tikitoast
Dryer sheet aficionado
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2006
- Messages
- 48
Hi,
I've posted on the board before, but my question is a newbie question, because although I've been educating myself about retirement matters (early and otherwise), I haven't had the wherewithal to implement them. Until now.
I'm in my 40's and DH is much younger at 30. We're both way behind money-wise, but we're eager to start. His whole financial life up until now has been spent paying off student loans and CC debt, while I've always been an underearner--only recently graduated from college with a liberal arts degree I'll never use, and I've been unconscious of the importance of saving until recently.
So we've got a small nest egg of around $30K in mutual funds, stocks and cash (want to include bonds and cd's and whatever else you think I should add in). He's eligible for a 401k at work with a decent match, but I don't have that option as a part-timer.
DH makes around $47k and I make around $18k. Since we're recently debt-free (yay!), I want to start saving my entire salary. Our only obligations are rent ($836 a month), car insurance, gas, food, utils, clothes and household incidentals, cat food/care and toys, and Internet access. And we give my mother-in-law a couple of hundred a month right now (this category could go higher as she ages, and we wonder how she's going to retire). No kids and no plans for them.
I think we can do it, but I'm coming from a place where I never saved anything, to saying bye-bye to my entire paycheck when I stash it away. Before getting debt free we were fantasizing about having some cash flow finally. Now it'll feel tight again. although we'll be paying ourselves regularly for the first time.
DH complains of feeling poor, and I wonder if he's going to have the same complaint now that we'll be saving aggressively (for us). He's on the same page and hates debt--no more credit for him, ever. But he's urging me to buy a car in cash. I'd like one, but we already have one (it's a bumperless junker) and it's fine. I'm embarassed to be seen in it, but I don't want to take any more chunks out of our fund. Bus service in my town is pretty good, although the fellow passengers can be scary, but I'm willing to deal with it. It's personally not that much of a sacrifice. But I will have to school myself not to be popping into coffee shops and bookstores and shoestores, which is where my the dollars of my limited disposable income used to go flying off to before.
Has anyone else tried to go cold turkey like this--to start saving the entire paycheck of one family earner? Or just to suddenly start saving a much bigger chunk of your income than what you're used to?
Also any ideas on other things we should be doing to increase the nest egg? Now that I'm done with school I could find a second--or better--job...I'd prefer not to, but I really want to plump up our cushion and increase our retirement options, and the hour is growing late. Please let me know your ideas...
I've posted on the board before, but my question is a newbie question, because although I've been educating myself about retirement matters (early and otherwise), I haven't had the wherewithal to implement them. Until now.
I'm in my 40's and DH is much younger at 30. We're both way behind money-wise, but we're eager to start. His whole financial life up until now has been spent paying off student loans and CC debt, while I've always been an underearner--only recently graduated from college with a liberal arts degree I'll never use, and I've been unconscious of the importance of saving until recently.
So we've got a small nest egg of around $30K in mutual funds, stocks and cash (want to include bonds and cd's and whatever else you think I should add in). He's eligible for a 401k at work with a decent match, but I don't have that option as a part-timer.
DH makes around $47k and I make around $18k. Since we're recently debt-free (yay!), I want to start saving my entire salary. Our only obligations are rent ($836 a month), car insurance, gas, food, utils, clothes and household incidentals, cat food/care and toys, and Internet access. And we give my mother-in-law a couple of hundred a month right now (this category could go higher as she ages, and we wonder how she's going to retire). No kids and no plans for them.
I think we can do it, but I'm coming from a place where I never saved anything, to saying bye-bye to my entire paycheck when I stash it away. Before getting debt free we were fantasizing about having some cash flow finally. Now it'll feel tight again. although we'll be paying ourselves regularly for the first time.
DH complains of feeling poor, and I wonder if he's going to have the same complaint now that we'll be saving aggressively (for us). He's on the same page and hates debt--no more credit for him, ever. But he's urging me to buy a car in cash. I'd like one, but we already have one (it's a bumperless junker) and it's fine. I'm embarassed to be seen in it, but I don't want to take any more chunks out of our fund. Bus service in my town is pretty good, although the fellow passengers can be scary, but I'm willing to deal with it. It's personally not that much of a sacrifice. But I will have to school myself not to be popping into coffee shops and bookstores and shoestores, which is where my the dollars of my limited disposable income used to go flying off to before.
Has anyone else tried to go cold turkey like this--to start saving the entire paycheck of one family earner? Or just to suddenly start saving a much bigger chunk of your income than what you're used to?
Also any ideas on other things we should be doing to increase the nest egg? Now that I'm done with school I could find a second--or better--job...I'd prefer not to, but I really want to plump up our cushion and increase our retirement options, and the hour is growing late. Please let me know your ideas...