Before I start, let me just apologize if this is too much information. I just wanted to put everything out there and let you guys decide what was relevant.
It’s been a crazy year or so and I’ve realized now that I need to get my house in order. Let me start this off by saying that I have no plans for early retirement, it’s just not in the cards. So please take that into consideration when commenting. I’m really just looking to maximize what I’m able to save and cut my expenses as much as possible due to my circumstances.
I was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in November 2013. I went through radiation and chemo at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC and was told that the best result I could hope for was just to stop the tumor from growing anymore. I was also told that there wasn’t anything I could be doing myself to fight this. My wife and I just didn’t believe that there was nothing we could do ourselves, so we started researching like crazy people and it turns out there are some “unproven” things people are doing, one of which is dietary. I won’t get into the details of why but I eat organic, gluten free, dairy free, and only eat things with no added sugar/sweetened with low glyceimic sweeteners like agave and stevia. My tumor has shrunk by about 50% in the past year so I’m going to stick with it since they basically told me it couldn’t shrink and there was nothing I could be doing. For those don't know much about brain cancer (I didn't before November 2013) - there isn't a cure and it doesn't have a great prognosis. My form thankfully isn't very aggressive but there are some more aggressive forms like GBM which only have a median survival of 14 months. The doctors don't know how long I have and have theorized anywhere from a few years to 30. So that makes it very hard to plan for the future...
We also got the first bit of good news that we had in awhile when we found out that my wife was pregnant a few months ago. I couldn’t be more excited but the fact that we’re having twins is naturally giving me some concerns financially. See the thread I posted recently (
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/i-have-twins-on-the-way-any-recommendations-to-keep-the-cost-down/msg529500/#msg529500) on that if you have any tips to share. My wife's mother also lives in Manhattan and is going to be helping out with childcare, so we want to stay in the city to be close to her. Also, our apartment right now is rent stabilized and probably close to half of market rate. It will be tough but we can get by here for 2-3 years but once the twins get bigger it's going to be small. I really just want to have our cards in order before they get here this summer.
Questions – These are the things I need some advice on but please feel free to weigh in about anything at all. I need all the help I can get.
• How/What do we budget for the twins? What's the mustachian suggestion for college savings? What's your take on 529's? I don't want to get into the details but I can open one up for each of them at no cost at a reputable asset manager.
• What can I do with all this cash that I have while maintaining low risk? I don’t want to invest in equities due to the risk. I was thinking things like bank bonuses and high yield savings accounts with prepaid companies like Mango and Union Plus that offer 5%+ on $5k balances.
• How should I be thinking about 401k and IRA contributions? I feel good right now and don’t plan on going anywhere for awhile but I need to be realistic that reaching retirement age isn’t in my favor.
• If something were to happen to me, I want to leave as much behind as possible for my wife and unborn kids. I don’t know what I want as far as advice on this one but I just wanted to put this out there.
• I have an expensive diet (organic, gluten free, etc) now as a result of cancer. I’m not going to change that, it’s non-negotiable as it’s the only thing that I think has been showing any results for me. Do you have any ideas to lower our food costs? I try to eat organic as much as possible. I’m gluten free, dairy free, and only eat things with no added sugar or low glycemic sweeteners like stevia and agave. Translation: expensive.
• This isn't just because I have brain cancer but it's more important because of that. Both my wife and I are typical 30 year olds and don't have wills, life insurance, etc. What do we need to take care of getting done in this department before the twins get here? Should I be doing anything additional since I have brain cancer?
• On the topic of life insurance, is there anything I can do now or has this ship sailed?
A snapshot of our financials is below. Let me know if you need anymore information:
Assets:Cash: $65,000 (wife has an additional $50k in cash)
401k: $84,000 (wife doesn’t have a 401k)
Roth IRA: $27,400 (wife has an additional $50k in her IRA)
Life Insurance: $68,000 - It's just the puny standard life insurance my employer offers that is 1x my base salary. I obviously didn't think something like this would happen to me so I never allotted for a higher amount. My employer has options that go up to 8x but I already tried to raise it and they needed some medical documents filled out for an increase to even 2x salary, so that obviously wasn't going to work.
Liabilities:Credit Cards: $0
Student Loans: $6,800 @ 2.1%. Since the interest rate is so low, I’m just planning on paying the minimum until it’s paid off.
As a side note, I paid of $100k+ in undergrad loans and paid for grad school in cash which I graduated from in 2013. So that's why my assets are low.
Income:Me: $70k + commission + bonus
2013: $150,000 (I had one very large commission that made it higher, this was an anamoly)
2014: $128,000
2015: I was told in my year end comp discussion to budget on $115,000 for 2015.
Social Security Benefits: If I were to pass after they got here, my unborn kids would get $2,012/month through SSI. My wife is eligble for the same amount but since I have a maximum benefit of $4,696/month she would only get $672.
My Wife: $70k in 2013. She made about the same, maybe a little more in 2014. She works for two different companies. It's different every week but I'd say it's usually 3 days from home each week and 2 outside of home on average. She's trying to increase the work from home for after the twins get here.
Expenses (monthly):Rent: $2,100 – We live in NYC and this is actually a pretty incredible price for Manhattan. Our place is rent regulated – all of our friends pay about double what we do. There’s no way we could improve on this and we need to be in Manhattan.
Cell Phone: $160 – I know we can and need to get this way down and I’m totally open to suggestions. We are on AT&T now, so a company that would allow us to bring our iPhones over is preferable. Another requirement is that they have to use AT&T or Verizon’s networks – Sprint and T-mobile reception is spotty outside of the city. For reference, our average monthly use in 2014 for 2 lines: 1,428 minutes, 318 texts, 3.34GB data.
Internet: $57 – Sure this seems high but there aren’t other options available to us.
Electricity/Heat: $115 (average monthly cost in 2014)
Netflix & Hulu: $16 – we don’t have cable.
Groceries: $376
Takeout/Restaurants: $400 – I know this is an enormous waste and needs to be cut dramatically. Bad habit.
Laundry/Dry Cleaning: $44
Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance: $476 – This is for both of us. It’s the high end plan that my employer offers. I won’t be changing this because I need to be on the plan with the lowest out of pocket maximum due to brain cancer. For context, I hit my out of pocket maximum on January 2nd last year because I was in radiation and that shit is expensive. The MRI and consultation that I have with my oncologist every quarter is about $6k.
Subway: $112 – unlimited monthly
Taxi/Uber: $50 – I know this is a huge waste but this is mainly used for going to my hospital which is across the city and is a trek on public transit.