Hello /r/PersonalFinance!
I just want to say thanks to this community. Both the people asking the questions for help and the people giving advice. I’ve been able to learn a lot from my own mistakes, but also have learned a lot from reading about others mistakes here as well. Although I’m not quite where I’d like to be yet, I’ve definitely have been able to make some progress and just wanted to share my current situation and see what I could do next.
I started off by making a budget with my own Excel Sheet, which helped a lot! But eventually I started using YNAB again. I love the philosophy behind the program and it honestly has helped me out even more. I am an early user, so I was able to get the grandfathered in price of $50 a year, Anyway here are my details
I’m 29 married and our monthly income is $4000-$4500 (Depends if I work overtime) My wife has $20K of student loan debt and I have $5K of credit card debt. (29% Utilization, My CS was at 720 recently, I was at 640 earlier this year) I started off with $10K credit card debt at the beginning of the year but we’ve been aggressively paying that off and I am hoping to pay that off by fall! My car is also near it’s death (2002, Honda Accord V6, 200K Miles) Luckily I only live 5 miles away from work and I’ll be starting to bike there when we move in July. So, I’m hoping to save some cash and buy something that is reliable.
I do have a retirement account set up with work, it’s a 403.b where I contribute 5% and I have about $20K in it, I’m also grandfathered into their pension plan that they got rid of in 2012. I will be honest, I don’t fully know much about this, I just know it’s there. But I do need to learn and educate myself more on it.
Here is a quick breakdown of our monthly expenses.
What it doesn’t show is some of the other custom categories I’ve created in YNAB. It’s all bunched in under “Custom Category” in this picture, But those $400 are usually distributed between setting money to the side every month for Pet Supplies (Food, Litter, toys, etc) Auto Maintenance, Clothes, Gifts, Amazon Prime, Stuff I forgot to Budget for, Gaming, etc. I usually set money aside that even though it isn’t used every month, it just builds up so in the event of us wanting to spend something under one of those categories, we know we have the money for that.
We also aim to put 20% of our income towards a savings account. It’s not much but we just hit the $2000 mark for savings, I’m thinking of only putting 10% into savings in the next few months, and the other 10% towards paying off the credit card. Once my credit card debt is paid off that will give us an estimated $1500 to put towards “Savings” per month, and that will be distributed between: Emergency Fund, Future Care, Vacation, Furniture and we will be focusing on paying off my wife’s student loan.
I am planning on going back to school later this year so I can get started on a career in IT. My company offers Tuition Reimbursement and I’m kicking myself for not taking advantage of this years ago. I’ve been with the company for 7 years now and have transferred between departments, but I’m hoping my next transfer will be in IT.
Anyway, I just want to know if I’m on the right track or what I can improve on. Should I hold off on setting money aside in savings and instead put that 20% (~$700 per month) and add it to paying off the credit card debt for now?
We have no kids, not planning on having kids, and we’re in no big rush to buy a house, maybe in 5 years, but we also want to start saving for that. My car is a 2002 Honda Accord and hers is a 2004 Honda Civic. Her car is more reliable than mine, so we’re hoping to buy a used new car by the end of the year, I’ve NEVER had a car loan and I don’t want to have one ever, I’ve been tempted many times when I see my friends lease a car and drive a new car or when my friends buy a car on a loan, but after doing the math and reading about it here, I know I don’t want to have a car loan.
Thanks in advance!
Submitted June 18, 2018 at 11:54AM by Jespy https://ift.tt/2I1Hv8j
