My husband and I both went to flashy graduate schools in order to score high paying jobs, and now we have to pay off all the loans we took out while living in an expensive city. Two years ago, we had zero assets and our loans were over $340K. Today, they total $237K. Our goal is to increase our net worth as quickly as possible, which includes mostly paying down our loans, but also includes maxing out our retirement accounts and continuing to invest. Since we are married and earn so much, we also pay a ton in taxes. We have one dog and no children yet. I think we are doing pretty good considering our incomes, but we could definitely do better. Here's the break-down.
Income: $343,000
Current expenses:
$2800 - (mortgage, pmi, property taxes, condo association fees) - I wish this number was lower, but it beats paying rent and the property values around our offices are very high
$2000 - monthly loan payments (this is approximate as we always pay much more than the minimum)
$35 - two cell phone plans (heavily subsidized by our employers)
$500 - groceries (so high because we live in a high COL area and love beer; although my husband has home brewed in the past, he doesn't have time for it right now)
$250 - eating out (we have cut back on this so that we only eat out for social reasons)
$200 - misc expenses
$40 - transportation (we walk to work and have no car, buy we do spend some money on public transportation, cabs, and zipcar)
$40 - internet
$72 - gas
$10 - electricity
$10 - netflix
$10 - dog supplies
Total: round up to $6,000
Assets:
$330,000 - condo
$70,000 - 401Ks
$13,000 - investments in index and mutual funds
$4,000 - cash
$900 - health savings account
Total: $417,900
Liabilities:
Mortgage:
$296,000 at 4.5% plus PMI
Student Loans:
$17,000 at 7.9%
$69,000 at 6.8%
$103,000 at 4.5%
$18,000 at 4.3%
$30,000 at 2.3%
Total: $533,000
Current Net Worth: -$115,100
Our goal is to have a $0 net worth in 12 months, and to pay off all of our student loans in two years.
We have no IRAs yet so maybe that should be our next step. We're not motivated to pay off our mortgage quickly as the interest we pay is one of the few tax deductions we can take.
Our biggest struggles right now are that all of our friends and family are spend happy consumers. It's sometimes difficult to be *that* person. Also, we have a few close family and friends weddings scheduled this year around the country and have to attend, but attending requires expensive plane tickets and hotels. Our parents also live in different states and get pretty angry if we don't visit them at least once a year.