Welcome to the Great Outdoors of Maine, my name is James. I'm new to FIRE, and have just started browsing after listening to Youtubers like Dave Ramsey. It was a good starting point, but I'm just starting my journey.
Married
Age: 25
Wife's Age: 22
No kids, two cats.
I'm a Software Product Manager here in Maine, and my wife is starting as an Art Teacher in the next few weeks. She's been working as a Sub since graduating in December. I work full time and am finishing up my last semester of college. My father is a workaholic and so am I, so I plan to pickup a second job/gig when I graduate or the boredom of couch life will kill me. Been working since I was 7 running my own lobster boat, so working is pretty engrained.
Debt:
$28,000 in student loans
We were fortunate that I was born Native American, so my tuition was free. There are other benefits such as a 184HUD loan towards a home at less than market rates with just 2.25% down payment with it being federally backed there is no need for mortgage insurance. Our plan for the student loans are to wait out the next few months to see if any government stimulus helps us out. Before the interest rate and payment freeze ends, we will pay it off in full. Slowly saving up our cash reserves for this purpose with our goal to always have $10,000+ in cash at all times. Once the loans are paid, we want to get back up to around $25,000 in cash.
Currently our household income is $75,000/year before taxes, once my wife starts work we expect to be $90,000-$100,000/year before taxes.
My 401k: $3000
Joint Brokerage: $19,500
Cash: $25,500
My company offers an FSA that for the first year I maxed out at like $2500 or near that. I used about half of that this year due to a medication screw up and my insurance not paying for 5 months. I'm thinking of ditching this for an HSA as I've seen that you can put about $3000/year in, it'll rollover unlike the FSA, and when I retire it is free for any expense. I've done a little research, but not enough to make the switch. I also don't know how much if at all my employer matches for the FSA...
My wife and I would love to hit a goal of financial freedom by 2035. What do we mean? Well I'm a workaholic so I would probably continue to work, but I'll swap to contract work for companies that I enjoy working for. It'll be quite the hit to our income, especially with downtime in-between contracts. My wife is planning to pursue her Artistic passions full-time. She currently sells paintings for about $5000/year, and would love to turn this into her full-time career with our investments offsetting the need for a greater income.
My mentor who is a Sr. Software Product Manager at my company has about a $2.5m net worth and has told me that his numbers come out to be about $150,000/year in expenses that he could afford on just his investments. 2.5 is a bit high for a 2035 goal, but I could see us hit that by 2040-2045 depending on salary increases.
Our main concerns and focuses are getting on a written budget as we've just been living "frugally" rather than setting goals. Our bank account goes up by about $1000/month on average, but we know we can do better with focus and intentionality. We ensure we are investing a minimum of $500/month into our joint brokerage account, and I max out my companies match with 6% towards my 401k.
BIG QUESTIONS:
The reason I signed up was to gain knowledge.
Should we be focused on just the tax advantaged accounts to max these out knowing that our goal is to retire much earlier than the preferred withdrawal dates?
How can we cut costs (heard of meal planning, credit card rewards?, laundry at the parents? lol). We haven't been budget friendly... YET! We are working on getting on a budget and then researching ways to cut costs. Any starter advice is MUCH appreciated!
Married
Age: 25
Wife's Age: 22
No kids, two cats.
I'm a Software Product Manager here in Maine, and my wife is starting as an Art Teacher in the next few weeks. She's been working as a Sub since graduating in December. I work full time and am finishing up my last semester of college. My father is a workaholic and so am I, so I plan to pickup a second job/gig when I graduate or the boredom of couch life will kill me. Been working since I was 7 running my own lobster boat, so working is pretty engrained.
Debt:
$28,000 in student loans
We were fortunate that I was born Native American, so my tuition was free. There are other benefits such as a 184HUD loan towards a home at less than market rates with just 2.25% down payment with it being federally backed there is no need for mortgage insurance. Our plan for the student loans are to wait out the next few months to see if any government stimulus helps us out. Before the interest rate and payment freeze ends, we will pay it off in full. Slowly saving up our cash reserves for this purpose with our goal to always have $10,000+ in cash at all times. Once the loans are paid, we want to get back up to around $25,000 in cash.
Currently our household income is $75,000/year before taxes, once my wife starts work we expect to be $90,000-$100,000/year before taxes.
My 401k: $3000
Joint Brokerage: $19,500
Cash: $25,500
My company offers an FSA that for the first year I maxed out at like $2500 or near that. I used about half of that this year due to a medication screw up and my insurance not paying for 5 months. I'm thinking of ditching this for an HSA as I've seen that you can put about $3000/year in, it'll rollover unlike the FSA, and when I retire it is free for any expense. I've done a little research, but not enough to make the switch. I also don't know how much if at all my employer matches for the FSA...
My wife and I would love to hit a goal of financial freedom by 2035. What do we mean? Well I'm a workaholic so I would probably continue to work, but I'll swap to contract work for companies that I enjoy working for. It'll be quite the hit to our income, especially with downtime in-between contracts. My wife is planning to pursue her Artistic passions full-time. She currently sells paintings for about $5000/year, and would love to turn this into her full-time career with our investments offsetting the need for a greater income.
My mentor who is a Sr. Software Product Manager at my company has about a $2.5m net worth and has told me that his numbers come out to be about $150,000/year in expenses that he could afford on just his investments. 2.5 is a bit high for a 2035 goal, but I could see us hit that by 2040-2045 depending on salary increases.
Our main concerns and focuses are getting on a written budget as we've just been living "frugally" rather than setting goals. Our bank account goes up by about $1000/month on average, but we know we can do better with focus and intentionality. We ensure we are investing a minimum of $500/month into our joint brokerage account, and I max out my companies match with 6% towards my 401k.
BIG QUESTIONS:
The reason I signed up was to gain knowledge.
Should we be focused on just the tax advantaged accounts to max these out knowing that our goal is to retire much earlier than the preferred withdrawal dates?
How can we cut costs (heard of meal planning, credit card rewards?, laundry at the parents? lol). We haven't been budget friendly... YET! We are working on getting on a budget and then researching ways to cut costs. Any starter advice is MUCH appreciated!
