I’m 48 with two kids, and over the last 8 years I have started over in many ways. I got divorced, relaunched my career after being a SAHM for 10 years, and recently remarried. I feel like I have several important goals that all need simultaneous focus and I’m having a hard time prioritizing them. They are - grow my emergency fund, pay off my student loan, save for retirement, buy a house, and help contribute to my kids’ college education (both are starting college within the next couple years.)
Emergency fund - mine is worth 1.5 months of living expenses and growing, plus I religiously use the envelope budgeting system (thank you YNAB) so I also have separate sinking funds for car repairs, medical expenses, etc.
Debt - I have no debt except for a $23k student loan that’s on COVID forbearance.
Retirement - after being a SAHM for so long, I’m behind on my retirement savings and only have 50k saved, mostly in a T-IRA.
Home ownership- I owned a house with my first husband, however we managed our money poorly and his business went under, forcing us to sell our home. I’m renting now and desperately want to have a house of my own again but in my HCOL area it seems a far away goal.
College - I’ve got 2 kids that are starting college in the next year or two. They have about $60k each in their 529 plans. It’s enough to make a dent in their college tuition but not enough to avoid taking out student loans.
I have a steady job, making $78k/yr; the most I could probably make in my career is $110k/yr. I’ve now remarried and my 2nd husband, who did a career switch, is finishing his education. He’s making $35k/yr now but we expect him to make $125k/yr starting in 2 years. At the moment we keep our finances generally separate except for household expenses, vacations, and one day buying a house.
I’m curious to get advice about how to prioritize these goals. It seems like the standard advice is to keep building up my emergency fund, then pay off my student loan, then invest in my retirement, then save for a house? If I follow this order of prioritization and go all-in, I am guessing it would take me 2-3 years to build up my emergency fund and pay off my student loan. In the meantime my retirement would be neglected and I am already 48. Not to mention my kids would be halfway through college with little financial assistance from me beyond those 529s. And then there is the dream of home ownership again, which I haven’t yet funded at all, and in this market a 20% downpayment is at least $140k for a condo, $200k+ for a house. I feel like I have many pressing needs and none of them can be neglected for long. Is it wrong to try to contribute to all of them at once or is it better to focus on one at a time? Thank you for your input.
Submitted March 27, 2021 at 05:32AM by ruby_dahlia https://ift.tt/31pOp3y
