Hi there and thanks for looking at my topic! Some basic details: My husband is 31, I am 30 - no kids (yet). He just took 3 years off of working to complete his lifelong dream of finishing his bachelors degree and I supported the household in the meantime. Recently, he took a job at a car dealership while he looks for a "career" job. This means we are finally DINKS after a frustrating 3 years on one income. We have a fair amount of debt, and I just don't know the best place for us to begin living a more mustachian life. I would love any input on where we should begin! We have a lot of goals, and I'm just not sure where the best place is to start.
Income: $52,500 (me) and $36,000 base salary (husband) for a total of $88,500 or about $5286/month after tax and various pre-tax deductions (I take $140 out of my paycheck pre-tax per month to pay for medical expenses related to a chronic disease and then there are my Simple IRA contributions)
Current expenses:
Mortgage - $921.52/mo
HOA fees - $260.00/mo
Car & Homeowners Insurance (State Farm): $62/mo
Electric Bill: average $60/mo (includes heating)
Husband's Student Loans: $28.86/mo for husband, soon to be more and not sure how much!
My Graduate Student Loan: $204/mo
My Undergraduate Student Loan: $101/mo
Consumer Credit Card: $350.00/mo
Hospital Bill: $180/mo
Gym: $40/mo
Cell Phones: $160.00
Netflix: $8/mo
Spotify: $5/mo
Gas: Average $120/mo
Groceries: Average $500/mo
Eating out/Buying Alcohol: Average $100/mo
Total: $2750.73
Assets:
Car - 2004 Jeep Liberty with about 150,000 miles on it, fully paid off, worth around $4,500
House - bought it for $180,000 in 2012 and is now probably worth at least $250,000
Savings - $1,400
Simple IRA - $900 so far, contributing 7% of my paycheck now at $300/mo, employer is matching up to $1500/year
Liabilities - UGH, this is where it gets ugly:
Mortgage - $921.52/mo - this includes an escrow amount for our property taxes which is $709.08 a year (owe a total of $176,838.61 at 3.25% interest rate)
Husband's Student Loans: $28.86/mo for husband, soon to be more and not sure how much! Assuming at least 6.5% interest.
My Graduate Student Loan: $204/mo at 6.55% interest rate (owe a total of $13,300.18)
My Undergraduate Student Loan: $101/mo at 3.5% interest rate (owe a total of $8,641.36)
Consumer Credit Card: Did a balance transfer to freeze the interest rate for 18 months and am throwing $350.00/mo to get it paid off before it starts accruing interest again - I have about 8 months left of this freeze! We still owe a total of $2,818.24
Hospital Bill: We owe about $4000 from an incident last year - not accruing interest and we have about 22 months to pay it off. We contribute $180/mo towards this which is what the hospital is requiring
So now that we suddenly have more money than we are used to having, what should we tackle first? It is our goal to not give ourselves a "lifestyle" upgrade but instead be smart and get ourselves into a better place financially.
I should note we have some upcoming goals. We both are eager to get rid of the Jeep for obvious mustachian reasons: IT SUCKS. But, my husband doesn't want to simply sell it for cash and buy something more gas friendly that is old - he wants to save up for a newer car with under 60,000 miles (but has at least agreed to pay cash for it so we are compromising here). The second goal is wanting to have kids in the near future, but we also recognize financially we aren't yet in a place for that - but want to be ASAP. Finally, we are some of those crazy kids who want to eventually buy a piece of land and build a tiny house on it. So that's another savings goal.
NOW WHAT?!
What do my fellow mustachians think? I am obviously a beginner!