I've been lamenting making this post for a while, because I'm terrified about what the answers are going to be. Hopefully things aren't as dire as I've been thinking, but I can't imagine that's the case.
I have a graduate degree, and around $140k in outstanding student loan debt as a result. The interest rates on these loans are between 6 and 8.5%, with the majority falling somewhere in the middle. Last year I paid off about $12k in student loans because I had a separate loan that was set to increase in monthly payments that would have made my cash-flow situation very tight.
At present, I make $85k (pre-tax) and my wife makes right around $45k ($130k pre-tax). She is still an hourly employee, so some years she may make a thousand or so more, but that's generally the figure I'm working with. We own our home (30-year mortgage), own our sole vehicle outright (no loan), and have no credit card debt (we have a few cards we use for monthly expenses, but those are all paid off every single month). Right now, I'm paying about $650 per month on the student loans each month. I understand that that's not enough, but I spent the last year or so paying off purchases which were made when we bought the house (major appliances, etc.) I also wanted to build up an emergency fund of $10k. After all our expenses, we save about $2k, potentially more (or slightly less) depending on the nature of that month. We have no children at this point, but we want to have a child in the next few years.
I'm starting to get worried about having $0 in a retirement account. I've spent years getting our finances to a point where we don't feel overwhelmed every month, but I feel now I need to start investing heavily in retirement. Should I be paying down loan balances first? Putting this into a 401K? I have a 401K program offered via my job, though they don't do any matching to my knowledge and I don't know any details about how "good" that 401K is. I literally know nothing about 401K's, and I don't know the difference between if I seek out something on my own or simply have them take it out of my check via work.
Like I said, it took a long time to post this. I'm afraid I've fucked over myself and my wife, and hoping we have some options for a decent rest of our lives.
Edit: For what it's worth, changing careers may sound great, but I'm not sure it's going to be effective in my case. My position is in senior level management with the company my wife and I both work for, and if I wanted to "use my degree" as I know the comments often suggest, it would mean studying for the bar exam, and potentially starting with a position that pays considerably less than I currently do as a junior associate attorney. I understand it was my choice to go to law school, but at this point in my life, I have zero desire to be an attorney, would absolutely be miserable doing so, and feel my current job is one I truly love getting up for every morning. I'm hopeful that I can have a reasonably good life without the need to sell away my happiness.
Submitted July 21, 2018 at 03:18PM by wifehealthinsuranceq https://ift.tt/2uFCAGq
