Author Topic: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?  (Read 9229 times)

Jwilliamson22

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What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« on: September 22, 2013, 12:57:02 PM »
So I feel like my life has a lot of moving pieces right now. I have an idea what I want to do moving forward, but wanted the great advise of you fine ladies and gents. My fiancé and I are both 25yrs old and we are getting married in November. I am a full time graduate student (graduate with MBA in May) as well as work full time and have a rental property. My fiancé isn't as financial savvy as I, but is quickly learning and enjoying the benefits. We have already started her 401k and about to start her Roth IRA.  My situation:

Net Income Him- 2500 after 401k (plus monthly bonus of 500-2000, but I budget for 2500)
Net Income Her- 2000 after 401k
Rental- 550 (I dont include this as income bc it essentially breaks even which is why I put $50 for our housing expense. It is a duplex and we live in one side and rent the other)

Cash Accounts
Emergency Fund - 6000 (ING/CapitalOne 360)
Standard Savings - 5500 (ING/CapitalOne 360)
Checking - 1000 (Chase Bank)
Rental Business Checking - 1700 (Chase Bank)
Safety Deposit Box - 500 (Random savings bond, silver, etc)

Investments Accounts
Roth 401k Him - 9000 (6% of income, 5% company match)
Traditional 401k Her - 1300 (6% of income, 6% company match)
Roth IRA Him - 6000 (Dollar cost averaging weekly into it at a rate to max out)
Roth IRA Her - 0 (about to open)

Debt
Student Loans Her - 7000
CC - 0
Auto Loan Him - 9600 @ 1.49%
Auto Loan Her - 9900 @ 1.5%
Mortgage - 65000 @ 3.75%

Monthly Budget
Tithe: 450
Housing: 50
Electric: 90 (FL A/C)
Water: 25
Restaurants: 100
Groceries: 350
Car Ins: 125
Car Payments: 380
Gas: 200
Clothes: 40
Daycare: 152
Pocket Money/Personal Spending: 100mo (50 each)
Comcast: 15
Phones: 90 (both on straight talk)
Life Ins: 40
LT Disability Ins Him: 20
Total: 2,227
Extra: 2,273

My plan involves maxing both of our IRAs ($917mo) continuing to get our company match, aggressively paying down her student loans and then stash the rest of extra in liquid savings to purchase additional rental units. Im a biggerpockets guy, and plan to buy 1-2 rental units a year for the next few years before settling down into a single family home. FYI I look at Rental properties as a business that funds my retirement, not as my actual retirement, although Rental income may be a piece of  our ER. I expect that both of us will have better jobs (higher income) within the next 1-2 years.

Jwilliamson22

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2013, 10:30:47 AM »
Pretty please :)

I know I gave a lot of information, but I'm mostly looking for your advice areas in my budget that you think I should alter and also what to do with my extra cash. I am having a hard time deciding to put money in taxable investment accounts because I will probably want/need it short term for purchasing investment properties. ANY other advise would be awsome as well!

Rust

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2013, 11:16:16 AM »
Just because you asked :)

Overall your doing well.  You have a goal and a plan to achieve it.

I'll list the most important things you need to do in order.

Steps to take:
1) Pay off your debt
2) Pay off your debt
3) Pay off your debt

The amount you have in savings is excessive.  I'd recommend taking the "e-savings" and pay off the student loan.  Well a chuck of it at least.

Spending $4,800 a year on clothing seems excessive.  Hell it is excessive.
Two of you spend $450 a month in food. (groc + eating out).  That's a lot.  I'm guessing you don't pack lunch. 
As for the eating out, your spending $25 a week.  What's that one night out.   I personally don't have a problem with that even though I don't do it myself. 

snuggler

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2013, 11:24:01 AM »
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.

snuggler

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2013, 11:25:45 AM »
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.

Rust

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2013, 12:11:02 PM »
your right in my haste I made an error.

But still $480 bucks on cloths... It's a lot for a year.

I have not spent $480 on clothes in the past 5 years combined.  That's with a family of 4.

Goodwill is your friend.  I can almost always find brand name clothes with the original tags still on.

MsSindy

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2013, 12:46:38 PM »
The thing that jumps out at me is the ~$20k you have in car loans - that's equal to 1/3 of your mortgage!!  Even though the money is at a low percentage, it is still going to be over $20k that you'll pay on your autos.

You don't list what rate the Student Loan is at, but it seems that you could pay it off pretty damn quick and just be free of it instead of dragging out payments for years -- more for a psychological boost if anything else.

With ~12k in emergency and savings accounts, you have a lot of money sitting around in what I would assume is a low interest bearing account.  Since you bring in an extra $2200 a month, you should be able to cover any 'emergency' that would occur, like a new appliance or water heater that breaks.  I would never keep that much just sitting around unless I thought my jobs were unstable and it was likely reality that I would in fact need that money.

Since you do have a decent savings rate, I won't beat you up on your food or clothes spending.  Yes, they can always go lower, but don't seem outrageous to me (clothes, esp if you are a professional).  I have never had luck at Goodwill, but have found a resale boutique where I can get name-brand clothes (JNY, Anne Klein) in very good condition for work - well tops and purses anyways.

sleepyguy

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #7 on: September 23, 2013, 02:44:23 PM »
I don't like the $20k car loans but you seem to be getting a good rate and each vehicle is under 10k which is a-ok in my books.

Nothing to add... you are doing extremely well and on your way!

Jwilliamson22

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #8 on: September 23, 2013, 03:03:23 PM »
Just because you asked :)

Overall your doing well.  You have a goal and a plan to achieve it.

I'll list the most important things you need to do in order.

Steps to take:
1) Pay off your debt
2) Pay off your debt
3) Pay off your debt

The amount you have in savings is excessive.  I'd recommend taking the "e-savings" and pay off the student loan.  Well a chuck of it at least.

Spending $4,800 a year on clothing seems excessive.  Hell it is excessive.
Two of you spend $450 a month in food. (groc + eating out).  That's a lot.  I'm guessing you don't pack lunch. 
As for the eating out, your spending $25 a week.  What's that one night out.   I personally don't have a problem with that even though I don't do it myself.
your right in my haste I made an error.

But still $480 bucks on cloths... It's a lot for a year.

I have not spent $480 on clothes in the past 5 years combined.  That's with a family of 4.

Goodwill is your friend.  I can almost always find brand name clothes with the original tags still on.


Thank for your input! I agree, I am not a fan of debt either. We just joined our finances this month so on our to do list is paying off the 7k in student loans. We are both still students so she technically has no payment and 3500 of the 7000 is subsidized so there is no interest until she finishes school. I do plan to pay them off anyways though. The car's I am having a dilemma with. I can't get myself to pay them off because the rate is so low I would rather put the money to better use somewhere else and then the mortgage has about 40k in equity and at 3.75%. I plan to move out in 6 months and rent both sides. At that point it will be pretty much on autopilot paying for itself plus creating income even after accounting for maintenance, repairs, vacancy etc.

Obviously the 4,800 was a typographical error, but $480 a year is still pretty difficult. We both work "professional" jobs and in mine I have to wear a suit everyday as well as pay for company shirts and ties to wear underneath. The Goodwill option falls out the window for that mostly. I have gotten some nice wingtips there though!

CommonCents

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #9 on: September 23, 2013, 03:24:03 PM »
$240 each for clothes seems eminently reasonable to me, particularly if it includes things like shoes and jackets.  It's all a matter of perspective likely.  What's the student loan rates?

The restaurants seems the easiest place to cut out a little fat to me.

Jwilliamson22

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #10 on: September 23, 2013, 03:34:10 PM »
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.

Jwilliamson22

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #11 on: September 23, 2013, 03:44:03 PM »
The thing that jumps out at me is the ~$20k you have in car loans - that's equal to 1/3 of your mortgage!!  Even though the money is at a low percentage, it is still going to be over $20k that you'll pay on your autos.

You don't list what rate the Student Loan is at, but it seems that you could pay it off pretty damn quick and just be free of it instead of dragging out payments for years -- more for a psychological boost if anything else.

With ~12k in emergency and savings accounts, you have a lot of money sitting around in what I would assume is a low interest bearing account.  Since you bring in an extra $2200 a month, you should be able to cover any 'emergency' that would occur, like a new appliance or water heater that breaks.  I would never keep that much just sitting around unless I thought my jobs were unstable and it was likely reality that I would in fact need that money.

Since you do have a decent savings rate, I won't beat you up on your food or clothes spending.  Yes, they can always go lower, but don't seem outrageous to me (clothes, esp if you are a professional).  I have never had luck at Goodwill, but have found a resale boutique where I can get name-brand clothes (JNY, Anne Klein) in very good condition for work - well tops and purses anyways.

Having the auto loans isn't my favorite either, but them being 1/3rd of the mortgage is kind of a moot point in my opinion. Im proud of my low mortgage (although I still have a mortgage) which obviously is a large part of that equation. I talked about the student loans in my reply above, but we just combined finances this month which is why they are just getting addressed. We are both in school so there is no required payment, but I have all intentions of paying them off quickly, not prolonging them. This month we payed $500 towards them, but it will probably be more next month depending on what I decide after all your guys' help :)

The liquid cash is a product of two things. First, If we both lost our income (unlikely) our expenses would be around 2k a month so the 6000 refers to 3 months of expenses. Second, the remaining 5500 is a growing pile for the real estate acquisition that I'm planning although that is also being discussed within this thread so I am open to your thoughts on that.
« Last Edit: September 23, 2013, 03:51:40 PM by Jwilliamson22 »

Jwilliamson22

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #12 on: September 23, 2013, 03:44:43 PM »
I don't like the $20k car loans but you seem to be getting a good rate and each vehicle is under 10k which is a-ok in my books.

Nothing to add... you are doing extremely well and on your way!

Thank you!

Jwilliamson22

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #13 on: September 23, 2013, 03:47:52 PM »
$240 each for clothes seems eminently reasonable to me, particularly if it includes things like shoes and jackets.  It's all a matter of perspective likely.  What's the student loan rates?

The restaurants seems the easiest place to cut out a little fat to me.

Im hoping to start cutting fat from restaurants once I move in with her and have a proper kitchen/place took etc. Half the student loans are 6.8% and half are subsidized so they arent accruing interest. I plan to pay off the 6.8% loans within the next couple months and then the rest over the course of a few months following that.

CommonCents

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #14 on: September 23, 2013, 03:53:11 PM »
If half of the student loans ($3500) are at 6.8% right now (ouch - but I had 8.5% once!), I'd get that down as fast as possible, and put your savings towards it.  You'll still have $2000 in savings and $6000 in emergency fund, which is 3.5 months and bare minimum.  You can then take the next few months to build it up to 6 months.

Jwilliamson22

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #15 on: September 23, 2013, 04:01:36 PM »
If half of the student loans ($3500) are at 6.8% right now (ouch - but I had 8.5% once!), I'd get that down as fast as possible, and put your savings towards it.  You'll still have $2000 in savings and $6000 in emergency fund, which is 3.5 months and bare minimum.  You can then take the next few months to build it up to 6 months.

Yea.. its interesting the thoughts on EF. One of the posts above commented on me having too much, and your feeling it bare minimum. I tend to be on the cautious side and would love to have 6mo like you said and then pursue all these other things. It just helps me sleep at night knowing things are taken care of, even if the 12k isn't optimized. I am however looking into a rewards checking that pays 3% on up to 25k which would be a great account for these liquid savings IMO. Although that would give me even more reason NOT to pay off my auto loans since I would still be earning 1.5% on the spread!

CommonCents

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #16 on: September 23, 2013, 04:09:18 PM »
Yea.. its interesting the thoughts on EF. One of the posts above commented on me having too much, and your feeling it bare minimum. I tend to be on the cautious side and would love to have 6mo like you said and then pursue all these other things. It just helps me sleep at night knowing things are taken care of, even if the 12k isn't optimized. I am however looking into a rewards checking that pays 3% on up to 25k which would be a great account for these liquid savings IMO. Although that would give me even more reason NOT to pay off my auto loans since I would still be earning 1.5% on the spread!

Well, the other poster may have put the savings+EF into one bucket and then called it overfunded.  I am just going by your $7K stated figure.  My perspective - I was unemployed not too long ago, for **two years**.  I got unemployment plus part-time work, but if I didn't have a solid EF I would have been very stressed out.  I graduated twice into recessions (I will take bribes not to go to school again and cause another).  So I think you need 3 months before you can do anything, but you should build to 6 months when you have the chance.  1 year is preferred, but I'm ok with the second 6 months of EF "working" in investments.  Someone who has never been unemployed may think differently. 

snuggler

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #17 on: September 23, 2013, 04:59:55 PM »
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!

Jwilliamson22

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #18 on: September 24, 2013, 03:29:20 PM »
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!

Thank you, thats some great advise! Ill definitely try those quesadillas!

StarryC

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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #19 on: September 24, 2013, 08:17:19 PM »
I always assumed that a part of the benefit of LTD was the care of the newly disabled person.  If she were seriously injured and couldn't work, and also needed someone to be with her all day, do you have enough to quit your job and care for her?  Or do you make enough to pay for a full time nurse/aide?  I have it and I have no dependents or providers.  Therefore, if I were to fall ill enough that I needed care, LTD would help me (through my parents as guardians I would expect) pay for the things I needed due to my condition.   But I don't need life insurance since no one is relying on my income except me.

ASquared

  • Bristles
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Re: What Would You Do In My Financial Situation?
« Reply #20 on: September 24, 2013, 11:01:01 PM »
Can you reduce your tithe until your debt emergency is improved?  Maybe by half?  Or tithe 10% of your income minus your debt expenses rather than 10% of your total income?  That debt needs to be paid off asap.

Very respectful of your religious beliefs and don't mean to diminish their importance to you - but you asked for financial opinions :)