u/Dak_The_Gripper

My wife and I are 31, and we have two kids. We are trying to build toward financial independence and I am looking for advice or insight from you guys. Who are further along than us.

Our household income is around -150k a year, In a low cost area. We own two homes:

Primary - 400k mortgage @5.3%
Rental - 165k mortgage @ 3.1%

How we currently invest:

401k contributions up to employer match
Roth IRAs for both of us yearly
~$12k/year into taxable brokerages
~$2,400/year total into our kids’ UTMAs
HYSA holding our emergency fund plus savings for a future pole barn/shop build

We just started recently tracking monthly net worth and contributions to get more intentional behind our goals of retiring early. The main thing I am wrestling with is to pay off primary mortgage faster by adding principal only payments, or using that money in my taxable.

Part of me wants the psychological/security aspect of eliminating the ~$400k mortgage ASAP, but I also understand the math behind long-term investing and compounding.

So I guess my questions are:

Would you prioritize paying off the 5.3% mortgage aggressively?

Are we missing anything obvious at this stage?

If you were in our position at 31, would you change anything about our current allocation strategy?

Thanks for the help!

(Rewrote this since it was flagged as AI?) wanted to respond to the person who was saying I’m not using AI. I’m not lol I want to send a video of me typing this out but can’t attach it.

I am trying to organize and make things easier for me to digest. I was looking for a template or budget sheet or someone to make it for me - I am not tech savvy.

I want something that allows me to have the year up top, and all my things I am investing in ie roth, 401k, brokerage, wife’s Roth, wife’s brokerage, kids UTMA x2 accts, extra principal on mortgage.

My idea/intent is to set a value of dollars I’ll contribute that calendar year - and try to reach that goal. Then under that I’ll have the table. Left side column would be those accts and top of each row would be the months of the year. I’ll simply plug in the amount contributed that month and that will subtract from the yearly goal. Once goal is met, green? Color coded would be nice lol.

Then the other would be an investment growth excel. Regarding my brokerage, Roth and 401k then my wife’s brokerage and Roth. I just want to be able to see the charts all in one place. Not necessarily a graph that goes up and down. But the numbers month by month.

Let me know if this is dumb, conceivable, or a waste of time. Help me figure this out but I really think this will help me - especially the first one.

I am new to this subreddit. So thanks for having me, tons of great advice and information. Truly awesome people are doing this.

I am trying to organize and make things easier for me to digest. I was looking for a template or budget sheet or someone to make it for me - I am not tech savvy.

I want something that allows me to have the year up top, and all my things I am investing in ie roth, 401k, brokerage, wife’s Roth, wife’s brokerage, kids UTMA x2 accts, extra principal on mortgage.

My idea/intent is to set a value of dollars I’ll contribute that calendar year - and try to reach that goal. Then under that I’ll have the table. Left side column would be those accts and top of each row would be the months of the year. I’ll simply plug in the amount contributed that month and that will subtract from the yearly goal. Once goal is met, green? Color coded would be nice lol.

Then the other would be an investment growth excel. Regarding my brokerage, Roth and 401k then my wife’s brokerage and Roth. I just want to be able to see the charts all in one place. Not necessarily a graph that goes up and down. But the numbers month by month.

Let me know if this is dumb, conceivable, or a waste of time. Help me figure this out but I really think this will help me - especially the first one.