luxury watches for under 500 image
Me
My wife and I are in our mid-thirties with a teenage daughter and currently have nothing saved for retirement. We have a current net income of about $7,300/month which is subject to decrease because my wife just began her teaching career and has very little job security. Our income will fall to $5,950 during the summer months and we are basically just crossing our fingers that she will either be renewed or land a new position next fall.
Our current fixed expenses are $5340 and we allocate another $600 for discretionary expenses (anything that is irregular, unexpected or not a required living expense would come out of this), which totals up to $5,940 or pretty much our entire income without my wife working. There is quite a bit of debt included in that fixed number, and we are doing our best to get that under control. We are hoping to eliminate about $500/month in medical and credit card expenses in the coming year.
We do not have any expensive luxuries. My wife has a $30/month gym membership and a $20/month data plan for her tablet. We have bare-bones TV and internet service and pay only $85/month for basic cell phone service. We allocate $100/month for Costco/Sam's Club, which helps keep our expenses down in other areas. We do not smoke, drink with any regularity, gamble or anything of the sort. We do like to dine out or order takeout once or twice per week, but we do it frugally.
Clearly we have a decent amount of extra income coming in at the moment but since we only had $1,000 in savings prior to my wife starting her teaching job, our emphasis right now is on rebuilding our savings. I do, however, have $1,000 set aside for starting a Roth IRA. My current employer offers a 401(k) program through John Hancock but they do not make any kind of contribution and I have been told by a couple coworkers that the fees are high to the point that they do not recommend joining the plan.
So I guess I really have 2 questions. Where do I begin and how can we work toward devoting more of our income to retirement? Absent a decent employer retirement plan, is a Roth IRA a good starting point? Are there any in particular that you would recommend?
Thanks, everyone, for your honest feedback. Ursugardaddy, I admire your willingness to make sacrifices but am not quite ready to go to the extremes that you have. I do want to live well in my later years but not at the expense of being miserable in my prime. Also, my wife and I will be equal partners in these decisions, whatever they may be.
Answer
You guys putted yourself into this situation and need to seriously go without until you get things within order. You are not being honest with your monthly bills and since you are asking for help, you need to be honest and list everything. If you have a 1,000 put a side for savings then you have additional savings. Why would you put all of your money into a roth IRA account? You need $2,000.00 because your wife and you are two people. Your total of $85.00 for a phone is a lot and you should get a $50.00 unlimited monthly plan which would let you save $15.00 per month. That is about 180.00 per year. $30/month gym membership cancel that and you would save another 360.00 per year. Have your wife run around the street, up and down the backyard. Do the running with her, if you do not like running then drive beside her for her safety. We are up to 540.00 savings for the year. I would temporary cancel the tablet which would allow you to save another $20.00 per month. Get a house computer and everybody can use that. We are up to 760.00 savings for the year. I can keep going if I knew your real expenses.
You need to be the man and get your finance house within order because spending 5940.00 on a 7300.00 is expensive. You are stating 5940.00 but really if you dig deep into that number you would find that it is really more. Be the man and stop with this none sense. $600 for discretionary expenses is crazy when you have medical and credit card expenses. Take the discretionary expenses and save half of that within a bank account.
My wife got a credit card and I cut the card up, its only open to build plus keep credit. She talk about buying clothes, I take her to the thrift store. I'm thank everyday for doing this because we have a nice cash cushion and retirement savings. I'm like this for my family well-being. She received a nice wedding ring, necklace, watch and bracelet for our 10yrs wedding anniversary. That's all she would be getting for awhile. No car insurance, no car payment, no debt at all. Be the man and put your foot down. Stop living for other people. Let them think whatever and call me whatever, I just say within my mind "i'm all that down at the bank"
Saving is not hard, people make it hard. The money is within your hands so control it and do not let it control you. You only have yourself to blame for this situation so do not become mad when a person is doing better than you.
Take Care
You guys putted yourself into this situation and need to seriously go without until you get things within order. You are not being honest with your monthly bills and since you are asking for help, you need to be honest and list everything. If you have a 1,000 put a side for savings then you have additional savings. Why would you put all of your money into a roth IRA account? You need $2,000.00 because your wife and you are two people. Your total of $85.00 for a phone is a lot and you should get a $50.00 unlimited monthly plan which would let you save $15.00 per month. That is about 180.00 per year. $30/month gym membership cancel that and you would save another 360.00 per year. Have your wife run around the street, up and down the backyard. Do the running with her, if you do not like running then drive beside her for her safety. We are up to 540.00 savings for the year. I would temporary cancel the tablet which would allow you to save another $20.00 per month. Get a house computer and everybody can use that. We are up to 760.00 savings for the year. I can keep going if I knew your real expenses.
You need to be the man and get your finance house within order because spending 5940.00 on a 7300.00 is expensive. You are stating 5940.00 but really if you dig deep into that number you would find that it is really more. Be the man and stop with this none sense. $600 for discretionary expenses is crazy when you have medical and credit card expenses. Take the discretionary expenses and save half of that within a bank account.
My wife got a credit card and I cut the card up, its only open to build plus keep credit. She talk about buying clothes, I take her to the thrift store. I'm thank everyday for doing this because we have a nice cash cushion and retirement savings. I'm like this for my family well-being. She received a nice wedding ring, necklace, watch and bracelet for our 10yrs wedding anniversary. That's all she would be getting for awhile. No car insurance, no car payment, no debt at all. Be the man and put your foot down. Stop living for other people. Let them think whatever and call me whatever, I just say within my mind "i'm all that down at the bank"
Saving is not hard, people make it hard. The money is within your hands so control it and do not let it control you. You only have yourself to blame for this situation so do not become mad when a person is doing better than you.
Take Care
What type of computer is the best?
Wolf
What type of desktop is the best for gaming? I'm looking for something under $1,500. The three i think o f as the best are Mac, Dell, and Gateway....if anyone can give me details on qwhgich is actually better for gaming that would be great.
Answer
$1500? Dude, buy your OWN hardware. In fact, I'll pick stuff out FOR YOU! Like on those "design on a dime" shows. After you get it, let's say from Amazon for example, bring it to Best Buy and have the Geek Squad throw it together. It's only like $90 more, AND all of their labor is warranteed, so if anything breaks, you're covered. It's like buying a "DarkWolf99" Brand computer. Here's more or less what I have...though I may have to drop some stuff to keep it under the price range:
Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz: $330
eVGA 680i SLI Motherboard: $240
512MB ATI Radeon dual-DVI support graphics card: $160
3GB RAM: $250
250GB Harddrive: $120
Case: $50
Creative Soundcard: $50
Windows Vista Ultimate: $370
TV Tuner Card: $60
CD/DVD Drive: $50
Labor: $90
Total: $1770
If you got Vista Home Premium instead of Ultimate, it would be $1600.
You could have the absolute sickest computer on God's green Earth for $1600, including labor and warranty. A Core 2 Duo with 3GB of RAM and a 512MB ATI card? Holy Christ. I'm sitting on mine right friggin' now, and it is ridiculous. I could launch the god-damn Space Shuttle from my computer.
You probably already have a display. I would recommend getting a second one to extend your desktop. It's a really great luxury, especially for watching TV on Media Center while doing other stuff (I'm watching the Planet Earth specials I recorded last night while writing this).
$1500? Dude, buy your OWN hardware. In fact, I'll pick stuff out FOR YOU! Like on those "design on a dime" shows. After you get it, let's say from Amazon for example, bring it to Best Buy and have the Geek Squad throw it together. It's only like $90 more, AND all of their labor is warranteed, so if anything breaks, you're covered. It's like buying a "DarkWolf99" Brand computer. Here's more or less what I have...though I may have to drop some stuff to keep it under the price range:
Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz: $330
eVGA 680i SLI Motherboard: $240
512MB ATI Radeon dual-DVI support graphics card: $160
3GB RAM: $250
250GB Harddrive: $120
Case: $50
Creative Soundcard: $50
Windows Vista Ultimate: $370
TV Tuner Card: $60
CD/DVD Drive: $50
Labor: $90
Total: $1770
If you got Vista Home Premium instead of Ultimate, it would be $1600.
You could have the absolute sickest computer on God's green Earth for $1600, including labor and warranty. A Core 2 Duo with 3GB of RAM and a 512MB ATI card? Holy Christ. I'm sitting on mine right friggin' now, and it is ridiculous. I could launch the god-damn Space Shuttle from my computer.
You probably already have a display. I would recommend getting a second one to extend your desktop. It's a really great luxury, especially for watching TV on Media Center while doing other stuff (I'm watching the Planet Earth specials I recorded last night while writing this).
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Title Post: Advice for someone just starting to save for retirement?
Rating: 98% based on 9457 ratings. 4,7 user reviews.
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Rating: 98% based on 9457 ratings. 4,7 user reviews.
Author: Unknown
Thanks For Coming To My Blog
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