u/ProfessionalBig1470

I honestly don’t know where we stand sometimes. Don’t want to sound like one of those entitled people saying they live paycheck to paycheck on six figures but it does kind of feel that way sometimes.

Wife and I are mid-thirties and make $250k/yr combined. Take home pay is around $15k/mo. We have two young kids and live in a VHCOL area. We only started making more money at around 30yrs old and then started having kids right after.

We bought our first house in a cheaper area but wanted to be back closer to family and missed our hometown. So we sold our house and we’re renting a townhouse for $3.3k/mo.

We have $100k in financial assets; $75k of that is in retirement accounts and $25k is liquid in savings and a brokerage account.

On the negative side, our debt is our student loans. Mine is $5k, wife’s is $85k. So on a net worth statement we’re barely positive. We also have one car that’s paid off but we’ll need to replace it soon.

On a normal month we can save $2k/mo liquid, plus retirement contributions are around $2k/mo as well. So definitely not paycheck to paycheck, but it feels like it’s never a normal month. A large expense will come up that hits the reset button on savings or we’ll have to use a credit card and pay it down quickly. Maybe I’ve focused too much on investing and need to build more of a cushion in savings? Since we got a late start I feel like we need to catch up on investing. But it’s like whac-a-mole where we have different goals going at the same time and none of it feels like it’s in the right spot all at once.

I honestly don’t know where we stand sometimes. Don’t want to sound like one of those entitled people saying they live paycheck to paycheck on six figures but it does kind of feel that way sometimes.

Wife and I are mid-thirties and make $250k/yr combined. Take home pay is around $15k/mo. We have two young kids and live in a VHCOL area. We only started making more money at around 30yrs old and then started having kids right after.

We bought our first house in a cheaper area but wanted to be back closer to family and missed our hometown. So we sold our house and we’re renting a townhouse for $3.3k/mo.

We have $100k in financial assets; $75k of that is in retirement accounts and $25k is liquid in savings and a brokerage account.

On the negative side, our debt is our student loans. Mine is $5k, wife’s is $85k. So on a net worth statement we’re barely positive. We also have one car that’s paid off but we’ll need to replace it soon.

On a normal month we can save $2k/mo liquid, plus retirement contributions are around $2k/mo as well. So definitely not paycheck to paycheck, but it feels like it’s never a normal month. A large expense will come up that hits the reset button on savings or we’ll have to use a credit card and pay it down quickly. Maybe I’ve focused too much on investing and need to build more of a cushion in savings? Since we got a late start I feel like we need to catch up on investing. But it’s like whac-a-mole where we have different goals going at the same time and none of it feels like it’s in the right spot all at once.

My full time job is AR and I have a part time job on the side doing a mix of AR/AP for a small nonprofit. Pay isn’t great at $25/hr but it’s easy data entry work that I can do at night while watching tv.

For the part time job, the whole finance team was the Finance Director and me. This last Monday, the director was terminated immediately. Met with the President and they’ve posted for a fractional controller. For now, I’m a one-man-part-time-entry-level team that hasn’t been cross trained on the director’s duties, and there are no SOPs or job aids for what the director did.

Friday, yesterday, comes and staff submit their timesheets. I go to process payroll (I used to just double check what the director entered before it went out) and BOOM; payroll is already past due because of Memorial Day. It would have had to go out Thursday before the pay period ended for people to get paid on time. Off to a great start in this new role.