Newby2025 wrote: Wed Nov 26, 2025 3:02 pm
Hello,I’m updating this post for accuracy–
Emergency fund: $4500 (this is working towards $13,000 goal of 3 months worth)
Credit Card debt: $6,718.83 @ 0.99% (this is FIXED and not a promotional rate-it’s just a low credit limit of $7000 with a very low APR)
Tax Filing: Head of household with 1 dependent (age 10)
Tax Rate: 22% Federal 6% State
State Filing: California
Age: F 53
Desired Asset Allocation: 80/20 or 90/10 ?
Approximate Total Portfolio $164K
Current Retirement Assets:
Taxable
Vanguard Brokerage: 93.20% Vanguard Total Stock Market ETV (VTI) (0.03%)
6.80% Vanguard Money Market Fund (VMFXX) (0.11%)
CalStrs Pension : Not sure how to indicate the funds and the expense ratios for this
CalStrs Defined
Benefit Supplement: Not sure how to indicate the funds and the expense ratios for this
403b at Pension2 29.72% Voya Fixed Plus III (0.25%)
0.01% Vanguard Total Bond Market Index (VBTIX) (0.03%)
70.27% Vanguard Total Stock Mkt Idx Instl Pls (VSMPX) (0.02%)
Roth at Vanguard 42.18% Vanguard Life Strategy Growth Investor CL (VASGX) (0.14%)
38.95% Vanguard 500 Index Admiral CL (VFIAX) (0.04%)
Traditional at Vanguard 100% Vanguard Money Market Fund (VMFXX) (0.11%)
Contributions:
CalStrs Pension : $114,105.30
Defined Benefit Supplement $24,683.90
403b: $1452
Roth $21,468.33
Trad $2375
Taxable $355.37
Available Funds: $30K HYSA @ 3.77% interest
Scenario:
I am a 53 year old solo mother by choice with a 10 year old. We live in a high cost of living part of California and I rent. I have a Trust, Life Insurance, Long Term Care and disability insurance. My emergency funds are low; however, and my goal is 3 months worth at $13K. School tuition for my child with a scholarship is $11,000. I have been paying it from the sale of a condo but after paying off other debts, I have left only $30K in HYSA (3.77% interest). I will likely need to keep working another 15 years to get the most of my CalStrs pension (projected monthly benefit is about $6500/month). I am also projected to earn about $1317 at age 70 in Social Security.
Currently I am not contributing to Roth, Traditional IRA, or a newly created 403b.
Questions:
1. With my $30K right now, I would like to pay into or even max out my Roth annually. Right now, should I max out Roth and
a) put the remaining $22K into an aggressive stock portfolio?
b) Or max out Roth ($8K), get myself to 3 months of emergency funds ($13K) and with the remaining $13,500, invest?
c) Or keep the $22K in HYSA for the tuition purposes?
2. After the $3000 tuition deposit upcoming in March 2026, should I keep the remaining $22K for tuition or should I pay it monthly over 10 months at $800/month, reducing my cash flow. There is no discount to pay upfront and no penalty to pay it monthly.
3. I have a bat mitzvah to pay for in 2028–should I invest the $22K in an I-bond or CD instead? it’s not going to get very big but will be there when I need it. Alternatively, I could also do an interest-free loan at that time from a local organization that offers it for these types of expenses. I have used them before for school loans, again interest-free. If I took out an interest-free loan then I can invest my $22K in some options above.
4. I have 1 share of VTI (I was experimenting with a small amount to start) and I could put the $22K remaining in there or to a different taxable funding source?
5. I have very little in a Traditional IRA and not sure why I even created one but should I contribute to it?
6. I opened a 529 account in 2016 ($4952 balance) but currently do not contribute to it. Leave it for now?
Other Questions:
1. What should a desired asset allocation be? I’m not clear on this. 90/10 80/20?
2. Should I keep the allocated funds for the Roth? Currently VFIAX and VIGAX.
3. Should I keep the allocated funds for the Traditional IRA? Currently in VMFXX
Thank you so much for any and all help-I’m new at all of this and appreciate wisdom and care.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hello,
Thanks for any help here. I tried to get all this information done correctly. Please excuse what may be missing or incorrect.
Emergency fund: $4500 (this is working towards $15,000 goal of 3 months worth)
Credit Card debt: $2,647@ 24%
$6,718.83 @ 0.99%
Tax Filing: Head of household with 1 dependent (age 10)
Tax Rate: 22% Federal 6% State
State Filing: California
Age: F 53
Desired Asset Allocation:
Approximate Total Portfolio $164K
Current Retirement Assets:
Taxable
Vanguard Brokerage: 93.20% Vanguard Total Stock Market ETV (VTI) (0.03%)
6.80% Vanguard Money Market Fund (VMFXX) (0.11%)
CalStrs Pension :
CalStrs Defined Benefit Supplement
403b at Pension2 29.72% Voya Fixed Plus III (0.25%)
0.01% Vanguard Total Bond Market Index (VBTIX) (0.03%)
70.27% Vanguard Total Stock Mkt Idx Instl Pls (VSMPX) (0.02%)
Roth at Vanguard 42.18% Vanguard Life Strategy Growth Investor CL (VASGX) (0.14%)
38.95% Vanguard 500 Index Admiral CL (VFIAX) (0.04%)
Traditional at Vanguard 100% Vanguard Money Market Fund (VMFXX) (0.11%)
Contributions:
CalStrs Pension : $114,105.30
Defined Benefit Supplement $24,683.90
403b: $1452
Roth $21,468.33
Trad $2375
Taxable $355.37
_________________________________
Available Funds: $30K HYSA @ 3.77% interest
Scenario:
I am a 53 year old solo mother by choice with a 10 year old. We live in a high cost of living part of California and I rent. I have 14 years of service as a teacher (had other work before that) and have a CalStrs Pension. I have a few safety measures in place (created a Trust, have Life Insurance, Long Term Care and disability insurance). My emergency funds are low; however, and my goal is closer to $15K.
I only have $30K to play with but I need to start somewhere. Right now it’s sitting in a HYSA (3.77% interest) and I would like to be aggressive in investing seeing as I will likely need to keep working another 15 years to get the most of my pension (projected monthly benefit is about $6500/month). I am also projected to earn about $1317 at age 70 in Social Security.
Currently I am not contributing to Roth or a newly created 403b.
Questions:
1. What are some suggested strategies with only $30K to start with?
2. What should a desired asset allocation be? I’m not clear on this. 90/10 or other?
3. Should I max out Roth and put the rest into an aggressive stock portfolio? Or max out Roth, have a fulul 3 months of emergency funds and with the rest, invest?
4. I have very little in a Traditional IRA and not sure why I even created one but should I contribute to it?
5. I have 1 share of VTI (I was experimenting with a small amount to start) and I could put money in there or add another funding source?
6. I opened a 529 account in 2016 ($4952 balance) but currently do not contribute to it. Leave it alone or add?
Other Questions:
1. Should I keep the allocated funds for the Roth? Currently VFIAX and VIGAX.
2. Should I keep the allocated funds for the Traditional IRA? Currently in VMFXX
3. I have a big life event to pay for in 2028–should I invest in an I-bond or something similar to ensure that money is there and will grow?
Thank you so much for any and all help-I’m new at all of this and appreciate wisdom and care.
You will have the traditional three legged stool of retirement income: pension, SS, savings/portfolio depicted well in this graphic…
Of the three legs, your pension is the thickest/strongest at the moment. The “late” start would be more associated with the personal savings leg. So if we were to advise you to work on building up one of the three legs beyond your current status, it would be to see if that personal savings leg can be built up via contributions to your 403b/Roth IRA/taxable accounts.
One concern raised in reading your post is the credit card debt. Is your household budget at the point where you need to use a CC to make it through the month? Is there a way to turn things around to get that CC debt paid off, and not live beyond your means? Without doing that, there is not going to be more money to be able to add to your 403b/Roth IRA/taxable accounts so that leg of your retirement income stream stool is going to remain weak. In the meantime, we would use some of the $30K to retire that CC debt and proceed forward without letting a balance build up again.
How much of your gross income, percentage wise, goes towards the mandatory pension contribution as the employee? 8, 9, 10%? A targeted rate of your retirement contributions between pension, and personal savings (403b/Roth IRA/taxable) should be at least 15%. With a later start, it would be nice to get that overall percentage of everything combined to higher than 20% if possible. Although those of us who have been there before on similar salaries can attest to the child rearing years not providing much wiggle room for saving larger amounts.
If you could budget for a very, very low-cost bar-mitzvah, what do you think your overall budget would be for that? The current school tuition is most likely draining the ability to save more, and there is the consideration of saving for college education for your child as well (since you stoped contributing to the 529). Your child will be in college right as you approach your retirement zone, so working longer to get the full pension possible would be wise. Taking advantage of the empty nest years to boost savings is not going to be an option for you due to your age and the age of your child as there won’t be any years leftover to super save during the empty nest years – especially if you are having to help cash flow some college expenses.
Without knowing your budget, it is hard to determine if saving more for retirement than you currently are, + private school tuition, + bar-mitzvah, + 529 saving for college are all possible for you to do. The good news is you at least have something set aside, but we would certainly recommend taking a very deep dive to see what you could live without expense wise, so that you can free up some of your income to go towards all of those savings goals.
CyclingDuo
