General Info - Wife & I are both 30yr old with 2 little ones (3 & 1yr) living in central OH. Both teach & coach in the local school system. I worked in business for 5yrs before changing to education, wife is in year 9 of teaching.
Financial Info - (numbers rounded for ease)
- Salaries of $74k & $63k for upcoming school year
- No debt other than mortgage
- Typical monthly expenses of about $3,500
- House was purchased in Feb. of 2018 for $167,500
- Refinanced in March of 2020 to 15yr @ 2.75%
- Balance is about $96k
- Payment each month is about $1,100 including insurance/taxes
- Total money between banking & investing - $262k
- Checking - $2,100
- HSA - $7,000
- Savings - $61,500
- Roth IRA (mine) - $39,100
- Roth IRA (wifes) - $13,200
- Traditional IRA - $49,500
- VTSAX - $87,200 (have $350 going in weekly)
- Don’t have 529s set up for the kids (have thought about it) & are working with the school district to provide 403b options (only options available currently have super high fees)
Other things to consider -
1) We hope to have more children in the future. Obviously this will increase childcare costs & all the other wonderful expenses that come with kids!
2) We likely will move within the next 2-5yrs. We will stay within the area but hope to find more space. When we purchased the home we viewed it as a nice 5yr starter home.
3) Another big expense coming up is buying a new (not literally new - just new for us) vehicle. The car I am driving is perfect for driving from home & to work but it likely won’t be serviceable after another year or so.
4) We are strongly looking into real estate investing & having a few rentals to diversify our holdings & hopefully increase our timeline for FIRE.
Big Question - My wife feels like we are putting too much money into VTSAX each week ($350 automatically going in each week) & not getting much “bang for our buck” with how high the market has been. She thinks we should have less going in now & save up the rest. The thought process is when the market crashes, we can then use that saved money to buy up more shares at a lower cost. I have always thought it was best to just put money in whenever possible & not worry about trying to time the market. So...who is “right”?!?! Should we keep plugging along & then use extra money to load up when the market does go down or would it make more sense for us to reduce our weekly investment & save the money for other things or for when the market crashes?
**full disclosure - my wife & I get along great & this marital “dispute” is all in good fun! She is awesome & regardless of the general verdict of this forum, she will remind me often that she IS always "right"!!!**
Thanks so much for your time & any insights! Have a great day!