What's your priority list in saving?

[jlt19]

I know this has been talked about to death, but let's revisit b/c I can't search for shit on here

DH and I have both only been in jobs with 401k's for a little over a year. We came from a Union with defined pensions, so we know what they'll add monthly in retirement. 

I was contributing 7% with a 4.5% match and he was contributing 5% with a 3% match. 
We max out Roths
Max out HSA, but I do use most of it. I've been saving 10% of each contribution monthly in a mutual fund to not touch until retirement.
Only debt is a mortgage at 2.625% but we JUST moved, so we haven't even paid 1 month yet. We only put 10% down b/c of buying prior to selling and didn't want to be cash poor. We do have PMI, but that's $50/month.
6 months efund, but still add $80/month which I know is not a lot
Put in $100/month each to kids 529's, but have never really had a conversation about our plan for paying for college (how much, etc). Kids are 9/11


I just got a job offer for a significant increase in base, bonus and match (10%!)
I ran some numbers and if I bump both of us to 15% (so essentially 25% for me, 18% for him) we'll make about the same net as we do now. BUT he should have gotten a raise in early September but they kind of forgot (small family company) and told him yesterday he'd be back paid but not the amount yet. Last year was 10%. 

So, what should we focus on next? 
Would you continue to increase 401k until it's completely maxed out? Whatever that number is?
I'm sure we're behind but every calculator tells us something different and I never include a penny of SS when doing them. 
Increase 529?
Increase mortgage payments?
Increase efund/long term savings?
Don't touch the HSA contributions at the new job (all of their options include it) and pay OOP for all medical?
We do have some big projects we're also saving up for like finishing the basement and re-siding the house. We already have a nice chunk saved and budget to add $850/month to that already. 

Thanks for any advice/ideas!

[waverly]

After our retirement savings, we are putting a lot into the 529. There are different thoughts on this, but in our case we do think the kids will probably go to college. So I would do 401K, then 529.

[imojoebunny]

We maxed out our 401Ks, once we got to the point where we could have a comfortable life, with the basics, not extravagant, and had enough in an e-fund for us to be comfortable. As we made more money, we saved for the extras, and outside of 401K. We never missed the money because we never "had it" to begin with. You can always help your kids pay off loans, in the future, if you 401K is well funded, after they get out of college, either by lowering your 401K contributions, as you age, if you don't need to save so much anymore, or by using the income in retirement to help the kids out. The earlier you save for retirement, the more time the money has to grow, the less you have to save.

[mlkgls]

I would max out your retirement first and then reevaluate your next priority once you have a better idea of what additional funds are left over. The number one theme of the financial podcasts I listen to during my commute is compounding interest; the earlier you save the better. 

I’m not quite maxing, but have a healthy company match and I plan on bumping my contribution again in a few months. I’ve been anticipating large expenditures (replacement of my 14yo car and flooring) in the next couple of years and I struggle with where to allocate extra money. 

[chpmnk1015]

You say you just moved... in addition to everything everyone already said, I'd start a house fund for projects, etc if you plan to do any. I know you have 6 month efund but that could go quick if you need something fixed...

[sadlebred]

I'm lower income by this board's standards/normality. I can't max out my 401K & pay my bills, but savings priorities are:

1. Put up to my company's pretty decent match into a 401K.
2. E-fund.
4. General savings. Travel, bigger needs/repairs around the house, bicycles, etc.
4. Put a small amount into my ROTH each paycheck. This is my 'fun' investment money. I hope to increase this next year.

[pumpkin]

Sept 30, 2021 22:59:58 GMT -5 sadlebred said:

I'm lower income by this board's standards/normality. I can't max out my 401K & pay my bills, but savings priorities are:

1. Put up to my company's pretty decent match into a 401K.
2. E-fund.
4. General savings. Travel, bigger needs/repairs around the house, bicycles, etc.
4. Put a small amount into my ROTH each paycheck. This is my 'fun' investment money. I hope to increase this next year.

This is me too and my saving priorities also look like this.

[sandandsea]

We first paid off all debt other than the mortgage. We put ourselves through college and started with 6 figures of student loans between us.

Then we saved 3 months of expenses and saved for a 5% Down payment on our first home in a VHCOL area.

Then started maxing 401ks and espp and grew our emergency fund to 6 months of income.

Next step was funding 529s (almost fully funded and kids are 9 and 5).

Now we are working on Paying off the mortgage.

[steamboat185]

Sept 30, 2021 17:57:31 GMT -5 ewall said:

Here’s my order of operations:
Max Roths
Max 401k
Max HSA and don’t touch it
Direct deposit into cash emergency fund/house renovation fund
Automated contribution to taxable account
Automated contributions to 529s

We do this, except we’ve switched from 529 to a general brokerage for the kids as we feel like the 529 is a bit too restrictive.

The 401k limit is 19.5k this year increasing to 20k next year.

Edit I was wrong we do the first few, but house renovations are after post tax stock buying for us.

[niq]

Retirement
College savings
Paying off SLs early (that's done now)
"Other"

[midwestmama]

Higher priorities are saving for retirement, paying off the mortgage faster (goal is by the time our oldest graduates HS in 2028), and contributing more to charities. Next priorities are 529s and e-fund. Then investing in experiences (e.g., travel). When I recently received a promotion (20% base pay increase and small increase to annual incentive target %), DH and I reviewed what we would do with the additional income, and the above is where we landed.

[ssmjlm]

Retirement
Efund
Additional Savings
529

That's the basic stuff for us. Just in the last couple years we've been maxing retirement and our efund is at the right $, so we're focused on additional savings in other vehicles and a 529.

[brooke77]

-Max 401K
-general investments
-529 (about $7k per year)
-travel/house fund

We are behind on retirement and have been maxing out our 401Ks for the last several years to try to catch up. We are trying to aggressively save in other investments, which will be for retirement. At the moment, we are not paying extra on our mortgage because it is not our forever home and we have a low mortgage rate. DS’ 529 is well-funded. I’m mostly worried about retirement.

[macmars45]

-Retirement as we are behind

-Savings for DS' further education should he choose

-House fund (repairs & maintenance)-- we already have this in place and money goes directly to this every month

-Pay off EV car loan & save for next one to replace gas car (our long term plan is to switch to all EV cars)

-Pay off mortgage

[jlt19]

Thank you all! Definitely gives me some things to think about.