Do you want a house soon? No more than $2000

Your cell phone is WAY too high. What make/model/year car do you have - you might need something different.

Other things:

Cell phone: Mint Mobile(you can save $100/month right there)
Groceries: Shop at Aldi/Costco/Trader Joes
Use GasBuddy to find the absolute cheapest gas close by.

OP here.

My current deductions:

FIT
$353.87
Medicare Employee
$60.44
Social Security Employee
$258.42
VASIT
$146.03
*401k
$1,086.20
*Dental
$20.00
*Medical PPO
$159.00
*Vision
$5.00

The answer is $4550 per month

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here I am working out on a possible budget to look like this:

Rent: $2200
Utilities: $100
Car payment: $450
Car Insurance $100
Gas: $100
Groceries: $600
Cellphone: $180

So total: $3780.

I will have to decrease my retirement contributions so I have more wiggle room.

Way too tight. I’d keep it under $1400 for rent. You have no spending money. Cell phone is way too high. Car insurance too low. You forget clothing, extras, going out, car repairs, hair cuts, etc

seriously?? 1400 for rent... and she makes 112,000... no

Anonymous wrote:OP here I am working out on a possible budget to look like this:

Rent: $2200
Utilities: $100
Car payment: $450
Car Insurance $100
Gas: $100
Groceries: $600
Cellphone: $180

So total: $3780.

I will have to decrease my retirement contributions so I have more wiggle room.

I'm a big proponent of putting as much as you can into retirement contributions, but you're probably right. $25k on a $112k income is a lot; you're basically living on an $87k annual salary—which can be done, but sure as heck isn't easy in DC.

But if you do have to lower your retirement contributions, try to reduce them as little as possible. At your 22% federal marginal tax rate and 5.75% Virginia marginal tax rate, every $1000 you stop putting into savings is going to increase your taxes by $277.50—meaning you only get $722.50 for that $1000 drop in retirement contributions. (This assumes your contributions are non-Roth. If they aren't, changing them all to traditional contributions will cut your taxes and increase your monthly net income. You'll have to pay tax on more of your income when you retire, but that's not your problem right now.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here I am working out on a possible budget to look like this:

Rent: $2200
Utilities: $100
Car payment: $450
Car Insurance $100
Gas: $100
Groceries: $600
Cellphone: $180

So total: $3780.

I will have to decrease my retirement contributions so I have more wiggle room.

Way too tight. I’d keep it under $1400 for rent. You have no spending money. Cell phone is way too high. Car insurance too low. You forget clothing, extras, going out, car repairs, hair cuts, etc

Agree. You have NO wiggle room
here—no saving, no holidays, no clothing, no nothing. You could do it for six months but then you either need a housemate or an additional job.

Don’t forget that the retirement saving won’t come back to you 1:1 unless it’s Roth. Taxes will be deducted.

I’m sorry—this sucks.

This is just plain wrong.

I make $112K and spend $2,700 monthly on rent and bills with around $1,000 per pay period left over. With OP's budget that would be $460 wiggle room every pay period, with two "bonus" pay periods per year which is tight but easily manageable. Especially considering OP could easily cut $150 from his cell phone bill and $200+ from his grocery bill.

I don't know why you assume two bonus pay periods; many jobs pay twice a month no matter what and there are no bonus pay periods.

We're also missing information here about payroll deductions for things other than retirement--most notably, health insurance, which may now be set for 2025 with no chance of changing it that doesn't also involve changing jobs.

Agree that the cell phone bill is nuts.

NP here, Most people get paid every two weeks - so 26 times a year. In contrast, if you get paid twice a month, that's 24 times a year. Thus, there are two "bonus" pay periods because there are 2 pay periods in addition to the 24 you get from being paid twice a month.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here I am working out on a possible budget to look like this:

Rent: $2200
Utilities: $100
Car payment: $450
Car Insurance $100
Gas: $100
Groceries: $600
Cellphone: $180

So total: $3780.

I will have to decrease my retirement contributions so I have more wiggle room.

Way too tight. I’d keep it under $1400 for rent. You have no spending money. Cell phone is way too high. Car insurance too low. You forget clothing, extras, going out, car repairs, hair cuts, etc

Agree. You have NO wiggle room
here—no saving, no holidays, no clothing, no nothing. You could do it for six months but then you either need a housemate or an additional job.

Don’t forget that the retirement saving won’t come back to you 1:1 unless it’s Roth. Taxes will be deducted.

I’m sorry—this sucks.

This is just plain wrong.

I make $112K and spend $2,700 monthly on rent and bills with around $1,000 per pay period left over. With OP's budget that would be $460 wiggle room every pay period, with two "bonus" pay periods per year which is tight but easily manageable. Especially considering OP could easily cut $150 from his cell phone bill and $200+ from his grocery bill.

Someone paying 2700 in housing on that income should be immediately dismissed from the conversation. Another financial dummy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here I am working out on a possible budget to look like this:

Rent: $2200
Utilities: $100
Car payment: $450
Car Insurance $100
Gas: $100
Groceries: $600
Cellphone: $180

So total: $3780.

I will have to decrease my retirement contributions so I have more wiggle room.

Way too tight. I’d keep it under $1400 for rent. You have no spending money. Cell phone is way too high. Car insurance too low. You forget clothing, extras, going out, car repairs, hair cuts, etc

Agree. You have NO wiggle room
here—no saving, no holidays, no clothing, no nothing. You could do it for six months but then you either need a housemate or an additional job.

Don’t forget that the retirement saving won’t come back to you 1:1 unless it’s Roth. Taxes will be deducted.

I’m sorry—this sucks.

This is just plain wrong.

I make $112K and spend $2,700 monthly on rent and bills with around $1,000 per pay period left over. With OP's budget that would be $460 wiggle room every pay period, with two "bonus" pay periods per year which is tight but easily manageable. Especially considering OP could easily cut $150 from his cell phone bill and $200+ from his grocery bill.

I don't know why you assume two bonus pay periods; many jobs pay twice a month no matter what and there are no bonus pay periods.

We're also missing information here about payroll deductions for things other than retirement--most notably, health insurance, which may now be set for 2025 with no chance of changing it that doesn't also involve changing jobs.

Agree that the cell phone bill is nuts.

NP and OP provided their takehome pay which presumably already includes health insurance costs.

My 23 yr old recent college grad makes that and still lives at home: It’s the only way he can max out retirement and save money for a house.

i think to get ahead it’s wise not to spend more than 20% of your take home. Of course landlords will want to suck you dry of ad much as possible so they go with the 40X formula.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here I am working out on a possible budget to look like this:

Rent: $2200
Utilities: $100
Car payment: $450
Car Insurance $100
Gas: $100
Groceries: $600
Cellphone: $180

So total: $3780.

I will have to decrease my retirement contributions so I have more wiggle room.

Way too tight. I’d keep it under $1400 for rent. You have no spending money. Cell phone is way too high. Car insurance too low. You forget clothing, extras, going out, car repairs, hair cuts, etc

Agree. You have NO wiggle room
here—no saving, no holidays, no clothing, no nothing. You could do it for six months but then you either need a housemate or an additional job.

Don’t forget that the retirement saving won’t come back to you 1:1 unless it’s Roth. Taxes will be deducted.

I’m sorry—this sucks.

This is just plain wrong.

I make $112K and spend $2,700 monthly on rent and bills with around $1,000 per pay period left over. With OP's budget that would be $460 wiggle room every pay period, with two "bonus" pay periods per year which is tight but easily manageable. Especially considering OP could easily cut $150 from his cell phone bill and $200+ from his grocery bill.

I don't know why you assume two bonus pay periods; many jobs pay twice a month no matter what and there are no bonus pay periods.

We're also missing information here about payroll deductions for things other than retirement--most notably, health insurance, which may now be set for 2025 with no chance of changing it that doesn't also involve changing jobs.

Agree that the cell phone bill is nuts.