Anonymous wrote:Take home $6500 a month on $142k salary after maxing out retirement and doing FSA - 1 income, 1 kid. Age 50.

18 umbrella policy
65 insurance - 2 cars
75 home insurance
667 Fund 529
10 hoa community
53 verizon internet
100 donation
500 groceries
225 classes, therapy (swimming needed as therapy for child etc)
150 meds, vitamins, protein powders etc. for all
100 household (toilet paper, detergent, dish soap, soap, toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner, cream etc.)
200 medical including labs/co-pays/procedures/therapy/dental - most likely more, spouse has chronic health problems.
300 lawn exterior/interior repairs maintenance
800-1000 travel, vacation, clothes, haircuts, dining, entertainment, gifts
150 gas
150 2 oil changes per car
80 2 cell phones
8 safe deposit box
5 video cloud storage
2000 Private school
200 electricity - old home
80 water/sewer
25 trash
40 mowing averaged out
500 real estate property tax
65 car property tax

We have nothing left over

You are saving already before you get your paycheck. That is what you have "leftover". If you want to save more, take more out before you see it and see what happens to your spending.

Anonymous wrote:But you are saving?

You say you are maxing 401k - that means $24,000 a year, yes?

And 667 to 529? There's another 8 grand.

So $32,000 a year on a $144,000 income is not too shabby.

What are your goals? What are you trying to accomplish?

If that's the case, then you are saving more than most.

I would cut back on saving for college. Your kid can go to state school. Your kid can work. Your kid can take out student loans as a last resort.

YOLO. You need to have some money for family travel and fun.

But you are saving?

You say you are maxing 401k - that means $24,000 a year, yes?

And 667 to 529? There's another 8 grand.

So $32,000 a year on a $144,000 income is not too shabby.

What are your goals? What are you trying to accomplish?

and more here:

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/03/25/cut-your-power-bill/

ideas for lowering electric bill:

http://www.pretendtobepoor.com/electricity

OP, what school district in NOVA? Is there a chance of a magnet school or G/T program etc? If you could get rid of that $2000/month private school payment you'd be in much better shape. I really think private school is for people who make more than you do, or people with 2 incomes.

If your spouse isn't working, is home schooling an option? Is your spouse disabled? Receiving SSDI a possibility?

You have no mortgage -- you should be able to save a TON but the private school tuition is killing you.

You can take vacations, they just have to be low budget ones. The stay at home spouse should be able to spend the time planning, looking for bargain fares etc.

Search for frugal ways to do everything. Your food budget (if accurate) is already really good; I wouldn't start there although the truly frugal people would say you could easily get that down to $400 a month for 2 adults and a child.

What's the commute like? How does your child get to school and back? Could you drop one car? You'd pay less for insurance, taxes, etc. Public transport to work or spouse drops you off then takes the car for the day then picks you up. Bike to work?

If you can't cut out any large categories, try just to optimize spending and cut back 5-10% in each category.

Anonymous wrote:NP. PP, you are a jerk. From all the stupid and plain wasteful budgets I see, this one is actually sensible. But it’s typical for DCUM to be cruel when someone is asking for help. I think OP did clarify the ‘travel and gift’ costs. Most of it is to help their parents and to visit them. The only advice I have for OP is stop the donations. Dude, you get tax breaks so don’t stop the 529. Don’t listen to the idiots. You don’t have a mortgage payment, you are lucky. You could do staycations till your wife goes back to work. And good job on maxing on retirement. On your salary that should be about $18k a year.

Sorry I meant the PP who said ‘wow’ to the travel, gift expenses.

NP. PP, you are a jerk. From all the stupid and plain wasteful budgets I see, this one is actually sensible. But it’s typical for DCUM to be cruel when someone is asking for help. I think OP did clarify the ‘travel and gift’ costs. Most of it is to help their parents and to visit them. The only advice I have for OP is stop the donations. Dude, you get tax breaks so don’t stop the 529. Don’t listen to the idiots. You don’t have a mortgage payment, you are lucky. You could do staycations till your wife goes back to work. And good job on maxing on retirement. On your salary that should be about $18k a year.

Anonymous wrote:

1000 travel, vacation, clothes, haircuts, dining, entertainment, gifts

wow

NP with no kids...yeah, that is accurate, and likely low. If you don't think so, make a list of everything you spend outside of fixed expenses
..you will see.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP. I over-estimated the travel etc. line item. It would be $600 most months so closer to $7000. I have to make a trip to the other side of the country to visit ailing parents and wife goes to Florida to visit her mom. The gifts were items of necessity for parents who are not well to do at all especially mine.

We buy used clothes, eat typically at cheap places once a month and watch a movie once every 3-4 months. Typically it's a beach vacation less than $2k.

The reason you don't see a mortgage is because our small, old home is paid off but the schools are bad here hence the private. I should have clarified that. Yes, I could stop the donation and 529 but read that stopping 529 is anathema. Wife will hopefully be able to start part-time next year.

If you have no mortgage and aren't saving, something is very very very off.

I am saving fully towards 401k as I posted and towards child’s 529. Beyond that I posted the breakdown. I could save an additional $1200 a year by not donating and $2k a year total by not taking a single vacation. Also we could reduce the vitamins and protein powders by another $400 a year. That will certainly save me $300 a month.

Anonymous wrote:OP. I over-estimated the travel etc. line item. It would be $600 most months so closer to $7000. I have to make a trip to the other side of the country to visit ailing parents and wife goes to Florida to visit her mom. The gifts were items of necessity for parents who are not well to do at all especially mine.

We buy used clothes, eat typically at cheap places once a month and watch a movie once every 3-4 months. Typically it's a beach vacation less than $2k.

The reason you don't see a mortgage is because our small, old home is paid off but the schools are bad here hence the private. I should have clarified that. Yes, I could stop the donation and 529 but read that stopping 529 is anathema. Wife will hopefully be able to start part-time next year.

If you have no mortgage and aren't saving, something is very very very off.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take home $6500 a month on $142k salary after maxing out retirement and doing FSA - 1 income, 1 kid. Age 50.

18 umbrella policy
65 insurance - 2 cars
75 home insurance
667 Fund 529
10 hoa community
53 verizon internet
100 donation
500 groceries
225 classes, therapy (swimming needed as therapy for child etc)
150 meds, vitamins, protein powders etc. for all
100 household (toilet paper, detergent, dish soap, soap, toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner, cream etc.)
200 medical including labs/co-pays/procedures/therapy/dental - most likely more, spouse has chronic health problems.
300 lawn exterior/interior repairs maintenance
800-1000 travel, vacation, clothes, haircuts, dining, entertainment, gifts
150 gas
150 2 oil changes per car
80 2 cell phones
8 safe deposit box
5 video cloud storage
2000 Private school
200 electricity - old home
80 water/sewer
25 trash
40 mowing averaged out
500 real estate property tax
65 car property tax

We have nothing left over

Stop complaining - private school if child is school aged is optional. You don't get oil changes monthly. You can mow your own grass, the home repair/lawn you can do yourself, stop donating...

We are not doing oils changes monthly, that would be crazy. Just every 6 months on two cars averaged out. That was the one line item I did fix. I explained the school situation. It’s like in the bottom 10 list, if there was one, in the NoVA. We didn’t choose to buy here, inherited this place.

Anonymous wrote:OP, given how little you’ve engaged in this discussion, I question how important this really is to you. We can’t make money appear for you, reality is that if you want to save, you need to cut back on your spending. With $142k in annual income and no mortgage, there’s really no excuse not to be saving. You’re just choosing not to because you prefer a more expensive lifestyle than you can afford.

I barely posted today. And came back to respond to the first page of comments. We already do Costco for gas and bulk. The private school is not by choice as I explained. What helped by posting here was the reiteration to cut back or stop the 529 and donations. Also to save the $2K a year on vacations. I am not at all handy around the house but have looked at you tube videos and done several things. But some, just can’t do. Also I have back issues hence the mower. But can certainly do that at a slow pace. Definitely some takeaways for me.

OP, given how little you’ve engaged in this discussion, I question how important this really is to you. We can’t make money appear for you, reality is that if you want to save, you need to cut back on your spending. With $142k in annual income and no mortgage, there’s really no excuse not to be saving. You’re just choosing not to because you prefer a more expensive lifestyle than you can afford.

Anonymous wrote:Take home $6500 a month on $142k salary after maxing out retirement and doing FSA - 1 income, 1 kid. Age 50.

18 umbrella policy
65 insurance - 2 cars
75 home insurance
667 Fund 529
10 hoa community
53 verizon internet
100 donation
500 groceries
225 classes, therapy (swimming needed as therapy for child etc)
150 meds, vitamins, protein powders etc. for all
100 household (toilet paper, detergent, dish soap, soap, toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner, cream etc.)
200 medical including labs/co-pays/procedures/therapy/dental - most likely more, spouse has chronic health problems.
300 lawn exterior/interior repairs maintenance
800-1000 travel, vacation, clothes, haircuts, dining, entertainment, gifts
150 gas
150 2 oil changes per car
80 2 cell phones
8 safe deposit box
5 video cloud storage
2000 Private school
200 electricity - old home
80 water/sewer
25 trash
40 mowing averaged out
500 real estate property tax
65 car property tax

We have nothing left over

Stop complaining - private school if child is school aged is optional. You don't get oil changes monthly. You can mow your own grass, the home repair/lawn you can do yourself, stop donating...