My 5yr old small business crashed and burned in December of 2016. I managed to shutter it without taking any hits to my credit, but only had $5500 in 2015 Roth IRA contributions left to my name.
Since then I have aggressively saved and invested. I've maxed out my 2016 and 2017 IRA contributions and put $8k in an emergency fund (needs to be at least twelve). I have $800 of 0% interest debt remaining on some medically-necessary dental work.
It sounds good and all, but I will need a new (used) car soon. My 12 year old Civic is slowly dying. The suspension is royally fucked. Gas mileage has plummeted. It smells like oil after my work commute. Speakers are going out and the brand new battery seems weaker than it should be, so there's probably a short somewhere. I do all my own work on it but I'm basically at the end of my abilities and know how. I'm just crossing my fingers that it will pass inspection later this month.
On top of that, my gf of 3 yrs is starting to talk about marriage. About wanting to own a house. We've begun discussing the possibility of children a few years from now.
It just feels like it's never going to end. That I'll always be desperate to save more and more. That I'll never be able to buy the things I want. As soon as the EF is up to par I'll have to save for a shittier car than I'd like (or maybe before then if the catalytic converter is toast). As soon as the car is purchased I'll still need to max my IRA for 2018 before I can start saving for a downpayment on a house, and by then I'll already have to max my IRA again for 2019. At some point I'll have to buy a ring. She's not interested in a fancy/elaborate wedding, but that'll still cost a few thousand. Kids will be costly (I don't know that I'd want them in the care of my parents due to ideological reasons).
How do y'all keep going with this? I'm not content with living like a hermit. I want to own nice footwear and clothes. I want to buy $100 bottles of bourbon and eat $30/lb prosciutto. Do I need to find a higher paying job? Is $27k saved by age 31 better than I think? Because I feel like it's not enough. I feel it should be double that. I feel like I'm always going to feel like I'm behind. Like buying a house is just a pipe dream.
I can't even imagine how fucked I'd feel if I'd taken out loans to finish college. I just want to say fuck saving for the rest of the year. I want to add a zero to my clothing budget and buy a $30k car. It's not even about the Jones's. It's about not wanting to perpetually sacrifice for some day and age I may never even reach.
Submitted March 22, 2018 at 12:48PM by TomC_ThrowAway http://ift.tt/2IIZeTJ
