Initial 2008 Budget

$150K/year pre-tax income.
$15.5K for wife's 401k
That leaves $134.5K pre-tax or $88.7K after-tax.
$15.5K for my Roth 401k
and
$10K for our Roth IRAs.

That gives us a monthly income of $5200 which needs to be deducted by
$2800 for all bills, including mortgage. The leftover is $2400.

We are planning to use $1000 to pre-pay the mortgage, and put the rest (after food expenses) in either stock market (if the condition is good) or in high-interest saving accounts.

This is a very simple on-the-napkin budgeting. If we manage to follow this, our net worth will increase by $62.4K by the end of 2008.

Choosing Benefits for 2008

It is that time of the year again. The last call for changing our 2008 Q1 benefit is coming soon.
We are not planning to change anything much. We are keeping the HMOs, the dentals, the 401ks (of course!), and basic life insurances.

One thing that shocked us was the increase for HMO plan: from $35 to $50 months! My company is offering HRA which costs only $15/month. It is tempting, but despite attending the seminar twice, I still do not understand it. May be I am too dense, but I am not going with HRA despite its cheaper cost until I understand it completely. Isn't there an advice not to invest in something you don't understand? Isn't the health plan a form of investment on our health?

Starting 2008, my company is offering Roth 401k. I'm switching from traditional 401k to Roth 401k. Unfortunately, my wife's company isn't offering one yet.