My wife and I are 35 and starting our journey to FI. Obviously, one of the first steps was to eliminate debt and then remain debt free. Currently we have a mortgage, 1 car loan, and 2 student loans that we are working on eliminating.
To avoid getting back into debt, I’m starting to look at all of the different major purchases that we will have to make in the next several years and estimate a cost and divide it by the number of months until I’ll need the money. The issue I’m having is that I can come up with many different capital purchases that will need to be made (roof on house $12,000/36 months, tires on both vehicles $1400/24 months, refrigerator $600/24 months, other appliances $1200/??, vehicle $15,000/18 months, etc.) but I also am working on saving as much as possible into her 401k to get the company match. She just got a 3% raise at work and I redirected all of it into her 401k.
Is there a better way to save for capital purchases? Do I just build my emergency fund up higher and try not to anticipate every possible purchase I’ll have to make and use my EF as things come up?