Hey, I've never thought much about money, I've always had enough due to having my parents pay for everything and students loan, I've never had to worry about it before, but I've always been pretty frugal.
Now that I've graduated and am taking financial responsibility for myself I feel pretty lost. I've become to understood that bank saving accounts are pretty much useless compared to investing, but I don't know much about it.
A little about myself, I've just turned 26 and I graduated a bit under 4 months ago. I don't own anything that isn't debt.
Annual income after taxes and mandatory goverment hand outs: 44 000 euros per year so approximately 3700 euros per month.
My wife still has four years of university left and my job is located in a different city, I try to live as cheaply there and here, but rent etc end up costing around 1000 euros per month.
My biggest income leaks are
Living. 1000 euros per month
Car (1.4l tdi toyota corolla, 4.1 liters per 100km approx 57mpg) bought from my parents, no interest loan which i'm paying 500 euros per month away. Gas takes around 250 euros per month and insurance and taxes around 100 per month. total of 850 per month, should probably round this to 1000?
Additional housing insurances gym membership etcetera 20 euros per month, cellphone and internet 25 euros per month combined maximum of 100 euros per month
Food approximately 250 euros per month
Bad luck case scenario set up (dishwasher breaks down etc) I'm putting away 200 euros per month up to 5k.
Total of 2400 euros spent per month out of approximately 3700 euros per month which leaves 1300-1150 euros per month to invest and pay back debts.
Car debt total (interest free) 8000 euros left out of 9000.
Student debt 9000 euros after goverment handout 7000 euros pay back. Low interest, I'll pay this back next year when they start giving me the tax deductible portion. (1 year after graduation)
I've never made a budget for myself so I don't know how accurate this'll be. I've had to buy a lot of big things after graduating such as a sofa ( 1.6k euros, still feel bad about this) and a dishwasher 300 euros, but I avoided taking any debt and paid them cash only so I didn't involve buyments as those because now we have everything we need. Where I work I live in the cheapest apartment possible and sleep on a carry-on mattress and travel lightly as possible, I change work apartments depending who'se renting out for cheapest. I already bid my cellphone, internet and insurances to the cheapest ones possible. I cook everything myself. I like to think I'm pretty frugal, but in a way I'm partly supporting my wife, because her income is less than a quarter of mine.
So my questions are, am I atleast somewhat on the right path? Are there any gaping loopholes in my budget? And what would you recommend I do with this extra 1000 euros per month, I'm currently investing in stocks and long term bonds trying to split it as much as possible.
Future bills, when my wife graduates and if she gets stable job we will probably buy a house, but her income should be larger by then. Currently we're not buying because we don't know which town we'll end up settling in.
What I want from the future is the financial freedom to live my life the way I please without having to be scared about being left jobless etc. I think I'm somewhat on the right path, I probably need around 2000 euros per month to live off of comfortably when the wife and I manage to combine "our assets" (Live in the same area)
