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Dang, this was shaping up to be an interesting thread before I saw the last post date.  alwayslost, if you're still around: I think what people are bristling at is the way you're arriving at these expenditures. The idea of a $5,000 ring or a $2,500 wedding seems arbitrary. It's one thing if your girlfriend fell in love with a particular ring or jewelry designer, or if she really does find a simple wedding romantic. There's nothing wrong with that. But I don't get that impression from your posts. You can look at a big expense in two ways: either you figure out what you want and what it costs, and save for it; or you figure out what you can afford and adjust your expectations. Arguably you should be doing the latter because you're in boatloads of debt, but if the ring means that much to you two, you need to understand what you both really want. (Who knows; maybe her dream engagement ring costs half as much, but your wedding plans will be much more.) Even then, you should only put towards savings what you can really afford to save. $250/mo would go a long way somewhere else in your budget. Kudos to you, though, on resisting the temptation to finance the whole thing, which would be a terrible idea. IMO your priorities should be Emergency Savings > Debt > Retirement > Wedding/Ring Savings. Your fixed expenses (including interest, not including cutting back) are around $3k a month. Typically the recommendation is a 6-month emergency fund ($18k), but if your job was really, really in demand maybe 3 months ($9k) would be easier to handle. An emergency fund is important because card card debt would sink you. After that, paying off the highest interest student loans is going to have a better return than your 401k (after you claim any matching). Then you should look at a reasonable retirement contribution, and only then save up for things you want. Cuddlebottom fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Jun 1, 2014 |
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Jun 1, 2014 14:51
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 19:28 |
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