My spouse and I are two relatively healthy DINK Americans living in Washington D.C. I'm an attorney working for the US Govt with a relatively stable job. Spouse is early 40s, no college degree and works as a middle-manager at the retail sales location of a major manufacturer/retailer and didn’t save for retirement for most of his 30s. We're not having kids and our Boomer parents have union or US govt pensions so are better than most in terms of affording and accessing elder care. Our main concerns are having to care for aging parents (our younger siblings don’t generate income/depend on their spouses and aren’t especially reliable) andwhat care for ourselves as we age will be like in a time of increased elder and healthcare costs. We’re also just concerned about global warming and state of America long term, so while our jobs feel somewhat stable and I have to live in DC to do mine, we're also reluctant to invest in things like real estate that tie us to a particular place or where assets are less liquid.
Income: I make $144,042 with minimal raises and the occasional $1-2k performance bonus every year. I’ve been offered a promotion to a managerial role and, if I take it, would be making $163,964. Husband earns $70,000 annually and sometimes gets bonused, but this is going to be lean year for his employer. There are limited options for promotion/raises at our current jobs and we’re not especially interested in switching employers or taking on more responsibilities that interfere with work/life balance (Husband already works alot).
Pretax deductions: We max 401ks, our employer-provided health insurance is $4882 annually and we do a $3000 FSA
AGI: $146,160
Taxes: Married filing jointly, so I think it should be around $30,835 (or 22%) this year and we usually are best off when we just take the standard deductions
Debt: NONE!
Assets:
- My Amex hi yield savings: $87,232 (this is the emergency fund/my solution to not knowing how to passively invest)
- my TSP: $108,214
- joint savings: $67,915 (this is all just sitting in a savings account and I would love to passive invest it)
- His employer 401k: $30,000
- Vanguard Roths: $132,410.56
- his former employer ESOP: $12,000
Monthly expenses:
- Rent: We live in my dad's 1 bed 1 bath coop apartment and pay the HOA ($1800/mo, incl all utilities, gym, parking).
- Roth IRAs: maxed every year ($14000)
- Storage unit: $214
- Cell Phones: $50
- Food: $700
- HIIT class: $80
- House cleaners: $220
- Transport: $185 (insurance, AAA, gas, rideshare, metro)
- Subscriptions (video, music, cloud storage, news, Amazon): $100
- Misc (travel, shopping, gifts, personal care): $500
Question: I prioritized debt payoff and finally repaid all my student loans last year and want to focus on getting our networth to over $500,000 in the next year or so (before I turn 40). What should we be doing to maximize our investments/savings right now given that goal and the greater context (financially-secure Boomer parents who may need care at some point, expat goals, DINKs who hate corporate America)? I am trying to FIRE would be great but for us it’s really about protecting ourselves as we age in a time of great uncertainty about the impact that future instability on a micro (our employers, our health etc) and macro (global warming, political unrest, AI) level will have on us personally.