GTKY:financial goals

cm716 · February 2016

My husband and I only have two debts, our house and his student loans. we have been working diligently over the last 2 years to pay off all of our debts and plan to continue hacking away at his student loans after baby gets here.

We will have to pay 3 grand out of pocket and anticipate having the cash by the time baby gets here.

We are also hoping to squeeze in a small babymoon (like really small as in we will go to the next town over to spend the night in the hotel while one of our mothers comes to stay with our kids),do a minor house project, and replenish our cash cushion before baby gets here.

What are your financial goals before baby gets here? Are you trying to pay off any debts? do you plan on making any big purchases such as a car? How much is baby going to cost oop?

note: I am not trying to be nosey. I just thought it would be interesting / helpful to get an idea of where other people are at in this stage. Feel free to be as general or specific as you want in your responses.

MSUgrad12 · February 2016

Since we'll be having more visitors after baby, we really need more seating (we only have a couch atm. I'm thinking a sectional, DH wants chairs. I would also like to get a stackable washer and dryer to free up room.

SkiChic626 · February 2016

We're planning to go to a financial/tax planner. For the 4th year in a row, or maybe it's the 5th, we owe a crap ton of money on our taxes - like $10k crap ton. This is the worst it's ever been, and this year we actually thought we'd made the right changes to our elections, etc. to actually possibly get a return, or at least break even. Wrong. So now it's finally time to talk to someone about it. We make decent incomes, but nothing outlandish - neither of us make 6 figures, so we we're really stumped. We do NOT have that much money to give to the government this year unless we sell a bunch of stocks and then end up owing capital gains on that next year, um no, so we're actually not sure what we're going to do. We also have some other debt that we want to get under control, which we haven't been able to because whenever we do have a bonus or chunk of money to pay something down or off something like this happens - or DH hits the basketball hoop with the brand new car and that needs $2k worth of repairs, or we have a gas leak and that's another $1k repair. We're literally the most unlucky people in the world when it comes to stuff like this, I swear. Needless to say, we need help. Anticipating having to pay about $2k/mo in child care once baby boy is here, we need to get this ironed out so that it doesn't continue to happen, clearly we can't figure it out on our own though heaven knows we've tried. I don't anticipate having to pay much OOP for hospital bills, by the time August comes around we'll be at or very close to our OOP max, so it really shouldn't be anything more that the coinsurance, if that. Luckily, I do have an HSA that should cover any expenses, so there won't be a surprises (I HOPE!).

Hummingbird125 · February 2016

OOP, baby shouldn't cost much of anything, thanks to having decent primary and secondary coverage. Goal-wise, we'd like to have 20k in savings by the end of the year, even factoring in putting 5k down towards a new (pre-owned!) car. We don't have any debt right now other than student loan payments, but are anticipating having a car payment before baby gets here. Just trying to keep our spending as low as possible and putting away as much as we can every month, about 30% of our take home pay. Hoping that all this scrounging and saving - and living in a one-bedroom! Pays off and we can make a big move out of state this winter and buy our dream home.

tmk0325 · February 2016

Ugh... I am struggling with this and SO is stressed out too. I lost my job last year and haven't been able to find something else. Now that we know we have twins coming, we are even more stressed out... Thankfully, I was making really good money prior to the layoff and had managed to have a nice nest egg in case something like this happened and only dug into it a couple thousand dollars so far. However, with that being said and my unemployment officially done, I really need to find at least a part time job to be able to pay my bills on time. Thankfully I only have a small car payment each month (which should be finished before the babies arrive),I put some money into an IRA, health/auto insurance, and a phone bill. SO owns a business and has living quarters (small two bedroom) apartment attached to the business, so he is able to take care of our living expenses. I pay for groceries and household items that we need to supplement not paying any rent/utilities. With all that being said, my goal is for me to find something temporary to stay ahead of bills and once the twins come stay home with them for the majority of the time to avoid paying daycare costs. It'll be a tight squeeze and SO knows he will be picking up the majority of the slack. I'm just really happy I paid off my Master's loan last spring, because that was a huge payment each month!!

1faceinacrowd · February 2016

We had initially planned to pay off our debts and put $500 per month into Savings until baby comes, but my DH was ordered to start paying $290/month in child support to his ex (don't even get me started on how frustrating it is to be paying child support to someone who has EQUAL physical custody and refuses to get a job that pays more than minimum wage) so the amount we're able to save has unfortunately gone down, BUT we have been able to pay off 3 of our 4 credit cards and we're working on paying several smaller debts. I have a car loan and we have a mortgage, and we're hoping for those to be our only debts once baby comes.

As for oop costs, our oop max with our insurance is $2k, so that's the most we'll end up owing. Our deductible is $200 and after that we have a 20% coinsurance, so I'm not sure what the bill will actually come out to be but with $2,000 being the worst case scenario, I can't complain.

Also, @SkiChic626 that sounds super frustrating.

I can't even imagine finding out that I owe that much in taxes!! If you guys are paying every paycheck, I'm really surprised that you owe that much. At least next year you'll have a cute little tax deduction, which should help a bit.

Mrsrundell · February 2016

Our only debt is one car loan and hubby's student loans - it's a biggie though. We don't use credit cards very often and have a decent sized savings. I want to start on financial peace university with Dave Ramsey soon so that we can try to get rid of the student loans and plump our savings for a home down payment over the next few years.

smilormarie · February 2016

We are trying to sell both houses and find our first house together. We are close on his - an accepted offer, contingent on them selling their house, hopeful settlement date of May 31st. Then my house needs to be put on the market. Hubby wants all this done and Us fully moved before the baby gets here. We'll just see.

We were the lucky ones who both bought houses during the peak, back in 2006, 2007. So much for trying to be responsible grown ups. We are set to lose about $5K on top of the monthly mortgage payments for a year for that house to just sit empty. We may do a little better my house, maybe just break even.

We don't have student loans or car payments anymore but my 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee may need to be turned in within the next few years. They hold up great but as it gets older it will cost more to maintain. Since working from home I only put about 6K miles a year or less on my car so a cheap low mileage lease may be the best option for us. Otherwise we are really careful anyway and we both make a lot of money (from my point of view at least). Only a few of our friends make as much or more than us so I count myself really lucky.

I do need to get better about making dinners at home. It would save us a little more but we usually go the route of convenience so our time can be spent with our 2.5 yr old and each other.

searchingforameaning · February 2016

It is interesting to see where others are. My husband wants to have 20k in the bank as an emergency fund... but I am looking at all our debt, 3 big student loans, car payment, small credit card debit, mortage, etc... and thinking we need to get some of those under control first. We may compromise with 15k in the bank and hopefully pay off at least one student loan before baby comes. We do not anticipate any OPC for the delivery... really good insurance as my husband works at the hospital we will use...90 min drive to the hospital... but no cost = worth the drive!

tinkerbell11210 · February 2016

@SkiChic626 I am perplexed as to how you would owe that much in taxes if you have money coming out of every check. Unless you have rental properties that are not breaking even. I do know that if you make commission and or bonuses about 40% should go to taxes (trust me I know that is a lot. I want to vomit every time I see a commission from my husband and see the amount that goes to taxes). I would look at those commissions/bonus checks to see what was taken out. They may not be taking out enough thus causing this issue. Also, I would find an accountant or a private tax firm to look into your taxes. They can take time with you and tell you why you owe so much and help you prepare for next year. We have been going to same place for years and his office is wonderful. He let us know what we were able to write off given our jobs and what to keep track of to write off in the future. I hope someone can help you prevent this next year.

jamiesc58 · February 2016

We have no debt currently (we rent our house) but also no savings at all. I am the only one working right now and we have 3 kids at home to support. As much as I try to save, we end up needing it for something. I paid everything I could for the whole year with our taxes so we only have to worry about monthly rent and utilities but it still sucks. We live paycheck to paycheck and just make sure we have everything we and the kids NEED before anyone gets what they WANT. I knew it would be this way when we went down to one income but we were paying more in daycare than I was even bringing home in a month.

lalalorelai · February 2016

I go back and forth between total panic about my finances and feeling pretty in control. Right now, our only debt is my mortgage and our student loans. Mine are still in deferment because I'm still in school but will go into repayment before the end of the year. H is on an income based repayment plan for his loans and I'm trying to convince him to get off of it and just pay as much as he can each month. We need to be pretty aggressive with paying those down because interest will be a pain in the freaking ass. We have a really good amount of savings now but once we have a better idea of our monthly expenses once the baby is here (and H and I are both in new jobs with new incomes, insurance, etc.) we might use a chunk of it to pay down the highest interest student loans.

The other big thing we need to do is sell my house. We need to move about an hour away before summer. Luckily my area is a pretty good seller's market right now, so my realtor is confident we can sell it for a good price. We're making some minor repairs the next few weeks and it will go on the market. Anything we can make off of it will be a huge help.

I really wish I could stay on my current insurance for the labor. OOP max is $1600/person, so I will easily hit mine. I'm already almost at my deductible just with a few monthly doctor's appointments. But my next job is with the federal government so I'll be eligible for federal health insurance plans. Hopefully I can find one that's at least decent.

Other than that, we'd like to start a college savings plan for the peanut at some point. That may not be until we pay off our own student loans, which is unfortunate.

tisunge602 · February 2016

smilormarie said:

We are trying to sell both houses and find our first house together. We are close on his - an accepted offer, contingent on them selling their house, hopeful settlement date of May 31st. Then my house needs to be put on the market. Hubby wants all this done and Us fully moved before the baby gets here. We'll just see.

We were the lucky ones who both bought houses during the peak, back in 2006, 2007. So much for trying to be responsible grown ups. We are set to lose about $5K on top of the monthly mortgage payments for a year for that house to just sit empty. We may do a little better my house, maybe just break even.

We were in the same boat as you when I was pregnant with DS. We had each bought a little house before we were married and wanted to sell them both and buy a bigger long-term home. We managed to sell mine, but took a big hit and just barely broke even to pay the mortgage off (still had to pay some out of pocket). We bought a bigger place and moved when I was 6 months pregnant. We had been renting his little house out to my MIL but she recently moved out so we are now paying two mortgages.... not fun. Hoping to get his on the market as soon as we can get some updates made to it.

I guess I'm trying to say I feel your pain! I hope you are able to get out from under both houses. Just try not to rush into your new house so fast that you settle for something you don't absolutely love. Best wishes!

pelorunningmama · February 2016

We have a mortgage and two car payments. I would like to have DH's car paid off by the end of the year. That way when we have to start paying out another ridiculous amount per month in childcare it will be slightly offset by that. I also want to grow my side job to where it will completely pay for the money we pay in childcare. Right now it covers most of DD, but adding another kid to the mix will add a lot.

We are about to start our master bath remodel. I would like this to be our last big purchase for 2016.

I keep a ridiculous budget and we've always been pretty flexible in following it. However, we both have agreed we need to tighten up our spending, so I would really like to see us follow the budget more.

SkiChic626 · February 2016

tinkerbell11210 Yup, that's the plan. We're working on finding someone reputable to go to. No rental properties. And we both get bonuses, but those are taxes at about 40% every single time - it's like really why bother. So I don't think it's that. I was looking at my 2014 W2, I didn't have access to DH's at the time, but I could already see that part of the problem was the my Federal withholding was $2k less than last year, and I made about $20k more gross this year - so that's a BIG part of the problem. Nothing else changed, so I'm wondering if my payroll department screwed something up with my withholding because that can't be right. In any event, given the severity of what we owe this year we're finally taking the plunge and looking into working with a tax and/or financial planner, both for taxes and to help us work out a plan for other things. It's just so ridiculous because we "make too much money" to pretty much deduct anything - student loan interest, medical expenses, we don't even qualify for the a child tax credit! Yet we somehow don't have money for anything but we make too much to make those deductions. It's ridiculous.

SkiChic626 · February 2016

1faceinacrowd HA! That's funny. That's what we thought when DD was born, but we owed even more that year than the year before - being on maternity leave and not getting paid for 5 months hardly made a difference, we were SURE we'd have to get something back with my huge salary cut and adding a dependent. And this year we apparently "make too much money" to even qualify to take the child tax credit. I doubt adding a second kid will make much difference. It's so f*ed up.

Pepper6 · March 2016

Since I'll be sahm full time after #2 is born, we're working to pay down my car and student loans. We won't get them all completely paid off by then, but should make a good dent. There's also some home renovations we'd like to do sooner rather than later, but at this point, I think those are going to wait until next year at least.

ballofmeat · March 2016

We just bought a house and have student loans and one car payment. I am switching shifts at work so that we can just use part time daycare to save money. I don't think we really have any goals except keep chipping away at the student loans. We got royally screwed with our taxes this year because of my slight raise. So, we have to pay in this year...grrr! I guess there goes our Roth IRA money. I also keep stock piling diapers when they are on sale like a nut job. DH threatens he is going to make a fort out of them.

lmtrmama · March 2016

We need a van now with 3 kids. That's actually what we spent the weekend and most of today trying to do. We got so discouraged because I owe money on my current car so we keep getting low offers for it. So our goal by summer is to sell my car independently and hav a lower car payment + a nice van. Other things we will need in the future are a bigger dining room table and a new couch. I think debt wise we are doing okay, we have a few credit cards with 0% interest until July and August and they have low balances that should be easy to payoff by then. Of course, with how life goes, we can't really plan because life happens. With my second daughter I had $15,000 in the bank in savings at the time of her birth. We ended up having to use most of it 3 months later for a different family issue! Ugh!!!! We have an okay savings now but I am not going to get my hopes up that it will remain untouched forever!

MamaKSquared · March 2016

We have high deductible insurance (weighed the options and with the difference of the cost of premiums and the fact that DH's company contributes money to a HSA for us with the plan we have, it made the most sense), so we'll pay about $3k oop. Our only debt is our house and 2 car payments. We were on track to pay off the most expensive car payment before the baby comes and to get our emergency fund a little higher...then we found out we owe a lot more in taxes than we expected. That, coupled with all the expenses of a new baby (this is our first, so we have to make all the big purchases) means we won't pay a car off before the baby comes (not without making some sacrifices that we were not willing to make). We will focus on getting our emergency fund a little higher, then hopefully get the car paid off by the end of the year.

mimihatesyou · March 2016

@SkiChic626 i am so feeling your pain right now, i think i owe ~20k this year and it makes me want to die.

ginger819 · March 2016

We have a car loan, two sets of student loans, and a mortgage. Plus some credit card debt we're going to pay off here soon. We took a hit when I cut my hours to not have to have a babysitter for DD, but now DH will be getting about double his salary so I'm excited to start paying down some debt and building up our savings. In a couple years we'd like to move closer to my parents and the houses we've seen are a lot more than our house now. I'm hoping to have enough in savings and enough equity in our house to make our down payment pretty big.

kiwico14 · March 2016

We *were* doing a good job of paying down debt and using Dave Ramsey's plan, but we got off track last fall when we took in a kid who needed a home and then found out our daycare (which we LOVE) was raising prices by a few hundred dollars a month. We still put money into retirement, savings, and debt every month, but it's not as much as we'd like.

My dad made me read The Richest Man in Babylon when I was in high school to teach me the importance of "paying yourself first." I'd definitely recommend it.

jmknox · March 2016

Dave Ramsay all the way. Delivery at birth center will be paid cash. Other than that our only debt is our mortgage which should be paid off in a year or so. We have some money in savings as we start to plan investing strategies but haven't actually invested yet. I hope to cut back work once baby arrives as I have a high stress job. The future looks good!

cait5413 · March 2016

smilormarie said:

We were the lucky ones who both bought houses during the peak, back in 2006, 2007. So much for trying to be responsible grown ups. We are set to lose about $5K on top of the monthly mortgage payments for a year for that house to just sit empty. We may do a little better my house, maybe just break even.

I feel you. We are trying to sell my condo, where we live currently, because we're buying a new house where we're moving. I bought it in 2007 and will probably have to sell it for about $30,000 less than I bought it for. Hoping to just get enough to pay off the remaining mortgage and realtor fees. Not expecting any profit, but it's a definite source of anxiety. With buying the house and likely buying me a new car, expenses are a concern right now. Luckily, we'll be just about doubling our income later this year as I am finally getting out of grad school and getting a real job. And fortunately neither DH nor I have student loans. Our only debt is the condo and any credit card balances (which we pay off in full each month).

rmgcake · March 2016

Lalalorelai-I work for the federal government and selected the blue cross blue shield higher option (can't recall if it was basic or standard). It's the family plan (not self plus 1). As soon as you are in the system at your OB's office as maternity care, you don't even pay a copay for your appointments. Sonograms and labwork are 100% covered as well. Hope this helps.

sdavis2189 · March 2016

We have a mortgage and a hefty student loan debt between the two of us. Other than that we don't have any credit card debt or other debts. I don't plan to work at first after the baby, so I'm hoping with income based student loan repayments, our monthly payments will be manageable. DH is in his second of five years of residency after med school, so things are going to be tight for a few years. Luckily my pregnancy will be covered in full, although those $40 copays really add up. Plus, when we saw an out of network MFM (there wasn't one in our city), that wasn't covered at all and we got stuck with a $2,000 bill. I am still trying to fight with insurance on that. Ugh.

Want a personalized experience?

GTKY:financial goals

Re: GTKY:financial goals

Choose Another Board

Search Boards