Long time lurker, first time poster.
I am a relatively smart 33M metals engineer, but I am a knucklehead when it comes to finance, budgeting, and long term financial planning. I dream of retiring early, and travelling / vacationing some day, but feel like I am not equipped to do so without some better insight, tips, tricks, etc from those of you more experienced.
GENERAL
- We live in Northwest Indiana (Valparaiso, IN) to be exact.
- I make a good salary, ~95k gross.
- My wife is a teacher, 34F, ~32k gross.
- I do dump a bit (~12%) in my 401k.
- I am married with two kids (2.5F & <1F), and we live month-month...barely meeting our financial obligations.
- I use Mint.com to help budget, but I feel like it is littered with errors and the budgeting tool tells me that "I saved XXXX.XX this month" which is totally incorrect.
- We have no savings.
- We have ~2000 in the bank.
- We have ~130k in 401k.
COSTS
- Daycare costs are ~1750/month.
- Mortgage is ~1500/month.
- Groceries are ~1000/month
- Utilities/Memberships/Cellphone/Car Payments/Gas/Shopping/Haircuts/ADT/Water/etc is ~2300/month.
- By my calculations, I am in the red $500/month, which seems nuts for my salary.
HOUSE
- We have a small house, and do not live extravagantly (or at least I don't think).
- Built in 2007, Bought in 2013 for 203k
- Owe 175k
- Zillow estimate says value is 240k (doesn't take into account upgrades I made: hardwood floors and new furnace)
- We have a 30yr mortgage at good rate (3.25%), but are paying PMI since we didn't have much down.
- I am afraid to refinance, due to Closing costs, and little to no ability to pay them.
Does anyone have any suggestions, useful tools, a willingness to sit down with me?
Thank you so much for anything you can offer.
Edit: Formatting, and errors regarding house (thanks @CuseHokie).
Submitted October 04, 2017 at 12:06PM by darksidex http://ift.tt/2y02V4w
