Newbie!

[dylan8678]

Hello all. I just found this message board and have spent the last couple hours looking over some great topics. Here's a little about myself.

I'm 28 and have been married for a year and a half.
Wife is a full time grad student and has a year left.
I currently contribute 6% to my 401K and my employer matches 100% up to 5%.
I have a small amount in a Roth IRA but not currently contributing.

I make a decent salary but money is pretty tight since I'm the only one working. Once my wife graduates she should command a $60,000 a year salary. My boss has promised me a promotion either in July or January that will increase my salary by $15K a year. So in a years time we should be ready to really start saving some serious cash. We are both planning on maxing out 401K and Roth IRA once she starts working. We will also build a emergency fund with 5-6 months living expenses. Would our next step be investing in a Vanguard fund? We currently work with a financial advisor, would he be who I would set this up with or is it something I would do myself? Any other advice?

Sorry about the long post and thanks for everyone's response!

[OKLibrarian]

Wow! you sound very much like DH and I about 2 years ago, before I finished my grad school (and doubled my salary) and DH had just made a career change back to coding. The best advice I can give you is keep living like one of you is in grad school--covering all of our needs and most of our wants on one income has given us major peace of mind (and an amazing savings rate!) as far as the details of where you put the money once you've got your e-fund taken care of...there are a lot of smart folks here who will steer you in the right direction.

[brewer12345]

Get the e-fund squared away. Open a Vanguard account without the advisor. The e-fund could find a nice home at VG's money market fund. After that, you should read up before you do anything. Most of us don't bother with advisors, since this stuff isn't that hard.

A piece of advice: sock it away ASAP, because if/when you have kids, it is really tough to save.

[Coach]

Dylan, welcome! And congratulations on thinking about this stuff so early in life.

Brewer's advice is great. Vanguard is a fine company, and you can open an account on their website. There's a lot of valuable information available on the Vanguard website too.

One book I would recommend is The Millionaire Next Door.

Happy compounding!

Coach

[dylan8678]

Thanks Coach, brewer, and Librarian. I'll look into The Millionaire Next Door and was as going to pick up Your Money or Your Life also. I'll also look into dropping the FA once I gain some more knowledge.

[LiveWell]

I'll second brewer's comment about financial advisors. I've used a couple in my early investing years and found they don't produce better results (in my case worse) than I can do on my own. No one cares about making me money more than I do. Investing can seem daunting but do it a little at a time, as you accumulate some savings, and over the years you'll learn what works for you. Sure I made some mistakes but that's part of the learning process IMHO.

BTW, I really enjoyed The Millionaire Next Door and Your Money or Your Life - both great books to get a healthy money attitude. They don't focus on how and what to invest in so don't be surprised if that topic isn't covered in those particular books.

-LiveWell