A friend of mine reached out for some advice on how to continue building wealth.
So, I want to go over his info and share some of my thoughts.
Emergency Fund: 6 months in a HYSA
Debt: No debt
Tax Filing Status: Single
Tax Rate: 22% Federal, 5% State
Age: 30
Monthly Income: $6,000 after-tax ($95k/yr gross)
Monthly Expenses: ~$4,900
Current Assets:
Cash (58%) – $94k
Traditional 401(k) (37.5%):
• Voya Index Solution 2060 Portfolio – Service 2 Class (ER: 0.70%)
• Company Match: Yes, 3% after 3% of my contributions
Roth IRA at Fidelity (4.5%):
• Fidelity Total US Market ETF
Notes/Goals:
I have $1,100 every month left over. Currently, I just save that money as I want to buy a house within the next 3-4 years. I don’t invest in anything.
This is what my thoughts were to help build wealth:
HYSA
You are in a 5% state tax bracket.
Currently, with a 4% yield, you are getting $3,760/year pre-tax. Out of this amount, you are paying $188/yr in state taxes.
If you switch to a treasury bill ladder or T-bill ETF, you will save that $188/yr since it’s not taxable at the state level.
Small fix, but that’s an easy $200!
Goal Check
His main goal is to buy a house within 3-4 years. Typically, with such a short time frame, you shouldn’t invest your money in equities, as it’s too risky. You don’t want to sell your investments at a 10% loss if you suddenly need to buy a house.
However, I would adjust one thing – contribute up to the 3% match. That match is a 100% return on your money!
So, with a 3% contribution, you will still have roughly $900/month to allocate toward your housing fund, but that’s an additional $2,850 you are “losing” by not taking advantage of the match.
401(k) Allocation
Currently, you are losing 0.7% in annual fees by using the Voya Index fund. My suggestion is to go over all the available funds in your plan and check whether there are any Fidelity, Vanguard, or Schwab funds.
They will be five times cheaper due to lower annual fees. But even if not, getting that match is still better, even with bad fees.
Roth IRA
Now, we are left over with ~$900/mo that we don’t want to invest, but here’s what we can do:
> Use $900/month and max out your Roth IRA every year. The limit is $7,000 in 2025.
> Put the money in a safe money market fund (like VMFXX).
> If you need the money for a house fund in 3-4 years, withdraw your contributions. You can always withdraw your contributions without any penalty or tax impact.
> If you don’t need the money after buying a house (i.e. you decide to put a lower down payment or the house costs less than expected), invest that money right away.
What this accomplishes is that you are maxing out your Roth IRA, and in case you don’t need that money, you aren’t “wasting” those years when you were saving.
These four things might seem small, but over a number of years, it all adds up to big $$$.