October 1st, 2023 paycheck

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Apologies for not publishing on the first, last week and weekend were a blur of activity.

Becca and I traveled to Chicago for a two day internal conference put on by my employer. That was on their dime.

Then I went to a weekend training on Fluid Scaling Technology. That was on my dime.

We drove.

So, rent car in Louisville. Drive, one-way to Chicago. Drop car off in Chicago. Pick up another car. Drive to Detroit. Do the training. Drive m, one-way back to Louisville.

Outside of nutrition I didn’t do much of the health and wellness things.

But, this is about money.

Dividends were paid out and the funds were down. I took the dividends and purchased more shares in the small-cap value fund.

Beyond that, rent was due and I had travel expenses to pay, so didn’t have much to contribute when the paycheck came in, which turned out well because I believe the funds were up when I got paid.

Still appreciating this investment and purchasing approach.

I was looking Vanguard’s app. They added a chat that shows both contributions and returns. It’s interesting because last month my contributions didn’t go up because cash was tight and below the 6 percent but the capital increases went up substantially. Now the capital increase is just barely above the contributions to date, and I’m buying more.

Buy low, sell high and all that.

I did have a minor scare related to my 401k. One set of information looked like I had barely contributed; like, less than half the limit. Another set said I was on track.

I called customer, and got it sorted.

I upped my contribution by 1 percent to ensure I’d have it maxed out year end. This means my next paycheck will be less, and I’m at the diminishing returns point for tax savings.

One thing I learned in 2021 or 2022 is that, based on my salary, the first few percent I contributed per paycheck didn’t reduce my take home pay by much. However, there is a point where it’s no longer beneficial to contribute more.

Basically, let’s say an increase of 1 percent is an extra 100 USD to the account. At lower percentages, my paycheck may only drop by 50 USD. At some point I will hit a contribution percent where increasing the contribution 100 USD will drop my take home pay by 100 USD.

Once I’ve contributed the maximum for the year, I’ll drop back to the previous percent and start anew. Though I am considering leaving it where it is, tracking it with the spreadsheet (I stopped doing that for some reason), and lowering it when the time comes. Should mean the last few checks of the year are higher take home.

We’ll see what happens with the rest of this year.