way out of debt and she is still doing amazing things. Her new goal is to save her first $100,000. She’s also the host of  #PFBookChat which you should definitely check out! Take it away Amanda…

When I finally made the decision to attack my $48,000 balance of long-standing student loan debt, I was already living pretty close to the bone. The year before I committed to my loan payoff journey, I was an underemployed underearner who had just declared bankruptcy. I was living on a tiny salary that I cobbled together through various teaching positions, temporary gigs, and freelance work. I lived with a roommate, kept my 14-year-old car once it was paid off, and shopped for groceries at the local discount store. I didn’t feel deprived, but I also didn’t feel like I was moving forward in any way. That’s when I decided to pay off those loans as quickly as I could. I reasoned that my small salary could stretch a lot further if I didn’t have those loans looming over my head.

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Today’s Roth IRA Challenge is from Taylor over at The Freedom From Money. Taylor started her awesome blog to track kicking her debt. She successfully did it in just seven months! She now talks about how to be overall awesome like she is. Her writing is wonderful, her insights are fabulous, and her exuberance is contagious. She’s here today to talk a bit about her debt journey. After you read it (and love it, obviously), go read her blog! 

Seven months ago, I had $14,000 in debt. Today, the number is zero. When I graduated from college one year ago, I knew that I wanted my debt gone as soon as possible. I never wanted to feel trapped in a particular job, location or relationship. Instead, I wanted complete freedom and I knew that loan repayment was the first step.

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I’m really excited about today’s Roth IRA Challenge! Mr. Groovy is joining us today from over at Freedom is Groovy where he and his wife write about their collective journey to leave the rat race to “Take a Hit of Freedom” (as their blog tagline declares). They are hilarious writers with fascinating, original takes on the same topics we all discuss. Today’s guest post is a perfect example. Mr. Groovy asked if he could do a new twist on the Roth IRA Challenge – what to do with the money AFTER you max out a Roth IRA (“Of Course!” I said. “What a brilliant idea!”). So, he’s here today to give a great guide to investing with an awesome asset allocation tool for all of you! Take it away Mr. Groovy:

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Happy Friday everyone! I’m so excited to introduce Kara today on the blog. She writes over at From Frugal to Free. She has a track record of kicking debt fast and now she’s just about to venture out on her own! She’s here today to report on taking the Roth IRA Challenge which tracks $5500 of money (how it was earned, where it went, and lessons learned). Take it away, Kara….

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I am absolutely loving this guest series! Today, I introduce you to another blogger-friend of mine, Penny from She Picks Up Pennies. Penny and her husband took the Roth IRA Challenge together and successfully funded two Roth IRAs with side hustle income! Check out how they did it:

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Another awesome blogger took the Roth IRA Challenge! Here’s Harmony Smith from over at Creating My Kaleidoscope to tell us about how she added $5,500 (the amount of money it takes to max out a Roth IRA) to her budget and what she did with the money:

Debt sucks. We’re still deep in the hole, but working hard to dig ourselves out. 2015 was a pretty momentous year in that we welcomed our third child into the family. I was pleased to look back on our finances and realize that we were able to pay off more than $20,000 in debt over the year, despite taking extended parental leave. Our success was due to the combined effect of saving money and increasing our income. This is how we came up with $5,500 of our debt-repayment money, an amount which we’d much rather be investing in a Roth IRA.

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We’re starting a new guest series. I’ve wanted a way to highlight awesome people and awesome bloggers. So, I issue a challenge: The Roth IRA challenge is about documenting how you found or earned an extra $5500 and what you did with the money. It’s called the Roth IRA challenge because that is enough to max out one Roth IRA in a year though I realize most people will have other specific goals for that money. Today, our friends over at Two Cup House kick off the challenge. Enjoy! Over to you, Claudia:

When we kicked off our personal finance journey exactly one year ago this month, we started by addressing the most obvious area: spending.  After cutting our spending significantly and setting a realistic budget we could live with, I imagine that we could have met the prerequisite of this Roth IRA challenge within a few months.  But we had other plans for our cash.

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