Background: foreign born, came here years ago and just started working as a nurse. I have 4350 dollars between two saving accounts that I have saved from working. I do not have to pay rent as I live in my parents’ house. I also do not have a car since I use my dad’s (which I have fixed and it seems it is about to break again), so I am thinking of buying a used car. Basically, they are not in the States anymore, so I am taking care of their stuff… including mortgage and car insurance payment and whatever else. I rent out the rooms, so that pays most of everything. There have been times I have had to use my own money to pay for things, but it’s much less than paying for rent and car all by myself, I figured. I have student loans of $25k with an average interest rate of 3.77% when using direct deposit option (interest reduced by 0.25%), which comes up to about 254 dollars per month. I do have a budget, but things keep changing so it has become difficult to adhere to it.
Situation: after insurance, taxes, and 403(b) I have at around 6% now (it was 12% before just to get it started faster), I make about $1350 every two weeks. No overtime yet, next year will be about $1450 without overtime as well. I am currently looking for a part time job, so I’d be getting at the very least $300 extra every two weeks from that. I am saving around $750 from every check. My employer does not match yet, that is why I have it only at 6% to get the match but I would like to save more for retirement. I also need to pay for my citizenship application (I delayed it because of school). Also, I have a fiancé from back home, which means I have a lot of applications and fees to pay for, not including flight tickets. We are planning to get married, so I need some help pointing out what things I need to take care of that I am not aware of yet
Questions/help: (1) should I focus on paying off my loans or pay the minimum and invest instead? (2) I am planning to save for retirement, it seems Roth IRA is best for me, but I would like suggestions/feedback on this, I was thinking of using Wealthfront since I would not have to do anything, I just want to get it going and not worry about it. (3) being married, I get it I will need to be the head of household for the time being, is there anything that I would have to keep in mind? We want to buy our own place; my dad is fine with us staying here probably for a couple of years. (4) any recommendation on cars? I am thinking of buying an Honda civic 2014/2015 through a car loan. I figure the newer Hondas would be worth it since I want to drive it for at least 10 years.
Any questions are welcome! Brainstorming is better the more people there are. Thanks in advance!
Submitted October 28, 2017 at 10:47AM by CharlesElGringo http://ift.tt/2icOdgT
