Background: I'm 27 and my (new!) husband is 28. He has a BA in finance and makes decent money but is not in love with his current company and thinks getting an advanced degree will get him to the types of positions he would like. His current company offers up to $6k a year educational reimbursement, though you have to stay on for a year afterwards, so we may not be able to take full advantage of this.
I just finished my PhD in chemistry and am currently doing a govt post-doc, looking to get into an industrial position in 1.5/2 years time, though I'm not optimistic about this time frame given how the first job search went. We're in the greater Boston area and have no interest in moving out of the area because of proximity to family.
Income: Husband, $75,000 (starting Sept 1) with a potential $7k bonus at year end, me $69,500
Do to the nature of my work I have no witholding taken out and am responsible for quarterly tax payments ( which I'm hopefully overestimating). After taxes and his 401k contribution (6% with 3% company match) our take-home pay is approximately $7000/mo.
Current expenses:
Rent: $600 ( family discount, we just moved into an apartment my parents own and this is a bargain for the area)
My Health insurance: $487
Car: $250 ( this is an overpayment, see below)
Gas: $120
Tolls: $40
Insurance: $63
Netflix: $8
Groceries: $400. I know this is high based on mustachian standards, but in grad school I was happy to pay for convenience being pressed for time and being tired. I'm cutting us some slack as we learn to meal plan and cook better, so I expect this to drop going forward.
Gym (him): $75
Phone: (him) $90 through At&T, (me) $30 on a family plan through my parents but I am researching MNVOs for us both to switch
We opened a Chase sapphire card ( hello 50,000 bonus points) and charge the majority of our expenses and pay it off at the end of the month.
Fixed monthtly expenses: $2163
Assets:
401(k): $65,240.70 through Ascensus
Roth IRA: $320, Sharebuilder, opened this when I was close to graduating after someone opened my eyes to compound interest, not a lot but a place to start
Savings for a House: $25,000 in a Capital1 savers account
Random Savings: $2500
Charles Schwabb Investment Account: $3037
Total Assets: $96k
Liabilities:
Auto Loan: $6,247.77, 48 months @ 2.69%. 2008 Manual Honda Civic
Student Debt: $ 16,813.69 ( split over 5 loans, 1.0%, 5% and the rest at 6.8%). These go into full repayment at the end of September.
Total Liabilities: $23,061.46
Questions:
I think we're in a pretty decent position for our age, but I really want to start on a road to financial security for our future. We would like to buy a house as soon as I have a permanent job ( so I can gauge a commute) so potentially in 1.5/2 years time. Our max budget for a house is $315k, which will give us some options but will require careful looking and buying a fixer-upper most likely to get into towns we'd be happy with. So in 1.5 years we'll need a 60-70k downpayment in place, plus closing costs and an emergency fund.
So my questions are:
1) My thought has been to throw money at the student loans to pay them down as fast as possible. This should be easily done within a few months. After that, should we pay off the car entirely or with such a low interest rate, keep it? The minimum required payment is less than half of what we have been paying a month.
2) I opened a Roth IRA without fully appreciating the differences between it and a traditional IRA. Was this the right choice or should I switch to a traditional account, or have one of each?
3) Is there a better place to be investing than Schwabb?
Basically, I'm open to hearing any tweaks you fellow mustachians would make in our situation to maximize your money, with the goals that in the next 2-4 years we want to buy a house, my husband may go back to graduate school part time, and we'd like to be thinking about having some kiddos. Any suggestions would be greatly welcomed!