Quote:
Originally Posted by Acemanhattan
I think it might be a few years out; I risk losing a substantial amount of financial aid for school if we get married.
Okay.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acemanhattan
The way it looks, if we max out her contribution for 2013 and then turn around and instantly do it again in January of 2014, we will still have around $15,000 to invest over the course of 2014.
Can you elaborate on the bolded? I am naive so I don't know anything about tax implications (other than what I know about the tax advantages of a Roth), but I would have thought, if you aren't going to touch the money, wouldn't you not have to worry about taxes until you realized the gains (IE until you withdrew money)?
Her company will match 40% up to the first 5% of her contributions to a 401(k). If it matters, she will only be there another 2 years & that only vests her 60%.
Okay, so you need to find out what investment options you have in her 401k. It would also be helpful to understand your current income vs. projected future income. My advise is based on the assumption that your income will probably go up significantly.
Most likely, this should be your order of investment:
1. Invest in 401k to maximize match, EVEN if you are gonna lose some of the vesting. Free money is free money! If they allow Roth 401k contributions for her part, do that.
2. Maximize Roth contributions.
3. Cap out the 401k, assuming the investment options don't uber-suck. Edit: Actually, on second thought, you should do this even if the investments suck, because when she leaves in 2 years, you can roll it over and easily move the money to Vanguard funds.
I think that would more than soak up the money you were talking about, although I didn't do the math. That should eliminate the entire issue of taxable accounts and worrying about tax placement of your investments that I bought up earlier.