Tag Archives: planning

Real Estate & Rent

A Loose 5 Year Plan

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The whole “being pregnant” and going into “nesting” mode is real. I’ve been spending way too many hours scouring Redfin and Zillow despite knowing that I can’t afford a home here, other than maybe a 1 bed, 1 bath in a really bad part of the bad part of town.

So. I’m trying to focus my energy on longer-term, more realistic goals, while also ensuring that I keep my job in order to hit them.

2018

  • Age: I turn 35(!)
  • Networth: Close out the year at $645k-$650k
  • Housing: Live in 1 bedroom / 1 bath apartment (50% = $14.1k yr)
  • 401k: invest $22.5k
  • Stocks: invest $30k 
  • Baby #1: born, 0 – 5 mo
  • Baby #2: not born yet

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Budget

Budgeting with 50/20/30 Guideline

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As I work to be better at budgeting, I searched the Internet for strategies for how much I should be spending on various items each month. I like the 50/20/30 strategy which seems reasonable and maybe even do-able.

Basically, you split your after-tax, after-401k take-home income into 3 buckets:

50% – fixed expenses
20% – financial goals
30% – variable expenses

So my after-tax income (now that I’ve maxed out my 401k for the year) is $9500. That breaks down to:

$4750 fixed
$1900 financial goals
$2850 variable expenses
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Married Life, Parenting & Motherhood, Pregnancy

Working Moms: When is the best time to have kids?

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The answer I get re: when is the best time to have kids is “there is never a best time to have kids.” I’m sure that is true, but there is definitely “a time when it becomes harder / impossible to have kids” (at least naturally), so I’m trying to make that deadline without pushing it too much.

When I was younger, I thought 30 was old. I’m now turning 33 in 3 months. Thirty-three is fine age to have kids, but I always thought I’d have my second by 33. Now I’m looking at not yet even having my first.

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