HatePayingTaxes
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2006
- Messages
- 102
Hi,
To introduce myself, I'm 31 and married with 2 kids (16 months and 2 months old.. very cute). Been saving since college and lived a frugal lifestyle every since I can remember. I've relaxed a bit but still living within my means. Had some money fights b/c my wife was a bigger spender but we eventually came to a mid point where I'm more of a spender now and she's more frugal. I think we have a good budget system going, which helps tremendously with not only saving but with open communciation and keeping each other accountable.
Here's our current situation:
210k in roth / 401k (trying to rollover everything to roth)
160k in ing electric checking
15k/15k each for our kids 529 plan
Our plan is to continue to max our 401k regular/roth and also our roth ira. Also, put in another 3k each into our kids 529 plans every year. Any savings outside of that is gravy. I honestly don't care if we don't save anything beyond this. Until I was about 27, I was all about save, save, save but, these days, I really don't see the point of saving outside of tax deferred plans as long as we have emergency fund. Actually, I used to be all about planning, creating spreadsheet, and following it very strictly but I've loosened up a lot. I think, after a certain point, I've realized what's the point of saving as long as my tax deferred accts are covered. It's great to see that savings acct number going up but what's the point? We live within our means and we're going to keep it that way so what's the importance of seeing that number going up? I think, after electric checking hit 100k, it just felt like a number at that point. We said, ok, why don't we give each other 5k bonus to spend when it hits 100k on whatever we want but then, we were thinking, what am I going to spend this on? We have a tv, laptop, can't travel b/c of kids, don't really shop... it's pretty meaningless to spend 5k on useless stuff so we just said, forget it, we don't need that bonus. So I think that's where my thinkings coming from... it just seems like a number and it's hard to relate to it so don't see the point of focusing my energy to making that number go up. More important to spend that energy playing with kids and spending time with wife. If I have to forgo a better paying job with more work hrs, so be it.... don't need that extra money anyway.
Our main issue going forward will be whether to buy a house. We've been comtemplating about buying a house in the suburbs b/c of the kids and we'll use 100k from ing to do that. We don't necessarily want to buy a house but I think we're at that point in our life where we feel the need to settle down.
Feel free to give any advice and poke holes in any of the things I wrote. Nice to meet all of you!!!!
To introduce myself, I'm 31 and married with 2 kids (16 months and 2 months old.. very cute). Been saving since college and lived a frugal lifestyle every since I can remember. I've relaxed a bit but still living within my means. Had some money fights b/c my wife was a bigger spender but we eventually came to a mid point where I'm more of a spender now and she's more frugal. I think we have a good budget system going, which helps tremendously with not only saving but with open communciation and keeping each other accountable.
Here's our current situation:
210k in roth / 401k (trying to rollover everything to roth)
160k in ing electric checking
15k/15k each for our kids 529 plan
Our plan is to continue to max our 401k regular/roth and also our roth ira. Also, put in another 3k each into our kids 529 plans every year. Any savings outside of that is gravy. I honestly don't care if we don't save anything beyond this. Until I was about 27, I was all about save, save, save but, these days, I really don't see the point of saving outside of tax deferred plans as long as we have emergency fund. Actually, I used to be all about planning, creating spreadsheet, and following it very strictly but I've loosened up a lot. I think, after a certain point, I've realized what's the point of saving as long as my tax deferred accts are covered. It's great to see that savings acct number going up but what's the point? We live within our means and we're going to keep it that way so what's the importance of seeing that number going up? I think, after electric checking hit 100k, it just felt like a number at that point. We said, ok, why don't we give each other 5k bonus to spend when it hits 100k on whatever we want but then, we were thinking, what am I going to spend this on? We have a tv, laptop, can't travel b/c of kids, don't really shop... it's pretty meaningless to spend 5k on useless stuff so we just said, forget it, we don't need that bonus. So I think that's where my thinkings coming from... it just seems like a number and it's hard to relate to it so don't see the point of focusing my energy to making that number go up. More important to spend that energy playing with kids and spending time with wife. If I have to forgo a better paying job with more work hrs, so be it.... don't need that extra money anyway.
Our main issue going forward will be whether to buy a house. We've been comtemplating about buying a house in the suburbs b/c of the kids and we'll use 100k from ing to do that. We don't necessarily want to buy a house but I think we're at that point in our life where we feel the need to settle down.
Feel free to give any advice and poke holes in any of the things I wrote. Nice to meet all of you!!!!