MM Priorities?

[konapoppy]

Definitely retirement, travel, college.

We are lucky in that any kids are likely to get some help from my parents for college.

I think travel is extremely valuable for a child to begin to explore other perspectives, ways of living, and food (lol).

[gogreengowhite]

Retirement
College savings
Travel

My in-laws have a timeshare so we've been able to vacation on a budget the past few years.

That will start changing once DD starts kindergarten in the fall and we have an extra $12k per year to "waste "

[aurora]

I want to play anyway! (even though I don't have kids)

In terms of percentages, it's definitely retirement, travel, college (0%), but honestly there have been years that we put more into travel than retirement, like the year we did our trip to Tanzania before I had a regular job. Totally worth it.

[crashgizmo]

No kids here either, but we are typically retirement then travel. Although sometimes that flip flops a little. We're trying to balance the "fun now or fun later" concept as best we can.

[spunkarella]

No kids yet, but I expect it to be retirement, travel, college.

[winnied]

No kids so I'm kind of cheating or doing it wrong...

1. Retirement
2. Travel
3. College Savings (or in my case, paying off student loans) 

[dragon's breath]

Retirement
Travel
College

I expect my son to pay for the majority of his college expenses (if he goes). I put myself through and don't think it's an unreasonable expectation. Right now he's not looking at anything that would be crazy expensive.

I do 16% to retirement (and have a 5% match).

Travel this year is higher, because we're doing five weeks in Europe, but usually it falls much lower.

I'm single (divorced for 14 years), and just have one child, so that has helped a lot to keep travel expenses down, even when we do foreign vacations (small rooms with a bed and a cot, or two twins, only having to pay for two plane tickets, fewer museum passes, etc).

[gogreengowhite]

May 30, 2015 12:24:45 GMT -5 @songforyou said:

May 30, 2015 12:19:15 GMT -5 @starry said:

I was inclined to say retirement, college savings, then travel but last year we saved about 30% of our income to retirement, 4% college, and 9% travel so I guess that's a more accurate answer. Travel will be way down the next two years with the new baby and college savings up.

I think this happens with most people after baby #2.

@gogreenwhite, where do you foresee most of that extra money going?

The first year it will go towards a trip to Germany. My H has been itching to go for years and I really want to get him there.

Other than that, college savings and travel. DS will be done with daycare in 2017 and then I will swim in the extra money Scrooge McDuck style.

[dragon's breath]

May 30, 2015 12:32:56 GMT -5 @songforyou said:

May 30, 2015 12:26:03 GMT -5 crashgizmo said:

No kids here either, but we are typically retirement then travel. Although sometimes that flip flops a little. We're trying to balance the "fun now or fun later" concept as best we can.

I don't have the balls to flip it; however, DH and I were talking about this on our last trip a few weeks ago.  There was so much walking.  So much.  All the walking in the world.  I hope that we'll have the ability to take those kinds of trips in retirement, but I don't know that I'll want to walk many miles everyday in my 60s and up.  We're not even 40 and we were beat.  How could we do it in 20 years?  Even if we stuck to river cruises , we would still get off and explore.  I don't know.

I figure I want to get all the "demanding" trips done now, when I'm younger.  That means long flights (Europe from the west coast), lots of walking, cities (I already hate them, too crowded, but I can deal for vacation), foreign languages, "adventurous", castles and old buildings with tons of stairs, etc.  When I get older and hate the airlines, cities, walking so much, dealing with languages I don't understand/can't hear people, I'll get a pickup and a camper and tour the states.

I save for retirement consistently, but I do a big trip every few years because, as much as I love it, I might not love it when I'm older and sore.  So far the balance works for me (once my son moves out though, I want to take a vacation to a different country for two weeks every year).

ETA: and thanks  I'm on my countdown, we fly out in a couple weeks!  Scared and excited all at once.

[ddi741]

Retirement first, then travel. Retirement for us is a very high priority. We don't even factor that money in our budget, it comes right off the top and then what is left over is for us to use for everything else.

We have no kids so college savings doesn't apply, although I did pay for my own college so I don't see that as something a parent 'has' to do.

[sillygoosegirl]

Retirement, then travel, then college.

Though it's very likely that by the time our child is college-aged, our retirement nest egg will be big enough to cover both retirement and college, but retirement and travel are the priorities. Student loans aren't the worst thing ever.

We did spend more one year on travel than we saved for retirement, but that was a year we had approximately no income and went on a 6 month RTW trip (and two 3-week domestic trips as well). But that was definitely the exception... Until we actually retire.

[badgergrl]

We save about 25% of our income to retirement about 2% to college. I'm not sure what % we spend on travel, but it's not much right now. Occasional random water park overnights. Kid 2 is too young. Hopefully that will pick back up in a few years.

[AAM2012]

Retirement, travel, college

Since we don't have kids it's really: retirement, travel, vacation home fund

[crashgizmo]

May 30, 2015 13:17:39 GMT -5 AAM2012 said:

Retirement, travel, college

Since we don't have kids it's really: retirement, travel, vacation home fund

Yes, if I were realistic, it would be retirement, travel, house projects 

[WinterWine]

We don't have kids yet. It's definitely retirement, then travel in terms of $ spent.

The last few years we have maxed both Roths and 401ks. This year I've really been needing more travel /vacations for my mental sanity. We'll probably still end up maxing IRAs (or at least I'll really try). But rather than budgeting $1k/mo for those, in focusing on more travel. That might be the wrong thing to do, and it stresses me out a bit bc it doesn't feel like the "responsible" thing. But with the stress of my new job, it's what I need to do to keep myself sane.

I also want to go on safari for my 30th bday (which is $$). I struggle with how to make that happen while still maxing all retirement (which I try to make a non-negotiable expenditure).

[patbutcher]

May 30, 2015 12:27:33 GMT -5 @vicmo said:

Retirement first always and forever.

We aren't really prioritizing big trips right now with a toddler so it might be closer to a tie between college & travel.

When our kid(s) get older, I imagine we'll prioritize travel, possibly kid-free, haha. We are in Canada though, so we'll be maxing the college fund(s) if we contribute $50k each over 18 years, including tax credits and grant money we get from the government.

Same except I am definitely not a scru so we do spend money on travel. This is our second year in a row going to the UK to see my family. We pay for the flight but they pay for us when we are there and we stay at a vacation resort.

[chw57]

May 30, 2015 12:21:43 GMT -5 konapoppy said:

Definitely retirement, travel, college.

We are lucky in that any kids are likely to get some help from my parents for college.

I think travel is extremely valuable for a child to begin to explore other perspectives, ways of living, and food (lol).

Ditto all this

[whitemerlot]

Retirement is #1 by far.

College and travel are very close. I don't love to travel, especially with my kids since they are 3 and 5. It's more work than it used to be.

[Deleted]

I'll break the mold and say we've been prioritizing travel then retirement. No kids.

I have a 200% employer match up to 5% in my 403b that I do and max my Roth. But DH has Stage IV cancer & is not going to see retirement so I'd rather focus on us having fun while he's able vs saving for him. He does 3% with a 100% match in his 401k & $100/month in his Roth (we maxed for three years before his diagnosis).

We have 2.25x our HHI in retirement (which is about 5x mine alone).


We went to England for 2 weeks, going to Colorado in 2 weeks & to San Diego for a week in July. Goals for next year (that I haven't told him about) Miami or NOLA, Chicago and PEI.

[Deleted]

May 30, 2015 15:14:50 GMT -5 @songforyou said:

@choco, I'm just being nosy, but how much longer do you think you guys will need to keep the co-op?

@ameliapond, I'm really glad you guys are doing that.

My eyes got as big as saucers at a 200% match.

Every time I am fed up with my job & want to quit, the match & my 5 weeks of vacation stop me from doing it.

[lolo]

Travel
Retirement
College savings

[Deleted]

May 30, 2015 16:01:35 GMT -5 @songforyou said:

May 30, 2015 15:25:39 GMT -5 @ameliapond said:

Every time I am fed up with my job & want to quit, the match & my 5 weeks of vacation stop me from doing it.

Can eyes get as big as salad plates? Also, are you guys hiring ?

Always, but the pay is shit for NYC, so i have a 90 min commute from nj. Lol

[raangoli]

We don't have a kid yet, so for now retirement gets top billing. I wish I could bring myself to spend more on travel but my cheap runs deep.

[awkwardpenguin]

Retirement, travel, college. We only have one child in utero, but we're going to mostly cash flow college, and I'm open to taking out PLUS loans to make up the difference between savings/cash flow and the actual cost of college.

[gt7301b]

Retirement
Home Mortgage
Travel
College

We took out a 15 yr mortgage knowing we won't be doing much college savings while our hypothetical children our young, but we anticipate being able to cash flow college once the house is paid off.

[laurao]

Retirement
Travel
College

[Deleted]

May 30, 2015 12:35:20 GMT -5 winnied said:

No kids so I'm kind of cheating or doing it wrong...

1. Retirement
2. Travel
3. College Savings (or in my case, paying off student loans) 

Ditto this.

And honestly, I'm not sure if this makes travel #1, but I'm always going to save something for travel. It's very important to me. Obviously I'm not going to save 10k per year, but 2k is realistic for now even though that money could go towards retirement or SLs. You only live once so I'm going to do my best to experience things while I still can.

[Deleted]

Retirement has always been ahead of travel for us. I am sure this is 0% surprising given I am on the FIRE train.

Easy for me to say as a DINK....but I would put college savings at the bottom of that list.

We put much more into our retirement funds than our travel funds, because we hope to retire fairly early and spend a LOT of that time traveling.

Kids can take loans for college, but no loans for travel or retirement, so.....

[Deleted]

I actually think retirement and travel are probably similar dollar amounts. I'm really fortunate that both of my employers since I started my career give me a good amount (and it's vested) so I'm currently saving 15% while only contributing 5% myself. I can see spending around 5% of my income on travel, too.

I do think if I had kids I'd try to balance all three, just because I am burdened myself with SLs and hate it. But that's on my long list of cons for having kids!

[savan]

Retirement
Travel
College*


*But, I am a SCRU and my dad plans to fully fund our kids' college expenses. Should something happen between now and then we hope to be able to cash flow as needed.