I've been reading through the MMM site for a while after I heard about the site while on a date last year (true story!). I had already been on a personal journey to get rid of debt, and in the 2 years I paid off $15k in credit card debt and about $42k in student loan debt, paying off those student loans this past Friday! I basically trimmed a lot of the fat as far as spending, moved into a small in-law unit instead of the nice, big house I was renting prior, and took no vacations (only local road trips, camping, etc.), no snowboarding, no flights anywhere, no luxury items, etc. until the debt was paid off, and I succeeded!
So here's where I am now, 42 years old, single, no kids (and not having any!) No credit card or student loan debt. I do have a car payment of $450/month on a 2017 Subaru Outback Limited, and my rent is $1,850 all-incusive aside from electric (Wi-Fi, water, washer/dryer is included in the rent, and the electricity to heat the hot water and run the washer/dryer is part my my landlord's house, not tied into my electric bill). I will not be selling my car, to get something less expensive, btw. I live in Oakland, CA, live 5 miles from work, make a hair over $140,000/year working 4 days a week, 8 hour shifts. I do have the option of plenty of overtime, but I have no desire to kill myself working, and did pay off all that debt mentioned above without working overtime.
So what now? I put a big dent in my savings account after putting $17k toward the student loans last week to get rid of them (original plan was to do it by the end of this year, but I got impatient!). Obviously I need to get that money back into my savings account and "pay myself that money back". I have a 403b with work, my employer doesn't contribute anything. Should I still continue to max out that 403b, or put my money into a different retirement account that I set up with someone else? I'm thinking I may need to just bite the bullet and sit down with a financial advisor?
I also dont own a home, and living in Oakland, there's no way I will own a home here being single, and don't have the downpayment to buy anything here. Wondering if I should save to buy something somewhere else that's more afordable as an investment?
So should I just keep it simple and max out the 403b, use what I need to pay the few bills I have and putt he rest in savings, or is there something else I should be doing with my money? Like I said, I'm single, no kids, no debt aside from a car payment and rent, and make a decent living....