28/29 yo military members looking for guidance

[adeline]

Hi there! I am 29 yo active duty AF (E-5) and my husband just enlisted in AF reserves. We have been married for 5 years and have a 3 year old daughter. Our dream is to be able to retire in mid-50s but I am not sure if we are on track. I feel like we have been making small steps towards ER except for one major mistake of buying a house in 2008 (VA loan, 0% down) on our first duty station in Northern CA. The good news is we were able to refinance at the beginning of this year (30 yr fixed @ 3.25% - $1758/mo) and renting out the house at $1795/mo. No plans of short sale as we intend to keep the house as it could possibly be our retirement home. We now live on base and intend to do so on our future assignments.

Our current financial status
ROTH IRA - Vanguard 2045/2050 ($50000)
TSP/401K - Lifecycle 2040 ($20000)
Emergency Fund ($2000)

Loans
Car 1 ($18000 at 1.99%)
Car 2 ($5000 at 2.49%)

I am almost 9 yrs into enlistment, but I am also in military PA school full-time as an officer trainee, so a year from now I will be earning O-2E salary. Except for his weekend drills, my husband has mostly been a SAHD to our daughter for the past year and a half and this has set us back in terms of not being able to contribute to TSP this year and dipping into our EF when our both of our cars broke down. We are still able to max out or ROTH. When I am done with school, he is looking into getting a part time job as an EMT while going to nursing school using my post 9/11 GI Bill.

Thank you so much. Looking forward to hear from you all!

 

[leftbucket]

Welcome-

Barring any major changes in the military pension/ healthcare system, I see no reason why you should not be able to retire in 11 years on an O3E/ O4 pension and retirement accounts. Keep saving, live below your means, and read Nords site and/or book (the Military Guide). You are off to a great start.

Have fun at COT (just went there this past summer-wouldn't have made it through without some nice prior service folks) and be kind to Maxwell newbies with no sense of rhythym who can't march (that would be me).

R/
LB

 

[PennStateCLJ]

Welcome,


Penfed.org has no cost auto refinances at 1.49%, you could easily free up some cash by doing that. It's Pentagon Fed Credit Union, you're eligible as military.

Also, is Roth TSP available to you yet? I would be maxing both TSP's before touching IRA's.

 

[adeline]

Hi leftbucket & PennStateCLJ!

Thanks for the tips on auto refi, I'll definitely check it out. Haven't even gotten a chance to look into ROTH TSP but I'll do that too. Thanks again.