Why are you covering life insurance for your parents? Are they retired? Do they need LI?
They will be retired soon (about a year), and then they can transition onto partially saving for their own funeral expenses, but it's being kept around for now until something can be cobbled together since my sibs and I didn't have the 30k laying around should such an event occur. We're in a better position now to move on from it, but to hedge our bets, we're just waiting until the term expires/gets stupid expensive (5 years?).
I've never seen a case study where phones, cable and internet exceeds a mortgage repayment, but yours has come the closest.
Hahah I know! I don't even.. use that much internet. It's pretty much luxury utility. The condo covers for general cable package, but the addons husband wants add to the price.
My cellphone is about ~40, DH is ~30. Then the other phone lines of my parents (~25 + ~25), sibs (~40 + ~40), parents internet (~50). Most of this is under my account/name though. This is poor family pooling resources kind of deal, so we divide the bills to make it work.
I suppose the big question is whether you can support 3 generations - yourselves, your parents and your future children.
My parents will hopefully be getting enough through their bits of pension and SS (OAS in canada) to support themselves at an okay level in a year or so (they have less than zero retirement funds), which will free up money for a lot of us. Plus, I can't complain really. I'm technically going to be inheriting their house (Toronto house probably worth $600k+ by then that we would never be able to afford now) while they downsize to my condo.
If you were to go on mat leave and your family to drop to one income, how would you go then?
In Canada (or maybe Ontario?) mat/parental leave is covered by employment insurance for 52 weeks, and makes up about 55% of your average income. By then I will be making my husband's amount, so.. that kind of brings it right back up to the same level if I save right. I can probably cancel my monthly bus passes too to save a bit during my more immobile periods, and I'm sure there's savings to be had in the groceries and entertainment and "misc" area lol.
So the plan is, I ramp up savings as my wage increases enough to offset the wages lost through my pregnancy period. Let's say I will be earning my husband's rate for 1 year before being put out of commission. That's an extra 9k, so that when my parental leave/insurance benefits only cover ~$23k, I am right back where I started thereabouts (his wage will raise a bit too, but not drastically. Maybe an extra 1k annual). And also by the time that's done with, my filial duties bills will be lessened (plus my parents will help with babysitting. His parents will also help and they will be retiring around the same time!). And maybe the minimum wage will increase to $15/hr by 2019 (if Ontario's Liberal government can even hold steady and not bomb the upcoming election. There's a lot of variables going on), and maybe equal work for equal pay (part time and full-time workers making same amounts? I don't know how it will work since seniority is involved in our pay scales, but we'll see!) will kick in along with that so that hopefully my life's economics all evens out again.
I am actually not a big fan of working that hard. I try to do as little as possible that will give me enough retirement to enjoy. That's my personal min-max hobby; a lazy one. But I do need to know if it will work out. lol
