Hey PF-
I love this page and read it frequently. I read so many people's success stories on here or the extremes that people go to become financially secure and I'm not sure where I'm at realistically. Although I've seen the threads about general milestones for certain stages of life and seen "rules of thumb" for retirement and savings-- how can I find out if I'm doing OK overall or not? I guess it's all subjective, but right now I'm debating starting a second job to increase my income but don't know if it's financially necessary.
Basics: Married, late 20s, between the wife and I, we make gross 107k/year and after taxes, pensions (yes both of us), health insurance, FSA, and life insurance, our net per month is approximately 6k. Our expenses are 3500/month which include our mortgage, taxes, fun spending, groceries, student loan payments, car payment, dog care, and more. This leaves us roughly 2500/mo leftover which we've been snowballing towards student loan payments. I also have an IRA with roughly 4k in it that I chip 200/month in right now just to keep adding while still paying down debts.
Outstanding debts: 42k of student loans at various interest rates from 3-9% with us overpaying on the 9% loan with 5500 left on that one, 7700 on my car worth about 10k at 0% interest and our mortgage which is 213k remaining on a house valued at 260k at 3.5% interest.
We have roughly 3 months in an emergency fund because we worked hard to pay off one car and lower the 9% student loan from 8k to 5500 in the last few months. Both our jobs are unionized and stable so we don't feel a need to have too much in our accounts prior to paying off the 9% loan. I feel that we can have all of our debts (and a new car to replace my wife's in a year or two ) paid off in 3-4 years without changing our spending or quality of life.
I can work 15/hrs per week and make an extra 1k/month to throw at debts but in the grand scheme... is it worth it? I have a lot of health problems so I could definitely use that time for self-care and to spend with my wife and dog.
I know so much of this is subjective but I guess I need a reality check of "am I doing OK or not?" and to ask the more general question of "and how would I know if I am".
Cheers.
Submitted October 21, 2017 at 08:01PM by ljaffe19 http://ift.tt/2l5KMxb
