The budget generally looks good. A few thoughts:
- Gas budget looks high. Can you cut this down by walking/biking, even just part-time for now as you get used to it?
- Restaurants is also an easy way to reduce the budget. You could probably easily save $75 from this budget item by cutting it out and eating from home.
Clothing seems fine to me- I think Rust miscalculated it as $4800 instead of $480.
I know tithing is a personal thing for most people, but at this young of age, the more you can sock away into retirement, the better. The way I balance my thoughts about giving back with charity (I am not religious but a firm believer in giving back) is to donate a lot of time instead of donating a lot of money. The amount of time I give away is actually worth much more than I could give financially at this point in my life, and giving my time also helps me build a solid financial foundation.
If you prefer tithing with money instead of giving the equivalent of value in your time, then consider getting a side hustle to increase your income.
I personally would also be concerned about investing too heavily in real estate with your non-401k/ira investments. By nature, unless you have tons of money to invest, real estate is not as diversified as low-cost mutual funds, and often the returns are less than low-cost mutual funds. Real estate also takes much more work than buying a Vanguard fund, and you may have been able to use that same time you spent on real estate to make even more doing something else.
One article I like to read whenever I'm feeling too optimistic about real estate is one about the Herengracht case study: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/magazine/305tulips_shorto.1.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
One more note- why do you only have LTD on one of you? If you would need the replacement income if she had to stop working, you need both life insurance and LTD for her as well, until you can self-insure.
A lot of this budget is still in the working out stages and also transitional stages. We combined our finances this month which is why some of the things are still getting ironed out for ie her not having an IRA or LTD insurance. The insurance though is tough for me. The biggest reason I got it is so she would be taken care of if something happened to me, but I'm not as worried if something happened to her. I know that I would still be able to care of her and my step son. I'm not sure if this is correct thinking or not, but its where I was coming from.
Restaurants are one of those "transitional" things right now, I want to cut it down, but its difficult because I don't live with her (54 more days!), go to school full time, work full time, plus manage my tenant. This is not to be complainypants, but just to say its difficult for me a lot of times to make food and have it with me between work and class etc. I do plan on hopefully cutting down on a lot of this when I move back into my own house in november and can cook easier etc.
The gas is also a product of us not living together yet as we spend much too much gas driving to see each other during the week etc. I have been trying to figure out bike routes and such for once I move in though.
Tithing is a non-negotiable for me. I understand what you are saying, and I have no intentions of forcing my beliefs on others, but it is literally the only non-negotiable on the list. I do sped an additional 10-15hrs a months volunteering at my church as well, but the financial part is set. I wouldn't have put it on the list, but I knew you clever mustachians would have checked the math and asked about it haha
Real estate is another topic... I understand your point of view, but my thinking Is Real estate more as a business investment and less as a portfolio investment. I would like to at some point step out of my current position and manage my properties/invest in real estate full/part time. I do like your advise, and its probably something I need to hear, this is why I am asking you fine people so I can bounce my ideas off of you and hear your perspective.
One thing to consider re LTD/insurance is whether you would need any money to replace childcare if something terrible (God forbid) would happen to her. Does she reduce childcare costs because of a part-time or flexible job? Does she watch your stepson when you are working, at school, or managing your tenant? On the other hand, if you feel that you could still pull in the same amount of money, and cover both you and stepson on your current income (taking into consideration the things I discussed in the previous 2 sentences) if you had to, then you are pretty much self-insured as long as you have insurance/LTD in case something happens to you too. If that's the case, congrats!
I totally understand on the restaurants- I have a crazy job that often forces me to work weird hours, at the last minute. A couple of things I've done to help me reduce the restaurants bill:
1) Carry around coolers of stuff when I'm traveling for work/personal stuff.
2) Buy/make things that are easy to transport and healthy (e.g., bags of pre-cut carrots, hummus) to eat during the week.
3) Keep relatively non-perishable staples with me (peanut butter, bread, cashews, almonds, apples) so that I can keep myself from acting 'hangry' until I get home.
4) Cook a bunch of stuff on the weekend so that it is already prepped when I am busy during the week. For example, I love to make these:
http://www.budgetbytes.com/2012/02/hearty-black-bean-quesadillas/ and freeze them. Then when I am crazy busy, I can just pop one on the stovetop and in 5 minutes my belly is happy and full.
5) When I'm out and about and need to eat, I try to stop at grocery stores to buy food whenever possible. If you're careful about what you buy there (i.e., don't buy the expensive pre-cut fruit salads), it can be much cheaper, and much healthier, than eating at restaurants.
Great to hear you're keeping in mind biking when you move in- that has the potential to really be a game changer for your budget.
And congrats on the pending life changes!