Some personal stuff
I am in my mid-20's, with my wife in her early 20's. I have just started my career and my wife finished schooling to start hers. We do not have plans on having children, she is strictly against it and so am I. I am transitioning to a position that will pay 5-10k more than I currently make, once my replacement is found.
Our Monthly Income After Taxes
3000 USD (50k Salary) 1800 USD (12.50 per Hour) Total of 4800
Our Monthly Expenses
- Rent + Water (1150 + 50) - We are moving into a 1br for 100 less
- Electricity (120)
- Car Insurance (150) - Unable to get this lower
- 2 Cell Phones w/ Unlimited Everything (120)
- Car 1 (330) - 12k left on this, 10.5% apr (young and dumb)
- Car 2 (180) - 7k left on this, 8% apr
- Groceries (400) - Shop at Lidles/Aldi
- Entertainment/Eating Out (200) - we plan on cutting this back
- Personal for Me (160) - 40 a week for w/e
- Personal for Her (160) - 40 a week for w/e
- Health Insurance for Her (60)
- Internet (50) - Only provider available through apartment
- Gas (50) - Live close to our jobs
- Amazon Prime (15) - we are cutting this today
- Hulu (10) - don't have cable and primarily use this
- Apple Storage? (10) - we are cutting this today
- Gym (30) - hard to cut this further due to location
- Total of 3255, 3155 when we move next month
We only save liquid income, company does not 401k match for a year... currently 6 months in my current position. Below is what I'm considering our e-fund:
- 9k USD in Savings
- 2k USD coming from referral bonuses soon(this will be taxed and I can expect ~1500 most likely). I intend on dumping it in savings.
We managed to save 15k last year making ~1k less per month, but our expenses were lower and we ended up spending 7k of that e-fund due to losing my job & moving expenses. I also tried to self-medicate a bit with spending to reward ourselves for making it through all of that, so we went down to 6k... We currently are able to save 1,545 per month. We will start saving 1,645 next month.
Some interesting stuff...
- 23.95% of our takehome pay goes to rent, this goes down to 21.87% when we move... is this acceptable?
- 10.62% of our takehome pay goes to car payments, god I hate car payments
- We currently save 32.18% of what we make, after taxes and expenses. This will go to 34.27% after downsizing our apartment, we just have to sign the paperwork this week
I have 40k of student loan debt ~4% apr that is in forbearance for another year
What route would you all take to eliminate the Car Debt and Student Loan debt? I think we're on the right track, but I've been pondering the idea of getting to 4 months for an e-fund (the job market is hot where we're at) and then making extra car payments towards the 10.5% apr loan first. Then the 8% car next. I figure by the time car one is paid off... I can roll that 330 payment into the 8% apr loan and then start paying my student loans... I would like a house one day, but we are not in a rush until all debt is cleared and we can comfortably make a 20% downpayment. We intend on driving both cars into the ground, for the next 5-10 years. And as we expect for both of our incomes to increase (hers by 10k, mine by 10-30k in the next few years), when should we start investing for retirement? Am I better off not doing it until I can get the company match at the 1 year mark? Should my wife do this through her employer as well?
Any input would be appreciated, thanks!
Submitted September 05, 2018 at 10:20AM by remedy75 https://ift.tt/2oJW8Ww
