Good info and thank you for the replies.
We don't have any student loans or car payments. My wife is finishing up a bachelor's degree program. I think we have 8k in upcoming payments left and we're done with it at the end of the year.
We just recently moved away from Edward Jones and the financial vampire there got the idea in our minds that we should have the bulk of our savings in a taxable investment account. I'm still trying to cleanse my mind of it. Initially I went in with the idea of maxing retirement accounts, but the advisor felt it was a bad idea to lock so much money away for retirement.
I'm 33 and my wife is 32. Currently we have:
$ 3,305 Fidelity 401k w/3% match (contributing 50% salary - increased recently)
$25,695 Vanguard 403b w/o match (contributing $1400/mo - increased recently)
$ 4,788 Vanguard IRA
$57,266 CalPERS (Pension Plan - contributing ~$525/mo [8 years of service])
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0. Establish an emergency fund to your satisfaction (done)
1. Contribute to 401k up to any company match (done) - wife gets a 3% match
2. Pay off any debts with interest rates ~5% or more above the 10-year Treasury note yield. (3%! my edit) (done)
3. Max HSA (reading about it)
4. Max Traditional IRA or Roth (or backdoor Roth) based on income level (reading about it)- joint income puts us in the 25% or 28% bracket. Our Modified AGI was like 123k and that's with only one of us working full time.
5. Max 401k (if 401k fees are lower than available in an IRA, or if you need the 401k deduction to be eligible for a tIRA, swap #4 and #5) (working on it) - Next year will probably be the first year we max her 401(k) and my 403(b)
6. Fund mega backdoor Roth if applicable (reading about it) - If we're still in the 25% tax bracket, does this make sense? I also have the option to start a 457(b), but the fees are higher and funds are more limited.
7. Pay off any debts with interest rates ~3% or more above the 10-year Treasury note yield. (1%! my edit) (Looking into 3,4,5,&6 will keep me busy for a while)
8. Invest in a taxable account with any extra.
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Next year may be the first year that neither of us are in school and both of us have full time jobs, so we're still adjusting financially to those changes. We're trying to stay on top of things like saving and leveraging tax deferred accounts. At some point I'll gather information to start a new case study thread. I can't say we have a real plan other than trying to max our retirement accounts.
Thanks again for all the information you've provided
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Reading up more on HSAs, I don't think I qualify. I'm covered through Kaiser (HMO) via my employer and they only deduct $204/mo.