So here's the thing, my wife and I move to San Francisco for work about 6 months ago and we had to use up all our savings for the deposits(very high as I had no credit history) & furnishings of our apartment (1 bedroom, nothing fancy even...).
Use craigslist to buy used furnature, and then turn around and sell it for most of what you paid if/when you move. You are in the mecca of craigslist-land.
I do not contribute to the 401k (50% match up to the first 6% of my annual salary) as I have no clue how this works if we move back to Europe in 4-6 years. Is it still worth it or will I be taxed to death?
You should absolutely contribute for two reason. 1) you get a 50% match, which is good even if you wind up paying a 10% early withdraw penalty later. 2) you'll pay less in taxes each year you contribute. win win.
In 4-6 years should you decide to move there are a couple things you can do. First is cash out your 401(k) and take the 10% penalty and pay associated taxes. Another option is to just leave the money there (or roll it over into an IRA account and leave it THERE) until you are ready for retirement. Even if you live on another continent it can stay in your US brokerage account, earn interest, and then be cashed out and converted into any other currency at a later date.
So far I'm saving 1728 dollars in the ESP fund (10% discount) and 2000 dollars a month towards my savings account. I have no clue how I'm doing, this is more than I have been able to save up since I started working 10 years ago!
almost $4k/month is pretty good. There are way of optimizing this, including taking advantage of your 401(k) and other tax-advantaged accounts, and shaving a bit off your budget (what you listed is pretty thin info-wise)
Our long term goal is to be as fiscally independent as we can, though all of this is really new to us. My wife is Dutch and has that "spend as little as we can" mentality but we still like to do "nice" things together, such as dining out once in a while and seeing the US (I moved here without having ever been to any other part than Seattle...). We have a new years eve planned in Vegas (first time ever we splurged on new years and I feel guilty for it) and possibly tour South California around thanksgiving.
Sounds good - but not sure what the 'question' here is... plenty of ways of doing Vegas on the cheap. See priceline.org for hotel deals, and long as you avoid massive gambling and the trendy bars/restaurants it can be a cheap vacation from SF.
Any support, face punches and advise would be highly appreciated. We're trying to save up as much as we can without locking ourselves up, don't own a car (I zipcar when I need one), cycle or walk as much as possible. Yet I still feel I am not doing enough. There is a 1000 dollar gap in my summary that I feel pinched about as it goes to various different things that need to be put a handle on.
Should I put the savings account money in Index funds? I still want to have an emergency fund, but looking at the other side of the coin, if I lose my job we have to leave the country within 2 weeks....
First, as you've said, figure out the extra $1k/month gap. An emergency fund is good to have, but I wouldn't go overboard here - especially if you have your savings and not a lot of other debt. I always tell people that low-cost index funds are a good choice (Vanguard and Fidelity SP500 and Total Market Index are very popular choices). REITs can also be good, but i"m less knowledgeable about them.
Welcome!