About us: DW and I are both 28, live in rural America, and have two children, 2 years old and 3 months old. My wife works in the health care industry in the nearest hospital to where we live, and I work as an insurance agent. We also have a bit of other income that comes from helping farm, and that will total $3-$5k per year, at this point. Should increase as we grow older as our stake in the farm grows.
Gross Salary/Wages:
(going to be a bit off due to some small commissions on the monthly check that I’m looking at)
Me: $3,233.33 (per month - Salary) + commissions
Pre-tax Deductions:
Me: Health insurance: $24 a month
Dependent Care - $416.67 a month
HSA - $50 a month
Taxes
Fed withholding: $235.00
Social Security: $173.18
Medicare employee: $40.50
State withholding: $123.00
Total: $571.68
Roth 401k (10%) = $323.33
Net Pay: $1,882.29
Gross Salary/Wages:
DW: $1,478.93 (biweekly - $18.90 an hour)(this check at 78.25 total hours)
Deductions:
Heath Insurance: $123.70 (her and our two kids)
State Pension: $88.00 (employer $132.07)
Dental Ins: $27.04
Taxes:
Fed: $13.33
State: $58.41
FICA: $82.40
Medicare: $19.27
Total: $173.41
Net Pay: $1,060.88
Total monthly net income: $4004.05 + $416.67 dependent care reimbursement = $4,420.72
Assets
Dwelling Value: $50,000
DW IRA (rollover from previous employer) - $1,670.24
DW State Pension - $5,915.00
My old 401k - $28,744.00
Current 401k - $9,315.52
Total: $95,644.76
Liabilities:
Mortgage: $23,823.12 ($309 a month, P&I, no PMI) 15 year fixed at 2.875%, purchased this spring
Auto Loan: $14,500 remaining @ 2.95%
Student Loans (mine): $17,116.73
Credit Card 1: $4,077.45
Credit Card 2: $3,900 (0% interest until 8/24/17)
Credit Card 3: $338.48
Total: $46,639.05
Networth: $49,005.71
I should use Zestimate on my house, because it shows it’s worth $100k. Never has a house in my town sold for 100k, ever. $60k-$70k, maybe, but not $100k. I’m comfortable with it valued at $50k
One other vehicle in the house, my truck, which is paid off and has been for many years.
Budget (this should be fun!):
Bills
Mortgage $309.35
Student Loans $190.00
Daycare $840.00
Car Payment $272.00
Alliant $175.00
Car Insurance $90.22
Life Insurance $83.00
Home Insurance $92.52
US Cellular $150.00
Internet $39.95
Phone $30.00
Hospital $50.00
Netflix $7.99
Hulu $7.99
City $150.00
Chase Credit Card $41.00
Total $2,529.02
Other Bills
Dog $30.00
Groceries $300.00
Gas $300.00
Entertainment $100.00
Total $730.00
Income Total $4,338.43
Bill Total $3,259.02
Difference $1,079.41
As you can see, I have the Chase credit card payment factored in, as that’s the minimum, and that’s what we’ll be paying until the $4k card debt, that is accruing interest is cleared.
Our E-Fund is currently at $800, which is terrible. We got into this situation due to my wife’s maternity leave, and us not understanding how they pay it out. We figured we’d get 60% of her paycheck each pay period, until the 6 weeks of disability was over. When, in fact, it came in one large chunk that we obviously wasted away.
I know everyone will hate on the car payment, but it’s staying. We live in a town of 500, that I work in part of the week, and part of the week I visit a different office to the north. My wife works in the opposite direction and will be taking the kids to daycare. So, we upgraded cars to include AWD, so she feels comfortable in our Iowa winters, and her peace of mind is worth a lot more than $272 to me each month, as is the safety of her and our children.
Also, the home insurance for $92 will disappear after we’ve been in the house for a year, since we will be then escrowing our insurance payment as well (escrowed now as well, but that’s to build up the escrow account for future insurance payments)
Cell phones are high, I get that, but we have very, very poor service with about every carrier around. Google Fi isn’t something we are able to get in our area, and I’ve heard of 0 people having luck with the smaller carriers everyone talks about on here. I think that comes with how rural our location is.
This paycheck, coming at the end of August, will have $1,100 in commissions for me, and all that extra will get put towards the large credit card bill. I think we can pound it out in short order, but I wanted to lay everything out for the MMMers to review, and facepunch me, and give me their ideas.