scbctigers307

She will get loan forgiveness. The tutoring honestly doesn’t take up much time and she gets compensated well for it. It’s through the school system, so she is capped on how many hours she can work and it’s not many.

Also, I obviously hope to rise through the ranks in my own careers. But, you know how corporate America works and that takes time Im not one of the late GenX or millineals that thinks I should be making 250k a year 3 years out of college because that’s what my 60 year old dad makes. Would be nice though!

On average, at least 55-65% of this is personal entertainment costs.

Just went and did the math. Some months it’s less some months it’s more.

Well, I think I found where we need to chill out. And as much as I want to point the finger at the wife for spending too much on dumb stuff for the house and clothes, I run up a tab on golf and alcohol. So there’s that.

Shopped around the car insurance. Definitely some expenses that are unnecessary. Both of us have a lot of friends and stay pretty social. It adds up. Trying to add the word “no” to the vocab.

I got in my first at fault accident right before my policy was up for renewal a few months ago.
My wife’s is cheaper than mine (hers is about 245).
But I also have us driving around with more than sufficient coverage. I know a personal injury lawyer and I will never come out of pocket because I get in an accident and hit some sue happy riff raff

I should’ve clarified. The credit card payment is what we pay monthly. We don’t owe and pay it off every single month. We are just super busy and have a lot of expenses that get on there. Albeit, some unnecessary

Fair enough. Thats what my wife tells me constantly.

I just try to be frugal because I’m always thinking of how we might have to pay for certain unthought of expenses (new roof, house repairs, car repairs, etc).

And I always compare to my friends which is a horrible habit.

Me and my recently married wife (both of us are 28) started to make an effort to start saving more and cut down on expenses where possible. We also want to have a child in the next 2-3 years so I want to get a better grasp of the situation.

Combined, we make $145,000 gross, however we are locked in on some debt.

Monthly expenses:
Mortgage: 2,100
Car Notes: 880
Car insurance: 575
Student Loans: 350
Groceries: 350
Electric, TV, Water: 345
Gas: 160
Parking: 55
Credit Card: 1900-2800 (on higher months) (we pay this off every month, we don’t owe any on credit cards this is just how much we pay monthly)
Dog expenses: 100-250

I put 6% into 401k and get a 6% match from my employer. The wife is in education and puts 5% in an IRA and has a pension (I am a financial analyst for a large company in Louisiana FWIW). Wife will obviously not get too many raises but does bring in about 65k which is great for a teacher.

I try to save as much as I can a month. Some months it’s zero dollars some it’s 1k. All in all, between bonuses and monthly savings, the wife and I try to save 11k a year in cash. Currently I only have about 10k in savings. I just spent some of the savings on wedding expenses and the ring. I feel like this isn’t good enough for my age and that I need more available in case something happens.

Ideally I would have a lower mortgage and car notes. However, I didn’t find it beneficial to rent anymore and we both had cars that were over 10 years old that were becoming a money pit.

The credit card spending is what needs to be cut. Obviously the spending habits are too much. The figure above is an average. However, my wife and I have each stood in an average of about 3-4 weddings a year for the past few years and it’s gotten costly. We have also been very bad at saying “no” to certain things we enjoy (golf, dinners out, nights out with friends, weekend vacations, etc).

Not sure if I am making the right steps or not but figured I would come here as neither of us have parents we can turn to for stuff like this.

Thanks for any and all input. God Bless.