Income wife: $83,468 gross
Income husband: TBD gross
Monthly take home wife: $3868 (after HSA and IRA deductions - both set to max this summer)
Monthly take home husband: temporarily ~ $2600
Average Monthly expenses:
Mortgage (principle, interest, taxes, insurance): $1073 $1044 $984
Federal student loan wife: $354
Federal student loan husband: TBD
Cell phone: $60 (two smart phones w/ data plan thru Airvoice)
Internet: $23
Netflix: $8
Gas: $250 $145
Car insurance: $75.40 $64
Utilities: $180
Food+dining: $480 600 (having trouble keeping this down, but now I know what doesn't work)
Other kid-related costs: $350 460 (childcare mostly, but will go down july/aug)
Home-related cost (repairs, etc): $200
Misc spending/shopping/hobbies: $300 (working on this)
Clothes: $50
Gifts: $40
total:
Assets:
House: $140,000
Pension: $14,880
IRAs: $13,349 $16,007
Cash: $6,700
CD: $8,300
HSA: $9,122
2007 Jetta: $6,500
2009 Corolla: $9,000
Total assets: $210,509
Liabilities:
Mortgage: $ 97,050 @ 4% 20-year fixed
My Federal student loan: $66,091 @ 5.9% on 30-yr fixed (on track for forgiveness in 5.75 yrs)
Husband's Federal student loan: $32,424 (5.8% in grace until 8/2015, $17K on 5-yr forgiveness track)
Total debt: $195,565
Total net worth:
We are mid 30s, family of 4 with two small children and having been living on one income. My husband is a newly certified in his field and just started a temporary position (hopefully permanent in fall). We have done some good work on convenience spending, and I've learned that making moderate weekly grocery purchases keeps monthly costs down better than any huge shopping trips. But food is our largest spending area after the mortgage. We can't walk or bike to work until the children are school aged and don't need drop/pick ups.
The question is where to go from here. Build up the emergency savings? Or the IRA(s)? Aggressively pay down mortgage? In the short term, I would like to have 12 months of expenses saved (pretty conservative, but as the current sole breadwinner, I want a big cushion), maxed out IRAs, and be saving for a some much-needed kitchen renovations. In the longer term we would like to save for retirement more aggressively, pay off the mortgage, and find a rental property to invest in. I feel like I can't really think about FIRE until H is employed FT, but I don't want to lose ground either.
We will be keeping the min mortgage payment and the emergency savings as is for now (15K), at while we max our tIRAs and HSA, which will be done in few months (if not sooner with his added income). We will then start a 457 account for H, followed by a 403(b), into which we will divert most of H's income.
Our current thinking is, after we've set the HSA, IRAs, 457 and 403b to max out, we will save up any excess income for a down payment on a rental property, which we hope to buy within the next five years and self-manage. I think we will put off rehabing our kitchen until after buying a rental to reap the tax advantages (as an aside to rental income) as soon as possible.
Does that sound like a decent plan? I will probably turn this into a journal soon, now that we are officially seeking FI. RE is less on the radar, mainly because H is starting his career pretty late, but we'll see.