Okay. I'm in a situation right now where I feel like I've completely fucked my life up, all in the name of idealism. Here's the situation: did my undergrad, came out with some loans, paid them off over the course of a couple years by living with my parents and working my ass off. I did lots of travelling and lots of partying in my early-to-mid twenties, which I don't regret for a minute, but didn't accrue any debt in the process. I also built up some savings (nothing much, about 12K) to start graduate school with. I came out of grad school with 60k in student loans at a 6.55% interest rate in a field that pays very little, especially early on in your career. This year I believe I made 20k after taxes, but I have a super flexible schedule and essentially work part-time hours every week (not by choice, I would love to work more at my job but the hours aren't there for me), and I absolutely love my job. My schedule allows me to exercise, pursue hobbies, spend time with friends and family, and spend lots of time outside. The upper limit of what I could expect to earn is a year is around 80k, and that would involve a shitload of hustle and luck. This past year, my first year working in my chosen field, I have found myself mired in regret for taking such an altruistic career path so early on in life, and incurring such a massive amount of debt in the process.
The good news is that somewhere along the way of impractically skipping through my 20's I met my husband. He has no student loan debt, and makes 100k a year and is due for a major promotion (and a 15% raise) very soon. Oh, and he has a 150k nest egg in the form of investments, 401k, etc. At least someone in our relationship is responsible! Together we have no kids, no property, no credit card debt, 16k in a checking account, and two cars that we own outright. We have been thinking about doing a super-aggressive paydown of my student loan debt in as brief a time as possible to be able to start building on our nest egg and save up a 20% down payment for a house. Here's our budget breakdown:
take home pay (combined and after tax, health insurance, and 401K contributions): 6000, hopefully bumped up to ~7000 sometime this year
rent: 985
insurance (car, renters, general liability): 220
professional insurance: 75
gas: 50
electric: 25
cable: 76
cell: 65
gym: 98 (this is for both of us, and we cancel our membership for 6 months of the year)
IRA contributions: 200
dry cleaning: 50
dog: 50
groceries: 400
target: 75
gas (car): 60
total monthly expenses: 2429
Here are my questions:
1) We've been putting 1000/mo towards my student loans and pissing the rest of our money away on groceries, eating out, clothes, and just letting it sit in our checking accounts. I think, if we stuck to the budget above, we could potentially throw 3k/mo at my student loans or possibly even more. If we go this route, is it prudent to be saving a small amount on the side "just in case" or should we just throw everything we've got at this loan until it goes away?
2) What more can we cut from the above? Our IRA contribution? Insurance? We're thinking about selling one of the cars since we both walk or bus to work daily but would not get more that 2 or 3K from the sale.
3) My income (or lack thereof): I've already started looking for part-time work to supplement my income, but on a larger scale I'm wondering if I should consider just sucking it up and getting a higher-paying full time job for the next couple years and going back to my lower-paying, altruistic career when I have more financial stability and freedom. I have no corporate experience but have worked many different jobs (some of which were in office environments), have BA and MS degrees, am young (28), reasonably attractive and very presentable, and smart. Oh, and I'm great with people. Is this enough to get me a corporate/more lucrative job?
Sorry for writing such a novel, and thanks in advance for any advice you guys might offer me!