Here's some background: I'm a stay at home mom, we have a 4 year old and a baby. My hubby's salary is about $53,000 a year and we live in a low cost of living area. I do bring in some extra income by babysitting but it's not tons and it's not consistent. I'm 32 and my hubby is 39. We owe $110k on our house, the interest rate is 3.75% and we have 18 years left. We have in retirement (with Vanguard): Me: about $49k and him $10k. I freak out because I feel like we are so behind with retirement savings!
Here's where I'm confused. We have $73k in savings because when I worked I saved all my paychecks in anticipation of being a stay at home mom. I don't know if we should take some of the money from savings and put it in retirement (our ROTH IRAs) , on the mortgage, or put it in some other type of investment account. It's not making hardly anything from interest in the savings account.
BUT that money includes savings for new cars for us (his car is 14 years old and mine is 11 so we'll have to replace them eventually), our emergency fund, and money for house expenses like new roof, windows, HVAC etc that we will eventually have to replace.
What would you do? I hate to put a lot of money in retirement and then need it, or put it on the mortgage and then not be able to access it. I just feel like that money sitting in savings is not working for us like it could. Maybe I'm just being crazy.