Hello from mom of 3 in rural Minnesota

[dontworry]

I've been lurking for awhile and thought it was time to introduce myself. I am 36 years old and a mom to three (ages 5,7,8) and a wife to one very lucky guy (who is 51). Both my husband and I had been saving minimally for retirement with no real plan and not a lot of thought into our investing strategy. About a year ago we started meeting with a Primerica rep (I know, I know...) and finally started putting a plan together. My hubby is self-employed and puts the max away per year in a traditional IRA. I work for mega corp (32 hrs per week due to mommyhood) and had only been putting away about 6% of my salary into my 401K up until recently. I just upped my 401K contribution to the max and we also started a Roth IRA for me at the max. In my previous job I had some 457 $ and another pension pot of $ that we just transferred into a traditional IRA.

I thought I was being really smart until I started reading this forum and realized that we are wasting lots of money investing our IRAs thru Primerica (Legg Mason). I want to switch everything over to Vanguard in the near future but am still learning and researching. I am leaning towards the Target retirement funds for all of our IRA money/funds because this seems like a simple way to go. We have an emergency savings account (at our bank) and are working hard to pay off our mortgage (hopefully within 4-5 years). After the mortgage is paid off we want to start a taxable savings venue with Vanguard...but I have lots of time to research that.

We have always been fairly careful with money, we have no debt except the mortgage. However, with hubby being 15 years older than me we really need to plan for the future/retirement/college expenses. I am reading Your Money or Your Life, The Boggleheads Guide to Investing, and just finished The Millionaire Next Door. ARGH...I wish I would have been smart enough to start learning these things earlier in life.

I really appreciate this forum and will look forward to hearing more words of wisdom and advice as we go on this journey. PS my husband thinks I am crazy for worrying about this stuff so much!

 

[FinanceDude]

How is your life insurance and disability insurance coverage? Can you buy extra coverage on you or your spouse through megacorp?

If your husband can't work, how does that affect the bills?

Stay away from Primerica..........

 

[dontworry]

Hi Finance Dude--we have a term life insurance policy thru Primerica. (I know that they are not popular here). I feel that we have purchased enough insurance for the "what ifs". The policy price and coverage will go down with time (that's how we worked it out).

I have disability coverage thru work and could purchase more if we feel it's necessary. We don't have disability coverage on my hubby because if he became disabled we would sell the business and use that money to help cover bills. His business (along with the RE) will/would be easy to sell, not a problem.

I most likely will be switching our IRAs to Vanguard soon. I am nervous though because I don't want to make poor choices. Even though we have to pay more to use Primerica I feel that our "guy" is very knowledgable and I feel like he's looking out for us...I really don't think he's a bad guy AT ALL. However, I don't want to continue to pay high prices for investing so I am trying to learn all I can so I can make the switch and feel confident about it. I may also need to price other life insurance because it appears (from reading) that Primerica might be on the high end.

LIVE and LEARN, or so they say, huh?

 

[FinanceDude]

I have disability coverage thru work and could purchase more if we feel it's necessary. We don't have disability coverage on my hubby because if he became disabled we would sell the business and use that money to help cover bills. His business (along with the RE) will/would be easy to sell, not a problem.

Sounds like you thought it out.........

I most likely will be switching our IRAs to Vanguard soon. I am nervous though because I don't want to make poor choices. Even though we have to pay more to use Primerica I feel that our "guy" is very knowledgable and I feel like he's looking out for us...I really don't think he's a bad guy AT ALL. However, I don't want to continue to pay high prices for investing so I am trying to learn all I can so I can make the switch and feel confident about it. I may also need to price other life insurance because it appears (from reading) that Primerica might be on the high end.
LIVE and LEARN, or so they say, huh?

Wait until you're ready, then you can move it. If you want to compare insurance prices, you can go online and check the prices on one of those quote sites.

If you have a knowledgeable Primerica guy that's in a lot of ways the exception rather the rule. Primerica is mostly part-time folks and the training programs are marginal at best..........