Advise me!
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Anonymous
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I am a new SAHM. Before, my husband was making about 90k and I was making about 50k. We were putting pretty much all of my paycheck into savings. We currently have about 60k in checkings and savings accounts and 10k in IRAs. The only debt we have is 16k in student loans - down from 42k when I graduated college. Loan interest rates are quite low because of consolidation - around 2%. My husband has a good size pension but I do not have retirement savings aside a small amount rolled from a 403b into an IRA. We are in our 20s.
These are our fixed monthly expenses: Rent (includes all utilities) 2000 Car insurance 105 Netflix 16 Cell phone 150 Cable/internet 93 Student loans 350 Total fixed costs: 2730 My husbands take home income is currently about 5k/month, which leaves us with 2300. So I guess my question is: what should we be doing with this 2300? How much should we be trying to save? What would be reasonable for our other costs - ie groceries and such? I plan to go back to work when my baby is about a year old. Should we just try to save as much as possible for childcare? I am a little bummed overall because although I am very happy to be at home with my baby, we were finally making headway on saving for a down payment and now I feel like we will never be able to buy a house! |
Anonymous
| Then why stay home? |
Anonymous
| I think you and your husband should max out a Roth which is 5500 each this year and when you go back to work at the minimum do the company's match. You ideally have 5 years to save before you move since your baby is still young so you can look for a home in a good school district. Aim for 20% down payment and if needto the money you put in a Roth can be taken out at anytime penalty free to add to the down payment. The extra money you have (if you are a bit of a risk taker) put it into an ETF with a brokerage firm that charges lower rates. |
Anonymous
| Don't worry so much. You are young and your situation is not bad. Enjoy your year. Find a middle ground for saving/spending with your disposable income. Nothing you do now (short of something very irresponsible) will have much impact in the long run. Make the most of your time. |
Anonymous
| Groceries? Eating out? Toiletries? |
Anonymous
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In addition to saving for real estate, 401K, IRAs, college fund for the baby, you should add budget lines for:
Groceries Eating out Car maintenance Gas Diapers and other baby gear/supplies Medical costs Clothes and toiletries Entertainment costs (books, music, tickets, alcohol, etc) Presents for baby, family, friends Charity and/or church donations |