Hi folks. I'm brand new to this whole idea of FI and holy cow, it is blowing my mind! I don't want to waste any more time. Here's my situation - your advice is much appreciated.
I'm 33, unmarried, no kids.
Income: $3800 a month (take home) from my day job. I can get moonlighting work easily but right now I'm studying for my professional exam (I'm thiiiiis close to being a fully licensed psychologist) so I'm not doing extra work - but it's on the table for about September.
Debt: 18,000 in car loan (I know, I know... groan! Huge mistake.)
Expenses per month:
Rent: 975
Electricity: 85
Cell phone: 75
Internet: 45
Car insurance: 110
Car loan: 400
Groceries, toiletries, cleaning supplies: 300
Restaurants/fast food: 100
Gas: 300
Clothes/books/general spending: 150
Professional fees (license, insurance, etc): 100
TOTAL MONTHLY SPENDING: 2640.
Assets:
7,000 in chequing account
59,000 in RRSP's (I believe this is the same as the US 401.k type of plan? Tax deferred savings.)
Some additional notes:
I live in the rural north of Canada, so housing is expensive. I'm in not the absolute cheapest place to live in my small town, but nearly. I do have a second bedroom and I've thought about renting it out - we're an oil region so there are lots of guys with money who need accommodation, but I'm pretty nervous about inviting a stranger into my home. Especially as a single woman. I might try going through the hospital where I work to find one of the contract nurses as a roomie - this is the only way I can see of cutting my housing costs.
My car is a huge SUV <shame>. I do need a reliable vehicle - I have to drive for work and I cover a huge territory. For example I have work in a community that's an hour and a half away from my office, and it's all rural roads out here. If you break down when it's -40 and you have to wait several hours for help, you could literally die if you can't stay warm. This isn't too common, of course - most of the year the weather is better than that - but I can't downgrade to a 15 year old clunker suitable only for a few unavoidable trips per month. I am thinking of lobbying my manager to change my job requirements so I can get rid of the need for regular work travel, which would let me walk to work every day (I live a 10 minute walk from my regular office) and get a much humbler car. My car eats a massive amount of my monthly income and I need to do something about this.
My gas bill is insane - this is largely due to dating someone who lives in the city, a 2 hour drive away. I make a few trips out there each month.
I'm Canadian so I don't pay anything for health care costs.
I'd like to buy a house. I'm allowed to borrow up to 25k from my RRSP's for this purpose, and that's sort of what I've had in mind for my cash on hand. I also like to have a cushion of cash around - as a single person there is no back up if I get laid off or what ever. But should I be putting some of that cash onto my loan? I'm not sure where to focus first: get rid of the car loan (or sell the car), build up for a down payment on a house, something else entirely...? I feel like I'm looking at a bloated budget and insufficient savings up there - it's got to change.
Help!