| Well now, where to begin?
We barely started October before I received a notice from the primary job, that due to my meeting business objectives I've been given a 10% raise, effective 11/1. What a pleasant surprise. Granted there was an over-abundance of work the last 6 months but little did I know how fruitful that would become!
I also had an above-average number of freelance jobs come in, which most have already been paid up in timely fashion. With this, I was able to finally pay off the camera lens purchased back in May, and still came out ahead on the business side of things.
With all this on top of the permanent music gig now in place, I'm within spitting distance of a six-figure income. Woah, never thought I'd get there this quickly. Of course, that pushes me farther up the tax brackets, so there's some calibration to be done. I've already requested my withholding allowance be decreased by 1 to counter these changes, but I have yet to figure out if that's enough (especially if the current tax policy gets pulverized).
I plan on resurrecting my dormant 401k by transferring those funds to an SEP and resuming regular contributions there, which will accomplish 1) saving more retirement funds beyond the current IRA limits I'm up against, and 2) pushing down taxable income. I'm looking into setting this up before the end of the year.
Next, I plan on downgrading my health insurance. Premiums for Gold 80 have risen above $500/mo for 2018, and as much as I go to the doctor (1-2 times a year) that's just not worth a zero-deductible plan. I will complement the new $325 Bronze 60 HDHP by opening up a Health Savings Account (HSA) with monthly contributions, also tax-advantaged, so any claims will come out of this account first (tax free) and also count towards my deductible. Even if something catastrophic happens, I'll have more enough to cover max out-of-pocket expenses. This change should save me in the long-term.
My emergency fund interest rate continues to increase, so it's likely I will transfer additional Savings funds over there and get a slight bump in annual interest income. It's not much, but 1.25% is better than 0.01% by any means.
Yikes, that was a bundle. I still don't expect to reach any milestones by the end of the year, but 2018 is looking up (provided the world doesn't end in some fashion). |