Hello everyone. I’ve been reading this forum for a couple of weeks and have enjoyed reading the stories. Here is mine.
I’m 36, DW is 40, and we have two young children. I’m in the military and she also works. Our combined income is ~125K per year and our expenses are around ~72k per year. The rest goes to taxes and savings. Here are the numbers:
250k in retirement accounts (Roth IRAs, TSP, 401k, rollover IRA)
17k in 529’s (Also, my Post 9/11 GI Bill will be split between them)
33k emergency fund
82k saved for a house down payment
ZERO debt
We currently add 20k per year to retirement accounts, 4k per year to 529’s, and ~15k per year to our house down payment fund.
We want to purchase a house in a good school district in a couple of years when I retire from the military. A decent home where we want to live is about ~300k. My pension will be ~26k per year after SBP, and we both plan to work after the transition. Our goal is to buy a house on a 15 year, fixed-rate mortgage and the PITI be less than or equal to 25% of our gross income. Between the two of us, we’ll need to earn ~60k in addition to the pension to be within that ratio and still maintain a functional lifestyle. I’m pretty sure we can do this amount as long as one of us has a job at any given time.
Anyway, that’s the closest alligator to the boat. We’ll see what happens. Once we get past the military to civilian transition, then it’s on to planning for an early retirement. After our kids go to college and we have a paid for home, our living expenses will be significantly lower (~50k). I wish everyone the best of luck, and I look forward to reading more in this forum.
I’m 36, DW is 40, and we have two young children. I’m in the military and she also works. Our combined income is ~125K per year and our expenses are around ~72k per year. The rest goes to taxes and savings. Here are the numbers:
250k in retirement accounts (Roth IRAs, TSP, 401k, rollover IRA)
17k in 529’s (Also, my Post 9/11 GI Bill will be split between them)
33k emergency fund
82k saved for a house down payment
ZERO debt
We currently add 20k per year to retirement accounts, 4k per year to 529’s, and ~15k per year to our house down payment fund.
We want to purchase a house in a good school district in a couple of years when I retire from the military. A decent home where we want to live is about ~300k. My pension will be ~26k per year after SBP, and we both plan to work after the transition. Our goal is to buy a house on a 15 year, fixed-rate mortgage and the PITI be less than or equal to 25% of our gross income. Between the two of us, we’ll need to earn ~60k in addition to the pension to be within that ratio and still maintain a functional lifestyle. I’m pretty sure we can do this amount as long as one of us has a job at any given time.
Anyway, that’s the closest alligator to the boat. We’ll see what happens. Once we get past the military to civilian transition, then it’s on to planning for an early retirement. After our kids go to college and we have a paid for home, our living expenses will be significantly lower (~50k). I wish everyone the best of luck, and I look forward to reading more in this forum.