Hi all! We have a strange emergency fund situation, and I'm trying to figure out how much cash to keep. I would also gladly accept general suggestions (and am anticipating a few face punches, but hey - nobody's perfect).
Life Situation:
Married, 1 claimed dependent (soon to be 18),
Gross Salary/Wages:
74,000 me (after a recent mega-raise)
125,000 husband (married less than a year ago)
Pre-tax deductions:
My 401k - $18,000/yr
My 457 - $18,000/yr
HB 401k - $6250/yr (with additional 4% match)
Pension (mandatory) – 8% of my pay, or $5920/yr
HB alimony / child support – $4038/month, $43656/yr for 7 more years (will go down by $400/month after one year, but yeah… he didn’t use a lawyer and got screwed)
Bi-weekly take home after all deductions (all insurances, taxes – already as low as they can be with me being comfortable) - $905 me, $1754 HB
Taxes:
We’re in the 25% bracket. Hoping to get in the 15% bracket for married filing jointly eventually, but we’ll see. Taxes are already subtracted above.
Monthly Expenses:
Mortgage - $1150 ($950 mortgage, $70 PMI, $130 T&I), this is the same as we would pay renting a 2bdr apartment
Car Insurance - $100
Gas - $140 (we both carpool and normally come in under budget)
Internet - $41
Trash (and recycle) - $24
Utilities - $250 budgeted, summer months are ~130, it gets cold during winter
Entertainment - $40
Life Insurance - $160 ($40 is mandatory from HB’s old divorce)
Booze - $40
Groceries - $360 (2 working adults and 1 teenager)
Restaurants - $80
Home maintenance - $200
Medical - $60
Birthdays, misc. gifts - $30
Kid braces, misc. expenses - $170 (totally a losing battle to decrease)
Shopping - $60
Car loan - $250
Student loan 1 (kid that’s no longer claimed as dependent) - $117
Student loan 2 (currently deferred) - $150
(We are just finishing a (diy) kitchen remodel so might have residual expenses from that)
Assets:
My Pension (cash value) - $5100
My 401k - $41,760
My Roth IRA - $500 (quit funding this when I realized I should be doing traditional, but I'm waiting for it to be 5 years old so I can dump the joint emergency fund into it)
My 457 - $15,170
HB 401k - $25,360
House - Zillow says $267,000 but I use $220,000 in NW calculations
Car – 2014 CR-V (you can punch my face but I like it and fully intend to drive it to the ground), $16,000
Car – 2004 Mercury Sable, $2000
Joint emergency fund - $16,000 (6 months of expenses - I want to raise this to $18,000 soon. HB's job situation isn't very stable at the moment, my job is very stable)
HB emergency fund for alimony and child support - $13,000 (this is 6 months of alimony and child support minus the unemployment he would get if fired)
Checking (on a regular basis) - $1000-ish
We also have a fairly large amount (~$40,000 tax free) coming next year, when HB's share of his old house is finally freed up (kid will be in college).
Debts:
Mortgage – (4.25%, 28 yrs left) $167,700, still paying PMI until $156,000
Car – (2.99%, 5 yrs) $14,000
Student loan 1 – (5% but deductible, 8 yrs left) - $8152
Student loan 2 – (6.4% but deductible, 10 yrs left) - $10,119