Random thoughts thread
- Thread starter rhino3382
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There might be your answer...do you mean saving 20K a year besides your retirement? 'Cause if so, and it's in an accessible form, depending on how long you've been doing that, pull some of that out and you'll do wonders to reduce your debt on buying a house, and either lower your payment to ease the concerns of losing your job, or drastically shorten your loan window and thus get back to saving mad cash sooner once it's paid off.
Alternately, if you want to go the kids route, if you do lose your job, that money that you've been saving is your safety net.
I don't know your situation or you well enough to say for sure, but I'm hearing things that make me think that a large net worth may be your sole focus. While that's not bad in and of itself, if it causes you issues in other ways, you're maybe too focused on that particular thing...i.e. you are stressing or having relationship issues because you think you can't afford a home because you can't swing the payments, but yet you're putting almost 2K a month into a bucket that will do nothing other than grow (and there's something to be said for its growth, I'm not minimizing that...WAAYY too many people don't consider that enough...I save too).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not chastising your choices, and I'm not saying my choices are what everyone should do. We all have priorities, and very few people have the income or means to never have to prioritize one thing over another, so we all have to choose based on our personal beliefs.
For me, though, we save for our retirement, and have a plan for that which is discussed and managed with the help of a professional. We live the life we want while watching that our bank account is still rising...meaning we're living below our means. We don't budget, but we make sure the overall trajectory is up, and we've learned to live to that discipline. We like to keep a certain amount (6 months expenses) in liquid form to deal with an emergency or loss of income, but when we get above that, we look at what to do with that overage. A few years ago we paid cash for a minivan...because we have kids. A few months ago we finished our basement without a loan. But, I don't have 60K socked away in a mutual fund. At some point, we probably will get to the point where we're not finding something valuable to do with our money (house paid off, kids out of the house) and we'll be plowing lots of money into investments, but for me, now, it's not my priority. It's not inherently BAD, though either if it is your priority, as long as it's not causing you other strife.
do you work with a particular company? For the financial advisor part? It sounds like you have very similar goals to DH's and mine. So yeah, just give us your life plan to follow.
do you work with a particular company? For the financial advisor part? It sounds like you have very similar goals to DH's and mine. So yeah, just give us your life plan to follow.
We got lucky in the fact that MIL is in that industry, so we work with an independent financial adviser that she knew and trusted. I can PM you the name, but he's out of Waterloo, so I'm not sure he regularly gets to Madison. He gets to the Iowa City area a few times a year. Let me know.
I have less than that in our checking account and you know how I am with money.
That includes 8,000 in retirement for my wife and I (but not counting our mandatory pension contributions).
I have about 90k in equities (I'm 31 and everything I've read says I should have far more). My dad always taught me growing up saving is the best thing you can do for your family so I guess that's what I've been doing.
Our house now is just fine and wanting to move is because she wants to - not because we need to.
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Always willing! And I can show you the good places too, not the tourist trap places.
Although as touristy as it is, one must always go to Pearl Harbor. And the Dole Plantation is a fun visit too.
yeah, that's a bit far. You hear so many bad things about financial advisors that it's hard to find one.
I have less than that in our checking account and you know how I am with money.
That includes 8,000 in retirement for my wife and I (but not counting our mandatory pension contributions).
I have about 90k in equities (I'm 31 and everything I've read says I should have far more). My dad always taught me growing up saving is the best thing you can do for your family so I guess that's what I've been doing.
Our house now is just fine and wanting to move is because she wants to - not because we need to.
If that 90k is non-retirement, then I would count that in addition to you checking. I think what I read was that people basically had access to an average of $3k non-retirement. The average retirement account was something like $16k. That is a terrifying number to me when I consider what the average age must be. Because I'm sure it's not under 30.
I've heard you should have your salary in retirement by the time you are 30.
Saving is the best thing you can do, and I'm not saying that's where you're at, but if you save and live miserably to save, or you lose your marriage because you have a compulsion to save, what's the money worth? That's all aside from saving SOME for retirement and emergencies. You can't ignore that...although many people do.
WRT equities...if you mean you have 90K in retirement savings, I'd say that's good...not stellar, but it's ahead of where I was at 31 because of my situation after college. If you have retirement plus another 90K set aside, and everyone says you should have more at 31...I'd question that. I'm not a financial adviser, but to me, at that young, you're probably still acquiring assets. Plus, if you have 90K in non-retirement liquid assets, and are paying on a home loan, I'd take some of that and knock down your debt. Compounding works both ways...you're overcoming the compounding on the loan by paying it down, but you take one step back every month to pay the interest before knocking down the principle. I'm probably not explaining that well, but people a lot of times focus on the growth side, but ignore the expense side of interest. Yes, saving young allows you to compound, but if you have to carry a huge debt load to do that, you're putting money in one pocket while someone is stealing out of your other.
The 90k is non-retirement savings. This is exactly what I mean - I'm saving but know I can do better then I hear things like this.
I put an extra $150/month into my mortgage and it should be paid off when I am 41.
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PM me if you have questions about it. I was mostly home schooled and I think I'm mostly normal
PM me if you have questions about it. I was mostly home schooled and I think I'm mostly normal
I've got at least three years to not think about it. :smile:
PM me if you have questions about it. I was mostly home schooled and I think I'm mostly normal
Your CF posting suggest otherwise...
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