All the best!
Wow, did you sign up just to post here? :) Welcome to the forum either way, it's a great community here.
Interesting case study. I can relate a bit. Although the details are a little different, we're in a similar stage of life, near 30 and a kid on the way for us. We've been fortunate enough to buy our own house already (some homeowners might see this as not so fortunate :) but we like it).
Congrats, I love my baby. She's amazing. :)If you feel your job is pretty stable, I wouldn't put any more in the savings account once you reach 3 months of expenses (which seems pretty soon for you). I would do some relatively simple investing in index funds beyond that point. But I would advise against dumping the savings account into index funds unless they're well diversified. Don't want to have to tap that for a sudden emergency right when the stock market is down.
I've kind of been swayed by the forums that I don't need a huge EF anymore. I've got a few credit cards that all have pretty high limits. I use them for as much as I can to collect the rewards. You are correct though, having a few months in savings is a very low amount for us currently. The savings account is the primary pool for collecting extra funds right now.I have a 100% match in my 401k up to 6%, so consequently I'm in for 6% to my own 401k. I would personally say keep the 6% for your situation and add in a little Roth contribution as budgets allow.
I'm a big fan of simplification, and it seems like you have a lot of checking and savings accounts. This increases management and potentially stress if any of the balances gets low on a regular basis. I personally would try to simplify there. I personally opened an additional checking account to separate out some of my expenses, but it didn't end up being worth the hassle, so I closed it. Seems like you could do 1 checking, 1 high-yield savings, and the rest in investments however you want to spread them out.
Ahh, it seems worse than it is....
Main Checking = Ally - joint for the wife and I
Car Checking = Small local bank, I've had an account here since I was a kid and the people are nice. I try to even do all my Ally ATM withdrawals from here to help them $3 at a time. ;)
Baby Checking = Local credit union, really just maintaining this relationship for when we do purchase a house. They tend to offer lower rates.
I'm not sure what account type your baby savings account is in, but if you're going to have "baby savings", I think it should be something like "baby index fund" or "baby college fund" rather than in a traditional savings account. Presuming the baby won't need that savings for a long time, and any emergencies would come out of general family savings, so might as well maximize return on that one.
I looked into the 529 stuff, but I don't know that my kid will want to go to college yet. I don't like the idea of the money being tied to something so specific. I guess I could open a normal Index fund, but I do want the funds to be as safe as possible since they aren't for me. All gift money goes in here too. The balance is over $5k currently, so maybe I should look into better options.. Can't really say much about the monthly expenses. Under $1400 per month seems pretty Mustachian to me (and significantly less than us). But if you haven't already, I would definitely consider whether the car hobby is worth a bit of a delay on your path to financial independence. I have a gadget addiction, and this is a constant struggle for me in the same way. But even $100-$150 a month can add up (plus compounding).
Something else to think about is whether a 401k rollover makes sense. Would depend on the fees of the existing 401k vs the new IRA and the fund choices. Someone far more knowledgeable than me could help out on that one. Another way to simplify, give yourself more fund choices and possibly lower fees.
Ahh shit, meant to post that in the questions actually! Thanks man!Only question is what about food/utilities? Are those included in the "rent" you pay?
yes, it's included in the rent I pay. Sometimes I grab stuff people ask for or my wife gets some things for the baby but they are minimal amounts. My budget was just adjusted so I may have to tweak it a little. I'm trying to run it very hard on the savings side. I know life insurance doesn't seem very Mustachian, but it might be worthwhile for a one income situation. Would be relatively cheap for a 20 year term policy. I have a 30 year, $500k policy for under 50 bucks a month, and that seems like overkill.
Hmm, I may consider looking into this. I think my wife gets like 1.5x my salary or something simple that from my job. 
