How do you make your money grow?

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How to get your wife to keep her job

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She will return after she has the baby. at least 6 months, possibly longer and I would rather suffer to have my wife raise my child than a babysitter or daycare

Honestly, you can follow a pretty simple strategy and do pretty reasonably without a lot of work. Use the Roth as your emergency fund for anything above the first couple of grand or so - you can pull money out from your Roth with no penalty if you need to and the earnings are tax-free.

Get as much matching company funds as you can in the 401. Once you hit that mark, invest as much as you can in the Roth until you max it. Once you can do that, then work on maxing the 401.

In the 401 and Roth, invest in a target retirement fund, most plans have them.

The above is pretty simplified but isn't bad and should keep you out of trouble.

Also, if your mortgage rate is really low don't worry about paying it off early. For example, I have a 30 year 3.25% note. If I were to pay extra, my after-tax return would be 3.25 x .25, or 2.4%. That's right about the rate of inflation, so there is no benefit to paying early at all. Of course, any loan that has a high rate you should pay ASAP, just be aware that when it is that low it is better to contribute to your Roth or 401.

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trident

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Congrats man

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trident

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Remember, money markets are but one option. Paying cash for real estate pays off down the road. It isn't easy to find them, but never pass up a nice property that is undervalued. Keep your eye open, they are out there. Land is a pretty solid way to solidify your dollars against inflation as land nearly always increases in value. Even bad land is valuable. Accumulating acreage over your career can pay off big time in 30 years.

401k's don't last forever and draw less and less interest as you take money out during retirement. My first tip would be to plan on changing companies when you have the experience to one that offers stock options and some sort of pension system. You may take a pay cut on salary initially, but this is worth it to gain that secure retirement.

Don't sink all of your money into a 401k. Put something towards something that will provide residual income during retirement when you don't have that weekly paycheck coming in.

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My calculator must be broke.

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Sorry, when I was typing I was thinking 25% tax bracket, which means it should be 3.25 x (1 - .25) = 2.4%

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Don't sink all of your money into a 401k. Put something towards something that will provide residual income during retirement when you don't have that weekly paycheck coming in.

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bingeaux.