My lovely fiancee (31) and I (33) are getting married in a month. While I have always been frugal, I've only started doing any long term financial planning the last two years after landing my first real job after grad school. Smacking myself for not learning about tax advantaged accounts and index funds earlier. Oh well, better late than never.
Here's a detailed breakdown of our finances, skip to the bottom if you don't want to read the details.
| Mine | Hers | Remarks |
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Gross Income | $120,000 | $68,000 | Bonus is depressingly negligible, so not including it at all. |
Pre-Tax Savings | $19,000 (401K) + $6,000 (Roth IRA) + $3,500 (HSA) = $28,500 (Total) | $19,000 (403B) + $6,000 (Roth IRA) = $25,000 (Total) | We max out whatever we can. |
Employer Contribution | $7,200 (6% 401K) + $800 (HSA) = $8,000 | NA | |
Taxes | $30,000 (est.) | $13,000 (est.) | |
Health Insurance | $1,038 | 0 | My company has crappy health insurance, the 1k I'm paying now is only dental (need some work this year, otherwise I can go with a more basic plan). Hers on the other hand is awesome (perks of working in a healthcare field). We are going to look into whether I can be covered under her health insurance once we get married. |
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Housing (Fixed) | $6,500 (Property Tax) + $720 (Homeowner's Insurance) | $1,575 x 12 = $18,900 | Ouch and ouch, but I decided to trade high property tax (almost 4% of house value) for living in a walkable neighborhood and being able to bike to work. Her rent will go away once we move in together, hopefully in < 2 years time. |
Housing (Budgeted) | $4,000 (Home Improvement/Maintenance) | NA | About 2% of home value, seems reasonable. |
Utilities | $1,800 (Electric, Gas & Water) | $400 (Electric) | |
Internet | $65 x 12 = $780 | $55 x 12 = $660 | Only internet provider. Monopoly sucks! |
Phone | $35 x 12 = $420 | $35 x 12 = $420 | |
Transportation (Fixed) | $720 (Car Insurance) + $55 (Registration + Inspection) | $120 x 12 = $1440 (Subway Pass) | 10 year old car, paid off and going strong. |
Transportation (Budgeted) | $2,400 (Gas) + $1,000 (Repair/Maintenance) | $1,000 (Bus tickets to visit me) | I mostly bike to work (< 10 miles RT), but between driving to visit my fiancee on weekends and frequent drives to hiking trails and other road trips, the miles really add up. |
Groceries | $2,400 | $3,000 | Her grocery budget is higher due to living in a HCOL area. |
Dining Out (Us) | $3,600 | NA | This is a shared expense, and I (gladly) pay by default. We are both foodies so this is one of our guilty pleasures. |
Dining Out (General) | $1,200 | $1,200 | I eat out for social purposes only, all other times I cook and meal prep, but I have some very spendy friends and I crumble under peer pressure. |
Travel/Vacations (Budgeted) | $2,000 | $2,000 | |
Healthcare (Budgeted) | $2,000 | $1,000 | Neither of us have had any healthcare related expenses in the last 10 years, but I figured this is good to have in the budget. |
Entertainment (Budgeted) | $1,000 | $1,000 | Another guilty pleasure of ours, we both love music and theater. |
Hobbies + Electronics (Budgeted) | $1,500 | $200 | I'm in charge of shopping for phones/laptops etc. I also buy outdoor gear once in a while. |
Beauty Products | $100 | $??? | I haven't tried asking, but judging by the stuff spewed over every surface of her apartment I'm guessing substantial amount. XD She is working on cutting down on her spending in this category though. |
Clothes / Accessories | $500 | $??? | Again, don't ask don't tell. |
Shit Happens (Budgeted) | $2000 | $2000 | Because death, taxes and... shit. |
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Total Expenses | $35,013 | $33,220 + $??? | |
Total Savings | $64,987 | $22,780 | Her calculated savings is lower than what she's actually putting away ($25,000 in her 403B and Roth IRA, because there are items in the budget we ended up not paying for, e.g. healthcare) |
Post Tax Income | $90,000 | $55,000 | |
Saving Rate | 70% | 40% | |
Current NW | $47,000 (401K) + $28,000 (Roth IRA) + $59,000 (Taxable Investment Acct) + $3,800 (HSA) + $23,000 (HYSA) = $160,800 | #28,000 (403B) + $19,000 (Roth IRA) + $5,000 (Cash) = $52,000 | |
Our actual expenses are usually lower than this, but I decided to budget conservatively just in case.
We both love our jobs so we're not sure if we will RE, but FI sure sounds awesome! We should be able to cut down on our collective expenses once she moves in with me, but we are also planning to have kids then, so total expenses might be a wash. ideally we want to keep our (inflation-adjusted) expenses to 50K a year tops, so I think we'll count ourselves FI at ~1.5mil, at our current rate we're hoping to get there in ~10 years time. What do you guys think of our plan? Any feedback/advice/facepunches are welcome!