I am nearly finished with grad school and will start a new job early next year at age 33. My salary will be $180,000/year.
I have $40,000 in student loan debt (~6.5% interest). I have no other debt but also no major assets. No house, and minimal retirement savings. I went back to school for several years and burned through a major chunk of savings I'd accumulated in my 20's.
My SO and I are used to living a very frugal lifestyle as we have been living off very little for the past several years while I am in grad school, and are OK to continue to do so to maximize savings (all in expenses including rent etc. under $2000/month).
My question is where to start?
I want to save very aggressively for retirement. Preferably an early retirement: would it even be possible to reach when I am really just starting to put away money at 33? Could I retire at 55?
Should I focus first on paying down the student loans ASAP? Or should I consolidate to something lower interest and get on a fixed schedule?
For retirement: How should I allocate money for investments? I have a good credit score (790), and my SO is very handy, we have floated the idea of trying to build a portfolio of rental properties that SO could manage. Is that a bad idea?
We have talked about kids but money is again a concern.
I know the money is good but we are literally starting from zero at a time when most people have accumulated 10 years of savings. It feels like we are really far behind.
Thank you for any suggestions.
Submitted December 01, 2018 at 09:07AM by Back2therealworld https://ift.tt/2E7UdVC
