Hello! a long-time lurker, first time poster. Thank you so much for reading all this and any feedback you have! I'll try to clarify any questions too.
Life Situation: Married filed jointly in HCOL area (outside Baltimore); I'm 27 and my husband is 29; no kids (yet), no pets, live in the cheapest 1 bedroom apartment we could find. I'm a nurse, and he is in the tech industry, both full-time. My commute is 20-30min into the city depending on traffic. His is 10min.
Gross Salary/Wages:
Me: $50,000 base salary (does not including night/weekend shift differential or overtime; I'll likely make $5000-10000 more over the course of the year, depending on scheduling vagaries). I also work a very part-time side gig for an extra ~$3000/year. This is my first year full-time as a nurse, so my numbers are not totally firm, and last year's gross was a LOT lower since I only worked the last 3 months of the year.
Him: $69,000 base salary, but gross wages were $113,000 last year, via various other 'perks' such as $34,000 in restricted stock units, $9000 in bonuses, and $2000 in daily catered lunches (my jealously may be showing through here! I am so proud of him, though).
Pre-tax deductions:
Me: ~$2000/year
HDHP = $85/month
Dental = $12/month
Parking = $64/month (GAH!!! This sucks, seeing it in writing.)
HSA = $4/month (I don't know why I bothered with such a tiny amount. . .)
Him: ~$1200/year
HDHP = $35/month
Dental = $3/month
Company-paid HSA seed = $750/year
And . . . that's it. My husband has access to a 401(k) with a 3.5% match, but doesn't want to “lock up the money” if we need it, and doesn't like the fund options. (We've fought about this! I'm about to give up on changing his mind.) My hospital will automatically start contributing an amount equal to 4% of my wages to a 401(a) next month. I will also have access to a 403b, but no match.
Other Ordinary Income: None.
Qualified Dividends & Long Term Capital Gains: No realized gains last year or qualified dividends last year, as far I as remember; my husband has all the dividends set to automatically reinvest.
Adjusted Gross Income: $165,000-ish? I mean, we have basically no deductions up there.
Taxes:
Me: ~$15500/year total (extrapolating here)
Federal $6000/year
State: $2750/year
Local: $1850/year
Medicare: $900/year
SS: $4000/year
Him: ~$36500/year total
Federal: $19000
State: $5600
Local: $3500
Medicare: $1600
SS: $7000
Current expenses: Below is essentially my monthly 'goal' budget (I track every penny month to month!). This is the goal; we often go over on restaurants, which is awful, considering it's already a lot of $$. (We are bad cooks, work a lot, insert whiny bits here). The “other” category is probably too vague: it includes things like movie tickets, video games, car maintenance, gifts, clothing, car/renter's insurance (we pay yearly), etc. Some months we are under and some way over. We always have somewhere between $500-$1500 left over at the end of every month, though.
Rent: 1107.00
Water/Gas: 50.00
Electricity: 100.00
Netflix: 8.00
Groceries: 300.00
His Cell Phone: 80.00
My Cell Phone: 70.00
His Gas: 100.00
My Gas: 100.00
His Restaurants: 300.00
My Restaurants: 100.00
Student Loans: 3000.00
Other: 400.00
Total Expenses: 5770.00
His Take-Home: 3500.00
My Take-Home: 3000.00
My Side-Gig: 270.00
Total Net Income: 1000.00
Net Profit: 1000.00
We have separate checking accounts but can see each other's transactions. He pays all the bills except my student loans, gas, and cell phone; if we're eating together he always pays. I feel like a freeloader; he says this way makes sense and just to focus on paying off the loans.
Assets: ~$200,000 total?
My car: 2000 Plymouth Neon, ~170,000 miles, worth scrap. I hate this beater of a car, but it continues to run, so I continue to drive it. It was a gift to my husband in high school.
His car: 2010 Volkwagen Jetta, ~60,000 miles, worth $7000 or so. Hail damaged body, but otherwise in great condition and very reliable so far; bought used in 2012.
His brokerage account:
~$40,000 in company stock (He participates in an employee stock purchase plan with 15% of his after-tax income)
~$50,000 in a bond fund
~$70,000 in other single stocks (some names I hear are Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson—he likes big companies with good dividends and fundamentals).
His saving account:
~$10000 (I do not have access to this or the brokerage account, so no idea exactly how much or what's in there)
His checking account:
$7000 (every once in a while when it gets too big, he buys a chunk of stock)
My checking account:
$2000 (buffer/emergency car repair fund)
I also have $3300 in an old 401(a) from when my part-time gig was my full-time job; that company does still contribute an amount equal to 8% ($30/month?) of my part-time wages to it, but I have no control over how they invest it.
Liabilities:
Only my hated student loans, about $50,000 total. All interest rates are fixed. The starred loans are left over from my first (ill-advised, unemployable) degree; I've paid off ~$22,000 in principle+interest for that degree from 2010-2014. Paying minimums only on those now.
I graduated with my nursing degree in July of 2014; starting aggressively paying on private loan #2 at the beginning of 2015 (It is down from $33,000! Go me!). That 8% interest rate is awful, but I focused on paying the old degree's high-interest rate loans first because I had family cosigners.
Private:
*#1: $1764.20 @ 1.75%
#2: $15674.52 @ 7.94%
Federal:
*#1: $4452.79 @ 5.75%
*#2: $4940.17 @ 5.35%
#3: $5342.46 @ 3.61%
#4: $6799.50 @ 3.61%
#5: $11656.28 @ 3.61%
Continuing on the current path will have these completely paid off by March 2017.
Specific Question(s):
1. How much should I push my husband about 401k, IRA, HSA, etc contributions? With my income (finally) going up, I know our taxes are going to be crazy. We made FAR less money in years past (my husband has tripled his income in the past four years since we married young and poor), and we were able to deduct my tuition before. Suggestions for how to get him to see how reducing taxable income is a better bet than throwing money into the brokerage account?
2a. What should I do on this front? Anything I contribute to my HSA, upcoming 403(b), etc will reduce the amount I can pay on my loans.
2b. I want to have a baby in the next 3 years. My husband (and me, when I'm not ogling other people's babies) thinks all debt should be paid off first. We would need to move (rent would go up to ~$1800 for a two-bedroom apartment) to have space for a baby. Our current place is a 3rd floor walk-up shoe-box. We'd also need part-time daycare, although my work schedule is very flexible. Should I stay the course with my current payoff plan? Decelerate and contribute? What's the best way to make this baby thing happen?
3. Should I try to be more involved in the stock stuff? My husband gets “twitchy” when I get too interested. I think he should be in index funds instead of single stocks, and that he should not be holding all that company tech stock, but I'm not the high earner around here. (I have no skin in that game, so to speak.)
4. Any budget suggestions/facepunches are welcome. I know we could tighten up (we certainly have in the past), but my husband easily covers everything and feels like we're already frugal. I grew up truly poor, and still sometimes feel like I can't possibly be making/spending this much money! We both love our jobs, and have no plans to retire early right now, but that could change. We also both love the idea of FU money/financial independence!
