An early bonus

My recent payroll check had a small surprise in it: my extra exemption came through. To be honest, I was surprised my withholding had already been adjusted as I submitted the paperwork only a week before the end of my pay period, but there it was--a little extra money. In the end, one extra exemption meant $22 more in my paycheck. I had estimated I would receive about $20 so I was pleased to see my estimate was close to reality.

As I discussed in my earlier post, I planned on using the extra money toward my Roth IRA. However, I chose to use only $21 per paycheck for a Roth IRA contribution. Based on my biweekly check and monthly contributions, this number worked out better than $20 or $22. The extra $2 per month is added to my farm account. As of writing this post, I had just changed my automatic index fund contributions to reflect the new contribution levels. Based on the number of checks I have remaining in this year, that means I contribute an extra $462 to my Roth IRA for 2009.

I am closer to fully funding my Roth IRA, which performed better than my 401(k) this month, without removing money from savings accounts. Getting closer to achieving one of the financial goals I set for myself is rewarding.