Hello,
Just to be clear, I live in Canada - is this the right place to post?
As the title says, I have recently made a rather dramatic recovery from an illness that has consumed the last 20 years of my life. I went from being a very healthy, active young person to a wraith. I was unable to work enough to effectively save money and to be quite honest, it seemed fruitless to do so. I wasn't even supposed to get this far.
That being said, I was not stupid with the money I made and didn't make terrible decisions - except for maybe one:
When it started to look like I was improving, I got an education. I have 60k of student debt (gross, I know) but I also have a job that will now pay me 75k a year starting and will go up to 100k guaranteed in 3 or 4 years.
My spouse makes 100k. We have a house that has appreciated significantly since we got it, and we've been quite lucky to turn a gifted disaster of a home worth 120k into a 550k home over a number of moves and years. Our plan is to downsize significantly and turn the 550k home into a solid chunk of money to invest for the future. Housing prices around here have exploded and we've done a decent job taking advantage of that fact. The house we're in now has increased in value by 25k in mere months.
I am not a materialistic person. Seriously, I'm just happy to be here. I have very few "things," a car, a computer, a dog, that's pretty much the extent of it. I owe nothing on the car, my only bills are a student loan, home, and utilities. That's it.
While I've been trying to be decent with my money I have mostly been trying to ensure my spouse's future because, well, I didn't really think I had one. Now I do.
Where do I start? I may very well be working until I'm 70 - I have no idea. I'm willing to take whatever steps are necessary but I just don't know where to start aside from "save 3 months as an emergency fund" and "Pay off biggest debts first."
I have no idea what to invest in. I hope you can help point me in the right direction. It's a little freaky knowing I'm so far behind the curve but it's weird suddenly having a future that you've been told for years didn't exist.
To be clear, I'm not complaining. Being alive is better than the alternative. I just don't know where to go financially.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Submitted January 26, 2017 at 04:01PM by FlowerInDesert http://ift.tt/2jusD9o
