MM, congrats for another good month indeed. As I understand, the only reason you do not use HSBCDirect is because you are unable to open a new account (since you no longer have a valid U.S address), right?

Just to clarify, when you say "small family business", you mean the pfblog.com, or yet another venture?

Keep up the great work.

On HSBCDirect, it is not worthwhile to open a new account for 0.05% APR difference (vs promotiomal 4.75% @ ING Direct, both of temporary nature). If you factor in some missing interest when you move money, you might not be better off. By the end of the day, the money market/savings account is highly competitive, and you will never know who will be the market leader one month down the road.

On your second question, all I can say is we are diversifying (but PFBlog also helped).

Man, it must be nice to make that much money. Congrats!

Why do you put so little money in your Roth IRA

Adam - I maxed out my Roth IRA in 2003 and 2004, but was priced out in 2005 due to high AGI.

Isn't it MAGI that determines Roth?

Mark, you are correct. It is my MAGI that priced me out.

Congrats on another solid month of savings. You've been included in the February Bloggers' Net Worth Index at http://www.moneysmartz.com/weblog.

Congrats on another solid month of savings. You've been included in the February Bloggers' Net Worth Index at http://www.moneysmartz.com/weblog.

Given your situation..the very high annual income, the expatriate deal and its benefits, your goals are extremely conservative. I make about half of what you do, still live in the U.S. with mortgage and kids, and my goals are as large as yours and I have been making them for the last several years. In less than 10 years I have gone from a negative net worth, to over $500k with an expenctation to be over $1M within the next 2.5 years. Either your investment strategies are not generating solid returns (I have been averaging more than 11% annually) or your savings target is light (which is probably true given your living expenses indicate you have plenty of room to save more). At your age keeping the amount of cash you have in bank and savings accounts seems quite conservative. You may consider discussing things with a finance professional to open the door to new ideas. I have not spoken to one myself, but have an education that would allow me to be one if I chose to.

Extend your goals...save more, take some risk, and the rewards in the long run will be much larger than your current expecations.

Good work...just some input on improvements.

Practically anyone can become reasonably wealthy. I have earned from only $3.35 an hour back in the early '80s to only $7.50 now and my wife and done around the same. We have zero debt or mortgages, live in a nice $250,000 home, raised a child for 17 years, have two new cars, take big vacations almost every year, have nearly $300K in our retirement accounts and hope to retire shortly after age 50. One way we have saved is to shun the medical system, never buy health insurance, practice good health habits and hardly ever use the medical system. Hint: I am the author of "Wealth on Minimal Wage" published in 1997.

JS's advice of shunning health insurance may work for him or her, but for those of us, like me, with poor family health histories and children with birth defects (totally unpredictable and not the result of unhealthy behavior during pregnancy, etc.), health insurance is an absolute must! I am thankful that my employer and I pay to minimize that risk, despite the high monthly cost.