We started contributing to my wife's 401k for the first time starting July 1st. We're maxing out the 2nd half of the year (i.e. contributing $10,250 this year). I'm the financial person in our family, so for me to sell this idea to her, I decided to subsidize any difference in her paycheck so that it's of no consequence to our standard of living. (All our "fun stuff" comes out of her account)
The downside as that I need to find about $1500/month (roughly) to make this happen. I just became eligible for my own 401k (at my new job), so I'm ramping up my contributions to make up for the 3 months I wasn't eligible.
I'm also ramping up my HSA contributions to make up for the months I was ineligible.
Needless to say, money is tight. I got a new job with a higher salary, but I still have that paycheck-to-paycheck feeling since we're catching up on our savings (and we very much overspent during the months when we were flush with cash).
We have several vacations planned this year and spent a bunch of money on the boat, etc, so by no means am I feeling "broke". I have the option of NOT saving. I feel very fortunate.
With that said, I'm still trying to save AND do all the things. The only saving grace I have right now is that I went from 24 paychecks a year (twice a month) to 26 paychecks a year (every other Friday) and so we have two "free" paychecks that can be used for whatever. One of those is coming up in September, so that will provide some relief.
I need to find some side work.
HELOC withdrawal #1: Took out $1,800 for some boat stuff (one-time purchase, not an ongoing maintenance thing)
HELOC withdrawal #2: Took out $2,600 to cover the crypto purchase I made last month. I don't think we'll see a recovery any time soon; I shouldn't have made that last purchase. Anyway, as soon as I can, I'd like to pull that back out and pay back the HELOC.
The Fed raised the rate today (7/27) by 75 basis points, so I updated my HELOC rate to 5.25%
July vacation coming up. Lodging is paid for (and I think I covered our friends' half as well so I'll get that back), but we're probably going to spend $1,000 just in boat fuel. Then factor in travel (truck fuel, another ~$400), food, drinks, etc. Ugh.
At least it will be fun :)
Post-vacation update: It was definitely fun, and we definitely spent all the money and then some. Thinking of selling a kidney 😅
529: $55,144
FICO: 837 |