What's the best financial move you made last year?

[procare]

Now that 2014 is over, looking back, what is the best financial move you made last year? Mine was taking a $5,000 unexpected windfall and apply it to my debt rather than spending it on something I wanted. It may not sound like a big deal to most people, but that marked a huge change in my thinking about money and spending. I hope to continue this attitude through 2015.

[snafu]

Welcome to SA. Kudos to you for applying the $ 5,000. windfall to existing debt rather than buying something desired. Taking that big step forward is a major change in thinking and likely also saving some interest cost. Now that gas prices have dropped by half, how are you using the money no longer spent on gas?

I added $ 5,000. to my Index Fund just before the end of the year when our [CND] stock exchange took a big hit. I now need to eke out another $ 5K for my tax advantaged account 2015...it's a challenge.

[Destind4]

I managed to pay off 12k of student loans and my 17k car loan.

Now I can aggressively save toward my dreams.

[phantom]

I switched from putting contributions into a ROTH 401k to a Traditional 401k and upped my contribution percentage. I still think it's pretty cool of my company to give us the ROTH option, but I came to realize that it just didn't make sense for me right now.

[LittleMissSplendid]

While I made a number of great financial moves last year the best was probably joining this forum for ideas and support with moving forward. In my offline life I don't have friends or family that really want to get their financial house in order and it can be isolating trying to take steps toward that when no one gets it.

[kork13]

I'm gonna claim two "best moves"...
- First, we paid off all of my newly-minted wife's non-mortgage debts. It was over $20k of student loan & car loan debts, which we knocked out in about 6 months.
- Second, we set up our TSP retirement withholdings to be maxed out. We didn't max last year, because we only started saving at that level in April, but this year we both will max out our contributions.

[corn18]

Set up an EF, used some of it and then replenished it. Seems basic to the regulars on here, but what a concept. Also paid off all the cars instead of buying a new one.

[disneysteve]

I switched from putting contributions into a ROTH 401k to a Traditional 401k

I'm curious why you feel that was a good move.

We had a relatively quiet year financially speaking. The biggest change for us was starting to draw from DD's 529 plan as she started college in the fall. So I'm going to say that our best move was contributing to that account all of these years so that the money was ready when we needed it.

[phantom]

I switched from putting contributions into a ROTH 401k to a Traditional 401k

I'm curious why you feel that was a good move.

My husband and I had (and still have) most of our retirement savings in post-tax accounts and very little in pre-tax accounts. Before the switch, our contributions were just making that gap wider. So, it seemed like a good move if for no other reason than achieving a better balance.

Furthermore, we seem to be at a relative high as far as tax brackets are concerned right now. We're in the 25% bracket, and it's likely that one of will quit working to become a SAHP before we find ourselves in the 28% bracket. It's also unlikely (barring major tax changes) that we'll be in a higher bracket come retirement time. So, this seems like a good time to be getting more money into pre-tax accounts.

Finally, we were able to significantly increase our retirement contributions without significantly dropping our take-home pay. That might not matter if we're wrong about those other things, but it sure feels good in the short term.

[bigdaddybus]

My unexpected best financial move of the year was a change I made at work.
I made the decision to work for a different leadership team. It was an opportunity to partner with a different group, show them what I bring to the table, and get out of my comfort zone.

Resulted in twice the raise I got last year (14% vs 7%) woohoo

[ladonnarosso]

My best financial move of 2014 was paying off our last car loan. Now the only installment loans that we have are our mortgage and my husband's student loan. This will allow us to free up that cash to accomplish our 2015 goal- buying a house. We can save all that money towards our down payment.

[QuarterMillionMan]

For me it was maxing out both of my retirement accounts;

1) 457 plan (401k), $17,500
2) Roth IRA, $5500


2014 was the only year that I've managed to max out both. My goal is to repeat it in 2015.

[LizfromtheBronx]

Best Move: Recognizing that I needed to "move home" for a bit to really focus on debt payoff. I am about halfway there. (And getting back out will not come a moment too soon...I love my mother and sister....but.... )

Worst Move: Buying my car - I let myself get talked into buying way before I was ready, so I didn't have a downpayment ready, plus my interest rate is abominable (that was expected). It is what it is, I need the car (drive to work) and I am stuck for a little bit longer (underwater since the loan is still fairly new and don't have the $$ to come up with the difference). It's slowing down my progress, but clearing up old outstanding debt is more important right now, and I can easily afford the payment. Although I am looking forward to the day when I can refinance and get it down!

[albertofair34]

If you’ve ever looked at an ATM receipt or at your checkbook ledger to find out if you can afford something, the answer is that you can’t. Don’t even bother to look. You can’t afford it.

[bjl584]

Nothing too major financially speaking to report in 2014.

The most major thing that I did was to get the rest of my things out of a storage unit that I was renting. So, that saved me $95 a month.

My truck will be paid off by this Spring, so I'm currently working toward that.

Other than that, I saved and invested like always in 2014.