My New Job - A good problem to have

As I've alluded to, at the end of February, I'll be leaving my position at a small biotech startup for a position at one of the largest pharmaceutical companies.  Crunching the numbers, in order to contribute to a roth ira, I'm going to need to max out my 401k so as to lower my modified adjusted growth income (MAGI).  If my dividend income (and income at work for that matter) keeps increasing as it has in the last few years, 2013 will be totally out of the question.  So I guess my question is, is all of this manipulation worth it?  I really don't like 401k's; I'd prefer to just contribute to the match and forget the rest, but I have no problem at all with Roth IRA's, and I'd hate to lose the ability to contribute to it.  What would you do?

January Dividend Income

Another month almost in the books, and its time to update my dividend income for the month.  This has been a great month for me, as I just accepted a position with a major pharmaceutical company as a senior scientist.  This position comes with a hefty raise for me, but just as importantly, is more stable than my current position, and is more interesting to me as well.  On the dividend side, as I alluded to in my last post, it was my BEST MONTH EVER.  Without further ado, my dividend income for January:

Bank Stock - $3354.00
ERH - $53.63
NM - $18.00
O - $10.19
GE - $17.00
CIM - $165.00

Roth IRA
ARR - $122.10

total dividends = $3739.92

Wow!  Man, if I could get this month every month, I'm not sure I'd even bother to work (or at least take an extended vacation).  I know I won't have a month like this again until April, but I'm pretty happy that I'll be able to build up the other months a little quicker with this money, as well as the income from my new position.

Big J

Recent Purchase

Sorry its been a while since I last posted, but I've been pretty busy lately.  And busy in a good way; I've reached a new agreement with another company, a large pharmaceutical company, and I hope to start by the end of the february (I'll write more about this later).  I wanted to post about a recent purchase that I made this morning:

I purchased 41 shares today of Linn Energy, a Natural Gas MLP.  I've owned shares of LINE for over 2 years now, its one of my favorite stocks - its hedged for fluctuations in natural gas prices, it pays a respectable (~7.2% at the time of this writing) cash distribution, and the distribution itself has a good history of growth.  I'd like to really increase my holdings in LINE over the next 12 months, so I feel like this is a good start. 

Stay tuned for my January dividend update.  Its going to be my best month ever!

Starting the New Year off Right

I just wanted to write a quick update today on my employment status.  I heard it will be a week or two more before I hear back from the place I interviewed.  At my current job, they reinstated my salary and are going to pay me everything I lost on the salary cut.  This is great news; I'll probably use the found money to buy some more stocks.  Also, I have my dividend from my bank stock coming on the 16th; I plan on using it to finish my 2011 roth contribution, as well as making a purchase in my taxable account.