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[quote=Anonymous]I am in my late 40s and am in the process of getting divorced. We have one DC in elementary school. I work p/t and have joint custody with STBX. DC is with me more than three quarters of the time, if you factor in not just the overnights but also the weekday afternoon hours after I pick him up from school, and the summer weeks when he's not in camps. I don't yet know what our final divorce settlement will look like. I may get some retirement money from STBX, who earns about four times more than me, but I don't feel that I can count on it. I also don't know how much child support I will get; STBX has thrown out a figure that won't even come close to covering the gap between my earnings and outlays (let alone leave me with any buffer to save for any big unexpected purchases or emergencies in the near/medium term, and for retirement), and because of his income, we're just over the threshold at which the child support calculator applies, so I have no idea what the courts will ultimately decide, if this ends up going to court.

So the upshot is that I'm worried about my financial situation. It would have been great if I'd saved more money already, but there's nothing to be done about that now. At least I have no debt. I know I have two basic options that are within my control right now -- increase my earnings (which I have some ideas for how to do, once the divorce mess is off my plate) and/or cut the spending. But I feel like I need some realistic goals to aim for, and I am also open to suggestions in other respects.

Here's an overview:
Income: I am self employed, so it varies, but it's been about $50K/year for the past few years.
Retirement savings: $85K
Other savings: $15K
Expenses: about $4,750/month (Rent is $1,600/month. Other big expenses include food ($750/month, including occasional dining out at relatively inexpensive places), which I know I can cut down if I got serious about meal planning so I don't end up wasting food, and if I do less shopping at farmers markets or Whole Foods. But I am loathe to cut the food budget too much, because I consider it an investment in our health and therefore a source of long-term savings. I am occasionally seeing a therapist, and that's another significant chunk of change. My family is in another part of the country, and we can't stay with anyone when we visit, so that bumps up travel costs. My workload fluctuates a lot, and childcare during my really busy work periods averages out to about a couple of hundred a month on an annualized basis. I don't have a car, but public transport and Uber and local car rentals add up to a couple of hundred a month. No cable, magazine/newspaper subscriptionis, mani/pedis, landline, or other such obvious costs to cut. For clothes, I only shop sales or consignment stores, and I don't buy that many clothes anyway. I buy children's clothes on EBay if I can find what I need there.)

Thanks in advance.[/quote]

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