Continuing with this series where I look at what progress I’ve made when I created my Money Manifesto shortly after starting this blog in 2013, today’s topic is IRA contributions.

I tracked this a little better because when I checked out the manifesto, I had actually linked each year through 2018 to the accountability update each year when I managed to do this!

• November 2013 (Roth account balance: $12,451.24)
• October 2014 (Roth account balance: $19,090.55)
• October 2015 (Roth account balance: $25,138.86)
• April 2016 (Roth account balance: $31,214.09)
• August 2017 (Roth account balance: $43,296.08)
• February 2018 (Roth account balance: $53,432.67)

And then I did a little digging and thanks to my neurotic tracking, I was able to find 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

• June 2019 (Roth account balance: $60,342.34)
• March 2020 (Roth account balance: $57,906.18)
• June 2021 (Roth account balance: $104,719.98)
• February 2022 (Roth account balance: $107,055.62)

So reflecting on this, I realized a few things.

One – I was sure I managed to max out that account in January one year, because it’s been one of my stretch goals for as long as I can remember, but apparently sometimes we delude ourselves and keeping good records can help prove our delusions. 

Two – the just between 2020 and 2021 and freaking insane to me. Like, I acknowledge I managed to max that thing out in 2020 at the peak of the pandemic panic and by June 2021 we were well into “isn’t this a bit sketchy how well the market is doing?” but it’s still wild to me to see it like that.

So if you’ve ever wondered whether it’s worth it or not to just ride it out when things are a bit unpredictable… apparently it can turn out just fine.

I also felt a bit better looking at my 2022 account balance after seeing all these years listed. Most years it only goes up a little bit on top of what I contributed, but by just plugging along, I was able to catch one of the major jump years.

…I will also try to remind myself of this if someday there is an equivalent correction.

Or, even on a smaller scale, when I note that I maxed out my account for 2022 and it’s less than $3k above what it was in 2021…

Just keep swimming.

It also makes me feel ok about totally forgetting to refer back to the Manifesto. I still have a very long time until retirement, and my Roth IRA is a target date account, so it should be rebalancing itself thanks to Fidelity.

I know it’s been helpful to me to set a goal at the start of each year to max out my IRA. On a perhaps less healthy side, I get kind of neurotic about my goals, like I don’t feel like I relax financially each year until my financial goals are met.

It’s a weird double edged sword because this has clearly been a useful neurosis for my bank accounts, though my brain and stomach both wish I could chill a bit better.

Overall though, setting goals = definitely helpful for me.

My IRA was also probably the first “good” financial decisions I made. I opened it while I had some extra money while working on cruise ships circa 2010. As you can see above, between 2010 and 2012, I managed to contribute about $7,500 total, $2,000 of that was to open the account.

FYI – that’s not really a thing anymore. You can open an IRA at many institutions without a massive initial contribution these days. Back in my day, you did need to make a substantial deposit to open one.

The best thing about the IRA was that, as someone who knew nothing about investing when I opened it, I was able to just setup a target date fund and call it a day.

I highly doubt it’s a perfectly optimized fund, but it was easy and it made sense and it’s certainly good enough. And I don’t think we give good enough the credit it deserves.

If you’re interested in seeing how the other goals on my Money Manifesto are going, you can read those posts here:

1. ) I will pay off all my debt. 
2. ) I will tithe 10%
3. ) I will save at least 15%
4. ) I will build up a $10,000 emergency fund.

What was your first investment move?