Our 2015 Budget and savings Plan- Suggestions?

[themagicman]

We just finished up making our 2015 budget and saving plan. All of the amounts are yearly budgets.

We are both 24 years old and have a current net worth of about $200,000. My wife does not have access to a 401k at work.

At the current mortgage paydown rate (Below) , we will have it paid off in 4 more years.

Does anyone have any suggestions on anything that we should change for our 2015 savings or budget plan? All help is appeciated and please let me know if you need any more info!

Category    Yearly Budget Amount Income    My Net Salary    $53,550.00 Wife's Net Salary    $16,200.00 Credit cards and Interest income    $1,400.00 Birthday Christmas income    $1,200.00 Misc Income    $500.00 Tax Refund    $5,500.00 Bonus pay    $6,000.00     Total Income    $84,350.00     Savings    Net Bank Savings    $-    My IRA    $5,500.00 My 401K    $18,000.00 Wife's IRA    $5,500.00 Taxable Retirement    $12,450.00 House    $15,314.35         Total Savings    $56,764.35                 Total After Savings    $27,585.65

Category    Yearly Budget Amount Expenses    Food    $3,300.00 Gas    $1,680.00 Wife Spending Money    $720.00 My Spending Money    $420.00 Entertainment    $200.00 Household Items    $600.00 Misc    $1,200.00 Mortgage interest/insurance/property tax    $4,500.65 Electricity    $750.00 Water    $275.00 Natural Gas    $540.00 Trash    $230.00 Car Insurance    $1,050.00 Cable/Internet    $515.00 Cell Phone    $515.00 Car Lease (It was a good deal, I promise!    $3,240.00 Health Insurance    $3,350.00 Life Insurance    $300.00 Vacation    $3,600.00 Gifts    $600.00                 Total Expenses    $27,585.65

[by_1008]

Have you adjusted your tax withholding so as to not receive such a high refund next year?

Otherwise I would say you are doing great!

[themagicman]

The large tax return this year will be from the car lease. We leased a nissan leaf and received a $5,000 state tax credit. It should be back to normal (owing or getting back less than $200) for next year!

[Jmoody10]

Spend a few hours and dig into your insurances. I am unsure of the size of your house, car types, etc but you might be able to trim up those expenses. While you are at it, check into filling a property tax appeal. We just did that and saved around $700 a year.

[Cromacster]

Just a note:  I would post your spending in monthly amounts.  I would gather a majority of the people could spout off on how much they monthly.  Annual expenses are more ambiguous number in my opinion. 

Overall I would say you are doing great as long as you can stick to these numbers.  Are they based off of previous years living expenses?  Especially the entertainment and personal spending.  I know people here stick to very low numbers in terms of eating out etc, but if last year you spent 2,000 on entertainment and this year you say 200, you might be surprised.

Your natural gas and electricity seem high for hotlanta.  I would investigate your houses insulation, air tightness etc.  Many of the houses in the south were not insualted nor sealed for crap when they are built.

Car Lease (It was a good deal, I promise!    $3,240.00

I don't think you'll find anyone that agree's with that here.  Good deal? Maybe.  Smart decision? No.

[themagicman]

Spend a few hours and dig into your insurances. I am unsure of the size of your house, car types, etc but you might be able to trim up those expenses. While you are at it, check into filling a property tax appeal. We just did that and saved around $700 a year.

I recently shopped and switched car insurance. I checked about everywhere and this was by far the cheapest option (Hopefully as we get a little older it will go down) I will definitely look into filling a property tax appeal! Does it cost anything? Any harm in just trying it?

Overall I would say you are doing great as long as you can stick to these numbers.  Are they based off of previous years living expenses?  Especially the entertainment and personal spending.  I know people here stick to very low numbers in terms of eating out etc, but if last year you spent 2,000 on entertainment and this year you say 200, you might be surprised.

Your natural gas and electricity seem high for hotlanta.  I would investigate your houses insulation, air tightness etc.  Many of the houses in the south were not insualted nor sealed for crap when they are built.

The numbers are based on what we spent last year, and looking into next year for what we are planning on buying. Entertainment is so low because we do not include going out to eat in that (which we do often). That is included in the food category.

I agree that our natural gas and electricity are a little high. This is mostly due to the fact that my will not agree to go any lower on our temp when we are home (We keep it on 62 in the winter and 78 in the summer) This is already a huge compromise compared to how she grew up. Also, I probably over estimated these expenses slightly to error on the side of caution.

Car Lease (It was a good deal, I promise!    $3,240.00

I don't think you'll find anyone that agree's with that here.  Good deal? Maybe.  Smart decision? No.

While I am usually very much so against car leases (Or car financing in general) I found my recent lease deal to be a great deal. It is for a nissan leaf for two years and the total cost for me is $6,250. $5,000 of that I get back in the form of a state tax credit, making my final cost for two years $1,250 ($52 a month). I save much more than that a month, not having to buy gas. And on top of that I am not losing money from deprecation of my previous car. And have zero maintenance with my leaf

[Cromacster]

While I am usually very much so against car leases (Or car financing in general) I found my recent lease deal to be a great deal. It is for a nissan leaf for two years and the total cost for me is $6,250. $5,000 of that I get back in the form of a state tax credit, making my final cost for two years $1,250 ($52 a month). I save much more than that a month, not having to buy gas. And on top of that I am not losing money from deprecation of my previous car. And have zero maintenance with my leaf

Hah!  Fair enough.  Seeing the numbers I would agree.

[themagicman]

While I am usually very much so against car leases (Or car financing in general) I found my recent lease deal to be a great deal. It is for a nissan leaf for two years and the total cost for me is $6,250. $5,000 of that I get back in the form of a state tax credit, making my final cost for two years $1,250 ($52 a month). I save much more than that a month, not having to buy gas. And on top of that I am not losing money from deprecation of my previous car. And have zero maintenance with my leaf

Hah!  Fair enough.  Seeing the numbers I would agree.

Yeah, it is definitely a good incentive having the tax credit!

[themagicman]

Just a note:  I would post your spending in monthly amounts.  I would gather a majority of the people could spout off on how much they monthly.  Annual expenses are more ambiguous number in my opinion. 

Below are our projected monthly budget!

Food    $275.00 Gas    $140.00 Bailey Misc    $60.00 Kyle Misc    $35.00 Entertainment    $16.67 Household Items    $50.00 Misc    $50.00 Escrow    $375.05 Electricity    $62.50 Water    $22.92 Natural Gas    $45.00 Trash    $19.17 Car Insurance    $87.50 Cable/Internet    $42.92 Cell Phone    $42.92 Car    $270.00 Health    $279.17 Life Insurance    $25.00 Irregular-Vacation    $300.00 Irregular-Misc    $50.00 Irregular-Gifts    $50.00

[Gin1984]

One thing that jumped out at me, is your wife's salary.  It is low for an annual salary, and no benefits.  Is she doing something she loves, something that will pan out later, or just side money because you guys plan for her to stay home in near future.  Each of those would make me respond differently.

[tracylayton]

Just a note:  I would post your spending in monthly amounts.  I would gather a majority of the people could spout off on how much they monthly.  Annual expenses are more ambiguous number in my opinion. 

Below are our projected monthly budget!

Food    $275.00 Gas    $140.00 Bailey Misc    $60.00 Kyle Misc    $35.00 Entertainment    $16.67 Household Items    $50.00 Misc    $50.00 Escrow    $375.05 Electricity    $62.50 Water    $22.92 Natural Gas    $45.00 Trash    $19.17 Car Insurance    $87.50 Cable/Internet    $42.92 Cell Phone    $42.92 Car    $270.00 Health    $279.17 Life Insurance    $25.00 Irregular-Vacation    $300.00 Irregular-Misc    $50.00 Irregular-Gifts    $50.00

This looks pretty reasonable to me...no face punches here!

[themagicman]

One thing that jumped out at me, is your wife's salary.  It is low for an annual salary, and no benefits.  Is she doing something she loves, something that will pan out later, or just side money because you guys plan for her to stay home in near future.  Each of those would make me respond differently.

My wife is currently an education parapro (she works with special needs children) her salarary is only 21k a year currently. There is a possibility that she will get a regular teaching job next school year and would make around 42k. However, she is not sure that she wants the added pressures of being a teacher and will probably stay home when we do decide kids.

[Savvy]

While I am usually very much so against car leases (Or car financing in general) I found my recent lease deal to be a great deal. It is for a nissan leaf for two years and the total cost for me is $6,250. $5,000 of that I get back in the form of a state tax credit, making my final cost for two years $1,250 ($52 a month). I save much more than that a month, not having to buy gas. And on top of that I am not losing money from deprecation of my previous car. And have zero maintenance with my leaf

Hah!  Fair enough.  Seeing the numbers I would agree.

Yeah, it is definitely a good incentive having the tax credit!

Just wanted to check on this - I would think a $5,000 tax credit would lower your taxable income by $5,000 and therefore, depending on your tax bracket, give you about $750-$1,000 of a refund. Hope this helps!

[themagicman]

While I am usually very much so against car leases (Or car financing in general) I found my recent lease deal to be a great deal. It is for a nissan leaf for two years and the total cost for me is $6,250. $5,000 of that I get back in the form of a state tax credit, making my final cost for two years $1,250 ($52 a month). I save much more than that a month, not having to buy gas. And on top of that I am not losing money from deprecation of my previous car. And have zero maintenance with my leaf

Hah!  Fair enough.  Seeing the numbers I would agree.

Yeah, it is definitely a good incentive having the tax credit!

Just wanted to check on this - I would think a $5,000 tax credit would lower your taxable income by $5,000 and therefore, depending on your tax bracket, give you about $750-$1,000 of a refund. Hope this helps!

Since it is a tax credit, it will actually give me the entire $5,000 back off of taxes. If it was a tax deduction than it would lower my taxable income by $5,000!