Background and info: I’m 35, I’ve worked since 15 years old...but I’ve been self employed for the last 6 years. I have no retirement plan/account/savings. My husband (37) works for the government and has his own retirement set up through them (PERS). He’ll likely stay with government through his career. I will stay self employed at least until we can afford daycare for my twins WHEN my now 4yo starts school in 2 years. At that point, I may get a part time or full time job just depending on the daycare cost etc. But it possible that I’ll stay self employed. We have 4 kids (13yo, 4yo, & 9 month old twins). I save $20/mo per kid for “college” aka just for their future use whether they go to college or pursue some other training/education. I currently only have $500 for both my 14yo and my 4yo and $300 each for my twins. We just didn’t have the income to be saving sooner...and I know that $20/ea per month is really nothing. We know that we will most likely have to take out loans to help the 14yo since we don’t have much time there and I’ll be self employed for at least the next 2 years.
My problem: I need to start saving for my retirement and we have to get serious about college savings for all 4 kids. Don’t know where to start with either.
My questions: Should I be more concerned with saving for retirement than the college savings?
What should I do to plan for my own retirement while being self employed? I have very little understanding of IRA vs Roth IRAs and 401ks etc even though I’ve heard these terms and used to have a 401k that I cashed out because it was such a small amount after leaving my last “actual” job 6 years ago.
And what is the best way to handle college savings? I’ve only just recently heard of the 529 plans via this subreddit, so I will for sure look into those. Just want to see what all the viable options are!
Submitted October 31, 2018 at 01:48PM by hollapainyobidness https://ift.tt/2qmPO8y
