What are your realistic 5 year financial goals?

Well I'm set to be married in a year. Two incomes, so expenses are cut in half. That emergency fund is a combined figure, but the roth is a seperate figure.

5 years, out of debt, except for about $35k on the house, and above $100k saved for retirement.

I'm way behind on retirement, but it is what it is - I should get 2 pensions, plus SS, but my private retirement savings have a lot of catching up to do.

I've read some horror stories, but her and I very much see eye to eye when it comes to financial goals, planning, budgeting, etc. etc.

ETA: fwiw we're already living together and getting a head start on that.

Like I said, these are goals. Where I'd like to be. Does it mean I'll hit them? Don't know. A lot can happen in 5 years.

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Two incomes, so expenses are cut in half.

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Unless your fiance is a physician - she'll likely spend more than she brings in - particularly once she's married. She looks at her income as "her" money, my brother.

Unless you have a very solid plan and budget - including weekly (or at least monthly) reviews, money will bleed out of the accounts at a shocking rate.

But, you're ahead of about 90% of your peers - you have a plan and some idea of where you're going and how to get there - that's well over half the battle.

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At least $50k in an Emergency fund.

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This is too high - unless your monthly expenses are outrageous (in which case, fix that first) - I wouldn't set that higher than 6 months of expenses - now you should have a car replacement fund, too - and $50k, total can fund both of those. You want the car fund to, ultimately, self-generate so that you can pull $18k or so, every 5 or 6 years, to replace a car.

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And I don't know what goal to set for a 401k

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I think 15% of gross, total for your Roth and 401K is a good goal. And start with 401k - IF you're getting a match - say 5% is typical, but your situation may vary. So you buy 10% with 5, but only give yourself credit for 5% (the other 5% is free money) - then I would get to 10% on your Roth and not worry about the "balance" - buy shares for 40 to 50 years and worry about "the balance" in your 50s and 60s.

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Unless you have a very solid plan and budget - including weekly (or at least monthly) reviews, money will bleed out of the accounts at a shocking rate.

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maybe it won't stay this way for long, but we have a detailed budget spreadsheet broken into bi-weekly budgets. We go over it probably too often. We've already opened joint accounts, and each of us get a set amount of spending cash each bi-week in our seperate checkings to do whatver we want with. It's been running super smooth so far.

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maybe it won't stay this way for long, but we have a detailed budget spreadsheet broken into bi-weekly budgets. We go over it probably too often. We've already opened joint accounts, and each of us get a set amount of spending cash each bi-week in our seperate checkings to do whatver we want with. It's been running super smooth so far.

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Man you sound a lot like me. I'm also a bit obsessive when it comes to my spreadsheets. I visit and update my sheets almost everyday. Must be an engineer's trait.
What type of engineer are you?

That's women for you. They feel the need to spend whatever is in the checking account. Oh the bills will be paid but there won't ever be much extra eAch month. They will find ways to keep spending. Plenty are bad about paying themselves first. It is what it is. Lol.

How old are u