Early 30s, was working a job earning $35k and landed a job making $110k a few months ago. My wife and I make a combined income now of just shy of $200k.
She is using her income to pay the mortgage and groceries combined total of ~ $1,200 monthly and I am paying for our vehicles, utilities, car insurance for a total of ~ $1,000. The one vehicle I'm paying 0.9% and the other one at 1.9%.
That combined and incidentals of having a social life we are at about $2,500 a month in expenses. We live fairly frugal, don't spend much at restaurants and such. We have a $20k in savings and my wife's student loans for her master's kicked in beginning of the year and has a $10K remaining.
Since taking the position I've paid off all of my credit card debt of ~$4k and am now focusing on helping my wife pay off her student loan since they're at 4.5% and would like to knock out that debt. We don't have any retirement accounts or anything like this.
What should my next steps be? For now I just have my income sitting in a savings account earning 1.45%. Now, both of our credit scores are in the 810-820 range (not sure if that matters for this). What will my best future planning be?
Edit: I got asked by mods to remove a certain website.
HOW?
I've been in marketing for ~10 years but have spent the last 4 years building my qualifications and certifications after noticing stagnation in income, which I believe is due to me only having 1 year at a community college when younger.
Surprisingly enough, most of the extra skillsets that made me more marketable were by subscribing to had to remove and teaching myself through online research and reviewing market studies. It felt like I enrolled myself into my own college making me solely responsible for my education. I worked my ass off teaching myself the last 4 years from knowing minimal marketing to having every certification and skillset under the sun to put myself where I am now.
Bottom line, lots of hard work teaching myself all the skillsets to move into a larger role while I kept the smaller role.
HOW DID YOU GET THE MOTIVATION TO TEACH YOURSELF?
I started running around the same time I began pushing myself to try harder. For me, I learned rewards don't work, plain and simple. They just made me lazier. All my work was from home so I'd work 4 hours, go on a run, work a few more hours, go on another run. Helps me keep focus on what's important to me and get those goals accomplished.
Now I'm sure people will find excuses and say, HEY I WORK ALL DAY IN AN OFFICE, I CAN'T DO THAT... that's just you convincing yourself you're incapable and will continue to be that way. Make the effort, reap the rewards, and stop making excuses.
When I felt better about myself from running, it reflected in my goals. I don't think there's a perfect answer for everyone, but if you find things that make you happier and healthier, that happiness and hard work can reflect into your career as well.
ARE YOU HIRING?
Not right now but one word of advice I can give you is a lot of people feel more comfortable applying to 50-60K jobs then the 100K+ jobs. I used to review incoming resumes and you'll get 400+ applicants for the $50K position and maybe 10 applicants for $100K+ positions. Since I knew that info, I only applied to positions hiring for over $100k.
SIMILIAR SITUATION, QUESTION ON LIFESTYLE
For me, I grew up poor. My parents have always been poor. Making $35k made me feel accomplished. Live like you're still earning your previous amount. Don't buy stupid things. Don't buy fancy cars. Don't buy a bigger house or nicer apartment.
After I paid my debts, I finally feel lighter in a sense. We're frugal as hell. I literally just bought new underwear for the first time in over 6 years.
After I paid everything off and saw actual earnings into my account I literally had a wave of humbling emotion that brought tears to my eyes. Hold onto that mindset and never let it go.
EDUCATION?
There's literally 100s of sites you can use like that. had to removeThat was one that got me started. Refer to this post for other free online courses. I had to pull one website.
WELL... THIS BLEW UP THANK YOU ALL FOR THE QUESTIONS AND INPUT, I CAN'T KEEP UP WITH THEM ALL, I SHOULD DO SOME WORK I SUPPOSE!
Submitted March 23, 2018 at 11:11AM by rewardsthroway https://ift.tt/2I1zcdb
