Money Thread

[amaranth]

Everyone here loves these, so what do you have to ask/share about your budget?

We are now one year away from having all my husband's SL's paid off. Woot! They are about 2k a month so having that done will free up a lot of cash. My husband is also being promoted this month to a position he thought was 3 years away (SO proud of him!) But all this means we are trying to figure out the best way to allocate this new wiggle room. We have never seen a financial planner but I'm wondering if we should. It's so much to keep track of to remember our HSA, Retirement, investments, personal savings, and we haven't looked into any college savings for our kids yet but probably should. I'm kind of overwhelmed by all the things we *should* save for but don't know how.

Also, we want to finish our basement, replace half the windows, our front door, update the master bath, and install a new exterior door. Obviously​ we don't do all this, it would never pay off, but I'm struggling to find experts who can guide us in the best direction of which areas to improve and which to leave alone.

I guess this turned into a huge brain dump. Has anyone else had a good experience with a financial planner?

[amaranth]

Jun 7, 2017 12:07:31 GMT -5 ewall said:

I'll respond in depth later when I'm at a computer. But they don't say "more money, more problems" for nothing! It is overwhelming because there always feels like there's a next step you should take.

Exactly right! I am obviously very grateful, but when there are a million options to choose from I feel a lot of pressure to make sure we choose the best routes. 

[estrellita]

Well, right now H is going to "pay back" our checking account for the money he essentially stole. I was going to use his job 2 money for the car loan but that'll start again once the money is paid back (should be next week).


Minus that whole fun issue, things are going well. Our savings is good right now so I feel comfortable using some for vacation. I want to get the car paid off by the end of the year and make a dent in the windows. Taking the car payment out will help me feel more comfortable with 2 DC payments. We also put the FSA reimbursement right into savings so I might have to start putting it in checking, but we'll see how it goes!

[amaranth]

Jun 7, 2017 12:51:48 GMT -5 estrellita said:

Well, right now H is going to "pay back" our checking account for the money he essentially stole. I was going to use his job 2 money for the car loan but that'll start again once the money is paid back (should be next week).


Minus that whole fun issue, things are going well. Our savings is good right now so I feel comfortable using some for vacation. I want to get the car paid off by the end of the year and make a dent in the windows. Taking the car payment out will help me feel more comfortable with 2 DC payments. We also put the FSA reimbursement right into savings so I might have to start putting it in checking, but we'll see how it goes!

What led you to get new windows? Were they drafty, ugly, or what? luv2rn4fun curious why you decided as well.

[HoneySpider]

Well the upside of working a bunch of jobs is that we have a little extra cash coming in now, nothing crazy, but we've been able to spend a little more freely and save more.

I realized we *might* be able to hit 6 figures in our retirement accounts this year. I'm pretty proud of this considering that we didn't start saving until our late 20s, I haven't worked FT in 4 years, and we have never been a HII.

Our plan is to move next year (depending on DH finding a new job) and when we do we plan to buy a house and a 2nd car. We have most (all?) of the house DP saved, but it looks like we're going to have to buckle down sometime later this year to get those ducks in a row.

[HoneySpider]

suzv, when do you close on the house?

[estrellita]

Jun 7, 2017 14:28:49 GMT -5 amaranth said:

Jun 7, 2017 12:51:48 GMT -5 estrellita said:

Well, right now H is going to "pay back" our checking account for the money he essentially stole. I was going to use his job 2 money for the car loan but that'll start again once the money is paid back (should be next week).


Minus that whole fun issue, things are going well. Our savings is good right now so I feel comfortable using some for vacation. I want to get the car paid off by the end of the year and make a dent in the windows. Taking the car payment out will help me feel more comfortable with 2 DC payments. We also put the FSA reimbursement right into savings so I might have to start putting it in checking, but we'll see how it goes!

What led you to get new windows? Were they drafty, ugly, or what? luv2rn4fun curious why you decided as well.

They were original to the 100+ year old house. Lol. So are the ones in E's playroom but it's basically a porch full of windows so we're not touching that yet. The big windows in the living room are old but not as old (probably 70s) so we're waiting on those or not doing them at all.

[luv2rn4fun]

amaranth- mainly for heating and cooling efficiency but also it will add a lot of curb appeal value. The curb appeal value is where it makes sense financially as it will take us forever to recover the cost just due to better efficiency. It was a hard decision but I think we are making the right choice!

[tacocat]

We're trying to figure out when to buy H a new truck. It definitely needs to happen before winter, but I think we're going to try to get our house stuff done first.

We have a number we plan on spending for house stuff, but we need to get the contractor out here to see if everything can be done on our budget. If we can do everything we want, we'll be set on house stuff until we rip about the bathrooms in about 5 years.

amaranth H is a financial advisor, so I obviously am pro seeing one. They can really help figure out where to put your money depending on what your goals are for it.

[awick14]

I'm late to this but amaranth I would see a financial planner for sure. But one thing that I would do is take the difference in pay from being promoted and throw that at the SL so that you can pay it off as fast as possible.

I'm glad things are going a little better estrellita. I hope he takes this seriously and that you guys can move on from this and he can re-earn your trust.

HoneySpider- awesome job on the retirement accounts! Will you be moving far? Or is this a close move?

suzv- I forget or didn't see but is this the house that your friend owned?

As for me; We are just trying to get this house fixed up and sold. We are just making ends meet right now. We would have been ok had we not had to front these house renos. Once the house is sold the profits (will dd all numbers ~150k) will be added to our current down payment (70k) and we will buy a house in our new city. (Well a condo or town house as it's a VHCOL, town houses are $500k+)

We are also selling off a lot of stuff before we move, that money will be going into our E fund so that it's a little higher for our move. (Selling trailer, truck, and ATV, but DH will need to buy a small SUV or car for our new city, but it will be less then we should be able to get for his truck)

I have an appointment with our bank to set up 2 accounts for DD on Monday. I will set up an RESP (registered education savings plan, same as US's 529 I believe) for her, as well as an account for her that we will put money into each month as a savings account. We will use this account to pay for things like sports/activities once the time comes. I am not sure how much will go into it at the moment but we will encourage the grandparents to put money into it instead of buying so many toys. (DH and I are very big into experience gifts for her instead of toys, as this is something my parents did for me and I loved it, and DHs parents could not afford for him to do any activities and he wishes they did) .

[amaranth]

awick14 the loan is interest free so it actually doesn't make sense to pay it off earlier (I don't think?) because even our savings account acrues decent interest. You reminded me we need to open our kids savings account. They have gift money I need to deposit for them.

ewall good thoughts. Thank you! We are already maxing out retirement for my H and our HSA so that is taken care of. We've never specifically saved anything in retirement for me because our philosphy was that we've lived on only his income now, so that should be enough later. But we are wondering if we should go ahead and open some account for me because we can.

HoneySpider are you looking to buy in the area you currently live, or another state?

[awick14]

amaranth- if it's interest free I wouldn't worry about paying it off early then.

I would set up retirement accounts for you. I would want some retirement in my name just in case. (Not that your headed for divorce or anything but it would scare me not to have something.

[HoneySpider]

awick14 amaranth We are planning to move out of the area. We renewed our lease though so we're not looking at anything immediate, just making a plan

[krystee]

This is a depressing topic for me. We were doing so well on debt payoff before H lost his job.

The good news is, we still have four months of H's income in savings, which would last us eight months of stretched. And he has two prospects for short-term legal jobs, so that will extend that more. But I am oooooooover this.

[amaranth]

krystee I hope one of the jobs works out soon!

[pooh8402]

I feel like we're bleeding money thanks to the renovations on the house. Our contractor is getting us an updated quote for our kitchen, but it looks like it will be less than I expected. And DH has come around to my side re: our countertops, so yay. but they will not be super cheap (not super expensive either, just not super cheap).

we're still okay, but we're close to running out of the profit from selling our old home, thus will need to cash flow the rest. blah.

AND we'll still be paying for a decent chunk of our FET, even after insurance. insurance coverage isn't even a guarantee, as they may deny it, then we'll be out the whole thing.

eta: aw man and I just remembered that I still need to rollover my 401k to my new job. blah. I'll have to see our rep here at work to do so since the company that handles the 401k is different (my last 2 hospitals used the same company, so it was very simple for me to set up at home).

yays: DH's truck is paid off, so we only have one car note at the moment. DH and I both got raises related to our move, and daycare and mortgage are cheaper. we're paying extra to the principal each month on our mortgage so the cash flow for that is the same as our previous home. IF insurance covers the FET, that means that I will literally have no OOP medical costs other than copay (so maybe I can have sinus surgery in second tri if we can't get it in before FET) until next May when our plan year changes. once the house renovations are completed, we'll have some wiggle room.

[pooh8402]

amaranth, I'm a big fan of financial advisers. My dad used to be one, and we are using a friend right now. we both have IRAs, and I think DH has maxed out his 401k (he's nearing 40, so he is hitting his retirement hard), and like I said, I'll need to rollover mine, and probably just hit the company match for now since I'm still youngish.

our priorities are retirement, debt other than the home (my SLs and CC, but that's coming out of my personal account, not joint money, so it's slow going), home, E's college fund. we set up a 529 for him before he was a year old, and put a big chunk in there (like 5 figures). we're letting it grow on its own, and putting any gift money in there as well. we're hoping to increase his savings and hypothetical baby #2 once I get my NP and my salary is nearly doubled.

[krystee]

DH got a two-month contract job, yay!