Budget review, please

[cubalibre]

A long-time lurker eager for feedback.

In the last year, we have both gotten new jobs and bought a new house with double the mortgage payment. After six months in the house, I think we've bought the major furniture to be in the new house. The rest of the numbers track average monthly spending. Fun savings is for large projects (e.g. redo backyard/covered parking, eventually redo windows for efficiency) or major travel (it has covered furniture too). My car is a 2000 Jetta TDI. I'd like it to last forever, but we would consider before major repairs. We would buy a used car in cash to replace.

Ultimately, I think we need to be better at moving savings into investments.

Income
H- 4164
W- 4034

Total income - $8198
(I'm technically on a 9-month contract being paid out over 12-months. I'll likely have 2 months of summer salary. H gets an annual bonus of 9-15% of salary. These go into fun savings at the moment.)

Fixed budget
Mortgage $1952.44
Cable & internet $77
Electric $150 (high est.)
ATT $150
Water $40
Car insurance $100
Parking $50
Housekeeper $200
Fun savings $3000 (auto-transfer)

Flexible Budget
Gas $150
Groceries $350
Eating out $400
Travel/gear $500
Home repair $50
Cars $50
Clothes $100
Medical $50
Fun $200 (beer, haircuts, books, etc.)
Gifts $100

Savings
$3000 fun ING
$ 416 ROTH

Fixed budget $2719.44
Flexible budget $1950
Savings total $4669.44
Total budget $8085.44
Extra $112

General Saving
$48k emergency fund (cash)
$12k fun savings (cash)
H 401K $150k - currently saving 17% plus match
W 401K $35k - mandated 17% includes match (just started post-Phd)
W ROTH $45k - parents contribute since I was 16
H ROTH $5k - just started
Investments $300k - individual stocks and mutual funds

What say you?

[crashgizmo]

How old are you and your H?

[cubalibre]

H 34, me 32

[aurora]

I see you have a pretty sizable investment fund. What is your philosophy on that (e.g., extra emergency cash, probable retirement, saving for your own private jet, etc.)? Are you planning to have kids, and do you want to pay for their college educations? How secure are your jobs?

Your numbers are a little funny since for example you have the $3000 savings listed in two lines, and I'm not sure exactly what is included in your $4669/month savings total. But, at ~10 months expenses in a cash e-fund and saving >50% of your net per month, it seems like you're doing pretty well. I don't think you need any more saved in cash, so getting motivated to move more into investments sounds smart.

[crashgizmo]

Then I think you are in pretty good shape. With your investments and 401K max, even though you started retirement savings a bit later you will definitely catch up IMO.

We have the same income and roughly the same expenses as you- and your savings is more impressive than ours.

I agree that you probably have enough in your Efund, especially since you and your H make about the same amount of money and your bills could be paid on either income (we are the same way).
Do your parents contribute to your roth still? If not can you?

Other than that I don't see much....I mean, you have a lot of fun money/travel, but you're saving half your income, so go at it!

[cubalibre]

Sadly, our investment philosophy is pretty passive. My grandparents paid for my college education by giving me individual stocks from their portfolio. For a variety of reasons, I didn't need to use all of this fund for college. I manage some of the individual stocks when it makes sense to sell to off-set capital gains (thank you Enron). Most of these individual stocks are in solid companies with a really low cost-basis, and I just reinvest dividends. I've tried to balance this out with index funds and socially-responsible mutual funds at different levels of risk. We don't really intend to use these funds unless needed--super emergency or extra retirement, I suppose.

We aren't currently planning on having kids. But if we do, my parents would pay for their education (though I'm guessing we would save too).

I'm a professor so my job is relatively stable, unless I don't get tenure. (I just switched schools so six more years as an assistant). My husband is an engineer. He just went on the job market this time last year and got multiple offers so we are feeling like he could recover if laid off.

Sorry for duplicates. I moved things from our typical budget and, well, didn't move accurately.

[cubalibre]

My parents still contribute to my ROTH. They see it as a reasonable way to share money. I've tried to convince them we can take it over. I don't think they are maxing it out, though, so we could fill in that difference.

We like knowing that we could survive on one salary (in fact we have done so on each of our salaries for a year at a stint). It does make things easier.