Hi. I am 38, married, with two kids in middle school. No savings, no college fund, no retirement to speak of, student loans, car loan, and a hefty mortgage. I also want to get a divorce in a few years (yes, I'm planning it, it's complicated, so please just take my word for it).
I started using YNAB about 5 months ago with great success. Unfortunately, it has taken me this long to get a good grip on our finances, to catch up on all things that needed fixing (like boiler, car, etc), to start my sinking funds for annual and semiannual expenses, and to finally being able to see the forest for the trees. It will be few more months before I can get a more definite idea of how much money I can spare monthly to either put away into savings or send to one of our debts. I also want to start contributing to my 401k plan at work (thank you to those who replied to my earlier post about 401k calculator).
The thing is, I feel like I am too late to the game and I will never accumulate a significant amount of wealth to be comfortable. My salary is fairly low considering my high cost of living area, my husband's salary is about twice what I make. We need both our incomes to cover the mortgage, all loan payments, regular expenses, etc. We've cut down a lot lately, but it is as far as I can go, as my husband would not agree to any more cuts in the budget.
So what do I do now? Figure out how much I can through at debt and do that? It will still take about 5 years to pay everything off (except the mortgage). Or is it better to save money and have cash on had when I do file for divorce? All of our interest rates are pretty low (from 1.9% to 5%).
Any contribution I would make to my 401k would decrease the amount I can save or pay on the debt. It's a catch 22.
I feel lost and scared and I don't know what to do first that would give me the best chance to survive later. The reason I'm waiting few years is because I have a potential to significantly increase my income in this time by obtaining certain job certifications and gaining more experience. Until that happens, I have absolutely no resources to increase my income.
Any advice would be appreciated at this point.
Thank you