Reply to Sad, just had to cease contributions to my 401K in order to budget in daycare costs for new baby :(

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm also curious what you could be spending on. At 140,000 you should absolutely be able to do both.  We pay $1,600 a month for one kid in daycare, nearly $2,000 for piti, and more than 1500 in student loan repayment on a dual income total of 127,000.  We still each save between 7-10% for retirement and put $2,000 a year into 529.[/quote]

OP here, our mortgage is $2,800/mo. We also have a mortgage for land we bought in the mountains back when my husband's business was doing really well, which is another $1,200/mo.  I really wish we never bought that, but at least both mortgages will be paid off in 9 years.  We have a car payment of $350.  Life insurance policies are $160/mo, parking for my work is $290/mo, and DH spends about $500/mo in gas because for work, he drives around all day long, etc..  I feel like when you look at our $140K income, it seems like a lot, but when you take out all the income tax, self employment tax, health insurance, business bonding and insurance, etc. it's whittled down so much.

We never eat out, I think we've eaten out maybe twice in the past year.  We haven't gone to the movies in many years.  We barely spend anything on "entertainment".  [/quote]

DAMMMN. Your mortgages are killing you. I live in N Arlington (close in) and my mortgage is only $2200/mo (bought after the boom). I think you guys probably have good hindsight on this now, but you bought too much house for your income, and buying property in the mountains at your income level NEVER makes sense unless you are going to leverage it in some way  like leasing mineral or gas rights. Oy, I wish you'd gotten financial planner advice before making those moves.

I do think you should take metro to work, though -- $290/month is ridic for parking. That's $3500/year. Hyattsville is close to three metro stops and you would save $1200-$1700 PER YEAR if you took metro instead (I didn't know whether you had to take a bus to the station or not, so that's what the range is). You'd be so much better putting that money into your retirement account for the next few years vs. throwing it away on parking (not to mention gas and wear and tear on your vehicle -- heck, you could go down to one car like my family has -- also with two kids). Maybe get your DH a better mileage car? $500 a month means he's filling up, on average, what? 3 times per week? For that sort of mileage and gas use, a hybrid might be more cost-effective than whatever you have now.

I think you need to get a fee-based planner NOW because there are a lot of places where you should be thinking of cutting before cutting retirement savings, frankly. Glad you got your insurance premiums down, but there's so much else you should do first.[/quote]

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