u/TheySoPooPoo1

I am married to my high school sweetheart, and we are both 31. She is currently 9 months pregnant with our first kid, so we are aware that our expenses are about to change a little bit. We have both always just been natural savers, but once she got pregnant, I just started getting serious about breaking down our finances and trying to maximize every dollar we have. Here are our current finances, with no real effort until about 6 months ago. We are looking to retire around 52, as that's when we expect both kids to be in college.

Household income

- Wife: 90k. She gets a 6% + 4.5% match through her work. (~10k total)

- Me: 67k. I am a state employee who gets 14.2% to a 401k, no contribution required (~9.5k). I have always contributed 6-10% to a 457(b) Roth, but I recently started contributing 20% to a 457(b) traditional plan (~13k annually).

- Monthly take-home after taxes/retirement contributions is about 9k

Debt

- $500 a month, 0% interest car payment

- $2100 mortgage at 3.375% (about 330k left on a home we bought in 2021 for 425k)

- No student loans or credit card debt

- Total monthly spending with mortgage/car included is about 6k

Retirement

-Combined 180k

- 120k in various traditional accounts

- 60k in various Roth accounts

- Maxed both Roth IRAs for the first time this year and plan to do so moving forward

- No HSA, as I only recently learned about this. I get elite medical coverage at a low cost through my employer, so the plan is to switch next year in a non-baby year and open an HSA.

Other accounts

- 35k in brokerage

- 45k in HYSA

- 5k in checking

After reading through a lot of posts, I have come to realize we are already in a fairly good spot without putting in any active effort beyond just saving leftover money and listening to her dad in 2021 when he told her to put 15k in VOO/QQQ, which has now essentially doubled. We probably have about 2-3 years left in our current home before we need to upgrade, as it's only 1500 square feet with a baby on the way and likely a 2nd one in the future. We live in a relatively HCOL area, and may move to a VHCOL area in the future, as I am from California, and we may move back.

I am just looking for realistic advice on how to use our remaining funds each month to maximize everything while our mortgage is cheap. Right now, I am essentially just splitting whatever is left to HYSA and brokerage each month. More aggressive with 457b? Less to brokerage? I can up my 457b contribution more, but have been struggling with the balancing act of knowing we may need to upgrade our house in the near future. Also, do you think we should try to keep our current house and rent it, or just let it go when the time comes? Thanks, everyone!

So, after months of discussion, my wife and I have decided on the name Cameron for our baby girl due in July. We really liked the middle name Blake before we had a first name, and it would have worked with our other more feminine first-name contenders, but we both agree that Cameron Blake will read 100%, boy. Our last name is an McC- irish last name for reference. Our final 4 at the moment are:

Cameron Hallie/Halley (her nursery is space themed, and this is a play on Halley's Comet)

Cameron Lindsay (baby's great-grandfather, aunt, and mom's first/middle name)

Cameron Scarlett

Cameron Sophia

Just looking for thoughts on our finalists and even suggestions on other middle name ideas!

So, after months of discussion, my wife and I have decided on the name Cameron for our baby girl due in July. We really liked the middle name Blake before we had a first name, and it would have worked with our other first-name contenders, but we both agree that Cameron Blake will read 100%, boy. Our final 4 at the moment are:

Cameron Hallie/Halley (her nursery is space themed, and this is a play on Halley's Comet)

Cameron Lindsay (baby's great-grandfather, aunt, and mom's first/middle name)

Cameron Scarlett

Cameron Sophia

Just looking for thoughts on our finalists and even suggestions on other middle name ideas!