Thank you so much for the advice!
Background - 46yo divorced raising two tweens.
I haven't put in a lot of Financial info as I'm in a transition state. I'm downsizing to a home that I'm just shy of owning outright. (I know face-punch! Signed before I found this website, otherwise should've bought entirely cash, although having the Bank need to appraise, saved me because the Appraisal was lower, so builder lowered the price!) I will say though I've downsized A LOT and rid myself of so many crazy expenses.
So within 2 years I will have zero debt or I can pay the mortgage off at $250 - $480 per month for 30 years (still debating amount to mortgage). I'm going to sit down today and try and figure out whether I murder the mortgage only or invest or both. I see a lot of debate over this. If paid in under 2 years the total Interest paid is ~$2k at the rate of 5%. Over a 30 year period it's ~$50-$75k
My goal is to minimize all expenditure as much as possible. This is why I studied the car market and found the Volt has an ev range that would cover 95% of my travel and save me Gas, so $20k ,for a gas savings of $3k per year....I'm ahead in about 7 years, call it a 15% return? The 2017 has the new higher range, the years prior only have about 30m. The Nissan Leaf is another option, but seems really small with kids, dog and lots of Big trucks around me. (I was in a car accident years ago that makes me want a decent sized car in the event of an accident).
My nett income is $6.5k per month,
my other expenses will be HOA, Ins, Elec, prop tax Gas of $865 per month conservatively,
groceries, $750 (family of 3 - yes working on reducing - looking forward to growing food),
other expenses - Ins, Vet, cell ph etc = $1,000
Call it about $3k per month of cashflow - to be honed when settled in to new state and home.
I have $170k in 401k
an emergency fund of $30k (savings account with 2.25%).
Only $10k in the stock market - some of it Indexed some big name self picks eg Amazon. Stock market makes me nervous but I'm studying MMM and other sites to figure out my plan.
Again truly appreciate any comments or advice.
Thank you!