I (26M) am going to have some changes coming up in my life so I am just looking for some advice on my potential budget and approach to my finances in general.
My fiancee will be starting school in the next couple months and we will be moving to a new city so I am trying to prepare my budget based on the a single income instead of having her help out on our key expenses (rent, utils, groceries, insurance). She will likely try to do some part time and/or odd jobs here and there, but I want to prepare for the worst.
I think I have my budget pretty well in check, but I was wondering about a few things that could possibly help me out on a day to day basis mostly focused around my debt.
Income
- Monthly Gross: $8,220
- Taxes: $2,377
- Roth 401k: $1,233
- Company Stock: $247
- Other Benefits: $300
- Monthly Net: $4,076
Budget
- Rent and Utilities: $1300
- Utilities: $200
- Car Payment: $263
- Personal Loan Payment: $202
- Insurance: $175
- Groceries: $300
- Subscriptions: $80
- Eating / Going Out: $300
- Transportation: $175
- Misc: $50
- Savings House: $700
- Savings Vacation: $50
- IRA: $200
Debt
- Car: $15,000 (3.4% APR)
- Personal Loan: $5,000 (0% APR until September 2019)
Savings / Investments
- Basic/Emergency: $16,000
- House: $35,000
- Vanguard Brokerage: $16,000
- Company Stock: $7,000
- Her Savings: ~$5,000
Retirement
- Roth 401k: $29,000
- Traditional IRA: $2,500
Notes
- The $15,000 in the Vanguard brokerage was initially for the rest of my car, but my returns were better than my interest rate so I only put about ~40% down instead of selling and of paying full in cash.
- I was going to sell the company stock for the item with personal loan, but I figured I'd run with the 0% interest and pay it off when that is done. I initially planned on buying with cash and the available financing did not influence the purchase.
- If I do not use the funds above to pay off my debts I will likely use them as part of my housing fund.
- My job offers 2.5% match for company stock purchases (vests instantly), so I plan on continuing utilizing that benefit as it's pretty much a 2.5% raise.
- I was aggressively saving for a house (as that is an important goal for me), but it looks like that will be another 2 years at least with me moving around. I plan on backing off this savings goal (to the number above) a little while she is in school.
- My emergency bucket is a little high, but with our move and her not working I was thinking I just want to play it safe.
- She is planning on taking out un/subsidized federal loans for school. Should come out to around $18,000 over 1.5 years. We should be able to pay this off very quickly after she graduates as she is going into a high-demand field with an average salary around 60k our area.
Questions
- Are there any other expenses I may be forgetting now that I am combining two people finances? She's not good at keeping track where she spends money (I'm just starting to help her with budgeting). The big ones that almost slipped past us were insurance and transportation.
- Should I just go ahead and pay off my debts or does my approach seem feasible? I would just funnel most the money saved from monthly payments to my retirement and savings. I've only been paying off these loans for a few months, but I'm already annoyed with having monthly payments. This is the first debt I've ever had.
- Should I switch to a traditional 401k from a Roth? Would I see some tax savings in my paycheck?
- Should I move the money from my housing fund to something with a higher interest rate? I am currently getting 1% in all of my savings accounts mentioned above.
- Any general advice for student loans? Neither of us have taken student loans in the past.
Submitted July 14, 2018 at 11:17AM by i_am_pf https://ift.tt/2uyNQUe
